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Yaws could soon be eradicated — 70 years behind schedule Jones, Sam. Nature 2024.

Researchers are cautiously optimistic that the neglected tropical disease could be gone by 2030, but new barriers — including antibiotic resistance and primate reservoirs — might stand in the way. Researchers are cautiously optimistic that the neglected tropical disease could be gone by 2030, but...
Source: nature.com

Assessing learners - a mindset for the era of generative AI.

ChatGPT assignments to use in your classroom today. "Teachers and faculty everywhere first need to adopt a mindset that acknowledges the availability of AI and the likelihood that students will use it. As a result, we need to adjust our expectations of students. With online tests, maybe we should stop...
Source: ucf.edu

NFTs died a slow, painful death in 2023 as most are now worthless

A reminder that early adoption of technology is not without risk. "Non-fungible tokens promised to revolutionise the concept of ownership using the blockchain technology behind bitcoin, but the market seems to have all but collapsed."
Source: newscientist.com

Coding excursions

blog post image Anonymity with encryption At Outcomes Engine we are working on techniques to gather data from learners, analyse the data, and share the data whilst maintaining anonymity. I was involved in some work in my previous company (pharmaceutical) with the security of personal data - in our case it was data...

Introducing Gemini: our largest and most capable AI model

Gemini is our most capable and general model, built to be multimodal and optimized for three different sizes: Ultra, Pro and Nano.
Source: blog.google

Identifying the optimal time period for detection of atrial fibrillation after ischaemic stroke and TIA, an updated systematic

There is an almost 4-fold increase in nAF detection with continuous cardiac monitoring, compared to usual care. The results also demonstrate two statistically significant time periods in nAF detection; at 0-14 days and 6-12 months following monitoring commencement. These data support the utilisation...
Source: nih.gov

The International Code of Medical Ethics of the World Medical Association Ramin Walter Parsa-Parsi. JAMA.

"One of the central missions of the World Medical Association (WMA) in its role as the global organization of physicians is to ensure the highest possible standard of ethical practice of the medical profession. Since its establishment in 1947 in the aftermath of one of the most egregious breaches of...
Source: jamanetwork.com

The Lyonesse Project: a study of the coastal and marine environment of the Isles of Scilly (OASIS ID cornwall2-58903)

This project was commissioned by English Heritage and carried out between 2009 and 2013 by Historic Environment Projects, Cornwall Council with a team of specialists from Aberystwyth, Cardiff, Exeter and Plymouth Universities, English Heritage's Scientific Dating Team, volunteers and local experts and...
Source: archaeologydataservice.ac.uk

Biopharma 2020: A landmark year and a reset for the future

Biopharma in 2020 has shown what it can achieve when it works at its best. How can the industry build on this renewed sense of purpose in the years ahead? McKinsey biopharma 2020 3 Overarching trends Operating under a spotlight - expectation of innovationNavigating protracted economic uncertainty -...
Source: mckinsey.com

Meet the dazzling flying machines of the future

When you hear the word "drone," you probably think of something either very useful or very scary. But could they have aesthetic value? Autonomous systems expert Raffaello D'Andrea develops flying machines, and his latest projects are pushing the boundaries of autonomous flight -- from a flying wing that...
Source: ted.com

Fatalism - the stalemate of us vs. COVID-19

Stephen Casper - medical historian at Clarkson University - offers a worrying prediction for COVID for the end of 2022. The analogy for COVID-19 won't be influenza but 'tuberculosis before the discovery of antibiotics'. A new hospital specialty might even exist - looking after COVID patients - and they...
Source: twitter.com

Factors affecting the uptake of new medicines: a systematic literature review - BMC Health Services Research Lublóy, Ágnes.

"This systematic literature review has provided insights into the factors that affect new drug uptake—primarily, doctors’ scientific orientation, prescribing habits, exposure to pharmaceutical marketing, and interpersonal communication." "Background The successful diffusion of new drugs is crucial...
Source: biomedcentral.com

Why a U.S. hospital and oil company turned to facial recognition

Deployments of facial recognition from Israeli startup AnyVision show how the surveillance software has gained adoption across the United States even as regulatory and ethical debates about it rage.
Source: reuters.com

NASA has flown its Ingenuity drone helicopter on Mars for the first time

The historic moment was livestreamed on YouTube and Ingenuity captured the photo above with one of its two cameras.
Source: technologyreview.com

Building customer relationships with conversational AI

We’ve all been there. “Please listen to our entire menu as our options have changed. Say or press one for product information…” Sometimes, these automated customer service experiences are effective and efficient—other times, not so much. Many organizations are already using chatbots and virtual...
Source: technologyreview.com

A Convolutional Neural Network architecture for the recognition of cutaneous manifestations of COVID-19

To our best knowledge, this is the first machine learning-based study for automated detection of COVID-19 based on skin images and may provide a useful decision support tool for physicians to optimize contact-free COVID-19 triage, differential diagnosis of skin lesions and patient care. Mathur J, Chouhan...
Source: nih.gov

Declining Life Expectancy in the United States

This Viewpoint reviews the social and economic drivers of declines in longevity in the US, especially among lower socioeconomic status groups, and proposes policy options for the Biden-Harris administration to mitigate the trend, including an increase in the federally mandated minimum wage. Atheendar...
Source: jamanetwork.com

No, frozen wind turbines aren't the main culprit for Texas' power outages

"Lost wind power makes up only a fraction of the reduction in power generating capacity that has brought outages to millions of Texans across the state during a major winter storm." Plenty of disinformation out there. There have been posts apparently showing a helicopter de-icing a wind turbine but it...
Source: texastribune.org

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

Dying in a Leadership Vacuum Why has the United States handled this pandemic so badly?

Dying in a Leadership Vacuum Why has the United States handled this pandemic so badly? The NEJM Editors asks what has gone so wrong in the US and lays the blame with the political leadership. "This crisis has produced a test of leadership. With no good options to combat a novel pathogen, countries were...
Source: nejm.org