Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Cyber crime boosted by low cost of hacking tools
 Malware as a service, along with the affordability of spam botnets, is providing criminals with a low barrier of entry into the cybercrime space, a report from SecureWorks has said.

In 2017 State of Cybercrime: Exposing the threats techniques and markets that fuel the economy of cybercriminals, the SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit explained that less experienced hackers are able to purchase information-stealing malware for reasonably low prices, and, as a result, this has increased who can conduct malicious activity online.

"The internet underground is thriving with ready-to-purchase malware. In underground forums, inexperienced or less-skilled cybercriminals are able to purchase information-stealing malware for reasonably low prices, typically in the form of pre-compiled binaries or premium builder kits that enable attackers to custom configure their own binaries," the report explains.

Similarly, spam botnets, labelled the most frequently used method for the distribution of all "wares" by SecureWorks, are readily available for a low cost to budding cybercriminals.

"Today, cybercriminals can tap into large botnets to increase the spread of their spam exponentially, a product that can be thought of as 'spam as a service'," the report says.

As one example, the report says one large spam botnet known as Kelihos was charged at as little as $200 per million emails sent for pharmaceutical and counterfeit goods-type messages.

Personal information remains a popular commodity, SecureWorks said, with tested and verified credit card data available in some cases for as little as $10, and highly detailed personal information records also offered for as low as $10.

In total, the report details 11 key findings based on the company's research. However, in addition to the malware and ransomware explosion that was WannaCry and Petya, as well as the business email compromise (BEC) threat that accounted for $5 billion in losses globally between October 2013 and December 2016, SecureWorks highlighted that online crime is a market economy of its own.

The global financial toll of cybercrime is difficult to quantify, but pointing to a report from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), SecureWorks said internet crime led to losses in excess of $1.3 billion [PDF] in 2016.

The report from SecureWorks labelled the online criminal landscape as one that is complex and composed of actors with a diverse range of capabilities.

As defined by SecureWorks, the underground internet is the collection of forums, digital shop fronts, and chat rooms that cybercriminals use to form alliances, trade tools, and techniques, and sell compromised data that can include banking details and personally identifiable information, as well as anything else.

However, SecureWorks concedes that the full extent of cybercrime is not visible solely through this window.

"Lucrative online criminality is run like a business, controlled by organised crime groups who are focused on minimising risk and maximising profit," the report says. "Such groups have considerable reach, will often be active in other areas of more traditional criminality, and, when necessary, will employ the services of other professional criminals who specialise in certain areas, such as moving money or goods around the world."

With money in tow, cybercrime organisations are often able to scoop up security talent before the good guys can employ them. This has created an underground job market that SecureWorks said mainly requires skills in malware writing, inject writing, data processing, network and sysadmin, and network exploitation, as well as vendors to perform exploit kit loading.

Money muling, where a "middleman" takes the data and passes it on -- knowingly or unknowingly -- to the cybercriminal, also continues to be a valuable component of the online criminal landscape, the report explained.

SecureWorks also said the perceived gap between criminality and nation states, in terms of both actors and capabilities, will continue to shrink, pointing to the $81 million Bangladesh heist -- and the criminals' links with North Korea -- as its example.

Output: The low cost of hacking tools being sold online is making cyber crime easier and more affordable, according to a report by the SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit. Information-stealing malware and spam botnets are readily available, and stolen credit card information is being traded for as little as $10, the research found. In other findings it highlighted the development of an underground cyber crime jobs market, with security experts being courted by hackers. It also suggested online crime led to losses of around $1.3bn in the US last year.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Coinfirm and SEI to work on blockchain pilot for asset transfer
 London-based Blockchain Blockchain Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tampe Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tampe Read this Term regtech company Coinfirm has signed a strategic partnership with SEI (NASDAQ:SEIC), which manages, advises and administers $809 billion in hedge, private equity and mutual funds, and pooled and separately managed assets.

Learn how to buy Bitcoin and Ethereum safely with our simple guide!

The companies say that their initiative is aimed at providing a solution that will significantly reshape the UK’s asset transfer market, and create a new digital industry standard.

Brett Williams, Managing Director, SEI Wealth Platform, UK Private Banking, said: “While there is a lot of talk across the industry about blockchain’s potential, this new initiative is a tangible example of how its power can be used to provide practical innovation to the industry. This solution could potentially transform the asset transfer market in the U.K -- significantly improving efficiency, service, and control, while simultaneously reducing costs and risk.”

“The asset transfer market is widely regarded as one of the most expensive and error-prone parts of the asset management value chain, with much of it still involving a great deal of manual procedures. The work we are doing with Coinfirm will help redefine asset transfers processing, with a view to setting a new standard by which all U.K. wealth and asset managers can evaluate their own systems and processes.”

Pawel Kuskowski, co-founder and CEO, Coinfirm, added: “What Coinfirm and SEI are doing together through our blockchain solution is not only a legitimate, living example of how this technology is helping solve core problems, but also setting a new standard for the industry as a whole. SEI has really placed itself at the forefront with this initiative, and we are happy to add a company of this calibre to the growing list of financial players with which we work.”

SEI and Coinfirm intend to embark on a pilot programme with one of SEI’s existing UK clients before rolling out the offering to other clients and the wider market in 2018.

Output: SEI has entered into a partnership with London-based blockchain company Coinfirm to develop a system for asset transfer using blockchain. The goal of the partnership is to make asset transfer more efficient, with it currently representing, "one of the most expensive and error-prone parts of the asset management value chain", according to Brett Williams, managing director for SEI Wealth Platform. The two firms intend to begin the initiative with a pilot programme for one of SEI's existing clients. A full offering is expected next year.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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John Lewis embraces 360-degree Facebook ads for new campaign
 John Lewis has set its flag in a new Facebook ad format, it is the first UK retailer to trial 360 degree Facebook ads that enable shoppers to fully check out select goods from every angle.

John Lewis' 360 shoppable ad

Becoming the first retailer to embrace the ad format gives John Lewis an advantage in getting its autumn advertising campaign ready. Furthermore, it can work out the kinks in the run up to its inevitable big spend during the holiday period in winter.

Output: John Lewis has become the first retailer to try out a new ad format on Facebook. The 360-degree ads let shoppers see products from a number of different angles and can direct users to the website with one click to make purchases. John Lewis’s early adoption of the format enables the retailer to fine-tune it before the busy Christmas shopping season.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Second Sight developing vision-restoring brain implant
 The device, called the Orion, is a modified version of the company’s current Argus II bionic eye, which involves a pair of glasses outfitted with a camera and an external processor. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted the company a conditional approval for a small study involving five patients at two sites, Baylor College of Medicine and the University of California, Los Angeles. Second Sight still needs to conduct further testing of the device and answer certain questions before starting the trial but hopes to begin enrolling patients in October and do its first implant by the end of the year.

Second Sight first won approval in Europe in 2011 for the Argus II, followed by an FDA approval in 2013 (see “Bionic Eye Implant Approved for U.S. Patients”). In Europe, two more retinal prosthetics have since been approved—one is marketed by French company Pixium Vision and another by German firm Retina Implant.

Also known as a bionic eye, all three devices are intended to bring back some vision in patients with a genetic eye disorder called retinitis pigmentosa. The disease causes gradual vision loss when light-sensing cells called photoreceptors break down in the retina—the tissue membrane that coats the back of the eye. An estimated 1.5 million people worldwide, including about 100,000 people in the U.S., have retinitis pigmentosa. That is a small percentage of the 39 million people worldwide who are blind, according to the World Health Organization.

A rendering of Second Sight’s Orion device, a brain implant that uses most of the technology from the company’s existing device, the Argus II.

But Robert Greenberg, Second Sight’s board chair, says the company has only sold about 250 of the Argus II devices, a number lower than he expected. The device costs about $150,000 and restores minimal vision. Only 15 centers in the U.S. offer the technology, and with competition abroad, Second Sight is hoping its new brain implant could be used by far more pople.

Second Sight’s Argus II uses a camera mounted on a pair of glasses to capture images. The images are sent to a small, patient-worn processor, which uses special software to convert the images into a set of instructions that are sent to the implanted chip near the retina. Those instructions are then transmitted as a series of electrical pulses to an array of electrodes, also implanted around the eye.

People with retinitis pigmentosa are able to benefit from the device because the disease destroys only specialized photoreceptors while leaving the retina’s remaining cells intact. These retinal cells are able to transmit the visual information along the optic nerve to the brain, producing patterns of light in a patient’s field of view.

The new device, the Orion, borrows about 90 percent of its technology from the Argus II but bypasses the eye. Instead, an array of electrodes is placed on the surface of the visual cortex, the part of the brain that processes visual information. Delivering electrical pulses here should tell the brain to perceive patterns of light.

“In some types of blindness, the optic nerve is damaged so you have to go downstream. With the Orion, we’re essentially replacing the eye and the optic nerve completely,” Greenberg says. With this approach, “anyone who had vision but has lost it from almost any cause could potentially be helped by the Orion technology.”

Output: Californian medical company Second Sight has been granted conditional approval by the US Food and Drug Administration to conduct small clinical trial of its new device, the Orion, which could restore some vision to patients with retinitis pigmentosa. The Orion borrows much of its technology from Second Sight's previous model, the Argus II, but also includes electrodes implanted directly into the brain to bypass the eye and the optic nerve. The company said people who are blind due to other illnesses could "hypothetically" use the Orion.


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DOE enzyme discovery could make biofuels more economic to produce
 News Release: Enzyme’s Worth to Biofuels Shown in Latest NREL Research

An enzyme discovered at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) proves adept at breaking down cellulose fibers regardless of whether their crystalline structure is simple or highly complex. No other enzyme has shown that ability.

The enzyme, called CelA, comes from Caldicellulosiruptor bescii, and NREL scientists reported three years ago, in the journal Science, how it can convert biomass to sugars faster than competing catalysts in commercial enzyme preparations. The follow-up study, detailed in the new Scientific Reports paper, The Multi Domain Caldicellulosiruptor bescii CelA Cellulase Excels at the Hydrolysis of Crystalline Cellulose, points to how the enzyme could help remove one of the technical and economic barriers preventing cellulosic biofuels from becoming a commercial reality.

The crystalline structure of cellulose fiber in plant cell walls generally poses a problem for cellulases, the enzymes that work to break down cellulose. The more crystalline the structure, the stronger the fibers are. Fungal enzymes tested to date cannot easily break down fibers with high crystalline content so that the material can be converted into a biofuel. CelA, however, is agnostic to the level of crystalline content.

“CelA is able to break down cellulose with high crystallinity the same as low crystallinity, which has never been shown for any other cellulase,” said Yannick Bomble, a senior research scientist at NREL and the senior author of the paper. “The better the cellulase is, the quicker you can convert biomass to simple sugars so the cheaper the process will get.”

Bomble’s co-authors from NREL are Roman Brunecky, Bryon Donohoe, John Yarbrough, Ashutosh Mittal, Larry Taylor, Daehwan Chung, and Michael Himmel. Other co-authors were Brian Scott, Hanshu Ding, Sarah Teter from Novozymes, and Jordan Russell and Janet Westpheling from the University of Georgia. Their research looked at how CelA performed in breaking down and interacting with the components of cell walls in corn stover: glucan, xylan, and lignin. Chemical pretreatments were used on corn stover and silky fibers called cotton linters, leaving behind various amounts of the components and varying degrees of crystallinity, respectively. The experiments showed the degree of crystallinity didn’t affect how well the enzyme performed.

The sticking point came when CelA encountered lignin, the component that provides rigidity to cell walls. With some pretreatment conditions, some lignin remained, and that stopped the enzyme. “If it binds to lignin, it’s just stuck. It can’t process or break down biomass any longer,” Bomble said. “When that happens, you lose the enzyme. The more enzymes you lose to non-productive binding, the less efficient the conversion. That’s usually the problem. This is why we’re working on strategies to prevent CelA’s binding to lignin but retain the vital affinity to cellulose.”

The latest research was funded by DOE’s BioEnergy Science Center.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for the Energy Department by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

Output: Scientists at the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have discovered an enzyme that could help make the production of biofuels more economic. The enzyme, CelA, has proved faster than existing catalysts at breaking down complex crystalline structures in plant cells, which has proved a challenge in the past. However, in experiments, CeIA stopped working when it encountered lignin, a component of cells, and the researchers are now looking at ways to prevent this occurring.


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Cisco, Bosch among founders of alliance backing IoT blockchain
 File Photo

Cisco, Bosch, Gemalto and other business giants have announced the launch of the "Trusted IoT Alliance" as part of an effort to promote the use of the blockchain to secure IoT devices worldwide.

On Tuesday, the group of companies said the Trusted IoT Alliance will "further a blockchain-based Internet of Things (IoT) open-source working group" that will create a "blockchain-enabled, trusted IoT" ecosystem with improved security and trust protocols.

To reach this goal, the alliance intends to create an open-source blockchain protocol to "support IoT technology in major industries worldwide."

The blockchain is usually associated with cryptocurrency, but its uses go further than as a means to trade in Bitcoin. The distributed, decentralized electronic ledger can also be used to underpin everything from voting records to legal documents, and with the same information distributed across different systems, tampering, falsification, or compromise is difficult to achieve.

Bosch, BNY Mellon, Cisco, Gemalto, US Bank along with Bitse, Chronicled, ConsenSys, Ledger, Skuchain, Slock.it, HCM International of Foxconn Group, IOTA, Oaken Innovations, Qtum, Chain of Things, and Big Chain DB are the first batch of companies to sign up to the alliance.

However, it is hoped membership will expand membership by targeting Fortune 5000 enterprise companies.

The group has already published a common API for registering IoT "things" to the Hyperledger and Enterprise Ethereum blockchain and plans to issue grants to support the development of additional open-source blockchain technologies.

"Proprietary technology and competing interests made a truly open network difficult to develop," the alliance says. "Open-source is widely recognized as the solution to the development of robust IoT standards. However, organizing consortia between major industry players is complex."

The alliance says that the groups' open-source tools and property will help the enterprise register IoT devices and create event logs on decentralized systems, which in turn will lead to a trusted IoT ecosystem which links cryptographic registration, "thing" identities, and metadata.

This will give users the equivalent of "birth certificates" for devices connected to a network -- as well as means to track any aberrations in behavior. In addition, the group says the aim is to increase interoperability and interworking, and so blockchain agnosticism will be maintained.

Co-founder of Skuchain, Zaki Manian, has been named the executive director of the alliance, with figures from Bosch, Chronicled, Cisco, and Gemalto holding board member roles.

"The world is beginning to recognize the potential of blockchain technology to fundamentally reshape the way business is done globally - and we're still just scratching the surface," said Ryan Orr, CEO of Chronicled. "At this early stage we think it's vitally important to establish an inclusive framework that ensures openness, trust, and interoperability among the many parties, in both the public and private sectors, that we believe will begin to adopt blockchain technology over the next several years."

See also: Yes, Blockchain could reverse the course of civilization and upend the world's most powerful companies

There are many companies exploring how the blockchain can be used not only for security purposes, but to improve business protocols, transactions, and supply chain management.

Microsoft, for example, is promoting its Blockchain-as-a-Service offering in the world of smart contracts, while the UK government wants to use the technology to track benefits spending.

Previous and related coverage

Output: Global companies including Bosch, Gemalto and Cisco have formed the Trusted IoT Alliance, an open-source working group that aims to create a "blockchain-enabled, trusted IoT" ecosystem. The alliance has already published a common API for registering IoT-enabled devices, or "things", to the Enterprise Ethereum and Hyperledger blockchains, while the decentralised network will eventually hold cryptographic registration, thing identities and metadata. "At this early stage we think it's vitally important to establish an inclusive framework that ensures openness, trust, and interoperability," said Ryan Orr, CEO of alliance member Chronicled.


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Adblock Plus makes browser available for App Store on iOS
 Browser extension Adblock Plus, which says it wants to rid the Internet of “annoying and intrusive online advertising,” announced its Adblock Browser for iOS 2.0 is available at the App Store.

Adblock Plus has a new iOS browser.

Calling it a “milestone update for the browser,” Adblock Plus said the product includes an intuitive interface and easy-to-use controls, and it will also keep data costs down, save battery life and protect personal data on the mobile web.

Output: The Apple-sanctioned Adblock Browser for iOS 2.0, developed by browser extension Adblock Plus, is available to buy on the App store. The updated version, which the company has dubbed a "milestone update for the browser" includes many additional features, including Ghost Mode, which enables anonymous web browsing, while Adblock Plus said the intuitive interface and easy-to-use controls ensure a frictionless user experience.


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Latest Obamacare repeal bill would hit California hard
 If Congress passes the latest effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, California stands to lose tens of billions of dollars over the next 10 years, according to separate analyses of the legislation.

The left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities was the first to crunch the numbers on the bill sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana). It determined that the state would lose nearly $58 billion in 2027. A Kaiser Family Foundation analysis estimates California would lose nearly $46 billion that year, and nearly $62 billion from 2020-26.

The Congressional Budget Office says it doesn't have enough time to conduct a complete analysis of the bill by the time the U.S. Senate must vote on it next week.

The Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that the chamber only has until Sept. 30 to try to pass the legislation with 51 votes under budget reconciliation rules. After that, Republicans would need 60 votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster.

The legislation would roll back funding for expanded Medi-Cal and the subsidies that help people buy private individual insurance policies through Covered California. Those dollars would be replaced with block grants to states. Graham and Cassidy argue that states are better positioned than the federal government to decide how best to serve their populations' health care needs.

Switching to block grants would be a boon to states that never expanded Medicaid under Obamacare. It would mean a financial hit for those that did, like California. In the Golden State, that could amount to a loss of more than $1,500 a person, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Analysts say the loss of funding could force the state to make deep cuts to Medi-Cal, which covers one out of every three Californians.

The UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education estimates that 6.7 million Californians could lose coverage in 2027, based on a scenario in which the state cut Medi-Cal eligibility or capped enrollment for certain groups.

"The biggest group would be the people in the Medi-Cal expansion, but also people with covered California subsidies would lose those subsidies, and children, and seniors, and individuals with disabilities in Medi-Cal are also at risk of coverage losses," said Laurel Lucia, director of the Center’s Health Care Program.

Health organizations with a majority of their patients on Medi-Cal expect to be hit hard if the Republican bill becomes law.

"When states get block-granted they have to make really tough choices," said Louise McCarthy, president of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County. "They either cut the eligibility, they cut the services, or they cut the payments. Or they cut all three."

Those cuts would mean health care providers would, in turn, be making their own tough decisions on where to tighten their belts, meaning fewer services and potentially fewer jobs, she said.

"At this point in the Affordable Care Act debate, it feels like we are in hurricane season," said McCarthy. "We’ve been dodging hurricane after hurricane of repeal attempts. Now with Graham-Cassidy, we are right back where we started fighting a storm that is even worse than those that preceded it."

This story has been updated.

Output: If Congress passes the latest effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, California could face a loss of nearly $58 billion in 2027, according to the only analysis of the legislation so far.


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Hep A outbreak: 'more lives are going to be at risk'
 In its strongest public outreach to date, city and county leaders urged the public to do everything they can to help end the region’s historic hepatitis A outbreak.

With case counts continuing to rise, San Diego leaders made their largest show of solidarity Tuesday morning in the fight against hepatitis A, gathering to ask the public for help in getting control of the outbreak that does not appear to be going away any time soon.

Even though efforts to contain the outbreak started in March, officials do not expect an immediate halt to unprecedented public health threat.

“Frankly, this outbreak could last for at least another six months, and unfortunately there are going to be more lives that are going to be at risk,” Dr. Nick Yphantides, the county’s chief medical officer, said at a news conference in from of the County Administration Center.

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As they have every Tuesday for the last few months, officials gave an update on the outbreak’s toll which has had its strongest impact on San Diego’s homeless population. While the death count remains 16 as it was last week, there are two more deaths currently under investigation. For 15 of the 16 deaths confirmed so far, Yphantides said, each has been homeless and/or an illicit drug user. All have had underlying health conditions such as a concurrent hepatitis C infection.

The total number of confirmed cases linked to the outbreak jumped to 444 from 421 last week, and there are another 44 suspected cases currently under investigation. The number of people hospitalized due to infections from the specific strains associated with the outbreak climbed to 305 this week from 292 last week.

The steady increase in these numbers is causing growing anxiety in the region, pushing further into the mainstream late last week with a public warning to all patrons of a Pacific Beach restaurant after a person associated with the establishment was infected.

There was also news Tuesday of a new outbreak declared by public health officials in Los Angeles County. Two infections that occurred locally, officials said, are in addition to eight previous cases linked to ongoing outbreaks in San Diego and Santa Cruz counties.

Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of the L.A. County Department of Public Health, note the outbreak is small by comparison. Nevertheless, she said the department is ramping up prevention efforts locally so more people don’t get sick. San Diego’s outbreak has already spread to Santa Cruz, where 69 people have been diagnosed.

Another San Diego-linked case case surfaced in Imperial County over the weekend, according to health officials there.

“Within our investigations we have learned that the individual did not contract the infection here in the valley, here in Imperial Valley. He is currently still being treated at one of our local facilities,” Karla Lopez, Epidemiologist with Imperial County Public Health Department, told television station KYMA.

The person was described as middle aged homeless man living in downtown San Diego before arriving in Imperial County last week.

The San Diego outbreak was first recognized by the county health department in March, and the response has come under criticism in recent weeks for being somewhat fragmented.

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer took pains Tuesday to signal that the government response has crystallized around the three main themes of vaccination, sanitation and education.

Hepatitis A: frequently asked questions

“There are lives at stake. Every person affected has a family, has friends. This is personal. This is our community. We will protect it,” Faulconer said at the news conference, the largest show of unity among public officials in the hepatitis fight.

The mayor and others urged the public to do its part primarily through attention to hygiene — frequent and thorough hand-washing — and getting vaccinated if warranted.

In addition to the county’s regular Tuesday update on the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths associated with the outbreak, officials also said that 22,966 people have received the hepatitis A vaccine through a wide range of outreach events from inoculation clinics to foot teams working with the homeless in remote locations.

Yphantides stressed that vaccination is recommended only for a “high-risk group” of people across the county. There is no reason why those who do not fall into that group need to run out and get a hepatitis A vaccination even if they work in downtown San Diego where the largest number of cases have occurred, he said. On the other hand, he added, those who fear exposure to the virus should not be shy.

“If, however, there are individuals who have a felt need that they may have had exposure to the virus and want to have access to the vaccine, it is perfectly reasonable for you to make that request to your medical provider,” Yphantides said.

The main high-risk group the medical director referred to includes: homeless people, intravenous and illicit drug users, gay men, anyone who has has sexual contact with a person who has a hepatitis A infection, people with chronic liver disease and anyone with a clotting factor disease.

On Tuesday morning, the health department also defined a second job-based vaccination category. It includes: fire and emergency workers, law enforcement personnel, food handlers, health care personnel, homeless outreach and service workers, substance abuse treatment workers and public transportation workers.

Anyone who wants to find a nearby vaccination clinic can call 2-1-1 for more information.

The city is also conducting a free vaccination clinic in front of the San Diego Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Health Playlist × On Now Video: Leaders urge public to help extinguish hepatitis outbreak On Now San Diego starts cleansing sidewalks, streets to combat hepatitis A On Now Video: Scripps to shutter its hospice service On Now Video: Scripps La Jolla hospitals nab top local spot in annual hospital rankings On Now Video: Does a parent's Alzheimer's doom their children? On Now EpiPen recall expands On Now Kids can add years to your life

paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1850

Twitter: @paulsisson

Output: With case counts continuing to rise, San Diego leaders made their largest show of solidarity Tuesday morning in the fight against hepatitis A, gathering to ask the public for help in getting control of the outbreak that does not appear to be going away any time soon.


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IBM gives UC San Diego $10 million to find better ways to detect memory loss
 IBM has given UC San Diego a $10 million contract to search for ways to preserve people’s ability to think and remember things clearly to help seniors live in their own homes late into life, perhaps until they die.

The money is aimed at a problem that trips up many older adults — mild cognitive impairment, a condition that can make it difficult to remember simple things like a name, and how do basic tasks like balance a checkbook.

UC San Diego will try to make it easier to detect MCI, whose symptoms can be hard to distinguish from the natural declines in thinking and memory that are a part of aging.

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Scientists also are focusing on MCI because the condition can lead to serious forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

“If you can detect it in time, there are ways to dramatically slow MCI down,” said Tajana Šimunić Rosing, a UC San Diego computer scientist who will help lead a five year study of the matter.

“The bad news is that by the time most people go see a doctor they’re already experiencing more severe stages of cognitive decline.”

Scientists say the future looks promising due to the rise of web-connected sensors that can observe people with great precision and the availability of computer systems like IBM Watson, which crunch huge sets of health data in search of patterns and meaning.

There’s also a growing sense of urgency about the need to help older adults stay healthy. People are living longer. They want to stay in a home of their choice. And the nation’s population is aging rapidly, a change that involves great cost.

Medicaid spends about $150 billion a year to provide services and support to older Americans.

Much of the $10 million contract that UC San Diego will get from IBM will be used to study about 50 people who are 65 and older.

Ten of those people will have their homes outfitted with a variety of sensors and electronic devices that will monitor their daily habits and behavior, which provide clues to how clearly people are thinking and remembering things.

The sensors could be placed in everything from cellphones to phone outlets.

“We want to use the home environment to learn what’s going on with people,” Rosing said.

This part of the study also will involve scientists who can help identify cognitive decline by examining subtle changes in behavior, such as a person inexplicably repeating something or taking longer pauses when they speak.

Like the 40 other participants, the ten people also will undergo more classical study. The university’s Center for Healthy Aging will evaluate such things as a person’s general physical health, cognitive function and quality of their social life.

Dilip Jeste, the center’s director, doesn’t expect to have trouble finding participants, noting, “Most older people want to avoid going into assisted living, let alone nursing homes. Everyone wants to live independently as long as possible.”

× UC San Diego will try to make it easier to detectmild cognitive impairment, whose symptoms can be hard to distinguish from the natural declines in thinking and memory that are a part of aging.

The project also involves studying people’s microbiomes — or the genetic make-up of the micro-organisms that live in and on a person’s body, notably in the gut. Scientists believe that a person’s ever changing microbiome directly affects their health. The affects on memory and thinking are unclear, but need to be studied, say researchers.

UC San Diego is going to feed IBM Watson a large body of published data about the microbiome, along with readings from the upcoming study.

The university plans to draw study participants from a variety of places, including the Paradise Valley Retirement Community in National City. Researchers are looking for people like Louise Oberlin, one of the community’s residents.

Oberlin is an optimistic soul who nonetheless describes the indignities of aging in frank terms.

“I’ve noticed that I don’t pick things up as quickly,” the 73 year-old Oberlin said Friday. “I may have to read a page twice to get the whole thing. It’s a slowly moving stream of diminishment.”

The problems include sometimes forgetting people’s names.

“I’ll look at people I’ve known forever and can’t think of their name,” said Oberlin. “My first thought is that I’m embarrassing myself. My second thought is I get to use (the excuse), ‘I’m older, I’m a senior.’ That’s natural.

“The other part is that it feels bad to not feel competent in my own environment.”

On balance, though, she is thriving, saying, “I’m happy. My life is good. The things that have happened to me have made me be able to love the life that I’m in today.”

Science Playlist × On Now In a first, scientists rid human embryos of a potentially fatal gene mutation by editing their DNA On Now 10 interesting facts about Mars On Now Kids can add years to your life On Now LA 90: SpaceX launches recycled rocket On Now Ocean temperatures warming at rapid rate, study finds

Twitter: @grobbins

gary.robbins@sduniontribune.com

Output: IBM has given UC San Diego a $10 million contract to search for ways to preserve people’s ability to think and remember things clearly to help seniors live in their own homes late into life, perhaps until they die.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Court allows farm hit by bird flu to claim for premises pollution
 A federal district court judge has dismissed one of a poultry farm’s claims for “remediation costs” against its insurer with prejudice, but allowed the other to proceed. In Rembrandt Enterprises, Inc. v. Illinois Union Insurance Company, Rembrandt brought suit against its insurer for losses it sustained after a bird flu epidemic broke out at its farms in 2015. Regulators ultimately ordered Rembrandt to quarantine its facilities and put down millions of birds, forcing Rembrandt to spend millions of dollars to purchase new chicks to repopulate its farms.

Rembrandt submitted a claim to Illinois Union for the entire $7 million limit under its Premises Pollution Liability Insurance Policy: $5 million for business-interruption losses and $2 million for remediation expenses. The parties agreed to split the matter and address liability first and damages second. United States District Judge Paul A. Magnuson denied Rembrandt’s and Illinois Union’s cross-motions for summary judgment on liability, holding that genuine issues of material fact remained for the jury to decide whether (1) bird flu had “dispersed, released, migrated, or seeped” onto or into Rembrandt’s farms, and (2) the virus had spread due to human activity, which would trigger a policy exclusion.

Regarding the damages issue, Illinois National moved for partial summary judgment, arguing that Rembrandt could not recover the $2 million it sought for “remediation costs.” The policy defined “remediation costs” as “reasonable expenses required to restore, repair, or replace real or personal property to substantially the same condition it was in prior to being damaged during the course of responding to a pollution condition.” The key issue was whether Rembrandt’s property was “damaged during the course of responding to a pollution condition.”

Illinois National did not dispute that the diseased birds were Rembrandt’s “personal property,” or that bird flu was a “pollution condition.” Instead, Illinois National tried to hatch another argument: that the “pollution condition” itself – bird flu –and not the response to that “pollution condition,” caused Rembrandt to incur the remediation costs. In Illinois National’s view, all of Rembrandt’s poultry became damaged the instant that bird flu arrived at Rembrandt’s farms, and as a result, the birds were already damaged when the remediation commenced. By the insurer’s logic, therefore, none of the birds could have been damaged “during the course of responding to [the] pollution condition.”

Judge Magnuson clipped that argument. First, he noted that it appeared “undisputed that at least some of Rembrandt’s birds were not infected with [bird flu] when government officials ordered – and Rembrandt completed – the entire flock’s euthanization.” As a result, at least some of the birds were not at all damaged by the “pollution condition” itself (the bird flu), but instead were “damaged during the course of responding to” the pollution condition (i.e., when Rembrandt was forced to put down all of the fowl after the bird flu epidemic had begun).

Rembrandt also sought coverage for “remediation costs” in the form of $800,000 it spent to heat its barns after it put down all of its birds. Normally, Rembrandt’s farms hold hundreds of thousands of birds, from which the body heat alone is enough to heat Rembrandt’s barns. But with its flock euthanized, there were no birds to heat the barns, so Rembrandt incurred costs in supplying heat for its barns, without which additional damage would have been sustained.

Judge Magnuson cooled on this argument, holding that Rembrandt’s barns sustained no “damage […] [prior to or] during the course of responding to [the] pollution condition” (emphasis added). This was plainly distinguishable from Rembrandt’s birds, which did sustain damage (they were destroyed) when Rembrandt responded to the bird flu. According to the language of Rembrandt’s policy, coverage was not afforded for the prospective heating costs that Rembrandt incurred to prevent damage from occurring to its barns. Rather, coverage extended only to retroactive costs incurred to “restore, repair, or replace” property “damaged during the course of responding to a pollution condition.” As a result, Judge Magnuson dismissed with prejudice Rembrandt’s claim to recover barn-heating expenses as “remediation costs,” but allowed Rembrandt’s claim for the euthanized birds to go forward.

You can read Judge Magnuson’s order here.

Output: A US judge has allowed a poultry farm to proceed with part of a $7m claim against its insurer. The claim arose from the destruction of millions of birds amid an outbreak of bird flu in 2015. Rembrandt Enterprises made the claim under its premises pollution policy after the cull, but Illinois Union Insurance balked at paying $2m for remediation costs, which Rembrandt said were incurred in bringing the farm back to working order. Illinois Union's argument that the need for remediation had been caused by the disease, and not the destruction of the birds, was shot down by the federal court.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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While Premiums Soar Under Obamacare, Costs of Employer-Based Plans Are Stable
 In sharp contrast to the soaring health insurance premiums in many Affordable Care Act marketplaces, the cost of coverage for the vast numbers of people who get insurance through their jobs rose relatively little this year, continuing a period of remarkable stability in the employer market, according to a national survey released Tuesday.

The annual premium for family coverage rose an average of 3 percent to $18,764 this year, according the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit group, which conducted the annual survey of employers. That is the sixth straight year that employer-provided policies have increased by well under 5 percent, according to the survey. Employers paid the bulk of the costs, the survey found, with workers shouldering an average of $5,714, a year for a family policy.

About 151 million people are covered through an employer, and the insurance environment for many of those companies is characterized by “a remarkable stubborn stability,” said Craig Garthwaite, a health economist at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

The exception is the smallest companies, which are still finding it challenging to afford insurance for their workers. In recent years, a growing number of smaller companies have stopped providing health benefits, according to the Kaiser data. Over the last five years, the percentage of businesses with under 50 workers offering coverage has fallen from 59 percent to 50 percent. In 2001, two thirds of those employers offered benefits.

Output: In sharp contrast to the soaring health insurance premiums in many Affordable Care Act marketplaces, the cost of coverage for the vast numbers of people who get insurance through their jobs rose relatively little this year, continuing a period of remarkable stability in the employer market, according to a national survey released Tuesday.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Five New Grants Totaling Over $3.6 Million Approved by JAHF Board of Trustees at September 2017 Meeting
 Five New Grants Totaling Over $3.6 Million Approved by JAHF Board of Trustees

The John A. Hartford Foundation Board of Trustees approved five new grants totaling $3.6 million in September 2017 to accelerate the move to age-friendly health systems, support family caregivers, and improve serious illness and end-of-life care.

National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA): Demonstration of Person-Driven Outcomes Measures for an Age-Friendly Health System ($1,494,992 for 3 years)

There is broad agreement that people’s priorities and health goals should guide their care, and yet, existing health care quality measures do not effectively evaluate what is most important to individuals, particularly older adults with complex care needs. This grant to NCQA will improve the lives of older people by developing quality measures to assess how well health systems maintain or improve the health goals of older adults. The project will develop goal-based quality measures suitable for use in value-based payment arrangements in order to align care with what matters most to older people and their families.

AARP Foundation: Supporting Family Caregivers Providing Complex Care ($1,372,242 for 30 months)

Nearly half of the 18 million family caregivers in the U.S. who assist older adults perform complex medical/nursing tasks with very little training or support, as revealed in the 2012 AARP/United Hospital Fund Home Alone study, funded by The John A. Hartford Foundation. This project with the AARP-led Home Alone Alliance will help health systems better serve these family caregivers by completing a national scan and sharing best practices in implementing the CARE Act, a law passed in 39 states that requires hospitals to identify and educate patients’ family caregivers before discharge. Home Alone Alliance members will create educational materials and conduct training for nurses and other health professionals to better work with family caregivers. The Home Alone study will also be updated, with a focus on diverse populations.

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: Implementation of Rehabilitation at Home ($500,000 for 27 months)

This project will refine the Rehabilitation at Home care model and propose a new payment mechanism within Medicare to enable more older adults to receive post-acute rehabilitation services at home, improving quality and cost outcomes. The Rehabilitation at Home care model grew out of the Hospital at Home program, developed with funding from The John A. Hartford Foundation. The model provides safe, high-quality rehabilitative and medical care in the home, the setting patients often prefer.

American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education: Advancing Legal and Medical Collaboration in Advance Care Planning ($151,997 for 1 year)

Advance care planning for the end of life is an essential component of person and family-centered care. However, legal and health care professionals are not well-aligned in advance care planning processes and this often results in legal documents that are not actionable in clinical settings. This project intends to bridge the chasm between lawyers and clinicians so that advance care planning will support patients’ goals of care being understood, documented, and honored in health care decision-making. The American Bar Association will convene, in collaboration with the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, experts and stakeholders and produce National Recommendations and Best Practice Guidelines with actionable tools for medical-legal collaboration in effective advance care planning.

Columbia University: The John A. Hartford Foundation State Aging Index ($109,528 for 1 year)

This one-year project will extend the recently released international John A. Hartford Foundation Aging Society Index to the domestic state level and examine the impact of state programs and policies on the status and well-being of older adults. The project will begin by establishing measures in several relevant domains: social, economic, intergenerational, and health-related. Data analysis will include the calculation of state (or census region where appropriate) performance using the measures and an analysis of how state-based policies and programs are correlated with key state characteristics. The investigators, members of the Research Network on an Aging Society, will publish and present the findings, including to local, state, and federal policy makers.

Output: The John A. Hartford Foundation Board of Trustees approved five new grants totaling $3.6 million in September 2017 to accelerate the move to age-friendly health systems, support family caregivers, and improve serious illness and end-of-life care.


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Insufficient new antibiotics in development: WHO
 A report, Antibacterial agents in clinical development – an analysis of the antibacterial clinical development pipeline, including tuberculosis, launched today by WHO shows a serious lack of new antibiotics under development to combat the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance.

Most of the drugs currently in the clinical pipeline are modifications of existing classes of antibiotics and are only short-term solutions. The report found very few potential treatment options for those antibiotic-resistant infections identified by WHO as posing the greatest threat to health, including drug-resistant tuberculosis which kills around 250 000 people each year.

"Antimicrobial resistance is a global health emergency that will seriously jeopardize progress in modern medicine," says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. "There is an urgent need for more investment in research and development for antibiotic-resistant infections including TB, otherwise we will be forced back to a time when people feared common infections and risked their lives from minor surgery."

In addition to multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, WHO has identified 12 classes of priority pathogens – some of them causing common infections such as pneumonia or urinary tract infections – that are increasingly resistant to existing antibiotics and urgently in need of new treatments.

The report identifies 51 new antibiotics and biologicals in clinical development to treat priority antibiotic-resistant pathogens, as well as tuberculosis and the sometimes deadly diarrhoeal infection

.

Among all these candidate medicines, however, only 8 are classed by WHO as innovative treatments that will add value to the current antibiotic treatment arsenal.

There is a serious lack of treatment options for multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant M. tuberculosis and gram-negative pathogens, including

and

(such as

and

) which can cause severe and often deadly infections that pose a particular threat in hospitals and nursing homes.

There are also very few oral antibiotics in the pipeline, yet these are essential formulations for treating infections outside hospitals or in resource-limited settings.

"Pharmaceutical companies and researchers must urgently focus on new antibiotics against certain types of extremely serious infections that can kill patients in a matter of days because we have no line of defence," says Dr Suzanne Hill, Director of the Department of Essential Medicines at WHO.

To counter this threat, WHO and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) set up the Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (known as GARDP). On 4 September 2017, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Wellcome Trust pledged more than €56 million for this work.

"Research for tuberculosis is seriously underfunded, with only two new antibiotics for treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis having reached the market in over 70 years," says Dr Mario Raviglione, Director of the WHO Global Tuberculosis Programme. "If we are to end tuberculosis, more than US$ 800 million per year is urgently needed to fund research for new antituberculosis medicines".

New treatments alone, however, will not be sufficient to combat the threat of antimicrobial resistance. WHO works with countries and partners to improve infection prevention and control and to foster appropriate use of existing and future antibiotics. WHO is also developing guidance for the responsible use of antibiotics in the human, animal and agricultural sectors.

Note to editors

Clostridium difficileAcinetobacterEnterobacteriaceaeKlebsiellaE.coli

For more information, download the following reports:

The clinical pipeline analysis data can be explored in an interactive way through:

Output: There is a serious lack of new antibiotics in development to combat the growing risk of antimicrobial resistance, according to a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The report states that most of the drugs currently being worked on are modifications of existing forms of antibiotics, which offer only short-term solutions. The WHO has identified 12 categories of priority pathogens that urgently require new treatments. Although 51 new antibiotics and biologicals are in development to treat such pathogens, just eight are considered innovative treatments that will expand the field.


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Chinese engineers announce world's first large transport drone
 The world’s first large transport drone for SF Express. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Chinese engineers have converted a utility plane into the world's first large transport drone for an express delivery company.

The drone — a refitted PAC P-750 XSTOL turboprop built by New Zealand's Pacific Aerospace — is undergoing ground tests, according to a senior designer involved in the project.

"If all goes well, the plane will make its maiden flight in early October," said Chen Xiang, director of unmanned aircraft vehicle guidance at the Xi'an Flight Automatic Control Research Institute.

"Once flight-tests are finished, the aircraft will be the world's first large transport drone for commercial use."

Designers and engineers from several Chinese institutes took part in the refit, including Chen's institute, which is part of Aviation Industry Corp of China, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Engineering Thermophysics.

The cargo drone is being produced for SF Express, the nation's second-largest courier after China Post. It will initially be used for technical demonstrations and by civil aviation authorities before going into commercial use, according to promotional materials from Chen's institute.

Amazon and DHL already use drones for delivery services and are developing new models. However, Chen said all the drones in service or in development are small and cannot compete with Chinese models for speed and capacity.

"The reason we lead in this field is because China is leading in e-commerce, thus needs such drones more urgently," he said on Monday on the sidelines of a civil-military integration development expo in Beijing.

To carry out the refit, he said engineers removed the pilot's instruments in the cockpit and installed ground-control and automated flight devices, the most important apparatus on a drone.

The plane now has a maximum takeoff weight of 3.4 metric tons, a capacity of 1 ton and a flight range of more than 2,000 kilometers.

Compared with manned cargo planes, a freight drone will spend about 30 percent less in terms of operational cost, according to Chen, who said they can be used for short-haul deliveries of time-sensitive goods, such as fresh food and medical supplies.

Output: A team of Chinese engineers and designers has created the world's first large transport drone for commercial use. The team modified a utility plane to create the drone, replacing the traditional instruments with ground-control and automated flight devices. The drone has a one-tonne capacity and a flight range of more than 2,000km. SF Express, China's second largest courier company, is behind the project. The drone is currently undergoing ground tests, with its maiden flight scheduled for early October.


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High-speed internet still unavailable to six million US students
 More than 5 million students in the United States gained access to high-speed internet in the last year alone, leaving just 6.5 million students to go, according to new data released by EducationSuperHighway on Tuesday.

In its third annual State of the States report, the nonprofit applauds the progress states have made toward closing the digital divide. Today, about 39.2 million students, 2.6 million teachers and 74,000 schools have access to digital learning opportunities, and 94 percent of districts across the country meet the Federal Communications Commission’s minimum goal of 100 kilobits (kbps) per second per student.

“We’re seeing a lot of excellent progress,” said Evan Marwell, CEO of EducationSuperHighway, which was founded in 2012 to support America’s public schools in obtaining and upgrading broadband access. “For us, the goal has always been to have everybody connected by the start of the school year in 2020. I feel like we’re continuing to make great progress and be on track for that goal — maybe even ahead of schedule.”

Since last year’s State of the States report was published, the number of students who don’t have high-speed internet access has decreased by 45 percent, and Marwell said he’s “very optimistic” about coming through for the 6.5 million kids who remain unconnected.

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Most of the districts that have not reached the FCC’s 100 kbps per student minimum can obtain that high-speed broadband through a package already being offered to a comparable district in their state, he said. These districts tend to be located in urban and suburban areas.

The districts that lack fiber infrastructure, on the other hand, are mostly rural, and they’re concentrated in some of the largest states, like California, Texas and Illinois.

The challenge for rural schools, Marwell said, is that they are typically far removed and resource-strapped, making it difficult to come up with the $100,000 needed to get a fiber connection.

“For most rural school districts, that’s really beyond their means,” he told EdScoop. “I’m less optimistic about bringing fiber to [them].”

This is an area that the FCC needs to prioritize, Marwell said. He hopes that Chairman Ajit Pai will follow through on his promises to close the digital divide and to reduce the bureaucracy of the E-rate program, which helps schools and libraries afford broadband. “That, hopefully, means faster approval for fiber projects,” Marwell said.

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Efforts to connect students to high-speed internet have emerged from every level — local, state and federal — but governors especially have been “stepping up and putting up funding” in recent years.

Forty-five governors have committed to supporting “21st century” educations in their states, and together they have allocated almost $200 million in state matching funds for broadband.

Nine states now boast that 100 percent of their students are connected to high-speed broadband, the most recent being Arkansas earlier this summer. Others include Hawaii, Kentucky, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.

States like Texas, Massachusetts, Montana and New Hampshire are not far behind, Marwell said. New Mexico, too, has recently made significant gains.

“We’re really proud of New Mexico,” Marwell said. “The fact that they, in what is a very rural state, have gotten fiber to 99 percent of their schools is truly remarkable.”

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“Some of these states started so low and they have some of the hardest schools to connect, and they’re just chipping away at it and making progress.”

The progress is aided by the fact that, since 2013, the cost of broadband has declined by 78 percent — from $22 per Mbps in 2013 to $4.90 per Mbps in 2017.

“We have to highlight the role service providers have played” in helping schools access high-speed internet, Marwell said. “They have been really key in driving down the cost of bandwidth for schools. We’re really excited at the way service providers have said, ‘hey, we have a responsibility in this.’”

The website hosting the report allows visitors to see state-by-state comparisons, including notable milestones and areas for improvement.

Output: The US Federal Communications Commission needs to prioritise "far removed and resource-strapped" schools if it is to meet its goal of providing every US student with high-speed internet, according to an annual report from EducationSuperHighway. The non-profit organisation revealed that despite having made great progress - with more than five million US students gaining access to the internet in 2016 alone - 6.5 million children, in rural regions such as California, Texas and Illinois, were still unconnected.


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Input:
WHO warns of lack of new antibiotics for resistant infections
 Too few antibiotics are in the pipeline to tackle the global crisis of drug resistance, which is responsible for the rise of almost untreatable infections around the world, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warns.

Among the alarming diseases that are increasing and spreading is multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (TB), which requires treatment lasting between nine and 20 months. There are 250,000 deaths a year from drug-resistant TB and only 52% of patients globally are successfully treated. But only two new antibiotics for the disease have reached the market in 70 years.

The new WHO report, showing the paucity of new antibiotics being developed, lists 12 other pathogens that are serious dangers to health because we are running out of drugs to treat the infections they cause. Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacteriaceae that have become resistant to the carbapenem class of antibiotic are all on the critical priority list. They are what are known as gram-negative bacteria, capable of causing a range of life-threatening infections such as pneumonia, sepsis and meningitis.

Hospital infections such as C. difficile and MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) are also of major concern. They are a particular danger to patients who are already sick and have fragile immune systems.

“Antimicrobial resistance is a global health emergency that will seriously jeopardise progress in modern medicine,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO. “There is an urgent need for more investment in research and development for antibiotic-resistant infections including TB, otherwise we will be forced back to a time when people feared common infections and risked their lives from minor surgery.”

Ed Whiting, director of policy at the Wellcome Trust agreed and said: “There is no doubt of the urgency – the world is running out of effective antibiotics and drug-resistant infections already kill 700,000 people a year globally. We’ve made good progress in getting this on the political agenda. But now, a year on from a major UN agreement, we must see concerted action – to reinvigorate the antibiotic pipeline, ensure responsible use of existing antibiotics, and address this threat across human, animal and environmental health.”

The report’s authors have found 51 new antibiotics and biologicals currently in development that may be able to treat the diseases caused by these resistant bugs. But that will not be anywhere near enough because of the length of time it takes to get drugs approved and onto the market, and because inevitably some of the drugs will not work.

“Given the average success rates and development times in the past, the current pipeline of antibiotics and biologicals could lead to around 10 new approvals over the next five years,” says the report. “However, these new treatments will add little to the already existing arsenal and will not be sufficient to tackle the impending antimicrobial resistance threat.”

More investment is needed in basic science, drug discovery and clinical development, it says, especially for those pathogens on the WHO’s critical priority list. Gram-negative bacteria are getting less research attention because they are harder to find drugs against.

Among all these candidate medicines, only eight are classed by the WHO as innovative treatments that will add value to the current antibiotic treatment arsenal. The rest are just modifications of drugs that already exist and may already be compromised.

“Pharmaceutical companies and researchers must urgently focus on new antibiotics against certain types of extremely serious infections that can kill patients in a matter of days because we have no line of defence,” says Dr Suzanne Hill, director of the department of essential medicines at the WHO which produced the report.

There is serious concern over the spread of first multi-drug-resistant TB and then extremely drug-resistant TB worldwide. Drug-resistant TB has been found all over the globe.

“Research for tuberculosis is seriously underfunded,” said Dr Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO Global TB Programme. “If we are to end TB, more than $800m per year is urgently needed to fund research.”

But new drugs will not be enough, says the WHO. Unless they are sparingly used, resistance will build to the new drugs as well. The WHO says it is working with countries and partners to improve infection prevention and control and to foster appropriate use of existing and future antibiotics. It is also developing guidance for the responsible use of antibiotics in the human, animal and agricultural sectors.

Output: There is an alarming lack of antibiotics under development to deal with the rising global drug resistance crisis, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned. Among its concerns is the fast-spreading, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. WHO's Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned: "There is an urgent need for more investment in research and development for antibiotic-resistant infections including TB, otherwise we will be forced back to a time when people feared common infections and risked their lives from minor surgery.”


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Female-focused robo Ellevest adds human advisers after $34m round
 Investing tailored to women is turning out to be big business. Ellevest, the platform for investing for women, just raised $34 million.

Investing for women sounds like it could be an insulting idea—don't women understand investing the normal way?—but that's not what Ellevest is doing. The platform tailors investments to the realities of women's careers: they face a gender pay gap, they live longer, and their salaries peak earlier than men's. That means they need to save for retirement differently.

Ellevest is hoping to beat out some of the roboadvising competition—and close the gender savings gap at the same time.

Rethink Impact, a venture capital firm that looks for companies run by women, led the funding round. PSP Growth, Salesforce Ventures, CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund, LH Holdings also participated, as did Ellevest's returning investors.

With this funding round, Ellevest will add human financial planners as an option to complement its roboadvising services. That's something other investing startups like Betterment have also added recently. Those changes have helped roboadvisors tap slightly older customers who are more comfortable using a roboadvisor when there's also someone they can talk through their finances with.

“I’m thrilled these global leaders—who are female 'firsts' and technology innovators—are joining Ellevest’s mission to end the gender gap in investing and personal finance,” Ellevest CEO and Wall Street veteran Sallie Krawcheck said in a press release. “We will use this new funding to build on the momentum in our digital offering, and develop solutions with women in our community who are asking us for human interaction and financial planning services.”

Output: Ellevest, a robo-adviser focusing on female investors, has raised $34m in its latest funding round. The funding will allow the robo-adviser to add human advisers to its platform, a move aimed at luring in older, more sceptical clients. Ellevest focuses on investing with women's particular needs in mind, addressing factors like a longer life expectancy than men and earnings peaking earlier than male counterparts, with the ultimate aim of closing the gender pay gap.


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Contactless payments growing strongly in Sri Lanka, says Visa
 Contactless payments are rapidly growing in popularity across the world and in Sri Lanka too this segment is showing growth, said Visa Group Country Manager for India and South Asia, T.R. Ramachandran.

Speaking to Daily News Business, he said that in Sri Lanka, contactless payments only began rolling out in September 2016 and so far growth numbers across the first 12 months are growing rapidly.

“Visa has already begun deploying contactless payment technology in Sri Lanka and expects to have 30% of the total number of terminals contactless enabled by the end of 2017.”

“The creative disruption brought about by digitalization of point-of-sales, tokenisation of transaction gateways and diversification of IoT-enabled payments will revolutionize the everyday buying and selling in Sri Lanka,” Ramachandran said. He said that Visa will continue to expand contactless payment acceptance and facilitate new ways to pay and be paid for everyone, everywhere. “The swift adaptation by Sri Lankans to contactless payments will also help to speed up governments drive towards creating a cashless society.”

Contactless payments are designed to replace the use of cash in busy retail environments where speed and convenience are important, such as supermarkets, convenience stores, petrol stations and quick-service restaurants. He said that in India too this there has been a significant increase in digital payments penetration post demonetization. “In the overall context, we look at what is known as personal consumption expenditure (PCE). The current penetration of digital payments of these expenditures is around 7 to 9%.”

“We are seeing a shift towards digital payments, quite dramatically, particularly in non-discretionary categories such as fuel and groceries, not only from metros and urban areas but also from tier II and tier III markets. Consumers are slowly but steadily embracing digital payments.”

“It’s fair to say that post demonetization, India has perhaps leapfrogged three to four years and achieved what otherwise could have happened in 2020.” In comparison with China, where 45% of China is already digitized, only 8% of India is digitized, which presents a huge potential to grow, Ramachandran said. Singapore is embracing contactless technology, with around one in every four transactions being made through this channel.

“Hence India represents perhaps the single largest cash displacement opportunity in the planet.”

Nearly 20-25 billion devices across the world by 2020 in some form of fashion will be connected and will be smart devices. India and Sri Lanka are countries where there is a level playing field with a domestic scheme and international schemes.

The size of the challenge and the opportunity in India is too large for one player to take on itself, whether it is Visa, RuPay, MasterCard, or any other firm.

Output: Sri Lankan consumers have embraced contactless payments since their deployment began in September 2016, according to Visa Group country manager for India and south Asia, TR Ramachandran. He said the company expects to have 30% of terminals enabled for contactless payment by the end of the year, and said the ease with which the system had been adopted would speed up the Sri Lankan government's drive towards creating a cashless society.


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Former MP warns of 'housing catastrophe' for UK's millennials
 Millennials are spending three times more of their income on housing than their grandparents yet are often living in worse accommodation, says a study launched by former Conservative minister David Willetts that warns of a “housing catastrophe”.

The generation currently aged 18-36 are typically spending over a third of their post-tax income on rent or about 12% on mortgages, compared with 5%-10% of income spent by their grandparents in the 1960s and 1970s. Despite spending more, young people today are more likely to live in overcrowded and smaller spaces, and face longer journeys to work – commuting for the equivalent of three days a year more than their parents.

The research by Willetts’ intergenerational commission at the Resolution Foundation thinktank also reveals that today’s 30-year-olds are only half as likely to own their own home as their baby boomer parents. They are four times as likely to rent privately than two generations ago, a sector which has the worst record for housing quality, the report claims.

The report’s authors argue that the housing crisis is a huge part of public anxiety about the country’s direction, a factor in the result of the EU referendum last year and in the general election in June.

A young family today has to save for 19 years on average to afford a typical deposit compared with three years for the previous generation, the report states.

“This is the biggest problem facing the younger generation,” said Willetts. “It depresses their living standards and quality of life. It is very important for the Tory party to open up the route to home ownership again. A lot of twentysomethings also have horror stories of bad landlords and we need to help them as well.”

By highlighting intergenerational inequality, Willetts hopes to break down public opposition to mass housebuilding – not least from parents who despair at the difficulty their children face in finding good housing. He is arguing for a new towns programme in which the government buys land that does not have planning consent to create large new communities of homes for sale.

The report came as the communities secretary, Sajid Javid, also announced a wholesale review of social housing policy in the wake of the fatal fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey block in north Kensington which combined council housing and a small number of private rented homes.

Speaking to the National Housing Federation conference in Birmingham, Javid said: “In one of the richest, most privileged corners of the UK – the world, even – would a fire like this have happened in a privately owned block of luxury flats? If you believe that the answer is no, even if you think it was simply less likely, then it’s clear that we need a fundamental rethink of social housing in this country.”

He said a social housing green paper would propose reforms to the overall quality of social homes, the rights of tenants and will address what can be done to ensure their complaints are taken seriously and dealt with properly.

Grenfell residents claim they raised concerns about fire safety at the block on several occasions but were not heeded. The Resolution Foundation report found that almost a third of 25-to-34-year-olds living in private rented flats live in properties which fail the decent homes standard.

Responding to the Resolution Foundation report, Dan Wilson Craw, director of campaign group Generation Rent, said: “Young adults have been hit with a double whammy of rising house prices which make ownership unaffordable, and rising rents which they cannot escape. The chorus of demands on the government to act decisively is getting louder, but it’s important not to neglect the growing numbers of older renters. Because getting a mortgage becomes harder beyond the age of 40, many face a lifetime of renting.

“Millions of people, young and old, are stuck renting for the foreseeable future and they need much greater security than the market currently provides, with protection from eviction and rising rents.”

Output: The UK is heading towards a "housing catastrophe", according to former Conservative MP David Willetts. Millennials now spend three times more of their post-tax income on housing than their grandparents, often for worse accommodation, found a study commissioned by Willetts. The study also reported that 30-year-olds today are only half as likely to own a house as their parents were at the same age. “This is the biggest problem facing the younger generation. It depresses their living standards and quality of life", said Willetts.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Regus Regus offers free business lounge access in Berkshire for World Car Free Day
 Workspace provider Regus is offering free business lounge access at its centres throughout Berkshire, including Reading, Slough, Bracknell and Maidenhead, for World Car Free Day on Friday September 22. The initiative is designed to help professionals avoid a car journey into work, and instead work from a professional environment within walking or cycling distance from home.

World Car Free Day encourages motorists to give up their cars for a day in favour of walking, cycling or using public transport and hundreds of cities and towns across the globe are expected to mark the occasion.

Unnecessary carbon emissions, wasted time and loss of productivity are just a few of the negatives associated with a lengthy car journey to the office. According to the latest research, the average UK commute increased from 27 to 29 minutes between 2011 and 2016, adding a total of 14 hours of commuting time for drivers each year[1].

The Regus business lounges in Berkshire are ergonomically designed and equipped with high-speed connectivity to enable workers to turn-up, plug-in and be productive rather than battle through the rush-hour crowds.

Richard Morris, UK CEO, Regus, commented: “This World Car Free Day, we’re encouraging people to do their bit for the environment by reconsidering whether they really need to drive to the office every day. We are offering them the opportunity of working for free at their local Regus centre so they can try out a greener, healthier way of working.

“Lengthy car journeys to work are expensive, tiring and have devastating effects on the environment. We’re asking business owners and senior managers to consider whether the fixed workspace model is still necessary in today’s connected age, especially as flexible workspace alternatives exist in nearly every town throughout the UK.”

The Regus centres in Reading are located at: Davidson House at Forbury Square, Atlantic House on Imperial Way, Duke Street, Green Park and Thames Valley Retail Park.

Output: Flexible workspace provider Regus is marking World Car Free Day by offering free business lounge access at its centres in Berkshire. The average UK commute has increased from 27 to 29 minutes between 2011 and 2016, according to research, and World Car Day encourages drivers to give up their wheels for a day. "We’re asking business owners … to consider whether the fixed workspace model is necessary in today’s connected age, especially as flexible alternatives exist in nearly every town throughout the UK," said Richard Morris, the UK CEO of Regus. The Berkshire sites include workspaces in Bracknell, Maidenhead, Reading and Slough.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Fotech launches Livepipe II fibre-optic pipeline monitoring tool
 As oil and gas operators around the world continue to face increasing pressure to enhance their pipeline monitoring and security measures, Fotech has launched LivePIPE II – enhancing the world’s most reliable real time pipeline protection technology.

Crucially LivePIPE II’s dual channel technology delivers a monitoring range up to 100 km from each individual module, with no multiplexing, just continuous monitoring, and no loss of detection accuracy or sensitivity at any point. As a world first capability, this significantly simplifies and lowers the cost of deploying a Distributed Fibre Optic (DFO) sensing solution on a pipeline. Detecting leaks and third-party intrusions over vast distances has just become a lot easier with LivePIPE II.

The next generation of LivePIPE also introduces Fotech’s EDAM (Enhanced Data and Acoustic Management) technology, giving operators enhanced insight to their pipeline’s integrity. EDAM allows operators to listen to activity at a specified location on the installed fibre in real-time – offering new assistance in identifying the exact nature of potential threats. EDAM can also identify and record segments of data that can be stored for up to three months, replayed, listened to, and used to analyse and enhance LivePIPE’s event detection algorithms.

These new features make LivePIPE II the most advanced fully-automated fibre optic sensing solution in the world.

Chris Shannon, CEO, Fotech Solutions, said: “Fibre optic sensing technologies are increasingly vital to operators’ security strategies and are no longer seen as just a ‘nice to have’. Issues of pipeline theft, accidental damage, and the environmental damage both scenarios can cause, are not going away. LivePIPE II offers operators a major step forward in being able to prevent and mitigate the financial and environmental consequences of such integrity incidents.

“With LivePIPE II Fotech is demonstrating its technological leadership by pushing the boundaries of DFO solutions and this next generation product represents a significant breakthrough for pipeline operators.”

Output: Fotech Solutions, a UK information technology and services company, has launched Livepipe II, which it calls the world's most fully automated fibre-optic sensing tool for pipelines. Livepipe II offers dual-channel technology, delivers a monitoring range of up to 100 km with no loss of detection accuracy or sensitivity. In addition, it comes with Fotech's enhanced data and acoustic management technology, allowing operators to listen to activity at a specified location. Chris Shannon, the CEO of Fotech Solutions, said Livepipe II was a "major step forward" in preventing pipeline theft, accidental and environmental damage, and in bringing down the cost of monitoring pipelines.


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National Pig Association to help craft future migration policy
 The British pig industry has asked farmers to fill in a survey to help inform the Government about post-Brexit immigration and labour policy - an issue of critical importance to the pig sector.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to advise the Government on how the UK’s immigration system 'should be aligned with a modern industrial strategy'.

The MAC is now seeking views from across the UK economy on various issues, including the extent of EU labour employed and the type of work performed, the benefits and disadvantages of EU labour and the likely impact of changes to its availability in future.

It is also seeking views on the relationship between EU and domestic labour and the issues around employing domestic labour, including skill levels and the provision of training by our educational establishments.

The National Pig Association (NPA) has been asked for its opinion, and this will help inform Government policy on post-Brexit migrant labour.

Earlier this month, the pig industry expressed concern following the publication of a leaked document giving an insight into the Government’s current thinking on post-Brexit immigration policy.

The document, leaked to The Guardian, shows the Government intends to be tough on immigration, ending the free movement of labour as soon as the UK leaves the EU.

Of particular concern for the pig sector, according to the NPA, are plans to curb so-called ‘unskilled’ workers from the EU by, for example, introducing a cap on numbers and a salary and skills threshold.

'Alarmed'

NPA senior policy advisor Ed Barker said the pig industry is "alarmed" by the Home Office’s suggestion that migrant labour from the EU should be severely restricted, particularly those who fall under the ‘unskilled’ definition.

He said: “Many workers in the pig sector fall into this category but are in fact highly skilled and make a significant contribution to the economy.

“We have made our position clear that migrant labour is integral to the businesses of NPA members; 58% of members indicated to the NPA’s migrant labour survey that they employed at least one migrant labourer, with 20% indicating they would struggle to survive without it.

“Whilst the paper refers to the ongoing work of the Migratory Advisory Committee, it is vital that the Committee is able to report its findings quickly, so that it can adequately shape Government policy.

“We note that the paper recognises the need for a sector by sector approach to business needs on migrant labour, and the NPA would urge that the pig sector should be able to state its unique case for continued access to migrant labour for permanent, ‘unskilled’ roles.”

Output: UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd has commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee to seek opinions from across the UK economy regarding the country's immigration system and how it "should be aligned with a modern industrial strategy". Among the industries being asked for their opinions is the National Pig Association (NPA), which expressed concern about recently leaked government plans to limit numbers of unskilled workers coming from the European Union. NPA senior policy advisor Ed Barker said migrant labour was "integral" to the pig farming industry, and that many were highly skilled contributors to the UK economy.


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UK must focus on solar and wind energy rather than biomass: NRDC
 The Drax Power Station near Selby, North Yorkshire, is the single largest CO2 emitter in the U.K. Its owner plans to replace the coal-fired units with gas power and a 200 MW battery.

The U.K. government has decided to keep generating electricity from biomass, which involves burning wood pellets, to meet its climate and renewable energy targets. However, biomass will still be more expensive than solar and onshore wind by the end of the decade, the NRDC says in a new study it recently conducted in cooperation with Vivid Economics.

“In reality, burning biomass for electricity not only undermines the United Kingdom’s climate change goals, it does so at huge taxpayer expense while diverting resources from cleaner and smarter investments,” the New York-based environmental advocacy group says.

Biomass plants rely on millions of tons of wood pellets imported from the southeastern U.S. and elsewhere for fuel. Developers of such projects also receive billions in subsidies, based on the assumption that biomass is a zero-carbon source of electricity, which the NRDC disputes. But by 2020, all forms of renewable energy will be more cost effective than carbon-emitting energy sources, it says.

Furthermore, biomass will be more expensive than all forms of wind and solar by 2025. If more coal-fired plants are converted to biomass installations, they could become obsolete and uneconomic within a decade, the NRDC says. And the U.K. government risks wasting millions of pounds per year by continuing to subsidize coal-to-biomass conversions.

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As an example, energy provider Drax has decided to convert its coal-fired plant in North Yorkshire – the largest emitter of CO2 in the U.K. — to biomass. However, if it focused its attention on a more economically viable long-term solution involving clean energy, notably solar and wind power, it would be a more cost-effective business plan, as well as a more environmentally friendly one.

The NRDC urges U.K. policymakers to cut subsidies for biomass projects in favour of investments in renewable sources such as solar and wind. The non-profit environmental advocacy group argues that a reliable, coal-free electricity grid is not only a possibility for the British government, but also the more economically viable long-term choice, given how the price of renewables has plummeted in the past few years.

Author: Frederic Brown

Output: The UK government needs to plough its renewable-energy finances into solar and wind power, rather than biomass, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has said. Biomass power produced from burning wood chips isn't a zero-carbon operation and will cost more than solar and onshore wind generation in a decade, the New York-based environmental advocacy group said. That means subsidies offered for coal-to-biomass power plant conversions are a waste of taxpayer money, it said, adding that the plunging cost of solar and wind energy makes them more "economically viable long-term" choices.


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Rolls-Royce plans to build robot ships with 3,500-mile range
 British firm Rolls-Royce has announced plans to develop an autonomous robot naval vessel with a range of 3,500 nautical miles.

“The vessel concept is capable of operating beyond the horizon for over 100 days, will displace 700 tons and reach speeds above 25 knots,” according to a Rolls-Royce news release. “The 60-meter [197 feet]-long vessel is designed to perform a range of single-role missions, for example, patrol and surveillance, mine detection or fleet screening.”

The ship sounds conceptually similar to DARPA’s Sea Hunter robot sub-chaser. The design may feature a full-electric propulsion system with two Rolls-Royce MTU 4000 Series gensets, or small gas turbines. Thrusters will make the vessel highly maneuverable, and solar panels will provide backup energy.

“Rolls-Royce has created what it believes to be the world’s first intelligent awareness system combining multiple sensors with artificial intelligence, to help commercial vessels operate more safely and efficiently,” the company said. “Significant analysis of potential cyber risks is also being undertaken to ensure end-to-end security.”

Output: UK engineering firm Rolls-Royce is developing an autonomous ship with a range of 3,500 nautical miles, according to a company statement. The 700-ton vessel will be able to reach at least 25 knots and can operate beyond the horizon for more than three months, and will be used for "patrol and surveillance, mine detection or fleet screening". Rolls-Royce added it had developed what it believed was the "world’s first intelligent awareness system combining multiple sensors with artificial intelligence".


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Input:
Wages and inflation to rise post-Brexit: BoE
 The Governor of the Bank of England has warned that the major economic impact of Brexit has yet to be felt, but it was likely to spell a weaker economy, higher inflation and higher interest rates in the coming years.

In his latest attack on Brexit, Mark Carney said that it should be seen as a prime example of "de-globalisation", adding that it was likely to dampen UK growth, and that any fall in migration numbers could also push up inflation and force the bank to raise borrowing costs.

However, in a speech at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, the Governor surprised those expecting more detail on when and by how much the Bank was likely to raise interest rates, and instead focused on the economic fallout of Britain's departure from the EU.

Mr Carney said Brexit was "an example of de-globalisation not globalisation".

He added: "It will proceed rapidly not slowly. Its effects will not build by stealth but can be anticipated."

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 3:11 May on 'significant' post-Brexit trade deal with Canada

The Governor said any fall in migration following Britain's departure could push up prices in the UK, saying: "Abrupt decreases in migration could result in shortages in some sectors that have become reliant on migrant labour, and contribute more materially to inflationary pressures."

Mr Carney also said that while economic growth remained relatively resilient so far, it could take many years for the full impact of the transition to be felt by the UK economy, pointing out that any fall in the value of the currency could take as long as four years to feed into domestic prices.

However, he said that there was only so much the Bank could do with interest rates: "It is critical to recognise that Brexit represents a real shock about which monetary policy can do little.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 3:18 Johnson: PM's the only Brexit 'driver'

"Monetary policy cannot prevent the weaker real incomes likely to accompany the move to new trading arrangements with the EU, but it can influence how this hit to incomes is distributed between job losses and price rises.

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"And it can support UK households and businesses as they adjust to such profound change."

However, Mr Carney's speech also suggested that wages could rise faster if the UK left the EU, suggesting the Phillips Curve - a measure of the trade-off between inflation and employment - could steepen as a result.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 3:03 Could Brexit raise cost of a Guinness?

His speech did not add much detail to the news last week that the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee is now more open to the notion of an interest rate increase.

He said: "If the economy continues to follow a path consistent with the prospect of a continued erosion of slack and a gradual rise in underlying inflationary pressure then, with the further lessening in the trade-off that this would imply, some withdrawal of monetary stimulus is likely to be appropriate over the coming months in order to return inflation sustainably to target.

"Any prospective increases in bank rate would be expected to be at a gradual pace and to a limited extent, and to be consistent with monetary policy continuing to provide substantial support to the economy."

Output: Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England has warned inflation and interest rates could rise following Brexit, but suggested wages may increase too. In a speech at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, Carney said a significant drop in migration following the UK's departure from the bloc could "contribute more materially to inflationary pressures", and warned it could take up to four years for the fall in sterling's value to impact on domestic prices. More positively, Carney said the Phillips Curve could steepen as a result of Brexit, leading to faster-rising wages in the UK.