Lower costs and higher efficiencies aren’t the only advantages. Because they’re flexible and lightweight, perovskites and other emerging technologies could extend solar into new applications. Perovskites, for example, could be quickly sprayed and rolled onto flexible substrates, much as newspapers are spooled through high-volume printing presses.

   

How to win the support they deserve? (iee)

   

   
Much more can be done to transform the prospects of those most at risk of being left behind by better targeting investment in human capital that both builds peoples’ wellbeing and boosts their economic potential. The fact that some donors and countries are already much better at targeting than others points to what is possible to achieve at the global and national level.

   
For Sustainable development (odi)

   

  EU' Ethical AI is here

   
These rules aren’t like Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics.” They don’t offer a snappy, moral framework that will help us control murderous robots. Instead, they address the murky and diffuse problems that will affect society as we integrate AI into sectors like health care, education, and consumer technology. The EU convened a group of 52 experts who came up with seven requirements they think future AI systems should meet.

   
New guidelines for trustworthy AI (theverge)

   

   
China is investing heavily in emerging technology sectors—such as artificial intelligence and next-generation mobile communication—to successfully chip away at U.S. technology leadership and global market share. However, in the United States, many U.S. workers are unable to find good jobs in the information economy.

   
Crafting a new approach (americanprogress)

   

   
Programmers are human, but mathematics is immortal. By making programming more mathematical, a community of computer scientists is hoping to eliminate the coding bugs that can open doors to hackers, spill digital secrets and generally plague modern society. Now a set of computer scientists has taken a major step toward this goal with the release today of EverCrypt, a set of digital cryptography tools.

   
Against known hacking attacks (quantamagazine)

   

   
The cloud usually means the Internet or the network and computing refers to the virtual resource provided as a service by the remote provider. The services through resources can be software, infrastructure, platform, devices, and other resources. This article delves into the subject, giving a quick idea of the basics of cloud computing.

   
The infinite scalability (developer)

   

   
A community with over 700,000 subscribers, many of whom regard it as an online oasis. Any topic is open for debate: All drugs should be legal, voter ID laws are a good idea, flour tortillas are superior to bread. CMV has captured the attention of journalists, who have called it “our best hope for civil discourse,” and researchers, who have used it to study the effective online rhetoric.

   
‘Change my view’ (wired)

   

   
Engineers at Ruhr-Universität Bochum have developed a novel concept for rapid data transfer via optical fibre cables. In current systems, a laser transmits light signals through the cables and information is coded in the modulation of light intensity. The new system, a semiconductor spin laser, is based on a modulation of light polarisation instead.

   
Capacity of spin lasers (innovations-report)

   

   
In order to evaluate a measurement system, we will need some sort of study where multiple determinations are made of the same thing or the same group of things. Perhaps the simplest form for studies of this sort is to measure the same thing repeatedly. When these values are placed on an XmR chart we end up with a test for the consistency of the measurement system.

   
Practical answers (qualitydigest)

   

   
DNA profiling can be so powerful and has been used successfully in so many cases that some people think it is nearly infallible. But the reliability of DNA profiling varies, and other things being equal, it is most reliable when the evidence contains plenty of DNA from just one or two people. That’s why homicides and sexual assaults—crimes that tend to produce a lot of this type of DNA evidence—made up the bulk of DNA casework for many years.

   
A Forensic science (nist)

   

   
While the decision to liberalize bilateral or multilateral trading relationships is usually made at thenational level, the degree to which trade restrictions bind economic outcomes is likely to vary geo-graphically. Cities in which economic activity is concentrated in industries facing high tariffs or otherbarriers to exports or protections from potential import competition are likely to be disproportion-ately affected by trade integration.

   
Working papers (havard)

   

   
In 2018, at least the cinema allowed us to experience what Sub-­Saharan Africa could possibly look like: paradisiacal conditions and a highly developed civilisation that uses its immense resource wealth to provide its own population with a life in freedom and prosperity and to defend this achievement from the outside world.

   
International report (kas)

   

   
In addition to the traditional return on investment (ROI) metrics used to determine a company’s success, it’s time to introduce another metric, one with a focus on customer experience. Because consumers today are so discerning and powerful, it’s our perspective that most organisations need to invest far more in customer experience (CX).

    
Introducing ‘return onexperience’ (pwc)

   

   
Half a billion more people could be at risk from diseases transmitted by mosquitoes within 30 years as a result of the warming climate, a study warns. People in Canada and part of northern Europe could come into contact with yellow fever, Zika, dengue and chikungunya, as well as other emerging diseases. Over 6 billion people live in climates where the two mosquitoes studied can live for a month or more each year.

   
Action to combat global warming (plos)
    

   
The UN Security Council is set to hold further discussions on the security implications of climate change; the new Climate Security Mechanism within the UN system will come into effect; and many countries will continue to see discussions on the impacts of climate-related disaster risks, with consequences for conflict dynamics and security.

   
Climate change (odi)

   

   
Thomas Edison is often described as America’s greatest inventor. His successes include electric power generation, sound recording, and the electric lightbulb. But Edison was no stranger to failure. He famously tested 1,000 different designs before settling on the carbon filament that became the first commercially successful lightbulb.

   
Behind the secrets of success (technologyreview)

   

   
The Paris climate agreement was established in 2015 as a strategy to address climate change, with nations committing to cut their carbon emissions and hold back soaring global temperatures. But while awareness of climate change’s catastrophic impacts grows, there is no equivalent agreement by nations to deal with the other environmental challenges facing the planet.

   
Turning the tide to environmental damage (unenvironment)

   

   
The “sandwich generation” are adults who both have children who live at home and seniors, usually parents or in-laws, in whose care those adults are involved, so they’re sandwiched between their own children and their parents or their in-laws or other senior relatives that they have to help care for. The growth of that sandwich generation reflects lots of different thing.

   
Managing the future of work (hbs)

   

   
More than 3,500 bankers in the UK are paid more than €1m (£860,000) a year, according to new pay and bonus details published by the European Banking Authority (EBA). The UK was home to 73% of all millionaire bankers across Europe, according to the pay data, which the European parliament forced banks to make public following the financial crisis.

   
Data analysis-2016/2017 (eba)

   

   
To show how fast Internet affects employment in Africa, we exploit the gradual arrival of submarine Inter-net cables on the coast and maps of the terrestrial cable network. Robust difference-in-differences estimatesfrom three datasets covering 12 countries show large positive effects on employment rates—also for less ed-ucated worker groups—with little or no job displacement across space.

   
The higher net job-creation (ibread)

   

   
Maths anxiety has been seen in young school children from around the age of 6. However, negative attitudes towards mathematicsand maths anxiety appear to increase when children reach secondary school age, persisting into post-secondary education and throughout adulthood. Many potential causes have been identified for maths anxiety. These include some environmental factors.

   
The study (U.Cambridge)

   

   
The Japanese labour market is pulling off a neat trick. Although both the whole population and the working-age population are declining every year, the number of Japanese in the workforce is growing, and expanding at a rate that outperforms many other younger and more vibrant advanced economies. We explain how this is happening and assess whether it is sustainable in our feature article.

   
Economic projections (pwc)

   

   
Ambient air pollution is a major health risk, leading to respiratory and cardiovascular mortality. A recent Global Exposure Mortality Model, based on an unmatched number of cohort studies in many countries, provides new hazard ratio functions, calling for re-evaluation of the disease burden. Accordingly, we estimated excess cardiovascular mortality attributed to air pollution in Europe.

   
Novel hazard ratio functions (European heart journal)

   

   
The power of a workplace culture of equality to drive employees’ innovation mindset—or their willingness and ability to innovate—is strong. It has more impact than age or gender and leads to an increase in innovation mindset in all industries and all countries. In fact, employees’ innovation mindset is six times higher in the most-equal cultures than in the least-equal ones.

   
Workplace environment (accenture)

   

   
Our Sun sometimes produces highly energetic particles, which are accelerated either by magnetic reconnection in solar flares. Such events represent a threat to modern society in terms of communication and navigation systems, space technologies, and commercial aircraft operations.Traces of an enormous solar storm that battered the atmosphere and showered Earth in radioactive particles more than 2,500 years ago have been discovered under the Greenland ice sheet.

   
Multiradionuclide evidence of Solar storm (pnas)

   

   
The Netherlands and Singapore again claim first and second place, respectively; the former benefiting from its European leadership in transport public policy, the latter from its brilliance in attracting investment from global technology leaders.But many of the overall scores are very close and there are numerous opportunities, identified in this report, for countries to make significant progress.

   
Assessing countries’ preparedness (kpmg)

   

   
Democracy is good for your heart, health and longevity, a study of 170 countries has concluded, in a boost to a form of government that has recently faced significant setbacks globally. Life expectancy has improved more quickly in countries that have switched to democracy in the past 50 years, the researchers discovered, and there have been fewer deaths from cardiovascular disease, cancer, cirrhosis and even road traffic accidents.

   
Impact of democracy on adult health (Lancet)

   

   
The open web has accomplished so much in just thirty years. But today, it faces real challenges. Half the world cannot get online. The other half face threats to their privacy, security and fundamental rights. Web Foundation has always been concerned about: the Internet' balkanisation, that’s a pretty darn effective way of doing. There will be a massive loss of richness to the web.

   
Three sources of disfunction on the web (medianama)

   

   
Cells from a woolly mammoth that died more than 28,000 years ago have been partially reactivated inside of mouse egg cells, according to one study. The achievement shows that biological activity can be induced in the cells of long-dead creatures, but that does not mean that scientists will be resurrecting extinct animals like mammoths any time soon.

   
Extracted genomic DNA from mammoth remains (nature)

   

   
Growth is recovering in Europe and there is an optimistic, vibrant air in the region that is fostering a renewed sense of ambition. This report investigates how companies in Europe are developing digital, data-driven technologies to augment human physical and mental abilities. Specifically, the report examines the triggers of innovation and its implementation in relation to three critical enabling factors.

   
Survey on European companies (deloitte)

   

   
The intent to divest remains at record levels — 84% of companies plan to divest within the next two years, consistent with last year’s record of 87%. Despite uncertainty from tariffs, a trade war, desynchronized growth and geopolitical concerns, the market offers sellers a resilient yet competitive environment.

   
Shareholder activism (ey)

   

   
With 5G, digital entertainment is set become both richer and more social. High-speed wireless connectivity will deliver 4K and 8K video, holograms, augmented reality and virtual reality applications for gaming and immersive TV, while bringing people together to enjoy live events, such as sports and concerts. 5G could enable spectators to enjoy a 360-degree view from anywhere in the venue.

   
The rollout of intelligent connectivity (gsma)

   

   
The recently launched EU Research & Innovation Framework programme, Horizon Europe has the ambition to make Europe an unparalleled global innovation hub. As the chemical industry is a significant contributor to solving global challenges through innovative solutions and products, we support the new framework. REACH, the EU’s pioneering chemicals legislation, is designed to ensure the safety of chemicals throughout Europe.

   
Facts & figures (cefic)

   

   
AI is now being used in every aspect of managing supply chain and manufacturing operations, says Chris Noyes, a senior manager with Deloitte Consulting LLP. Product development is using natural language processing on social media data to understand customer feedback. Logistics managers are using advanced optimization algorithms to find better network configurations.

   
Robotic process automation (RPA) (areadevelopment)

   

   
The publicity surrounding the EU accession prospects stemming from the Prespa agreement and the support that it has received from both the EU and EU member state officials has had only a marginal impact on the popular perceptions on the progress made in the EU integration process in 2018. Domestic factors and veto-power of neighbouring EU member states are seen as the two biggest obstacles to Macedonia’s prospects of EU membership.

   
Members' opinion (kas)

   

   
The systems modernization you need today is more than an upgrade; you’re playing a new game with new rules, in which you modernize not just the tools and functions, but the way you do IT. The vendors are largely the same, but the options and principles of the past no longer apply. Hardware no longer stands alone.

   
10 Principles (strategy-business)

   

   
The “discovery of the 21st century” was awarded the Nobel prize two years after it was made. In 2015, the Laser Interferometre Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project finally detected what it was built to: gravitational waves—ripples in the fabric of space and time—caused by the collision of two black holes. one of the most universal shifts in the innovation sector in recent years has been the growth of large teams.

   
When it comes to teaming ? (hbr)

   

   
Researcher have demonstrated the possibility of repeatable noncontact labeling and reading with resolution beyond common printer quality. Because of the small amount of highly available material required, the expense for a film of 1m2 is below $1.50. The presented label concept can be fabricated using highly scalable processes that are available today.

   
Programmable & transparent (advances.sciencemag)

   

   
Approximately one-third of all food produced in the world intended for human consumption is lost or wasted (FAO 2011). This level of inefficiency in the global food system has significant economic, social, and environmental impacts. It amounts to economic losses of $940 billion per year (FAO 2015). It means that more than a billion tons of food never get consumed each year, while one in nine people remain undernourished (WFP 2018).

   
Quantifying benefit-cost ratios (wrap)

   

   
This report provides academic researchers, policymakers, and business leaders with insights into Latino-owned businesses as a group and as a number of subgroups and profiles. It includes differences in growth and funding experiences by gender, nativity, region, industry, size, and other personal and business characteristics. The 2018 SLEI Survey of U.S.

   
Trends (gsb.stanford)

   

   
In 2018 wind energy generated enough electricity to meet 14% of the EU’s electricity demand. This is a 2% share higher than in 2017 levels, in part due to the lower elec-tricity demand registered7. Denmark had the highest share of wind (41%) in Europe, followed by Ireland (28%) and Portugal (24%). Germany, Spain and the UK follow with 21%, 19% and 18% respec-tively. 9 Member States had a wind share of 10% or more.

   
WindEurope report 2019

   

   
Climate Assessment warned in November that without significant reductions in emissions, average global temperatures could rise by 5ºC by the end of the century.20GRPS respondents seem increasingly worried about environmental policy failure: having fallen in the rankings after Paris, “failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation” jumped back to number two in terms of impact this year.

   
Three of the top five risks (weforum)

   

   
Temporal context refers to the features of an experience that occur around the time it is first experienced, and is shaped by both external inputs and a continuously changing internal state1,2,5. Recent evidence has demonstrated the presence of signals in the brain that may serve as an internal representation of temporal context.

   
Memory of past and future (quantamagazine)

   

   
Companies have used the power of digital transformation to shape themselves, to shape customers and employees, and then to shape people’s expectations. What’s left is using their ongoing digital efforts to shape the market. Companies face a world of renewed expectations and core digital technologies are more critical than ever.

   
What’s next? (accenture)

   

   
Tourism is an important sector in the global economy. Today, 10.4% of the world’s GDP and 7% of the world’s total exports come from tourism. The industry is worth over US$ 1.1 trillion. The money earned from expenditures by foreigners are crucial drivers of economic development and can be an important source of foreign exchange.

   
View of global tourism (hks.harvard)

   

   
Until recently, Barzilay, one of the world’s leading researchers in artificial intelligence, hadn’t given much thought to these nearby buildings full of chemists and biologists. But as AI and machine learning began to perform ever more impressive feats in image recognition and language comprehension, she began to wonder: could it also transform the task of finding new drugs?

   
The unlimited possibilities (technologyreview)

   

   
According to SR1.5, limiting warming to 1.5°C requires drastic emission reductions globally by 2030 (40–60%, compared to 2010). This necessary increase in the level of ambition in the near-term would have major implications for European climate policy. Apart from committing to achieving green-house gas-neutrality by 2050, the EU would have to rapidly accelerate emission reductions by 2030.

   
Realignment to Paris agreement (umweltbundesamt)

   

   
The Next Big Thing is dead. Long live the Next Big Thing. Few phrases better capture the anticipation, intrigue, and magic of tech innovation. The phrase has been an apt descriptor for such standouts as the market-ready product that quickly revolutionizes the tech landscape. Increasingly, though, that phenomena is less relevant in a world defined not by ‘one big thing,’ but rather, the iterative fusion of technology building blocks coupled with a generous helping of people and process.

   
Trends to watch (comptia)

   

   
European countries have introduced various tobacco control policies (e.g. increased taxation of tobacco products, no-smoking areas, advertising bans, graphic pack warnings, and smoking cessation programs) over recent decades. Despite a general decrease in tobacco consumption and the prevalence of smoking, still more than one in four of the European population over the age of 14 years is an active smoker.

   
Related to Time & age (plos)

   

   
A new class of bacterial tolerance against antibiotics that could have wide implications for the future of antibiotics in medicine. In the battle with antimicrobial peptides, it was found that some E. coli cells essentially act as cannon fodder — sacrificing themselves to antibiotic assault while other cells continued to grow and replicate.

   
On how to enhance population survivability (elifesciences)

   

   
The mission of Vicarious Surgical’s founders and its investors is to drive down both the cost of higher impact surgeries and access to the best surgeons through remote technologies. The market for medical robots is highly lucrative. Earlier today, Johnson & Johnson announced the $3.4 billion acquisition of Auris Health — a maker of robotic diagnostics and surgical tools.

   
From big to tiny devices (techcrunch)

   

   
what are CEOs saying about the year ahead? PwC’s 22nd Annual Global CEO Survey of 1,378 chief executives in more than 90 territories explores that question and many others regarding the global business climate in 2019. Conducted in September and October of 2018, this year’s survey drills down on CEO insights in top-of-mind areas such as: Growth, Data and Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence.

   
CEOs’ expectation (pwc)

   

   
With steadily growing demands on housing, mobility, and consumption, the densely populated urban settlements offer considerable potential for reducing environmental impacts. In order to allow healthy urban surroundings and a high quality of life in vibrant green quarters for the residents, urban development must be closely linked with environmental quality targets.

   
Numerous pressing research questions (umweltbundesamt)

   

   
It is time to change our perception of vaccines: vaccines are not merely a protective tool against a specific disease, they affect the immune system broadly. In the case of live vaccines, the immune system is strengthened. In contrast, non-live vaccines seem to have a negative effect on the immune system in females.

   
Live-vaccine vs non-live vaccine (theconversation)

   

   
The international community has made important progress toward addressing the tax challenges arising from digitalisation of the economy and has agreed to continue working multilaterally towards achievement of a new consensus-based long-term solution in 2020, the OECD announced.

   
Important progress at sight (oecd-ilibrary)

   

   
The adage, “What goes up, must come down,” isn’t likely to apply to the global health care sector in 2019. Aging and growing populations, greater prevalence of chronic diseases, exponential advances in innovative, but costly, digital technologies—these and other developments continue to increase health care demand and expenditures.

   
Age of smart health (deloitte)

   

   
In recent years, researchers have found that the accuracy of the software gets better and better as they build deeper networks and amass larger data sets to train them. That has created an almost insatiable appetite for computing power, boosting the fortunes of GPU makers like Nvidia and AMD. Google developed its own custom neural networking chip several years ago, and other companies have scrambled to follow Google's lead.

   
The process (arstechnica)

   

   
The progress made in the last year with the APA program, documented in the 2017 APA Annual Report, is in line with the SAT’s commitment to preventing double taxation and providing certainty to taxpayers. While the number of APAs signed in 2017 was somewhat lower than in 2016, there was a significant increase in SAT resources for APA and MAP work in 2017 and 2018.

   
APA report (kpmg)

   

   
The sectors with the most significant exposure to transition risk (i.e., sectors with direct exposure to fossil fuel supply chains or with readily accessible low carbon substitutes), namely mining, manufacturing, transport and energy, generally scored higher. These sectors have faced the bulk of stakeholder activism around improved climate disclosures.

   
Business disclosures (ey)

   

   
The actual air temperature, which is unchanged by the wind, is not the only way to determine if your body is at risk in the cold. A wind chill index accounts for a combination of air temperature and how fast the wind is blowing. Higher winds strip heat away from the body more quickly. In the United States, wind chill is calculated with a formula using degrees Fahrenheit and wind speeds in miles per hour, but wind chill values can also be calculated using degrees Celsius and meters per second.

   
How does it work? (smithsonianmag)

   

   
Researchers have discovered how specific cells in the guts of mice slow down metabolism and eventually contribute to obesity, diabetes, hypertension and atherosclerosis.The findings, scientists say, could have important implications for the prevention and treatment of these kinds of metabolic diseases in humans. The study was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health and appears in the journal Nature.

   
Treating metabolic diseases in humans (nih)

   

   
Scientists have developed a new test that scans the shapes of tumour cells to pick out women with especially aggressive ovarian cancer, so treatment can be tailored to their needs. The researchers found that having misshapen nuclei was an indication that the DNA of cancer cells had become unstable – and believe it could in future help doctors to select the best treatment for each patient.

   
‘Very high risk’ ovarian cancer (icr.ac)

   

   
Industry 4.0 is opening the door to innovative and economic strength. It allows products to be tailored precisely to customers’ needs at low cost, high quality, and with a high level of efficiency. One example of this is DESMA Schuhmaschinen GmbH, a medium-sized company headquartered in Germany, which is using Industry 4.0 methodology to produce individualized footwear in lot size 1 at mass production cost based on digital models.

   
From robotics to machine learning (iso)

   

   
Human lifespan has a low heritability (12–25%), whereas survival into extreme ages (longevity) clusters within families. Studies showed that parents, siblings and children of longevous persons lived longer than first-degree relatives of non-longevous persons or population controls. In addition, members of these longevous families seem to delay or even escape age-related diseases and in fact, healthy ageing in such families is marked by well attuned immune systems and good metabolic health.

   
Datasets analysis (nature)

   

  How to improve hypothesis quality?

   
Active forms of learning are seen as key to acquiring deep conceptual knowledge, especially in science domains. One of the active forms of learning is inquiry learning. Inquiry learning has been defined in many different ways with as its kernel that the method starts from questions for which students need to find answers. In this study, we focus on the practice of the scientific method, and in particular on the creation of hypotheses.

   
Automated feedback could be the answer (frontiersin)

   

   
Battery developers have been trying for years to figure out how to use silicon instead of carbon in anodes, because lithium ions combine with silicon to form Li15Si4. The 15-to-4 ratio means a smaller amount of anode material can store a lot more lithium. Silicon anodes could thus provide much larger capacities.

   
Boost expectation: 70% (spectrum.ieee)

   

   
While big banks in the U.S. and Europe have been grappling for almost a decade with how best to go digital, a modest-sized bank in Asia, DBS Bank Ltd., with assets of SGD 541.5 billion (US$394.7 billion) as of September 2018, has come from nowhere with a solution: Don’t try to figure out how to acquire digital capabilities. Instead, think like a fintech company and transform your business completely.

   
How to rethink your transaction model? (strategy-business)

   

   
The globalising age accompanied by the challenge of multiculturalism is an age of crisis of identity which is posing the challenge of accepting global diversity, it also raises critical questions concerning what is primary identity and what is the link between religious, national and regional identity. Increasing incidences of xenophobia, ethnoreligious exclusivism, conflicts and wars pose a tremendous challenge for building of a new multicultural world.

   
Peace and harmony (kas)

   

   
Researchers and dental material manufacturers have aimed to develop new materials with better aesthetic characteristics through the years. In 1975 laminate veneers were introduced as a better material of choice to mask the dentition, the restorations were 1 mm in thickness and were made from a cross-linked polymeric veneer.

   
Preparation design and material type (ncbi)

   

   
Recent years have seen a fast increase in the analytical capacity to read genetic information and in the ability to understand the link between the genetic information and the functioning of organisms. This has increased the scientific knowledge in previously underexploited fields. One example is the human microbiota and the understanding of the vital role that the microbiota plays in the physiological and psychological human health status and well-being.

   
The current scientific knowledge (jrc)

   

   
Within healthcare circles, the hype around the potential of real-world evidence to transform health outcomes through new patient insights has been considerable. But as the pool of RWD swells daily – driven by growing demand from drug development, regulatory decision-making and patient care and enhanced by advances in technology, study design and data collection methods – there is one very large stumbling block on the horizon.

   
Data standardization (eyeforpharma)

   

   
When Isaac Newton came up with his universal theory of gravity in 1687, it’s unlikely he could have imagined that almost 330 years later, British astronaut Piers Sellers would be floating on the International Space Station with a chip from his apple tree. In the modern era of space exploration we have all become familiar with weightless astronauts floating around or doing acrobatics, but there are many effects of microgravity still unknown.

   
From chemistry to biology (chemistryworld)

   

   
The global conversation around data privacy changed dramatically in March of 2018. That’s when Cambridge Analytica made international headlines. It was the story of a shadowy political firm misappropriating the data of tens of millions of Facebook users without their knowledge. But really, the story was how Facebook, keeper of 2 billion users' private messages, photos, and social connections, let it happen.

   
Get ready for (wired)

   

   
This First results report provides a selection of data on topics such as the European political situation, the economy and European citizenship. It focuses on the results obtained in the 28 EU Member States and is published together with the results of the Standard Eurobarometer questions, which are set out in an annex. The results of the Standard Eurobarometer of autumn 2018 will be analysed in the full report.

   
Latest survey (ec.europa)

   

   
Analysis of the Ae. aegypti mosquito genome could help scientists combat the pest and the infectious diseases it spreads, including Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever. Generation of a high-quality reference genome for this species is critically important for exploring the genomic basis of insecticide resistance, disease transmission, blood-feeding host preference, and development of novel repellents.

   
Public health threats (nature)

   

   
Every document should have a purpose, every training, audit, and data collection initiative should have a purpose. A company should never write a document, conduct an audit or training, or collect data unless there is a clear objective. Audits should be done only on processes that are not performing, have new people, or are high risk. Don’t audit for the sake of auditing.

   
Implementing a management system (qualitydigest)

   

   
A series of auctions revealed that Facebook users value the company's service so highly that it would take on average more than $1,000 to convince them to deactivate their accounts for a year, according to a recent paper published in PLOS One. This doesn't mean much for the company's stock market valuation, but it's a good indicator that people find value in Facebook regardless of the many concerns raised recently.

   
Solow-Swan growth model (plos)

   

   
While the impact of the 5G wireless network still remains to be seen, it has the potential to drive numerous advancements, including digital transformation across industries, providing a platform for end-to-end IoT connectivity, enabling faster connections for consumers, and even providing a more cost-effective platform for carriers.

   
The newest generation of wireless (deloitte)

   

   
The first study of the response of a flexible, catalyst-coated sheet to self-generated flow fields, which arise from the catalytic reaction in the host solution. The findings from our computational models reveal how the coupling between these deformable, active sheets and the reactant-containing fluids leads to rich dynamic behavior, which extends the functionality and utility of active materials.

   
Designing active sheets (sciencemag)

   

   
Metcalfe’s law, which states that the value of a network grows with the square of its number of nodes, is a mainstay of telecommunications theory. But it also relates to biology because the web of life is a network, too. Each passing year brings to light new varieties of interconnections and relationships among the ever-widening diversity of organisms, cells, genes and biomolecules known to science.

   
Some meaningful progress (quantamagazine)

   

   
Ongoing pressures in the life-sciences industry require pharma and biotech manufacturers to fundamentally transform how they operate. For example, an annual decrease in operating budgets is now an established expectation in some companies, driven by reduced revenues and the need to prioritize investment in new product development. Previously, managers could cut costs to achieve these goals.

   
IT, OT & Quality collaboration (pharmtech)

   

   
Santa makes lists and so do we, only ours usually is just of those who have been naughty. And the Retraction Watch leaderboard includes some pretty dodgy characters. The top spot in the lineup still belongs (and perhaps always will) to Yoshitaka Fujii with 183 retractions, and it now takes at least 21 retractions to crack the Top 30, with a tie at that slot. For those who won’t settle for anything less than the Top 10, 41 papers is the minimum.

   
The naughty list (the-scientist)

   

   
Microsoft Edge will now be delivered and updated for all supported versions of Windows and on a more frequent cadence. We also expect this work to enable us to bring Microsoft Edge to other platforms like macOS. Improving the web-platform experience for both end users and developers requires that the web platform and the browser be consistently available to as many devices as possible.

   
A new emphasis for Microsoft (windows)

   

   
Technology is changing faster than ever. Applications are merging with data and infra structure, moving outside the enterprise and evolving into systems, embedding themselves deeply into our daily lives. These blurring boundaries are transforming the very nature of human-machine relationships and fundamentally changing our understanding of enterprise IT.

   
The world of constant change (accenture)

   

   
The Alpine area wants to turn into a green economy model region. The background paper describes important aspects for a development of a green economy in the Alps in four topic areas: Low-carbon economy and adaptation to climate change, resource-efficient economy, ecosystem services and natural capital, quality of life and well-being.

   
Example of adaptation to climate change (umweltbundesamt)

   

   
For most of us, though, the robot invasion will simply change the tasks we do, not destroy our jobs altogether. That’s according to researchers who study the impact of automation on jobs. They also note that, as the spread of artificial intelligence automates the rote parts of our jobs, it will not only force us to upgrade our skills but also free us up to take on more sophisticated tasks.

   
Robots-skills may never be able to master (qualitydigest)

   

   
This paper develops a three-part framework to support governments and non-state actors to identify opportunities to: (1) drive action to mobilise and shift finance; (2) track progress against Article 2.1c; and (3) increase ambition. As part of highlighting the approaches that can be taken both inside and outside of the UNFCCC, the authors also outline the four key sets of tools that primarily governments can employ to shift finance.

   
The transition to a low-greenhouse gas emission (odi)

   

   
With mathematical methods, the resolution can still be drastically improved. One method would calculate its exact center from the brightness distribution of the blurry spot. With the dSTORM (Direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy) technique, the resolution of a conventional light microscope can be increased by a factor of 10. It allows user to visualise the architecture of a cell down to its molecular level, for example.

   
Direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy technique (nature)

   

   
What happened in Hermosillo? Can the current economic structure sustain the municipality’s high wages and guarantee future growth? What policy interventions are needed? Seeking answers to these questions, the Center for International Development (CID) at Harvard University joined forces with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

   
Economic growth analysis (cid.harvard)

   

   
The United States has appropriated and is obligated to spend an estimated $5.9 trillion (in current $) on the war on terror through Fiscal Year 2019, including direct war and war-related spending and obligations for future spending on post-9/11 war veterans (see Table 1). This number differs substantially from the Pentagon’s estimates of the costs of the post-9/11 wars because it includes not only war appropriations made to the Department of Defense – spending in the war zones.

   
The post-9/11 wars (watson.institut)

   

   
According to recent statistics, the milestone of half the world’s population online will soon be reached, representing a momentous achievement. The importance of broadband Internet for sustainable development is clear, as our societies continue to grow and develop. Broadband infrastructure is now vital infrastructure, as essential as water and electricity networks, but it is also becoming more invisible and integrated in utility networks in ‘smart’ infrastructure.

   
Catalyzing sustainable development (itu)

   

   
Digital technology is disrupting whole industries; sustainability is becoming central to the conduct of business; in the corporate and financial worlds, winning trust is more important than it’s ever been; and millennials represent an enduring demographic change. After surveying nearly 3,000 family businesses across 53 territories, we were able to prove that family businesses pay off in real terms.

   
A competitive advantage in disruptive times (pwc)

   

   
DeepMind, has claimed a “significant milestone” in being able to demonstrate the usefulness of artificial intelligence to help with the complex task of predicting 3D structures of proteins based solely on their genetic sequence. Understanding protein structures is important in disease diagnosis and treatment, and could improve scientists’ understanding of the human body.

   
DeepMind at work (techcrunch)

   

   
At the school’s Stem Cell Institute, IVF doctor and scientist Werner Neuhausser says he plans to begin using CRISPR, the gene-editing tool, to change the DNA code inside sperm cells. The objective: to show whether it is possible to create IVF babies with a greatly reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease later in life. The researchers are practicing how to change the DNA in sperm collected from Boston IVF.

   
White collar without border (technologyreview)

   

   
Paying Taxes continues to be a unique study from PwC and the World Bank Group, which investigates and compares tax regimes across 190 economies worldwide using a medium-sized domestic case study company. This year, we look at how new tax software, real time reporting systems and data analytics are changing the way companies meet their tax compliance obligations and how tax authorities monitor and enforce those obligations.

   
The impact of the changes (pwc)

   

   
New scientific findings on climate damage costs have been published since the publication of Methodological Convention 2.0. An overview of these findings shows that the damage costs estimates are becoming more robust overall. We therefore consider it appropriate to use a pure damage cost approach to derive our recommended cost rate.

   
Cost rates (umweltbundesamt)

   

   
While Kenya has emerged as the leader of digitalisation in the African context there is still a significant digital divide within the country, when compared with developed countries and Asian economies, in terms of access to and use of technology. At the same time, there are growing fears that rapid digitalisation might hamper job creation efforts, particularly in the manufacturing sector.

   
10 policy priorities (odi)

   

   
The long-term warming trend has continued in 2018, with the average global temperature set to be the fourth highest on record. The 20 warmest years on record have been in the past 22 years, with the top four in the past four years, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The report shows that the global average temperature for the first ten months of the year was nearly 1°C above the pre-industrial baseline (1850-1900).

   
The long-term warming (amazonaws)

   

   
he study found 30% of schoolaged children eat no fruit daily, yet 44% consume fizzy drinks every day. Hawkes said no income group in any part of the world was eating enough vegetables, whole grains or legumes. The WHO says 59 countries now have sugar taxes in place, with many more requiring clear food labelling. Unless governments take action, global targets on nutrition are unlikely to be reached.

   
Policy action areas (globalnutritionreport)

   

   
Whether or not to relocate for a new role is a big decision both professionally and personally. “There are so many factors to consider, says Jennifer Petriglieri, an assistant professor at INSEAD and the author of “Talent Management and the Two Career Couple.” “What’s the opportunity? What’s the longevity [of the job]? And what’s the family situation?” Indeed, the decision is especially complicated if you have a partner and children.

   
What’s next ? (hbr)

   

   
When Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase announced a new alliance in early 2018, the partnership turned heads. Three companies, giants in their respective industries, were going to pool their resources and work together. The new venture’s goal: targeting waste in the current healthcare system and improving patient service, initially for those covered by the three companies’ health insurance policies, but with the potential to expand.

   
Why partnership as your next deal ? (strategy-business)

   

   
Surfaces with regular contact with the human body are typically contaminated with microorganisms and might be considered as fomites. Despite spectacles being widespread across populations, little is known about their microbial contamination. Therefore, we swab-sampled 11 worn spectacles within a university setting as well as 10 worn spectacles in a nursing home setting.

   
Frames and lenses of spectacles contamination (plos)

   

   
Global FDI flows decreased by more than 40 percent to around USD 450 billion in the first half of 2018 compared to the same period of 2017. This decrease was largely due to large repatriations of earnings by US parent companies from their foreign affiliates as a result of the corporate tax reform in the Unites States. In the first half of 2018 compared to first half of 2017, FDI inflows to developed economies fell by more than 50%.

   
Turning the tide (wto)

   

   
Look closely enough at any plant or animal and you will discover a riot of bacteria, fungi and viruses forming a complex and interconnected ecosystem. A recent explosion of research reveals how deeply we rely on our microbial patterns to keep our bodies functioning, raising profound questions about what it means to be an individual. Some biologists are calling for a radical upgrade of evolutionary theory.

   
Who precisely could be? (quantamagazine)

   

   
The aim of the survey and the interviews was to obtain a picture of the needs of European society in general, and the EU agri-food sector in particular, and to inform the 2030 study’s contents, notably on the challenges the industry faces and the main driving forces shaping the future. The following chapters set out Fertilizers Europe’s Vision, and illustrate how the Vision reflects the views of all actors within and outside the fertilizers industry.

   
Between nutrition and energy (fertilizerseurope)

   

   
According to United Nations estimates, two thirds of humanity will live in cities in 2050. In 1950, it was only one third. During the same period, the number of metropolises could rise from 28 to more than 40 (and by “metropolis”, we mean a settlement area of more than ten million inhabitants). While the number of people who live in urban areas is continuously rising, the rural population is noticeably shrinking.

   
An urban world (kas)

   

   
The impacts of climate change are already being felt in communities across the country. More frequent and intense extreme weather and climate-related events, as well as changes in average climate conditions, are expected to continue to damage infrastructure, ecosystems, and social systems that provide essential benefits to communities.

   
The quadrennial report (nca2018.globalchange)

   

   
Groundbreaking research that could result from a reduction in key trade barriers. Unfortunately, foreign government pricing and reimbursement policies around the globe over the last year have continued to have a deleterious impact on both U.S. innovators and patient access to innovative medicines. PhRMA believes it is now critical for the U.S.

   
US' pharmaceutical research and manufacturers (phrma)

   

   
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a large and growing problem with the potential for enormous health and economic consequences, globally. As such, AMR has become a central issue at the top of the public health agenda of OECD countries and beyond. In this report, OECD used advanced techniques, including machine learning, ensemble modelling and a microsimulation model, to provide support for policy action in the human health sector.

   
Antimicrobial resistance (oecd-ilibrary)

   

   
The UK‘s commitments under the Paris Agreement further emphasise the imperative for zero-carbon energy. This will require government to make strategic decisions on energy infrastructure and the use of available energy resources. The Committee has undertaken this Hydrogen Review in parallel with reports on Biomass in a low-carbon economy and on land use.

   
Zero-carbon electricity (theccc)

   

   
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework consists of standards, guidelines, and best practices to manage cybersecurity-related risk. The framework’s prioritized, flexible, and cost-effective approach helps to promote the protection and resilience of critical infrastructure and other sectors important to the economy and national security.

   
The five functions (qualitydigest)

   

   
The paper explores current opportunities and challenges to the economic empowerment of older women in the global South, based on a firm understanding of the interrelationship between empowerment, women’s rights and gender equality across the life course. It brings together an extensive literature review, analysis of quantitative data and primary qualitative research in Ethiopia to shed light on older women’s experiences.

   
Women's economic empowerment (odi)

   

   
Beginning in the mid-1990s, extensive airborne radar sounding has revealed a hitherto hidden landscape beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet and elucidated the processes and events that have led to its present bed topography (3). Through internal stratigraphy detected by this radar sounding, these data also reveal the late Pleistocene and Holocene history of the ice sheet itself (4).

   
A large impact crater (advances.sciencemag)

   

   
Food safety management system (FSMS) for certain small retail establishments (butcher, grocer, baker, fish and ice cream shop) based on the application of prerequisite programme (PRP) criteria. The aim of this opinion was to develop similar FSMSs for other small retail enterprises including retail distribution centres, supermarkets, restaurants (including pubs and other catering activities) and food donation.

   
For small retail establishments and food donations (efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley)

   

   
With new evidence, researchers link corporal punishment to an increased risk of negative behavioral, cognitive, psychosocial, and emotional outcomes for children. In this Policy Statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics provides guidance for pediatricians and other child health care providers on educating parents about positive and effective parenting strategies of discipline for children at each stage of development as well as references to educational materials.

   
Effective discipline (pediatrics.aappublications)

   

  MHI’s aerospace business

   
Quietly, Japan has established itself as a power in the aerospace industry, with a long history and considerable ambition. Only three countries reached orbit before Japan did nearly half a century ago. Today, with questions about the reliability of relations with the United States (which some here view as a fading force) and worries about North Korea, the country is taking steps to bolster its presence in space with key military assets.

   
The H-2A vehicle in sight (arstechnica)

   

   
State as has been the case over several years, the primary concern for the industry is the availability of suitable assets - cited by over two thirds of respondents. This serves to underline the enduring appeal of European real estate on the global stage, and with the search for yield and income, this is now edging the industry out of its core comfort zone.

   
From across 22 European countries (pwc)

   

   
Over the past few years, the threat of grid hacking has morphed from a distant possibility to a stark reality. The most chilling incidents to date are two cyberattack-induced blackouts in Ukraine—one in December 2015 and the next a year later in December 2016—that caused power outages for hundreds of thousands of residents in Kiev for a few hours each time.

   
Bringing the power back up (wired)

   

   
For the commonly used pesticide chlorpyrifos, an industry-funded toxicity study concludes that no selective effects on neurodevelopment occur even at high exposures. In contrast, the evidence from independent studies points to adverse effects of current exposures on cognitive development in children. We reviewed the industry-funded developmental neurotoxicity test data on chlorpyrifos and the related substance chlorpyrifos-methyl.

   
Safety of Safety Evaluation of Pesticides (ehjournal.biomedcentra)

   

   
Microsoft is facing a huge fine this morning after Dutch investigators concluded that the company's data collection in its Office suite breaks European rules. The report cites issues with the ProPlus subscription for the desktop suite and the web-based version of Office 365, which could mean the mega-corp is in breach of the EU's GDPR legislation which came into force in May.

   
On how to meet criteria without leaving a mess (rijksoverheid)

   

   
Developed by experts from 14 research organisations and NGOs from the majority of the G20 countries, the report covers 80 indicators. It informs policy makers and stimulates national debates. The Summary Report 2018 provides a comprehensive overview of all G20 countries, whether – and how well – they are doing on the journey to transition to a low-carbon economy.

   
Transition towards a low-carbon economy (climate-transparency)

   

   
When Eric Schmidt popularised the term ‘cloud computing’ at a conference in 2006, few could have known the extensive impact the “emergent new model” would have. Not only has it transformed the way in which data services are conducted, it’s now reshaping the very fabric of business across manifold industries. Over a decade later, and the tech powerhouses of this world – Google, Amazon, IBM – have taken the concept and run with it.

   
How businesses are guided by IBM (theneweconomy)

   

   
Spot is just one tool in an emerging market for machine learning–assisted apps that are tackling the juggernaut of human emotions. The National Bureau of Economic Research reports that the number of U.S. patent filings mentioning machine learning rose from 145 in 2010 to 594 in 2016; near the end of 2018, there are already 14 times the number of active AI startups that there were in 2000.

   
From what we’re saying to how we say it ? (strategy-business)

   

   
Researchers say they've discovered the seven new CPU attacks while performing "a sound and extensible systematization of transient execution attacks"- a catch-all term the research team used to describe attacks on the various internal mechanisms that a CPU uses to process data, such as the speculative execution process, the CPU's internal caches, and other internal execution stages.

   
AMD, ARM, and Intel are affected (zdnet)

   

   
Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors mediate safe and long-term gene transfer to the brains of rodents, monkeys, and humans (1–3). AAV-based gene therapies have substantial promise for treatment of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal dementia, Huntington’s disease, stroke, and traumatic brain injury.

   
Intrathecal AAV9 infusion (advances.sciencemag)

   

   
Water consumption is one of the key environmental issues for the Food, Drink and Milk Industries sector. Water, which is not used as an ingredient, ultimately appears in the waste water stream or is transformed into steam and emitted to air. Typically, untreated FDM waste water is high in both COD and BOD content. Emission levels can be 10–500 times higher than in domestic waste water.

   
Working draft (jrc)

   

   
Starting in 2012, these very rich people have made a bet that adding a red carpet to the largest scientific monetary prize in the world will inspire more people to go into basic research. At $3 million, each award is worth more than double the amount that accompanies a Nobel Prize. The prizes come at a time when research budgets, especially those for basic science questions, are increasingly squeezed.

   
Seeking diversity (wired)

   

   
when we look at how the performance of different sectors has evolved over the last year, some have fared significantly better than others. In fact the overall balance is positive, with 11 sectors out of 17 having achieved an improvement in 2017. while sector-level trends give us an indication of the challenges facing certain industries, there are wide variations in performance between different companies within each sector.

   
Unlocking cash to shore up your business (pcw)

   

   
Environmental aspects have so far only partially been addressed in the discussion of antimicrobial resistance. To bring this issue into focus, UBA compiled background information and data on the topic 'Antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance in the environment'. The results show that previously considered requirements for reduction, from the perspective of UBA, are insufficient to adequately protect health and the environment.

   
Options for action (umweltbundesamt)

   

   
Governments in modern societies undertake an array of complex functions that shape politics and economics, individual and group behavior, and the natural, social, and built environment. How are governments structured to execute these diverse responsibilities? To examine these longstanding questions, we develop a technique for mapping Internet “footprint” of government with network science methods.

   
110 million hyperlinks among 47,631 agencies (harvard)

   

   
Many countries have reduced the generosity of disability benefits while making them more activating – yet few studies have examined how employment rates have subsequently changed. We present estimates of how the employment rates of older workers with poor health in 13 high-income countries changed between 2004-7 and 2012-15 using HRS/ SHARE/ELSA data.

   
Trends in the employment of older workers (iza)

   

  Living planet

   
Since 1998 the Living Planet Report, a science-based assessment of the health of our planet, has been tracking the state of global biodiversity. In this landmark anniversary edition, 20 years after its original publication, the Living Planet Report 2018 provides a platform for the best science.More than 50 experts from academia, policy, international development and conservation organizations have contributed to this edition.

   
The “Great acceleration” (rackcdn)

   

   
The combination of Hahn’s expertise in chemistry with Meitner’s in physics opened the door to artificially induced nuclear fission. And when Meitner fled from Nazi persecution in 1938, Hahn gave her his mother’s diamond ring to bribe a border guard with. They both died in 1968, honoured as major contributors to science – though some argue that Meitner did not receive all the recognition she deserved.

   

The artificially induced nuclear fission (chemistryworld)

   

   
17 trouble areas study, from nuisances—such as squeaky brakes and broken interior trim—to major bummers, like out-of-warranty transmission repairs or trouble with four-wheel-drive systems. We weight the severity of each type of problem to create a Predicted Reliability Score for each vehicle. (That score is then combined with data collected from our track testing, as well as our owner-satisfaction survey results and safety data, to calculate each test vehicle’s Overall Score).

   
Annual survey (consumerreports)

   

   
“Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2018”, is the latest in a series of reports, released every four years, which monitor the recovery of ozone in the stratosphere, a layer that protects life on Earth from harmful layers of ultraviolet rays from the sun. It shows that the concentration of ozone-depleting substances continues to decrease, leading to an improvement in the layer.

   
Healing from damage (montreal-protocol)

   

   
The kilogram is one of the most important and widely used units of measure in the world — unless you live in the US. For everyone else, having an accurate reading on what a kilogram is can be vitally important in fields like manufacturing, engineering, and transportation. Of course, a kilogram is 1,000 grams or 2.2 pounds if you want to get imperial.

   
The new definition outcome (extremetech)

   

   
All the companies in our study are feeling intense pressure to become relevant. But, the difference between the high performers and the other companies is telling: 95% of respondents representing the highest performing organizations agree that “customer expectations are increasingly shaped by the most relevant, real time and dynamic experiences” that they encounter across all industries.

   
Living proof (accenture)

   

   
Opportunities created by technological advances are more abundant than ever. And with the performance of advanced technologies vastly improving, the potential for innovation feels limitless. This is enticing many companies to focus on innovation more extensively. That’s good news for executives.

   
The seven characteristics (accenture)

   

   
Having babies less than a year apart poses risks for both mother and child, whatever the woman’s age, according to new research. The authors of a study of nearly 150,000 pregnancies in Canada say the safest interval between births is 12 to 18 months. Waiting at least 12 months between two prgnancy is safest for both them and their baby.

   
Interpregnancy interval at risk (jamanetwork)

   

   
Future materials use follows the aforementioned economic trends and is projected to double as a result of opposing economic forces. This will result in a relative decoupling of economic growth and materials use for all major materials groups (biomass, fossil fuels, metals and non-metallic minerals), and for primary and secondary materials.

   
Decoupling from econonmic growth (oecd)

   

   
Syntiant is currently sampling its first product, a microwatt level chip that the company refers to as a neural decision processor (NPD). Syntiant says it delivers about 50 times improvement in efficiency versus traditional digital stored-program architectures.

   
20 tera-operations/watt NPD (eetimes)

   

   
ESG-related risks are the environmental, social and governance-related risks and/or opportunities that may impact an entity. There is no universal or agreed-upon definition of ESG-related risks, which may also be referred to as sustainability, non-financial or extra-financi al risks. a Each entity will have its own definition.

   
For guidance on managing (wbcsd)

   

  Air pollution & child health

   
Air pollution is a major environmental health threat. Exposure to fine particles in both the ambient environment and in the household causes about seven million premature deaths each year (1,2). Ambient air pollution alone imposes enormous costs on the global economy, amounting to more than US$ 5 trillion in total welfare losses in 2013.

   
Prescribing a clean air (who)

   

   
In August 2017, Denmark identified the first cluster of cases, which was investigated and linked to the consumption of ready-to- eat cold-smoked salmon produced in Poland. Control measures were implemented and the Member States and competent authorities were informed.

   
Consumption of salmon products (efsa.europa)

   

   
Giving early access to education is key, says the report, so that children can acquire essential social and emotional skills, particularly those from disadvantaged families. Countries should also target additional resources towards disadvantaged students and schools, and reduce the concentration of disadvantaged students in schools.

   
Between advantaged and disadvantaged children (oecd-ilibrary)

   

   
The correct way to think about senescence is that it’s an evolutionary balancing act. It was selected for the good purpose of preventing cancer—if [cells] don’t divide, [they] can’t form a tumor. It also optimizes tissue repair. But the downside is if these cells persist,they can now become deleterious.

   
The drug that keeps you young ? (technologyreview)

   

   
Continuing to scale down the size of transistor features has become costlier and trickier in recent years. So much so that only four manufacturers of logic chips—GlobalFoundries, Intel, Samsung, and TSMC—were even planning to continue the multibillion-dollar effort. Those ranks have now thinned, and schedules for the remaining companies are slipping.

   
The good, the bad, & the weird (spectrum.ieee)

   

   
For the past 10 years we've been able to calculate from tumor sequencing which mutated genes are winners and losers—which mutated genes help the cancer survive and reproduce, and which do nothing,” Townsend said. “But we haven't been able to compute their cancer effect size—how important one mutation is compared to another. Now we can.

   
New model developed at YSPH (academic.oup)

   

  Harnessing educational research

   
Researchers, teachers and policymakers have different priorities and constraints that affect how they produce and use evidence. But, the report argues, these stakeholders must better work together to identify and tackle the big strategic questions in education. More must be done to generate and use the best available evidence to help children reach their full potential.

   
The challenges of the future (thebritishacademy)

   

   
A sustainable future means balancing the needs of the environmental, social and economic systems, and organizations are increasingly expected to play a significant role in achieving this. With over 450 recommendations that directly impact the SDG goals, ISO 26000 provides guidance on how businesses and organiza- tions can operate in an ethical and transparent way that contributes to sustainable development.

   
ISO contribution to UN actions (iso)

   

   
One area in which this conflict is manifesting itself is the world of technology. Although the casual consumer in the West may not have heard much about Chinese businesses Baidu, Alibaba or Tencent (BATs), the Silicon Valley heavyweights of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google (FAANGs) are certainly aware of them.

   
US & China battle (theneweconomy)

   

   
The industry is in a state of flux, the likes of which have not been seen since the invention of the internal combustion engine. Every aspect of our mobility experience is undergoing disruption, from driverless vehicles to the application of blockchain and the Internet of Things. Customer expectations in the industry are also increasing thanks in part to innovation in consumer electronics and smartphones.

   
The "connected" opportunity (deloitte)

   

   
The new development model was branded "Windows as a Service." And after some initial fumbling, Microsoft settled on a cadence of two feature updates a year; one in April, one in October. This effort has not been without its successes. Microsoft has used the new model to deliver useful new features without forcing users to wait three years for a new major version upgrade.

   
It's not how often, it's how? (arstechnica)

   

   
Chemotherapy may enhance tumor-antigen release and antitumor responses to immune checkpoint inhibition. Taxanes in particular may additionally activate toll-like receptor activity and promote dendritic-cell activity.16 Nanoparticle albumin-bound (nab)–paclitaxel was selected as a partner because, at the time that the trial was designed, the glucocorticoid premedication that is required with solvent-based paclitaxel (per the label) had been hypothesized to affect immunotherapy activity.

   
Immunotherapy drug makes strides (nejm)

   

   
More than three-quarters (87%) of organizations do not yet have a sufficient budget to provide the levels of cybersecurity and resilience they want. Protections are patchy, relatively few organizations are prioritizing advanced capabilities, and cybersecurity too often remains siloed or isolated while it needs to be a key enabler of growth.

   
What is at stake? (ey)

   

   
ZEN is a resorcyclic acid lactone mycotoxin primarily produced by several Fusarium species that grow on cereal host plants primarily in the field but to a minor extent also during poor grain storage conditions. Whereas ZEN exhibits low acute toxicity, long-term exposure to ZEN is considered to pose a health risk due to its potent estrogenic activity.

   
A critical evaluation of health risk assessment (springer)

   

   
As we age, the cytosine at hundreds of thousand of spots in our DNA either gains or loses methyl chemical groups (CH3). Horvath’s insight was to measure these increases and decreases in methylation, find the 300 to 500 changes that matter most, and use those to make his clocks. His findings suggest that the speed of the clock is strongly influenced by underlying genes.

   
Your life span is written in your DNA (technologyreview)

   

  Funding US' biotech.

   
It’s been a record year for US medical investing, but investors in Beijing and Shanghai are now increasingly leading the largest deals for US life science and biotech companies. In fact, Chinese venture firms have invested more this year into life science and biotech in the US than they have back home, providing financing for over 300 US-based companies, per Pitchbook.

   
Chinese VCs seek healthy returns (techcrunch)

   

  New rapide detection of pathogens

   
With the increase of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE), the treatment of severe bacterial infections has become more difficult, especially in high prevalence regions. Bloodstream infections caused by CPE often delay appropriate antimicrobial therapy and are associated with an increased mortality. The rapid detection of CPE has the potential to improve patient management and outcome.

   

New multiplex immunochromatographic assay (plos)

   

   
Published in the sixth edition of the Global Strategic Trends report, the document has been developed by the MoD’s think tank the Development Concepts and Doctrine Centre, along with partners in Sweden, Australia, Finland, Germany, France and the Netherlands. Conflicts fought increasingly by robots or autonomous systems could change the very nature of warfare, as there will be less emphasis on emotions, passion and chance.

   
Out to 2045 (assets.publishing.service)

   

   
Crooks are attempting to spread their cryptojacking malware to unsuspecting victims by disguising it as an update for Flash. This particular mining operation is thought to have been operating since August this year with a big spike in activity in September and looks to trick potential victims into downloading an XMRig cryptocurrency miner - the malicious software runs in the background.

   
Cryptocurrency-mining malware (znet)

   

   
Tough rules could ban the ‘Big Four’ accountants from doing lucrative consultancy work for the companies they audit, a watchdog warned. After several scandals, the Financial Reporting Council said the change was being looked at to help restore trust in the industry and the ‘Big Four’ – PwC, KPMG, Ernst & Young and Deloitte.

   
How to to prevent conflicts of interest ? (researchbriefings)

   

   
This report is structured in two parts. The first part describes the underlying assumptions: the population projection, the labour force projection and the macroeconomic assumptions used. The second part presents the long-term budgetary projections on pensions, health care, long-term care, education and unemployment benefits.

   
2070 Projection (europa)

   

   
There is a unique opportunity to harness the Fourth Industrial Revolution – and the societal changes it triggers – to help address environmental issues and transform how we manage our shared global environment. Left unchecked, however, the Fourth Industrial Revolution could have further unintended negative consequences for our global commons.

   
Building block(chain)s (pwc)

   

   
Companies are breaking Europe’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulations by failing to report to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) whether their substances are cancer causing, neurotoxic, mutagenic, bioaccumulative and/or harmful to developing children or human fertility.

   
High Tonnage Chemicals under REACH (eeb)

   

   
The HCI combines indica - tors of health and education into a measure of the human capital that a child born today can expect to obtain by her 18th birthday, given the risks of poor education and health that prevail in the country where she lives. The HCI is measured in units of productivity relative to a benchmark of complete education and full health, and ranges from 0 to 1.

   
Methodology (worldbank)

   

   
Geoengineering technologies have the potential to disrupt the global ecological status quo and mount a potentially coercive threat with implications as serious as those in wartime. Several of these technologies can be deployed from the global commons, but international law provides no more than indirect guidance as to how they should be governed as a matter of international security.

   
Food for thought (airuniversity)

   

   
Some companies also need some respite to fully integrate the deals they have undertaken in the past three years. A lot of deals have been done and — as our survey shows — a number of companies have a renewed focus on ensuring deal integration delivers the right synergies and value (see “Spotlight” on pages 10 and 11). Sometimes a break between courses is needed to make a meal more enjoyable.

   
Pause or proceed? (ey)

   

   
The youngest worker today might be almost 100 years old before the average wage in Britain has doubled from its current levels, according to a study that highlights the UK’s struggle to boost wages since the credit crunch. Failure to improve on recent levels of pay growth would condemn Britain to a wait until 2099 before the current average pay packet had doubled after inflation.

   
Report (resolutionfoundation)

   

   
Microsoft has halted the rollout of Windows 10 version 1809, the October 2018 Update. The company released its latest feature update to the general public on Tuesday, October 2nd, and had planned to begin delivering it automatically through Windows Update roughly a week later. Those plans are on hold while the company investigates reports of data loss associated with this upgrade.

   
Public delivery suspended (zdnet)

   

   
Agricultural genetic technologies typically achieve their agronomic aims by introducing laboratory-generated modifications into target species' chromosomes. However, the speed and flexibility of this approach are limited.In an effort to remove this limitation, an ongoing research program funded by the U.S. DARPA aims to disperse infectious genetically modified viruses that have been engineered to edit crop chromosomes directly in fields.

   
Agricultural research (sciencemag)

   

   
You might think that consumers and machines (in this case, the device or app) mean the same thing by location — namely, GPS coordinates, which are so precise. Not the case. In a research project, we discovered that people are far less bothered about sharing latitude and longitude than about sharing location data such as “at the hospital” or “in X store” that has semantic content.

   
It isn’t possible and it isn’t right (hbr)

   

   
WHO’s Global status report on alcohol and health 2018 presents a comprehensive picture of alcohol consumption and the disease burden attributable to alcohol worldwide by WHO regions and World Bank income groups. It also describes what countries are doing to reduce this burden. The report provides an overview of alcohol consumption and harms in relation to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

   
WHO-led initiative (who)

   

   
To commemorate the day, Apple CEO Tim Cook posted a picture of Jobs in his prime with the simple message: "Steve showed me – and all of us – what it means to serve humanity. We miss him, today and every day, and we’ll never forget the example he set for us." We couldn’t agree more.

   
S.J Le Saint (theregister)

   

   
Small-holding farmers in the developing world suffer from sub-optimal crop yields because they lack a soil diagnostic system that is affordable, usable, and actionable. This paper details the fabrication and characterization of an integrated point-of-use soil-testing system, comprised of disposable ion-selective electrode strips and a handheld electrochemical reader.

   
In-field determination of soil ion content (plos)

   

  Trump’s international ratings

   
America’s global image plummeted following the election of President Donald Trump, amid widespread opposition to his administration’s policies and a widely shared lack of confidence in his leadership. Now, as the second anniversary of Trump’s election approaches, a new 25-nation Pew Research Center survey finds that Trump’s international image remains poor, while ratings for the US are much lower than during Barack Obama’s presidency.

   
The most negative ratings in UE (pewglobal)

   

   
High-energy lithium metal batteries (LMBs) are expected to play important roles in the next-generation energy storage systems. However, the uncontrolled Li dendrite growth in liquid electrolytes still impedes LMBs from authentic commercialization. Upgrading the traditional electrolyte system from liquid to solid and quasi-solid has therefore become a key issue for prospective LMBs.

   
Lithium metal batteries (sciencemag)

   

   
Turbidity currents have historically been described as fast-moving currents that sweep down submarine canyons, carrying sand and mud into the deep sea. But a new paper in Nature Communications shows that, rather than just consisting of sediment-laden seawater flowing over the seafloor, turbidity currents also involve large-scale movements of the seafloor itself.

   
The large underwater experiment (mbari)

   

   
The UK economy is 2.5 per cent smaller than it would be if the UK had voted to remain in the European Union. The latest update of the Centre for European Reform’s calculation of the cost of Brexit in the second quarter of 2018 shows the damage is growing even though the UK has yet to leave the bloc. The knock-on hit to the public finances is now £26 billion per annum – or £500 million a week.

   
Insight (cer)

   

   
Africa appears to be the continent with one of the highest women entrepreneurship rates globally. The Total Entrepreneurial Activity rate (TEA) of women, measuring the rate of the working age feminine population actively involved in business startups from the starting phase up to 42 months seniority, is estimated at 24% , much higher than in most world regions.

   
A path to women empowerment? (wia-initiative)

   

   
For this report, we look through the lens of the future worker – from the shop floor to the boardroom, from the shop front to the back office – and we identify their evolving skills demand. We analyze the changing importance of skills to different roles and the impact of intelligent technologies.

   
Intelligent tech. are subverting the skills mix (accenture)

   

   
Focusing on confirmed case-data for chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis from 2007 to 2011, we previously performed a cross-sectional analysis of disease incidence in Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) of the U.S.The result, suggested that the per-capita incidence of these STDs increases systematically with the population size of MSAs.

   
Urban populations (harvard)

   

   
112m Global oil production in barrels per day that Opec expects by 2040, up from the present 100m bpd 20% Estimated increase in developing countries’ coal usage by 2040, to five times volumes burnt in the west it had significantly revised upwards estimates from last year for how much crude will be pumped by countries outside the group.

   
Medium & Long-term prospects (opec)

   

   
The resilience of developing Asia since the global financial crisis, on top of its historic economic success, has sparked interest in understanding the future. The region is diverse, with sub-regions and countries of varying population size, geography and economic dynamism as well as different vulnerabilities.

   
Asia in 2025 (odi)

   

   
Australia’s coal sector faces major change over coming decades. Preparations should be made to enable an economically successful and socially acceptable transition away from coal.While export volumes have grown, the future holds rising cost competitiveness of renewables compared to coal, efforts to limit and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in most countries, and rising concern about local air pollution.

   
Domestic coal phase-out & falling export demand (iddri)

   

   
A Long March 2F rocket launched Tiangong-2 from China’s Gobi Desert at 22:04 local time, coinciding with the lunar Mid-Autumn Festival, Chinese officials announced. It will manoeuvre itself into orbit about 380 kilometres above Earth, then raise its orbit to 393 kilometres when a Shenzhou-11 capsule arrives in October carrying two astronauts, who will live on the station for 30 days.

   
Precursor to China’s larger space station (newscientist)

   

   
Climate leaders across business, policy and civil society gathered to “take ambition to the next level” at the first-ever Global Climate Action Summit. The hallmark summit was designed to showcase the work of local governments and non-state actors in pursuing the fight against climate change.

   
Implement solutions now (wbcsd)

   

   
A new MIT study reports that Volkswagen is not the only auto manufacturer to make diesel cars that produce vastly more emissions on the road than in laboratory tests. The study, published this month in Atmospheric Environment, finds that in Europe, 10 major auto manufacturers produced diesel cars, sold between 2000 and 2015, that generate up to 16 times more emissions on the road than in regulatory tests.

   
Life exposure (phys)
    

   
Owing to its popularity in fileless attacks, PowerShell has gained additional security features in recent years and a focus on improved logging has made it easier to discover PowerShell based intrusions. As a result, we are at a point where PowerShell attacks often do not work in high security environments, and many organizations with a lower degree of security have at least come to recognize the risks associated with PowerShell.

   
Using C# for post-PowerShell attacks (forcepoint)

   

   
The companies most likely to thrive in the complexity, speed and uncertainty of today’s global business environment are those who are able to innovate effectively. This increasingly calls for firms to be ready to collaborate beyond their own walls. Companies cannot afford to rely entirely on their own research or assume that all the best ideas can be generated internally.

   
An alternative model to the conventional funnel (themanufacturer)

   

   
The best way to avoid nuclear materials falling into the wrong hands is for nations to not keep them around. The most promising finding in the study is that the number of countries with more than one kilogram of highly enriched uranium, the fuel for a nuclear bomb, has dropped from 32 to 22 in six years, with Argentina and Poland removing or disposing of those materials most recently.

   
Some real progress (ntiindex)

   

   
Some eye doctors argue that a drug closely related to Lucentis, known as Avastin (bevacizumab), also has been shown to be a highly effective and far cheaper alternative for lower-income individuals with advanced AMD. The problem is that Avastin is FDA-approved only for treatment of colon and other cancers, but not for macular degeneration.

   
Macular degeneration treatment controversy (allaboutvision)

   

   
Microsoft is resisting the Truth's Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of the Data Act signed in March 2018 to seize emails and data stored abroad. If the publisher has, at first (last March), described as a good compromise this American federal law supposed to "clarify" how the US government accesses private data outside its territory, the firm of Redmond had not said his last word.

   
Cloud provider & The right to notice (microsoft)

   

   
Cellular senescence, which is characterized by an irreversible cell-cycle arrest1 accompanied by a distinctive secretory phenotype2, can be induced through various intracellular and extracellular factors. Senescent cells that express the cell cycle inhibitory protein p16(INK4A) have been found to actively drive naturally occurring age-related tissue deterioration and contribute to several diseases associated with ageing, including atherosclerosis and osteoarthritis.

   
Removing faulty brain cells (theguardian)

   

   
Back in 2016, the print and PC business released an update that was programmed to disable cartridges made by third-party suppliers – after 13 September that year, unlucky customers were unable to use their devices. The “Dynamic Security Feature” rolled out to the machines led to error messages – which HP later admitted were wrong – that popped up to say that ink cartridges were “damaged or missing”.

   
Printer bricking update (theregister)

   

   
Kilig and abaca are both words of non-British origin whose dates of publication in the OED are separated by 132 years, and as such are perfect illustrations of how the dictionary’s policy towards and coverage of such words have evolved throughout its history, largely as a response to the remarkable rise of English to its current role as a global lingua franca.

   
Oxford reshape its English' Dic. (oed)

   

   
Scientists fed microplastics to mosquito larvae, which live in water, but found that the particles remained inside the insects as they transformed into flying adults. Other recent research found that half of the mayfly and caddisfly larvae in rivers in Wales contained microplastics. the larvae readily consumed fluorescent microplastic particles that were 0.0002cm in size.

   
From larvae to adults (royalsocietypublishing)

   

   
Helping consumers make healthier food choices is a key issue for the prevention of cancer and other diseases. In many countries, political authorities are considering the implementation of a simplified labelling system to reflect the nutritional quality of food products. The Nutri-Score, a five-colour nutrition label, is derived from the Nutrient Profiling System of the British Food Standards Agency (modified version) (FSAm-NPS).

   
Avoiding "junk food" (plos medecine)

   

   
The very best brands for customer experience excellence are now starting to think of their customers as assets that should be protected, nurtured and invested in. They view their customers’ loyalty as a form of equity in the company. And they are thinking about how they might start to move their customers onto their balance sheets vs a simple transactional relationship.

   
Harnessing a customer first approach (kpmg)

   

   
The overall purpose of this Program is to develop an ever-improving, user-centric platform that will serve as a global resource for the collection of a wide range of valuable longitudinal health data throughout pregnancy, and then use that data to increase the knowledge of the individual user as well as the research community to help identify the characteristics that create the healthiest pregnancy for an individual.

   
Goals of the research program (nature)

   

   
In some countries and economic sectors, of course, the transformation of the workplace has already begun. In South Korea, there are more than 600 installed industrial robots for every 10,000 workers in manufacturing facilities. In Japan there are more than 300 and in the United States nearly 200. Profit maximization, and the relatively high cost of human labor, helps drive automation.

   
The effects of automation (pewglobal)

   

   
Many CIOs rose to the position of IT leader based more on technology know-how than on vision, communication, or relationship skills. To become organization leaders, however, CIOs will likely need to develop the business and soft skills necessary to translate technology expertise into business solutions that drive revenue and efficiencies.

   
From digital execution to digital strategy (deloitte)

   

   
The daily use of aspirin did not provide a benefit with regard to the primary end point of disability-free survival among older adults. A numerically higher rate of the secondary end point of death from any cause was observed with aspirin than with placebo.

   
The effect of aspirin on mortality (nejm)

   

   
CFOs who have embraced the opportunities that have come with their unique bird’s-eye view of their organization are collaborating with CEOs to drive strategy. The power and depth of insight that comes with data is not only expanding the role of the CFO—it is offering companies the chance to remake themselves and thrive in the new economy.

   
From accountant to analyzer to strategic advisor (accenture)

   

   
Research on seeing around corners and inferring information that’s not directly visible, called “non-line-of-sight imaging,” took off in 2012 with Torralba and Freeman’s accidental-camera paper and another watershed paper by a separate group at MIT led by Ramesh Raskar.

   
The new science of interpreting shadows (quantamagazine)

   

   
A major report released by the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate finds that we are significantly under-estimating the benefits of cleaner, climate-smart growth. Bold climate action could deliver at least US$26 trillion in economic benefits through to 2030, compared with business-as-usual.

   
Use it or Lose it ! (newclimateeconomy)

   

   
A pair of studies published in the journal Cell examines probiotic dietary supplements to determine if the supposed wonder bacteria actually provide the kind of benefits that have been claimed. The results paint a more complicated picture, and they are likely to rankle many among the millions who swear by probiotic supplements.

   
Dietary supplements (smithsonianmag)

   

   
Samsung will first roll out an 8nm node based on its 10nm technology, Anandtech reports. This node, dubbed 8LPU (Low Power Ultimate) will focus on chips that require both a high clock and high transistor density. The tweaked node can deliver 10 percent improved die area (at the same complexity) or 10 percent lower power consumption (at the same frequency and complexity).

   
The EUV lithography (anandtech)

   

   
We investigated the presence of respiratory viruses in the passenger environment of a major airport in order to identify risk points and guide measures to minimize transmission. Detection of pathogen viral nucleic acids indicates respiratory viral surface contamination at multiple sites associated with high touch rates, and suggests a potential risk in the identified airport sites.

   
Deposition of respiratory virus pathogens (bmcinfectdis)

   

   
What a quantum data center looks like ? Next to each of several fat white cylinders holding the super-cooled quantum computers are racks of traditional servers–constituting the quantum-classical hybrid systems that are bringing this bizarre physics to market. The users are alredy here, like chemistry companies and biotech.

   
From bits to Qubits (fastcompany)

   

   
While automakers have historically resisted utilizing recycled parts, the practice is catching on. For several years a wide host of car manufacturers like Subaru, Volvo, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Nissan, Cadillac, Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors have been running sustainability programs to find ways to be more earth-friendly.

   
Building and interconnecting business relationships (areadevelopment)

   

   
The first biomarker target used for CAR T cell therapy was CD19, a B cell marker expressed highly on malignant B cells. With the success of CD19, the last decade has shown an explosion of new targetable biomarkers on a range of human malignancies. These surface targets have made it possible to provide directed, specific therapy.

   
New way the cancer is treated (biomedcentral)

   

   
With hundreds of commercial airlines operating around the world, and an inevitable spectrum of safety performance across operators, many countries and regions have exercised their right to issue blanket bans against airlines that are deemed to fall short of minimum standards in air safety. The European Union (EU), meanwhile, operates the EU Air Safety List.

   
How does it work? (airport-technology)

   

   
Financial institutions around the world are making large-scale investments in AI, while governments and regulators seek to grapple with the significant uncertainties and growing public trepidation as AI becomes central to the fabric of institutions and markets.

   
Trade-off between cost & customization (weforum)

   

   
Simple as it may seem, feedback — that ubiquitous necessity of organizational life — has proven to be an axis on which organizational culture turns. Research is suggesting that by switching from giving feedback to asking for it, organizations can tilt their culture toward continuous improvement; smarter decision making; and stronger.

   
How to improve behavior and performance en masse ? (strategy-busines)

   

  The EU' copyright vote at stake

   
Critics of the proposal argue that shifting the burden of rights liability onto platforms will flip them from champions to chillers of free speech, making them reconfigure their systems to accommodate the new level of business risk. More specifically they suggest it will encourage platforms into algorithmically pre-filtering all user uploads — aka #censorshipmachines.

   
What you need to know (techcrunch)

   

   
Parties to the Paris Agreement are under pressure to meet the December 2018 deadline to operationalize the climate accord. Building on prior analysis and the firsthand experience of negotiators and other key stakeholders, this working paper by the Project for Advancing Climate Transparency provides both an overarching vision and practical suggestions for the foundational elements of the Paris Agreement’s implementing guidelines.

   
Key requirements for the implementation (world ressources institut)

   

   
The hype around electric vehicles and self-driving cars seems to grow louder by the day. The potential environmental and social benefits are trumpeted generally without reservation. But not as often discussed, at least in the consumer world, are the potential costs of the manufacturing upheaval likely to accompany mass replacement of internal combustion vehicles with electric should those projections come to pass.

   
Demand for electric vehicles (advancedmanufacturing)

   

  How to curb "essay mills" at university ?

   
Collected evidence from surveys taken among students in higher education, and calculated that as many as one in seven recent students internationally have paid for someone to produce their assignments, potentially representing 31 million students.

   
Contract cheating survey' analysis (frontiersin)

   

   
The European Commission’s proposal to bolster Europe’s borders would mean that for the first time the EU will spend more on migration control than on developing Africa, as the determination to ‘fortify’ the Continent prevails among national governments and institutions.

   
Africa-EU' relation: From Trump' wall to human shild (euractiv)

   

   
In late September a group of businessmen and economic development officials from Michigan made a sort of urban pilgrimage to downtown Seattle. They walked the streets, starting at the three spherical glass buildings that recently opened as part of the headquarters of Amazon.com Inc. Their goal: to learn how the company had transformed the city.

   
Neighborhood in the middle of a city (bloomberg)

   

   
The Pacific plate is one of many possible tsunamigenic quake sources, and scientists believe the Nankai Trough, another subduction zone much closer to the Japanese coast than the source of 3/11, will produce a similar megaquake and tsunami within the next 30 years. JMA’s standard was, and remains, three minutes from quake to tsunami warning.

   
A means of mass communication (pulitzercenter)

   

   
In the design of objects composed of nucleic acids, it is crucial to avoid the presence of alternative molecular recognition motifs, since these may result in nontargeted architectures. At the same time, quadruplex DNA is characterized by the presence of repetitive segments of guanines, which have the potential for a great variety of alternative hydrogen bond alignments.

   
Biotechnological, and therapeutic applications (sciencemag)

   

   
Most executives copy-paste what another company’s proven ideas than do the hard work of assessing evidence relevant to their own circumstances. Managers falter, victims of inertia (“but we’ve always done things this way!”) confusion (“industrial-organizational what?”), even downright hostility to expertise.

   
Applying evidence-based management (qualitydigest)

   

   
How much sleep do you get each night? Most of us know that eight hours is the recommended amount, but with work, family, and social commitments often consuming more than 16 hours of the day, it can seem impossible to make the math work. Perhaps you feel that you operate just fine on four or five hours a night.

   
Overlooked solutions (hbr)

   

   
Solid bulk cargoes—defined as granular materials loaded directly into a ship’s hold—can suddenly turn from a solid state into a liquid state, a process known as liquefaction. And this can be disastrous for any ship carrying them—and its crew.

   
Cargo that can suddenly liquefies & sink (arstechnica)

   

   
An interesting side effect of the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities is that Linux and Windows developers are now working together, since both operating systems face similar risks from the CPU vulnerabilities. Windows and Linux kernel developers now have this wonderful back channel. They're talking to each other and they're fixing bugs for each other.

   
Fixing Intel's flaws (eweek)       Related: About spectre & meltdown  (anandtech)

   

   
With some $18 billion bringing all the fictions to reality when every cook is done, it’s absolutely safe to imagine that all speculations would rarely divulge every piece of surprise the tech nation is holding for the world. In a similar event – the 1964 Tokyo summer games, Japan debuted shinkansen, the world’s first ‘bullet’ high-speed train and it has plenty rooms to stun us again.

   
10 Technologies in spotlight (industryleadersmagazine)

   

   
Organizations that can closely monitor shifts in profit pools and market dynamics will be better positioned to achieve the strategic agility required in the current healthcare market. As market dynamics shift, proactively adjusting strategy and reassessing investments using real-time data and insight will be a more effective approach than reacting to market shifts and assessing investments solely through an annual strategic planning process.

   
Managing cost and quality (strategy-business)

   

   
Children’s food manufacturers don’t have to wait for the FDA before they reduce the heavy metal content of their products. One step they can take is to source their ingredients from areas that are less likely to be contaminated. there are steps you can take to reduce the amount of heavy metals you and your children are exposed to, and to minimize some of the effects of heavy metals.

   
Where we found heavy metals? (consumerreports)

   

   
Since the late 1990s, computer scientists have come up with LSH algorithms that give approximate solutions to the nearest neighbor problem for specific distance metrics. These algorithms have tended to be very specialized, meaning an algorithm developed for one distance metric couldn’t be applied to another.

   
The nearest neighbor problem (quantamagazine)

   

   
Businesses have long depended on the loyalty of their customer base to support growth. Today, many are experiencing a different reality. Consumers are shopping around—more than ever before. Research confirms it: The traditional concept of customer loyalty has shifted, with the onus on the company to constantly adapt and cater products, services and experiences to the customer.

   
Through hyper-relevance (accenture)

   

   
The degree to which modern technologies are able to substitute for groups of job tasks has renewed fears of near-future technological unemployment. We argue that our knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) go beyond the specific tasks we do at the job, making us potentially more adaptable to technological change than feared.

   
How to withstand the current wave ? (harvard)

   

   
Security for States and their citizens has traditionally been provided by national law enforcement and armed forces; today this phenomenon is constantly challenged around the world. Private military and security companies (PMSCs) play an increasingly important role within the security sector overall and have significant potential to impact human rights, and the rule of law.

   
Rule of law & Human right at stake (dcaf)

   

   
Life-threatening allergies can include reactions to insect bites or stings, foods, medications, latex or other causes. Anaphylaxis is a medical emergency that affects the whole body and, in some cases, leads to death. Anaphylaxis occurs in approximately one in 50 Americans. People who have had an anaphylaxis episode always face the risk of another one.

   
FDA's approval (fda)

   

   
Labelling the nutritional content of food has become important not simply because the consumer has the right to know what is in food products, but also to help us make proper dietary choices so we can follow a healthy, well-balanced diet. In some countries, government regulations for nutrition labelling have been in place for many years.

   
Global update (eufic)

   

   
After further improvements and tests, new substrates, with ISO standards, are becoming available to all interested parties thanks to the SERSitive initiative operating within the IPC PAS, financed by the Polish National Centre for Research and Development.

   
Qualitative leap in SERSitive tech. (innovations-report)

   

  Public-Private partnerships

   
According to Texas Central Partners, the total cost of construction and acquisition of train sets would be roughly $16 billion.3 TCP intends to privately finance the project through a combination of debt and equity.4 Once TCP has cleared all regulatory, environmental review, and permitting hurdles, the firm will close on project financing.

   
Purchasing public (americanprogress)

   

   
Smart assistants might be the tip of the iceberg in taking away our jobs in the future, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make use of them in the meantime. Virtual assistants like Cortana, Siri, Google Assistant, and many others, are now a major feature of smartphones and tablets, so knowing which one is best could have a major impact on what your next hardware purchase might be.

   
Features and capabilities (digitaltrends)

   

   
For many people, “majority” is a word so common that they rarely have to think twice about what it means. But it’s a different matter for polling organizations like Pew Research Center. By their nature, polls provide an estimate of what a large group of people say, since they’re based on a sample rather than the entire population.

   
51% might not mean a "majority" (pewresearch)

   

   
Global spending on enterprise IT could reach US$3.7 trillion in 2018, according to Gartner. The scale of this investment is surprising, given the evolution of the IT sector. Basic computing, storage, and networking have become commodities, and ostensibly cheaper cloud offerings such as infrastructure-as-a-service and software-as-a-service are increasingly well established.

   
Why do IT costs continue to rise? (strategy-business)

   

   
Global motorization is rapid and explosive. As many as 2 billion vehicle tailpipes spew noxious pollutants and heat-trapping gases across the world. But as newer vehicles are inflating the global rolling stock every year, huge numbers are also becoming old and obsolete. In 2013, about 40 million vehicles a year were estimated to be approaching their end-of-life.

   
Combating Dumping (cseindia)

   

   
Increased diplomatic tension between the US and China is threatening academic collaboration between the two countries. The White House is concerned that America’s scientific pre-eminence is endangered by foreigners trying to steal valuable technology and intellectual property, and this is has translated into new visa restrictions.

   
Profiling or protecting ? (chemistryworld)

   

   
Forty years ago, more than one third of manufacturing workers were represented by unions. Now, that figure is closer to 10 percent. Even in the formerly union-dominated auto industry, union membership has dropped from more than 60 percent in the early ’80s, to 20 percent or less.

   
The Front Line (areadevelopment)

   

   
How domestication, based purely on behavioral traits, can result in other changes — like curlier tails and changes to fur color. In a new study, scientists used genome sequencing to identify 103 stretches of the fox genome that appear to have been changed by breeding.

   
Genomic regions differentiating fox populations (nature)

   

   
The connected, intelligent and autonomous enterprise comes with additional cyber risk. All that sensitive data, connectivity and automation multiplies the opportunities for hackers by expanding the “surface area” exposed to cyber attack. And, because digital systems are so embedded in daily operations, the potential damage from even a single security incident is magnified.

   
Five ways (accenture)

   

   
Several issues remain unresolved that might explain why alcohol consumption is not listed in the most recent guideline on modifiable risk factors for the prevention of dementia.8 Firstly, as most studies rely on face-to-face assessment for dementia diagnosis, people who drop out of the study or die during follow-up are not included in the analyses, resulting in potential bias due to selection in results.

   
The present converging evidence (bmj)

   

   
What does daily work, or a lifelong career, look like a decade from now, or two decades? What roles will automation and artificial intelligence play? Are robots really coming to take our jobs? Will machine learning eventually outpace—and displace—human learning? And what does this huge, impending shift mean for companies and the economy? These are all valid concerns, and the social and economic challenges are real.

   
Deloitte insights (deloitte)

   

  What a customer should never hear ?

   
Here’s what customer service managers, from healthcare to telecommunications, from utilities to gyms, should have tattooed on the inside of their eyelids: Because employees feel powerless to deal with customer problems, they default to the most brain-dead, frustrating response a customer can hear: “Well, I’m sorry, but there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s out of our hands.”

   
Customer care (qualitydigest)

   

  How chemistry can improve the future?

   
Europe is a hub for leading chemical companies, and a front-runner in chemistry research and development. And across industries – from health, hygiene, construction and mobility to agriculture and energy supply – chemicals are an essential ingredient, vital to a competitive business landscape, and an important part of the transition to a sustainable society.

   
Towards a sustainable future (chemistrycan)
   

   
45% of total economic gains by 2030 will come from product enhancements, stimulating consumer demand. This is because AI will drive greater product variety, with increased personalisation, attractiveness and affordability over time. The greatest economic gains from AI will be in China (26% boost to GDP in 2030) and North America (14.5% boost).

   
Sizing the prize (pwc)

   

   
The greatest uncertainty weighing on the growth outlook stems from the possibility of new trade restrictions, principally in relation to the ongoing renegotiation of the North America Free Trade Agreement. The Survey points out that outcomes will depend on political decisions, notably in the United States, while showing that business investment is already being negatively affected.

   

Solid growth but trade tensions ahead (oecd)

   

  Overfishing

   
Analysis of the mean distance traveled by the industrial fleets of the world’s 20 largest fishing countries between their home countries and the locations where catches were taken illustrates three distinct patterns: rapid and largely continuous expansion, early expansion followed by stabilization or retrenchment, and limited or no expansion.

   
Far from home (advances.sciencemag)

   

  How to reduce micropollutants in waters ?

   
This paper focuses on organic micropollutants of anthropogenic origin, and specifically on the sub - stance groups of medicinal products, plant protection products, biocides, chemicals (under REACH), washing detergents and cleaning agents. Inorganic chemicals, microplastics and nutrients are not dealt with in this paper, given that they can have greatly varying char - acteristics and behaviours, or that other reduction measures may apply.

   
Precautionary approach & legal framework (umweltbundesamt)

   

   
One significant change to the standard was the introduction of the High-Level Structure (HLS) common to all the ISO management systems standards. As Faergemand explains, “ this will benefit the organizations using more than one management system ”. It also benefits organizations to take a different approach to understanding risk.

   
Building & renewing trust (iso)

   

   
The study was conducted by assessing performance based on calculating 19 key financial metrics. These include metrics such as revenue, operating earnings, operating margin, return on assets (ROA), free cash flow (FCF), free cash margin (FCM), book-to-bill (BTB) ratio, and employee productivity. All financial metrics in the study are based on a constant currency conversion (using US$) method.

   
2018 Global aerospace and defense industry (deloitte)

   

   
SonarQube (formerly known as Sonar) is an open source tool developed by SonarSource for continuous inspection of code quality on over twenty programming languages. SonarQube offers reports on duplicated code, coding standards, unit tests, code coverage and complexity, comments, bugs, and security vulnerabilities. It's available in an Eclipse plug-in called SonarLint.

   
How to bind your project to SonarCloud? (developer)

   

   
The question of how China’s rise will affect the international order carries considerable significance for the future of global politics. A wellestablished literature illustrates the perils of transitions between rising and established great powers, but it remains unclear whether China and the United States will also clash.3 Some observers have suggested that China seeks to “overturn” the international order.

   
The fundamental uncertainty (rand)

   

   
IT leaders are not only helping transform organisations, but the leaders themselves are being transformed, and for many there is a real opportunity to grow and extend their influence. From helping ‘shadow IT’ step out of the shadows, to handling data privacy and security, to getting the balance right between governance and driving innovation - the CIO has a unique perspective on it all.

   
Trust - The New Battleground (kpmg)

   

   
“The most striking feature of this year’s figures is the strong increases in the value of the leading Chinese companies. For many years, US companies have used their global reach, financial strength and ability to innovate to pull away from the rest of the world. Now China is drawing on equivalent attributes, founded on the huge scale of the Chinese market, to make inroads into the US’s lead.

   
Highlights and trends (pwc)

   

   
This JRC Reference Report on Monitoring (ROM) summarises information on the monitoring of emissions to air and water from IED installations, thereby providing practical guidance for the application of the Best Available Techniques (BAT) conclusions on monitoring in order to help competent authorities to define monitoring requirements in the permits of IED installations.

   
JRC Reference Report (jrc)

   

   
The challenge with Quality 4.0 technology is to collect measured results in as near real-time as possible; hence, the desirability of automation to speed up the rate at which data are recorded. Additionally, automated evaluation minimizes the risk of human error when interpreting the results. Automating noncontact inspection also allows the collection of much larger amounts of data for more meaningful analysis, including trend analysis.

   
A policy of zero-defect production (qualitydigest)

   

   

Three selected countries, representing the four major language groups in the Americas, have strong pharmaceutical industries at different stages of development: mature market (Canada), emerging market (Brazil), and second tier emerging market (Argentina). Most Latin American countries are in the last category. Argentina and Brazil represent countries with a growing number of clinical trials.

   
Implementation challenges and regional strategies (bmj)

   

   
Behind every successful IT project, you'll find a highly skilled project manager. From hardware and software upgrades to ongoing security patches, to application development and the rollout of software itself, project managers keep your teams on task and productive. Almost any IT pro can benefit from adding a project management certification to their list of IT credentials.

   
Requirements & Cost (cio)

   

   
In 2013 Christoph Lakner and Branko Milanovic published a chart that was quickly dubbed the "elephant chart". It depicts changes in the income distribution of the world's population between 1988 and 2008 and is used to illustrate growing levels of inequality resulting from globalisation. Now, ten years after its first publication, Brookings examines how this particular model holds up against new data and methods.

   
The elephant chart revisited (brookings)

   

   
World digital trade in goods and services, conducted via the internet, continues to expand at a rapid rate. Global e-commerce increased from $19.3 trillion in 2012 to $27.7 trillion in 2016 (USITC 2017), and about 12 percent of global goods trade are handled on the internet (McKinsey Global Institute 2016). New technology drives this growth, and the relative absence of government barriers has enabled technology to thrive.

   
Mesures & countermeasures (piie)

   

   
Last year more organisations than ever put in place a digital strategy. This year, we see that growth falter. Making a success of digital is proving complex: almost eight in ten CIOs feel their digital strategy as only moderately effective, or worse. And digital strategies are still in their infancy, with most investment focused on the ‘front end’, rather than deeper operational activities.

   
Driving Digital (kpmg)

   

   
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), the EU organization responsible for the centralized authorization of medicines and a major driving force behind international collaboration in GMP, has also warned it is having to slow down its activities in this area because of its need to concentrate resources on relocating its headquarters from London to Amsterdam due to Brexit.

   
The MRA on GMP inspection (pharmtech)

   

   
Integrating business decisions and information technology has long been rated as extremely important by CEOs in various surveys. That importance has grown with today’s evolving landscape of internet and cloud- based technologies. Many major players have started providing machine learning and analytics services through the cloud, such as Microsoft Azure, Google cloud machine learning engine, and machine learning on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

   
Integrating manufacturing design and analysis (nits)

   

   
There are many technological pathways currently being explored with the aim of minimising carbon emissions in transport, although electrification is the one attracting the greatest attention at present. While vehicle electrification is being driven primarily by government policy around the world, many other technologies are being developed through private investment, including the use of venture capital.

   
More than battery power (oxfordenergy)

   

   
In July 2017, the Chinese government presented its latest AI development plan. The goal is for China to become the global centre for AI innovation and the world's leading provider of AI technology and applications by 2030. That's going too far as far as neighbouring India is concerned. In February 2018, the Indian Ministry of Defence adopted the development and use of AI for military applications and technology-driven economic growth as a fundamental principle.

   
Weighing benefits and risks (idsa)

   

   
Private businesses are more optimistic than they have been for some time. They are particularly confident they can grow their companies in their domestic markets by focusing on their customers and embracing digital technologies. Mid-sized companies (defined as those with annual revenues of €50 million to €100 million) are the most positive of those we surveyed.

   
EU bureaucracy and regulation (pwc)

   

   
The British government predicts a lack of investment opportunities for the country’s businesses in the future – and not just on account of Brexit. In order to reduce the potentially negative effects of this situation, it has ordered a "review of what actions could be most effective” to help safeguard the productivity and growth of highly innovative SMEs.

   
How to mimic the kfw model (civitas)

   

   
The future environmental impacts of 3D printing will depend on many different factors. These include, among others: 3D printer type and the printing material; type of use, e.g. industrial or private applications; and sup - porting services required for 3D printing, e.g. transport of printing materials. This trend report takes into account these different elements of 3D printing and analyses to what extent they could lead to environmental burdens or benefits.

   
Assessing the environmental impacts (umweltbundesamt)

   

   
The Sino-U.S. Quality Summit was a meeting of about 100 senior executives and staff from American and Chinese organizations to present and discuss ideas on quality. It was an impressive list of attendees, as the Chinese were represented by the chairmen, presidents, and vice presidents of prominent organizations. A couple dozen American and multinational companies were represented, including Boeing, BMW...

   
Why now? (qualitydigest)

   

   
European CFO Survey presenting the opinions of 1,652 CFOs across 20 European countries. The survey is the ideal barometer of the European corporate sector, providing an overview of CFOs’ hiring and investment intentions, views on critical business risks, current strategic priorities and what factors they consider critical for success. Download the report and get in touch with your local CFO programme contact at the bottom of the page to discuss the findings further.

   
Undeterred by uncertainty (Deloitte)

   

   
In order to help build and cement trust, your business should make customers aware of what kinds of personal information you hold and how you use it, with transparency and accountability as your guiding principles. Customers are entitled to know what is being done with their personal information — and expect you to tell them.

   
GDPR: What's about ? (kpmg)

   

   
Interviews with police leaders across six countries revealed a complex set of challenges facing today’s law enforcement agencies operating at the local, national and international level. Many interviewees cited the challenges of managing short budget cycles and shortages in funding, which make it difficult to map out and pursue effective policing strategies over the medium and long term.

   
Proactive strategy (pwc)

   

  When philanthropy meets advocacy

   
Politically active philanthropists remain the exception, not the rule. Many we meet with still wish to stay above the political fray, even on issues they care about passionately. To them, the nation’s tectonic shifts feel enormously threatening. Many still stick to scripts from a bygone time. “We don’t do advocacy” is a common refrain. “The family members on our board don’t want us to ‘get political.’”

   
Five Questions to answer ! (ssir)

   

   
Art one of this article introduced the concept of sampling distribution of acceptance value (AV) in uniformity of dosage units (UDU). Part two of this article described how to establish the corresponding acceptance limits for AV data for process validation batches as well as the typical characteristics of AV distributions. The present par 3 will introduce the establishing acceptance limits for uniformity of dosage units.

   
Establishing acceptance limits  (pharmtech)  Part1   Part2   Part3

   

   
For the first time ever, scientists have identified the existence of a new DNA structure that looks more like a twisted, four-stranded knot than the double helix we all know from high school biology. Some research had previously suggested the existence of DNA in this tangled form, dubbed an i-motif, but it had never before been detected in living cells outside of the test tube.

   
Forget the Double Helix (gizmodo)

   

   
Taxes and transfers reduce inequality in disposable income relative to market income. The effect varies, however, across OECD countries. The redistributive impact of taxes and transfers depends on the size, mix and the progressivity of each component. Some countries with a relatively small tax and welfare system ( e.g. Australia) achieve the same redistributive impact as countries characterised by much higher taxes and transfers ( e.g. Germany).

   
The role of taxes & transfers (oecd)

   

   
Mycobacterium ulcerans causes an infectious disease known internationally as Buruli ulcer, and also as Bairnsdale ulcer or Daintree ulcer in Australia. It causes severe destructive lesions of skin and soft tissue, resulting in significant morbidity, in attributable mortality and often in long term disability and cosmetic deformity.1 All age groups, including young children, are affected, and the emotional and psychological impact on patients and their carers is substantial.

   
Understanding risk factors (mja)

   

   
we surveyed more than 1,100 executives at global manufacturing companies about their views on digital operations and Industry 4.0. Our goal was to explore the role of Digital Champions and the practices that allow them to outpace competitors. We found that they excel at managing and integrating four critical ecosystems — Customer Solutions, Operations, Technology, and People.

   
How to deliver end-to-end customer solutions (strategyand.pwc)

   

   
On April 20, 2018, FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) released its second annual Drug Safety Priorities report, which details drug safety initiatives carried out by CDER and FDA. The report highlights drug safety program milestones and gives an update on goals achieved in 2017. Efforts by FDA to ensure drug safety science, surveillance, and oversight are discussed.

   
Monitoring the safety profiles of drugs (fda)

   

   
Forget what you’ve heard about 22-year-old wunderkinds, sitting in the corner offices of their wildly popular Silicon Valley startups — if you want to find the most successful entrepreneurs, you have to go back a few decades. According to a working paper from MIT Sloan professor Pierre Azoulay and PhD student Daniel Kim, the average age of entrepreneurs who’ve started companies and gone on to hire at least one employee, is 42 years old.

   
Betting on a middle-aged person (mit)

   

   
When it comes to the larger considerations of life, valuable insight may be gained from the key questions posed by the great philosopher from Königsberg, Immanuel Kant: What can I know? What should I do? What may I hope? What is man? These questions take us to the borders between and of knowledge, ethics, religion and ultimately the question of being.

   
A wave of expectations (kas)

   

   
Adult hippocampal neurogenesis declines in aging rodents and primates. Aging humans are thought to exhibit waning neurogenesis and exercise-induced angiogenesis, with a resulting volumetric decrease in the neurogenic hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) region, although concurrent changes in these parameters are not well studied. Here we assessed whole autopsy hippocampi from healthy human ranging from 14 to 79 years of age.

   
Study: angiogenesis sustainment & cellular plasticity (cell)

   

   
Identifying the causal links between CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) instruments and their impact on developing countries is a complex task. The main difficulty consists of isolating CAP’s effects from those of other drivers (local institutional framework, socioeconomic developments, other external and internal policies, etc.), that is, establishing a counterfactual scenario mirroring what would have happened without the CAP.

   
How to enhance coherence across EU policies ? (europarl.europa)

   

   
The bacterial flagellar motor, which drives a rotary propeller for motility, offers a fascinating case study to explore this further, and is now revealing recurring themes in molecular evolution. This article describes recent discoveries about how flagellar motors have diversified since the first flagellar motor evolved, and what this diversity tells us about molecular evolution.

   
As a case study in molecular evolution (biochemist)

   

   
The risk of automation is estimated for the 32 OECD countries that have participated in the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) so far. Beyond the share of jobs likely to be significantly disrupted by automation of production and services, the accent is put on characteristics of these jobs and the characteristics of the workers who hold them.

   
Who is at risk of job automation? (oecd-ilibrary)

   

  Why bird eggs are so strong?

   
How chicken eggs are strong enough to resist being fractured from the outside, but weak enough to be broken from the inside when the chick hatches.About 10-20 per cent of chicken eggs break or crack, which increases the risk of Salmonella poisoning. “Understanding how mineral nanostructure contributes to shell strength will allow for selection of genetic traits in laying hens to produce consistently stronger eggs for enhanced food safety."

   
Shell’s nanostructure (advances.sciencemag)

   

   
A variety of mechanisms have been proposed as mediators of the effects of CR on lifespan. An old but arguably a prevailing theory supporting lifespan extension with CR is a hybrid between two long-standing hypotheses of aging: the ‘‘rate of living’’ and the ‘‘oxidative damage’’ theories of aging. Pearl (1928 ) proposed the idea that mammalian longevity is inversely related to their metabolic rate per unit of tissue mass; hence, rate of living.

   
Rate of living and oxidative damage theories of aging (cell)

   

   
A large group on internationally renowned AI academics have signed an open letter threatening to boycott collaborations with a top South Korean University working to create autonomous weapons. The letter comes just before the United Nations is set to discuss killer robots in a meeting next week. It has led by Toby Walsh, a professor of AI at the University of South Wales and lists more than 50 names.

   
How to improve & not harm human lives (theregister)

   

   
CoAs summarize key information on product quality testing, including test conditions and parameters, specifications and requirements, results of tests (both qualitative and quantitative), and approval signature and date. They also provide information on the chain of custody including such basics as the manufacturer’s name, address and other identifiers.

   
Don’t trust, verify (pharmtech)

   

   
In many ways, social capital is achieving a new-found status next to financial and physical capital in value. In a recent survey, for instance, 65 percent of CEOs rated “inclusive growth” as a top-three strategic concern, more than three times greater than the proportion citing “shareholder value.” Today, successful businesses must incorporate external trends, perspectives, and voices.

   
Global human capital trends (deloitte)

   

  EU' drinking water directive

   
The EU has provided a legislative framework for the monitoring of its drinking-water quality since 1980 and, in the current Drinking Water Directive 98/83/EC of 1998 (DWD), it sets minimum quality standards for 48 parameters to be monitored regularly. Control and enforcement of these standards are left to the Member States, as is appropriately informing consumers.

   
Revision (europa)

   

   
Two giant sinkholes near the Texan town of Wink have previously been linked with such operations, but they may just be the tip of the iceberg. The geophysicists who first alerted the world to the threat posed by the expansion of Wink’s sinkholes undertook further research and found unusual land movement throughout the wider west Texas region.

   
Human activities & localized geohazards (natures)

   

   
While every automaker is pushing into EVs, levels of ambition vary widely. The Asian giants—Toyota and Hyundai Motor Co.—are betting on exotic technologies such as fuel cells while also investing in hybrids. U.S. automakers, on the whole, are moving slowly because of their home market’s reluctance to reckon with climate change. None is committing nearly as much capital as Müller’s Volkswagen.

   
The company’s 12 brands (bloomberg)

   

   
Whether you are an employee, a manager or a business owner, you share a common goal – you don’t want anyone to get hurt on the job. his issue provides in-depth coverage of the new ISO 45001, the world’s first International Standard for occupational health and safety (OH&S). You will find all kinds of interesting information and expert advice on ISO 45001, from theory to practice.

   
Are you ready for ISO 45001? (iso)

   

   
Antarctica’s great ice sheet is losing ground as it is eroded by warm ocean water circulating beneath its floating edge, a new study has found. Most Antarctic glaciers flow straight into the ocean in deep submarine troughs, the grounding line is the place where their base leaves the sea floor and begins to float. Their study, shows that the Southern Ocean melted an area the size of Greater London.

   
The pace of deglaciation (scitechdaily)

   

   
In order to better understand the role and the different channels through which social networks matter we further differentiate between close social networks abroad and at home based on whether the network provides financial support. Distinguishing social networks with and without financial aid allows us to better understand the channels through which social networks might influence migration intentions.

   
International migration intention (growthlab.cid.havard)

   

   
The gap between realities and ideals is becoming wider and wider. Climate change influences a wide range of areas and is a long-term challenge covering many generations. The realities of emission cuts, adaptation and residual damage must be carefully balanced within a pluralistic interpretation of sustainability. The IEEJ Outlook 2018 tackles this difficult challenge with more fine-tuned methods.

   
Energy, environment and economy (ieej)

   

   
The goal of TOAR-Health is to present, for the first time, the global distribution and trends of ozone using all available surface ozone observations. The analysis relies on a variety of ozone metrics that are either used by air quality managers to inform and evaluate strategies to protect human health from the adverse effects of ozone, or are useful for epidemiologists to quantify the impact of ozone on human health.

   
Distribution and trends relevant to human health (elementascience)

   

   
Justice Department officials are convinced that mechanisms allowing access to the data can be engineered without intolerably weakening the devices’ security against hacking. Against that backdrop, law enforcement officials have revived talks inside the executive branch over whether to ask Congress to enact legislation mandating the access mechanisms.

   
Dangerous weaknesses into product security (nytimes)

   

   
How do ordinary Africans view accountability? Whom do they see as responsible for monitoring those in power? Findings from Afrobarometer surveys in 36 African countries show that most Africans support checks on executive power by lawmakers, the courts, and the news media. But when it comes to holding elected officials accountable, that responsibility is most often assigned to the voters.

   
Who’s watching? (afrobarometer)

   

   
Electronic surveillance is used across Europe an countries to fight serious crime, terrorism, and avert dangers to state security. Therefore, electronic surveillance is a field where abuse is potentially easy in individual cases, but can inflict harmful consequences for the democratic society as a whole, undermining public trust in the state.

   
Blurred ligne (dcaf)

   

  Programming language rankings

   
While the means of collection has changed, the basic process remains the same: we extract language rankings from GitHub and Stack Overflow, and combine them for a ranking that attempts to reflect both code (GitHub) and discussion (Stack Overflow) traction. The idea is to correlate language discussion and usage in an effort to extract insights into potential future adoption trends.

   
How to correlate language discussion and usage ? (redmonk)

   

   
In the lead-up to the most recent surface transportation authorization bill, the FAST Act, Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx frequently invoked an infrastructure deficit, or sizable gap between what the United States is spending and what we should be spending on surface transportation and water, aviation, and broadband investments.

   
Costs and benefits into life-cycle cost analysis (urban)

   

   
Child stunting in India exceeds that in poorer regions like sub-saharan Africa. Data on over 168 , 000 children show that , relative to Africa , India’s height disadvantage increases sharply with birth order. We posit that India’s steep birth order gradient is due to favoritism toward eldest sons , which affects parents ’ fertility decisions and resource allocation across children.

   
Birth Order and son preference (aeaweb)

   

   
For quality management systems and professionals to succeed and contribute bottom-line benefits to the organization, quality processes and data need to be embedded, integral parts of the ecosystem. Under Industry 4.0, massive amounts of data will be available to quality personnel in real-time, and from multiple sources simultaneously, and those data must be used to enable quick, situational decision making.

   
QMS for the fourth industrial revolution (qualitydigest)

   

   
We created this list to help you fight the “optimizer’s block,” that moment when your brain feels like a dried up half of a lemon that’s been left out on the kitchen counter-top for a few days. No matter how much you squeeze it, there’s nothing left. When you’re completely drained and the deadline is approaching fast, consider these 45 testing ideas to try on your PPC, SEO, or email marketing campaign landing pages today!

   
45 tips (thenextweb)

   

   
As Internal Audit moves up the technology scale, optical character recognition tools/tools that can handle unstructured or semi structured data are other notable ways to apply technology and increase efficiencies. Repetitive testing efforts in, for example, the areas of invoices, inventory, and contract review can be reduced by using optical recognition tools and intelligent bots to populate testing worksheets.

   
Data analytics and monitoring (pwc)

   

   
Before renewables proliferated and wholesale electricity prices plummeted in Germany, before the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, and before addressing climate change became a global policy imperative, Germany was committed to using clean energy to improve energy security, environmental sustainability, and industrial competitiveness.

   
Implementation exceeds expectations (kas)

   

   
Finland has vaulted from fifth place to the top of the rankings this year,” said the report’s authors, though they noted that the other three Nordic countries (plus Switzerland) have almost interchangeable scores. The report, an annual publication from the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, said that all Nordic countries scored highly on income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust and generosity.

   
Converting wealth into wellbeing (amazonaws)

   

   
A VPN should be used, as it is one of the key elements to a defense-in-depth strategy. However, implementing a secure IIoT connection to automation system components via a VPN often presents cost, technical, and resource allocation issues. The two solutions presented in this article address these challenges, but in different ways.

   
The needed level of protection (machinedesign)

   

   

Research into lead poisoning has shown that toxic effects arise in multiple organ systems at relatively low levels of exposure that were previously considered safe. Needleman7 showed that lead could reduce children's cognitive function and disrupt behaviour at levels too low to produce symptoms—so-called subclinical lead poisoning. Subsequent investigation of the toxic effects of lead, has shown that lead has toxic effects down to the lowest measurable levels.

   
Global assessments of cardiovascular disease mortality (thelancet)

   
More than 320,000 years ago in the Rift Valley of Africa, some early innovators adopted a new technology: They eschewed the clunky, palm-size stone hand axes that their ancestors had used for more than a million years in favor of a sleek new toolkit. Like new generations of cellphones today, their Middle Stone Age (MSA) blades and points were smaller and more precise than the old so-called Acheulean hand axes and scrapers.

   
The early sign of symbolic behavior (sciencemag)

   

   
Over the past year AMD has introduced an array of new technologies targeting critical applications in the enterprise, industrial, and aeros pace sectors. As the company expands from the consumer market into these new areas , security is fast becoming a key component of its offering. CTS has been researching the security of AMD’s latest Zen processors for the past six months.

   
AMD’s secure processor & chipset (safefirmware)

   

  Forcasting hasard

   
The field of early action is rapidly advancing and its proponents are identifying similar sets of challenges and modifying the mechanisms to deal with many of these. Although limitations persist in the forecasting skill and capacities needed to generate and interpret data, establish triggers and target vulnerable populations, the evidence seems clear that early action can reduce disaster losses.

   
How early is early? (odi)

   

   
The rise of super consumers and technologies that deliver data-fueled insights to other health stakeholders (e.g., artificial intelligence and internet of everything) disrupt entrenched relationships and shift power away from life sciences companies. To regain positional power, life sciences companies must invest strategically and differentially in the capabilities that create future value and that can be shared broadly by all stakeholders.

   
The biggest data platform (ey)

   

   
Bone regeneration through endochondral ossification is an intricate process that consists of precise spatial and temporal coordination of many different elements, such as cells, growth factors, and extracellular matrix (ECM). ECM, in particular, is an important element as it provides the natural microenvironment necessary for cell attachment, proliferation, and differentiation.

   
Hybrid extracellular matrix design (wiley)

   

   
This paper investigates various physico-chemical endpoints and available test methods that could be used to produce such a decision framework for nanomaterials. It presents an overview of regulatory relevance and methods used for testing fifteen proposed physico-chemical properties of eleven nanomaterials in the OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials' Testing Programme, complemented with methods from literature, and assesses the methods' adequacy and applications limits.

   
Characterisation and relevant methods (elsevier)

   

   
New expectations are creating a strain on businesses that have introduced innovative platforms and services.Years ago, Uber pioneered a new model for working with drivers, upending transit and transportation models. Now, as it has evolved its business model and relationships with local communities, the company is working to address corporate responsibility in its interactions with drivers, customers, and regulatory organizations.

   
Shaping the future of business (accenture)

   

   
Since the ICH guidance Q11 Development and Manufacture of Drug Substances (ICH Q11) was finalized, worldwide experience with implementation of the recommendations on the development and manufacture of drug substances has given rise to requests for clarification relating to the selection and justification of starting materials.

   
Development and Manufacture of Drug Substances (fda)

   

   
The EU’s struggle with legal roadblocks and its crippling level of investment will be the elephant in the room during discussions on the bloc’s bid to introduce 5G that will take place at this year’s Mobile World Congress. European legislators and telecoms industry analysts described a new sense of urgency this year, as companies from other parts of the world get ready to debut their 5G services in Barcelona.

   
Insight: business deals (euractiv)

   

   
The global chemicals industry can achieve a substantial reduction in its emissions by 2030 through concerted abatement efforts. While some of the measures identified will be net-profit-positive (and will at least partially occur as part of the BAU case), other steps will require a considerable financial and technological effort, especially when one takes a business view (10% interest rate, depreciation over 10 years), rather than a societal view (4% interest rate, depreciation over lifetime).

   
The chemical industry’s contribution (icca-chem)

   

   
Since its introduction about five years ago, CRISPR–Cas9 gene editing has become a key tool in many biology laboratories around the world. The technique allows researchers to make changes to the genome at specific sites with much greater ease than previous methods, but it still has some frustrating limitations. Revamping Cas9 protein could work on more sites in the genome, and with fewer unwanted effects.

   
Revamping Cas9 protein (nature)

   

   
Artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and other forms of ‘smart automation’ are advancing at a rapid pace and have the potential to bring great benefits to the economy, by boosting productivity and creating new and better products and services. For advanced economies like the US, the EU and Japan, these technologies coul d hold the key to reversing the slump in productivity growth seen since the global financial crisis. But they could also produce a lot of disruption.

   
Key impacts in the three waves of automation (pwc)

   

   
This year’s Most Innovative Companies coverage is filled with inspiring examples of creativity, discipline, and positive change. It is our most robust edition ever, including top 10 lists in 36 categories, drawn from a research pool of thousands of companies all across the globe. (Many organizations nominated themselves through a new submission process this year.).

   
How to guide you through 2018 ? (fastcompany)

   

   
During oral arguments, the Department of Justice, by contrast, urged the court to compel Microsoft to hand over the data. The DOJ said that allowing Microsoft to refuse the order is tantamount to encouraging companies to keep particularly sensitive data overseas as a way to evade authorities. Two liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who have recently ruled on the side of privacy in the past, questioned whether the court should be stepping in.

   
Fears inside Silicon Valley (arstechnica)

   

   
The EU is losing 95% of the value of the plastics it produces. But the European Commission has a strategy to make plastic packaging more sustainable, both environmentally and economically. Now the Commission is ready to push ahead with the full plan, with a headline goal of making all plastics produced in the EU reusable or recyclable by 2030.

   
EU' Plastics strategy unveiled (euractiv)

   

  US farms vs UK/EU farms

   
Livestock raised for food in the US are dosed with five times as much antibiotic medicine as farm animals in the UK, new data has shown, raising questions about rules on meat imports under post-Brexit trade deals. The difference in rates of dosage rises to at least nine times as much in the case of beef cattle, and may be as high as 16 times the rate of dosage per cow in the UK.

   
Behind free trade deal (saveour)    UK-US antibiotic comparison  (saveour)

   

   
Aerospace engineers and futurists have been aware of the advantages of space manufacturing for some time. The ultra-clean vacuum out there could enable the manufacture of very pure pharmaceutical products, crystals, and alloys. Zero gravity and the absence of air turbulence lend themselves to the handling of large components and their assembly into giant structures.

   
Manufacturing in space (qualitydigest)

   

   
Companies will need to make fundamental changes and transform their operations to be the intelligence engine of the business and build the capabilities they need to succeed. What sort of changes? HfS researched 460 enterprise customers across the globe to find out what senior operations executives think and how businesses are preparing themselves to succeed in the future.

   
The future belongs to intelligent operations (accenture)

   

   
The companies’ technological push is encouraged by the government. Beijing has said it wants to be a leader in A.I. by 2030 and pledged to take on the United States in the field. While officials have emphasized the use of artificial intelligence in areas like defense and self-driving cars, they have also aggressively promoted its use in health care.

   
Alibaba & Tencent collaboration (nytimes)

   

   
The underlying drivers of human decision making have become exponentially more complex in recent years. Yet transactional data, traditional market research and demographic profiles alone are proving inadequate to explain not just what customers are doing, but why. And our research has led us to focus on five key dimensions of customer behavior — motivation, attention, connection, watch and wallet.

   
How & why people make decisions (kpmg)

   

   

“Three factors make the United States favourable to business now,” notes CEO advisor and author Ram Charan. “First, no country has better mechanisms for funding risks or for raising capital. Second, robotic technology is advancing rapidly, and thus labour cost arbitrage – less expensive labour in other countries – is no longer a restricting factor.

   
The Anxious Optimist in the Corner Office

   

   
In the past few months, IBM and Intel have announced that they have made quantum computers with 50 and 49 qubits, respectively, and Google is thought to have one waiting in the wings. “There is a lot of energy in the community, and the recent progress is immense,” said physicist Jens Eisert of the Free University of Berlin. There is now talk of impending “quantum supremacy”.

   
The tremendous speedup of calculation (wired)

   

   
Someone in the firm invents the wheel. “This is the way to solve it,” they say, and then the organization passes this on to the next generation in the organization. That’s one reason organizations exist, you know? So you don’t have to reinvent the wheel all the time. But we think this process works, and we just pass it on, not being aware of when circumstances change, especially when they change gradually.

   
How to instill good practice ? (strategy-business)
    

   
The credibility of a computer program used for bail and sentencing decisions has been called into question after it was found to be no more accurate at predicting the risk of reoffending than people with no criminal justice experience who were provided with only the defendant’s age, gender and criminal history.

   
Study queries program’s use in courts (advances.sciencemag)

   

   
Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers developed a single blood test that screens for eight common cancer types and helps identify the location of the cancer. The test, called CancerSEEK, is a unique noninvasive, multianalyte test that simultaneously evaluates levels of eight cancer proteins and the presence of cancer gene mutations from circulating DNA in the blood.

   
Test Screens for Eight Cancer Types (hopkinsmedicine)

   

   
This year’s report covers more risks than ever, but focuses in particular on four key areas: environmental degradation, cybersecurity breaches, economic strains and geopolitical tensions. And in a new series called “Future Shocks” the report cautions against complacency and highlights the need to prepare for sudden and dramatic disruptions. Over this medium-term period, environmental and cyber risks predominate.

   
The growing strain on the global systems (docdroid pub)

   

   
This BAT reference document for the Production of Large Volume Organic Chemicals forms part of a series presenting the results of an exchange of information between EU Member States, the industries concerned, non-governmental organisations promoting environmental protection and the Commission, to draw up, review, and where necessary, update BAT reference documents as required by Article 13 of the Directive.

   

Best evailable tech. (eippcb.jrc.ec.europa)

   

  UK: foreign student & Higher education

   
The total benefit to the UK economy associated with a typical EU-domiciled student was approximately £87,000, with the comparable estimate for non-EU-domiciled students standing at approximately £102,000. The difference between the two estimates is primarily driven by the relatively higher tuition fees charged to non-EU-domiciled students.

   
Contribution to UK' economy (hpi.ac)

   

   
Last week, Baidu set up a booth at the CES trade show in Las Vegas for the first time. Nestled within a section for robotics, far away from the mega-spaces of tech behemoths like Samsung and Sony, Baidu’s presence wasn’t the splashiest. But by showing up, Baidu was hoping to leave an impression on current and potential partners that operate outside of China.

   
The openness is critical for success (fastcompany)

   

   
Windows OS users are targetted by viruses, malware, ransomware, and hackers more than any other operating systems. To safeguard the data, users must install a good antivirus software on their computer. There are a plethora of free antivirus software available for download. Unfortunately, not all programs are good. Windows OS also has a built-in antivirus utility called Windows Defender.

   
Security software from renowned company (techwayz)

   

   
What to tax? Where to tax it? How to tax it? These are three big questions facing tax authorities and the governments which supervise them in the 21st Century. The opening up of the world economy through the expansion of trade and investment since the 1990s has enabled major new players to emerge on the world stage.

   
Paying taxes 2018 (pwc)

   

   
The decline in bees and other pollinators is worrying because they fertilise about 75% of all food crops, with half of pollination being done by wild species. Pesticides, habitat destruction, disease and climate change have all been implicated, but little research has been done on which factors cause the most damage.

   
The missing target (blogs.cornell)

   

   
Wealth managers are next up to feel the Millennial headwind. Born 1982 through 1995, this group is entering the investment scene in earnest. The good news is: This scenario brings opportunity for investment firms who can master the hybrid advice mix. Despite their love of all things digital, this tech-savvy group will still require the human touch and nuanced advice a human advisor can give— particularly in more complex investing situations.

   
Millennials related to the digit. mix (accenture)

   

   
Detecting reciprocity in the international system has at least two additional challenges. First, reciprocity requires cooperation between states to be coupled, such that cooperation by state A toward state B influences cooperation by state B toward state A and vice versa. A second challenge is that many models for detecting reciprocity can reach the wrong conclusion.

   
Detecting reciprocity: empirical & evolutionary (advances.sciencemag)

   

   
Over the past 10 years, further maturation of the “science” of gene therapy, safety modifications, and improvements in gene transfer efficiency and delivery have finally resulted in substantial clinical progress. Several gene and gene-modified cell- based therapies are already approved drugs, and over a dozen others have earned “ breakthrough therapy ” designation by regulators in the United States and around the world.

   
The present-day of clinical treatment (sciencemag)

   

   
The renewables revolution offers technology-driven energy generation and distribution, consistently and at an increasingly reasonable price. Innovative technology, designed to increase and maintain security of supply and meet growing consumer demand, is being introduced with impressive speed. The energy sector itself is undergoing consolidation in some countries while in others, new, smaller and more agile providers are stepping onto the stage at a steady pace.

   
Great expectations (kpmg)

   

   
In biomes where water availability is generally good,seasonal, daily and sporadic conditions can mean that life has to be able to survive its absence. Surprisingly, some organisms are able to survive complete loss of all their body water, to undergo anhydrobiosis. The biochemistry of anhydrobiosis challenges ideas of what ‘being alive’ really means and promises exciting biotechnological applications.

   
A third state of possibility (biochemist)

   

   
This in-depth analysis examines the issue of the possible revocation of a withdrawal notification under article 50 TEU. In light of the ongoing negotiations on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the possibility for the UK to revoke its withdrawal notification has become a significant political and legal/institutional issue. The analysis examines the case of revocation of a withdrawal notification under international law and under the EU law.

   
Legal/institutional issue (europa)

   

   
Researchers at F-Secure have revealed another weakness in Intel's management firmware that could allow an attacker with brief physical access to PCs to gain persistent remote access to the system, thanks to weak security in Intel's Active Management Technology (AMT) firmware—remote "out of band" device management technology installed on 100 million systems over the last decade, according to Intel.

   
Another security flaw (arstechnica)

   

   
Despite many challenges with biopharma R&D, there are numerous examples of innovation that demonstrate pharma’s resilience and optimism about the future – from the approval of numerous immunotherapies to the first ever approvals of chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapies this year. Furthermore, there are a range of advanced technologies that have the potential to transform R&D across the entire value chain.

   
Key findings for top 12 biopharma (deloitte)

   

   
Flow chemistry is no longer a novel technology largely relegated to drug discovery labo ratories. Most pharmaceutical companies and some contract manufacturers have embraced continuous manufacturing to some degree for both drug substance and drug product manufacturing. Several factors are considered when determining whether batch or flow production methods are warranted.

   
How to perform hazardous reactions ? (pharmtech)

   

   
Algorithms don’t notice (nor do they care about) branding efforts, celebrity endorsements, or publicity campaigns — and there’s a very real possibility they’ll soon sit squarely between an organization and its customers. This poses a potential problem for consumer packaged goods and retailers. If there is no longer a physical place where a brand might exist and come to life for consumers, how will brands connect with shoppers?

   
Fjord trends (fjordnet)

   

   
The guidance refers to the EFSA PPR opinion in many instances. In addition, the first version of this guidance, issued in 2012 by the EFSA PPR Panel, has been revised in 2017 on the basis of new available data on human in vitro dermal absorption for PPPs and wherever clari fi cations were needed. Basic details of experimental design, available in the respective test guidelines and accompanying guidance for the conduct of studies, have not been addressed.

   
Human in vitro dermal absorption (wiley/j.efsa)

   

   
To keep the evolutionary pace of the technology, NAND Flash must scale aggressively in terms of bit cost. When approaching ultra-scaled technologies, planar NAND is hitting a wall: both academia researchers and industry worked to cope with this issue for several decades. Then, the 3D integration approach turned out to be the definitive alternative by eventually reaching mass production. This review paper exposes several 3D NAND Flash memory technologies.

   
The 3D NAND Flash Memories (mdpi)

   

   
The technology, media and entertainment, and telecommunications ecosystem remains as fascinating as ever in 2018. Will augmented reality become mainstream? How will machine learning affect the enterprise? What's the future of the smartphone? Deloitte Global invites you to read the latest Predictions report, designed to provide insight into transformation and growth opportunities over the next one to five years.

   
Global Predictions (deloitte)

   

   
Recent studies have highlighted a myriad of ways in which the activity and composition of the gut microbiota can affect the host organism. A primary way in which the gut microbiota affect host physiology is by the production of metabolites, such as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which are subsequently absorbed into the bloodstream of the host.

   
How symbiotic microbes affect health ? (quantamagazine)

   

   
This paper is investigati ng whether the climate policy targets for 2050 and 2030 respectively are achievable and what conditions must be met. The evaluation is based on the Paris Agreement, the climate protection targets of the EU and insights from the UBA- study Klimaschutzbeitrag des Verkehrs bis 2050 [UBA, 2016a].

   
Climate protection in transport (umweltbundesamt)

   

   
Its features an approximate 30 percent productivity gain over the company’s 1st–generation 10nm-class 8Gb DDR4. In addition, the new 8Gb DDR4’s performance levels and energy efficiency have been improved about 10 and 15 percent respectively, thanks to the use of an advanced, proprietary circuit design technology. The new 8Gb DDR4 can operate at 3,600 megabits per second (Mbps) per pin.

   
A newly devised data sensing system (samsung)

   

   
For many of us, Bayesian statistics is voodoo magic at best, or completely subjective nonsense at worst. Among the trademarks of the Bayesian approach, Markov chain Monte Carlo methods are especially mysterious. They’re math-heavy and computationally expensive procedures for sure, but the basic reasoning behind them, like so much else in data science, can be made intuitive.

   
Introduction to Monte Carlo methods (towardsdatascience)

   

   
In the Middle East, burdened by systems of governance that are far less future-friendly, and under threats from extremists that would drag them even further into the past, they dream of the desert: wide open empty spaces where the future can be constructed anew. At least, that’s the vision Saudi Arabia has invoked with its recently announced plans for $500 billion techutopia mega-city Neom.

   
How to reinvent the rules ? (techcrunch)

   

   
On Dec. 4, 2017, a final round of comments from industry stakeholders who raised questions over FDA’s draft guidance, “Statistical Approaches to Evaluate Analytical Similarity,” about how to conduct analytical evaluation of similarity in biosimilars, was published on the website www.regulations.gov. Several biopharma majors were among the commenters and Other industry stakeholders include the Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM).

   
The risk of restricting approvals (pharmtech)

   

   
From a government perspective, flexible retirement is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it can increase people’s well-being by allowing them to combine work and a partial pension if they wish and it may entice some people to work longer. This, in turn, can help increase workers’ future pensions. Working longer will also contribute to greater economic growth and higher tax revenues.

   
Pension policy vs wider labour market policies (oecd)

   

   
The company intends to sell the chips to third-party manufacturers and to cloud vendors including Google. Meanwhile, it’s releasing a new computer powered by the Power9 chip, the AC922 and it intends to offer the chips in a service on the IBM cloud. “We generally take our technology to market as a complete solution,” Brad McCredie, IBM fellow and vice president of cognitive systems explained.

   
The Swiss Army knife (techcrunch)

   

   
To look into possible mechanisms behind the gender differences, a team of researchers from the US focused on a type of white blood cell, known as ILC2 cells, that originate in the bone marrow and become “seeded” in particular tissues of the body, including the lungs, early in life. When an allergen enters the lungs, the cells lining the airways secrete proteins that in turn trigger ILC2 to expand and produce yet more proteins, which kick off a cascading inflammatory response.

   
Sex hormones could be behind the trend (cell)

   

   
If we are to have a serious discussion of the possibilities of a new industrial strategy we need a clear grasp of the history of industrial change. Deindustrialisation measured as a falling share of industrial in total employment is now almost universal (including highly successful industrial countries such as Germany and also China), and understanding why this has happened should help make us realistic about what any future industrial strategy can deliver.

   
What works best four UK ? (gov.uk)

   

   
CRISPR/Cas9 system has recently been repurposed to enable target gene activation, allowing regulation of endogenous gene expression without creating DSBs. However, in vivo implementation of this gain-of-function system has proven difficult. Here, we report a robust system for in vivo activation of endogenous target genes through trans-epigenetic remodeling.

   
A CRISPR/Cas9 system involvement (cell)

   

   
Windows has been knocking around in some form or another for a grand total of 32 years now, and in that time it’s amassed a lot of features—not just the newest bells and whistles but long-standing features you might have forgotten about or never even discovered in the first place. Here are 10 really useful tricks that Windows 10 is capable of that you might not know about, but should definitely know about.Here the 10 really useful tricks.

   
10 Features you probably never use (gizmodo)

   

   
In the past decade, studies in this area have been revolutionized by the plunge in gene sequencing costs. The human genome project began in 1990 and cost about $2.7 billion — roughly $100 million per sequenced genome. Today, a genome can be sequenced for approximately $1,000 to $2,000, and we’re nearing a longstanding goal of the $100 genome.

   
What bacteria can tell us? (quantamagazine)

   

   
The Index was developed in part to address the need for a consistent and comprehensive measure for gender equality that can track a country’s progress over time. The Index does not seek to set priorities for countries but, rather, to provide a comprehensive set of data and a clear method for tracking gaps on critical indicators so that countries may set priorities within their own economic, political and cultural contexts.

   
The state of the world (weforum)

   

   
Estimates of US attributable burden and economic costs from 2003 through 2014. In utero exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) has been associated with decreases in birth weight. We aimed to estimate the proportion of PFOA-attributable low birth weight (LBW) births and associated costs in the US from 2003 to 2014, a period during which there were industry-initiated and regulatory activities aimed at reducing exposure.

   
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) & low birth weight (medicalxpress)

   

   
Technology could be used to wipe out malaria carrying mosquitos or other pests but UN experts say fears over possible military uses and unintended consequences strengthen case for a ban.A US military agency is investing $100m in genetic extinction technologies that could wipe out malarial mosquitoes, invasive rodents or other species, emails released under freedom of information rules show.

   
$100m in genetic extinction technologies (theguardian)

   

   
Many of us, though, tend to think of our brains not as muscles, but as a computer: a machine capable of constant work. Not only is that untrue, but pushing ourselves to work for hours without a break can be harmful, some experts say. “The idea that you can indefinitely stretch out your deep focus and productivity time to these arbitrary limits is really wrong.

   
"karoshi" or death by overwork (bbc)

   

   
Genetically modified skin transplants from its own stem cells saved the child’s life.A medical team at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum’s burn unit and the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Modena (Italy) were the first ever to successfully treat a child suffering from extensive skin damage using transplants derived from genetically modified stem cells.

   
Genetically modified skin (rub)

   

   
CFOs also remain optimistic about revenue prospects for their companies, with more than two-thirds of CFOs expecting their companies’ revenues to grow. Expectations for revenue growth are generally greater than for improving profit margins; the net balance of CFOs who expect revenues to increase is more than twice as high as for those expecting margins to increase.

   
Revenues and margins expectations (deloitte)

   

   
Bacteria are well known for being able to form biofilms on inert surfaces such as plastic and glass, and hence on medical devices including catheters, ventilator tubes, and enteral feeding tubes3. Biofilms form when bacteria attach to a surface and then continue to grow forming a layer composed of extracellular materials, such as polysaccharides. Such biofilms are recalcitrant to antibiotics, and are hard to physically remove4.

   
A clinical proof of concept (nature)

   

   
In fact, 63% of regional business leaders surveyed by PwC expect their global footprint to expand over the next three years. A net 50% plan to increase investments globally, up from 43% at the same time last year. Executives are forging ahead despite tremendous uncertainty over trade policy directions. They will balance an array of incentives — both economic and market-driven — to do more internationally against threats of rising barriers to foreign trade and investment.

   
Perspectives from CEOs (pwc)

   

   
Business schools are in an enrollment slump. Applications for full-time, two-year Master of Business Administration programs in the U.S. have declined since 2015. Last year 64 percent of U.S. full-time MBA programs received fewer applications, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council’s 2017 Application Trends Survey Report.

   
How to adjust to fit market pressures ? (bloomberg)

   

   
Much of the money going into African technology comes not from philanthropists but from hard-nosed investors looking for attractive returns. In 2016 African tech firms raised a record $367m. Although paltry by the standards of Silicon Valley, this is helping to stimulate the setting up of firms such as Flutterwave, a Nigerian payments company, and Zipline, which uses drones to deliver blood to clinics in Rwanda.

   
The leapfrog model (economist)

   

   
Intel’s Coffee Lake launched six weeks ago, but finding the chips online has sometimes been challenging. In order to ensure a continuous supply of the Intel Core i5-8400 Processor, Intel Core i5-8600K Processor, Intel Core i7-8700 Processor, and Intel Core i7-8700K Processor listed in the ‘Products Affected’ Table below, Intel will be adding an additional manufacturing site for Assembly/Test.

   
Ensuring a continuous supply (extremetech)

   

   
This assessment concludes, based on extensive evidence, that it is extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century. For the warming over the last century, there is no convincing alternative explanation supported by the extent of the observational evidence.

   
Authoritative assessment (globalchange)

   

   
Security experts have filed a proposal with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) that defines a secure framework for delivering firmware updates to Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Filed on Monday by three ARM employees, their submission has entered the first phase of a three-stage process for becoming an official Internet standard.

   
The proposed IETF draft (bleepingcomputer)

   

   
Across the entire US-based workforce, increasingly sophisticated value chains have caused the nature of work to shift away from relatively routine work environments to ones filled with growing diversity and complexity. In particular, there has been growth in highly cognitive non-routine work (including professional or managerial work). From 1970 to 2009, highly cognitive non-routine work grew by 60%, while repetitive work declined by 12%.

   
Z Generation' workforce (deloitte)

   

   
Across the globe, businesses are racing to implement new technologies, using data to innovate and grow in an increasingly interconnected world. But as companies become more reliant on cyber capabilities, they must also recognize and manage the associated risks. To compete in the emerging digital world, companies must protect themselves from cyber risks, and become more resilient to cyber shocks – large scale events with cascading disruptive consequences.

   
Strengthening digital society (pwc)

   

   
Lake Victoria is essential to the lives of over 30 million people. Water pollution, resource exploitation and a lack of regional cooperation are threatening its ecological balance. The situation is exacerbated by the high population growth rate. There are justifiable doubts as to whether the future of the essential water resource provided by Africa’s largest lake is secure.

   
Victoria' Lake (kas)

   

   
Silicon Valley is going all out to own America’s school computer-and-software market, projected to reach $21 billion in sales by 2020. An industry has grown up around courting public-school decision makers, and tech companies are using a sophisticated playbook to reach them, The New York Times has found in a review of thousands of pages of Baltimore County school documents.

   
Preparing students for the new economy (nytimes)

   

   
A vaccine combining centralized ancestral genes from four major influenza strains appears to provide broad protection against the dangerous ailment, according to new research by a team from the Nebraska Center for Virology. Mice protected by the unconventional vaccine survived exposure to lethal doses of seven of nine widely divergent influenza viruses.

   
Promising avenue toward a universal flu shot (nature)

   

  Mastering the Game in a short time

   
Recently, AlphaGo became the first program to defeat a world champion in the game of Go. The tree search in AlphaGo evaluated positions and selected moves using deep neural networks. These neural networks were trained by supervised learning from human expert moves, and by reinforcement learning from selfplay.

   
Continuous improvement without human knowledge (deepmind)

   

  Sustainable Chemistry

   
For evaluating of the sustainability of different production pathways and feedstock, it is mandatory to carefully assess all sustainability indicators. Generally the biomass routes are advantageous in terms of GHG emissions but effects are often lower than usually expected, if a cradle to gate analysis is made and all effects including crop cultivation, fertilizers, harvesting, transport, land use etc. are taken into account.

   
Priority topics (umweltbundesamt)

   

  Digital economy outlook 2017

   
The biennial OECD Digital Economy Outlook examines and documents evolutions and emerging opportunities and challenges in the digital economy. It highlights how OECD countries and partner economies are taking advantage of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the Internet to meet their public policy objectives.

   
OECD' analysis

   

  What can epigenetics do for you?

   
Much of what we now regard as epigenetics consists of processes by which genetic information encoded in DNA is converted into cellular and organismal phenotypes; and from the organism’s point of view, it’s phenotype that matters. These epigenetic processes are influenced by a variety of environmental factors, including some such as diet, lifestyle and medication that are in our own hands; and it’s still much easier to change your diet than your DNA.

   
The intimate link "DNA & Epigenetic" (biochemis)

   

  EU' best available techniques

   
As equired in Article 13(3) of the Directive, the Commission has established a forum to promote the exchange of information, which is composed of representatives from Member States, the industries concerned and non-governmental organisations promoting environmental protection. The work of the TWG (technical working group) was led by the European IPPC Bureau (of the Commission's Joint Research Centre).

   
Surface treatment using Organic Solvents (jrc.ec.europa)

   

   
Like a brain, a deep neural network has layers of neurons artificial ones that are figments of computer memory. When a neuron fires, it sends signals to connected neurons in the layer above. During deep learning, connections in the network are strengthened or weakened as needed to make the system better at sending signals from input data — the pixels of a photo of a dog, for instance — up through the layers to neurons associated with the right high-level concepts, such as “dog".

   
The black box of deep learning (quantamagazine)

   

  Western Digital’s new approach

   
Western Digital announced a potential game changer that promises to expand the limits of traditional HDDs to up to 40TBs using a microwave-based write head, and the company says it will be available to the public in 2019. For the average consumer, the most important thing to understand is that the industry wanted to cram more information into the same disk space, it hit a wall, and microwaves appear to have opened up new possibilities.

   
MAMR drive in sight (gizmodo)

   

  UK' AI industry dev.

   
In April 2017, the Royal Society published a report on Machine Learning, the culmination of a major project to investigate the potential of Machine Learning over the next 5 - 10 years, and the barriers to realising that potential. 8 This Review builds on that work and complements it by focusing on conc rete actions that UK industry, academia and Government should take now.

   
How to grow Artificial Intelligence ? (gov)

   

   
For firms and internationally active managers, this places a premium on knowing just how different markets abroad are. In addition, it is helpful to know what drives these differences so suitable adjustment strategies can be devised and implemented. In our paper, “Mapping the business systems of 61 major economies,” my five co-authors* and I provide the currently most comprehensive overview and categorization of differences in the ways of doing business.

   
The nine major ways (qualitydigest)

   

   
The United Kingdom is withdrawing from the European Union. From 30 March 2019 onwards, the UK will be a “third country” outside the EU. This date can only be changed by mutual agreement between Brussels and London. The withdrawal process is unique and unprecedented. Learn how the UK’s withdrawal from the EU may affect your business related to EUCHA regulation.

   
Information as it is known (echa.europa)

   

   
Today, we find a function that has made considerable progress since our initial examination back in 2009. Smart technologies— cloud enablement, machine learning, biometrics, big data and analytics—are gradually being embedded. More respondents are reporting the integration of risk analytics within planning and decision making.

   
The hidden value of risk (accenture)

   

   
Americans with lower levels of income and education are acutely aware of a range of digital privacy related harms that could upend their financial, professional , or social well - being . And t hes e concerns are often accompanied by low levels of trust in the institutions and compani es that these Americans rel y on to be resp onsible stewards of their data.

   
Analysis by Socioeconomic status, race , & ethnicity (datasociety)

   

   
This paper, written mainly for transport planners in European cities, intends to provide a glimpse beyond Europe’s borders to understand recent transport-related innovations in developing and emerging countries. Not only in mega cities worldwide, decision makers, entrepreneurs and planners are currently testing new approaches to urban mobility driven by enormous pressures on rapid economic development.

   
Rethinking urban transport through global learning (umweltbundesamt)

   

   
The GDPR will supersede the 1995 EU Data Protection Directive (DPD) and all EU member states’ national laws based on it – including the UK Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) – in May 2018. All organisations of any size and anywhere in the world that process the personal data of EU residents must comply with the Regulation. Failure to do so could result in fines of up to €20 million or 4% of annual global turnove whichever is greater.

   
Starting 25 may 2018 (itgovernance)

   

   
Eight disruptive forces that have the potential to shift the competitive landscape of the financial ecosystem impacting the financial services industry, including insights from seven industry segments: payments, digital banking, lending, insurance, market infrastructure, investment management, and equity crowdfunding. Learn what these findings mean for your business.

   
The financial ecosystem & competitive landscape (deloitte)

   

   
Only 20% of all Windows 10 users ran Edge as their main browser as of August 2017, down from 24% a year earlier. Still, that’s a lot of people running the browser, and many of them might run it only because Microsoft has made it the Windows 10 default. You might be one of them. There’s no doubt Edge has been an improvement over Internet Explorer. But it may not be improvement enough.

   
To others browsers (computerworld)

   

  Overview of taxes' impact

   
Constantly changing tax policies are an unwelcome distraction, delaying investment and eating into profits. Double taxation is another source of contention that causes significant concern, both in terms of money as well as time that it takes to resolve any tax authority concerns. It is a major barrier to cross-border trade and investment.

   
How to marry profitability with sustainability ? (ey-vx)

   

   
The question of how much degradation is sufficient has been the topic of much discussion among pharmaceutical scientists. Degradation of drug substances between 5% and 20% has been accepted as reasonable for validation of chromatographic assays; however, some pharmaceutical scientists believe that 10% degradation is optimal for use in analytical validation for small pharmaceutical molecules, for which acceptable stability limits of 90% of label claim is common.

   
FDrug substance & drug products (pharmtech)

   

   
The extent to which digital consumption of pirated materials displaces legitimate purchases is of fundamental importance for EU copyright policy design. The European Commission has commissioned Ecorys to carry out a study on the relation between online copyright infringement (digital piracy) and sales of copyrighted content.

   
EU' copyright debate (netzpolitik)

   

   
Mineral water consumption in America cratered in the early 20th century in part because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration made it harder to tout medicinal benefits without expensive testing. Today, Americans often drink bottled water for what they hope is not in it. Fears about what comes out of the tap aren’t completely unfounded; 77 million Americans are served by water systems that violate testing requirements.

   
Nestlé' water tested hourly (bloomberg)

   

   
Oracle has just announced the general availability of Java SE 9, Java EE 8 and the Java EE 8 Software Development Kit (SDK). From now on, it’s all about faster releases and more open source engagement. Oracle recently announced that they are planning to move to a 6-month release cadence using a time driven release model and a long-term support release every three years.”

   
More open source engagement (jaxenter)

   

   
ARS’ products were designed in Norway and not originally expected to sell in great numbers. When the company landed a contract for 15,000 pieces, they found that their processes weren’t suitable for that kind of quantity. As they tried to scale up to handle that kind of volume, they naturally did things like building huge batches and sub-assemblies, carrying a lot of work-in-process inventory and sharing tools...

   
How Lean helps small company ? (qualitydigest)

   

   
One thing hasn’t changed this year: Recruiting top talent is still difficult for most firms, and demand greatly outstrips supply. That’s influencing many of the areas we looked at, including compensation and retention. Whether you’re looking to expand your team or job searching yourself, read on to see which IT hiring practices are trending and which ones are falling out of favor.

   
8 going cold (cio)

   

   
Bees, the most important group of pollinators, visit flowers for nectar, but also collect large amounts of pollen mainly to feed their offspring. Contrastingly, pollen is essential for the plants’ reproduction, serving as a vehicle for gametes. Pollen is expensive, and, unlike nectar, pollen supply is strictly limited. As soon as pollen is collected and groomed into the bees’ transport organs, it is mostly lost for the flowers’ pollination.

   
To be on the safe site (plos)

   

   
When we think of a technologically advanced society, we think of Silicon Valley, home to Facebook, Google, and so many amazing Internet companies. Ironically, China has blocked usage of these companies, developing their own, copied versions of Google or Facebook. However, these imitated versions are beginning to outdo their predecessors. To get a better understanding of what I am talking about, check out the New York Times video.

   
Don’t judge a book by its cover (thenextweb)

   

   
A new study published in Nature Geoscience by a group of well-known climate scientists, led to a different news outlets baked very different breads with it. That happens pretty frequently these days, but, in this case, the new study was especially complex and more easily misunderstood—even by those without a Breitbartian aggressive ideological bias against climate science.

   
Is there any right answer ? (arstechnica)

   

  Strategic foresight in EU R&I policy

   
Our world has been shifting from a 'flat' to a much more complex landscape, with unexpected developments arising that escape our established ways of thinking and decision-making. The phenomena include globally as well as locally inter-connected challenges such as climate change and migration, but also transformative changes of our social and technological lives, such as those triggered by digitisation.

   
Proactive, informed & collective action (publications.europa)

   

   
The impact of CO2 emissions is one of the most difficult challenges to be addressed. Virtually all human activities require energy and products that currently rely heavily on cheap and abundant fossil resources. The chemical industry is no exception. It requires energy for running its processes, and feedstock most often carbon feedstock, eventually embedded in most chemical products and materials resulting in CO2 emissions.

   
Achieving a carbon neutral chemical sector by 2050 (cefic)

   

   
Now, at a time of heightened regulatory uncertainty, there’s increased potential for changes in direction and disruption of ongoing trends. In this dynamic environment, it’s important for companies to concentrate on the regulatory areas that they believe represent the highest risk to their organization, doing their best to create a resilient business while focusing on things that are within their control.

   
Survey report 2017 (deloitte)

   

   
As graphene's popularity grows as an advanced "wonder" material, the speed and quality at which it can be manufactured will be paramount. With that in mind, the research group of SungWoo Nam, assistant professor of mechanical science and engineering at Illinois, has developed a cleaner and more environmentally friendly method to isolate graphene using carbon dioxide (CO2) in the form of carbonic acid as the electrolyte solution.

   
More environmentally friendly (innovations-report)

   

   
Many companies are attempting a radical — and often rapid — shift from hierarchical structures to more agile environments, in order to operate at the speed required by today’s competitive marketplace. Companies like ANZ, the Australian-based banking giant, have made explicit commitments to adopt agile principles, while others like Zappos, are on the bleeding edge of organizational transformation.

   
Moving toward a continuous planning process (hbr)

   

   
In 2014, spending per capita in low-income countries varied from US$33 to $347, and per capita spending in high-income countries varied from $853 to $9237. The health financing transition is not guaranteed to continue as new countries progress through various stages of development. Prospective health spending estimates show what past trends and relationships suggest regarding future spending and sources of those funds.

   
Level of development & financing environment (lancet)

   

   
While the long-standing clinical efficacy of antibiotics or surgery for Crohn’s disease highlights the potential contribution of the so-called ‘IBD microbiome’ to inflammation, recent seminal studies revealed the impact of IBD-derived gut microbiota on host mucosal and systemic inflammation. This mechanistic understanding of how our ‘microbial organ’ functionally impacts both mucosal and systemic inflammatory pathways will help drive novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for IBD.

   
From the inside out (biochemist)

   

   
Understanding the nuclear dynamics of a world in which more than one nation is developing and deploying ballistic missile defense systems for strategic purpos - es. Strategic purposes could mean for defense of a national territory, defending command and control centers, protecting nuclear-armed ballistic missiles to help ensure retaliatory forces, or providing political cover for development of anti-satellite weapons that could target strategic military communications as well as command and control satellites.

   
Nuclear-armed states defences (fas)

   

   
The European Commission has announced six criteria the candidates need to fulfil in order to become the drug agency’s new home. Member states have until the end of July to submit their bids to host EMA and the European Banking Agency but the political discussion has already heated up. The Commission has tried to downplay the political angle of the talks.

   
Special report (euractiv)

   

   
Platforms are no longer restricted to retail or high-tech, but are visible across multiple industries — and the trend is accelerating. in 2007, the five major mobile-phone manufacturers — Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and LG — collectively controlled 90% of the industry’s global profits. That year, Apple’s iPhone was launched and started taking market share.

   

Creating a $5 trillion market (sloanreview.mit)

   

   
New technologies such as 3D laminated glass, haptic sensors (which pick up touch pressure and motion), and augmented reality heads-up displays — which offer drivers alerts, safety aids, and warnings on readouts embedded in the windshield — have entered the vocabulary of traditional suppliers. Large navigation and entertainment display screens in the dashboard offer Web-based information and media as well as the promise of data arrays picked up from networked roads and other cars.

   
How much innovation is too much ? (strategy-business)

   

   
We are living through a fundamental transformation in the way we work. Automation and 'thinking machines' are replacing human tasks, changing the skills that organisations are looking for in their people. But what will the future look like? This isn’t a time to sit back and wait for events to unfold. To be prepared for the future, you have to understand it.

   
The competing forces shaping 2030 (pwc)

   

   
The F-35 was billed as a fighter jet that could do almost everything the U.S. military desired, serving the Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy—and even Britain’s Royal Air Force and Royal Navy—all in one aircraft design. It’s supposed to replace and improve upon several current—and aging—aircraft types with widely different missions.

   
How did we get here? (qualitydigest)

   

   
Even if an organisation works through one ‘umbrella’ company (a system integrator), it’s sometimes useful to understand how the cost roll-up works so that it can consider buying some or all the pieces separately – in the same way that an airline can decide the paint scheme and which engines are to be fitted on the aircraft they choose.

   
Understanding the market (themanufacturer)

   

   

Experts from EFSA’s Panel on Biological Hazards recommend that Member States increase awareness of public health risks associated with raw and undercooked pork meat and advise consumers to cook pork meat thoroughly. They also recommend the development of suitable methods for detecting hepatitis E in food. ECDC report: 10-fold increase of hepatitis E cases in the EU/EEA between 2005 and 2015.

   
Report (efsa)

   

   
The privacy of average internet denizens has never been in greater peril. ISPs, advertisers, and government agencies from around the world are increasingly interested in tracking every single movement you make online. Whether you’re a whistle blower, a political dissident, or simply someone who hates the idea of third-parties scrutinizing your surfing habits, there are plenty of tools available to keep prying eyes off of your traffic.

   
20 best tips (extremetech)

   

   
Frictionless, automated, personalized travel on demand—that’s the dream of the future of mobility. And the extended auto ecosystem's various elements are coalescing to realize that dream sooner than expected, which means that incumbents and disruptors need to move at top speed to get on board. The speed at which this transformation will take place, and how corporate leaders believe their enterprises’ business models need to adapt.

   
How to succeed in it ? (deloitte)

   

   
This year’s Outlook emphasizes that disruption has become a fact of life for CEOs and their businesses as they respond to heightened uncertainty. But importantly, most see disruption as an opportunity to transform their business model, develop new products and services and reshape their business so it is even more successful than it has been in the past.

   
Global CEO Outlook (kpmg)

   

   
The analysis carried out for this report gauges the economic potential for AI between now and 2030, including for regional economies and eight commercial sectors worldwide. Through our AI Impact Index, we also look at how improvements to personalisation/customisation, quality and functionality could boost value, choice and demand across nearly 300 use cases of AI, along with how quickly transformation and disruption are likely to take hold.

   
Sizing the prize (pwc)

   

   
Satoshi Nakamoto had accounted for a lot, but Ukrainian botnets of involuntarily mining computers probably weren’t on his radar when he wrote his manifesto in 2008. Even though cryptocurrencies have lost some of their innocence, there is still a lot to love. Altcoins like Ether, Litecoin, Ripple, Zcash and Monero each have their own special character and strength.

   
Trading in cryptocurrencies (thenextweb)

   

  Why we need AI regulation ?

   
There is something that really scares Musk: Artificial Intelligence, and the idea of software and machines taking over their human creators. He’s been warning people about AI for years, and today called it the “biggest risk we face as a civilization” when he spoke at the National Governors Association Summer Meeting in Rhode Island.

   
How to be proactive in regulation ? (recode)

   

   
The BAT reference document (BREF) entitled 'Non-Ferrous Metals Industries' forms part of a series presenting the results of an exchange of information between EU Member States, the industries concerned, non-governmental organisations promoting environmental protection, and the Commission, to draw up, review and, where necessary, update BAT reference documents as required by the Directive 2010/75/EU on industrial emissions.

   
The result of a review (jrc.ec.europa)

   

   
The population extinction pulse we describe here shows, from a quantitative viewpoint, that Earth’s sixth mass extinction is more severe than perceived when looking exclusively at species extinctions. Therefore, humanity needs to address anthropogenic population extirpation and decimation immediately. That conclusion is based on analyses of the numbers and degrees of range contraction using a sample of 27,600 vertebrate species.

   
The biological annihilation (pnas)

   

  Thinking Machines

   
The quality and quantity of this data is increasing exponentially – it is expected to grow more than 50-fold this decade alone, reaching 25,000 petabytes (25bn gigabytes) worldwide by 2020. To put that into some perspective, 2 petabytes is the equivalent of all US academic research libraries put together. No wonder that AI is needed to work through this rising flood of data, and help us avoid a digital version of IBM’s dystopian future.

   
From Magic to Normal (eyeforpharma)

   

   
Looking to the future, if the pace of change is sustained, we can, if nothing else, expect to be surprised, whether by the speed with which automated devices take over our jobs and lives, or by the emotional intelligence of robots, or by the dangers of new generations of virus, trolls or cyberattacks. Making the best of this revolution has now become one of the greatest challenges for any society.

   
Growing the best, not the worst (kas)

   

   
One of the most common causes of death and disability. Although pharmacological advances and revascularization techniques have decreased mortality, many survivors will eventually succumb to heart failure secondary to the residual microvascular perfusion deficit that remains after revascularization. We present a novel system that rescues the myocardium from acute ischemia, using photosynthesis through intramyocardial delivery of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus.

   
Photon-powered myocardium (sciencemag)

   

   
The TEF is a government-backed assessment of undergraduate teaching quality across all higher education institutions in England, which also includes some institutions in Scotland and Wales (with others opting not to take part). The results in full are published below, along with each institution’s position in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2016-2017 and its research excellence framework grade point average.

   
TEF results 2017 (timeshighereducation)

   

   
Only 25 percent of Latin American CEOs say they expect major disruption in their sector in the next 3 years — indeed, that’s half the proportion of global CEOs who expect their business models will face disruption in the next 3 years. Online services will come to pose a greater threat to traditional businesses, but only when financial inclusion increases significantly — perhaps when cellphone providers encourage more people to exchange value and currency by phone, as they are in Africa.

   
Latin American CEOs (kpmg)

   

   
Today, the cloud is a ubiquity we take for granted. We expect every file, every service and digital asset we have to be available across all our devices everywhere we go, at any time of the day. Today, thanks to cloud computing, education and training has become more affordable, flexible and accessible to millions of people and thousands of businesses. Here’s a look at how cloud-based education has changed things for the better.

   
Changing things for the better (thenextweb)

   

   
Most of Starsky’s AI rivals are focusing exclusively on research, logging as many miles and as much performance data as possible. Seltz-Axmacher’s trucks are still in beta, too—but they’re already earning revenue, carrying containers full of goods along U.S. highways. While the remote-control system develops, two Starsky employees ride in each cab: a software engineer in the passenger seat, keeping an eye on the algorithms, and a truck driver behind the wheel.

   
At the autonomous driving startup (bloomberg)

   

   
We have developed our Golden Age index to quantify how far different economies are harnessing the power of their older workers. The index captures a broad range of indicators relating to the participation of older people in employment and training. Iceland, New Zealand and Sweden lead the OECD on this index, with large potential economic gains if employment rates for those over 55s could be raised to those of the top performers.

   
From silver hair (pwc)

   

   
Global demand for coal has fallen for the second consecutive year, according to a BP study, helped by the US and China burning less of the dirtiest fossil fuel.The UK was described as the “most extreme example” of the trend away from coal, which has resulted in its use returning to levels not seen since the start of the industrial revolution.

   
The Paris deal’s goal (bp)

   

   
Right across healthcare, advanced analytical and cognitive technologies are sucking in data, aggregating, analyzing, then spitting out insights hidden in previously disconnected data. As they work tirelessly, we humans stand by salivating at the prospect of fast, high-quality and well-curated data to speed discovery and time to market, moving us closer to personalized, outcomes-based healthcare.

   
When the Machines Take Over (eyeforpharma)

   

   
Across Europe efforts are made to collect, monitor and analyse information on levels of chemicals in plants, animals, food and drinks. This work helps national and European authorities to be aware of the situation on the ground and to measure the impact of existing controls. It can also help to understand if new safety assessments or control measures are needed and to set priorities for future research funding and data collection activities.

   
Why are there chemicals in our food? (efsa)

   

   
We conduct the inaugural investigation of the relationship between climatic anomalies, reports of insufficient sleep, and projected climate change. Using data from 765,000 U.S. survey respondents from 2002 to 2011, coupled with nighttime temperature data, we show that increases in nighttime temperatures amplify self-reported nights of insufficient sleep.

   
Nighttime temperature (sciencemag)

   

   
Organic photoredox catalysis can enable bond-making that is difficult or impossible using other types of chemistry.A new photoreactor can increase the rate of light-mediated reactions up to 10 times compared with the same reactions run using standard setups. The benchtop device allows researchers to precisely use light as a reagent for the first time and promises to further the field of photoredox catalysis.

   
Light touch boosts reactions 10-fold (chemistryworld)

   

   
This annual report gives an overview of the activities undertaken in 2016 by EFSA, Member States and other parties with the aim to stimulate and optimise scientific cooperation. In addition, it highlights how EFSA supports the European Commission in its enlargement programmes and contributes to harmonisation efforts with international partners, EU institutions and agencie.

   
Scientific cooperation (efsa)

   

   
Cyberattacks are a constantly evolving menace that can’t be contained by humans alone. MIT research scientist has devoted much of his career to helping cybersecurity experts and artificial-intelligence systems work in tandem to stop hackers. Last year he launched Patternex, a security startup that uses artificial intelligence to detect potential threats, then turns those findings over to human analysts for verification.

   
Humans & AI as one team (mit)

   

   
Light-to-moderate drinking has been associated with a lower risk of dementia and a reduced incidence of myocardial infarction and stroke. Brain imaging studies, however, have thus far failed to provide a convincing neural correlate that could underpin any protective effect. Results of research into the effects of moderate alcohol on the brain are inconsistent.

   
Longitudinal cohort study (bmj)

   

   
Two views of a composite reconstruction of the earliest known Homo sapiens fossils from Jebel Irhoud (Morocco) based on micro computed tomographic scans of multiple original fossils. Dated to 300 thousand years ago these early Homo sapiens already have a modern-looking face that falls within the variation of humans living today.

   
New finds of fossils and stone tools (sciencemag)

   

   
Products that are replaced before reaching an optimum lifespan or service life require more resources and result in greater amounts of waste. For some years now this phenomenon has been discussed under the term of “obsolescence”. There are many reasons for premature new purchases. Especially in the area of consumer electronics and in information technology.

   
Improving product service life & information (umweltbundesamt)

   

  Just eat more fish?

   
Seafood is very healthy to eat – all things considered. Fish and shellfish are an important source of protein, vitamins and minerals, and they are low in saturated fat. But seafood’s claim to fame is its omega-3 fatty acids, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), all of which are beneficial to health. The U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans strongly suggest that adults eat two servings of seafood, or a total of eight ounces, per week.

   
How can I make an informed decision ? (theconversation)

   

   
A report this month by the UK’s Office of National Statistics found that “EU migrants” make up 11% of Britain’s manufacturing workers. EU workers from outside the UK tended to work longer hours than the workforce average, the report said. Non-UK workers were more likely to be overqualified for the jobs they were doing, it added. The British government has yet to explain how its post-Brexit immigration rules will work.

   
Special report (euractiv)

   

   
As different missions require different designs, the lack of a formal plan and specific destinations for future missions has complicated spacesuit development,” sniffed the OIG. It recommended that appropriate NASA officials “implement a formal plan for design, production, and testing of the next-generation extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits in accordance with the exploration goals of the Agency in 2024.

   
Advanced spacesuit project (nasa)

   

   
Climate change is clearly an urgent challenge. But meeting that challenge is an opportunity to create new sources of growth by placing the climate imperative at the core of national growth and development strategies. Adopting such an inclusive, low-emission and climate- resilient growth agenda would be an opportunity to reorient G20 growth objectives as the 2014 Brisbane commitment to “2% upside growth” in the G20 nears its end in 2018.

   
Investing in growth (oecd)

   

   
With a Congress that has demonstrated its lack of interest in protecting you from your ISP, and ISPs that have repeatedly demonstrated a "whatever-we-can-get-away-with" attitude toward customers' data privacy and integrity, it may be time to look into how to get your data out from under your ISP's prying eyes and grubby fingers intact. To do that, you'll need a VPN.

   
The problem and the solution (arstechnica)

   

   
The Electron’s engine, named for the New Zealand-born nuclear physicist Ernest Rutherford, is the first of its type to be primarily 3D-printed. Each Rutherford engine, including its engine chamber, injector, pumps and main propellant valves, can be printed in 24 hours.If successful, the Electron test launch will be the first commercial rocket to reach Earth orbit from a launch complex in the Southern Hemisphere.

   
Cubesats & 3D printing (spaceflightnow)

   

   
Multiple lines of research indicate that fathers often treat boys and girls differently in ways that impact child outcomes. The complex picture that has emerged, however, is obscured by methodological challenges inherent to the study of parental caregiving, and no studies to date have examined the possibility that gender differences in observed real-world paternal behavior are related to differential paternal brain responses to male and female children.

   
Assessing parenting behaviors (apa)

   

   
This publication is a Science for Policy report by the Joint Research Centre, the European Commission’s in-house science service. It aims to provide evidence-based scientific support to the European policy-making process. The scientific output expressed does not imply a policy position of the European Commission. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of this publication.

   
Best available techniques (jrc.ec)

   

   
Despite the striking physiological and behavioral impact of nutritional proteins, how animals direct feeding decisions to ensure protein homeostasis is not understood. A major obstacle in identifying the rules governing food choice is the nutritional complexity of natural foods, which hinders the discovery of the nutritional variables controlling feeding decision.

   
Commensal bacteria direct feeding decisions  (journals.plos)

   

   
Characterizing and monitoring tumor genomes with blood samples could achieve significant improvements in precision medicine. As tumors shed parts of themselves into the circulation, analyses of circulating tumor cells, circulating tumor DNA, and tumor-derived exosomes, often referred to as “liquid biopsies”, may enable tumor genome characterization by minimally invasive means.

   
An imminent routine practice (biomedcentral)

   

   
Here, we developed a new method of estimating rates of absolute mobility that can be implemented with existing data sets covering the 1940 to 1984 birth cohorts. Our approach combines two inputs: marginal income distributions for parents and children, and the copula of the parent and child income distribution, defined as the joint distribution of parent and child income ranks.

   
Income mobility since 1940 (science.sciencemag)

   

   
Hair differentiates from follicle stem cells through progenitor cells in the matrix. In contrast to stem cells in the bulge, the identities of the progenitors and the mechanisms by which they regulate hair shaft components are poorly understood. Hair is also pigmented by melanocytes in the follicle. However, the niche that regulates follicular melanocytes is not well characterized.

   
Identification of hair shaft progenitors (genesdev.cshlp)

   

   
While the forecast for offshore wind farms of the future is for ever-larger projects featuring ever-larger wind turbines, an unprecedented plan from electricity grid operators in the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark aims to rewrite the rulebook on offshore wind development. “Don’t be mistaken, this is really a very large, very ambitious project—there’s nothing like it anywhere in the world".

   
A giant wind farm (arstechnica)

   

   
National levels of personal health-care access and quality can be approximated by measuring mortality rates from causes that should not be fatal in the presence of effective medical care. Previous analyses of mortality amenable to health care only focused on high-income countries and faced several methodological challenges. In the present analysis, we use the highly standardised cause of death and risk factor.

   
A highly standardised analysis (thelancet)

   

   
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg celebrated his 33rd birthday on Sunday, and on Monday his executive team surprised him with a special birthday cake shaped like pieces of meat. That is kinda fun, and bizarre, but even more interesting is the fact that Zuckerberg shared to his Facebook page this photo that includes nearly all of Facebook’s highest-ranking executives in the same place at the same time.

   
Who gets to celebrate with the boss? (recode)

   

   
Despite their fat content and composition, milk and dairy products are naturally rich in various minerals(ca++, K+..), protein and vitamins (vit A & B12). Nutrients including calcium, potassium and magnesium have been suggested to be associated with lower risk of stroke. Short-term human intervention studies, also indicated that subjects who have high-fat diets enriched with dairy minerals or calcium have significantly lower total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels than those on a control diet.

   
A misconception & a “mistaken belief" (springer)

   

   
Scientists are migratory beasts. It's just the nature of the job: You spend your days at the border of human knowledge. Depending on the topic, only a dozen people may deeply understand your research—let alone help you push it further—and they are scattered across the world. For many, completing a Ph.D., doing postdoctoral research, and landing a permanent job all in one country is impossible. And so you wander.

   
Vast set of public CVs (sciencemag)

   

   
JCAP was founded in 2010 under an initial five-year U.S. Department of Energy contract with the broad aim of developing methods for producing hydrogen and carbon-based fuels using only sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide as inputs. That initial agreement was renewed in 2015 for another five years. JCAP research was able to demonstrate technologies that were at least 10-percent hydrogen efficient, which is a ratio of power from chemical energy to power from sunlight.

   
From Water Splitting to CO2 Reduction (ieee)

   

  Better energy, greater prosperity

   
Despite the scale of the challenge, the Energy Transitions Commission is confident that this transition is technically and economically possible, and that it would deliver important additional social benefits with, for instance, dramatically improved local air quality leading to longer and healthier lives and economic opportunities related to the development of new industries and business models.

   
Achievable pathways to low-carbon energy systems (energy-transitions)
   

   

   
Overall, 97. 2 % of the 84,341 samples analysed in 2015 were free of quantifiable residues or contained residues within the legally permitted levels. Based on the analytical results provided by the reporting countries, a detailed data analysis was performed regarding pesticide occurrence in the most important food products consumed and the dietary risk related to the exposure of European consumers to pesticide residues.

   
Report on pesticide residues (onlinelibrary.wiley)

   

   
Many of the immigration debates now raging around the world reflect the faulty assumption that admitting immigrants is an act of largesse – and a costly one, at that. But, far from being an economic burden, immigrants represent a major economic opportunity for destination countries. Those countries that take a thoughtful, long-term approach to immigration can capture large and tangible benefits.

   
Positive economic impact (project-syndicate)

   

   
If the allegations are true, the Bose case is just the latest privacy incident involving the so-called "Internet of things" in which more companies and devices that are connected to the web can't resist the temptation of harvesting the consumer data they throw off. Bose, whose wireless QuietComfort 35 headphones have received enthusiastic reviews, did not immediately reply to an email request for comment about the complaint.

   
Headphones spy on users (fortune)