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Gulf Today
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
11th edition of Dubai Design Week takes stage on November 4-9 at d3
Dubai Design Week (DDW) will celebrate its 11th edition from November 4-9 under the patronage of Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) and member of Dubai Council. The region's leading design festival and an annual celebration of creativity and culture, DDW is held in strategic partnership with Dubai Design District (d3), a member of TECOM Group PJSC, and supported by Dubai Culture. DDW 2025 coincides with the UAE's 'Year of Community'; this year's programme therefore reflects the theme through a focus on social cohesion, participation and shared experiences. Design will be explored not only as a practice of innovation, but as a social connector and as a civic and cultural tool that can shape how we live together, communicate, and build caring systems. Since 2015, DDW has grown into a global platform with an emphasis on cross-cultural exchange and on amplifying voices from West and South Asia, as well as the wider Global South (encompassing countries in Africa, Latin America, most of Asia and Oceania). Through exhibitions, fairs, large-scale installations, talks and workshops, the festival engages with contemporary narratives, creating a space for dialogue, experimentation and progress, harnessing its position as a regional melting pot and creative hub. Welcoming designs at Dubai Design Week. Key venues are located across d3, the global creative ecosystem dedicated to design, fashion, architecture and art. This year's highlights include Urban Commissions, DDW's annual competition, open to proposals from global practices, giving international architects and designers an opportunity to shape public spaces through community-driven design. Under the theme 'Courtyard', Urban Commissions calls on practitioners to reflect on a shared spatial form and explore its multifaceted role as a gathering place and community-led urban infrastructure. Abwab, meaning 'doors' in Arabic, is a long-running feature at DDW. Newly expanded to welcome applicants from across West, South and East Asia, as well as the African continent which are often unrepresented or unrepresented on global platforms, this year's theme, 'In the Details', invites practitioners to create immersive spatial experiences, engaging with historic cultural forms. Exhibitions serve as a platform for cultural organisations, educational institutions, collectives and individual designers to express cultural, social and environmental perspectives, showcasing cutting-edge design solutions across disciplines. Linda Nieuwstad's floral installation. Outdoor installations from designers, architects, collectives, creative practitioners, and design-led brands, will explore design's potential to foster inclusive, community-focused environments through the use of sustainable and socially responsible methods and materials. The festival's programme of workshops will be held at Maker Space, offering visitors of all ages and skill levels the opportunity to engage and experiment with a diverse range of artistic mediums. Alongside, the activations programme will unveil innovative and immersive projects, cross-disciplinary collaborations, pop-ups, and special presentations. Marketplace offers a curated retail experience featuring high-quality and original products by the region's best artisans, entrepreneurs and small businesses, alongside food experiences, children's activities and live performances. Downtown Design, the Middle East's leading fair for high-quality and contemporary design, returns to the d3 Waterfront Terrace (November 5-9), showcasing the latest collections and design innovations from around the world. Returning exhibitors including Lasvit, Kartell, Poltrona Frau, Obegi Home, Venini, and Vitra will present new concepts alongside new participants Roche Bobois, Stellar Works, FRAMA, Porada and Desalto. Designer duo Draga & Aurel will present a solo exhibition for Collectional, and French designer Stephanie Coutas will showcase high-end interiors and collectible design pieces. The fair will feature experiential concepts and immersive installations including the Solaire Lounge by Veuve Clicquot and a pop-up collaboration between Buccellati and design studio david/Nicolas. The Forum returns with live talks and keynotes, headlined by Tom Dixon, who makes his Dubai debut. Installations at Dubai Design Week, 2024. At the heart of Downtown Design, the UAE Designer Exhibition, supported by Dubai Culture, returns with an evolved format after five editions, expanding mentorship for emerging creatives and international showcase opportunities. Following a successful debut in 2024, Editions, the region's first fair dedicated to limited-edition art and design, will take place November 6-9, with a preview on November 5, at the d3 Waterfront Terrace. It will showcase 50 local and international galleries, design studios and collectives across a diverse range of mediums including artist multiples, ceramics, photography, works on paper, prints, editions, and contemporary design. The 2025 d3 Architecture Exhibition, organised by d3 in partnership with Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) aligns with DDW's theme in response to the UAE's 'Year of Community' initiative and will take place in a dedicated space in the creative district. Rooted in the UAE's values of resilience, ambition and openness, the Year of Community is dedicated to fostering a united and empowered society, aiming to strengthen family and social ties and unlock potential for sustainable growth. A scene from Dubai Design Week 2024. Reflecting Dubai's position as the design capital of the Middle East, DDW's varied programmes which include installations, new commissions, exhibitions, talks, workshops, a marketplace, the leading fair for contemporary design, Downtown Design and the Middle East's first limited-edition art and design fair, Editions, will enhance Dubai's position as a global centre for culture, an incubator for creativity, and a thriving hub for talent. Dubai Design District (d3), a member of TECOM Group PJSC, is a global creative ecosystem dedicated to design, fashion, architecture and art, offering a variety of multi-brand boutiques, fashion brands, and art and design studios. Dubai Culture is committed to enriching Dubai's cultural ecology based on the UAE's heritage, and builds bridges of constructive dialogue between various cultures.
Time of India
20-07-2025
- General
- Time of India
64 years on, water treatment plant for Mollem and Collem
Ponda: Villages of Collem and Mollem — part of the Sanvordem assembly constituency — have begun receiving treated water from a dedicated water treatment plant for the first time, six decades after the state's Liberation. The supply started on Friday. The water treatment plant at Collem, costing over Rs 25 crore, has a capacity of 3 million litres per day (MLD) and was commissioned on Friday by fisheries minister Nilkanth Halarnkar, in the presence of Sanvordem MLA Ganesh Gaonkar. Over 2,500 households at Collem and Mollem villages in Dharbandora taluka are now getting treated water. Earlier, the water division of the PWD would pump raw water from the Khandepar river; from borewells at Bazarwada, Metawada, and one near the rural dispensary; and from an open well at Bazarwada. The present total consumption is 2.5MLD and the plant has been planned considering the next 30 years' consumption, said Dinkar Malekar, an assistant engineer with the department of drinking water (DDW). Water was earlier being filtered by a mini-pressure sand filter which ran for around 14 hours daily to supply potable water to the villages. However, locals were unwilling to accept the water, as the river basin it came from is used by tourists to bathe. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Villa Prices in Dubai Might Be Lower Than You Think! Villa for sale in Dubai | Search Ads Learn More Undo On Dec 17, 2021, the then PWD minister Deepak Pauskar laid the foundation stone for the water treatment plant project and the work started in Jan-Feb 2022. Gaonkar said the tender for the work on the plant was allotted to SMC Infrastructure from Thane, Maharashtra. Under the project, the contractor has constructed an overhead reservoir of 650 cubic metres (CuM) near Maruti Mandir, Gandhinagar at Collem, an 800 CuM clear water tank near Mallikeshwar temple at Metawada, and a 300 CuM ground-level reservoir (GLR) at Mollem. Malekar said a 7km-long ductile iron rising main pipeline pushes the water to the plant, and the 25km-long network comprises 90mm, 100mm, 110mm, and 150mm distribution lines. The treated water is then poured into the Collem overhead reservoir and ground-level reservoir at Mollem. 'While Collem villagers will get water from the overhead reservoir, the water to Mollem consumers will have to be pumped and released via distribution lines as the ground-level reservoir is situated at a low level,' Malekar said.
Medscape
02-06-2025
- Health
- Medscape
AI Algorithm Predicts Transfusion Need in Acute GI Bleeds
SAN DIEGO — A novel generative artificial intelligence (AI) framework known as trajectory flow matching (TFM) can predict the need for red blood cell transfusion and mortality risk in intensive care unit (ICU) patients with acute gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding, researchers reported at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2025. Acute GI bleeding is the most common cause of digestive disease–related hospitalization, with an estimated 500,000 hospital admissions annually. It's known that predicting the need for red blood cell transfusion in the first 24 hours may improve resuscitation and decrease both morbidity and mortality. However, an existing clinical score known as the Rockall Score does not perform well for predicting mortality, Xi (Nicole) Zhang, an MD-PhD student at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, told attendees at DDW. With an area under the curve of 0.65-0.75, better prediction is needed, Zhang said, whose coresearchers included Dennis Shung, MD, MHS, PhD, assistant professor of medicine and director of Applied Artificial Intelligence at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut. 'We'd like to predict multiple outcomes in addition to mortality,' said Zhang, who is also a student at the Mila-Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute. As a result, the researchers turned to the TFM approach, applying it to ICU patients with acute GI bleeding to predict both the need for transfusion and in-hospital mortality risk. The all-cause mortality rate is up to 11%, according to a 2020 study by James Y. W. Lau, MD, and colleagues. The rebleeding rate of nonvariceal upper GI bleeds is up to 10.4%. Zhang said the rebleeding rate for variceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding is up to 65%. The AI method the researchers used outperformed a standard deep learning model at predicting the need for transfusion and estimating mortality risk. Defining the AI Framework 'Probabilistic flow matching is a class of generative artificial intelligence that learns how a simple distribution becomes a more complex distribution with ordinary differential equations,' Zhang told Medscape Medical News. 'For example, if you had a few lines and shapes you could learn how it could become a detailed portrait of a face. In our case, we start with a few blood pressure and heart rate measurements and learn the pattern of blood pressures and heart rates over time, particularly if they reflect clinical deterioration with hemodynamic instability.' Another way to think about the underlying algorithm, Zhang said, is to think about a river with boats where the river flow determines where the boats end up. 'We are trying to direct the boat to the correct dock by adjusting the flow of water in the canal. In this case we are mapping the distribution with the first few data points to the distribution with the entire patient trajectory.' The information gained, she said, could be helpful in timing endoscopic evaluation or allocating red blood cell products for emergent transfusion. Study Details The researchers evaluated a cohort of 2602 patients admitted to the ICU, identified from the publicly available MIMIC-III database. They divided the patients into a training set of 2342 patients and an internal validation set of 260 patients. Input variables were severe liver disease comorbidity, administration of vasopressor medications, mean arterial blood pressure, and heart rate over the first 24 hours. Excluded was hemoglobin, since the point was to test the trajectory of hemodynamic parameters independent of hemoglobin thresholds used to guide red blood cell transfusion. The outcome measures were administration of packed red blood cell transfusion within 24 hours and all-cause hospital mortality. The TFM was more accurate than a standard deep learning model in predicting red blood cell transfusion, with an accuracy of 93.6% vs 43.2%; P ≤ .001. It was also more accurate at predicting all-cause in-hospital mortality, with an accuracy of 89.5% vs 42.5%, P = .01. The researchers concluded that the TFM approach was able to predict the hemodynamic trajectories of patients with acute GI bleeding defined as deviation and outperformed the baseline from the measured mean arterial pressure and heart rate. Expert Perspective 'This is an exciting proof-of-concept study that shows generative AI methods may be applied to complex datasets in order to improve on our current predictive models and improve patient care,' said Jeremy Glissen Brown, MD, MSc, an assistant professor of medicine and a practicing gastroenterologist at Duke University who has published research on the use of AI in clinical practice. He reviewed the study for Medscape Medical News but was not involved in the research. 'Future work will likely look into the implementation of a version of this model on real-time data.' He added: 'We are at an exciting inflection point in predictive models within GI and clinical medicine. Predictive models based on deep learning and generative AI hold the promise of improving how we predict and treat disease states, but the excitement being generated with studies such as this needs to be balanced with the trade-offs inherent to the current paradigm of deep learning and generative models compared to more traditional regression-based models. These include many of the same 'black box' explainability questions that have risen in the age of convolutional neural networks as well as some method-specific questions due to the continuous and implicit nature of TFM.' Elaborating on that, Glissen Brown said: 'TFM, like many deep learning techniques, raises concerns about explainability that we've long seen with convolutional neural networks — the 'black box' problem, where it's difficult to interpret exactly how and why the model arrives at a particular decision. But TFM also introduces unique challenges due to its continuous and implicit formulation. Since it often learns flows without explicitly defining intermediate representations or steps, it can be harder to trace the logic or pathways it uses to connect inputs to outputs. This makes standard interpretability tools less effective and calls for new techniques tailored to these continuous architectures.' 'This approach could have a real clinical impact,' said Robert Hirten, MD, associate professor of medicine and artificial intelligence, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, who also reviewed the study. 'Accurately predicting transfusion needs and mortality risk in real time could support earlier, more targeted interventions for high-risk patients. While these findings still need to be validated in prospective studies, it could enhance ICU decision-making and resource allocation.' 'For the practicing gastroenterologist, we envision this system could help them figure out when to perform endoscopy in a patient admitted with acute gastrointestinal bleeding in the ICU at very high risk of exsanguination,' Zhang told Medscape Medical News. The approach, the researchers said, will be useful in identifying unique patient characteristics, make possible the identification of high-risk patients and lead to more personalized medicine. Hirten, Zhang, and Shung had no disclosures. Glissen Brown reported consulting relationships with Medtronic, OdinVision, Doximity, and Olympus.
Medscape
21-05-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Blood Test May Predict Crohn's Disease 2 Years Before Onset
SAN DIEGO — Crohn's disease (CD) has become more common in the United States, and an estimated 1 million Americans have the condition. Still, much is unknown about how to evaluate the individual risk for the disease. 'It's pretty much accepted that Crohn's disease does not begin at diagnosis,' said Ryan Ungaro, MD, associate professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, speaking at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2025. Although individual blood markers have been associated with the future risk for CD, what's needed, he said, is to understand which combination of biomarkers are most predictive. Now, Ungaro and his team have developed a risk score they found accurate in predicting CD onset within 2 years before its onset. It's an early version that will likely be further improved and needs additional validation, Ungaro told Medscape Medical News . 'Once we can accurately identify individuals at risk for developing Crohn's disease, we can then imagine a number of potential interventions,' Ungaro said. Approaches would vary depending on how far away the onset is estimated to be. For people who likely wouldn't develop disease for many years, one intervention might be close monitoring to enable diagnosis in the earliest stages, when treatment works best, he said. Someone at a high risk of developing CD in the next 2 or 3 years, on the other hand, might be offered a pharmaceutical intervention. Developing and Testing the Risk Score To develop the risk score, Ungaro and colleagues analyzed data of 200 patients with CD and 100 healthy control participants from PREDICTS, a nested case-controlled study of active US military service members. The study is within the larger Department of Defense Serum Repository, which began in 1985 and has more than 62.5 million samples, all stored at −30 °C. The researchers collected serum samples at four timepoints up to 6 or more years before the diagnosis. They assayed antimicrobial antibodies using the Prometheus Laboratories platform, proteomic markers using the Olink inflammation panel, and anti–granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor autoantibodies using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Participants (median age, 33 years for both groups) were randomly divided into equally sized training and testing sets. In both the group, 83% of patients were White and about 90% were men. Time-varying trajectories of marker abundance were estimated for each biomarker. Then, logistic regression modeled disease status as a function of each marker for different timepoints and multivariate modeling was performed via logistic LASSO regression. A risk score to predict CD onset within 2 years was developed. Prediction models were fit on the testing set and predictive performance evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curves and area under the curve (AUC). Blood proteins and antibodies have differing associations with CD depending on the time before diagnosis, the researchers found. The integrative model to predict CD onset within 2 years incorporated 10 biomarkers associated significantly with CD onset. The AUC for the model was 0.87 (considered good, with 1 indicating perfect discrimination). It produced a specificity of 99% and a positive predictive value of 84%. The researchers stratified the model scores into quartiles and found the CD incidence within 2 years increased from 2% in the first quartile to 57.7% in the fourth. The relative risk of developing CD in the top quartile individuals vs lower quartile individuals was 10.4. The serologic and proteomic markers show dynamic changes years before the diagnosis, Ungaro said. A Strong Start The research represents 'an ambitious and exciting frontier for the future of IBD [inflammatory bowel disease] care,' said Victor G. Chedid, MD, MS, consultant and assistant professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, who reviewed the findings but was not involved in the study. Currently, physicians treat IBD once it manifests, and it's difficult to predict who will get CD, he said. The integrative model's AUC of 0.87 is impressive, and its specificity and positive predictive value levels show it is highly accurate in predicting the onset of CD within 2 years, Chedid added. Further validation in larger and more diverse population is needed, Chedid said, but he sees the potential for the model to be practical in clinical practice. 'Additionally, the use of blood-based biomarkers makes the model relatively noninvasive and easy to implement in a clinical setting,' he said. Now, the research goal is to understand the best biomarkers for characterizing the different preclinical phases of CD and to test different interventions in prevention trials, Ungaro told Medscape Medical News . A few trials are planned or ongoing, he noted. The trial PIONIR trial will look at the impact of a specific diet on the risk of developing CD, and the INTERCEPT trial aims to develop a blood-based risk score that can identify individuals with a high risk of developing CD within 5 years after initial evaluation. Ungaro reported being on the advisory board of and/or receiving speaker or consulting fees from AbbVie, Bristol Myer Squibb, Celltrion, ECM Therapeutics, Genentech, Jansen, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Roivant, Sanofi, and Takeda. Chedid reported having no relevant disclosures.
Medscape
19-05-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Blood Detection Capsule May Help in Upper GI Bleeding
SAN DIEGO — A real-time, blood-sensing capsule (PillSense) is a safe and effective diagnostic tool for patients with suspected upper gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding that can aid patient triage, reduce unnecessary procedures, and optimize resource use, a study found. Notably, patients with negative capsule results had shorter hospital stays and lower acuity markers, and in more than one third of cases, an esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) was avoided altogether without any observed adverse events or readmissions, the study team found. 'Our study shows that this novel capsule that detects blood in the upper GI tract (PillSense) was highly sensitive and specific (> 90%) for detecting recent or active upper GI blood, influenced clinical management in 80% of cases and allowed about one third of patients to be safely discharged from the emergency department, with close outpatient follow-up,' Linda Lee, MD, medical director of endoscopy, Brigham and Women's Hospital and associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, told Medscape Medical News . The study was presented at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2025. Real-World Insights EGD is the gold standard for diagnosing suspected upper GI bleeding, but limited access to timely EGD complicates diagnosis and resource allocation. Approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, PillSense (EnteraSense) is an ingestible capsule with a reusable receiver that provides a rapid, noninvasive method for detecting upper GI bleeding. The capsule analyzes light absorption to identify blood and transmits the result within 10 minutes. Lee and colleagues evaluated the real-world impact of this point-of-care device on clinical triage and resource allocation, while assessing its safety profile. They analyzed data on 43 patients (mean age 60 years; 72% men) with clinical suspicion of upper GI bleeding in whom the device was used. The most common symptoms were symptomatic anemia (70%), melena (67%), and hematemesis (33%). Sixteen PillSense studies (37%) were positive for blood detection, and 27 (63%) were negative. Compared to patients with a positive capsule results, those without blood detected by the capsule had shorter hospital stays (mean, 3.8 vs 13.4 days, P = .02), lower GBS scores (mean, 7.93 vs 12.81; P = .005), and fewer units of blood transfused (mean, 1.19 vs 10.94; P = .01) and were less apt to be hemodynamically unstable (5 vs 8 patients; P = .03). Capsule results influenced clinical management in 80% of cases, leading to avoidance of EGD in 37% and prioritization of urgent EGD in 18% (all had active bleeding on EGD). Capsule use improved resource allocation in 51% of cases. This included 12 patients who were discharged from the ED, six who were assigned an inpatient bed early, and four who underwent expedited colonoscopy as upper GI bleeding was ruled out, they noted. Among the eight patients who did not undergo EGD, there were no readmissions within 30 days and no adverse events. There were no capsule-related adverse events. 'Clinicians should consider using this novel capsule PillSense as another data point in the management of suspected upper GI bleed,' Lee told Medscape Medical News . 'This could include in helping to triage patients for safe discharge from the ED or to more urgent endoscopy, to differentiate between upper vs lower GI bleed and to manage ICU patients with possible rebleeding,' Lee said. Important Real-World Evidence Reached for comment, Shahin Ayazi, MD, esophageal surgeon, Director, Allegheny Health Network Chevalier Jackson Esophageal Research Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said this study is important for several reasons. 'Prior investigations have established that PillSense possesses a high negative predictive value for detecting upper GI bleeding and have speculated on its utility in triage, decision-making, and potentially avoiding unnecessary endoscopy. This study is important because it substantiates that speculation with clinical data,' Ayazi, who wasn't involved in the study, told Medscape Medical News . 'These findings support the capsule's practical application in patient stratification and clinical workflow, particularly when diagnostic uncertainty is high and endoscopic resources are limited,' Ayazi noted. In his experience, PillSense is 'highly useful as a triage adjunct in the evaluation of suspected upper GI bleeding. It provides direct and objective evidence as to whether blood is currently present in the stomach,' he said. 'In patients whose presentation is ambiguous or whose clinical scores fall into an intermediate risk zone, this binary result can provide clarity that subjective assessment alone may not achieve. This is particularly relevant in settings where the goal is to perform endoscopy within 24 hours, but the volume of consults exceeds procedural capacity,' Ayazi explained. 'In such scenarios, PillSense enables physicians to stratify patients based on objective evidence of active bleeding, helping to prioritize those who require urgent endoscopy and defer or even avoid endoscopic evaluation in those who do not. The result is a more efficient allocation of endoscopic resources without compromising patient safety,' he added. Ayazi cautioned that the PillSense capsule should not be used as a replacement for clinical evaluation or established risk stratification protocols. 'It is intended for hemodynamically stable patients and has not been validated in cases of active or massive bleeding. Its diagnostic yield depends on the presence of blood in the stomach at the time of capsule transit; intermittent or proximal bleeding that has ceased may not be detected, introducing the potential for false-negative results,' Ayazi told Medscape Medical News. 'However, in prior studies, the negative predictive value was high, and in the present study, no adverse outcomes were observed in patients who did not undergo endoscopy following a negative PillSense result,' Ayazi noted. 'It must also be understood that PillSense does not localize the source of bleeding or replace endoscopy in patients with a high likelihood of active hemorrhage. It is not designed to detect bleeding from the lower GI tract or distal small bowel. Rather, it serves as an adjunct that can provide immediate clarity when the need for endoscopy is uncertain, and should be interpreted within the broader context of clinical findings, laboratory data, and established risk stratification tools,' he added.
