Last month, The US Food and Drug Administration approved a new blood test for assisting the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Produced by Roche, Elecsys pTau181 measures the concentration of a specific molecule—a phosphorylated form of the tau protein—in the blood. Tau is one of two proteins, the other being amyloid, that become malformed and accumulate in the brains of patients with certain types of dementia. It is believed that the buildup of these proteins interferes with the communication of brain cells, leading to these patients’ symptoms.

The test had already received authorization in July for marketing in Europe and is thus the first early screening system for Alzheimer’s for use in primary care settings approved in the planet’s two major pharmaceutical markets. It is an opener in what should soon become a crowded field, as there are several other tests in advanced stages of testing and approval.

How Do Such Tests Work?

Elecsys pTau181 looks in the blood plasma for a form of the tau protein that has a phosphate group attached, which is often found in elevated amounts in Alzheimer’s patients. This molecule is an indirect marker of the plaques of amyloid and neurofibrillary tangles of tau observed in the brains of patients with the disease.

Some other tests have also been approved, though not for early screening. These assess other biomarkers that relate to these two proteins. One test, called Lumipulse and made by the Japanese company Fujirebio, looks at the ratio between another form of phosphorylated tau (pTau217) and a key protein fragment that forms amyloid plaques (amyloid beta peptide 1-42).

The bottom line is that these tests offer clues to the probable presence of amyloidosis in the brain, which then needs to be diagnosed with greater accuracy using more invasive tests, such as a PET (positron emission tomography) scan and cerebrospinal fluid analysis by lumbar puncture, considered the clinical gold standard for diagnosing amyloid pathology in living patients. Even these, however, come with some degree of uncertainty; true diagnostic certainty can only be had with a post-mortem dissection of the brain.

Why Approve These Tests Now?

In the past, confirmation of an Alzheimer’s diagnosis was not that important, as there were no drugs or therapies that could alter the course of the disease. But with the approval of new Alzheimer’s monoclonal antibody treatments, the landscape has changed in the past few years.

To use these medicines, you need a way to confirm which patients can benefit. And since the drugs ideally yield the best results when used early on in the disease’s progression, a relatively inexpensive and minimally invasive diagnostic test will be extremely useful. Subjecting all elderly people with suspected symptoms of cognitive decline to PET scans and cerebrospinal fluid sampling is impractical, so this is where blood testing for Alzheimer’s comes in.

Just How Useful Are These Tests?

Elecsys pTau181 is the first test to be approved for use as a community-screening tool. The idea is for it to be administered at the primary care level—so, for instance, by a primary care physician or general practitioner. The test has been shown to have a good “negative predictive value”—that is, it is effective at accurately indicating who does not have amyloid disease. In settings where the overall prevalence of amyloid disease is low, a negative result from this test is 97.9 percent reliable. This makes it useful for selecting which patients to put forward for further testing.

The results are similar to those of other tests that have already been approved in recent months, such as Lumipulse from Japan’s Fujirebio, which in trials has shown a negative predictive value of about 97 percent.

However, there is an important limitation to note: for all blood tests for Alzheimer’s, there tends to be a relatively large proportion of patients (15-30 percent is a common estimate) who fall into a gray area of uncertainty, in which the levels of identified biomarkers do not allow for either a positive or a negative answer.

In an upgrade that spans network planning to management, and marking a “significant evolution” in its ecosystem, Omada has embarked on a software refresh designed to enable to plan smarter networks that can be deployed faster and managed with greater precision and confidence.

The upgrades from TP-Link Systems business solution brand includes enhancements to Omada Network 6.0, Omada App 5.0, Wi-Fi Navi App V1.5 and a new Omada Design Hub. These upgrades are designed to deliver a smarter, more integrated experience for MSPs, system integrators (SIs) and installers as well as everyday users. With end-to-end tools for planning, deployment and management, Omada claimed that it can empower businesses to build high performance networks with greater speed, precision and reliability.

At the heart of the upgrades is Omada Network 6.0, described as a major refit designed to simplify and supercharge network operations. Listed as being built for professionals who are managing complex deployments, it offers a new interface and enhanced interactions to make troubleshooting faster, monitoring more precise and configuration more intuitive.

The redesigned dashboard features a five-tab layout – including overview, topology, Wi-Fi, client and traffic – to deliver better visual insights, while the newly designed interface and menus are aimed at making configuration and management experience smoother. New visualisations, such as AP density maps and heatmaps, are intended to help IT teams understand user behaviour and deployment performance at a glance.

The company said its “standout addition” is the multi-level health scoring system available in the cloud-based controller. It is engineered automatically evaluates the status of devices, clients, WLANs and sites, enabling simplified monitoring and early detection of issues across multiple layers.

Smart Topology has also been upgraded with real-time VLAN visibility and disconnected device tracking. Customisable filters make it easier to locate faults and streamline troubleshooting. Enhanced client recognition now identifies device type, brand and models automatically, while the new device and client page visualises activity timelines and event history for full lifecycle management.

Omada claims that network configuration is faster than ever with a simple three step VLAN setup and centralised bulk port management across switches. These improvements set out to eliminate guesswork and reduce configuration time from hours to minutes, especially in large-scale deployments.

Integrated with Omada’s core solution, the Omada Design Hub is a free, cloud-based network planner, offering AI-powered precision during each stage of deployment. Design Hub helps to “simulate, visualise and deliver tailored solutions” in use cases such as designing for offices, homes, hotels or schools.

Users can now upload floor plans, auto-detect walls and instantly generate Wi-Fi heatmaps. The platform supports auto AP placement and cabling, including cross-floor connections, and one-click proposal exports with topology maps, device lists and simulation results. It supports users to personalise reports for clients, speeding up communication and delivery.

Bulk adjustments, editable equipment lists with pricing, and real-time topology tools have been updated to make planning faster and more accurate. Adaptive spatial models and signal strength calculations ensure reliable coverage and installation-ready designs.

Meanwhile, the Omada Wi-Fi Navi App V1.5, a free networking troubleshooting tools, expands its toolkit for installers and administrators. New features include Wi-Fi Integrated Test, Walking Test, IP/Port Scanners, Public IP Lookup, and Bandwidth/PoE calculators. It also includes iPerf2 support and improved scanning for deployment validation and on-site issue resolution.

Researchers at the University of Surrey have proposed a computational approach that can provide aerodynamic drag data more efficiently during the early stages of aircraft design. It is hoped that AeroMap could help develop safer and more fuel-efficient aircraft.

Drag is the aerodynamic force that opposes an aircraft‘s motion through the air. Being able to predict drag accurately at an early design stage helps engineers avoid later adjustments that can lead to additional time and cost. Reliable early estimates can also reduce the need for extensive wind tunnel testing or large-scale computer simulations.

AeroMap estimates drag for different wing-body configurations operating at speeds close to the speed of sound. In a study published in Aerospace Science and Technology, researchers show how AeroMap provides datasets up to 10 to 100 times faster than high-fidelity simulations currently on the market, while maintaining good accuracy.

The researchers suggest that such improvements in prediction speed could support the development of more fuel-efficient aircraft configurations by allowing designers to assess a wider range of design options in less time.

“Our goal was to develop a method that provides reliable transonic aerodynamic predictions for a range of configurations, without the high computational cost of full-scale simulations. By providing reliable results earlier in the design process, AeroMap reduces the need for costly redesigns and repeated wind-tunnel testing.

“It also delivers the level of detail engineers need to refine concepts more efficiently and with greater confidence,” says Dr. Rejish Jesudasan, research fellow at the University of Surrey and lead author of the study.

AeroMap is based on a viscous-coupled full potential method, which combines a reduced form of the Navier–Stokes equations that describe airflow with a model of the thin boundary layer of air that moves along an aircraft’s surface. This approach enables AeroMap to capture the main effects of drag without the high computing demands of more detailed simulations. As a result, it provides a practical tool for the early stages of aircraft design, when engineers need results that are both reliable and rapid.

Many existing models still rely on empirical methods developed several decades ago. Although these remain widely used, they can be less accurate when applied to modern, high-efficiency wing designs. AeroMap has been validated against NASA wind tunnel data, with results showing close agreement between its predictions and experimental measurements, indicating its suitability for sustainable aircraft development.

“Accurately predicting the transonic performance of aircraft configurations, during early concept studies, remains a significant challenge. Previous empirical approaches, based on older datasets, can struggle to capture the behavior of modern high-efficiency wings.

“AeroMap combines established aerodynamic principles in a way that improves the reliability of drag predictions during early development, helping engineers make better-informed design decisions,” says Dr. Simao Marques.

“We are exploring how AeroMap can be combined with optimization techniques to assess a wider range of wing-body configurations and performance scenarios. This approach could help engineers identify more efficient designs earlier in the process, potentially reducing lifecycle costs and supporting the industry as it works toward future sustainability goals,” says John Doherty.