Daily Business Report: Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Super low-cost smartphone attachment
brings blood pressure monitoring to your fingertips
By Liezel Labios | UC San Diego
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a simple, low-cost clip that uses a smartphone’s camera and flash to monitor blood pressure at the user’s fingertip.
The clip works with a custom smartphone app and currently costs about 80 cents to make.
The researchers estimate that the cost could be as low as 10 cents apiece when manufactured at scale. The technology was published May 29 in Scientific Reports.
Researchers say it could help make regular blood pressure monitoring easy, affordable and accessible to people in resource-poor communities.
It could benefit older adults and pregnant women, for example, in managing conditions such as hypertension.
“We’ve created an inexpensive solution to lower the barrier to blood pressure monitoring,” said study first author Yinan (Tom) Xuan, an electrical and computer engineering Ph.D. student at UC San Diego.
“Because of their low cost, these clips could be handed out to anyone who needs them but cannot go to a clinic regularly,” said study senior author Edward Wang, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC San Diego and director of the Digital Health Lab.
Top Photo: Prototype of the blood pressure monitoring clip. (Photos courtesy of the Digital Health Lab/UC San Diego)
Assembly bill would require
countywide vote for Fallbrook,
Rainbow to exit Water Authority
Times of San Diego
An Assembly bill introduced late last week would require a countywide vote before two agricultural districts in north San Diego County could leave the San Diego County Water Authority.
Assembly Bill 530, introduced Thursday by Tasha Boerner Horvath of Encinitas, would amend California’s Water Authority Act, to require a majority vote in both the separating district and the county to complete a detachment.
The Fallbrook Public Utility District and the Rainbow Municipal Water District are seeking to join the Eastern Municipal Water District in Riverside County in hopes of securing lower-cost water for farmers.
Their requests to leave the county authority are scheduled to be heard by the San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission on June 5, after which a vote could be scheduled.
Carlsbad’s golf pro Sheri Hayes named
2023 Ellen Griffin Rolex Award winner
Sheri Hayes of Carlsbad, an LPGA Master Professional and a golf instructor at Riverwalk Golf Club in San Diego, joins an elite group of her peers as the recipient of the 2023 Ellen Griffin Rolex Award.
The Ellen Griffin Rolex Award, instituted by the LPGA Professionals membership in 1989 to honor the late teaching professional Ellen Griffin, recognizes an individual, male or female, who made a major contribution to the teaching of golf and emulates Griffin’s spirit, love and dedication to students, teachers, teaching skills and the game of golf.
Hayes began teaching the LPGA Certification program in 2000. She is a major contributor in the improvement of the education for teaching professionals, serving as the LPGA Education Chair since 2019. Early on in her career, she realized that research-based golf education is what heightened learning. With the LPGA, she wrote the best in class Integrated Performance Systems which includes some of the most complex topics in the LPGA Education program like ball flight laws, swing components, golf fitness, improvement strategy models, and compensation movement patterns, to name a few.
Hayes has received many recognitions throughout her career, which include being named a Top 50 Golf Teacher by the LPGA and Top 50 Women Golf Instructors by Golf Digest. She was voted LPGA Professional of the Year twice and LPGA Teacher of the Year three times representing the LPGA Western Section. In addition to qualifying for two LPGA Tour events, she was a past member of the Futures Tour and Group Fore Mini Tour.
California becomes the first state
to phase out toxic hexavalent chromium
By Alejandro Lazo | CalMatters
There’s a toxic history to the shiny decorative finishes so ubiquitous on the wheels and bumpers of classic cars. Chrome plating is important to a variety of consumer products from vintage automobiles to aerospace components to plumbing fixtures.
But hexavalent chromium—a highly hazardous substance emitted by chrome-plating businesses—is 500 times more carcinogenic than diesel exhaust, putting it in the cross hair of regulators for decades.
The California Air Resources Board has approved a landmark ban on use of the substance by the chrome plating industry. The ban requires companies, who opposed the action, to use alternative materials.
Groundbreaking images of root chemicals
offer new insights on plant growth
On a sunny springtime stroll through a park, it’s easy to ignore the parts of plants that are hidden from view. Plant biologists see things differently. They look below the surface where plant roots are organized in elaborate systems that are critical to the organism’s development. Intricately organized tree root systems, for example, can span as far underground as the tree grows high above the soil.
Applying an advanced imaging technology to plant roots, researchers at the University of California San Diego and Stanford University have developed a new understanding of essential root chemicals that are responsible for plant growth. Using a type of mass spectrometer, a study led by UC San Diego Biological Sciences Postdoctoral Scholar Tao Zhang and Assistant Professor Alexandra Dickinson produced a “roadmap” that profiles where key small molecules are distributed along stem cells of maize (corn) plant roots and how their placement factors into the plant’s maturation. The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.
New movement under way
to make a ‘City of La Jolla’
A new effort to make La Jolla its own city appears to be more formidable than previous drives for independence and is being spurred by a more complicated mix of motivations.
Efforts to make La Jolla its own city separate from San Diego date back to the 1940s and emerge roughly once a decade. But previous tries have lacked funding, stopped short of proposing specific boundaries and typically focused on one or two issues.
Community leaders behind the latest effort have already paid a consultant for a financial analysis they expect to unveil this summer, and this spring, they released detailed maps of the proposed city of La Jolla.
Culinary pro earns school district’s
top classified honor
Grossmont Union High School District Chef Todd Bull has been named GUHSD’s Classified Employee of the Year. With a GUHSD career spanning more than 21 years, Bull has spent the last decade as GUHSD’s first district chef, leading 10 kitchens across the district. Previously, Bull was a culinary arts teacher who was frequently asked to cater district events with his students. According to GUHSD Food and Nutritional Services Director Vince Scimone, Bull “taught class during the day, and ran the restaurant class at night.”
CyberCatch announces sales distribution
partnership with Canada’s Lanetco
SAN DIEGO — CyberCatch Holdings Inc., a cybersecurity company, announces a sales distribution partnership with Lanetco, a leading Canadian managed services provider. Lanetco specializes in serving small and medium businesses, not for profit organizations and trade associations and provides a full suite of IT services as a MSP. Lanetco first signed up with CyberCatch to attain full compliance with Canada’s national cybersecurity standard and for continuous cyber risk mitigation. Then it decided to introduce and distribute CyberCatch’s AI enabled solution to its customers and prospective customers.
Planet Based Foods engages
with Empire Marketing Strategies
SAN DIEGO — Planet Based Foods Global Inc., a company that offers a wide range of hemp-based food alternatives, announced that it has engaged with Empire Marketing Strategies to provide food brokerage services to further its flourishing relationship with various Kroger locations. Empire Marketing Strategies has worked hand in hand with Kroger for over 40 years, soliciting brand-specific analytic services for in-store and e-commerce sales. This announcement is especially timely for the Company as Planet Based Foods’ products are now found in over 429 Kroger banner locations.
Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank
CEO elected to state food bank board
SAN DIEGO — The Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank’s CEO, Casey Castillo, was elected to serve on the California Association of Food Banks’ Board of Directors at the organization’s annual May meeting. California Association of Food Banks (CAFB) is comprised of 41 member food banks across the State of California, including the San Diego Food Bank. CAFB provides its member food banks with a range of support services, direct service programs and advocates for California’s food banks at the state and federal level.
Donut-eating contest raises money
for vets aboard the USS Midway
SAN DIEGO — The number-one-ranked female competitive eater in the world, Miki Sudo, will face off against her fiancé and number-four-ranked eater Nick Wehry, plus several other top-ranked eaters at the fifth-annual National Donut Day World Donut-Eating Championship hosted by The Salvation Army. The event, part of a fundraising challenge for much-needed veteran services in greater Los Angeles, will take place at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, June 2, aboard the USS Midway, located at 910 N. Harbor Drive.
Illumina to present data on genomic
profiling at clinical oncology meeting
SAN DIEGO — Illumina Inc., a global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, announced some of the latest data on the impact of comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) for oncology patients, which will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting June 2–6 in Chicago. In addition to the real-world study data, Illumina, along with study collaborators, will also present on findings that expose gaps in current standard-of-care and unmet needs for cancer patients.
Inhibrx granted Fast Track designation
for its treatment for emphysema
SAN DIEGO— Inhibrx Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of therapeutics for oncology and rare diseases, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Fast Track designation to INBRX-101, an optimized recombinant human AAT-Fc fusion protein for the treatment of patients with emphysema due to alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD). Fast Track designation is granted by the FDA upon the request of the sponsor to facilitate the development and expedite the review of drugs intended to treat serious or life-threatening diseases.
USA to host global Cybersecurity
Championship and Conference
SAN DIEGO — For the first time, the United States will host the 2023 International Cybersecurity Championship and Conference July 31-Aug.4 at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines. It will be organized by Katzcy PlayCyber. This one-of-a-kind event experience blends esports, athletics, and networking activities by complimenting a cybersecurity conference with an international championship game. A turnoout of 600-700 attendees is expected representing more than 65 nations.
Spirent’s SimXona satellite
constellation simulator fully certified
SAN DIEGO — Spirent, a global provider of test and assurance solutions, said its SimXona, an industry-first Xona satellite constellation simulator, has been fully certified by Xona Space Systems. Xona is developing PULSAR, a commercial positioning, navigation and timing service build on a backbonof low Earth orbit small satellites. Spirent will launch SimXona at the ION Navigation Conference June 12-15 in San Diego.
