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'Staff are scared and exhausted' Concerns raised by Health Department after resident died at Hopkinton assisted living residence

After a resident died in a 99-degree room at the assisted living facility, documents obtained by 5 Investigates show temperatures nearing 90 degrees in several areas of the building.

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Oct 9 • 3:28 PM EDT • Health • wcvb.com
An Evening of Hope and Inspiration

27th Annual Cancer Benefit Raises Nearly $160,000 for the McLeod HOPE Fund Providing thousands of cancer patients in the region with assistance related

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Oct 9 • 3:25 PM EDT • Health • mcleodhealth.org
Three takeaways from LeBron James' preseason 76ers debut

James produced 10 points, five assists and four rebounds across 18 minutes.

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Oct 8 • 10:57 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Trump bucks and the politics of mailing checks

The checks started going out last week, nearly one million of them, and mostly to battleground states. With a return address for the U.S. Treasury and a letter enclosed signed by President Donald Trump, these one-time checks for $500 were ostensibly government rebates for Obamacare enrollees who overpaid. In the accompanying letter, however, Trump attacks his predecessor and talks about his record in office on an important issue he’s not polling well on, which makes it seem more like the most expensive political mailer in U.S. history. The average piece of direct mail costs between 30 cents and $3, according to Mail Processing Associates, a print, mail, and fulfillment company. At $500 a pop plus roughly 50 cents each to issue the paper check, the cost of Trump’s healthcare mailer sent to more than 950,000 enrollees comes in at more than $475 million. Trump’s midterm healthcare message “For years, the Biden Administration overcharged you to fund the operation of HealthCare dot gov,” Trump wrote in the letter. “That money belongs to hard-working Americans, not the Government, and now, I am returning it to you!” In the letter, Trump makes false and misleading claims about his administration’s record on healthcare costs, an issue Democrats have a 20 point advantage on over Republicans, according to a recent poll from KFF, a nonpartisan health policy think tank. Trump touts his administration’s TrumpRX program, which he claims is “delivering massive discounts.” However, new research from KFF found that of a selection of drugs available on the TrumpRX platform, just five were the lowest price, while 13 were the highest price. Trump also falsely claims in the letter that he’s fighting to lower healthcare costs. In reality, average monthly premium payment costs for enrollees rose 58% under Trump while marketplace sign-ups declined 5%, per KFF. Under Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, it’s estimated 10 million more Americans will be uninsured by 2034. You get a check and you get a check and you get a check Trump’s long promised cash outs to his fans, from his days as a casino operator and gameshow host to his presidency. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the first Trump administration made the unprecedented move to put Trump’s name on checks that went out under the CARES Act (notably the $500 refund checks this time around don’t feature Trump’s name). Ever since, Trump’s been chasing that high. In his second term, Trump’s promised more stimulus that never arrived, like refund checks from DOGE cuts and tariffs, while he said at his party’s convention last month that he’d give out $5,000 checks to everyone if Republicans win in November. In reality, DOGE overstated its cost cutting and Trump’s government actually now spends more than former President Joe Biden’s, while Trump’s tariffs actually grew the trade deficit. His proposal for $5,000 checks would add about $1.2 trillion to the national debt. The problem is there’s no money to give. These $500 checks — plus $90 Medicare rebate checks also going out as well as $250 deposited this week in some Trump Accounts for kids courtesy Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell and his wife Susan — represent the closest Trump’s going to get to making good on his promise to deliver cash fast. And the checks seem especially targeted. Though the $500 checks went out to enrollees in one of 30 states that use the federal HealthCare dot gov marketplace, a Reuters review found 71% of the payments, or $339 million, went to enrollees in 13 states that have the most competitive elections for governor and U.S. Senate. Most Americans don’t buy it Could Trump bucks sway the election? An Economist-YouGov poll found 57% of U.S. adults doubt Trump will deliver on his promise for $5,000 checks, compared to 21% who do. “I’m waiting on my DOGE check and I’m still waiting on my tariff check,” one 2024 Trump voter who’s since turned on him told a recent focus group. “It felt like kind of trying to buy people’s votes, which honestly felt like in elementary when the class president was like, hey we’re going to take you to the water park if you vote for me. It’s like, I don’t think it works like that.” But for voters in swing states who got a check, it could still matter. One survey published in 2022 found receiving a physically personalized check in the mail during the pandemic was associated with a much greater self-reported likelihood of voting for Trump in 2020, and those gains mainly came from out partisans. The issue for Trump comes if these checks are mostly going to Obamacare enrollees whose premiums have gone up by more than just $500 since he took office and who view the money as something like a bribe before the election rather than an actual long-term solution to lowering household costs. Spending $500.50 per mailer would be absurd as a normal campaign expenditure, but since Trump’s checks and letter are a government rebate, his campaign and super PAC didn’t have to spend a dime and he got out his message regardless. If enough voters in key states are swayed by the one-time payment, it could prove to be the best $0 the Trump campaign spent. Subscribe [ ](https://www.yellopolitics.com/p/why-independent-candidates-are-making) [ Why independent candidates are making independence central to their brand ](https://www.yellopolitics.com/p/why-independent-candidates-are-making) Hunter Schwarz · Oct 6 [ Read full story ](https://www.yellopolitics.com/p/why-independent-candidates-are-making) [ ](https://www.yellopolitics.com/p/these-designers-and-grocery-nerds) [ These designers and grocery nerds will brand Mamdani’s NYC grocery stores ](https://www.yellopolitics.com/p/these-designers-and-grocery-nerds) Hunter Schwarz · Oct 2 [ Read full story ](https://www.yellopolitics.com/p/these-designers-and-grocery-nerds) Trump wants to turn his first-ever golf course into a government course for presidents

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Oct 8 • 6:01 PM EDT • Politics • yellopolitics.com
Scoring more last piece of Crewe puzzle

Crewe's attempt to score more this season is the "last piece of the puzzle" to add to their unbeaten start to League Two, says assistant boss Ryan Dicker.

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Oct 8 • 9:51 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
SB360 Capital Partners to Assist Haynes Furniture and The Dump in Going-Out-of-Business Sales

Haynes Furniture and The Dump will close permanently, bringing a 128-year family retail legacy to a close. Going-out-of-business sales begin at 10:00 a.m. on

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Oct 8 • 2:42 AM EDT • Business • abfjournal.com
Dan Campbell Leaves Door Open to Adding New Coach

Dan Campbell hasn't considered adding a veteran defensive assistant yet, but the Lions coach left the door open ahead of Detroit's Week 6 bye.

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Oct 7 • 6:20 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Sean Sweeney Already Building Strong Culture With Orlando Magic

From Seattle workouts to intensive two-a-days, the new assistant coach is cementing player buy-in through personalized development plans and a relentless commitment to rapport-building in Orlando.

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Oct 7 • 4:51 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
College of Public Health Faculty, Students Attend Arkansas Birthing Project Conference

The UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health had students, staff and faculty assist with the 2026 Arkansas Birthing Project Conference in Little Rock.

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Oct 7 • 2:21 PM EDT • Health • news.uams.edu
Rural Health Transformation Program Technical Assistance Hub

Get free technical assistance from KHI and partners to navigate Kansas Rural Health Transformation Program applications, requirements, budgets and grant management.

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Oct 7 • 12:11 PM EDT • Health • khi.org
Another personal AI assistant has launched — Meet Tab, which emerged from stealth with a $300M valuation

A new personal AI assistant has arrived. Meet Tab, which announced Tuesday that it had officially emerged from stealth.

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Oct 7 • 9:45 AM EDT • Technology • techcrunch.com
Taylor Hall scores 2 as Hurricanes beat Canadiens 6-4 in Montreal's home opener

Sebastian Aho added a goal and two assists, while Eric Robinson and Mark Jankowski contributed with a goal and an assist each in Tuesday night's win.

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Oct 7 • 8:40 AM EDT • Sports • spectrumlocalnews.com
The people of UTC: Get to know Center for Wellbeing Director Lucy White

Lucy White is back at the UTC with a new role and the same goal of helping students take care of themselves. White, the new director of the Center for Wellbeing, previously worked at UTC in 2022 as assistant director for education and suicide prevention. After the grant-funded position ended, she spent three and a half years at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center counseling medical students and residents.

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Oct 7 • 8:03 AM EDT • Health • blog.utc.edu
'Bring the magic' - Scotland's Ross eyes World Cup dream

Scotland assistant coach Leanne Ross never played at a World Cup but thinks the current squad has what it takes to get through the play-offs for Brazil 2027.

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Oct 7 • 6:35 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Lionel Messi ends Argentina career with goal and two assists against Benin on emotional night

Lionel Messi finishes his international career with 208 senior caps, the most of any player in the teams history, with his 126 goals for Argentina also a record; On an emotional night against Benin, Messi also created the first two goals, before getting on the scoresheet himself

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Oct 7 • 3:43 AM EDT • Sports • skysports.com
Red Wings Fans React to Dylan Larkin Being Named No. 1 Star vs. Senators

Dylan Larkin had a goal and an assist and was named the No. 1 star as the Red Wings beat Ottawa 5-3 for their first win of the season.

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Oct 6 • 10:10 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Purdue Polytechnic assistant dean publishes book on creative teamwork in themed entertainment

A new book coauthored by Chris Rogers, assistant dean of Purdue Polytechnic in Indianapolis, has just been published. The new title explores how cross-disciplinary teams build world-class themed entertainment experiences.

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Oct 6 • 5:24 PM EDT • Entertainment • polytechnic.purdue.edu
Science organizations mobilize against politicizing purse strings

The sweeping federal financial assistance rule proposed by the Office of Management and Budget is on hold. The reprieve may be an opportunity for the rule to fizzle.

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Oct 6 • 2:42 PM EDT • Science • physicstoday.aip.org
Meta’s Muse Could Become $27 Billion Business, Citi Says

Meta’s Muse AI assistant could reportedly generate revenues of more than $27 billion by 2030. That’s according to a Tuesday (Oct. 6) report by Reuters,

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Oct 6 • 2:11 PM EDT • Business • pymnts.com
Health Alert – U.S. Embassy Moscow, Russia (October 6, 2026)

Health Alert – U.S. Embassy Moscow, Russia (October 5, 2026) Location: Irkutsk, Russia Event: The U.S. Embassy is aware of press reports from the Irkutsk region of suspected pneumonic plague resulting in the death of an individual and of associated quarantine measures in, and closures of, hospitals in Irkutsk. We continue to track the situation closely. The U.S. government has limited ability to help U.S. citizens in Russia, especially outside of Moscow. U.S. government personnel may face additional restrictions for personal and official travel to specific regions due to health and security concerns. The State Department’s Level 4 Travel Advisory (Do Not Travel) for Russia remains in place and states U.S. citizens currently in Russia should depart immediately. U.S. citizens planning travel to Russia are again strongly advised not to travel to Russia due to risk of wrongful detention and security concerns. Actions to Take: S. citizens in the area should follow the guidance of local health authorities, avoid affected facilities, and seek medical care promptly if they develop fever or respiratory symptoms. Visit the CDC Page on Plague for additional information about the disease. Visit the CDC Travelers’ Health Page for Russia for country-specific health updates. Monitor your health for 14 days following travel if you traveled to an area experiencing the outbreak. Review the S. Embassy country page for general health information. Refer to the Embassy’s list of medical providers. Check with your travel insurance provider about medical evacuation options should you fall ill while overseas. Have a plan to depart in an emergency that does not depend on U.S. government help. Monitor local media for updates. Be prepared to adjust your plans. Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program(STEP) to receive health and security updates. Assistance: U.S. Embassy Moscow, Russia +7 495 728-5577 MoscowACS@state.gov U.S. Embassy Moscow web page State Department – Consular Affairs (+001) 888-407-4747 or (+001) 202-501-4444 Russia Country Information Follow us on Facebook and Twitter State Department – Consular Affairs 1-888-407-4747 or 1-202-501-4444

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Oct 6 • 1:48 PM EDT • Health • ru.usembassy.gov
Senate passes bipartisan Health Care Cybersecurity and Resilience Act

First introduced in the HELP Committee in 2025, the bill would require healthcare organizations to meet some core cyber hygiene best practices while also offering guidance and assistance for providers.

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Oct 6 • 10:49 AM EDT • Health • healthcareitnews.com
Sean McVay 'really chapped' about Rams' constant penalties

Sean McVay is not happy about the Rams' rash of penalties, including one that was called on an assistant coach Sunday.

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Oct 6 • 8:32 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
UCSF Health Reaches 25,000 Robotic Surgeries

Surgeons at the UC San Francisco have performed over 25,000 robotically assisted minimally invasive surgeries, making it the first University of California health center to reach this milestone. UCSF Health has the busiest robotic surgery program in the UC Health system and is one of the leading academic medical institutions for robotic surgeries in the Western U.S.

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Oct 6 • 7:30 AM EDT • Health • newswise.com
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Relatives of Epstein victim appear in attack ad targeting Jeff Crank

Relatives of Virginia Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein‘s most prominent victims, accuse U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank in a TV ad released Monday by his Democratic challenger of refusing to meet with them last year when they sought his assistance to force a vote to release federal files related to the convicted sex offender. Sky and […]

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Oct 5 • 8:56 PM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com
Byram business owner relocates man experiencing homelessness brought into city

A Byram entrepreneur recorded himself assisting a man experiencing homelessness by offering him a ride and relocating him outside the city.

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Oct 5 • 5:03 PM EDT • Business • wapt.com
Childhood Housing Assistance Linked to Better Health Decades Later, Children's Mercy Study Finds

A child’s home may shape their health well into adulthood. New research led by Dr. Jeffrey D. Colvin, pediatrician, health services researcher and principal investigator at Children’s Mercy found that children who receive housing assistance are significantly less likely to develop diabetes and high blood pressure, also known as hypertension,...

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Oct 5 • 4:05 PM EDT • Health • news.childrensmercy.org
Zelda and Banjo Recompiled Devs Go To War With AI Vibe-Coded 'Slopcomps'

AI-assisted projects provoking stark criticism

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Oct 5 • 10:22 AM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com
The Economics of Delta Healthcare

How well is the system? Experts weigh in on status While agriculture rightfully gains most of the headlines when it comes to the Delta’s economy, the role of healthcare in the region cannot be underestimated. Many challenges face healthcare providers in the region and the state recently stepped in to assist. Nonetheless, healthcare leaders in […]

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Oct 5 • 7:54 AM EDT • Business • deltabusinessjournal.com
Physician Assistant Brandon Guth Earns Reid Health’s Advanced Practice Provider of the Year Award

Brandon Guth, PA-C, a physician assistant with Reid Medical Associates, is the second recipient of Reid Health’s Advanced Practice Provider (APP) of the Year Award for his commitment to clinical …

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Oct 5 • 7:00 AM EDT • Health • buildingindiana.com
Yale School of Medicine On the Science of Childhood Anxiety, Say, Anxiety Disorders Are the Most Common Mental Health Challenges In Youth

Credit: Matt Bradbury October 5, 2026 - By Isabella Backman - Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health challenges in youth. Left untreated, they can disrupt the lives of both children and their families. The good news is that with intervention, most children will overcome these conditions. Across Yale School of Medicine, scientists are working to understand anxiety at every level, from common anxious behaviors to molecular biomarkers in the brain. They are using their findings to develop and disseminate new evidence-based treatments for childhood anxiety. Today, the go-to treatment for childhood anxiety disorders is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). This is a form of psychotherapy that teaches children skills for confronting anxious thoughts and helps them practice managing situations that cause anxiety. While it is the gold-standard treatment backed by considerable scientific evidence, up to 50% of children will not see sufficient benefit from CBT alone. Wendy Silverman, PhD, Alfred A. Messer Professor in the Child Study Center, co-directs the Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program alongside Eli Lebowitz, PhD, associate professor in the Child Study Center. One of their main interests is learning how to improve outcomes beyond CBT. “We’re developing cutting-edge, research-based knowledge that can reduce the suffering that anxiety causes children and their families,” says Silverman. Changing parent behavior YSM experts are investigating how to improve CBT outcomes for children by involving the parents. Silverman’s research has uncovered two main components of parent intervention that improve childhood anxiety: not enabling children to completely avoid the things that make them anxious and taking steps to enhance their autonomy. Parents may unintentionally reinforce their child’s anxiety by allowing them to avoid what makes them anxious. They also may unintentionally limit the children’s sense of autonomy by being overly intrusive. “One of the things that we take pride in is that we’ve focused on trying to understand what parents need to do, and to test our ideas and see if changing the parents’ behaviors is enhancing the effects of CBT,” Silverman says. “Our findings thus far suggest that they do." As much as CBT can be helpful, it can also be challenging to get one’s child to do the necessary steps for CBT to work. This is one important reason why Lebowitz created a novel intervention program for parents named Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE). Existing intervention programs often teach parents to act as therapists for their child, such as training them on how to practice breathing exercises. “It makes sense, but this doesn’t work very well in practice,” says Lebowitz. “And part of the reason, I think, is that it’s not easy to get your kid to do things, especially if they’re not excited about doing it.” SPACE is unique because it focuses entirely on parent involvement and changing parental behavior—children are not involved in the sessions. For example, parents learn how to use supportive messages that convey confidence that their child can tolerate and manage distress. “It might sound like a parent saying to a child, ‘I get that this is really hard for you, but I know that you can handle it,’” Lebowitz says. The program also works with parents to identify the ways in which they are accommodating anxious behaviors. “We’ll pick one thing that parents are doing that is an accommodation and help them make a detailed plan for how they’re going to change that,” Lebowitz explains. Treating Anxiety in Children and Adolescents Much of the existing research on SPACE has focused on parents of children under age 14. Ongoing studies are now exploring its use with parents of older teens. “Both anxiety and accommodation can interfere with normative developmental shifts during the teen years, including increased autonomy and individuation from parents,” says Rebecca Etkin, PhD, associate research scientist in the Child Study Center. “In this sense, SPACE may be particularly well-suited for anxious teens and their parents. We want to see whether it is effective during this distinct developmental window.” Unfortunately, many families in need of CBT face barriers, including limited availability of services and geographic constraints. One way to improve access is digital interventions. Silverman and her team are developing an evidence-based digitized intervention program for parents that they can access directly from their computer or smart phone. “The work we’re doing will be one of the very few parent interventions that is digitized and importantly tested for effectiveness,” she says. Creating interventions for anxiety-related challenges Silverman and Lebowitz recently received a generous gift to develop and test other interventions that help parents reduce other child anxiety-related behavioral and emotional difficulties, such as restrictive eating and unexplained somatic symptoms. One of these projects in particular focuses on understanding the risks of social media and its potential benefits, including offering a sense of connection. “A lot of research has focused on the idea that social media is harmful and the less of it the better,” says Lebowitz. “But we actually see is that this is not quite right—there are negatives, but there are also positives. So, we’re trying to get a little bit more nuanced of a picture.” The team is working with teens with social anxiety and their parents over an extended period to better understand their social media habits and how their anxiety levels affect engagement with different platforms. The teens will answer questions sent to an app on their phones about mood and social media usage in an effort to capture emotional responses as they unfold. “We hope to develop interventions that can help make the best of social media while protecting against the more problematic effects,” Lebowitz says. The brain’s role in anxiety Researchers are also testing therapies to address anxiety at the neurological and molecular levels. In collaboration with Dylan Gee, PhD, professor of psychology in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Hilary Blumberg, MD, John and Hope Furth Professor of Psychiatric Neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine, Lebowitz and Silverman are using brain imaging to identify changes in a child’s brain before and after parents enroll in SPACE. In one study, children viewed anxiety-inducing images while undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); the researchers conducted scans with and without the children’s parents nearby. Before SPACE, children’s brains were better able to activate the regulatory circuitry needed to turn off an anxious response when their parents were nearby. But after SPACE, children could activate this circuitry even without the parent around. “As parents work on gradually reducing some of their accommodations, you can see a child get better at regulating their own fear system in the brain,” Lebowitz says. “It’s remarkable.” Research into the molecular underpinnings of anxiety can also inform new childhood anxiety treatments. In a recent study, Lebowitz, Silverman, and Flora Vaccarino, MD, Harris Professor in the Child Study Center, discovered that a protein known as fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) could be protective from the toxic effects of stress. FGF2 levels in children and their parents were linked to the children’s risk of developing anxiety and depression, the study showed. The findings could help explain why some children who are exposed to early life trauma such as poverty or abuse are more prone to developing mental health disorders. And FGF2 could be a target for treatment. “This is very novel because it starts to give a clue to what is the molecular chain that connects those lived experiences to the actual psychological outcomes,” Lebowitz says. New ways to study and treat childhood anxiety Michael Crowley, PhD, associate professor in the Child Study Center, collaborates with Silverman and Lebowitz to study the role that attention plays in development and maintenance of childhood anxiety. There is a large body of research that shows that anxious children, like anxious adults, are prone to focus on threatening stimuli such as angry faces compared with neutral faces. This has led to innovative interventions that involve attention retraining. The idea is that if experts train children to look away from threatening stimuli, it may reduce their anxiety—especially children with social anxiety who are most prone to attend to threats. The researchers have just completed a clinical trial for attention retraining with 10- to 14-year-olds with social anxiety disorders and are currently analyzing the findings. Besides this innovative attention retraining research, as Crowly notes, “I like to design tasks that are engaging to kids,” Crowley says. “My goal is to assess something without the kids knowing what we are assessing.” With this goal in mind, Crowley has created a virtual game, named Boom, to study threat processing in children with anxiety disorders. The game is similar to that of hot potato—the child and three digital players take turns virtually passing a ball to each other’s gloves. At some point, the ball turns into a bomb, and as the bomb lands in each player’s glove, the outline of the glove turns yellow. The goal is to avoid having the bomb go off in your glove. What isn’t obvious is that the game is designed to measure different types of threatening stimuli, both ambiguous and direct. In the game, the direct threat occurs as the bomb is traveling towards your glove. The ambiguous threat is the yellow outlined glove as it is unknown where the bomb will travel next. While children play the game, Crowley’s team measures their brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG). The researchers have discovered that in kids with anxiety, the brain reacts more strongly to ambiguous threats than it does in their peers, but less strongly to direct threats. They believe that the initial abnormally large brain response to not knowing where the bomb is going impairs the brain's ability to properly respond when the threat is actually traveling the child’s way. “The brains of children with anxiety are unable to differentiate between threats you need to do something about and those that are not your problem.” Michael Crowley, PhD, develops innovative games for studying anxiety in children and adolescents.Credit: Matt Bradbury Based on these insights, Crowley hopes to study whether interventions like attention training could restore appropriate threat processing. Crowley’s team is also working on a test called the Balloon Risk Avoidance Task, which evaluates risk-taking and avoidance behaviors. It features a digital balloon that is full of air and about to burst. Kids have six seconds to let air out of the balloon. The more air they let out, the less risk they face that the balloon will pop. But at the same time, the balloon becomes less valuable as it deflates. “The more air you keep in the balloon, the more points you get,” Crowley explains. So far, the researchers have found that when the balloons pop unexpectedly, teens with social anxiety show distinct brain responses. Studying these responses can help psychologists understand the underlying pathways driving the various manifestations of anxiety. The genetics of anxiety When Thomas Fernandez, MD, associate professor in the Child Study Center and of psychiatry, was still in training, there was a lot of excitement about understanding the genetics associated with autism spectrum disorder. Since then, scientists have identified around 250 genes associated with autism. The genetic contribution to anxiety disorders, on the other hand, has historically received less attention. Anxiety is less heritable than autism, but the genetic contribution for anxiety disorders that emerge in childhood may be higher than for anxiety disorders overall. While scientists estimate the heritability of anxiety disorders in general to be around 30% to 50%, some studies suggest higher heritability for certain childhood-onset anxiety presentations. “I saw firsthand how researchers in the field went about finding vulnerability genes for autism,” Fernandez says. “So, we’re using a very similar playbook for childhood anxiety.” “I saw firsthand how researchers in the field went about finding vulnerability genes for autism. So, we’re using a very similar playbook for childhood anxiety.” Thomas Fernandez, MD Associate Professor In the Child Study Center and in Psychiatry Now, Fernandez and Emily Olfson, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Child Study Center, are studying children and their parents to identify genetic changes that are present in the child but not the parents, known as “de novo mutations.” “All of us have some de novo mutations—maybe about 50 to 100 sprinkled throughout the genome,” Olfson says. “But when they occur within the coding regions of genes, they can be really disruptive.” Previous research shows that people with autism have higher rates of damaging de novo mutations than the general population. In 2022, Olfson, Lebowitz, Silverman, and Fernandez published a study on 68 children and their families that found that children with anxiety had similarly high levels of these mutations. Studying de novo mutations can help point the researchers to where they should be looking for genes associated with anxiety. “The end game is using the genes to steer us toward the right part of biology that we can then target to come up with better treatments,” Fernandez says. Building on those findings, the team is now studying more families to better understand how these de novo mutations, along with other genetic and environmental factors, shape pediatric anxiety disorders. They recently received a National Institutes of Health grant to enroll 750 new families over the next five years. Olfson is the principal investigator, with co-investigators Lebowitz, Fernandez, Silverman, and Shuangge Steven Ma, PhD, department chair and professor of biostatistics at Yale School of Public Health. Neurodevelopment, Risk Genes, and Mental Health Conditions - The Olfson Lab Joel Gelernter, MD, Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry, is interested in how different anxiety disorders differ genomically. “We are studying social phobia, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder, working to understand why people differ in their risk to these specific anxiety disorders and evaluating various risk factors,” he says. Gelernter was recently involved in one of the largest studies to date of the genomics underlying anxiety disorder. The study included around 122,000 people with anxiety disorders and around 730,000 without. It found that some genetic differences associated with anxiety were linked to signaling that helps reduce overactivity in the nervous system. Many anxiety medications available today work by targeting this process. “It’s nice when the biology that you get out of a large genome-wide study ratifies things that we already know because that can help increase confidence in further findings from the study,” Gelernter says. Uncovering the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders John Krystal, MD, Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Professor of Translational Research and chair of the Department of Psychiatry, is interested in the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), of which anxiety is a major symptom. In the late 1980s, Krystal’s team discovered that the drug yohimbine activated symptoms in patients with PTSD. “This was the first time we could link a specific biological mechanism to the symptoms of PTSD,” Krystal says. At the time, he adds, this finding was highly controversial. “A lot of people felt that PTSD was a purely psychological syndrome that didn’t have an underlying biology.” Since then, Krystal has dived deep into understanding the neurobiology of PTSD to learn how to better treat it. His team is evaluating the use of ketamine and psychedelics. These would be among the first treatments to be developed specifically for PTSD. They may also be applicable for other disorders including anxiety disorders, Krystal adds. An important gap in PTSD treatment is the absence of biological tests that inform how to best help patients manage their PTSD symptoms. A doctor doesn’t diagnose cancer based on how they feel. Rather, they use tests of the biology of the cancer to determine the best course of treatment. “And we can’t do that in any psychiatric disorder other than Alzheimer’s disease,” Krystal says. “But now we are building a foundation for this approach to the treatment of anxiety disorders for the first time.” Source: Yale School of Medicine

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Oct 5 • 6:44 AM EDT • Science • goldrushcam.com
Study: IL lawyers report mental health challenges, substance abuse, suicide ideation

(CAPITOL CITY NOW) - For many lawyers, the effects of the job can include declining mental health, substance abuse, problem gambling, suicide ideation, and even declining cognitive skills. These are the results of a survey of Illinois attorneys, "The Weight of Practice," commissioned by the Illinois Lawyers' Assistance Program. Factors include the stress of being

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Oct 5 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • capitolcitynow.com
Fox Sports announcers can’t believe controversial finish to Padres-Brewers Game 1

The Milwaukee Brewers hung on to beat the San Diego Padres 3-2 in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday night, and the Brewers got a home-field assist from the roof at American Family Field during a crucial moment in the ninth inning. Trailing 3-2 with a runner on first base and…

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Oct 4 • 11:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Herring Gut Coastal Science Center welcomes AmeriCorps member as Assistant Environmental Educator

PORT CLYDE — Herring Gut Coastal Science Center welcomes Kayleigh Amerman to its Port Clyde team as an AmeriCorps member serving as Assistant Environmental Educator through Goodwill Northern New England’s GoodHealth Works AmeriCorps program.

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Oct 4 • 5:30 AM EDT • Science • penbaypilot.com
Nonprofit transporting residents to healthcare receives pivotal partnership

Quest Inc. is a nonprofit in Central Florida that provides transportation services to people with developmental disabilities. (COURTESY OF QUEST INC.) A Central Florida nonprofit assisting residents with development disabilities to access healthcare appointments was selected for a pivotal partnership with a local hospital that will help expand services. Quest Inc. is a nonprofit that provides

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Oct 3 • 10:48 PM EDT • Health • yourcommunitypaper.com
Lightning beat the Capitals 3-1 in home opener

(AP) — Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves, Charle-Edouard D'Astous and Conor Geekie scored in the first period and the Tampa Bay Lightning won their home opener with a 3-1 victory over the Washington Capitals on Saturday night.Brandon Hagel had two assists for the Lightning, and Jake Guentzel scored into an empty net and had an assist.

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Oct 3 • 10:03 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
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Trinity Health Ann Arbor paves the way with new aortic valve procedure

Cardiac surgeons at Trinity Health Hospital in Ann Arbor are using robotic assistance to pave the way for a new aortic valve surgery procedure. WEMU’s Ana Longoria has the details.

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Oct 3 • 8:33 AM EDT • Health • wemu.org
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Pellegrini rumored to start in Como clash

Injury halted him just when he was at his peak. With seven goals and four assists, last season seemed to be Lorenzo Pellegrini’s definitive redemption, but then physical problems compromised his pre...

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Oct 3 • 5:35 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
LA County Extends East LA Small Business Grant Deadline

Los Angeles County officials announced Friday that the application deadline for a grant program assisting small businesses affected by the Lineage Fire and East Los Angeles Oil Spill has been extended by one week, to Oct. 9. The Small Business Recovery Grant provides up to $3,000 to eligible brick-and-mortar businesses and up to $1,000 to […]

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Oct 2 • 5:42 PM EDT • Business • mynewsla.com
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Citywide Mental Health Emergency Service Continues Expansion With Longer Hours

The city's Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement program (CARE) is moving its previous 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. hours to a new 8 a.m.-10 p.m. weekday schedule.

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Oct 2 • 5:12 PM EDT • Health • blockclubchicago.org
Richland County law enforcement considers mental health alternative over arrests

The Richland County Sheriff’s Department is beginning a partnership with the Mental Illness Recovery Center, Inc. (MIRCI) to guide its Law Enforcement Assisted Deflection (LEAD) program.

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Oct 2 • 4:55 PM EDT • Health • wistv.com
Modern Science: An Ohio University professor studies the mechanisms behind bats using echolocation

ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) —There's a lot we know about how animals navigate their world, but there's even more we don't. This included how bats use echolocation until recently.Peishu Li is an assistan

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Oct 2 • 4:03 PM EDT • Science • woub.org
iOS 27’s Siri gets one thing very right that other AI assistants get wrong

Siri AI is now available in iOS 27 as a major upgrade to Apple’s assistant, and it differs greatly from other AI assistants in one key area.

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Oct 2 • 3:26 PM EDT • Technology • 9to5mac.com
Chicago expanding program meant to help those experiencing mental health crises

Chicago is expanding the Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement program, which helps people experiencing mental health crises.

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Oct 2 • 3:05 PM EDT • Health • abc7chicago.com
Mental health response teams now have night time hours, city officials say

Starting Monday, the Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE) program will extend its hours of operation to 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and add a second shift of evening staff.

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Oct 2 • 2:58 PM EDT • Health • chicago.suntimes.com
Defense Contracts Roundup: Intuitive Research Nets $58M Army Contract

Intuitive Research and Technology was awarded a $58,742,720 modification for systems engineering and technical assistance support for the Short and

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Oct 2 • 2:00 PM EDT • Business • huntsvillebusinessjournal.com
Bishop’s computer science chair says AI is eliminating ‘grunt work’ and reshaping digital jobs

Dr. Russell Butler, chair of Bishop’s University’s Department of Computer Science, says artificial intelligence is increasingly taking over routine digital “grunt work,” changing the skills students and workers may need in the years ahead. Photo courtesy of Bishop’s University. Click here to read our platform! Get local news like this every morning. Subscribe free below. Subscribe Pulse Newsroom Artificial intelligence is already taking over some of the routine digital work once performed by entry-level employees, according to Bishop’s University Computer Science chair Dr. Russell Butler — a shift he believes will make expertise, judgement and the ability to evaluate AI-generated work increasingly important. Butler described the change as automation reaching what he calls the “bottom of the cognitive pyramid” during an interview with The Pulse about AI, university education and the future of digital work. His argument is not that humans are disappearing from the workplace. Instead, he sees their role changing as AI becomes capable of handling more of the repetitive tasks involved in computer-based work. “Everything’s converging on just AI basically doing all the grunt work,” Butler said. The bottom of the cognitive pyramid Butler is from Lennoxville, completed his undergraduate studies at Bishop’s and later earned his PhD at the Université de Sherbrooke. He joined Bishop’s in 2019 and now chairs its Department of Computer Science. He uses AI in research, teaching and other creative work, and said the technology is increasingly capable of handling routine digital tasks that once required substantial human time. “You’ve got the grunt work, like moving things around in Excel, doing basic programming tasks,” Butler said. “That’s like the bottom grunt work that the entry-level worker would have done two or three years ago.” Butler went further, saying in his view that much of this type of work has already been absorbed by AI tools. He connected that change to a shift he sees taking place in computer science, where entry-level roles have declined while experienced workers can use AI to increase what they can produce. “A senior developer now has access to essentially an unlimited amount of junior developers on demand,” Butler said. He was describing AI systems metaphorically, not literal employees. His point was that one experienced developer can now ask AI tools to produce code or other technical work that might previously have been assigned to more junior workers. That raises a broader question for universities and employers. If some of the simpler work traditionally given to newcomers can now be done by machines, how do people gain the experience needed to become senior workers themselves? Students doing work that once required years of programming Butler said he is already seeing the change inside his classroom. He created a Bishop’s course called CS208, Coding in Plain English, to show students — including those without traditional programming backgrounds — what they can accomplish using AI. Some come from disciplines such as psychology or neuroscience with no previous programming experience. “What I’m finding is that students who have zero programming experience, they come in from another discipline like psychology or neuroscience or something, they are now able to get up and running with real data sets,” Butler said. Butler’s own doctoral work involved neuroimaging, and he said he has assigned students work he considers comparable to the kinds of analysis he performed during his PhD. He described giving students a real dataset, an expected result and instructions to use AI to complete the analysis. Butler said those students have been able to carry out work at a level he associates with tasks he once performed after years of programming experience. That does not mean a student using AI instantly acquires the same knowledge as an experienced computer scientist. But Butler sees it as evidence that AI can dramatically lower the technical barrier between having a problem to solve and producing a working result. The role of the person using the system then changes. They need to know what to ask for, understand enough about the subject to judge the answer and take responsibility for what is ultimately produced. What about AI hallucinations? One persistent concern surrounding generative AI is hallucination — when a system produces information that sounds convincing but is false or unsupported. Butler said that problem has improved substantially in newer systems and is not as severe as it was with earlier models. He pointed in particular to newer AI systems’ ability to search the web, consult scientific databases and return source links rather than simply generating a citation from their internal model. Butler nevertheless said users should verify what AI produces. “You should verify,” he said while discussing citations generated with AI. His position is that hallucinations have become less common in the systems he uses, not that incorrect AI output is impossible. Human checking remains part of the process. Hours of work compressed Butler offered another example from his administrative work at Bishop’s. The university has been comparing CEGEP courses with first-year Bishop’s courses to determine where students may qualify for advanced standing. Traditionally, Butler said, that means reviewing two sets of course descriptions and manually matching one institution’s courses with another’s. As department chair, that could require hours of reading and comparison. He said AI can now be given both sets of material and asked to generate an initial mapping automatically. “It saves me hours and hours of work,” Butler said. Butler said the AI-generated mapping can also produce a better result than he would produce himself. He sees similar opportunities in businesses. A company may receive specifications, drawings, emails or other digital material from customers and then have employees convert that information into an internal format before anything can be manufactured or delivered. AI can increasingly perform parts of that intermediate processing. In Butler’s view, the employee does not necessarily disappear. Instead, the job becomes more about checking the result. “The human is still there,” he said. Judgement could become more valuable That change is central to Butler’s view of where digital work may be headed. If AI can produce a first draft, write basic code, compare documents or process large amounts of information, he argues that knowledge and judgement become increasingly important. “The real scarce resource going forward is going to be domain knowledge, expertise, and… credentials, authority, the ability to work with other people,” Butler said. He is therefore encouraging students not only to learn AI tools but also to broaden their education. He mentioned acting, fine art and photography as examples of courses that can help develop what he described as taste and intuition — the ability to recognize what is good, what is not and what should be changed. “And that’s the skill that they need now because the grunt work has been automated and now it’s about evaluating what the AI produces and telling it how to improve or expand the output,” Butler said. That does not remove the need for technical knowledge. Butler’s argument is that the emphasis may shift away from manually completing every step of a task and toward directing, checking and improving work produced with AI assistance. He also stressed that humans remain responsible for final decisions. “At the end of the day, the human has to make the final call,” Butler said, pointing to the question of accountability. Physical work may be different Butler draws a distinction between digital work and jobs requiring people to manipulate the physical world. He expects AI to continue advancing quickly in tasks performed almost entirely on computers. He is more cautious about claims that humanoid robots will soon be able to replace workers such as plumbers or electricians. Butler said those trades would not be replaced “anytime soon” in his view and described some current robotics demonstrations as overhyped. He described the situation as counterintuitive. “It’s almost like we solved the highest level first,” he said, contrasting advances in digital AI with the harder problem of building robots capable of operating reliably in the physical world. Butler’s argument is that some digital occupations could face automation sooner than trades requiring complex physical work. The wider AI shift in the Townships Butler’s comments come as local institutions are increasingly grappling with how AI should be used. The federal government recently announced up to $162 million over five years for 10,000 AI-related placements through Mitacs. The Université de Sherbrooke told The Pulse that the number of its collaborative research and innovation projects supported through Mitacs has approximately doubled since 2018-19, while the number of placements has approximately tripled. UdeS also said it already has projects involving both AI adoption and the application of AI to other fields. At Bishop’s, Butler said part of his role involves building the Computer Science department’s local presence, connecting students with regional partners and strengthening relationships with the Sherbrooke technology ecosystem. Those developments put universities in a difficult position. They have to prepare students to use the tools employers increasingly have available while also making sure graduates understand enough to recognize when those tools are wrong, incomplete or being applied to the wrong problem. The risk of losing human skills Butler does not see AI as risk-free. Later in the interview, he raised a separate concern: as AI becomes better at reading, writing, programming and other cognitive tasks, people could lose some of the underlying skills that historically helped produce new ideas. “The other danger is that we’re going to lose the human skills,” Butler said. He specifically mentioned reading and writing and argued that people could lose some of the lower-level understanding that contributes to breakthroughs. Butler said AI systems are based on existing human knowledge and argued that they become much more powerful when paired with a capable person. That tension runs through his view of the technology. AI can remove hours of routine work. It can allow beginners to perform tasks that once required substantial technical training. It can give experienced workers significant leverage. But the more capable the technology becomes, the more important it may be for people to develop the judgement needed to decide what should be done in the first place. For Butler, that is where education may have to change. Students still need to understand their field. They still need to know when something is wrong. And they still need to be able to make the final decision. But if AI increasingly handles the bottom of the cognitive pyramid, the value of a worker may depend less on how quickly they can perform the grunt work and more on whether they understand what the work is supposed to accomplish. Don’t miss the next story that affects your community. Join thousands of readers getting The Pulse every morning—plus breaking news alerts when it matters most. If you value this kind of local journalism, consider supporting it. Subscribe, share and like! Subscribe Share

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Oct 2 • 1:57 PM EDT • Science • publisherpt.substack.com
Argonne: Building Scientific Computing Ecosystems for AI-Enabled Discovery

Trustworthy AI-enabled scientific discovery depends on software, people, institutions and community action. Oct. 1, 2026 — Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing scientific computing rapidly. AI systems can now generate and analyze code, synthesize information, assist with hypothesis generation and carry out complex reasoning tasks within scientific workflows. Alongside advances in computing architectures and data-intensive research, […]

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Oct 2 • 1:14 PM EDT • Science • hpcwire.com
Home Assistant says ‘Big tech ruined the cloud, so we’re out’

‘Big tech ruined the cloud, so we’re out’

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Oct 2 • 9:02 AM EDT • Technology • theverge.com
A familiar Android feature is disappearing and users have plenty to say

Google is replacing Google Assistant with Gemini on Android phones, with some users reporting issues during the transition.

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Oct 2 • 7:00 AM EDT • Technology • cleveland.com
Boebert introduces bill addressing veterans’ mental health

Rep. Lauren Boebert has introduced a bill she says will assist veterans in accessing inpatient mental health treatment.

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Oct 1 • 5:31 PM EDT • Health • coloradopolitics.com
50 children in our area hit by cars every year; toxic pond water in Centennial Park; ‘gas station heroin’; plus other stories with Vanderbilt Health sources

In a news report following a Murfreesboro child who was killed by an automobile, reporter Amber Jayanth from WSMV Channel 4 News cited statistics gathered at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt about pediatric pedestrian injuries. Trauma registry data from Monroe Carell indicates that about 50 children per year on average are treated after being hit by a car. William Schaffner, MD, Professor of Preventive Medicine, was quoted by several news outlets about public health issues, including: CNN (mRNA flu vaccine); ABC News and the American Journal of Managed Care (Pennsylvania measles outbreak); News Channel 5 (blue-green algae in the pond at Centennial Park, which can release toxins that make people and pets sick). WSMV Channel 4 News interviewed Saumya Aujla, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, about the health risks of kratom, sometimes called “gas station heroin,” and why Tennessee banned the drug. WTVF News Channel 5 interviewed Brianna Smith, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Hematology/Oncology at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt for a piece on Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Prevention interviewed Mitchell Gigandet, MD, Assistant Professor in the Neuro-Sleep Division, for a story about MDPI research on caffeine that used EEG imaging to see how the drug impacts sleep. It was found that caffeine may make sleep less restorative even when you fall asleep normally and stay in bed for eight hours. The Wall Street Journal reporter Laura Landro interviewed Joseph Schlesinger, MD, Professor of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine, for a story about ICU alarms keeping patients from getting sleep and creating alarm fatigue for nurses. Billboard reporter Melinda Newman interviewed country star Dasha about her upcoming vocal surgery at Vanderbilt Health. The story was picked up by numerous print and radio outlets including People.

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Oct 1 • 4:34 PM EDT • Health • news.vumc.org
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USDA invests $12.7M through Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives

Funding supports regional initiatives that provide technical assistance and subawards to businesses working to bolster the dairy supply chain.

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Oct 1 • 1:51 PM EDT • Business • feedstuffs.com
Atlanta Falcons partner with Good Sports to increase youth sports equity across Georgia

During this year’s Hometown Huddle, presented by American Family Insurance, Falcons players filled 180 boxes with brand-new sports equipment to assist the Georgia Recreation and Park Association.

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Oct 1 • 12:40 PM EDT • Sports • atlantafalcons.com
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MTSU School of Ag receives grant for mental health initiative with Center for Health and Human Services

Middle Tennessee State University has been named Tennessee’s lead partner organization for the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network South, or FRSAN South, with the MTSU School of Agriculture and Center for Health and Human Services jointly leading the statewide effort.

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Oct 1 • 11:47 AM EDT • Health • mtsunews.com
New ‘fire amoeba’ could assist scientists in finding alien life

Previous research has shown that complex multicellular organisms could only reproduce in temperatures up to 140 degrees.

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Oct 1 • 11:02 AM EDT • Science • yahoo.com
Over 11K Washington residents are losing access to federal health and food benefits

The law, signed by President Donald Trump on July 4, 2025, includes $1.3 trillion in nationwide cuts to healthcare and food assistance programs

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Oct 1 • 11:00 AM EDT • Health • kiro7.com
KU faculty member receives inaugural endowed professorship in applied behavioral science

Isaac Melanson, an assistant professor of applied behavioral science whose research specializes in helping people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, has been chosen as the inaugural recipient of the Donald M. Baer and Elsie M. Pinkston Endowed Professorship. The three-year term took effect July 1.

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Oct 1 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • news.ku.edu
Here’s the newest faculty members of LSU’s College of Science

Three assistant professors have joined LSU’s College of Science this semester. Carl Procko, Ping Wang and Keegan Kirk brought their research expertise, including plant responses, adaptations and numerical analysis. Procko, assistant professor of biological sciences, works with the adaptations of plants in relation to their environments. He mentioned his interest in unusual plants, including carnivorous...

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Oct 1 • 7:00 AM EDT • Science • lsureveille.com
Trump administration moves to cancel $810M in federal funding

More than $567 million of the proposed cuts are tied to refugee and entrant assistance programs.

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Sep 30 • 8:59 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com
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UN Decade of Healthy Ageing midpoint report finds progress, calls for greater investment

New evidence in the Secretary-General's report to the 81st UN General Assembly, prepared by the World Health Organization (WHO) in coordination with the UN system, finds more countries acting on healthy ageing than ever before – but longer lives will not become healthy, dignified ones without faster, more sustained investment at country level.(NEW YORK, 28 September 2026) The Secretary-General transmitted to the 81st session of the UN General Assembly the mid-term progress report on the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030), marking the midpoint of the ten-year global effort to improve the lives of older people. The report was prepared by the World Health Organization (WHO) in coordination with the UN Inter-Agency Group on Ageing and with inputs from thirteen UN entities, the World Bank Group and civil society partners. It finds real progress in countries – and persistent gaps that must close before 2030.The number of people aged 60 and over passed 1 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach 2.1 billion by 2050, with the fastest growth in low- and middle-income countries. Longer lives are not automatically healthy ones: globally, the gap between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy at age 60 widened between 2000 and 2023, and an estimated 71% of excess deaths from COVID-19 between 2020 and 2023 were among people aged 60 and over. “Longer lives are one of humanity’s great achievements, but we cannot congratulate ourselves while leaving millions without health and support,” said Dr Pascale Allotey, Director, Department of Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing, WHO. “The first half of the Decade has shown what is possible. The second half must be about scaling and financing the progress to meet the needs and rights of older persons.”Real progress, unevenly sharedThe report finds that more countries than ever now have legislation against age-based discrimination – up from 44.5% in 2018 to 57.7% today – and over half now have national long-term care policies, up from 49% in 2023 to 56.7%, dedicated programmes to build age-friendly environments (54.6%), and comprehensive health and social assessments of older people (54.6%). New WHO guidance on services for long-term care and for Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) delivered in communities is enabling systemic change as an increasing number of countries incorporate these services within national universal health care benefit packages. A host of UN agencies and other partners support training, increasing health workforce competencies and use of digital health tools.“This report shows the Decade of Healthy Ageing is working,” said Dr Ritu Sadana, Head of the WHO Secretariat for the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing. “More countries are legislating against ageism, providing integrated care, strengthening long-term care systems, and creating age-friendly environments than ever before, in all regions and income levels. But progress is uneven and in one area, regressive: fewer countries report active multi-stakeholder forums on ageing, down from 53.1% in 2020 to 43.3% today. The second half of this Decade must turn commitments into results, in every country.”The financing gap: this Decade's binding constraintFinancing remains the binding constraint: more than a third of reporting countries (33.8%) have very little or no dedicated resources to develop long-term care, with similar shortfalls across the Decade’s other priority areas. Less than half of countries (45.4%) have legislation providing access to assistive devices (including hearing aids, spectacles or rollators), which are key to enabling older people to maintain productive, independent and dignified lives. Only 22.7% of countries can track older people’s health over time – the largest gap across the Decade’s core progress indicators. Nationally representative information is needed in each country, as policies and interventions cannot be designed as if all older adults of a given age share similar needs and capacities. The report calls for sustained investment through national budgets, country-owned plans, development cooperation and innovative financing mechanisms to fully close these gaps by 2030.“The Decade was designed as a whole-of-UN effort, and this report shows it in action,” said Amal Abou Rafeh, Chief of the Programme on Ageing Section at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), and Permanent Co-Chair of the UN Inter-Agency Group on Ageing. “Thirteen UN entities, the World Bank group and civil society organizations contributed to this report, with WHO as the lead technical and implementing agency. That is the model of coordination the second half of the Decade will need to scale, with countries leading legislation, funding and implementation, engaging older people.”“Investing in healthy ageing is not simply a cost; it is one of the highest-return investments a government can make,” said Fiona Stewart, Global Lead for Ageing and Pensions at the World Bank Group. “Countries that invest early in integrated and long-term care see savings that outweigh the upfront cost many times over. The evidence in this report makes the economic case; what is now needed is predictable financing at country level to act on it, along with efforts to support older entrepreneurs and the silver economy.”Older people's own voicesThe report also draws on the direct experience of older people themselves, including a multilingual global survey conducted by the International Federation on Ageing that reached more than 1000 older people across 58 countries. WHO and UN partners called on Member States to use the second half of the Decade to accelerate implementation, strengthen data systems, and secure the financing needed so that the gains of longer lives reach older people everywhere. About the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030)Proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 2020, the Decade is a global collaboration bringing together governments, UN agencies, civil society, the private sector, academia and older people themselves to improve the lives of older people, their families and communities. It is coordinated by the World Health Organization together with the UN Inter-Agency Group on Ageing. The Decade's mid-term progress report was transmitted to the General Assembly by the Secretary-General, prepared by WHO, and is available in 6 languages.Full Report available: A/81/366 Implementation of the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030): Note by Secretary-General [ العربية | 中文 | English | Français | Pусский | Español

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Sep 30 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • who.int
Remo Freuler Defying Age With Stunning Numbers for Olympiacos

Remo Freuler has earned Imanol Alguacil's trust at Olympiacos, scoring two goals and adding two assists in his first starts. He also recorded a 99% pass success rate for Switzerland.

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Sep 30 • 6:13 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
More images of the Samsung Galaxy Buds On surface, they show off the clip-on design

The buds will support nod gestures and AI assistants. They will use "open-ear air conduction". We first heard of the Galaxy Able buds back when the Galaxy...

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Sep 30 • 12:41 PM EDT • Technology • gsmarena.com
Trump Sparks Health Concerns as TV Doc Helps Him Sit

A clip of the president needing assistance quickly made the rounds on social media.

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Sep 30 • 12:36 PM EDT • Health • thedailybeast.com
Campus Scout | Your ‘business professor’ is actually AI slop

Zǎoshang hǎo, it’s your friendly Campus Scout here! Sorry about the Mandarin, folks. Scout’s artificial intelligence assistant, his new, improved and too-dangerous-to-be-publicly-released Brain-Blaster 2.0 must’ve had some Mandarin in its training data. Scout is not sure how it got there, but he knows Brain-Blaster 2.0 has super intelligence, so there must be a reason it...

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Sep 30 • 12:00 PM EDT • Business • dailyillini.com
Instagram rolls out an AI video assistant for creators

This conversational AI assistant is intended to provide personalized feedback to creators, rather than generic advice.

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Sep 30 • 10:30 AM EDT • Technology • techcrunch.com
AI Just Told a Customer Something False About Your Company. Now What?

There is no correction desk when an assistant serves false facts about your business. The five ways AI gets companies wrong, and the upstream repair for each one.

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Sep 30 • 10:00 AM EDT • Business • entrepreneur.com
De La Cruz Office Helps Edinburg Agriculture Business Resolve H-2A Visa Delay

The office of U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz helped an Edinburg agriculture business resolve delayed H-2A visas after the company sought congressional casework assistance, according to De La Cruz’s office and the business owners.

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Sep 30 • 9:12 AM EDT • Business • texasborderbusiness.com
Arsenal midfielder notches another goal contribution for Spain

Mikel Merino provided an assist for Spain and Martin Zubimendi earned a rare start as they eased past Croatia on Tuesday night.Photo by Lars Baron/Getty ImagesGoing into Spain’s Nations League match...

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Sep 30 • 6:05 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
U.S. ends health aid to Zimbabwe after ‘America First’ deal is spurned

The African nation refused to make an agreement with the Trump administration, which has sought to slash foreign assistance and impose new terms on recipients.

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Sep 30 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • washingtonpost.com
Ryan O’Reilly’s Future With Nashville Predators Uncertain

While there has been a lot of change with the Nashville Predators this summer, there could be more this season.Veteran forward Ryan O’Reilly is entering the final year of a $18 million deal and may not be part of the leadership corps sometime this season.He has been an assistant captain for the franchise since his […] The post Ryan O’Reilly’s Future With Nashville Predators Uncertain appeared first on HEAVY.

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Sep 30 • 12:33 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Former Middleburg High behavioral health assistant arrested on 7 counts involving child sex abuse material

A 36-year-old Fleming Island man was arrested Tuesday on seven counts of knowingly possessing and/or intentionally viewing child sexual abuse material, according to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office.

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Sep 29 • 5:14 PM EDT • Health • news4jax.com
Next Woman Up: Jill Costanza, Lions Assistant Strength & Conditioning/Director of Sports Science

In this installment of the Next Woman Up series, Jill Costanza details her role as the Detroit Lions' assistant strength & conditioning coach/director of sports science, her non-linear path to the NFL and the most rewarding part of her job.

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Sep 29 • 3:15 PM EDT • Science • nfl.com
Next Woman Up: Jill Costanza, Lions Assistant Strength & Conditioning/Director of Sports Science

In this installment of the Next Woman Up series, Jill Costanza details her role as the Detroit Lions' assistant strength & conditioning coach/director of sports science, her non-linear path to the NFL and the most rewarding part of her job.

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Sep 29 • 3:15 PM EDT • Sports • nfl.com
After Sickle Cell Crisis, Brooklyn Mother is Back on Her Feet Following Care from NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County

New York, NY – While working as an office assistant in Brooklyn, Grace Carter felt her body grow weak and lose all sensation. Fearing she would collapse,

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Sep 29 • 2:09 PM EDT • Health • nychealthandhospitals.org
Meta and Intuit Team on Small Business Intelligence

Intuit says its small business-focused financial intelligence services are now part of Meta’s new AI assistant. The QuickBooks connector is now live in

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Sep 29 • 2:03 PM EDT • Business • pymnts.com
Women in Business: Kenzie Biggins, founder of Worxbee

An idea that began to percolate in grad school has grown into a thriving business which matches virtual executive assistants with business leaders.

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Sep 29 • 1:17 PM EDT • Business • yahoo.com
Snoop-and-scoop poses a real threat to science in the AI age

Establishing attribution in research has become harder in the age of AI-assisted breakthroughs

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Sep 29 • 12:33 PM EDT • Science • ft.com
Federal court will hear if Wake schools wrongly suspended GOP candidate from job

Scott Lassiter charges Wake suspended him as an assistant principal in 2024 to help his Democratic opponent running for NC Senate.

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Sep 29 • 11:15 AM EDT • Politics • newsobserver.com
Belmont’s Mini Market Makers get down to business

Already a seasoned entrepreneur at age 10, Merri Suzuki’s daughter Emi is eager to bring her slime business, Gummy Drops, back to the Belmont Farmers’ Market on Oct. 1, for the second-annual Mini Market Makers (MMM) Day. Suzuki, the food assistance manager at the Belmont Farmers’ Market, said that 10 kid vendors (including her daughter) ages 8 through 12, will be selling their goods for the second year in a row as part of MMM. The goal of the program “is to help children learn what it’s like to be in business. They’ll develop an idea, decide what to charge,

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Sep 29 • 10:57 AM EDT • Business • belmontvoice.org
Houston Rockets jersey history No. 32 - Francisco García (2013-15)

During his time suiting up for the Rockets, García wore only jersey No. 32 and put up 5.5 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.1 assists per game.

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Sep 28 • 9:00 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
The Science Behind Greener, Healthier Lawns

A healthy, green lawn can be the envy of any neighborhood, but how does someone cultivate a yard like that? Assistant Professor of Ecosystem Science Amber Churchill has been getting her hands dirty and digging into the science behind it.

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Sep 28 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • newswise.com
Gemini fully replaces Google Assistant on Android

At the start of September, the Google Assistant deprecation on mobile got underway. It now looks to be widely rolling out.

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Sep 28 • 4:48 PM EDT • Technology • 9to5google.com
Pope Leo defends entering political fray on France end-of-life law

Pope Leo on Monday defended his decision to vocally oppose ​assisted dying initiatives while in France, acknowledging he may ‌have entered the political fray two months after the country approved such a measure, but wanted to share ​the Catholic Church's viewpoint.

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Sep 28 • 4:45 PM EDT • Politics • reuters.com
Pope Leo defends entering political fray on France end-of-life law

ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT, Sept 28 () - Pope Leo on Monday defended his decision to ‌vocally oppose assisted dying initiatives while in ‌France, acknowledging he may have entered the political fray two ...

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Sep 28 • 4:45 PM EDT • Politics • yahoo.com
Deadline Wednesday: Free business training for Central Oregon veterans, families

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Applications are open through Wednesday, Sept. 30, for Startup Training Resources to Inspire Veteran Entrepreneurship (STRIVE), a free eight-week business training program for military veterans and their family members. The in-person program is designed to assist military-connected entrepreneurs in developing skills to create and sustain small businesses. Offered in collaboration with

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Sep 28 • 4:44 PM EDT • Business • ktvz.com
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Newcastle Creates New Senior Role After Major Recruiting Changes

Newcastle United’s football operation has undergone significant change over the past year, with Ross Wilson overseeing another stage of the club’s restructuring following the departures of experienced figures including Steve Nickson and Andy Howe. Jack Ross has now confirmed that he has become Newcastle’s Assistant Sporting Director, effectively placing him directly beneath Wilson in the […]

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Sep 28 • 9:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Malicious browser extensions can hijack AI assistants

BragJack research reveals how a single malicious browser extension could hijack Gemini, Perplexity Comet and Edge AI agents with zero clicks.

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Sep 28 • 8:33 AM EDT • Technology • foxnews.com
<em>CASNews</em> faculty spotlight: Dr. Megan VanGorder

Meet Dr. Megan VanGorder, assistant professor in the Department of History.

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Sep 28 • 8:04 AM EDT • Science • news.illinoisstate.edu
Youngster Sullivan's numbers speak for themselves

Cavan Sullivan's performances, goals, and assists since the World Cup put him up there with the MLS's top individual stars, including Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann and Luis Suarez. Few players beyond those mentioned can match Sullivan's goal contribution rate in MLS since the World Cup, and there is a strong argument to say the youngster has been the best player in the league during that time. Sullivan has seven goals and five assists in MLS this season.

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Sep 28 • 7:46 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Meta's Muse AI assistant raises major cybersecurity and privacy concerns

Meta's Muse AI assistant is helping users save money on subscriptions, but it requires access to personal bank accounts and credit cards. Liz Peek warns of potential cybersecurity risks and the threat of rogue agents.

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Sep 28 • 6:57 AM EDT • Business • foxbusiness.com
3 business risks of AI-assisted coding executives can’t ignore

Without oversight, AI coding assistants can leak secrets, act sans accountability and spike spend.

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Sep 28 • 1:00 AM EDT • Business • ciodive.com
Your Amazon Prime Subscription Comes With An Alexa Upgrade You Should Use More

Amazon Prime comes with many benefits for subscribers, but one many might not be familiar with involves and upgrade to Amazon's Alexa AI assistant.

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Sep 27 • 10:47 PM EDT • Technology • bgr.com
LAFC part ways with head coach Marc Dos Santos

By Jonathan SigalLAFC have parted ways with head coach Marc Dos Santos, the club announced Sunday evening.Dos Santos was appointed in December 2025, taking over after being an assistant under previous...

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Sep 27 • 9:41 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
What Was Brent Venables Thinking?

You know the scene. You’ve seen it a thousand times. A college football coach stands alone on the sidelines, his players and assistants looking to him for answers that he doesn’t have. They’ve lost this football game, and lost it badly. “Charley Pell’s off-the-books slush fund!” you think, “what must that guy be thinking in […]

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Sep 27 • 10:58 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Rogers Tries to Make El-Sayed’s Health Care Plan Scary

_Taylor, Michigan_HERE’S HOW YOU CAN TELL Mike Rogers is anxious to make up ground in the Michigan Senate race: He held a press conference on health care last weekend. Health care is usually a rough issue for Republicans, because voters associate the GOP with attacking cherished programs like Medicare and Medicaid that Democrats have historically supported. It’s a particularly difficult issue in this campaign, because a few months ago Donald Trump and the Republicans refused to extend temporary financial assistance in the Affordable Care Act. As a result of that decision, more than 20 million Americans faced higher insurance prices this year. That’s not a policy choice you want to be defending at a time when voters frequently cite the cost of health care as a top concern. Throw in the fact that Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed can draw on his credibility as a doctor and former public health director in Detroit, and it might seem like Rogers’s best bet would be to avoid health care altogether. But Rogers had his reasons to spotlight health care last Saturday. And they became apparent a few minutes before he spoke, when members of his campaign staff There’s a lot happening. Too much, some days. We can’t promise to have all the answers. But we can promise to keep asking the questions, following the facts, and figuring things out alongside people who care about where this country is headed. Read with us. Learn with us. And when it matters, stand with us. Join the side you’re already on. Join Bulwark+

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Sep 27 • 8:01 AM EDT • Health • thebulwark.com
Could AI Commerce Reshape Meta (META)’s Business Model?

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is expanding the commercial capabilities of its Muse AI assistant through a strategic partnership with Shopify, giving investors another potential avenue for AI monetization beyond digital advertising. On September 21,Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke announced a partnership with Meta to bring Shop Pay agentic checkout to Muse, allowing users to shop from […]

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Sep 27 • 4:33 AM EDT • Business • finance.yahoo.com
Iran Condemns Rutte’s Remarks on European Support for US Aggression

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran condemned NATO chief’s remarks about the extensive use of European military bases in support of US war of aggression against Iran, warning that such assistance could raise questions of international responsibility for the countries involved.

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Sep 27 • 4:01 AM EDT • Politics • tasnimnews.ir
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Palantir’s co-founder thinks we should be less judgmental about that deadly Iran school strike

The AI-assisted attack at the start of Donald Trump's war killed more than 150 people, mostly children.

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Sep 26 • 3:13 PM EDT • Politics • motherjones.com
Grizzlies Sign Yuri Collins, Waive Brendan Hausen Before Training Camp

The Grizzlies signed former NCAA assists leader Yuri Collins and waived Brendan Hausen days before training camp opens in Nashville.

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Sep 26 • 1:19 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Intel Panther Lake Teardown, 18A, BSPD, GAAFET, SemiAnalysis STEEL

Panther Lake debuts the first commercial implementation of backside power delivery (BSPDN), introduces Intel’s first iteration of gate-all-around (GAA) transistors, and showcases their advanced packaging capabilities with its Foveros-S assembly. With Panther Lake, Intel’s manufacturing arc has shifted from nebulous roadmaps to shipped silicon, a significant milestone on their long road back to competitive semiconductor manufacturing. To evaluate the extent of Intel’s comeback, we tore down Panther Lake. The SemiAnalysis STEEL teardown lab breaks down advanced datacenter and AI hardware. To learn more about our pipeline or to commission a teardown, contact sales@semianalysis.com. WE’RE HIRING: Architecture, floorplan, packaging, manufacturing, and labs experts. Opportunities from system to transistor and everywhere in between. Check out our Careers page. Our teardown traces 18A from its four-sheet RibbonFETs (Intel’s marketing name for GAAFETs) and gate stacks through contacts, frontside and backside wiring, and the bonded carrier. We explain how these material and integration choices improve gate control and reduce resistance, while adding capacitance, thermal resistance, and process complexity. Our measurements put Panther Lake’s 18A compute logic and TSMC N3E GPU logic at similar logic density. However, 18A does not lead TSMC N3P, N2 or Samsung SF2 in peak density. Panther Lake’s CPU cores are incremental updates, and the high-end GPU still uses TSMC N3E. Panther Lake assembles one compute tile, one GPU tile, and one I/O tile atop a passive base tile using Intel’s Foveros-S advanced packaging. Both compute tile variants use Intel 18A. The Xe3 GPU options are a 4-core GT1 tile on Intel 3 and a larger 12-core GT2 tile on TSMC N3E. Both I/O tile variants use TSMC N6. [1], [2] Our analysis centers on the PTL-U compute tile, both the 4-core and 12-core GPU tiles, as well as the 12-lane I/O tile. In conventional chips, power and signal are routed through the same frontside metal stack towards the device frontend. Power rails consume scarce routing resources near the transistors, while tall via stacks carry VDD and VSS from the coarse upper wires to local rails. Backside power delivery (BSPD) moves the main power network behind the transistor layer, to the backside, separating it from frontside signal routing. We covered BSPD and its impacts in 2024. [3], [4], [5] Intel’s BSPD implementation, branded as “PowerVia”, routes power through dedicated backside metals to nano-TSVs, which connect those rails to local source/drain (S/D) contacts. Implementing that separation requires Intel to build the interconnect stacks from both sides of the wafer. The frontside comprises the M0-M14 signal stack, while the backside comprises the BM0-BM5 power stack. M0 and BM0 are closest to the transistors. The nano-TSVs connect the two sides, but Intel patterns and etches each via from the front after forming the contacts. A narrow via runs from the side of the contact deep into the silicon substrate. Intel then completes the frontside signal metal stack, bonds the wafer to a carrier, flips it and removes the original substrate until the buried via tips are exposed. The backside metal stack is then deposited directly on the revealed vias. The nano-TSV and backside-via profiles taper in opposite directions because Intel forms them from opposite sides of the wafer. The transistor structures form the FEOL. Local contacts and nano-TSVs connect them to the wiring. M0 begins the frontside interconnect stack. The silicon carrier remains attached above the frontside interconnects. It supports the device wafer during substrate removal and backside processing and remains part of the finished chip’s thermal path. PowerVia removes the main power distribution from the congested frontside metals, routing supply through shorter and wider backside wires. Its lateral landing still occupies area in the standard cell, so it recovers less cell area than a direct backside contact. [3] Nano-TSVs beside the logic devices carry VDD or VSS from the backside power network, while signal connections continue upward through the frontside metals. Backside Interconnects Samsung SF2 data is included for comparison to Panther Lake’s within this article. SF2 is the incumbent GAA foundry node but lacks BSPD, serving as a useful reference to evaluate 18A. A full teardown of Samsung’s S26 products, processed on SF2, will be shared soon.Nanosheet-cut EDS comparison. The PowerVia supply path runs from the backside Cu rails through Mo-lined W nano-TSVs to the local transistor contacts. In this cross section, the tapered connection spans roughly 150 nm from the contact level to BM0. The Ta liner confines Cu and promotes adhesion to the surrounding stack; the AlOₓ etch stop controls the next dielectric etch above the rail. Dielectric beneath the ribbons electrically separates the devices from the backside wiring and removes the conducting silicon body below the channel. [6] AlOₓ serves as an etchstop (ES), enabling endpointing and protecting the underlying layers. Low-volatility aluminum fluoride reaction products resist the fluorinated plasma, allowing a thin AlOₓ film to protect the metal while the surrounding low-k dielectric is removed. [6], [7]. While the BM0 and layers above the M1 lines show double AlOx layers, Our SMIC N+3 teardown showed single AlOₓ layers. SMIC uses a simpler local AlOₓ substack, while the remaining cap and etch sequence provide the required landing protection. So why double layers? The closely spaced AlOₓ doublets provide two protected endpoints in the etch sequence. Intel documents an AlOₓ/SiN/AlOₓ stack that explains the benefit. The main dielectric plasma etch stops on the first AlOₓ film; a selective wet clear opens that film; a second plasma etch removes the intermediate SiN and stops on the second AlOₓ film. The final wet clear exposes the metal landing surface. SiN is the intermediate dielectric in Intel’s published example. [8] The second stop protects the metal through a cap breakthrough. Wide openings can etch faster than narrow ones, and etch depth varies across the wafer. Metal under an early-clearing opening would otherwise be exposed while other openings still need more etching. Staged protection widens the process window and reduces metal erosion, corrosion and void formation. [8] TSMC documents AlN/AlOₓ/SiOC/AlOₓ above Cu, with AlN blocking Cu diffusion, and a simpler AlN/SiOC/AlOₓ variant that omits one AlOx film. [9] Levels with different opening sizes, aspect ratios, pattern densities and cap materials need different etch margins. A double AlOx stop is useful where another protected endpoint justifies the added processing. The extra film adds formation, selective opening and cleaning steps, plus another set of interfaces to control adhesion, moisture, and stress. These blanket films are opened through the existing via pattern, so each film does not require another lithography mask. AlOₓ adds parasitic capacitance when it replaces lower-k dielectric; two thin AlOₓ films can nevertheless contain less AlOₓ than one thick film. Total thickness, placement, and theintermediate dielectric determine the electrical cost. Deposition chemistry also changes AlOx permittivity and residual hydroxyl content, which can oxidize the underlying metal. [7], [8], [10], [11] The backside stack separates into relatively fine BM0-BM2 wiring near the devices and coarser BM3-BM5 power distribution. The largest pitch increase occurs between BM2 and BM3. BM0’s pitch closely matches the logic-row height, fitting local power delivery to the cell rows. Higher levels aggregate current through larger conductors: routing density becomes less important than low resistance and current capacity as the network approaches the package. This hierarchy provides wide power wiring for the power delivery network without consuming scarce frontside signal-routing resources. [3] The SemiAnalysis STEEL teardown lab breaks down advanced datacenter and AI hardware. To learn more about our pipeline or to commission a teardown, contact sales@semianalysis.com. WE’RE HIRING: Architecture, floorplan, packaging, manufacturing, and labs experts. Opportunities from system to transistor and everywhere in between. Check out our Careers page. Frontside Interconnects Intel 18A combines Mo-lined W contacts and nano-TSVs with a separate backside Cu power network. Samsung SF2 keeps power on the frontside, using Ti-based contact interfaces and Ta-based barriers and Co liners around Cu wiring. In 18A standard-cell rows, backside power rails supply the devices through nano-TSVs within the cells, freeing frontside routing resources. Samsung’s M0 accommodates both power and signal connections. From the device toward M0, the connection runs through a Ti-based S/D interface, W contact fill, a Mo-lined W via, and the Cu M0 wire. Mo supplies a conductive nucleation and adhesion layer for W, replacing the resistive TiN liner used in conventional W integration. This increases the effective conduction volume within the feature while retaining W fill and its established polishing, cleaning and etching processes. Intel’s Mo/W patent describes this integration tradeoff. The nano-TSV uses the same Mo-lined W construction in the backside supply path. [12] The move from TiN to Mo is an incremental change. While a full Co or Mo fill can also reduce the volume lost to liners in very small features, it requires new integration schemes that increase complexity and risk. Cu remains attractive for wider wires due to its low resistance. As wires and vias shrink, the diffusion barrier consumes an increasing fraction of their cross-section. [12], [12], [14] Intel uses Co/Ru liners at M0-M1, Co at M2-M4, and Nb at M5-M9. The lower-level liners help Cu adhere and reduce void formation during trench fills. Applied Materials’ Endura has new thermal control that facilitate wetting process, so the thin film continuity is good enough that good capillary pressure will drive Cu atoms to the via bottom without voiding. Intel’s choice to use Nb is particularly interesting. Intel’s Nb patent describes a conductive diffusion barrier intended to reduce the barrier’s contribution to resistance relative to conventional Ta-based barriers, particularly at via bottoms where all current crosses the barrier. The patent pairs Nb in coarser levels with the option of lower-cost PVD processing. [15], [16] The upper metal layers support thicker barriers formed through physical vapor deposition (PVD) despite its worse coverage and uniformity. Meanwhile, the lower metal layers require thinner barriers deposited through conformal atomic layer deposition (ALD). Co/Ru adds another material interface and requires controlled deposition and Cu fill. Changing liners and barriers by metal layer allows Intel to optimize interconnect resistance, process complexity, and reliability. [15, 16] RibbonFET, Intel’s name for its gate-all-around FETs (GAAFETs), replaces the FinFET’s vertical fins with four stacked horizontal silicon nanosheets, allowing the gate to surround the channel on every side. The path to GAAFET begins with the planar transistor. A planar MOSFET places the gate above the channel between its source and drain. Pairing an NMOS with a PMOS transistor creates a CMOS inverter, in which the NMOS pulls the output low for a high input, and the PMOS pulls it high for a low input. The gate must retain electrostatic control of the channel to ensure clean switching. As gate lengths shrank, the drain began to compete with the gate for that control, increasing off-state leakage. Electrostatic control was restored through an architectural evolution that raised the channel into a vertical fin and wrapping the gate around three sides. Called “FinFET”, this new architecture packed more effective channel width into a smaller footprint. Further scaling made it harder to maintain both drive current and leakage within smaller cells, and reintroduced the same problems planar MOSFETs faced. Nanosheet GAAFETs close the fourth side by replacing the vertical fin with a stack of horizontal nanosheets, each surrounded by the gate. The tighter electrostatic control suppresses leakage at shorter gate lengths while stacking adds effective channel width within the cell footprint. In a FinFET process, channel width changes in discrete steps as designers must add or remove whole fins. Nanosheet width can instead be adjusted continuously within the process’s design rules. Wider sheets increase drive current, while narrower sheets reduce capacitance at the cost of drive current. Intel 18A uses stacks of four nanosheets each and varies their widths across logic and SRAM. At the process level, adding more sheets to each stack increases effective channel width and drive current, but complicates fabrication. RibbonFET vs MBCFET Samsung began GAAFET production in 2022 with SF3E, following with SF3 and now SF2. Its ‘MBCFET’ provides a useful structural comparison with Intel’s first RibbonFET implementation. [17] STEEL is digging deeper into SF2, used in the Exynos 2600, and TSMC’s GAAFET N2, used in Apple’s A20 Pro, in upcoming newsletter articles. We’re throwing some teasers on X. Let’s compare Samsung SF2’s MBCFET with Intel 18A’s RibbonFET. Subscribe Even to the untrained eye, Intel’s extra nanosheet is obvious. Intel stacks four ribbons to Samsung’s three. Samsung’s sheets are much wider in these fields, so both sheet count and width matter to the available channel perimeter. Sheet width also changes which silicon surfaces carry current. On conventional (001) silicon, wide nanosheets emphasize the broad top and bottom surfaces, favoring electron transport; the larger sidewall contribution in a narrow sheet favors hole transport. Thinner sheets improve gate control but increase confinement and scattering. This makes width and thickness part of the NMOS/PMOS balance, alongside strain and threshold voltage. [18], [19] GAAFET designs like 18A use different work-function-metal (WFM) stacks for NMOS and PMOS. Around each ribbon, a thin SiOx interfacial layer separates the silicon channel from the HfOx high-k dielectric, with La providing dipole tuning and the WFM wrapping the dielectric. NMOS uses a TiAl-based stack, while PMOS uses TiN WFM. W fills the remaining gate trench, providing a lower-resistivity path where the work-function layers are no longer needed. In this field, the PMOS stacks leave room for W between ribbons, while the NMOS stacks occupy more of those gaps. A silicon-based dielectric marks the P/N boundary, allowing the PMOS and NMOS gates, sharing the same gate trench, to be processed sequentially. Fast logic paths, retention circuits, and SRAM need a family of threshold options. Changing threshold without substantially changing device dimensions, capacitance or fabrication complexity is valuable. FinFET processes typically use different work-function-metal stacks. In a four-ribbon GAA stack, the narrow sheet-to-sheet gap limits how much WFM can fit around each channel. La in the gate dielectric creates interfacial dipoles at the SiOx/HfOx boundary, shifting effective work function and tuning threshold voltage. This gives Intel another control alongside its NMOS and PMOS WFM stacks. Low-threshold devices improve critical-path drive; higher thresholds reduce leakage elsewhere. Dipole tuning is especially useful in GAA because it changes threshold without consuming the narrow intersheet gap with thicker WFM. Precise control of La incorporation, diffusion and interface quality has long been a challenge, limiting viability in high volume production but is now seen from every leading-edge foundry. Intel’s patent describes depositing a dipole-forming oxide above HfOx and annealing it toward the interfacial oxide before completing the work-function and fill metals. This separates threshold tuning from the space available for metal. Newer research addresses the thermal cost: imec’s 2026 dipole-middle research inserts the shifter between two HfOx depositions, shortening the diffusion path while protecting SiOx during patterning. [20], [21]Matched-cut EDS, Intel 18A (left) vs. Samsung SF2 (right). Intel retains raised source/drain epi beneath its contacts, while Samsung recesses W deep into the epi to form a V-shaped Ti-lined interface. The deeper contact increases metal-to-semiconductor area and shortens the current path from the lower sheets, reducing contact and spreading resistance. It also removes epi volume and brings the contact etch closer to the channel ends. Retaining more epi preserves the material available for strain transfer, especially from SiGe into PMOS. These geometries balance contact access against stress engineering and etch margin. [22], [23] Samsung stacks three sheets to Intel’s four ribbons, and both processes use sheet width to tune drive strength. In our Samsung cross-sections, widths range roughly from 19 to 30 nm in the NPU rows and 37 to 50 nm in the CU cell. The Samsung nanosheets taper, with the widest sheet at the bottom and the narrowest at the top. Both processes use HfOx gate dielectric and Ti-based work-function stacks, with Al in the NMOS stack. In the Samsung devices shown here, the dielectric and WFM occupy the intersheet gaps, leaving W above the top sheet. Intel’s PMOS stack leaves more room between ribbons, and W fills those gaps while the thicker NMOS stack leaves W mainly in the upper trench. Gate-stack EDS maps. The W between Intel’s PMOS ribbons provides a conductive path close to the lower gates. Where WFM fills the entire gap, the gate still surrounds the channel, but voltage reaches it through the more resistive work-function films. Thinner WFM and dipole tuning preserve room for low-resistivity fill; Mo and Ru are alternative fill metals being developed for further scaling. [24] A masked, sequential WFM flow explains the different gate heights and inter-nanosheet fill. The proposed sequence below shows how separate NMOS and PMOS work-function steps produce that geometry. Enabled by the BSPDN process, Intel replaces the dense-logic silicon subfin with dielectric, removing the parasitic conduction path below the ribbons and reducing substrate-related capacitance. A retained silicon body as in classical, non-SOI, planar and FinFET designs needs junction and punchthrough-stop engineering to suppress leakage. Dielectric isolation makes that leakage less sensitive to the subfin doping profile but adds removal and fill steps. It also weakens the direct thermal path through silicon, making the contacts, metal stacks and package more important for heat extraction. [24], [26] Fluorine is concentrated around selected Intel device structures in the maps. WF6 is a standard precursor for W nucleation and fill, while barrier films protect adjacent dielectrics from fluorine attack. Low-fluorine W processes reduce the residual-F burden. Chloride-based precursors avoid introducing F during W deposition, but require control of chlorine attack, nucleation and fill quality. The integration target is a continuous, low-resistance W path with a thin protective liner and minimal chemical damage to the surrounding stack. [20], [27], [28] The SemiAnalysis STEEL teardown lab breaks down advanced datacenter and AI hardware. To learn more about our pipeline or to commission a teardown, contact sales@semianalysis.com. WE’RE HIRING: Architecture, floorplan, packaging, manufacturing, and labs experts. Opportunities from system to transistor and everywhere in between. Check out our Careers page. We measured cell height, gate pitch, metal geometry, and ribbon dimensions at the XTEM sites shown below. The tables group these dimensions by site and device polarity. Our “sheet cuts” cross the silicon channel and show the ribbons end-on. “gate cuts” run along the channel through successive gates. The 18A logic cell dimensions point to a five-track logic library while the N3E and Intel 3 cell dimensions evidence a seven-track logic library. The DDR-PHY uses wider M0 wires and much larger spacing than core logic. That trades routing density for lower wire resistance and weaker coupling between neighboring nets. The geometry suits the current delivery and coupling requirements of analog, clock, and I/O circuitry. PowerVia lets 18A combine a compact cell height with wider M0 geometry by moving the main power rails off the signal-routing tracks. That relaxes local wire scaling while preserving a small cell footprint. Cell height and gate pitch set the geometric density; pin access and routability determine how much of it a real block can use. [29] The biggest takeaway from our gate-pitch measurements is that Intel 18A compute logic and TSMC N3E GPU logic have similar density in the Bohr representative-cell model. The 18A example is 18.6% denser than the Intel 3 GPU example. Gate pitches are nearly identical across the three sites, so cell height drives most of the difference. The Bohr model combines a four-transistor NAND2 spanning three gate pitches and a 32-transistor scan flip-flop (SFF) spanning nineteen pitches, weighting their densities 60:40. The sensitivity column shows how independently changing cell height and gate pitch by ±1 nm changes the result. This compares representative cell geometries; whole-die density also depends on cell mix and placement. The 18A P-core gives M0 substantially more metal cross section than the N3E vector engine. Treating each profile as a trapezoid gives 2.63 times the area per line and 1.84 times the area after normalization by routing pitch. The larger section reduces the geometric contribution to line resistance and lowers current density for a given current. Taller and wider wires also add capacitance, so circuit delay depends on the balance of resistance and capacitance. The DDR-PHY has less metal area per routing width than the 18A core fields, while remaining above N3E. [30] Area = height × (top CD + bottom CD) / 2, including liners. Area/pitch normalizes by routing width. Taper is the symmetric sidewall angle from vertical, with the largest angle belonging to the DDR-PHY. Compute tile The measurements show how ribbon dimensions and gate-stack geometry vary across the compute tile and between NMOS and PMOS to balance channel drive, gate load and the space needed for the dielectric/WFM stack across logic, SRAM and the DDR-PHY. Width mainly changes available channel perimeter; thickness also changes electrostatic control and carrier confinement. Gate-stack thickness then determines the space left for low-resistivity fill P-core and LP E-core logic Both the P-core and LP E-core use multiple nanosheet widths. Widths are measured on high-magnification XTEMs while wider-field images demonstrate additional width choices within the LP E-core. Multiple widths are expected even within an LP E-core. Timing-critical paths, buffers and cells with different fanout need different drive strengths. The lower-magnification fields show this width diversity beyond the sites quantified in the table. L2 and L3 SRAM GAA gives SRAM designers another way to balance the pull-up (PU), pass-gate (PG), and pull-down (PD) transistors. FinFET bitcells set device strength through fin count while GAA adds nanosheet width as a sizing knob. In a 6T SRAM cell, a strong pull-down relative to the pass-gate limits read disturbance, while a strong pass-gate relative to the pull-up improves writability. During a write, the pass-gate and write driver pull the node storing “1” below the inverter trip point. During a read, the pull-down holds the node storing “0” low. Bias, threshold voltage, mismatch and assist circuitry set the remaining margin. FinFET high-current cells commonly use a PU:PG:PD fin-count pattern of 1:2:2, a device-sizing ratio rather than a current ratio. Ribbon width lets Intel balance SRAM strengths without adding whole fins. The L2 cell uses its narrowest ribbons for PU and widest for PD, improving writability and read stability respectively. Intel’s disclosed HCC operates without assist; its denser HDC uses negative-bitline write assist. Pulling the selected bitline briefly below ground increases pass-gate overdrive so it can overpower the pull-up at lower supply voltage. That buys density and low voltage writability at the cost of boosting circuitry, switching energy, and additional voltage stress that must be controlled. [31], [32] Four rectangular ribbons give the perimeter = 8 × (width + thickness), before corner rounding. PG/PU is 1.49 and PD/PG is 1.16. The L3 structures closely resemble L2 in layout and cell height. Fewer L3 nanosheet widths are tabulated because fewer high-magnification images were available. DDR PHY The DDR-PHY trades density for controlled analog behavior and reliable off-chip signaling. It contains drivers, receivers, delay circuits, and calibration logic that set drive strength, sampling time, and voltage margin. Repeated four-sheet devices with similar widths fit the use of regular transistor units for matching and programmable drive. Its wider local wiring provides room for current delivery and separation of sensitive signals, while consuming more area than a dense core-logic grid. The layout serves the memory channel’s electrical requirements as well as digital logic density. [33] The SemiAnalysis STEEL teardown lab breaks down advanced datacenter and AI hardware. To learn more about our pipeline or to commission a teardown, contact sales@semianalysis.com. WE’RE HIRING: Architecture, floorplan, packaging, manufacturing, and labs experts. Opportunities from system to transistor and everywhere in between. Check out our Careers page. Intel 3 GPU devices Vector engine logic Intel 3’s XVE logic uses two-fin PMOS and NMOS devices with power rails in M0. Its cell height and M0 pitch give a seven-track geometry, two tracks more than the 18A logic. One-fin groups also appear among the two-fin devices. Intel 3 L2 SRAM The Intel 3 L2 SRAM uses the familiar HCC sizing pattern: one PU fin, two PG fins, and two PD fins. N3E GPU devices Vector engine logic The N3E XVE field contains repeated two-fin devices with seven-track cell geometry. N3E remains a FinFET process, giving Panther Lake a direct FinFET-to-RibbonFET comparison. N3E L2 SRAM The N3E L2 SRAM uses the same PU:PG:PD fin-count pattern of 1:2:2. Panther Lake-U follows Lunar Lake’s floorplan quite closely. Both pair 4 P-cores with 4 LP E-cores and NPU, media and display engines in similar locations. Lunar Lake also uses Xe2, the direct predecessor to Panther Lake’s Xe3 GPU. This makes Lunar Lake the most direct basis for our comparisons. Arrow Lake differs in core count and uses the older Xe-LPG GPU architecture, so we only use it where it offers a more direct component-level comparison. Compute tile Panther Lake compute-tile floorplans remain sparse even months after launch. Intel 18A’s backside metal and dielectric stack must be removed without damaging the underlying structures before a clean transistor-level floorplan can be imaged. Most published die shots hide or heavily process the background, but we are quite proud of the die shot we achieved and are excited to show the work we have done. We measured the areas of the key components on the compute tile and compared them with their Lunar Lake predecessors on TSMC N3B. These help us to capture changes in block area and compare the two chips across process nodes and designs. Our total tile areas exclude the scribe-line area. The compute-plus-GPU subtotal below uses the PTL-U compute tile and GT1 GPU; it excludes the I/O tile and passive base. Individual block areas use the boundaries marked on the floorplans The compute-plus-GPU row is recomputed from the displayed PTL-U and GT1 areas. Component rows use their stated per-region counts and are not an additive partition of the whole tile. The P-core area remains almost unchanged between Lunar Lake and Panther Lake, despite L2 capacity increasing from 2.5 MiB to 3 MiB. Arrow Lake uses the same Lion Cove core as Lunar Lake but also has a 3 MiB L2. Cougar Cove fits 20% more L2 into the same P-core area. The larger private cache keeps more of each core’s working set close to its execution units, reducing access to shared L3 and DRAM. Extra capacity adds storage leakage and lookup energy, so designers balance it against avoided lower-level accesses. The shared P-core L3 cache also shrank by 14.8%. [2] Cougar Cove combines a similar footprint with Intel’s reported power-efficiency improvements. RibbonFET’s tighter channel control reduces leakage, while PowerVia reduces supply droop and allows tighter voltage guardbands. [1] Darkmont’s four-core LP E-core cluster is 5.0% smaller than Skymont’s on Lunar Lake, with most of the reduction in its L2 regions. The 1 MiB region shrank by 8.4% and the 1.5 MiB region by 14.9%. The tag arrays also use one fewer visible row. Tags identify which memory addresses the data array holds, so rearranging them changes the cache’s layout and wiring without requiring less data capacity. [2] The LP E-cores share one L2. This pools capacity and avoids duplicating all the cache machinery, but the four cores contend for its banks and bandwidth. Their separate cluster also keeps light work away from the performance cluster and its L3, allowing that larger domain to sleep. [1], [2] Cache area includes more than the storage cells. Tags identify each line, decoders select rows, sense amplifiers read the small bitline signal, and wires connect to the banks. Splitting an array into smaller sections shortens wordlines and bitlines, improving access speed, but duplicates peripheral circuits. Panther Lake’s smaller cache regions therefore reflect the complete memory implementation, including how much of each region is devoted to storage. [34] Unlike Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake, Panther Lake has no separate SoC tile. The NPU, LP E-cores, memory controllers, PHYs, media and display engines now share the compute tile. This removes an active die and keeps CPU memory traffic on one die. The cost is moving PHY and I/O-related circuitry onto 18A: drivers, receivers and analog circuits must still meet external voltage, loading and signal-integrity requirements, so their area does not shrink like dense digital logic. [1], [2] The biggest shrink comes from the NPU, which occupies 36.9% less area. NPU 5 consolidates the same total INT8 MAC count into half as many neural compute engines. Each of the three NCEs has a larger MAC array to make the complete NCE envelope 22.6% larger than an NPU 4 engine. Consolidation also halves the number of scratchpads and SHAVE DSPs, from 12 to 6. The MAC array handles matrix multiplication and convolution, while SHAVE executes vector and custom operations that fit the array poorly. [1], [2], [35] The paired floorplans identify each NCE envelope and its scratchpad, MAC, and SHAVE regions. Each measured MAC polygon is counted once per NCE in the area accounting below. The scratchpads store weights, activations, and intermediate results near the MAC arrays, allowing repeated use without fetching them again from DRAM. Halving their number delivers the largest measured area saving but leaves less local storage for the same total MAC count. Layers that no longer fit locally require smaller working tiles or more transfers of intermediate data. The benefit depends on keeping the enlarged arrays busy while managing that tighter storage budget. [36] NPU 5 also adds native FP8. Using half the operand width of FP16 reduces storage and transfer demand, helping workloads fit the smaller local memory budget. Lower precision and format-dependent range make scaling and model validation part of deployment. Hardware activation functions further reduce work that would otherwise occupy the programmable DSPs. [1], [2] Microsoft requires an NPU to deliver at least 40 TOPS for Copilot+ PCs. Both Lunar Lake and Panther Lake meet this threshold, but Panther Lake uses significantly less silicon. GPU tiles Panther Lake is Intel’s first product with Xe3, its latest GPU architecture. It offers two different GPU tiles: a smaller GT1 tile with 4 Xe3 cores on Intel 3 and a larger GT2 tile with 12 Xe3 cores on TSMC N3E. Panther Lake allows us to compare the same GPU architecture across both Intel 3 and TSMC N3E. Wildcat Lake adds a third Xe3 implementation on Intel 18A. A future newsletter will detail Xe3 and its implementation differences across all three process nodes. GT2 scales Xe3 to a different physical layout, with render slices arranged vertically instead of GT1’s horizontal arrangement. Slice placement sets the distances to shared cache banks and the D2D interface. Those wires consume area and add delay, so scaling the number of Xe cores also requires a new balance of cache placement, routing and timing. [1] What’s immediately obvious is that the GT2 tile on TSMC N3E has much smaller Xe cores than GT1. These block areas include logic, caches, and routing. An Xe core on the GT1 tile is ~69% larger than one on Lunar Lake, and ~55% larger than one on GT2. Intel 3 therefore uses substantially more area per Xe core. The block-area gap exceeds the measured logic and SRAM density gaps, bringing routing, timing targets, cell mix, and floorplan allocation into the comparison. The measured vector/matrix engine region is almost unchanged between Lunar Lake and Panther Lake’s GT2 tile. Xe3 retains eight 512-bit vector engines and eight 2048-bit XMX engines per core. Its gains also come from feeding those engines more effectively: more resident threads hide stalls, and variable register allocation lets shaders trade registers per thread against the number of threads kept active. [1] The shared L1/SLM capacity increased by 33% from 192 KiB to 256 KiB, while its area increased only 5%, raising effective density by 27%. L1 retains reused cache lines, while software-managed SLM lets a thread group share data locally. Both reduce traffic to more distant memory. Allocating more SLM per group can also limit how many groups reside on a core at once. [1], [37] The GT1 tile carries 4 MiB of L2 against 16 MiB on the GT2 tile. GT1 divides its L2 cache into four 1 MiB banks, while GT2 uses eight 2 MiB banks. Each bank contains 128 macros, but each N3E macro stores 16 KiB, twice the Intel 3 macro’s 8 KiB capacity. The N3E macro is only 54% larger while holding twice as many bits, giving it 30% higher density: ~23.7 Mbit/mm² versus 18.3 Mbit/mm². Including bank-level circuitry, the gap widens to ~16.9 Mbit/mm² on GT2 versus ~10.4 Mbit/mm² on GT1. GT2 gains density with its macros storing more bits per unit area, and those macros occupy more of each cache bank. Larger macros spread decoder and sense-amplifier overhead across more storage, while a more compact bank layout reduces the share spent on control and routing. The compromise is longer wordlines and bitlines that carry more capacitance. [34] I/O tile Panther Lake uses two I/O tile variants, both fabricated on TSMC N6. The smaller one provides 4 PCIe 5.0 and 8 PCIe 4.0 lanes and serves lower-tier systems as well as those without a discrete GPU, while the larger one adds 8 PCIe 5.0 lanes, bringing the total to 20 lanes, for discrete-GPU connectivity. Panther Lake SKUs with the larger 10- or 12-Xe GPUs use the smaller I/O tile. [38] The smaller I/O tile adds a PCIe 4.0 block and a Thunderbolt block to Lunar Lake’s I/O layout, providing four additional PCIe 4.0 lanes and another Thunderbolt 4 port. Its repeated N6 blocks retain nearly identical areas and layouts. Reusing these proven PHYs and controllers avoids porting and requalifying external interfaces on 18A, where faster digital logic offers less benefit to circuits constrained by the off-chip link. [38] SemiAnalysis’s teardown lab (STEEL) dives deep into the world’s advanced datacenter and AI hardware. To learn more about our pipeline or to commission a teardown, contact sales@semianalysis.com. We’re hiring technical experts from system to transistor and everywhere in between. Check out our Careers page. Panther Lake offers scalability and modularity through its disaggregated packaging that partition compute, GPU, and I/O silicon into separate tiles allowing for a suite of tile configurations. This partitioning makes the package part of Intel’s node economics as it determines how much leading-edge wafer area each product consumes, which functions can remain on other processes, and how much configuration freedom Intel can offer from a shared set of tiles. Furthermore, fabricating the compute and GPU tiles separately confines the new 18A process to the compute tile and allows graphics and I/O to use other, more established, and more cost-effective processes. For Panther Lake, the GPU and I/O tiles are assembled alongside the compute tile on a passive silicon base using Foveros-S. Intel’s current technology brief lists a nominal 36 µm pitch for Foveros-S. Through-silicon vias (TSVs) in the base connect the fine wiring above to the larger package connections below. The functional tiles sit side by side on that passive base in a 2.5D configuration. [39] Our cross-section through the compute and GPU tiles shows the package’s wiring hierarchy. Microbumps connect each active tile to the passive silicon base; its fine redistribution layer (RDL) carries the short, dense tile-to-tile links. TSVs carry connections through the base to the package substrate, which fans them out to the much coarser motherboard solder joints. The base supplies interconnect, while computation remains in the active tiles above it. [39] At the compute-tile edge, the higher-magnification inset shows a local microbump spacing of approximately 25.24 µm and a feature width of 12.33 µm. These local spacings are finer than Intel’s nominal Foveros-S value. The X-ray fields further confirm tighter neighboring bumps, consistent across every die-to-die area found on each tile. Additional X-ray analysis is offered after the paywall. Putting the memory controller beside the CPU removes the D2D transfer that CPU memory requests required in Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake. This avoids the extra transmitter, receiver, and link traversal, saving interface energy and latency. Panther Lake’s separate GPU still crosses a D2D link to reach DRAM, so its larger local caches also help contain package traffic. [1], [40] Smaller dies are less likely to contain a random fatal defect, and screening them before assembly prevents one bad tile from consuming a complete package of good silicon. Reuse also spreads design and qualification work across more products. Against those gains, Intel pays for the passive base, D2D circuits, extra bonding and test steps, and losses during assembly. Cost per working product across the portfolio captures the combined effect of wafer yield, reuse, test, and assembly. [29] Wildcat Lake packaging Intel launched Core Series 3, formerly Wildcat Lake, on 16 April 2026 for value mobile and edge systems. Wildcat Lake keeps 18A but removes the passive base and combines more functions on one die to simplify the package. The two products therefore reveal two distinct ways to commercialize the same leading-edge process. [41] Wildcat Lake’s 18A die combines up to two Cougar Cove P-cores, four Darkmont LP E-cores, two Xe3 cores and a smaller NPU. A separate platform-controller die supplies I/O, connected through UCIe, Intel’s first processor implementation of the standard. Consolidating graphics remove a tile boundary and the passive base, reducing assembly complexity for a modest-bandwidth value product. It also ties CPU and graphics scaling to the same die, giving up Panther Lake’s ability to swap in a much larger GPU. [42], [43] In July 2021, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger set out an ambitious process roadmap aimed at regaining performance leadership by 2025, later described as five nodes in four years. Five years and one CEO later, Intel’s comeback story is not as unambiguously positive as Pat may have hoped. [44], [45] Intel once set the pace for process technology, bringing high-k metal gate technology and FinFETs into volume production years ahead of the rest of the industry. Its 22 nm FinFET process reached consumers with Ivy Bridge in 2012. [46] Intel’s integrated device manufacturing (IDM) model allowed its architects and process engineers to co-optimize products and processes. Starting with Sandy Bridge, Intel dominated x86, while AMD struggled with Bulldozer. That lead faltered at 14 nm and broke at 10 nm. Intel targeted a massive 2.7× density increase, but the node arrived years late and required several revisions before it could support Intel’s full lineup. This delay forced Intel to stretch 14 nm across six generations, while TSMC moved ahead in process technology and AMD recovered in x86. By 2019, Intel was still shipping 14 nm across most of its product stack, with its 10 nm client ramp focused on Ice Lake mobile processors. Meanwhile, TSMC was shipping N7 and N7+, and AMD’s Zen 2 compute chiplets used N7 to raise core counts and improve efficiency. Intel’s process failures were central to its decline, but unsound business decisions furthered their downward slide. Product delays compounded product mistakes, pushing client, server, and FPGA roadmaps off schedule. Several attempts to enter AI (Nervana and Gaudi) and networking (Tofino) also failed to establish lasting businesses. Intel’s recovery has focused on consumer CPUs and advanced packaging. Tiger Lake, Alder Lake, Lunar Lake and now Panther Lake have restored Intel’s consumer roadmap. On the process side, Intel 4 shipped with Meteor Lake, Intel 3 with Granite Rapids and Sierra Forest, and Intel 18A with Panther Lake. Intel has also made advanced packaging part of its foundry offering. However, Intel is still playing catch-up in servers. Several Xeon generations arrived years late and trailed contemporary AMD and Arm server CPUs in performance, efficiency, and core count. The process roadmap is back, but Intel does not hold the same process-technology leadership position it held prior to 10 nm. The introduction of gate-all-around nanosheets and backside power delivery are two of the biggest changes to transistor integration in a decade. Intel took on both changes at once: 18A paired its first RibbonFET with PowerVia in Panther Lake. Panther Lake is a substantial manufacturing milestone. Our cross-sections show how RibbonFET and PowerVia reshape local contacts and wiring, while the floorplans show where architectural consolidation and process choices save area. A sustained competitive lead depends on product performance, cost, yield, and the next implementation. The SemiAnalysis STEEL teardown lab breaks down advanced datacenter and AI hardware. To learn more about our pipeline or to commission a teardown, contact sales@semianalysis.com. WE’RE HIRING: Architecture, floorplan, packaging, manufacturing, and labs experts. Opportunities from system to transistor and everywhere in between. Check out our Careers page.. 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