Microsoft to pay $20 mln to settle US charges for violating children's privacy

 Microsoft will pay $20 million to settle U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges that the tech company illegally collected personal information from children without their parents' consent, the FTC said on Monday.

The company had been charged with violating the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting personal information from children who signed up to its Xbox gaming system without notifying their parents or obtaining their parents' consent, and by retaining children's personal information, the FTC said in a statement.

The order requires Microsoft to take steps to improve privacy protections for child users of its Xbox system. It will extend COPPA protections to third-party gaming publishers with whom Microsoft shares children's data, the FTC said.

A Microsoft spokesperson said the company was committed to complying with the order. The spokesperson added the account creation process will be updated and a data retention glitch found in the company's system will be resolved.

"Our proposed order makes it easier for parents to protect their children's privacy on Xbox, and limits what information Microsoft can collect and retain about kids," said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

"This action should also make it abundantly clear that kids' avatars, biometric data, and health information are not exempt from COPPA," Levine added.

The law requires online services and websites directed to children under 13 to notify parents about the personal information they collect and to obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting and using any personal information of the children.

From 2015 to 2020, Microsoft retained the data that it collected from children during the account creation process, even when a parent failed to complete the process, according to the complaint.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-microsoft-pay-20-mln-233650112.html

Texas seeks to bolster $1.8 billion fraud claim against Planned Parenthood

 Texas and an anonymous anti-abortion activist made a joint court filing over the weekend, urging a federal judge to decide a $1.8 billion fraud lawsuit they brought against Planned Parenthood in their favor, saying a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling strengthened the case.

The lawsuit, before U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas, had been on hold awaiting the Supreme Court's decision Friday, which gave a boost to whistleblower lawsuits accusing health care providers and others of defrauding the government.

Texas and the anonymous plaintiff are seeking to force Planned Parenthood to return money it collected from Texas' and Louisiana's state Medicaid programs after the states tried to cut off its funding, plus heavy additional penalties.

Kacsmaryk, who was appointed by former Republican president Donald Trump, is a staunch conservative who in April suspended approval for the abortion pill mifepristone. The Supreme Court has put that decision on hold while the Biden administration appeals. Lawsuits filed in Amarillo federal court automatically go to him, making the court popular with conservative activists.

The lawsuit was brought in 2021 by an anonymous plaintiff, identifying himself as the person who in 2015 released undercover video footage purporting to show Planned Parenthood staff discussing the sale of fetal tissue.

Those videos led to Texas and Louisiana announcing in 2015 that they would terminate Planned Parenthood as a provider covered by their Medicaid programs.

Planned Parenthood sued over those decisions and won court orders blocking the states' terminations. Those orders were later lifted on appeal, allowing Texas to end its contract with Planned Parenthood in 2021 and Louisiana in 2022.

The federal government has not intervened in the case, but said in a February filing that it did not believe there was any basis for Texas' and Louisiana's termination of Planned Parenthood.

The plaintiff claims that Planned Parenthood violated the federal False Claims Act by continuing to bill and collect payments from the state's Medicaid programs after it was originally terminated and failing to repay what it received after those orders were lifted.

Texas intervened in the case, though Louisiana did not. The plaintiff will be entitled to a portion of any award if his lawsuit is successful.

Planned Parenthood noted that the states never asked for the money to be repaid and that it was allowed to keep billing them after winning court orders against the states. It had also pointed to a decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Texas and Louisiana, saying a defendant cannot be held liable for defrauding the government as long as its billing practices were supported by an "objectively reasonable" interpretation of the law.

The Supreme Court rejected that standard on Friday, saying that whether a defendant can be liable for fraud depends on whether it subjectively believed its bills were false when it submitted them. Texas and the plaintiff argued in a Sunday court filing that the decision supported their case by knocking out one of Planned Parenthood's defenses.

Planned Parenthood countered that there was no evidence it subjectively believed its bills were false, meaning the lawsuit fails under the Supreme Court's new standard.

Kacsmaryk is considering motions by both sides to decide the case without a trial. It is not clear when he will rule.

https://news.yahoo.com/texas-seeks-bolster-1-8-213815122.html

Honduran president headed to China in first trip after ties established

 Honduran President Xiomara Castro is set to travel this week to China, her foreign minister said on Monday, the leftist leader's first visit to the Asian giant after establishing formal diplomatic relations with it in March.

Castro's trip marks the latest step in the two nations' new relationship, after her government ditched ties with Taiwan in favor of Beijing.

Foreign Minister Enrique Reina told reporters at an event inaugurating China's embassy in Tegucigalpa that Castro will travel on Tuesday this week.

Later on Monday, Castro's press office tweeted that the official visit would take place from this coming Friday to Wednesday of next week.

Castro's trip to the world's second-biggest economy stemmed from an invitation from her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, Honduran state media outlet Poder Popular wrote in story published earlier on Monday.

Honduras and China launched diplomatic relations after Castro cut ties with Taiwan in a bid for more investment and jobs from the much larger Chinese economy.

Last month, Reina announced that both sides will "soon" begin trade talks, with coffee set to be the first Honduran export to the massive Chinese consumer market.

The minister added on Monday that several "cooperation agreements" would be signed, but did not specify further.

Castro's government is also seeking deals with China to lighten the nation's debt burden.

https://www.marketscreener.com/news/latest/Honduran-president-headed-to-China-in-first-trip-after-ties-established--44042205/

Oil prices tick down with OPEC meeting in rear view

 Oil prices edged lower on Tuesday, giving up most of the prior session's gains that followed an announcement by the world's top exporter, Saudi Arabia, that it would further cut output.

Brent crude futures were down 23 cents, or 0.3%, at $76.48 a barrel at 0020 GMT. The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude eased 25 cents, or 0.4%, to $71.90 a barrel.

Brent had gained as much as $2.6 on Monday and U.S. crude had risen as much as $3.3 in the hours after Saudi Arabia said its output would drop by 1 million barrels per day (bpd) to 9 million bpd in July.

The voluntary cut, Saudi Arabia's biggest in years, is on top of a broader deal by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia to limit supply into 2024 as OPEC+ seeks to boost flagging oil prices.

The OPEC+ pumps around 40% of the world's crude.

However, many of these reductions announced after the OPEC meeting in Vienna on Sunday may not have a real impact as the group lowered the targets for Russia, Nigeria, and Angola to bring them into line with actual current production levels.

Market participants are now waiting to see if the U.S. Federal Reserve will hike or hold interest rates in June for more trading cues. Higher rates could curb energy demand.

Data on Monday that showed that the U.S. services sector barely grew in May as new orders slowed fuelled hopes that the Fed will refrain from raising rates.

Traders pegged the chances of the Fed pausing its interest rate hikes at its June 13-14 meeting at 78%, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Monday acknowledged "signs of moderation" in core inflation in the euro zone but reaffirmed it was too early to call a peak in that key gauge of price growth, increasing expectations for more interest rate increases from the ECB this month and the next.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oil-prices-tick-down-opec-005808490.html

PAINTing a wound-healing ink into cuts with a 3D-printing pen

 The body is pretty good at healing itself, though more severe wounds can require bandages or stitches. But researchers publishing in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have developed a wound-healing ink that can actively encourage the body to heal by exposing the cut to immune-system vesicles. The ink can be spread into a cut of any shape using a 3D-printing pen, and in mice, the technology nearly completely repaired wounds in just 12 days.

When the skin is cut or torn, the body's natural "construction crew" kicks in to fix it back up -- clearing out any bacterial invaders, regrowing broken blood vessels and eventually forming a scar. Many techniques used to heal wounds can't do much beyond helping the body do its job better. Bandages or stitches are used to prevent further bleeding, while antibiotics work to prevent complications from infections. But by adding members of the construction crew to a wound-healing treatment or bandage, it could actually accelerate the natural healing process. Specifically, white blood cells or the extracellular vesicles (EVs) secreted from them play important roles in promoting blood vessel formation and reducing inflammation during healing. So, Dan Li, Xianguang Ding and Lianhui Wang wanted to incorporate these EVs into a hydrogel-based wound healing ink that could be painted into cuts of any shape.

The team developed a system called PAINT, or "portable bioactive ink for tissue healing," using EVs secreted from macrophages combined with sodium alginate. These components were combined in a 3D-printing pen, where they mixed at the pen's tip and formed a sturdy gel at the site of injury within three minutes. The EVs promoted blood vessel formation and reduced inflammatory markers in human epithelial cells, shifting them into the "proliferative," or growth, phase of healing. PAINT was also tested on injured mice, where it promoted collagen fiber formation. Mice treated with PAINT had almost healed completely from a large wound after 12 days, compared to mice that didn't receive the treatment, who were not nearly as far along in the healing process at this time point. The researchers say that this work could help heal a wide variety of cuts quickly and easily, without the need for complex procedures.

Journal Reference:

1. Li Li, Zhiyu Wang, Kepeng Wang, Siyuan Fu, Dan Li, Mao Wang, Yi Cao, Houjuan Zhu, Ziyan Li, Lixing Weng, Zhiyang Li, Xianguang Ding, Lianhui Wang. Paintable Bioactive Extracellular Vesicle Ink for Wound Healing. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2023; 15 (21): 25427 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c03630

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230601160006.htm

Softening stiff hair follicle stem cells with a microRNA regrows hair

 Just as people's joints can get stiff as they age and make it harder for them to move around, hair follicle stem cells also get stiff, making it harder for them to grow hair, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

But if the hair follicle's stem cells are softened, they are more likely to produce hair, the scientists found.

Northwestern scientists discovered how to soften up those stem cells to enable them to grow hair again. In a study in mice published this week in PNAS, the investigators report that they can soften the stem cells by boosting the production of a tiny RNA, miR-205, that relaxes the hardness of the cells. When scientists genetically manipulated the stem cells to produce more miR-205, it promoted hair growth in young and old mice.

"They started to grow hair in 10 days," said corresponding author Rui Yi, the Paul E. Steiner Research Professor of Pathology and professor of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "These are not new stem cells being generated. We are stimulating the existing stem cells to grow hair. A lot of times we still have stem cells, but they may not be able to generate the hair.

"Our study demonstrates the possibility of stimulating hair growth by regulating cell mechanics. Because of the potential to deliver microRNA by nanoparticles directly into the skin, next we will test whether topically delivered miR-205 can stimulate hair growth first in mice. If successful, we will design experiments to test whether this microRNA can promote hair growth potentially in humans."

This study was conducted in genetically engineered mouse models. The scientists used advanced microscopy tools, including atomic force microscopy, to measure the stiffness and two-photon microscopy to monitor cell behaviors in live animals.

Other Northwestern authors include Jingjing Wang, Yuheng Fu and Kathleen Green.

The article is titled "MicroRNA-205 promotes hair regeneration by modulating mechanical properties of hair follicle stem cells."

More information: Jingjing Wang et al, MicroRNA-205 promotes hair regeneration by modulating mechanical properties of hair follicle stem cells, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2220635120

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-06-softening-stiff-hair-follicle-stem.html

Promising treatment for tinnitus

 Tinnitus, the ringing, buzzing or hissing sound of silence, varies from slightly annoying in some to utterly debilitating in others. Up to 15% of adults in the United States have tinnitus, and nearly 40% of those sufferers have the condition chronically and actively seek relief.

A recent study from researchers at the University of Michigan's Kresge Hearing Research Institute suggests relief may be possible.

Susan Shore, Ph.D., Professor Emerita in Michigan Medicine's Department of Otolaryngology and U-M's Departments of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, led research on how the brain processes bi-sensory information, and how these processes can be harnessed for personalized stimulation to treat tinnitus.

Her team's findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

The study, a double-blind, randomized clinical trial, recruited 99 individuals with somatic tinnitus, a form of the condition in which movements such as clenching the jaw or applying pressure to the forehead result in a noticeable change in pitch or loudness of experienced sounds. Nearly 70% of tinnitus sufferers have the somatic form.

According to Shore, candidates with bothersome, somatic tinnitus, as well as normal-to-moderate hearing loss, were eligible to participate.

"After enrollment, participants received a portable device developed and manufactured by in2being, LLC, for in-home use," she said. "The devices were programmed to present each participant's personal tinnitus spectrum, which was combined with electrical stimulation to form a bi-sensory stimulus, while maintaining participant and study team blinding."

Study participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first group received bi-sensory (active) treatment first, while the second received sound-alone (control) treatment.

For the first six weeks, participants were instructed to use their devices for 30 minutes each day. The next six weeks gave participants a break from daily use, followed by six more weeks of the treatment not received in the beginning of the study.

Shore notes that every week, participants completed the Tinnitus Functional Index, or TFI, and Tinnitus Handicap Inventory, or THI, which are questionnaires that measure the impact tinnitus has on individuals' lives. Participants also had their tinnitus loudness assessed during this time.

The team found that when participants received the bi-sensory treatment, they consistently reported improved quality of life, lower handicap scores and significant reductions in tinnitus loudness. However, these effects were not seen when receiving sound-only stimulation.

Further, more than 60% of participants reported significantly reduced tinnitus symptoms after the six weeks of active treatment, but not control treatment. This is consistent with an earlier study by Shore's team, which showed that the longer participants received active treatment, the greater the reduction in their tinnitus symptoms.

"This study paves the way for the use of personalized, bi-sensory stimulation as an effective treatment for tinnitus, providing hope for millions of tinnitus sufferers," said Shore.

More information: Gerilyn R. Jones et al, Reversing Synchronized Brain Circuits Using Targeted Auditory-Somatosensory Stimulation to Treat Phantom Percepts, JAMA Network Open (2023). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.15914

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-06-treatment-tinnitus.html