UK rollout data on AstraZeneca shot should guide other countries: vaccine chief
Natural experiments can be a really useful source of data. "Data from Britain's vaccine rollout on the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University COVID-19 shot in older people should help other countries reassess their use of it, the head of the university's vaccine research group said on Tuesday."
Source: reuters.com
Covid vaccines cut risk of serious illness by 80% in over-80s
"The UK will soon be in a "very different world", government scientists promise after the success of the jabs."
Source: bbc.com
Open Access, Conspiracy Theories and the Democratization of Knowledge
The Scholarly Kitchen "We are in the middle of a new political dynamic here in the US – one that has been building for over a decade. This new dynamic has meant that science and scientists are being viewed with a level of distrust – and even, at times, hostility – that is unprecedented in modern...
Source: sspnet.org
Why Are COVID-19 Case Numbers Dropping?
"We don’t know. That part is easy. Also easy is that case numbers really are falling — it’s not just reduced testing — and it’s happening pretty much everywhere. Urban areas and rural. Red states and blue. Places with broad vaccine rollouts and those with hardly any. North and South America,...
Source: jwatch.org
Fires Raged in the Amazon Again in 2020
"After intense fires in the Amazon captured global attention in 2019, fires again raged throughout the region in 2020. According to an analysis of satellite data from NASA’s Amazon dashboard, the 2020 fire season was actually more severe by some key measures." “Our system identified about 23,000...
Source: nasa.gov
Eeek! or E484K mutation and the coronavirus pandemic
Rupert Beale · Eeek! · LRB 19 February 2021: "Uncontrolled spread – as we knew it would – led to an even greater wave of infections, hospitalisations and deaths than last spring. Children were sent to school for one day before the necessary ‘lockdown’ was reimposed. The impulse to keep schools...
Source: lrb.co.uk
AI uses "ugly duckling" technique to spot melanoma with high accuracy
"Artificial intelligence is starting to combine with smartphone technology in ways that could have profound impacts on the way we monitor health, from tracking blood volume changes in diabetics to detecting concussions by filming the eyes." "Using the technology to spot melanoma in its early stages is...
Source: newatlas.com
WhatsApp to go ahead with changes despite backlash
The messaging app is making a second attempt to convince users to accept its new privacy policy.
Source: bbc.com
Clinical Trials Overlook Diseases of Low-Income Countries
Conditions like respiratory infections, tuberculosis, and enteric infections that disproportionately affect low-income countries are consistently understudied in clinical trials, according to a recent study. Bridget M. Kuehn. JAMA.
Source: jamanetwork.com
Abundant Rain Turns Namibia Green
The landscape has been transformed by the wettest rainy season since 2011. "January 2021 saw rainfall totals double to triple the norm in the northeastern, central, and southern parts of Namibia. According to a weather monitor in Windhoek, 228 millimeters (9 inches) of rain fell in January; the long-term...
Source: nasa.gov
Twitter a goldmine for tracking consumer mood on prices, Bank of Italy finds.
The Bank of Italy said on Monday a set of experimental indicators it created from the content of millions of tweets accurately tracked consumer mood on price, offering scope for a powerful new monetary policy tool.
Source: reuters.com
Word of the day: deprecated
Geek talk. The tech behind this blog which takes any link that I find interesting and, instead of curating it for LinkedIn / Twitter / Facebook, curates it here on something I have control over broke. I accidentally upgraded the server to PHP8 and an old function in PHP each() no longer worked. Took...
Frontline workers left "risking lives to provide treatment and care"
"The Department for Health and Social Care's decision to prioritise hospitals at the beginning of the pandemic meant social care providers were left exposed by lack of PPE, says the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee in its first report on PPE procurement published today." "While government...
Source: parliament.uk
Introducing Open-AI's DALL-E.
Ever wondered what an armchair in the shape of an avocado might look like? Introducing Open-AI's DALL-E.
Does this help with accessibility by explaining things in pictures from written words? Does it risk replacing humans in the creative industry with machines?
"DALL·E: Creating Images from...
Source: openai.com
11 TOPS photonic convolutional accelerator for optical neural networks: Convolutional neural networks, inspired by biological
11 TOPS photonic convolutional accelerator for optical neural networks: Convolutional neural networks, inspired by biological visual cortex systems, are a powerful category of artificial neural networks that can extract the hierarchical features of raw data to provide greatly reduced parametric complexity...
Source: nature.com
MMR, smoking, and 'in-vitro' models in COVID-19
Good summary of current science news topics for coronavirus in Reuters. Strong responders to MMR II vaccine (since 1979) have less severe disease with COVID-19, cigarette smoke increases risk, and a useful 'in-vivo' model for further study of how SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses might be treated.
Source: reuters.com
Stripe acquires Nigeria's Paystack for over $200 million to expand its footprint in Africa
Africa is a great opportunity for ecommerce in coming decades and Nigeria's Paystack has been growing fast. "Stripe is a San Francisco-based fintech startup that provides payments infrastructure for businesses. Its software and APIs are used by millions of companies of all sizes to accept payments,...
Source: techstartups.com
Current themes and challenges facing HPE accreditation in the 21st century
A supplement in BMC Medical Education on Health Professional Education accreditation from the community of practice The International Health Professions Accreditation Outcomes Consortium (IFPAOC) - which was founded in 2012. This supplement focuses on graduate and residency programmes but it also addresses...
Source: biomedcentral.com
Adaptive tutorials versus web-based resources in radiology: a mixed methods analysis in junior doctors of efficacy and engagement:
Adaptive tutorials versus web-based resources in radiology: a mixed methods analysis in junior doctors of efficacy and engagement: Radiology education is limited in undergraduate Medicine programs. Junior doctors might not have the necessary background to effectively order and interpret diagnostic imaging...
Source: biomedcentral.com
Supporting migrants and refugees with posttraumatic stress disorder: development, pilot implementation, and pilot evaluation
Supporting migrants and refugees with posttraumatic stress disorder: development, pilot implementation, and pilot evaluation of a continuing interprofessional education for healthcare providers: Refugees and migrants face an increased risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Adequate...
Source: biomedcentral.com
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