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Global warming leads to changes in UK waters
 Squid and anchovies, more commonly eaten by Britons holidaying abroad, are being drawn into UK waters in large numbers by climate change, according to major new report that suggests the nation’s long-lost bluefin tuna is also returning.

However, global warming is harming sea birds, such as puffins, fulmars, terns and razorbills, as the fish they rely on are driven north or deeper as waters warm. The analysis of the impact of climate on the UK’s seas, which draws on the work of 400 scientists, found a steady rise in water temperature.

It also found a clear rising trend in sea level, leading to much more frequent extreme high water events. Improved defences and forecasting have prevented an increase in coastal floods, but the report warns that sea level rise around the UK is likely to accelerate.

Squid were seen in the North Sea only occasionally in the past but have increased “dramatically”, according to the report, with thousands of tonnes now caught each year and mostly exported.

“The difference now is it is an established summer trawl fishery – that is a clear change,” said Matthew Frost, chair of the working group that produced the report for the UK Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP). He said fishing boats had been quick to spot the new stocks: “If something comes, they realise that very quickly.”

Anchovies have followed the same path northwards. “You now have an anchovy fishery, which is clearly linked to climate change – that is what the science is showing,” said Frost.

The anchovies come from the Bay of Biscay, where there is a large Spanish and French fishery and the shift could have political ramifications, he said, especially after Brexit when the UK takes back control of its territorial waters. “The shift leads to political implications around who is allowed to catch what and what the quotas are, so it is an important development.”

Bluefin tuna were common around the UK before the second world war, with the giant fish a popular target for “big game” fishermen. The decimation in later decades of the mackerel and herring that tuna eat then saw the giant fish disappear.

But shifting mackerel and herring populations and warming waters have seen the tuna return. “Sightings are definitely becoming more frequent,” said Frost, with large shoals seen off south-west England in 2015 and 2016.

The report is an update on the MCCIP’s first analysis in 2006. At that time, it found that sea bass was becoming more common as temperatures rose. But it has not become established as an important catch, due to overfishing, said Frost: “It is a very popular fish to eat.”

However, as fish suited to warmer water move north into UK waters, cold water fish seeking cooler temperatures are moving out, including cod. A dramatic reduction in fishing has seen North Sea cod recover to sustainable levels from near collapse in 2006, but their recovery would probably have been even greater without the warming of the sea.

The UK’s waters are heating by about 0.5C per decade. “That may not sound like a lot to us but it is really significant in terms of the biology and ecology,” said Frost. Part of the reason is that rising temperatures give a higher baseline, making hot spells even more extreme.

Many British sea birds are struggling to cope with climate change with populations of Atlantic puffins, fulmars, black-legged kittiwakes and common, Arctic and little terns all finding the fish they eat harder to come by. Severe summer storms are also having an impact, particularly on razorbills, whose nests can be damaged and whose chicks die more often.

The report also predicts that over the coming century some species, such as the great skua, Arctic skua and Leach’s storm petrel could become extremely rare or even extinct in the UK.

Sir David Attenborough praised the scope of the new report: “Concern about the state of our seas has caused them to be studied more intensively – and extensively – than ever before. They have never been more important.”

Other physical changes considered by the report include the frequency of extreme water levels. It found the tide was above 5.75 metre at a reference site at Newlyn in Cornwall for almost 60 hours in 2015. In contrast, that level was never reached for more than 30 hours a year between 1915 and 1985.

The strength of the Gulf Stream, the flow of warm water up the Atlantic which is a key factor in the UK’s mild climate, is weakening, the report found. But a collapse of the current, which would plunge the UK into a much colder climate regime, is unlikely this century.

The scientists also reported increasing acidification of the ocean, as carbon dioxide rises in the atmosphere and is absorbed by the seawater. This may harm the ability of animals to form their shells but the higher CO2 could benefit some algae and seagrasses.

Overall, the impact of climate change on the UK’s seas is a mix, Frost said: “Some things will be of benefit – a good example is new fisheries, and it could even increase biodiversity in some cases. But of course the knockback to that is the increased frequency of very intense storms and potential for flooding.”

“But what stands out from the report is we weren’t wrong” in our projections in 2006, he said. “What scientists were saying then is coming to pass.”

Output: Climate change is drawing anchovies, bluefin tuna and squid back to UK waters, according to a major report for the UK Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership. The analysis, which drew on the research of 400 scientists, also discovered an increase in the temperatures of UK waters of 0.5C per decade. Sea birds including fulmars, puffins, razorbills and terns are suffering as the fish that provide their food are driven into colder, deeper waters. The study also identified a trend towards accelerating sea level rise around the UK and increased ocean acidification.


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Scientists develop single blood test that may detect 13 cancers
 Thirteen-in-One

Cancer is often difficult to treat because it's not detected in time. That there are more than 100 types of cancer, each with various possible causes, doesn't help. This is why a team of researchers led by the National Cancer Center Japan (NCC) in Tokyo, together with Toray Industries, Inc., and other institutions, want to change things. They've developed a new method that could detect 13 different cancer types using just a single drop of blood.

The novel method detects differences in the microRNA (miRNA), which can be secreted by cells into the blood as a way to communicate with other cells, between healthy cells and cancer cells. Using just one drop of blood, the test may be able to detect cancers in the breast, lung, stomach, colorectal tract, esophagus, liver, and pancreas.

In a lab test using preserved blood samples from 40,000 patients, the researchers were able to identify miRNA specific to each type of cancer with more than 95 percent accuracy. The researchers noted, however, that the miRNA could have changed while the blood was preserved. As such, clinical tests planned for August would use fresh blood from 3,000 people.

Better Chances

While there are a number of studies in using blood to detect cancer, the Japanese team's method is the first that's known to be capable of diagnosing multiple types with a single test, The Japan News reports. This could potentially improve a patient's chances of being properly diagnosed, while at the same time eliminating the need for separate tests.

“Patients will not need to take multiple tests. In the future, it will become possible to identify cancer stages and characteristics," said Yet Takahiro Ochiya, head of the Molecular and Cellular Medicine Division at the NCC's Research Institute, The Japan News reported.

In the same report, Masahiko Kuroda, chief of the Molecular Pathology Department of the Tokyo Medical University, added, “In Europe, research aimed at early detection of diseases using miRNA is being actively pursued, but there haven’t been any studies where analysis was conducted on so many patients like this one. So this should prove very useful."

The Japanese researchers got a go-ahead to proceed to clinical tests from the NCC's research and ethics screening committee sometime in the middle of July. They plan on applying for government approval next, which could open their method for practical use in the next three years.

Output: Researchers led by the National Cancer Center Japan (NCC) have developed a blood test that may be able to detect cancers in the breast, lung, stomach and 10 other locations. By analysing preserved blood samples, researchers were able to identify miRNA specific to each type of cancer with more than 95% accuracy. The test is the first method for diagnosing multiple types of cancer at once. The researchers will apply for government approval, which could enable their method to be used by clinicians within the next three years.


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UK fintech investment up by 37% on H1 2016 despite Brexit wobble
 Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

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Over half a billion dollars were poured into British financial technology companies in the first half of 2017, over a third more than the same period last year, trade body Innovate Finance said on Wednesday, in the latest sign the fast-growing sector is so far weathering Brexit.

UK-based fintech startups pulled in $564m (£433m) of venture capital investment in the first six months of the year, more than half of which came from outside Britain.

That was up 37 per cent from the first half of 2016, and put Britain in third place globally for fintech investment, behind the United States and China.

Some had worried that Britain's vote last June to leave the European Union would see Britain lose its status as the main European hub for fintech - a sector that ranges from mobile payment apps to digital currencies like bitcoin, and one that the government regards as a key source of economic growth.

The latest figures paint a promising picture, with investment up almost 50 per cent on the second half of last year in the aftermath of the Brexit vote.

That still lags 2015, when a record $676m was invested in the first half of the year and over $1.3bn for the entire year. But from July 1 to July 23, the sector has already raised another $155m.

"We saw a period of uncertainty over the summer last year but I would say that by around the third quarter, things were starting to recover," said Innovate Finance's chief financial officer, Abdul Haseeb Basit.

"Things have slowed but we've seen an improving recovery since the referendum last year."

The government has identified fintech as a priority area, saying it provides 60,000 jobs and contributes around $9bn to the economy.

Basit said some deals had term sheets that included "Brexit clauses" - contractual provisions that meant investment was contingent on Britain voting to stay in the European Union - that had been triggered after the Brexit vote and meant funding had been pulled, causing concern.

But investors say Britain's prowess in both conventional finance and technology, as well as light-touch regulation, its pro-business culture and even the fact that it is Anglophone make it difficult for other centres to compete, though many - such as Berlin and Paris - are trying.

Basit said while passporting rights - which give firms licenced in one EU country the right to trade freely in any other - had been a big concern for investors after Brexit, those worries had eased. Even if Britain loses passporting rights, that would affect only 20 per cent of the almost 300 startups that are members of Innovate Finance.

More of a worry, he said, was that access to highly skilled workers would dry up when Britain leaves the EU. Innovate Finance has estimated 30 per cent of the sector's workers are from overseas, mostly from the European Union.

"Talent is the number one concern, and has been consistently since the referendum - we test (our members on) that every three to six months. So that's been fairly consistent - it's been a worry and until we have more certainty around that, it will remain a worry," he said.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 / 13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled – leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: “Europe’s largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid £3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rue’s contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped £4m off of Flybe’s revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airline’s estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

Globally, fintech investment for the first half of the year stood at $6.5bn. Just over half that went into US startups and $1bn into China.

That was down 45 per cent from the same period last year, but Innovate Finance said that was largely because of three Chinese "megadeals" worth more than $1bn each that had all gone through in early 2016.

A third of the investment into British fintech came from venture capital firms based in the United States.

"There is a lot of competition in the investment space - there's a lot of capital available and it's looking for good companies to invest in," said Basit. "Were they to not invest in UK companies, they feel like they might miss an opportunity. The appetite is still strong."

Reuters

Output: UK-based fintech start-ups attracted $564m in venture capital in the first half of 2017, trade body Innovative Finance said. Investment is up by 37% on the first half of 2016 and by almost 50% on the second half of last year. Although the fintech sector experienced a period of uncertainty last summer, by the third quarter it began to recover, according to Abdul Haseeb Basit, the CEO of Innovate Finance. However, fintech investment is still to recover to levels seen in 2015, when a record $676m was invested in the first half of the year.


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Sinclair Pharma Brazilian dermatologist recommends Sculptra
 O dermatologista lista 5 procedimentos que ajudam na beleza da pele; veja

Para manter uma aparência jovial na pele, existem diversos procedimentos no mercado que contribuem e ajudam na beleza da mesma. Todavia, é importante uma avaliação do rosto antes de realizar qualquer procedimento apurado senso artístico e estético.

O dermatologista André Braz lista 5 métodos estéticos. Confira:

1) Preenchimento com ácido hialurônico: O tratamento com ácido hialurônico é super segura, já que a substância é reabsorvida pelo organismo e estimula a produção de colágeno. "Ele é indicado para preencher as rugas, os sulcos, as sombras do rosto que estão sendo causadas pela perda de volume, pela atrofia dos compartimentos de gordura e por uma perda óssea, principalmente quando se tem mais idade. É recomendado que o médico tenha um senso estético e artístico apurado. Quando a paciente apresenta assimetria da face, a combinação de ácido hialuronico e botox é importante. Muitos pacientes têm um lado do rosto diferente do outro. À medida que a perda óssea avança, essa assimetria fica ainda mais evidente. É então corrigida com a combinação dos tratamentos. A dica é tratar a assimetria com os dois produtos (preenchimento + toxina botulínica). Pacientes que já tem perda de volume, o uso do ácido hialurônico é indicado para repor a perda de gordura e ao mesmo tempo, melhorar o formato da face. Por realizar o procedimento com microcânulas (usadas em diversos procedimentos como preenchimento e botox), dificilmente o paciente fica com manchinhas roxas. Dr André tem destacado senso artístico e estético para desenvolver esses procedimentos de forma personalizada para cada paciente. O foco de seu trabalho é a avaliação global da face".

2) Toxina Botulínica: A aplicação de toxina pode ser feita em diversas áreas do rosto e ajudam tanto no tratamento como na prevenção de rugas e expressão facial. "O tratamento individualizado é essencial porque a anatomia é diferente, a forma de contrair um músculo é diferente. O tratamento com Botox é considerado minimamente invasivo e é feito no próprio consultório médico. Os efeitos não são imediatos, podem levar até 15 dias para aparecerem e, a partir do quarto mês, começam a desaparecer, até que, no sexto mês não possui mais eficácia. É fundamental a combinação da aplicação da toxina botulínica com o preenchimento de ácido hialurônico nas áreas de perda de volume faciais, e para melhorar as proporções da face quando não estão favorecendo o contorno facial do paciente".

3) Sculptra: "Ácido polilático age como estimulador de colágeno – depois que o paciente repôs o volume e deixou o formato do rosto mais harmônico, em alguns casos ainda ficam algumas rugas dinâmicas, como as rugas do sorriso (ao lado do canto da boca). Nestes casos é recomendado o uso do ácido polilatico para melhorar a textura da pele. São recomendadas entre 3 a 4 sessões. A grande novidade é que tem sido adotado um novo protocolo para pescoço, com o ácido polilático mais diluído. Primeiro pode ser aplicada a toxina botulínica no pescoço para relaxar a musculatura, porque quando contrai as ruguinhas aparece. Em seguida, aplicado o ácido polilático que estimula o colágeno e dá uma esticadinha na pele. O Sculptra também pode ser usado para o corpo".

4) Laser fracionado não ablativo (Emerge) ou Laser Diodo Fracionado: O profissional não recomenda o laser de CO2 (ablativo) por conta do clima quente. "A pele pode ficar sensível demais e fazer um melasma. Recomenda usar um laser não ablativo. Ressalta-se que tanto pra receber o laser, quanto depois não pode pegar sol. O laser fracionado não ablativo estimula o colágeno, mas não esquenta muito, evitando uma hiperpigmentação pós inflamatória".

5) Microagulhamento: Indicado para pacientes muito bronzeados, pacientes com melasma ou pacientes de fototipo 4 ou 5 que não tem indicação para fazerem lasers. "O microagulhamento também estimula o colágeno mas não tem o dano térmico do laser. Pode ser associado ao drug delivery. Atualmente costumamos associar tecnologias no intuito de aumentar a penetração dos ativos através da realização do drug delivery. Este processo permite maior permeação dos ativos através de canais/ perfurações feitas na pele com lasers fracionados (EMERGE) ou microagulhamento (DERMAPEN). Dessa forma, aumenta-se a profundidade de penetração dos peelings e ativos na região alvo de tratamento na pele, potencializando os resultados”, conclui André Braz.

Output: Dermatologist André Braz has named Sculptra as one of the five best procedures to ensure the youthful appearance of the skin in an article for Brazilian lifestyle website Caras.


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Airbnb sued over sexual assault committed by host
 An Airbnb guest is seeking to hold the company accountable for an alleged sexual assault, claiming in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit that she was attacked by a host who was not properly screened.

The suit, filed Thursday by Leslie Lapayowker, raises fresh questions about the tech firm’s legal responsibilities when hosts violate laws or engage in criminal conduct.

Lapayowker is accusing Airbnb of negligence when it allowed her to rent a room from Carlos Del Olmo, who was previously accused of domestic violence.

“I don’t want this to happen to other women,” Lapayowker, a 51-year-old New Mexico woman, told the Guardian. “It was horrible, and I think that everybody should be warned that this could potentially happen to them or their daughter or their wife or their sister.”

Reached by phone, Del Olmo said he was not aware of the complaint and vehemently denied the sexual assault allegation, noting that criminal charges were never filed. An Airbnb spokesperson said that it had conducted a background check on Del Olmo, but because he was not convicted in a previous case, he was allowed to be a host. The company also said it removed him from the site after learning of Lapayowker’s claims.

Lapayowker moved to Los Angeles in July of 2016 for a new job as a mortgage broker and had planned to live in Del Olmo’s Airbnb for a month while looking for permanent housing. Del Olmo, who was renting a studio attached to his house, was a “verified” user and considered a “superhost” for Airbnb, meaning he had positive reviews and frequently had guests.

“I assumed that I would be in especially good hands,” said Lapayowker.

But, according to the suit, Del Olmo immediately made her uncomfortable by making sexually suggestive comments, pounding on her windshield while she was in her car and screaming at his son loud enough so she could hear.

“He scared me,” she added.

Lapayowker decided to leave after three nights, and when she returned to get a laptop she left and told him she was moving out early, Del Olmo said he “wanted to show her something of importance inside the studio”, the suit said.

He then allegedly locked the door, dropped his shorts and began masturbating in front of her, demanding that she touch him and “taste it”. He ignored her pleas to stop, shoved his tongue into her mouth and eventually ejaculated into a trashcan, according to the lawsuit.

He then let her leave the room, saying, “Don’t forget to leave me a positive review on Airbnb”, the complaint said.

“I was completely in shock. I was totally numb,” Lapayowker recalled, saying she initially hesitated calling police. “I was terrified he would find out where I live and come after me.”

Later that month, she reported the incident to police and to Airbnb, which banned Del Olmo from the site. Authorities ultimately declined to file charges, because officials said there was not enough evidence, according to Lapayowker’s attorney. Prosecutors did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

But an attorney for Lapayowker discovered that Del Olmo had an earlier arrest in Florida for a battery charge and domestic violence case. A police report said that, according to the victim’s account, he had pulled her hair and dragged her during an argument. He entered a diversion program, which is an alternative to prosecution, the records showed.

Lapayowker, who had previously been an Airbnb “superhost” herself, said she was in disbelief when she learned of the past case: “I was just furious. Why would they let somebody like this be a host?”

An Airbnb spokesperson said it runs background checks on all US hosts and guests, looking for matches with terrorist watch lists, felony convictions, sex offender registries and “significant misdemeanors”.

“The abhorrent behavior described has no place in our community and we will not tolerate it. We have been trying to support her in any way we can and we will continue to do so,” the company said in a statement to the Guardian.

Del Olmo claimed the encounter with Lapayowker was “consensual”. He said: “This woman just fully lied and made everything up.” He said that the woman in the Florida case also lied and noted that he was not convicted.

He also argued that it was unfair for Airbnb to kick him off the platform: “Airbnb has no respect for the homeowner … who is the one putting themselves in a liability situation.”

Teresa Li, Lapayowker’s attorney, argued that Airbnb misleads users with branding that emphasizes the safety of the platform and calling it a “trusted community marketplace”.

“They lure you in and give you this false sense of security,” she said.

Airbnb has previously argued that it is not legally responsible when its hosts racially discriminate or violate local housing laws.

Lapayowker, who said she is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, said she felt Airbnb didn’t take her case seriously: “I feel like they don’t care. Their entire model is to just get as much business as possible.”

Output: Airbnb is facing a lawsuit brought by a guest who says the company is responsible for her sexual assault by a host who was not adequately screened. Leslie Lapayowker is accusing Airbnb of negligence for allowing her to rent a room in Los Angeles from Carlos Del Olmo, previously accused of domestic violence. Airbnb says Del Olmo was accepted as a host as he had not been convicted. However, Lapayowker’s attorney said Del Olmo had participated in a diversion programme as an alternative to prosecution. The case raises new questions about Airbnb’s legal responsibilities for the behaviour of hosts.


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AI-powered insurance concierge Brolly closes €1.1m funding
 Brolly, a London, UK-based insurtech startup building an AI-powered smartphone app, closed a €1.1m seed funding round.

Backers included Valar Ventures, Pi Labs, Entrepreneur First, Richard Fearn, Matt Bellamy, Christian Angermayer, Tim Levene, Tim Hugh, Alan Morgan, Bruce Macfarlane, Michael Mire and Christian Woolfenden.

The company intends to use the funds to further product development, hire new people and add partners to the platform.

Founded by Phoebe Hugh and Mykhailo Loginov, Brolly is advancing a free personal insurance concierge, powered by AI, and available through a mobile app, to enable people to understand, manage and buy the insurance they need, using the Brolly Advisor, Brolly Locker and Brolly Shop.

Brolly Advisor is a tool that gets to understand insurance needs, and tells users if they are over or under-insured, whether they have duplicate or missing cover, and highlights all of the personal insurance products that they may be missing.

Brolly Locker is a place to store policy documents, renewal dates, premiums, and contact numbers.

The Brolly Shop is launching in 2017 and will enable users to purchase insurance cover in seconds.

FinSMEs

27/07/2017

Output: London-based insurtech start-up Brolly has raised €1.1m ($1.3m) in a seed funding round, with investors including Valar Ventures, Pi Labs, Entrepreneur First and Friday Club director Richard Fearn. Brolly's artificial intelligence mobile app enables users to buy and manage the insurance they need via its tools, Brolly Advisor, Brolly Locker and Brolly Shop. The new funding will be used for product development and to increase staffing, and also to add more partners to the platform.


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Yelp, California Health Care Foundation form partnership to improve maternity care
 More than 500,000 births occur each year in the state of California, but deciding where to get care can often be a difficult process for consumers. That’s where a new partnership between Yelp and the California Health Care Foundation comes in.

Thanks to the partnership, maternity care measures are now being displayed for the roughly 250 hospitals that deliver babies in the state. These measures have the potential to be seen by millions of people who turn to Yelp in their daily life to help them make these types of decisions.

The data for the measures comes from www.CalHospitalCompare.org, a hospital quality website founded by CHCF and operated by Cal Hospital Compare, a multistakeholder nonprofit organization.

Among the measures that are displayed on Yelp pages are the percentage of cesarean section deliveries in low-risk pregnancies to mothers having their first baby. Consumers can also check on a facility’s percentage of newborns fed only breast milk before discharge; how often episiotomies are performed; the availability of vaginal births after c-sections; and how often vaginal births among women with a prior c-section occur at a given hospital, or if it routinely provides them at all.

For its part, CHCF has operated a couple of data-centric websites for some time now. But it lacked the accessibility and reach of a site like Yelp.

“Consumers don’t always flock to these kind of wonky websites that have lots of data on there,” said Stephanie Teleki, director of evaluation and impact at CHCF. “Consumers are already going to Yelp. We can marry the comments with the more empirical-based measures.”

In that way, the partnership represents a multi-pronged approach, which Teleki said is necessary to address such a complex issue.

“Poor maternity care is a multifaceted problem, and addressing it requires a multifaceted solution,” she said. “It involves having better data. … Bring about change, you have to have multiple pressure points. You have to align payments with better outcomes, and you need to help providers improve care. You need to have public policies that are supportive, you need to have a workforce -- in this case, midwives focusing less on intervention and more on vaginal birth. And of course, focusing on the patients."

“Yelp is really a megaphone for for the clinical quality measures,” she said. “Those are the more wonky kind of clinical things that a lot of patients can’t understand, so putting them side-by-side with the comments, hopefully we can acclimate consumers with looking at that kind of data -- really socialize the idea that they should be using this data.”

The project is part of a larger statewide effort to reduce the rate of unnecessary low-risk, first-birth C-sections at every hospital in the state to the national goal of 23.9 percent. CHCF is working with several organizations, including the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative, Smart Care California, Pacific Business Group on Health, and the Hospital Quality Institute.

There are plans to launch a mobile module by the end of the year. The maternity care data presented on Yelp will be refreshed semiannually.

Output: More than 500,000 births occur each year in the state of California, but deciding where to get care can often be a difficult process for consumers. That’s where a new partnership between Yelp and the California Health Care Foundation comes in.


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Redrow Redrow offers eco-friendly new homes in Evesham
 Go green with a new home in Evesham

ECO-conscious buyers could save energy and money with a brand new Redrow home in Evesham.

New-build properties, like those at Maple Gardens, are more efficient in their use of energy compared with older equivalent sized homes.

Plus, with the option to add high quality in-built photovoltaic solar roof tiles, those who move to the popular Redrow development could find that they save money as well as energy.

Pauline Turnbull, sales director for Redrow Homes (Midlands), says: “Homeowners are increasingly aware of their carbon footprint and saving energy is now about much more than simply saving money. The advantage of buying a brand new home is that they’re much more efficient in their use of energy than their older, second-hand equivalents, making them kinder to the environment while also reducing household bills.

“There are lots of eco-friendly options that can be added via the exclusive My Redrow area of our website, including water butts, charging points for an electric car and other items. Plus smart meters help customers keep track of the energy they’re using.”

Maple Gardens features three, four and five-bedroom designs from Redrow’s Arts & Crafts inspired Heritage Collection of traditional looking homes. Current prices start from £234,995.

Among the larger homes available is a five-bedroom detached Blenheim style, complete with photovoltaic tiles, plus flooring throughout, from £579,995.

Open for viewing by appointment, it’s almost ready to move into.

A substantial double-fronted property, with detached double garage, the Blenheim offers 2,306 sq ft of living space. At its heart is a combined kitchen, dining and family room with adjoining utility/boot room. There’s also a separate lounge, plus a dedicated dining room which could alternatively be used as a study for home workers or a play room for families with young children. A cloakroom completes the ground floor accommodation.

Upstairs, both the master and second bedrooms have an en suite, with the master also enjoying the added glamour of a dressing room. The remaining three bedrooms are all generously proportioned and share the family bathroom.

Situated on Offenham Road, the homes at Maple Gardens enjoy a green setting close to the countryside and within easy reach of Evesham town centre. There are good schools nearby, making this an ideal location to raise a family.

Located on the border of the Cotswolds, the homes are within a 30-minute journey of Broadway, with Cheltenham around 45 minutes away.

Show homes at Maple Gardens are open daily from 10am to 5.30pm. For details see redrow.co.uk/maplegardens.

Output: New homes at Redrow Homes's Maple Gardens site in Evesham offer customers looking to save energy a more efficient property compared with older, similarly sized homes. The houses can include photovoltaic solar roof tiles, water butts and charging points for electric cars. Prices start from £234,995.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
When High Deductibles Hurt: Even Insured Patients Postpone Care
 https://californiahealthline.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/07/high-deductible.mp3

Can’t see the audio player? Click here to download.

In November 2015, Tina Heck was in her garage lifting 40-pound bags of wood pellets to fuel her heating stove, when something went very wrong with her back.

“The next day, I could barely walk,” said the 55-year-old who lives on an acre of land in Nevada City, Calif., 60 miles northeast of Sacramento. The cause: a bulging disc in her lower spine, which shoots pain down her leg and makes her back stiff.

The injury wasn’t Heck’s only setback. The initial MRI, cortisone shot and doctor visit cost her $3,000 because her health plan requires her to shell out $5,000 before insurer payments kick in. She doesn’t want to explore other treatment options because of that high deductible. Heck, who makes $68,000 a year in marketing for a nonprofit, is not willing to add more debt on top of her credit-card and mortgage payments.

Use Our Content This KHN story can be republished for free ( details ).

“I’m in pain every day,” she said, but “it’s not bad enough to go into debt.”

The concept behind high-deductible plans was to lower premiums and reduce overall health costs by ensuring that consumers shared the financial burden of their own health care decisions. But evidence is mounting: High deductibles have actually forced people to delay care that could prevent health emergencies later or improve their quality of life.

Regardless of what happens to the Affordable Care Act, such plans are likely to become more widespread as health care costs continue to rise. Just over half of people with health plans from their employers now have a deductible of $1,000 or more, up from 10 percent in 2006, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Kaiser Health News, which produces California Healthline, is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)

“People who have medical problems that can be put off tend to do so much more now because of the high deductible,” said Dr. Ted Mazer, a San-Diego based head and neck surgeon who is president-elect of the California Medical Association.

Annual deductibles can amount to many thousands of dollars on some plans. Covered California bronze plans, with the lowest premiums available on the exchange, carry deductibles of $6,300 for an individual and $12,600 for a family.

A Kaiser Family Foundation survey released this year showed that 43 percent of insured people reported having trouble paying their deductible, up from 34 percent in 2015.

In one study by the liberal advocacy group Families USA, more than a quarter of people in high-deductible plans delayed some type of medical service such as a doctor visit or diagnostic test. And 44 percent of adults with high out-of-pocket expenses put off medical care, according to a nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund study.

Another recent study by researchers at the University of California-Berkeley and Harvard University found that people with high-deductible plans spent 42 percent less on health care before meeting their deductibles, primarily by reducing the amount of health care they received, not by shopping around for a better price.

Jonathan Kolstad, associate professor of economics at UC-Berkeley’s business school and co-author of the study, said patients dropped both needed care, such as diabetes medication, and potentially unnecessary care, such as imaging for headaches.

“Left to their own devices, people [in high-deductible plans] seem ill-equipped to make their own decisions” about what care they need, and what care they don’t, Kolstad said.

Mazer said that, in his practice, people have delayed all kinds of treatment that may not save “life or limb” but involved medical conditions that interfered with breathing or sleeping.

He said he’s had patients who needed a biopsy to determine if an abnormal vocal cord was cancerous, and they put it off because of the cost.

“I have to make the phone call and say, ‘We’re looking at a mass that may be malignant and if you put it off you’re putting yourself at risk,’ ” Mazer said. “And I’ll tell you, we’ve had people take that risk.”

Recent Republican proposals to repeal Obamacare have promoted the use of high-deductible plans by allowing people to put away more tax-free dollars into the health savings accounts that consumers use in conjunction with those plans. And experts said the proposals would also spur the growth of these plans — by cutting the subsidies available through exchanges, inducing customers to look for cheaper plans with higher deductibles.

Conservatives say insurance that promotes personal financial responsibility helps tamp down overall health costs. Hoover Institution analysts, for example, argue that high deductibles encourage patients to “choose wisely.”

But new evidence suggests that putting off care can be dangerous and, eventually, more costly to patients.

A March 2017 Harvard study found that low-income patients with diabetes who had high-deductible plans delayed visits for complications such as skin infections and pneumonia. They wound up getting more expensive care later on.

Patients may try to treat their conditions at home, or hope they go away — but if that approach fails, “they then have to seek care at the emergency department,” said Frank Wharam, a health policy researcher at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the study.

Wharam said the middle-income earners he studied didn’t suffer any adverse effects from health care choices they made in high-deductible plans, adding that more studies are needed on that group.

Sabrina Corlette, from the Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms, said that until national health policy addresses the “underlying costs of care,” patients in high-deductible plans will likely be stuck with the difficult task of figuring out what medical attention they need or can afford.

Heck said the symptoms from her back injury have changed — the pain is in a different part of the body than it was right after the injury. But she’s not even considering a trip to a nearby clinic for a new assessment. That would require another MRI, she said, which could cost at least $1,500, and it might not even help her. If her deductible weren’t as high, she’d feel “freer” to explore other health care options, she said.

For now, she’s taking a lot of ibuprofen and seeing a chiropractor.

“A lot of people get stuck in this place,” she said.

This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.

Output: In November 2015, Tina Heck was in her garage lifting 40-pound bags of wood pellets to fuel her heating stove, when something went very wrong with her back. “The next day, I could barely walk,” said the 55-year-old who lives on an acre of land in Nevada City, Calif., 60 miles northeast of Sacramento. The cause: a bulging disc in her lower spine, which shoots pain down her leg and makes her back stiff.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Killing Obamacare Softly
 In an email, Sarah Lueck of the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, explained that this “rule allows insurers in the individual market to offer plans with higher deductibles and out of pocket costs in 2018 than have been permitted previously.” Because of this, “the rule is likely to reduce the premium tax credit for many people.” A premium tax credit is a federal subsidy that consumers can use to lower their monthly health insurance payments.

A study the center conducted in February outlines the damage that this rule inflicts on Obamacare by reducing federal subsidies. It found that it would “raise premiums, out-of-pocket costs, or both for millions of moderate-income families.” In addition,

the rule would reduce the amount of health care that marketplace plans have to cover. That would allow individual-market insurers to offer plans with higher deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs than they can now sell through the marketplaces.

Most important, according to the center’s analysis, is the covert aspect of the rule which has

the hidden impact of reducing the Affordable Care Act’s premium tax credits, which help moderate-income marketplace consumers afford health care. As a result, the rule would force millions of families to choose between higher premiums or worse coverage.

Louise Norris, one of the founders of the Colorado Health Insurance Insider, has mapped out the Republican strategy in an online essay, “10 ways the GOP sabotaged Obamacare.”

The attacks began on day one, March 23, 2010, when the A.C.A. was signed into law. Fourteen state Attorneys General, 13 of them Republicans, filed suit challenging the constitutionality of the mandate requiring individuals to buy health care coverage. The sole Democratic Attorney General involved, Buddy Caldwell of Louisiana, switched into the Republican Party in 2011.

On June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of the individual mandate but in a blow to the program, Norris wrote, it also

ruled that the federal government could not withhold Medicaid funding from states that did not expand Medicaid. This had the effect of making the ACA’s Medicaid expansion optional, which has, in turn, hobbled the ACA’s progress in many states.

The rejection of Medicaid expansion by 19 states — all controlled by Republican governors or legislative majorities or both — to cover individuals making up to 138 percent of poverty level income meant that these individuals had to turn to “Health Insurance Marketplaces” or “private insurance risk pools.” The addition of low income, Medicaid-eligible individuals in these 19 Republican states to the private A.C.A. insurance market added a less healthy and more expensive-to-insure population to the pool.

Faced with more a costly clientele, insurance companies increased premiums. This gave Republicans new ammunition to charge that Obamacare premiums were rising.

Output: Unable — at least so far — to kill the Affordable Care Act outright, the Trump administration has conducted a sustained war of attrition designed to inflict fatal damage on Obamacare.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
To pass health-care reform, Republicans may strip it down
 IT HAS become a fool’s errand to try to predict when the Republicans may give up trying to reform health care. On July 25th Vice-President Mike Pence broke a tie in the Senate to pass a motion to start debate on a health bill, only a week after it had looked dead (and not for the first time). To win the vote Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Senate, had to water down its significance, portraying it as merely a procedural step that had no bearing on what might subsequently pass. (“Everybody will get a vote on everything they want to vote on,” said Senator John Cornyn, Mr McConnell’s number two). Even then, the motion passed only because Senator John McCain, just out of surgery for brain cancer, rushed back to Washington to vote yes.

The result is a mad rush to rewrite the bill on the Senate floor. The starting point is the version passed by the House in May. After voting to start debate, nine Republicans rebelled to defeat an amendment turning the bill into the “Better Care Reconciliation Act”, the reform Mr McConnell had painstakingly crafted. (In any case, the Senate’s rules expert had declared that parts of the BCRA needed 60 votes, and hence Democratic support, to pass.) The next day, seven Republicans helped Democrats reject the Obamacare repeal bill that Congress passed back in 2015 (it was vetoed then by Barack Obama). Moderate Republicans oppose total repeal because it would deeply cut Medicaid, health insurance for the poor, and abolish the tax credits which help low- and middle-income people buy insurance on online marketplaces, or exchanges.

As a result, Republicans may resort to what has been dubbed “skinny repeal”. This amendment would take a scalpel, rather than an axe, to Obamacare. Medicaid expansion would stay, as would the law’s regulations and tax credits. Instead, the bill would probably repeal only those parts of Obamacare Republicans dislike most: its “mandates”. These impose fines on people who choose not to buy health insurance, and on large employers who do not provide insurance for their staff.

Moderate Republicans may find skinny repeal easier to support, because it would leave Medicaid intact. But failing to replace the individual mandate would greatly threaten the stability of the market serving 18m Americans who buy insurance for themselves. The Congressional Budget Office has suggested that killing the mandate would increase the number of people without health insurance by 15m by 2018. Nonsense, say conservatives. But without the mandate, it would certainly be easier for people to flee the individual market’s high premiums, caused by Obamacare’s ban on insurers discriminating against buyers who are already ill. The likely result would be more premium increases, a still smaller market, and the very “death spiral” that Republicans say they want to stop.

A collapse of the individual market would hardly look good for those in power (although President Donald Trump has spoken of his desire to kill off Obamacare in an attempt to force Democrats to support a replacement). More likely is that the bill gets rewritten again in the committee that would have to reconcile the bills passed by the House and the Senate. Health reform could seem to die, only to be resurrected, a few more times yet.

Output: IT HAS become a fool’s errand to try to predict when the Republicans may give up trying to reform health care. On July 25th Vice-President Mike Pence broke a tie in the Senate to pass a motion to start debate on a health bill, only a week after it had looked dead (and not for the first time).


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
How To Get Long-Term Care At Home Without Busting The Bank
 The vast majority of older adults receive long-term care at home, not in nursing homes. But few people plan for this expense.

Nor do they see long-term care insurance as a viable option — because it’s expensive and is often seen as protection against the cost of nursing home care.

That should change, some experts contend. If the long-term care insurance industry focused more on helping people cover home-based services, they argue, policies would be more affordable, and potentially appealing.

“Long-term care, for most people, is a home care problem,” said Bill Comfort, who owns Comfort Long Term Care, a brokerage based in St. Louis and Durham, N.C.

“It makes sense to insure people for the likelihood of where care is going to be needed first — which is at home,” agreed Deb Newman, president of Newman Long Term Care in Richfield, Minn., outside Minneapolis.

Genworth, one of the nation’s leading long-term care insurers, acknowledged that this position is supported by industry claims data.

NAVIGATING AGING Navigating Aging focuses on medical issues and advice associated with aging and end-of-life care, helping America’s 45 million seniors and their families navigate the health care system. To contact Judith with a question or comment, click here. For more KHN coverage of aging, click here.

“Primarily, we are seeing people utilizing home care and a smaller and smaller percentage using nursing home care,” said Beth Ludden, Genworth’s senior vice president for long-term care insurance products.

“People think, ‘While I might start out needing care at home, eventually I’ll need to be in a facility,’” Ludden continued. “But that’s not something we see in our data. For the most part, people are able to stay at home for the whole time.”

Currently, more than 6 million older Americans are thought to have a “high need” for long-term care, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That’s defined as requiring daily assistance with two activities (eating, bathing, toileting, dressing, continence or transferring from a bed to a chair) that lasts at least 90 days or a need for substantial assistance due to severe cognitive impairment.

About 52 percent of adults reaching age 65 today will need these services — 26 percent for two years or less; 12 percent for two to four years; and 14 percent for more than five years, the HHS report projected.

Yet fewer than 10 percent of older adults have purchased long-term care insurance, which has declined in popularity as premiums skyrocketed and insurers exited the market over the past decade. Whether the industry can fix its major problem — affordability — remains to be seen.

From a consumer’s perspective, if your goal is covering several years of home-based care, not nursing home care, you can purchase a less expensive policy without all the bells and whistles that drive up costs, Newman suggested.

A 55-year-old couple buying a policy of this kind — say, $4,000 a month in benefits for each person, for a maxiumum of three years, with a 1 percent compounded annual inflation protection provision — from Mutual of Omaha would pay $2,380.05 a year in premiums, according to a quote from Minnesota that her firm provided. It’s common for policyholders to pay premiums for 10 or 20 years before claiming benefits. Terms are similar in many other states.

How much help in the home might this policy provide?

According to 2016 data compiled by Genworth, the average annual cost for care provided by a home health aide was $46,332, compared with $82,128 for a semiprivate room in a nursing home. That translates into $3,861 a month, for 44 hours of home care a week — the equivalent of slightly more than six hours of care, seven days a week.

That might not be enough for seniors with serious, disabling illnesses, but it can provide much-needed relief to unpaid family caregivers who could otherwise be on call nonstop.

What happens if someone ends up needing nursing home care?

You might consider what’s known as a “qualified long-term care partnership policy” — a plan available in every state except Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois (where a program has been approved but policies aren’t available yet), Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Mexico, Vermont and Washington, D.C. (The Mutual of Omaha quote above is for a partnership policy.)

Use Our Content This KHN story can be republished for free ( details ).

These little-known insurance products are designed to help consumers preserve their assets if they become seriously ill, need nursing home care and seek to become eligible for Medicaid, which pays for nearly half of nursing home costs in the U.S.

To qualify for Medicaid, most states require that an individual have no more than $2,000 in assets; couples are allowed to have up to about $120,000, so that a well spouse doesn’t become impoverished. With a partnership policy, every dollar received in long-term care benefits is exempted from Medicaid’s asset test and protected from seizure by the state.

In other words, if you get $200,000 in benefits from a partnership policy and your state has an asset limit of $2,000 for Medicaid, you can keep $200,000 in assets plus the $2,000 allowed and still meet your state’s asset test, said Scott Olson, co-founder of the LTCShop.com, a brokerage based in Camano Island, Wash.

He noted that partnership policies don’t guarantee Medicaid eligibility and you’ll still have to meet whatever income standards your state sets for Medicaid. (Many, but not all states, allow people to “spend down” to qualify, using their income to pay for institutional care.)

Bill Nickerson, 63, of Las Vegas, one of Olson’s clients, purchased a partnership policy three years ago because it lets him “retain control of my financial assets, even if I have to be cared for.” Another plus: The policy “permits me, if I decide to stay home, to take a certain amount of the monthly amount and give it to someone who I choose to provide care for me, even if that person is a family member.”

There’s no reliable national data about how many people with partnership policies end up going on Medicaid to cover nursing home care. Nor is there good data about the number of these policies that have been sold or the benefits paid out to date.

David Guttchen, who directs the Connecticut Partnership for Long-Term Care, the first such program in the country, is skeptical about policies with benefits that will cover only a portion of expected costs. (Four states, including Connecticut, were the first to launch partnership programs and have special rules.)

“You absolutely need to know what the average home care and nursing home costs are for your state, to get a sense of what your exposure might be,” he said. “If you don’t buy meaningful benefits, you’re wasting your premium.”

If you’ve been able to cover a good amount of home care but your policy won’t cover nursing home care, you’ve gained some protection, for a while, but you could still pay an enormous amount out-of-pocket going forward, if Medicaid isn’t an option.

It’s a gamble because people can’t be sure what kind of care they’ll need in the future, or for how long, or what the future of Medicaid will look like, said Michael McDonnell, an insurance broker in Petaluma, Calif. Before buying any policy, consult with an elder law attorney or independent financial adviser, he recommended.

We’re eager to hear from readers about questions you’d like answered, problems you’ve been having with your care and advice you need in dealing with the health care system. Visit kffhealthnews.org/columnists to submit your requests or tips.

KHN’s coverage of end-of-life and serious illness issues is supported by The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Its coverage related to aging & improving care of older adults is supported by The John A. Hartford Foundation and its coverage of aging and long-term care issues is supported by The SCAN Foundation.

Output: The vast majority of older adults receive long-term care at home, not in nursing homes. But few people plan for this expense. Nor do they see long-term care insurance as a viable option — because it’s expensive and is often seen as protection against the cost of nursing home care.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Facebook dominates social media competitors, finds survey
 HTML code to embed chart

Can I integrate infographics into my blog or website?

Yes, Statista allows the easy integration of many infographics on other websites. Simply copy the HTML code that is shown for the relevant statistic in order to integrate it. Our standard is 660 pixels, but you can customize how the statistic is displayed to suit your site by setting the width and the display size. Please note that the code must be integrated into the HTML code (not only the text) for WordPress pages and other CMS sites.

Output: Facebook has more monthly views than its social media competitors, and so do its subsidiaries WhatsApp and Messenger, according to a survey from Statista. Four of the top five largest social media and messaging platforms in the world are Facebook-owned, with China's WeChat knocking Facebook's Instagram into fifth place. Facebook itself has two billion monthly users, while Whatsapp and Messenger have over one billion each. Twitter was the next US social media firm on the list with 328 million monthly users, coming in behind Tencent's Qzone and Weibo.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Facebook dominates social media competitors, finds survey
 Facebook has cemented its status as undisputed king of the social media jungle in a new survey that shows not only that the social media network itself has more monthly views than anyone else – but that its stablemates WhatsApp and Messenger do too.

Facebook obliterates social media competitors in new survey

The figures, compiled by Statista and laid out on a handy graph, show that Facebook owns four of the world’s largest social media and messaging services with only China’s WeChat big enough to spoil the party by ousting Instagram into fifth place.

Output: Facebook has more monthly views than its social media competitors, and so do its subsidiaries WhatsApp and Messenger, according to a survey from Statista. Four of the top five largest social media and messaging platforms in the world are Facebook-owned, with China's WeChat knocking Facebook's Instagram into fifth place. Facebook itself has two billion monthly users, while Whatsapp and Messenger have over one billion each. Twitter was the next US social media firm on the list with 328 million monthly users, coming in behind Tencent's Qzone and Weibo.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Taking full course of antibiotics can make superbugs stronger
 A growing body of research finds that telling patients to finish a full course of antibiotics even if they’re already feeling better not only fails to prevent drug-resistant “superbugs” from forming, but also might make those pathogens stronger.

The latest evidence comes from a study published this week in the journal BMJ by a group of British scientists. That team joins an expanding chorus of experts who said there’s no scientific support for the conventional wisdom, first adopted in the mid-1940s, that long courses of antibiotics help prevent bacteria from developing immunity to many or most of the weapons in the antibiotic arsenal.

In reality, these researchers said, the longer antibiotics are used, the more collateral damage is done to the body’s community of helpful bacteria — and that in turn gives resistant strains of bacteria, always present in the human body in small numbers, room to flourish and share their defenses with other pathogens, gradually leading to the superbug strains now estimated to kill 23,000 Americans per year and sicken more than 2 million.

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Though the BMJ report is getting a lot of attention, other researchers in past years had also raised questions about the full-course antibiotic mantra.

One of them was Dr. Brad Spellberg, currently chief medical officer at the LAC+USC Medical Center and associate dean for clinical affairs at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Last year, he published a piece in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine that arrived at the same conclusions as the BMJ group’s findings.

Spellberg said Dr. Louis Rice, a specialist in infectious diseases who’s now at Brown University in Rhode Island, nearly a decade ago began bringing up the belief that completing full antibiotic courses may actually help build resistance in bacteria.

“We’ve been saying this for a long time. The message we are shifting to is that we need to be using short-course antibiotic regimens,” Spellberg said.

Today the standard practice is to prescribe courses of antibiotics for one or two weeks. Spellberg argues in his 2016 study that this approach has occurred for no other reason than that humans have thought in week-long blocks of time ever since the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great established the seven-day week in AD 321.

“Had Constantine decided there should be four days in a week, we would be prescribing antibiotics for four or eight days instead of seven or 14,” Spellberg said.

He said many of USC’s hospital programs and clinics are moving toward shorter-duration antibiotic prescriptions based on the latest evidence, but that many other medical organizations still insist on one- and two-week courses.

Dr. Julie Roth, chair of the family medicine department for Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group in San Diego, said while she and others at the organization may prescribe antibiotics for periods as short as one day, patients should not take articles like the one in BMJ as indications that they should stop their regimen when they think they’re feeling better.

“Some patients are sent home from the hospital on oral or (intravenous) antibiotics and need to work closely with their physician. They should not stop antibiotics unless they are directed to,” Roth said.

Andrei Osterman, a professor of bioinformatics who studies the specific mechanisms of bacterial resistance at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla, said he agrees that administering antibiotics for longer than necessary does, indeed, cause collateral damage to the body’s microbiome — which can provide a home for drug-resistant bacteria to grow.

But he also noted that most antibiotics are only effective against bacteria that are actively multiplying, so the number of days in an antibiotic course needs to be long enough to catch those cells that were not yet dividing when the first few doses were administered.

“The primary driver of the number of days was not only preventing resistance, but also making sure there is enough exposure to make sure the infection is held at bay long enough for the body’s immune system to take over and finish the job,” Osterman said.

Human metabolic systems, he added, are highly variable in terms of how they process antibiotics, so a short course may work better for some people than others, depending on each patient’s specific genetics.

As is the case for the British researchers, Osterman said he believes more in-depth research is needed to understand just how long antibiotic courses should last. He said until those analyses are completed, caution is always the best idea, especially when the consequences could be death.

But Spellberg, the USC medical director, said the evidence really is there for anyone who chooses to look.

Multiple rigorous studies have shown that, for example, a five-day course is very effective in treating community-acquired pneumonia, a three-day regimen is adequate for simple bladder infections, five to seven days for kidney infections and four days for standard inter-abdominal infections such as appendicitis. While his organization and others in the Los Angeles area are increasingly prescribing shorter antibiotic courses, he insists they’re not neglecting their patients’ safety.

“Nobody’s talking about throwing their patients out the window. We’re talking about having an informed discussion between the provider and the patient about when the evidence shows it may be appropriate to stop a course of antibiotics ,” Spellberg said.

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: Patients who finish a full course of antibiotics lasting seven to 14 days not only fail to prevent drug-resistant superbugs but may be making those pathogens stronger, according to research published in the British journal BMJ, which argues against conventional wisdom that long courses of antibiotics help prevent bacteria from developing immunity to most diseases, with some experts suggesting short courses are more effective.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
FDA announces pilot scheme for digital health start-ups
 On Thursday, FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced a pilot program to look into a "pre-certification" for medical software start-ups.

And even the FDA's harshest critics are excited about it.

"I guess I've grown cynical in my old age, as I've watched administrations come and go," said Bradley Merrill Thompson, an FDA expert and lawyer with the firm Epstein, Becker & Green, in an email to CNBC. "[But] I think the idea of a pilot program is brilliant."

The agency is hoping to fast-track the approval process for medical software start-ups and products that are less risky for patients than a traditional medical devices. The idea is that these companies could submit less information than is currently required -- or none at all.

The FDA will let up to 9 companies sign up for this pilot. After that, fast-track approval could become the norm.

Thompson praised Gottlieb's agenda a month ago when the FDA announced plans for a digital health innovation plan. At that time, he was hoping that the agency would move ahead with a pilot program or sorts, so it could gather feedback from the industry.

"This stuff is really hard to figure out in the abstract," he said. "It's really only by working with companies and tinkering and experimenting that we can truly identify the best model."

The agency also shared an action plan with timelines on how it intends to regulate digital health companies.

"Historically, healthcare has been slow to implement disruptive technology tools that have transformed other areas of commerce and daily life," acknowledged Gottlieb, a doctor and former venture capitalist, in a blog post.

"One factor that's been cited, among many, is the regulation that accompanies medical products," he wrote. "But momentum toward a digital future in healthcare is advancing."

Output: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will launch a pilot programme for accelerating the approval process for medical software start-ups, the US federal agency has announced. The pre-certification programme, initially limited to nine companies, will require less submission of information than is required by regulators. The FDA intends to streamline digital advances in healthcare by working with these companies to establish a regulatory framework based on industry feedback.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Goldman retreats from backstopping ETFs as costs rise
 Goldman has told fund providers it is scaling back its role as a top lead market maker (LMM) for ETFs and has already slashed the number of funds it supports in that capacity, according to disclosures, fund managers and other trading firms this month.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc is pulling back substantially from trading that helps backstop the fast-growing use of U.S. exchange-traded funds, giving smaller firms an opportunity to grab market share.

Financial professionals sit in the Goldman Sachs booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Relatively high regulatory and other costs of operating as an LMM prompted the pullback by Goldman, one of the few large banks remaining in that role, some people said.

A spokeswoman for Goldman declined to comment on the bank's market-making business.

The move signals the shifting landscape of making markets in many assets away from traditional broker-dealers towards smaller, electronic-focused upstarts.

LMMs are critical to keeping ETFs trading smoothly. While brokers-dealers can typically trade as they please, firms acting as LMMs must consistently offer competitive buy-and-sell quotes in their assigned ETFs, and they receive rebates on exchange fees. Some also provide start-up financing for the funds.

The LMMs risk some of their own capital to buy and sell ETFs to help maintain their liquidity.

Unlike smaller rivals, big banks like Goldman Sachs are subject to strict capital requirements by regulators, putting them at a disadvantage when it comes to costs in an already low-margin business.

ETFs attracted a record $348 billion globally in the first half of this year, compared to $123 billion at the same point last year, according to research service ETFGI LLP.

Despite the skyrocketing growth in ETFs, it can be hard to translate the LMM business into a high-margin operation.

Market making is a technology business as much as a trading enterprise, and involves finding the right price for funds holding dozens of stocks or bonds in a split second while making other trades to manage risk.

One industry veteran described the business as "scraping fractions of pennies all day."

Goldman continues to make issuing its own ETFs through its asset management unit a priority, however, even as it steps back from providing the infrastructure to keep such funds trading.

Output: Goldman Sachs is said to be retreating from its role as a top lead market maker (LMM) for exchange-traded funds as smaller digital start-ups increasingly take up the mantle. The bank is said to have decided to pull back because of regulatory costs. LMMs help backstop markets by providing liquidity either by offering competitive buy-sell quotes or by committing their own capital. Larger banks like Goldman are under stricter regulatory rules than smaller firms, prompting many to exit the market.


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P&G drops ad spend due to inefficient targeting and bot fraud
 Procter & Gamble (P&G) has revealed a drop in its digital ad spending. This was due to its decision to "temporarily restrict spending in digital forums” where its ads were not being placed according to its “standards and specifications”.Jon Moeller, P&G chief financial officer said in the fourth quarter reduction in marketing was almost all in the digital space. This was because it was "ineffective" and ads were being served to either bots as opposed to human beings, or the placement of ads was not facilitating the equity of brands.Moeller added on the call that it was now working with media partners to create "very efficient supply chain that helps build the brands" under P&G umbrella.He added the cut on digital spend did not hamper the company's growth. Meanwhile, P&G will put more focus on product and package benefits, as it needs to be "communicated with exceptional brand messaging, advertisement makes consumers think, talk, laugh, cry, smile, act and of course buy".The company is also now setting a higher standard on advertising quality with focus on brand performance claims that communicate a brand's benefits and superiority to create awareness and trial."We are improving the quality of consumer insights, agency creative talent, and production. We are applying a body of assessment on advertising quality," Moeller said. Meanwhile, its core selling, general and administrative expenses declined 170 basis points as compared to the previous year. According to P&G, this was driven by 80 basis points of productivity savings from overhead, agency fee and ad production costs. P&G also saw e-commerce online organic sales rise around 30% for the period, significantly outpacing offline sales. Online sales represented more than 5% of its total business in fiscal 2017.According to David Taylor, chairman, president and CEO, P&G met or exceeded its "going-in" objectives for the fiscal year 2017. He added that significant progress was made on its key priorities. This includes accelerating organic sales growth, continuing to drive strong productivity improvement and cost savings. It also prioritised strengthening the organisation and culture and completing moves to simplify and strengthen its product portfolio.“As an organisation, we are accelerating efforts to execute and deliver on the plans we’ve put into action. Achieving our objectives will not only require continued focus as an organisation, but also that we prevent anything from derailing the work that is delivering improvement,” Taylor added.The revelation follows cost cutting plans the company revealed in April this year, which saw its intention to reduce its marketing spend by US$2 billion in the next five years. This was part of a broader US$10 billion cost reduction plan it launched one year ago, according to several media reports.Moeller explained then that the half or more of the US$2 billion savings opportunities in marketing spending will likely come from media rates or eliminating supply-chain waste. Meanwhile, the company is targeting up to half a billion in saving from reducing agency fees and ad-production costs.When it comes to agency fees, P&G added it is looking to squeeze US$1billion or more out of the system. This follows a stand P&G chief brand officer Marc Pritchard took in February this year, which saw the company reviewing all of its agency contracts this year in a bid to drive a cleaner media supply chain and transparent digital measurement.

Output: Proctor & Gamble (P&G) has temporarily cut its digital advertising spending by $140m while it assesses the quality and legitimacy of its ads. The company found its digital ads were being poorly placed and served to bots, rather than consumers. P&G's decision came as part of a broader plan to reduce its marketing spend by $2bn over the next five years, which the company announced in April. The decision has not affected P&G's growth, said CFO Jon Moeller.


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BP and Total criticised for Amazon coral drilling plans
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Plans to drill for oil near the newly discovered Amazon Reef – one of the largest in the world – have been attacked by leading scientists, conservationists and explorers.

The reef extends for about 600 miles off the north coast of Brazil, near the mouth of the mighty Amazon river, and covers an area about half the size of Wales.

Oil companies BP and Total plan to drill for oil in the area and there is concern that any spills would damage the “precious and unique ecosystem”.

Now a group of scientists and others have signed a statement calling the reef, the existence of which was only revealed last year, to be protected.

The signatories include Sylvia Earle, the former head of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as other scientists from the US, Brazil, Colombia, the UK, Spain, Australia and the Philippines.

Explorers Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Bruce Parry, and wildlife broadcasters such as Michaela Strachan, Bill Oddie and Ben Fogle, have also put their name to the statement.

“Plans to drill for oil in nearby waters pose significant pressures and risks, whether from drilling itself or from the threat of significant oil spills, which even the companies’ own oil-spill modelling give up to a 30 per cent chance of reaching the reef,” said the statement, organised by Greenpeace.

“A spill here could negatively impact the reef and the wider basin: an area home to vulnerable species including the Amazonian manatee and leatherback sea turtle, among many others.

“The priority should be to protect the reef and surrounding waters in order to conduct further research … to provide greater insight into its species diversity, structure and function, as well as the interconnections it has with other surrounding ecosystems, before any decisions are made concerning further human exploitation of the area.”

It stressed just how unusual the reef is.

“Where the Amazon River pours into the ocean, the surrounding waters are initially dark and silty – a very unusual environment for a rich carbonate reef ecosystem to exist,” the statement said.

“Home to pink corals, coralline algae, more than 70 species of reef fish and more than 60 species of sponge, the Amazon Reef is a thriving and dynamic ecosystem that has barely been explored, but may already be under threat.”

Indeed, there is already some drilling underway, while oil giants BP and Total have acquired licences to explore the sea bed nearby.

Dr Ronaldo Francini Filho, one of the researchers who discovered the reef, stressed its importance to the region.

“The Amazon Reef is one of the largest reefs in the world and a corridor connecting Brazil and the Caribbean,” he said.

“It is a critical piece of the mega-biome composed by the huge Amazon forest, the second largest mangrove in the world, and the reef itself.

“Thousands of people depend on the resources and ecosystem services provided by the Amazon Reef.”

Animals in decline Show all 8 1 / 8 Animals in decline Animals in decline Harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) Where: Orkney Islands. What: Between 2001-2006, numbers in Orkney declined by 40 per cent. Why: epidemics of the phocine distemper virus are thought to have caused major declines, but the killing of seals in the Moray Firth to protect salmon farms may have an impact. Alamy Animals in decline African lion (Panthera leo) Where: Ghana. What: In Ghana’s Mole National Park, lion numbers have declined by more than 90 per cent in 40 years. Why: local conflicts are thought to have contributed to the slaughter of lions and are a worrying example of the status of the animal in Western and Central Africa. Animals in decline Leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) Where: Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Costa Rica. What: Numbers are down in both the Atlantic and Pacific. It declined by 95 per cent between 1989-2002 in Costa Rica. Why: mainly due to them being caught as bycatch, but they’ve also been affected by local developments. Alamy Animals in decline Wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans) Where: South Atlantic. What: A rapid decline. One population, from Bird Island, South Georgia, declined by 50 per cent between 1972-2010, according to the British Antarctic Survey. Why: being caught in various commercial longline fisheries. Alamy Animals in decline Saiga Antelope (Saiga tatarica) Where: Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. What: fall in populations has been dramatic. In the early 1990s numbers were over a million, but are now estimated to be around 50,000. Why: the break up of the former USSR led to uncontrolled hunting. Increased rural poverty means the species is hunted for its meat Animals in decline Swordfish (Xiphias gladius) Where: found worldwide in tropical, subtropical and temperate seas. Why: at risk from overfishing and as a target in recreational fishing. A significant number of swordfish are also caught by illegal driftnet fisheries in the Mediterranean Animals in decline Argali Sheep (Ovis mammon) Where: Central and Southern Asian mountains,usually at 3,000-5,000 metres altitude. Why: domesticated herds of sheep competing for grazing grounds. Over-hunting and poaching. Animals in decline Humphead Wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus) Where: the Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea to South Africa and to the Tuamoto Islands (Polynesia), north to the Ryukyu Islands (south-west Japan), and south to New Caledonia. Why: Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing and trading of the species

Sara Ayech, an oil campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said that it was known “from painful experience” how damaging an oil spill could be, and referred to the Deepwater Horizon explosion which killed 11 people and created the largest spill in US history.

“This project is in deeper water than Deepwater Horizon, and BP and Total have yet to demonstrate that they have the ability to adequately deal with a spill in this precious eco-system,” she said.

“In addition to the threat to the largely unexplored Amazon reef, coastal communities could have their livelihoods destroyed for the sake of oil we don’t need and can’t afford to burn.

“We need to stop sacrificing our natural heritage to fossil fuel interests and start preparing for a future beyond petroleum.”

BP said the work would only go ahead if Brazilian officials agreed.

A spokesman for the company said in a statement: “BP operates one exploration block in the Foz do Amazonas basin, around 160 kilometres (100 miles) offshore Brazil.

“Under the terms of our licence, we have a commitment to drill one exploration well on the block by August 2018. Operations on the blocks will only proceed when fully approved by the Brazilian regulators.”

Output: Plans by BP and Total to drill for oil in the Amazon Reef, one of the largest coral reefs in the world, have been publicly criticised. Critics include Sylvia Earle, former head of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, explorers Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Bruce Parry and environmental broadcasters Ben Fogle, Bill Oddie and Michaela Strachan. The reef, which was only discovered last year, faces damage both from the drilling itself and from oil spills, according to the statement, which was coordinated by Greenpeace.


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JPMorgan Chase commits to 100% renewable energy by 2020
 JPMorgan Chase will rely solely on renewable energy by 2020, the company announced Friday.

To meet its goal, the firm will install on-site renewable energy generators, sign power purchase agreements with renewable energy projects and reduce its energy consumption. The firm has property in more than 60 countries that totals approximately 75 million square feet, according to a press release.

The firm also plans to facilitate $200 billion in clean financing through 2025.

"Business must play a leadership role in creating solutions that protect the environment and grow the economy," CEO Jamie Dimon said in a statement. "This global investment leverages the firm's resources and our people's expertise to make our operations more energy efficient and provide clients with the resources they need to develop more sustainable products and services."

JPMorgan will develop on-site solar-power generation at up to 1,400 retail and 40 commercial buildings. The firm will launch a pilot program to install solar panels at Chase branches in California and New Jersey. It will also install large-capacity fuel-cell technology at commercial sites and small-capacity fuel cells at retail sites.

To cut energy consumption, JPMorgan will partner with GE 's Current to install LED lights at about 4,500 Chase branches. It will also work with Current to synchronize building systems, which is expected to reduce energy consumption. JPMorgan will add thermal energy blankets above ceiling tiles in more than $1,700 retail branches.

Output: JPMorgan Chase has pledged to rely entirely on renewable energy by 2020. The company will enter power purchase agreements with renewable initiatives, lower its energy consumption through the installation of LED lights, thermal energy blankets above ceiling tiles and on-site renewable energy generators, and by synchronising building systems. The firm also announced plans to facilitate $200bn in clean financing by 2025.


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Toyota focuses on solid-state batteries for next-generation EVs
 Toyota plans to commercialize solid-state electric vehicle batteries by the early 2020s, Reuters confirmed this week.

If the Japanese automaker can pull that off, it could leap ahead of the competition in terms of energy density, range and safety.

Toyota popularized the turn away from internal-combustion engines with its Prius hybrid, but its clean transport innovation has slowed in recent years. The company maintained focus on hybrids and hydrogen fuel-cell cars, which other EV makers tend to dismiss as dead ends.

That policy came to an end late last year when Toyota launched an internal venture dedicated to commercializing a purely electric car. "Japanese automakers finally wise up to the electric future" was how auto blog Jalopnik reported that decision.

With Tesla, BMW, Nissan and Chevy scaling up EV production already, Toyota will have to hustle to catch up, and solid-state could certainly help. This advance represents something of a holy grail for battery makers, and has been notoriously hard to pull off.

First, here's the science of why we need solid-state in the first place, as told to me by Josh Garrett, CTO of Solid Power, which makes solid-state electrolytes.

"One of the main challenges with lithium-ion type technologies is, you can increase the energy and power, or you can improve or maintain your safety, but you can't do both," he said. "Solid-state is really the one known viable path toward increasing both at the same time."

Solid-state's safety properties could unlock a lithium-metal anode, which represents the chemical ideal in terms of how much charge it can store per unit of mass and volume. It's also highly volatile, as one may recall from dropping it into a beaker of water in chemistry class and watching it catch fire.

If you put a lithium-metal anode into the kind of battery cell made today, it suffers from uneven plating, which produces spiky protuberances known as dendrites. If a dendrite continues to grow, it can shoot across the cell's protective barrier layer and touch the positive electrode, causing a short, Garrett said. That generates lot of heat.

"The combination of your volatile electrolyte with the cathode materials, which are typically unstable and also contain oxygen, basically creates these thermal runaway reactions, and that's when you have a fire that you're probably not going to put out for a while," he explained.

Not a good look for mass-market consumer cars.

In solid-state, theory predicts more even plating, so dendrites shouldn't be much of a problem in the first place, Garrett said. If they do form, the more inert, non-volatile electrolyte denies the fuel that would stoke a fire. The individual cell could get hot and be ruined, but it will be "a very uneventful failure."

That's the quick version, at least. Many fine peer-reviewed publications beckon with the fully fleshed-out details.

It's important to note that actually achieving this vision will take a lot of lab work. One of many challenges is securing perfect contact for the flow of ions. A liquid electrolyte conforms easily to the electrodes, because it's a liquid against a solid. Two solids, not so much.

"Imagine two marbles put together: There's only going to be point contacts, and that really limits where the ions can travel between the electrolyte and the electrode," Garrett said.

As always with batteries, optimizing one characteristic, like connectivity or stability, can affect other aspects of performance. The key is achieving across-the-board improvements without sacrificing the necessities.

Solid Power, for now, is trying to commercialize its solid electrolyte combined with a lithium-metal anode and a more conventional nickel-manganese-cobalt lithium-ion chemistry. This design can produce an energy density increase of one-quarter to one-third at the cell level, compared to the cells in a Tesla Model S, Garrett estimated; additional gains are expected at the pack level.

Nobody has started mass-manufacturing solid-state rechargeable batteries yet, he noted -- but Toyota has assembled considerable resources behind that goal. The company is paying particular attention to the pack- and system-level improvements made possible by solid-state technology, which can then influence overall vehicle design.

Toyota will have to hustle to meet the early 2020s deadline, but the science is clear about what the payoff will be. Autonomous driving has been garnering considerable attention, but solid-state batteries could become the new automaker arms race to watch.

Output: Toyota has revealed ambitious plans to commercialise solid-state batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) by the early 2020s after having focused on developing hybrids and hydrogen fuel-cell cars. Solid-state batteries can improve both safety and power levels, and Toyota is concentrating its efforts on pack and system-level improvements that could lead to advances in overall car design.


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Musk's goal of 50% new sales to be EVs in 10 years challenged
 On Friday, against all reasonable expectations a decade ago, the company will arrive at the final step of that initial plan. During a carefully staged event at its manufacturing facility in Fremont, California, Tesla will deliver the first of its long-awaited Model 3s to several dozen early customers. The four-door sedan starts at $35,000 before incentives, with a range of 215 miles per charge.

You can quibble over whether that's genuinely affordable (auto observers would generally call it “entry-level luxury”). But there's little doubt the vehicle will lure a wider mix of customers to electric vehicles—and no dispute that Tesla has already reshaped the automobile market. The company helped make plug-in vehicles appealing in a nation infatuated with brawny, gas-guzzling cars and trucks, forcing other manufacturers to initiate or accelerate their own EV plans.

But arriving at step three, of course, is very far from fulfilling Musk’s grander vision. For all the rapid recent growth, electric vehicles are still a tiny market, representing less than 1 percent of new sales globally.

Electric vehicles will almost certainly grab a swelling portion of the auto market in the years ahead. But it will be a long time before they tip into the truly mainstream, and longer still before they could meaningfully reduce the sector’s dependence on those hydrocarbons.

Many things still need to change in underlying infrastructure, consumer appetites, public policies, and battery prices before any of this can happen. And there is wide disagreement about how fast that’s likely to unfold, and where Tesla will stand once it does (see “Tesla’s Next Broken Promise”).

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiling the company's home battery in 2015.

A bevy of batteries

As ever, count Musk as the optimist on these scores.

Earlier this month, during an onstage interview at the 2017 National Governors Association Summer Meeting in Rhode Island, he predicted that more than half of all new cars produced in the United States will be electric “probably in 10 years.” That’s more than a decade ahead of most optimistic estimates.

Output: Tesla Motors' new Model 3 is far from Elon Musk's final vision for electric vehicles (EVs). Firstly, Elon Musk's prediction that "probably in 10 years" over 50% of all new cars produced in the US will be electric, would require 4-16 additional gigafactories for the US alone. Public policy, charging infrastructure and consumer attitudes to EVs also remain an issue. Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts mass-market EV adoption will only come when the technology reaches price parity with internal combustion engines, unlikely to occur without subsidies until 2025. Lastly, the US grid would need updating to manage the power demand from EVs.


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EDF boosts renewable energy output in first six months of 2017
 EDF Energies Nouvelles increased output by 5% to 6.4 terrawatt hours in first six months of 2017, and boosted installed capacity by 0.8GW to 6.7GW by the end of June compared with last year.

The increase in output was mainly from wind and North American assets, the company said.

EDF EN had 2.4GW of new capacity under construction at the end of June, of which 0.9GW was solar.Sales at the unit were up 7.5% at €620m in the first half of 2017, compared with €577m in the same period last year.The company also completed the acquisition of Futuren in the period.EDF chairman and chief executive Jean-Bernard Lévy said: “The first half of 2017 was marked by an acceleration in the area of renewable energies, with, in particular, the takeover of Futuren and the increase in installed net capacity.“The reorganisation of the French nuclear sector has also reached essential and positive milestones in recent months. I would like to thank our teams for their daily efforts to make EDF the leader in low-carbon growth.”

Output: EDF Energies Nouvelles enjoyed a successful H1 2017, with output rising 5% to 6.4 TWhs, installed capacity up by 0.8 GW on 2016 to 6.7 GW and sales hitting €620m ($730m), up 7.5% YoY. The company also completed its acquisition of renewable energy business Futuren during the period. "The reorganisation of the French nuclear sector has also reached essential and positive milestones in recent months," said CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy.