Friday, September 30, 2016

Our World in Data

Our world is changing

Explore the ongoing history of human civilization at the broadest level, through research and data visualization.
“Y"

Antibiotic resistance

The science world is freaking out over this 25-year-old's answer to antibiotic resistance
Could this be the end of superbugs?
FIONA MACDONALD
26 SEP 2016
A 25-year-old student has just come up with a way to fight drug-resistant superbugs without antibiotics.
The new approach has so far only been tested in the lab and on mice, but it could offer a potential solution to antibiotic resistance, which is now getting so bad that the United Nations recently declared it a "fundamental threat" to global health./.../
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Time

Pete LinForth/Pixabay
Time might only exist in your head, say physicists
BEC CREW
27 SEP 2016
Out of all the pressures we face in our everyday lives, there’s no denying that the nature of time has the most profound effect. As our days, weeks, months, and years go by, time moves from past to present to future, and never the other way around.
But according to the physics that govern our Universe, the same things will occur regardless of what direction time is travelling in. And now physicists suggest that gravity isn’t strong enough to force every object in the Universe into a forward-moving direction anyway. /.../

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Mental Health

© Ollyy/shutterstock.com© Ollyy/shutterstock.com
That the world is currently going through a complex and critical phase in its history is an understatement. The background is multifaceted: violence of all types with a different kind of war (but war anyway) at its peak, large migrations in all regions, religion transformed in terrorist codes and strategies with tragically massive sequelae, and politics in many countries (starting with the US) reaching levels of cheap TV shows or grotesque deformity by the words and actions of some of its protagonists. And the main victim, in addition to all the innocent lives of those who died or were injured (physically and emotionally) is humanity itself, the essence of its raison d’etre—culture—as both the repository of history and the expression of our human identity./.../

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Urban Health and Habitat

Indicado pela AMICOR Maria Inês Reinert Azambuja

The challenges facing Habitat III

United Nations conference on cities needs to set goals for the next 20 years.

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In August 1932, the streets of Quito witnessed one of the world’s briefest and least-known conflicts. Supporters and opponents of president-elect Neptalí Bonifaz Ascázubi fought what has been dubbed the Four Days War. As with much civil strife, historians blame the fighting on trigger events elsewhere. Shockwaves from the Wall Street crash three years beforehand had set the people of Ecuador on an economic collision course that determined their future.
The streets of Quito will see a different kind of four-day event next month, but the implications for the country and the wider world could be just as decisive. From 17 to 20 October, experts in sustainable development, planning and urban science will gather for the third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development.
Yes, the third. Habitat III, as the meeting is known, comes after two little-remembered (beyond the specialist community) prequels — in 1976 and 1996. Which means that countless millions of city dwellers have been born since Habitat II closed its doors two decades ago./.../

Twitter and CVDisease

rief Report | 

Twitter as a Potential Data Source for Cardiovascular Disease Research ONLINE FIRST

Lauren Sinnenberg, BA1,2; Christie L. DiSilvestro, BA1,2; Christina Mancheno, BA1,2; Karl Dailey, BA1,2; Christopher Tufts, MS1,2; Alison M. Buttenheim, PhD, MBA3,4; Fran Barg, PhD, MEd5,6; Lyle Ungar, PhD1,7,8; H. Schwartz, PhD7; Dana Brown, BA1,2; David A. Asch, MD, MBA1,9; Raina M. Merchant, MD, MSHP1,2
JAMA Cardiol. Published online September 28, 2016. doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2016.3029
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Importance  As society is increasingly becoming more networked, researchers are beginning to explore how social media can be used to study person-to-person communication about health and health care use. Twitter is an online messaging platform used by more than 300 million people who have generated several billion Tweets, yet little work has focused on the potential applications of these data for studying public attitudes and behaviors associated with cardiovascular health.
Objective  To describe the volume and content of Tweets associated with cardiovascular disease as well as the characteristics of Twitter users.
Design, Setting, and Participants  We used Twitter to access a random sample of approximately 10 billion English-language Tweets originating from US counties from July 23, 2009, to February 5, 2015, associated with cardiovascular disease. We characterized each Tweet relative to estimated user demographics. A random subset of 2500 Tweets was hand-coded for content and modifiers.
Main Outcomes and Measures  The volume of Tweets about cardiovascular disease and the content of these Tweets.
Results  Of 550 338 Tweets associated with cardiovascular disease, the terms diabetes (n = 239 989) andmyocardial infarction (n = 269 907) were used more frequently than heart failure (n = 9414). Users who Tweeted about cardiovascular disease were more likely to be older than the general population of Twitter users (mean age, 28.7 vs 25.4 years; P < .01) and less likely to be male (59 082 of 124 896 [47.3%] vs 8433 of 17 270 [48.8%]; P < .01). Most Tweets (2338 of 2500 [93.5%]) were associated with a health topic; common themes of Tweets included risk factors (1048 of 2500 [41.9%]), awareness (585 of 2500 [23.4%]), and management (541 of 2500 [21.6%]) of cardiovascular disease.
Conclusions and Relevance  Twitter offers promise for studying public communication about cardiovascular disease.

Twitter


Here’s Why Twitter Might Finally Be Sold

Ever since Twitter became a popular social network, people have been imagining it getting swallowed up by a bigger company. Back in 2009, some thought it a good fit for Google, or Microsoft, or Apple. In some cases, companies tried: Google again, and also Facebook, and even Al Gore.
It never happened for a few reasons. First, Twitter’s board, including current CEO Jack Dorsey, simply didn’t want to sell. Later on, questions emerged over how Twitter would monetize its network and keep users coming, dimming the company’s appeal as a takeover target. But the most vital reason why Twitter hasn’t been bought — or seriously considered as an acquisition candidate — has been its high price./.../

Honey

Honey May Be a Natural Way to Beat Bacteria

In a lab, anyway

A type of honey from New Zealand may be able to beat back bacteria, a new study found. If proven effective, the honey could potentially be used to lower the risk for infections among people using medical devices like catheters.
Manuka honey has been used for centuries as a natural remedy, and has been shown in the past to have antibacterial and anti-inflammation effects. In the new study, published Monday in theJournal of Clinical Pathology, researchers looked at whether the honey could prevent bacteria from building up on surfaces, too.

World Air Pollution

From Carlos Dora

How polluted is YOUR country? Interactive map reveals the worst places for toxic air that kills six million worldwide every year

  • A staggering 90 per cent of globally are breathing poor quality air
  • Pollution is blamed for more than six million deaths a year, new stats show
  • The problem is worst in cities, but rural air is worse than many think
  • Data 'is enough to make all of us extremely concerned,' experts have said
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