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“It’s a topic that has become a taboo for many women,” said Dr. Elan Ziv, CEO and Medical Director at ConTIPI, who came to Brussels to raise awareness about these conditions and present a solution. “If you think about it, suffering from any of these forms of incontinence is difficult to talk about. And not only that, organ prolapse affects the sexual lives of so many women.”

To support the pelvic floor two alternatives have been commonly used. Either a surgery, in which the results are unsatisfactory due to the high rate of adverse events – more than 40% of patients who undergo surgery see a relapse. Or the second option, the current non-invasive mode e.g. using a pessary: a reusable silicone device that is inserted in most cases by a doctor into the vagina. It can be kept inside up to 3 months before being taken out, cleaned and reinserted for another 3 months. This process is often mired with discomfort, discharge and infections, as well as the inability to have intercourse.

“There has not been any innovation in this area for 23 years,” said Dr. Ziv. “And this is a medical condition that affects the quality of life of millions of women all over the world. And that is why we developed this product. A product that can be used by any woman afflicted by pelvic organ prolapse. They can do it in the comfort of their home. Women would no longer need to go to the doctor to have the device inserted or removed. And this is, for me, the highest value of the product: giving women agency over when to use it, and when to remove it.”

ConTIPI has designed a disposable vaginal device which is inserted into the vagina with an easy-to-use applicator. This is done by the user herself, not a medical practitioner. The device may be kept inside the body for up to 7 days, after which the user pulls a string and the device shrinks back to small dimensions, reducing the discomfort to a minimum. The device is then discarded along with the applicator.

“The idea is that the patient goes to the doctor only one time, the very first time, and gets the prescription,” said Dr. Ziv. “From then on the patient can buy it whenever she needs to. There’ll come a time when all she needs to do is order it online.”

This is the second product designed by ConTIPI in FemTech, a high-tech category in women’s health arena. The intellectual property of the first device, which was designed for stress urinary incontinence, was acquired by Kimberly Clark Worldwide and is already available on pharmacy shelves in North America. Their device for POP is ready for the market. “We are really excited to share the news that our product has received the 510(k) clearance from the Food and Drug Administration for marketing in the US, as well as the CE marking in Europe.”

In the US, the current solution for POP –the pessary– has a cost per patient of USD 420 (EUR 377) to the national health service. For ConTIPI’s new product, Dr. Ziv estimates that the cost of the device will be the same, USD 420, considering a supply of 120 devices a year per patient. “That’s about USD 3.50 (EUR 3.14) per device,” said Dr. Ziv.

As it was the case with their first device and its subsequent sale to Kimberly Clark Worldwide, ConTIPI is open to collaborate with other companies to take its new product to market and reach its full potential. “We are a growing company. We are looking for the right firms with whom we can create partnerships.”

When asked about the environmental side effects of having both a disposable plastic device and an applicator, Dr. Ziv acknowledged that this was one of the main challenges. “Yes, true, that is an issue, the plastic. We’ve thought about it a lot. You will agree that this is a discussion that needs to involve the patient as well because if we produce the device with bio-degradable materials the cost would go up to about USD 10 (EUR 8,97). Are they going to be willing to pay the premium? Hopefully the answer would be yes. And hopefully in the near future we will be able to produce the device with bio-degradable materials that match the current costs.”

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Based on these encouraging results, the UCL worked with the Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc to administer the pasteurised bacteria as a dietary supplement for three months to a group of volunteers who were overweight, had insulin resistance and were at increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. No-one was allowed to change anything about their eating habits or physical activity.

The conclusions are clear. The clinical trials recorded the same results for humans as for mice. Consuming the pasteurised bacteria had no adverse effect on the health of the volunteers, and their body weight, cholesterol level and inflammation markers in the liver diminished – without any side-effects occurring.

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The date was doubly important, on account of it also being the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Earth and Moon are aligned, and when the Moon finds itself in the Earth’s shadow.

Yesterday’s lunar eclipse was only partial, with “about 60% of the visible surface of the Moon being covered by shadows,” said the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) of London in a statement.

Lunar eclipses can – unlike solar eclipses – be seen with the naked eye without any danger.

The partial eclipse began at 10:01 pm and hit its peak at 11:30 pm. It ended at 00:59 am.

Here are a few of the shots people managed to capture all over the world:

 

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Looks like that haziness gave a little atmosphere to tonight’s partial lunar eclipse, @willgater was right! We got to about 65% coverage tonight in the UK and a total of 5 hours and 33 minutes. Taken on the #LumixS1 #lunareclipse #lunareclipse2019

A post shared by Huw James 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇪🇺 (@huwmjames) on Jul 16, 2019 at 5:04pm PDT

 

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Last night’s partial lunar eclipse 🌚 . #kuunpimennys #lunareclipse #partiallunareclipse #lunareclipse2019 #nightskyphotography #nightsky #visitfinland #visitmikkeli #astrophoto #astrophotography #moonphotos #moonphotography #natgeoyourshot #eclipse #rsa_outdoors #natgeospace #natgeo #instamoon

A post shared by Jenni (@jjemsie) on Jul 17, 2019 at 12:54am PDT

 

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Yesterday, July 16, was the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 to land astronauts on the Moon. The full moon, in Sagittarius passed partway through the southern part of the Earth’s shadow resulting in a partial lunar eclipse. #lunareclipse #lunareclipse2019 #eclipse #moon #apollo #lunarphotography #astrophotography #night #cracow

A post shared by Alexander Poplavsky (@poplavsky) on Jul 17, 2019 at 12:47am PDT

 

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This evening we managed to dodge the clouds and see the partial lunar eclipse! I managed to get a couple of shots. This is the first time I’ve gone eclipse chasing around my local area haha, it was good fun! Hope you like them 😄 #lunarphotography #lunarphases #lunareclipse #lunareclipse2019 #astrophotography #astronomy #amateurastronomy #amateurastronomer #space #solarsystem #altairastro #canon200d #birmingham #igersbirmingham #b31voices #solarsystem #moon #moonphotography #moonoftheday #backyardastronomy #birminghamlive #astrobritain

A post shared by Stacey D (@astrostace) on Jul 16, 2019 at 4:34pm PDT

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The European Patent Office (EPO) has set out an ambitious vision to excel in its role as one of the world’s foremost intellectual property offices.

The EPO’s Strategic Plan (SP2023), unanimously adopted yesterday by its Administrative Council, focuses on achieving five goals that will ensure the EPO is capable of delivering excellence to all its stakeholders.

Staff engagement, a modern IT infrastructure, quality products and services and a high- impact European patent network have all been targeted as strategic objectives that will help the organisation to achieve its fifth and ultimate goal of future sustainability. Each goal features several key initiatives that will be implemented over the next four years, with some projects expected to extend beyond the duration of the current plan.

SP2023 was developed in consultation with the EPO’s 38 member states, patent system users, the public, national intellectual property (IP) offices and EPO staff in two rounds of consultation to ensure that the Office’s priorities strike a balance between all its stakeholders’ needs.

« This Strategic Plan is a clear vision of how we want our Office to look in the future, and how we plan to achieve it, » said EPO President António Campinos. « What we have now is a roadmap for achieving a more sustainable patent office for Europe, better equipped to succeed in an evolving IP landscape. We intend to be a more adaptable and agile organisation that can support inventors everywhere with improved and more responsive services. This may be ambitious, but with the commitment and expertise of our staff, we also believe that it is achievable. »

 

New challenges, a new direction

Since its creation some 40 years ago, the EPO has built its reputation on providing high- quality products and services that are recognised globally: timely delivery of the patent grant procedure, thorough novelty searches, and predictable outcomes of the examination on patentability, as well as fair review procedures of its decisions.

The Strategic Plan was developed against the backdrop of rising demand for patent protection in Europe. Over 174 000 applications were filed at the EPO in 2018 and this figure is expected to grow at an annual rate of 3-4%. There is also clear evidence of the growing economic importance of IP protection. Within the EU, industries that make intensive use of IP rights such as patents, trade marks and registered designs account for some 38% of jobs, 42% of GDP and 90% of external trade. A recent study published by the EPO and EUIPO also showed that SMEs using European patents or bundles of IP rights are more likely to experience high growth.

 

 

However, the combination of an increasingly networked and globalised world economy, new players in the patent system, evolving stakeholder expectations and rapid technological change mean that the EPO faces complex new challenges. SP2023 is a roadmap that will help the EPO to rise to these challenges and make sustainable advances.

 

The Strategic Plan identifies five areas:

• Build an engaged, knowledgeable and collaborative organisation: SP2023 looks at several areas that will help staff to realise their full professional potential. Beyond staff retention measures, the EPO will continue to identify, attract and recruit talent in key areas.
• Simplify and modernise EPO IT systems: the plan outlines several initiatives for simplifying and modernising the EPO’s IT system. These include a single tool to support an end-to-end electronic patent granting process. In response to rising volumes of patent literature worldwide and the growing technical complexity of inventions, the EPO will continue to invest in prior art databases, with a special focus on Asian documentation and standards.
• Deliver high quality products and services efficiently: SP2023 provides for a number of new initiatives that aim to secure the recognised high standard of EPO products and services. These include a user-agreed definition of quality, as well as offering a more flexible patent grant process.
• Build a European patent system and network with a global impact: co-operation with the national patent offices of the member states and international partners will be strengthened. The EPO will review the financial and operational support that it offers to encourage greater participation, ensure cost-efficient and timely delivery, and maximise the impact of co-operation activities.
• Secure long-term sustainability: the initiatives set out in the plan will ensure that the EPO remains sustainable on a long-term basis. They include the creation of an Observatory, a platform that will bring together public and private stakeholders to discuss and debate developments in innovation. Through analyses and studies, the Observatory will provide a more accurate understanding of trends and technologies, allowing effective decisions to be taken. SP2023 also considers the EPO’s environmental impact and sets clear targets for reducing its carbon footprint, lowering energy and paper consumption and eliminating plastics.

 

Drafting SP2023: a collaborative effort

It took several months to draft SP2023, as it incorporated broad-based feedback from a variety of sources. Members of the general public were invited to submit comments in an online consultation on specific topics, and the EPO’s member states shared their views on challenges facing the patent system and how to foster co-operation with the EPO. Additionally, some 100 user groups and other bodies such as SACEPO (Standing Advisory Committee before the EPO) shared their strategic vision and views on enhanced collaboration. EPO staff members were also invited to comment on SP2023 both online and in face-to-face meetings with President Campinos. Two rounds of consultation produced a plan that provides a clear roadmap for achieving the shared vision expressed in the five main goals.

To read the full plan, please visit

 

About the EPO

With nearly 7 000 staff, the European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the largest public service institutions in Europe. Headquartered in Munich with offices in Berlin, Brussels, The Hague and Vienna, the EPO was founded with the aim of strengthening co-operation on patents in Europe. Through the EPO’s centralised patent granting procedure, inventors are able to obtain high-quality patent protection in up to 44 countries, covering a market of some 700 million people. The EPO is also the world’s leading authority in patent information and patent searching.

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The potentially dangerous asteroid was spotted for the first time on May 2008 and it is the size of three football fields. The asteroid measures about 150 and 330 meters in diameter.

According to data from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), it is expected to reach the closest to our planet at 00:01 at a speed of 11.36 km/s or 40,900 km/h.

It will only return near Earth again in 2o22 twice more.

Potentionally Hazardous object (PHO)

According to NASA « a potentially hazardous object (PHO) is a near-Earth object whose orbit brings it within 4.7 million miles (7.5 million km) of Earth’s orbit, and is greater than 500 feet (140 meters) in size. »

The 2008 KV2 asteroid is expected to come as close as 6.7 million kilometers to the Earth’s orbit.

NASA further added that « No known asteroid poses a significant risk of impact with Earth over the next 100 years. The highest risk of impact for a known asteroid is a 1 in 714 chance of impact by an asteroid designated 2009 FD in 2185, meaning that the possibility that it could impact then is less than 0.2 percent. »

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This new technique involves studying the cells that make up the outer layer of the egg, called the corona. The corona contains a great deal of information about the health of the sex cell. When the eggs are removed for in vitro fertilisation, doctors are now able to select those with the best chances of being successfully reimplanted into the uterus. The probability of becoming pregnant through IVF is currently 30%. This figure is doubled thanks to the VUB’s Corona test.

This technique also eases the pressure of the in vitro fertilisation process. Women have to be monitored throughout their menstrual cycle, take medication and react immediately once they start to ovulate. Once the egg has been removed, it is fertilised in vitro by spermatozoa, then reintroduced into the uterus in the hope that it will develop into an embryo. The problem is that in 70% of cases the process fails and has to be started again. Thanks to the Corona test, which doubles the chances of success, the process is less taxing as well as less expensive.

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Spheres, the award-winning virtual reality experience directed by Darren Aronofsky, and narrated by Patti Smith, Jessica Chastain and Milly Brown, has arrived in Belgium!

Do not miss this exceptional event to discover virtual reality with the best experience of the year!

Spheres

​​​​​​​Space isn’t silent. It’s full of sounds. For thousands of years, we have been looking at the stars to find our place in the universe and now, for the first time, we’re going to listen to its music. Spheres is a journey in three chapters, which sets off in search of the secret songs of the cosmos; a celestial experience in which we become the cosmos, thanks to an interactive intergalactic journey, the only way of really getting to feel what time travel or entering a black hole is like. Set off in search of places where the laws of space and time no longer exist, places we have relearnt to see and hear since the revolutionary discovery of gravitational waves.

3 chapters (47 min): Chapter I: Chorus of the Cosmos // Chapter II: Songs of Spacetime // ​​​​​​​Chapter III: Pale Blue Dot
Director: Eliza McNitt
Narrators: Milly Brown, Jessica Chastain, Patti Smith
Executive producers: Darren Aronofsky, Ari Handel, Arnaud Colinart

The experience will be available for free during the I Love Science Festival from Friday April 26 to Sunday April 28 at Bozar. It will also be available from April 29 to May 19, although payment will be required, ranging from €19 for a standard ticket to €16 for concessions. Tickets can be purchased here.

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