Finland's second-largest university has announced new research suggesting that heart attacks could be an infectious disease.



[T]he research found that, in coronary artery disease, atherosclerotic plaques containing cholesterol may harbor a gelatinous, asymptomatic biofilm formed by bacteria over years or even decades. Dormant bacteria within the biofilm remain shielded from both the patient's immune system and antibiotics because they cannot penetrate the biofilm matrix.

A viral infection or another external trigger may activate the biofilm, leading to the proliferation of bacteria and an inflammatory response. The inflammation can cause a rupture in the fibrous cap of the plaque, resulting in thrombus [blood clot] formation and ultimately myocardial infarction... "Bacterial involvement in coronary artery disease has long been suspected, but direct and convincing evidence has been lacking," explains professor Pekka Karhunen [who led the study with researchers from the UK and Finland]. "Our study demonstrated the presence of genetic material — DNA — from several oral bacteria inside atherosclerotic plaques." The findings were validated by developing an antibody targeted at the discovered bacteria, which unexpectedly revealed biofilm structures in arterial tissue. Bacteria released from the biofilm were observed in cases of myocardial infarction. The body's immune system had responded to these bacteria, triggering inflammation which ruptured the cholesterol-laden plaque.

The observations pave the way for the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for myocardial infarction. Furthermore, they advance the possibility of preventing coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction by vaccination.
"The research is part of an extensive EU-funded cardiovascular research project involving 11 countries..."

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It was "little more than empty fields" five years ago — but it's now "a vast, heavily guarded complex stretching for 210 hectares (520 acres)," reports the Guardian, "the frontline of a multibillion-dollar criminal fraud industry fuelled by human trafficking and brutal violence."

Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos have in recent years become havens for transnational crime syndicates running scam centres such as KK Park, which use enslaved workers to run complex online fraud and scamming schemes that generate huge profits. There have been some attempts to crack down on the centres and rescue the workers, who can be subjected to torture and trapped inside. But drone images and new research shared exclusively with the Guardian reveal that the number of such centres operating along the Thai-Myanmar border has more than doubled since Myanmar's military seized power in 2021, with construction continuing to this day.
Data from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (Aspi), a defence thinktank in Canberra, shows that the number of Myanmar scam centres on the Thai border has increased from 11 to 27, and they have expanded in size by an average of 5.5 hectares a month. Drone images and photographs of KK Park and other Myanmar scam centres, Tai Chang and Shwe Kokko, taken by the Guardian in August show new features and active building work... Myanmar's military junta has allowed the spread of scam centres inside the country as these criminal enterprises have become an essential part of the country's conflict economy since the coup, helping it rise to the top of the global list of countries harbouring organised crime. According to Aspi's analysis, Myanmar's military, which has lost huge swathes of territory since the coup and is struggling to retain its grip on power, cannot take meaningful measures against the scam compounds without endangering its precarious relations with the crucial armed militias who are profiting from them.

While 7,000 people were freed from the compounds earlier this year, "Thai police estimated earlier this year that as many as 100,000 people were held inside Myanmar scam centres," the article notes.

Elsewhere the Guardian reports that "The centres are run by Chinese criminal gangs," and describes people who unwittingly came to Thailand for customer service jobs, only to be trafficked to Myanmar's guarded "cyberslavery compounds" and "forced to send thousands of messages from fake social-media profiles, posing as a rich American investor to swindle US real estate agents into cryptocurrency scams."
Since 2020, south-east Asia's cyber-slavery industry has entrapped hundreds of thousands of people and forced them to perform "pig butchering" — the brutal term for building trust with a fraud target before scamming them. At first, the industry mostly captured Chinese and Taiwanese people, then it moved on to south-east Asians and Indians — and now Africans.

Criminal syndicates have been shifting towards scamming victims in the US and Europe after Chinese efforts to prevent its citizens being targeted, experts told the Guardian. That has led some trafficking networks to seek recruits with English-language and tech skills — including east Africans, thousands of whom are now estimated to be trapped inside south-east Asian compounds, says Benedikt Hofmann, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime's representative for south-east Asia and the Pacific.

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader mspohr for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Het was een gekke avond, waarop veel gebeurde. Maar het allerbelangrijkste: Feyenoord won met 1-0 van sc Heerenveen en blijft foutloos in de eredivisie. Dennis van Eersel en Dennis Kranenburg blikken terug in een nieuwe Feyenoord: de Verlenging.

Op de persconferentie spreekt Feyenoord-trainer Robin van Persie na afloop van de gewonnen wedstrijd tegen SC Heerenveen. Hij vond dat zijn ploeg karakter toonde en was het niet eens met de twee rode kaarten die er vielen. "Je ziet dat er geen kwade intentie achter zit"

Het duo Bob Vylan uit Londen groeide onlangs uit tot ‘schandaalsucces’, wegens pro-Palestijnse uitlatingen op Glastonbury. In Paradiso bleek Vylan ook gemoedelijk, en was er een balans tussen boodschap en entertainment. Maar soms prikte de woede door alles heen.

photo-tez has added a photo to the pool:

奥入瀬渓流

@desater It was a nice place for sure. And it's a nice guess/know game you made!

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

AMSTERDAM (ANP) - De rapgroep Bob Vylan heeft tijdens hun optreden in Paradiso zaterdag de leus "Dood aan de IDF" herhaald. De IDF is het Israëlische leger, dat grootschalige aanvallen uitvoert op de Gazastrook. Op filmpjes op sociale media is te zien dat zanger Bobby Vylan aan het publiek vraagt wat ze willen horen. Vervolgens roept hij "Dood, dood aan de IDF" onder luid gejuich van het publiek. Op het podium is daarnaast een Palestijnse vlag te zien.

De hiphopgroep riep ook om de dood van het Israëlische leger tijdens hun optreden op het Britse festival Glastonbury afgelopen juni. De organisator veroordeelde het optreden en de BBC zei in een statement te betreuren dat de livestream van de show niet werd gestopt.

In juli werd bekend dat de groep een eigen show kreeg op het Amsterdamse podium. Over de leus zei Paradiso destijds: "Die woorden zijn niet de onze, maar we erkennen het recht op verontwaardiging over oorlog en massaal menselijk leed. Zulke thema's horen in onze ogen ook thuis in het publieke debat en op het podium", aldus de Amsterdamse concertzaal.