There is no effective treatment for geographic atrophy, one of the most common causes of blindness in industrialized nations. The disease damages cells of the retina and causes them to die. The main lesions, areas of degenerated retina, also known as "geographic atrophy," expand as the disease progresses and result in blind spots in the affected person's visual field. A major challenge for evaluating therapies is that these lesions progress slowly, which means that intervention studies require a long follow-up period. "When evaluating therapeutic approaches, we have so far concentrated primarily on the main lesions of the disease. However, in addition to central visual field loss, patients also suffer from symptoms such as a reduced light sensitivity in the surrounding retina," explains Prof. Dr. Frank G. Holz, Director of the Eye Clinic at the University Hospital Bonn.

This data representation shows common terms used in hateful comments on Reddit, Twitter, and other social media sites compared to non-hateful comments. BERKELEY, California – A group of researchers has partnered with the Anti-Defamation League to fight online hate speech by teaching computers to recognize it on social-media platforms. The Online Hate Index project out of the D-Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, aims to identify hate speech, study its impact and eventually design a plan to counteract hateful content. Using artificial intelligence, teams of social scientists and data analysts are working to code programs that can search through thousands of posts looking for malicious content, said Claudia Von Vacano, executive director of digital humanities at Berkeley. The program correctly identifies about 85 percent of hate speech, even though the project is in its early stages.