Current Events in July 2016

Oftentimes, scientists and medical experts need to look at the most minute details in order to understand the human body and the diseases that affect it. And since technology in the field is advancing all the time, they are able to do it to a greater degree.

In that vein, new research on how the body produces insulin may allow future therapies to evolve that better treat diabetes. Dr. Markus Grompe, who is best known for his work with stem cells, has found that there are at least four subtypes of insulin-producing beta cells in humans. It is the first study of its kind that has identified multiple types of such cells, and the information could mean a lot.

“Further understanding of cell characteristics could be the key to uncovering new treatment options, as well as the reason why some people are diabetic and others are not,” explained Grompe.

Identifying new cell types

Diabetes currently affects over 29 million people in the U.S. alone, and it occurs when a person’s insulin-producing beta cells are disrupted or cease to function. Without these cells doing their job, a person loses their ability to regulate their blood sugar levels, which can result in extreme fatigue, weight loss, vision ailments, pain in the extremities, and nerve damage, to name a few.

Up until this point, the medical community had thought that only one type of beta cell existed, but Grompe and his colleagues were able to isolate beta cells and classify three additional types.

Additionally, they found that there are hundreds of genes that differently express cell types, which leads to varying production of insulin in the body. The differences between these genes and cells could explain the differences between the types of diabetes and why certain people are susceptible to them.

“Some of the cells are better at releasing insulin than others, whereas others may regenerate quicker. Therefore, it is possible that people with different percentages of the subtypes are more prone to diabetes,” Grompe explains.

The next step for the researchers will be to attempt to understand how different cell subtypes are created so that they can create an approach for medical treatment. The full study has been published in the journal Nature Communications. 

Working in an office comes with certain expectations for employees. More than likely, you’ll have to dress in appropriate business-wear, deal with paperwork, and work from your assigned space or cubicle. What many workers might not think about is how much time they may spend sitting down each day.

Studies have shown that these kinds of working conditions can often lead to a sedentary lifestyle, which in turn leads to unhealthy weight gain and a litany of other physical and mental problems. But a new study shows that workplaces can counteract these risks by introducing walking into every business day – namely, by scheduling walking meetings.

“There are limited opportunities for physical activity at work. This walking meeting pilot study provides early evidence that white-collar workers find it feasible and acceptable to convert a traditional seated meeting into a walking meeting,” said Dr. Alberto J. Caban-Martinez, principal investigator of the study.

Health benefits

 The study, which was conducted at the University of Miami, took a sample of white-collar office workers and had them wear accelerometers to measure their physical activity for three weeks. These workers were also asked to adopt a “walking meeting protocol,” which established a schedule of walking meetings instead of standard seated meetings.

Over the course of the study period, the researchers found that the number of active minutes increased over time for participants, from 107 minutes in the first week to 117 minutes by the third week. This improvement nearly brought workers in line with the American Heart Association’s recommendation for moderate-intensity physical activity for adults, which stands at about 150 minutes per week.

The researchers believe that regularly scheduled walking meetings would go a long way towards reducing sedentary behavior and promoting overall health benefits. They note that walking for as little as 15 minutes per day can add up to three years onto a person’s life expectancy, a potentially huge payoff for a minimal amount of effort.

“Walking is known to have tremendous health benefits. Having sedentary, white-collar workers consider walking meetings feasible suggests that this intervention has the potential to positively influence the health of many individuals,” concluded lead author Hannah Kling.

Disappointing results from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) headlight evaluations, as not one small SUV out of 21 tested earned a good rating. Furthermore, only four are available with acceptable-rated headlights.

There are 47 different headlight combinations available among the 21 vehicles. More than two-thirds of them are rated poor, making the group even more deficient when it comes to lighting than the midsize cars that were the first to be rated earlier this year.

Headlight performance in today’s vehicles varies widely. Government standards are based on laboratory tests which, according to IIHS, don’t accurately gauge performance in real-world driving. About half of traffic deaths occur either in the dark or around dawn or dusk.

As with midsize cars, the IIHS evaluations of small SUVs showed that a vehicle’s price tag doesn’t correspond to the quality of headlights. More modern lighting types, including high-intensity discharge (HID), LED lamps, and curve-adaptive systems, which swivel in the direction of steering, also are no guarantee of good performance.

“Manufacturers aren’t paying enough attention to the actual on-road performance of this basic equipment,” said IIHS Senior Research Engineer Matthew Brumbelow. “We’re optimistic that improvements will come quickly now that we’ve given automakers something to strive for.”

For 2017, vehicles will need good or acceptable headlights in order to qualify for the Institute’s highest award, TOP SAFETY PICK+.

While studies have pointed to advantages for advanced lighting systems, the IIHS rating system doesn’t favor one type of technology over the other. Instead, it simply measures the amount of usable light provided by low beams and high beams as vehicles travel on straightaways and curves.

Conducting the test

Engineers evaluate headlights on the IIHS Vehicle Research Center’s track after dark. A special device is used to measure how far the light is projected as the vehicle is driven on five approaches: traveling straight, a sharp left curve, a sharp right curve, a gradual left curve and a gradual right curve.

Glare from low beams for oncoming drivers is also measured in each scenario. A vehicle with excessive glare on any of the approaches can’t earn a rating higher than marginal.

The only type of technology given an explicit nod in the ratings is high-beam assist, which automatically switches between high and low beams based on the presence of other vehicles. Vehicles can earn extra credit for this feature because of its potential to increase low rates of high-beam use.

Best and worst

The best-performing headlights in the small SUV group belong to a new model, the Mazda CX-3, and are available on its Grand Touring trim. They are curve-adaptive LED lights with optional high beam assist. The low beams perform well on both right curves and fairly well on the straightaway and sharp left curve; however, they provide inadequate light on the gradual left curve. The high beams perform well on most approaches.

The other vehicles available with acceptable headlights are the Ford Escape, the Honda CR-V, and the Hyundai Tucson. None of the three are curve-adaptive, and only the Escape has high-beam assist. Still, all of them provide fair or good illumination in most scenarios.

The worst headlights among the small SUVs belong to a different Honda -- the new-for-2016 HR-V. The illumination provided by the HR-V’s halogen low beams and high beams is inadequate on all four curves and on the straightaway. The HR-V is one of 12 small SUVs that can’t be purchased with anything other than poor-rated headlights.

For those vehicles available with higher-rated headlights, consumers need to make sure they’re getting the right ones. For example, the Tucson’s acceptable headlight combination is available on the SUV’s Limited version, but the headlights on other trim levels of the Tucson earn a poor rating. Even the Limited, when equipped with curve-adaptive headlights, earns a poor rating because of excessive glare.

Seventeen of the rated SUV headlight combinations have unacceptable glare. They include all types of lights -- halogen, HID, and LED -- and none of the headlight types is more likely than the others to have excessive glare. Three of the 17 fell short of an acceptable rating on the basis of glare alone.

“Glare issues are usually a result of poorly aimed headlights,” said Brumbelow. “SUV headlights are mounted higher than car headlights, so they generally should be aimed lower. Instead, many of them are aimed higher than the car headlights we’ve tested so far.”

IIHS plans to conduct headlight tests on pickups next.

Winter Gardens Quality Foods of New Oxford, Pa., is recalling approximately 42 pounds of Lemongrass Basil Chicken entrées that may be adulterated with Listeria monocytogenes.

There have been no confirmed reports of illness or adverse reactions.

The following ready-to-eat, Lifestyle Foods brand of Lemongrass Basil Chicken product, produced on June 13 – 14, 2016, is being recalled:

• 8.0-oz. (227g) individually wrapped entrée packages labeled “Lifestyle Foods Lemongrass Basil Chicken Entrée – Brown Rice in a Thai Style Sauce with Grilled Chicken and Green Beans.”

The recalled product has “Enjoy By” dates of June 28, 2016, and June 29, 2016, and bears establishment number “P-9815” inside the USDA mark of inspection.

The recalled items were shipped to distributors in Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington D.C.

What to do

Consumers who purchased the recalled product should should not consume it, but throw it away or return it to the place of purchase.

Consumers with questions regarding the recall may contact Ray Lopez at (877) 647-1878.

Airlines are eager to charge extra fees for unaccompanied minors, but parents often question the treatment their children receive. In an extreme example, an irate father has sued American Airlines for $10 million, alleging it let a drunken man sexually abuse his 13-year-old daughter.

The father, identified in the federal report as R.M., also names Chad Cameron Camp, who was arrested when the flight landed. R.M. says he paid a $300 "unaccompanied minor" fee for his daughter, as the airline requires, when she flew from Dallas to Portland June 15.

But instead of looking after his daughter, R.M. says the airline seated her in a window seat and put Camp next to her, even though he allegedly was drunk and muttering obscenities, Courthouse News Service reported.

A flight attendant asked Camp if he would like to move to a different row and he said no, but no one asked R.M.'s daughter -- M.W. -- if she wanted to move, the suit alleges.   

"Almost immediately, and without intervention from American, Camp began to rub up against M.W., lean close to her and fondle her body with his hand. This groping eventually progressed to Camp touching her upper and lower leg and finally to her crotch. ... This horrendous set of events lasted approximately thirty (30) minutes without American's intervention," the suit charges.

Flight attendants finally intervened when they noticed a tear falling from M.W.'s cheek. They moved M.W. to the front of the plane and moved Camp to the back and had him arrested when the plane landed, according to the report.

Ignored for 7.5 hours

While M.W.'s case is extreme, it is far from the only instance of unaccompanied children being left to fend for themselves despite their parents forking over $150 per flight. 

Marina of Brookside, Pa., sent her 11-year-old son on a flight to France, trusting that the airline would look after him. 

"My son sat on the plane for 7 1/2 hours, and no one told him specifically that he could get up and go to the bathroom. And they took his carry-on bag and never gave it back to him till the end of the flight. That had entertainment and his passport documents," she said in a recent ConsumerAffairs review.

"He was supposed to have an assigned flight attendant introduce herself. That never happened. Also, they would have never escorted him down the jetway if I had not said something about him walking down alone," she said. "One flight attendant told him to 'just stay calm' when he started crying. How do you feel ok treating a child like that? My son told me that none of the flight attendants tried to make him comfortable."

Bumped and accused

Zorica of Ft. Lauderdale said her child was allowed to "wander around the airport" with no supervision and Julia of Allen, Texas, said her son was bumped from a flight, then accused of being intoxicated.

"Unaccompanied minor was stranded at airport and held against his will, sequestered, not allowed to make or receive phone calls to his family and therefore falsely imprisoned by AA personnel for several hours," she said. "They tried to arrange for a hotel voucher for the child, they also falsely accused him of being intoxicated and gave him a breathylyzer test -- then lied to me his parent about the whole incident."

It's not just American that earns parents' wrath, of course. Lee of Black Mountain, N.C., learned this when arranging for his 14-year-old stepdaughter to travel from Nashville to Tampa on United. 

"I booked a ticket for my 14-year-old stepdaughter. ... I researched United's policy on minors (Children ages 12 to 17 have the option to pay the fee and use the unaccompanied minor service or they may travel as adults with no unaccompanied minor service provided) and even called to book the reservation with an agent just to be doubly sure," Lee said.

"On March 28th, my stepdaughter arrived at the airport to get onto her flight and the agent would not let her on the plane. They refused to honor the ticket and refused to book her on another flight. She was stuck at the airport and denied a flight," Lee recalled. "When asked why, the agent said that they contract US Airways to fly that United flight and US Airways had a different policy with regards to children."

"I needed to book an on-the-spot flight on another airline (Southwest, which by the way was super wonderful in all ways)," Lee said. Several other parents had good things to say about Southwest, and Delta got both thorns and roses in the reviews we looked at.

"I was told by two different Delta agents that I paid for an unaccompanied minor's fee on my son's ticket. The day he is flying, they claim I never paid the fee and now he is flying all alone and will have get his own suitcases! How can two Delta agents make the same error?" M. of Country Club Hills, Ill., said in her review of her Delta experience.

On the other hand, Sylvia of Roseburg, Ore., recalled the day her children flew unaccompanied from Eugene, Oregon to Tampa.

"Eric, the agent at the check in counter, was absolutely exceptional. He was professional and knew his job. I watched him the entire process even up to boarding. I was amazed on how he handled himself with such a busy and hectic job. He didn't show one sign of stress," Sylvia said. "Thank you for making a hard goodbye easy for my kids and I."

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is sending five investigators to Florida to look into the May 7 fatal accident involving a Tesla that slammed into a tractor-trailer truck while running on Autpilot.

The agency's decision to investigate the crash is seen as significant, since it normally deals only with major incidents like airplane or train accidents. While the NTSB does not have rule-making authority, its recommendations are not taken lightly and often result in new rules or regulations.

While the NTSB has generally supported the use of automation to prevent crashes, it has also warned that there is a downside to the technology, which can breed complacency and create confusion if it's not well designed.

The Florida crash may fall into both of those categories. The accident happened when the tractor-trailer truck made a left turn in front of the Tesla on a divided highway and the car slammed into it at high speed, killing the 40-year-old driver.

Tesla has said the white truck did not show up well against a brightly lit afternoon sky. There have also been reports that the driver was watching a movie on his DVD player at the time of the crash.

Regulations likely

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has also been investigating the Tesla crash as part of its review of autonomous vehicle technology.

NHTSA is expected to eventually issue rules governing the use of such technology. Any NTSB findings that grow out of the Florida investigation would be expected to be a major factor in drafting such rules. 

Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, said the NTSB's involvement was "very significant."

“And one thing in this crash I’m certain they’re going to look at is using the American public as test drivers for beta systems in vehicles. That is simply unheard of in auto safety,” Ditlow said in a Bloomberg report.

We recently reported how poor sleeping habits could lead to an increased risk of diabetes in men, but new findings suggest that there are additional consequences that can affect everyone.

Researchers at the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at the University of California have found that getting too much or too little sleep can increase markers for inflammation, a serious health concern.

“It is important to highlight that both too much and too little sleep appears to be associated with inflammation, a process that contributes to depression as well as many medical illnesses,” said Dr. John Krystal.

Higher risk of inflammation

Experts have long suspected that poor sleeping habits contributed to medical problems with inflammation. Prior studies have, for example, found associations between sleeping disorders, such as insomnia, and increased risk of inflammatory disease. Other adverse health conditions, like hypertension and type 2 diabetes, have also been connected.

In this study, the researchers examined information on over 50,000 people who had participated in other clinical studies. In order to gauge indicators of inflammation, they looked at levels of CRP and IL-6 in the body; high levels of each of these factors would indicate high levels of inflammation.

Additionally, the researchers checked records to assess how much sleep each participant was getting. After analyzing the information, they found that participants who had regularly interrupted sleep, insomnia, or long sleep durations (over 8 hours) had higher levels of CRP and IL-6 compared to those who slept normally (7-8 hours per night).

Assessing risk

The researchers believe that their findings should change how the medical community assesses risk with sleeping disorders. One researcher, Michael Irwin, believes that these kinds of problems should be regarded as behavioral risk factors for inflammation.

Irwin also states that having targeted therapies that address sleep behavior may go a long way towards reducing risk for inflammation. “Together with diet and physical activity, sleep health represents a third component in the promotion of health-span,” he said.

The full study has been published in the journal Biological Psychiatry. 

As Amazon.com ramps up for Tuesday's second annual Prime Day – a sort of Black Friday in July – Walmart has served notice it is joining the fight for the consumer's dollar.

The nation's largest retailer has announced it will provide free shipping over the next five days, along with discounts on a wide range of merchandise, in a bid to match Amazon's promotion for Prime members. It is also dropping its normal $50 minimum purchase to receive free shipping.

Prime members, in exchange for their annual membership fee, receive free two-day shipping on all Amazon purchases.

In announcing its free shipping promotion, Walmart also announced discounts on merchandise, including a 55-inch Samsung TV for $299.99, marked down from $369.99. It's selling an iPhone 5S for $149, marked down from $450, and an Acer laptop, regularly $399, is on sale for $299.

The company says these deals will last more than one day but did not say when the sale would end.

Prime Day ready to launch

Amazon, meanwhile, launches its Prime Day promotion Tuesday, featuring deals across nearly all departments and categories. The deals become available at midnight PT.

But to take advantage of the deals, consumers must be members of Amazon Prime, which carries a fee of $99 a year. However, it has been pointed out that Amazon offers a 30-day free trial of Prime, so just about anyone can take part. For its part, Amazon is counting on a large number of people trying Prime to stay with it once the trial period ends.

The holiday shopping site BestBlackFriday.com says some of Amazon's Prime Day deals last July turned out to be better than those offered on Black Friday. But the site's editor, Phil Dengler, says the best deals will probably not be offered throughout the entire day, so consumers will need to check Amazon's site periodically.

When a patient is diagnosed with glioblastoma (GBM), a brain cancer, the prognosis is usually very poor. But researchers at UCLA say they have developed a new immunotherapy-based treatment that could be cause for new hope.

The therapy creates an antibody blockade that stops the cancer from protecting itself from the patient's immune cells. With the defenses lowered, the immune cells recognize the cancer cells and attack them.

After a three-year study, the researchers were able to show that a vaccine, teamed with the antibody blockade of an immune cell surface receptor known as PD-1, creates a more effective immune response against GBM than the use of either treatment alone.

Effective immune response

“These findings are the first that specifically outline the mechanism by which an effective immune response can be seen in tumors located in the brain,” said Dr. Robert Prins, an associate professor in the department of neurosurgery at UCLA.

Prins says the researchers found that effective anti-tumor immunity to glioblastoma needs a path for the body's T cells to get through the shield normally protecting the cancer. He says the combination treatment is able to remind the immune system that the GBM is a foreign invader, stopping it from from recurring or growing.

GBM is currently treated with traditional means, primarily surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. The UCLA researchers say the current median survival time is 14 to 18 months.

Recent advances

The UCLA research is the latest to help the body's T cells fight against cancer, a treatment generally referred to as immunotherapy. Only a theory a couple of years ago, research in the last year has produced dramatic results.

Just 13 months ago, cancer specialists from Johns Hopkins reported the results of a clinical trial comparing standard chemotherapy with the immunotherapy drug nivolumab. People with squamous-non-small cell lung cancer who received nivolumab lived, on average, 3.2 months longer than those receiving chemotherapy.

Then in December, doctors treating former President Carter with immunotherapy announced the cancer that began in his liver and spread to his brain was completely gone after four months of treatment.

The UCLA breakthrough is different, in that it is a combination of treatments. But it is similar in that it uses the body's natural defenses to combat cancer, which appears to be emerging as an effective way to stop the dreaded disease.

For hackers and cybercriminals, ransomware is literally money in the bank.

If a target clicks on a link in an email, designed to appear as though it is from a familiar source, the malware is unleashed on the victim's computer, encrypting every file.

The only way for the victim to regain access to these files – photos, documents, or multimedia files – is to pay the hacker a ransom in Bitcoin. The threat has grown exponentially, ensnaring individual consumers as well as businesses and organizations.

Researchers at the University of Florida (UF) now say they have developed a solution, a software tool that will stop ransomware in its tracks. They call it CryptoDrop. The researchers say it works in a very different way than antivirus software.

Limiting the damage

Instead of identifying the ransomware before it can download to a target computer, CryptoDrop springs into action a nanosecond after the process begins. As a result, only a tiny fraction of files get encrypted.

“Our system is more of an early-warning system,” said Nolen Scaife, a UF doctoral student and founding member of UF’s Florida Institute for Cybersecurity Research.

Scaife says CryptoDrop steps in to prevent the ransomware from completing its task. A victim might lose a few photographs, but that is the limit of the damage. There is no reason to pay a ransom.

The UF researchers say antivirus software has a hard time stopping ransomware because it needs to have seen the malware before in order to be effective. But hackers are constantly tweaking their ransomware bugs, making them unrecognizable.

CrytoDrop is like a security guard, always looking for signs of a ransomeware attack. When it sees the malware encrypt a file, it springs into action to stop the process from going further.

Instead of looking for a particular software profile, it is instead looking at what the software does. If hackers come up with a new malware every week, it won't matter.

Growing threat

In the last few years ransomware attacks have targeted hospitals and even police departments. In 2015 police in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, admitted that they'd had to pay an untraceable $500 Bitcoin ransom to the hackers who'd encrypted the department's computer files.

Also last year, a new form of ransomware emerged, in which hackers planted child pornography images on victims' phones until a ransom was paid.

It's gotten so bad that some companies now build ransoms into their operating budgets, expecting that sooner or later they'll have to pay up. The UF researchers, however, say that might not be necessary.

“We ran our detector against several hundred ransomware samples that were live and in those case it detected 100% of those malware samples and it did so after only a median of 10 files were encrypted,” Scaife said.

The research team says its prototype works with Windows-based systems and the researchers are now seeking a partner to put it on the market.

GHSE, LLC, of Green Cove Springs, Fla., is recalling approximately 5,682 pounds of salad product containing chicken.

The product contains wheat, an allergen not listed on the label.

There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions.

The following ready-to-eat salad with chili-seasoned chicken item, produced between May 11, 2016 and June 29, 2016, is being recalled:

• 11-oz. plastic clam shell containers with “TRADER JOSE’S MEXICALI INSPIRED SALAD WITH CHILI SEASONED CHICKEN” with “BEST BY” dates 05/18/16 – 07/03/16.

The recalled product bears establishment number “EST. P-45781” inside the USDA mark of inspection, and was shipped to retail locations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and southern Virginia.

What to do

Customers who purchased the recalled product should not consume it, but throw it away or return it to the place of purchase.

Consumers with questions about the recall may call GHSE at (888) 449-9386.  

Chrysler (FCA US LLC) is recalling 3,518 model year 2017 Pacifica vehicles manufactured February 22, 2016, through April 28, 2016.

The center overhead seat belt stow clip may fracture and prevent use of the seat belt in the third-row and/or second-row center passenger seat (if so equipped).

If passengers occupying the third-row and/or second-row center seats cannot use a seat belt, there is an increased risk of injury in the event of a crash.

What to do

Chrysler will notify owners, and dealers will replace the third-row and, if necessary, second-row center overhead seat belt stow bezel, free of charge. The manufacturer has not yet provided a notification schedule.

Owners may contact Chrysler customer service at 1-800-853-1403. Chrysler's number for this recall is S42.

Pacific Cycle of Madison, Wis., is recalling about 217,600 Instep and Schwinn swivel wheel jogging strollers.

The front wheel can become loose and detach, posing crash and fall hazards.

The firm has received 132 reports of the front wheel becoming loose or unstable, resulting in 215 injuries, including head injuries, sprains, lacerations, bumps, bruises, and abrasions.

This recall involves single and double occupant swivel wheel jogging strollers, which come in a variety of colors, and have a quick release mechanism for removing and re-attaching the front wheel.

Instep Safari, Instep Grand Safari, Instep Flight, Schwinn Turismo and Schwinn Discover Single and Double Occupant Swivel jogging strollers with the following model numbers are being recalled:

The model number is located on the inside of the metal frame above the rear right wheel.

The strollers, manufactured in China, were sold at small retailers nationwide and online at Amazon.com, Target.com, Toys-R-Us.com, Walmart.com and other online retailers from January 2010, through June 2016, for between $130 and $350.

What to do

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled jogging strollers and contact Pacific Cycle to obtain a repair kit to secure the front wheel. The repair kit includes a replacement mechanism for securing the front wheel that uses a traditional screw on/off method of attachment instead of the quick release lever method of attachment shipped with the product, as well as new warning labels. Consumers should NOT return the jogging strollers to retailers where purchased. A repair video is available at www.pacific-cycle.com/safety-notices-recalls/.

Consumers may contact Pacific Cycle toll-free at 877-564-2261 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (CT) Monday through Friday, online at www.pacific-cycle.com, www.instep.net or www.schwinnbikes.com and click on “Safety Notices & Recalls” or by email at customerservice@pacific-cycle.com for more information.

The Consumer Watchdog group says Tesla's Autopilot technology isn't ready to take the wheel and wants Tesla CEO Elon Musk to take away the keys until it's safe. 

In a letter to Musk today, the group called the CEO's response to a fatal Tesla Model S Autopilot crash in Florida “woefully inadequate” and called on the company to immediately turn off the Autopilot feature on all active Tesla vehicles.

Consumer Watchdog also noted Musk’s “inexplicable delay” in responding to the crash, but added that Tesla’s Autopilot technology simply isn’t ready for the road and should not be deployed until it has been approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

T-boned truck

In the Florida crash, a Tesla Model S being operated in Autopilot mode slammed into a tractor-trailer truck that was turning left across a divided highway. Musk's explanation was that the white truck was difficult to see against the brightly lit sky, an argument Consumer Watchdog isn't buying.

“An autopilot whose sensors cannot distinguish between the side of a white truck and a bright sky simply is not ready to be deployed on public roads,” the group said. “Tesla should immediately disable the autopilot feature on all your vehicles until it can be proven to be safe. At a minimum, Autopilot must be disabled until the complete results of NHTSA’s investigation are released.”

In the letter, Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court accused Tesla of “rushing self-driving technologies to the highways prematurely” and said the company tends to blame the victim when things go wrong. 

"There are more troubling indications that you are not willing to assume responsibility when autopilot fails, but rather to blame the victims. On July 1 a Model X crashed, rolling over, on the Pennsylvania turnpike while in autopilot mode, according to the driver," Court said. "Tesla’s response: 'Based on the information we have now, we have no reason to believe that Autopilot had anything to do with this accident.' 

"Last November, according the Wall Street Journal, a Tesla in autopilot rear-ended a parked truck on I- 66 in Virginia. Tesla said the crash 'was the result of driver error….To an attentive driver, it would have been clear that the driver should immediately slow the vehicle to avoid the accident.'"

Take responsibility

The letter notes that Volvo and Mercedes-Benz have said they will accept laibility if their self-driving technology is responsible for a crash and said Tesla should do the same.

"Tesla is rushing self-driving technologies to the highways prematurely, however, as the crashes demonstrate, autopilot isn’t safe and you should disable it immediately. If autopilot can ultimately be shown to meet safety standards and is then redeployed, you must pledge to be liable if anything goes wrong when the self-driving system is engaged," the letter concluded.

Your smart watch or fitness tracker may be giving you helpful information about you health, but is it also giving away secrets to an enterprising hacker?

Scientists at the Stevens Institute of Technology say it is theoretically possible these devices could reveal your ATM code.

Maybe it is more than theoretically possible. The researchers combined data from embedded sensors in wearable technologies, typical in smartwatches and fitness trackers, along with a computer algorithm designed to crack private PINs and passwords.

The test was successful in capturing the PIN 80% of the time on the first try and had a 90% success rate after three attempts.

Possible to exploit

“Wearable devices can be exploited,” said Yingying Chen, an assistant professor of computer science who led the research, along with four graduate students.

The hackers, he says, can reproduce the movement of a user’s hand, then recover secret PIN entries to ATM cash machines, electronic door locks and keypad-controlled enterprise servers.

To test the theory, the research team conducted over 5,000 tests using key-based security systems. It was able to record hand movement down to the millimeter level, tapping into the inner workings of a variety of wearable technology.

By recording the measurements, the software was able to estimate distance and direction of hand movement between key strokes. It was able to do so with what the team called “alarming accuracy.”

The threat is real

“The threat is real, although the approach is sophisticated,” Chen said. “There are two attacking scenarios that are achievable: internal and sniffing attacks.”

In an internal attack, hackers are able to tap into the embedded sensors in wrist-worn wearable devices through malware. When the target accesses a key-based system, such as an ATM, the malware sends back the data it has sensed. Using that data, the hacker can accurately predict the code the victim has used.

In a sniffing attack, the hacker places a wireless device close to a specific key-based target. The sniffer can then eavesdrop on sensor data from the wearble device that is sent using Bluetooth to the victim's smartphone.

The researchers did not offer a solution to the security issue they identified, but suggested if developers “injected noise” into the data it might make fine-grained hand movements harder to detect.

In the meantime, it might be a good idea to punch in ATM codes with the hand not wearing a smart watch or fitness tracker.

Surveys have shown that there are significant knowledge gaps among consumers when it comes to credit reports. Yet these documents are very important to consumers when they want to finance a home or car, or even get insurance.

So it is very important to have at least a basic understanding of credit reports and how they work. With information provided by the Federal Reserve, here are five key questions consumers might have.

1. Where does the information in the report come from?

Your credit history is compiled into an ongoing report by three credit reporting agencies – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. These companies get the information from other companies that have extended you credit.

That includes the obvious, like mortgage lenders and credit card companies. But it can also include your cell phone provider, the utility company, and many other companies that send you a monthly bill. The report lets these companies know if you pay your bills on time.

2. Who gets to see my credit report?

The information in your credit report is highly confidential, but there are a number of entities that, with your permission, may get access to it. Anyone extending you credit may see it, as can a prospective employer.

Insurance companies you are doing business with can also review your credit report, and so can some government agencies reviewing your financial status for benefits.

3. Can anything be done if there is incorrect information in my report?

Yes. If you are denied credit because of something in your credit report, you have a right to know what it is. If the information is incorrect, you may appeal to have it removed.

If you appeal within 60 days you can get a free copy of your credit report – in addition to the free report you can get annually – and review the information. If you find information you believe is erroneous, follow these steps to have it removed.

4. If the negative information is legitimate, how long does it remain?

In most cases, negative credit information will remain in your credit report for seven years. A personal bankruptcy filing will stay in your report for 10 years.

If you have been sued or there is an unpaid judgment against you, it can remain for either seven years or until the statute of limitations runs out, whichever is longer. If you have been convicted of a crime, that fact may stay on your credit report indefinitely.

5. Can I see a copy of my credit report?

Absolutely. The law allows you to obtain a copy from each of the three credit reporting agencies once a year, at no charge. This only includes the report, not your credit score – that costs extra.

To receive a free copy of your credit report, go to www.annualcreditreport.com, or call (877) 322-8228.

Alzheimer’s disease strikes older adults, but increasingly, doctors think there are ways to identify young people who will be at risk.

The latest research is published in the online issue of the journal Neurology, and it reveals a genetic risk score that may identify those at risk of the cognitive illness long before any symptoms appear.

Elizabeth C. Mormino, PhD, with Massachusetts General Hospital in Charlestown, Mass., says there is an early stage of the disease that can last a decade or more without the appearance of symptoms.

“Given that current clinical trials are testing whether therapies can slow memory and thinking decline among people at risk for the disease, it is critical to understand the influence of risk factors before symptoms are present,” Mormino said.

The study

The study looked at people with dementia and those without it, assigning each a numeric score based on the presence of high risk genes. The participants were examined for common Alzheimer’s markers, including a decline in memory and thinking skills, clinical progression of the disease, and the volume of the hippocampus, which is the memory center of the brain.

The research team next looked at any links between the risk score and hippocampus size in 1,322 healthy, younger participants between the ages of 18 and 35.

Results

Even among older people who had no dementia – but who had a higher genetic risk – there was a stronger likelihood of worse memory and smaller hippocampus at the start of the study.

Over the three years of the study, a higher genetic risk score was also associated with greater longitudinal memory and executive function decline and clinical progression of the disease.

The risk score was also linked to overall disease progression, with 15 of 194 participants who were cognitively normal at the start of the study developing mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease. Of the 332 subjects with mild cognitive impairment at the start of the study, 143 developed Alzheimer’s disease after three years.

Mormino concedes it was a small study, but she says further research could help doctors better identify people at high risk of dementia at a much earlier age and begin preventive treatments sooner.