Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
OCBC offers P2P payments via social media platforms
 OCBC mobile banking customers can now type into any messaging app - like WhatsApp, Facebook, Gmail and Instagram - to initiate a funds transfer to another mobile number.

This is possible with the roll-out of OCBC Keyboard, which works within any mobile app to activate the funds transfer. The transfer rides on the OCBC Pay Anyone feature in the OCBC Mobile Banking app.

"With OCBC Keyboard, we are embedding payments in our customers' lives and making it completely frictionless for them to pay while they go about (with) everyday tasks like chatting on WhatsApp, sending an e-mail, browsing items on Carousell or browsing the Internet," said Mr Aditya Gupta, OCBC Bank's head of e-business in Singapore.

Users need to download the latest version of the OCBC Mobile Banking app and select the OCBC Keyboard as the default keyboard. The keyboard works only on Android smartphones and The Straits Times understands it will not be available on the Apple iPhone.

After this one-time set-up, the OCBC Pay Anyone icon will appear on the keyboard that shows up in apps. Clicking on the icon will initiate the payment process.

Users just need to enter the mobile number of the recipient and the amount to transfer. They must also enter their banking username and password, and a one-time password sent to their mobile phone to authenticate the transaction.

Users of PayNow will receive the money instantly. PayNow is an instant fund transfer service among seven participating banks which was launched last month that links bank accounts to a mobile phone number or NRIC number.

Recipients who have yet to register for PayNow will receive a Web link via SMS that they click on and enter a sender-supplied six-digit passcode to receive the money in their bank account. As the transfer is via the Fast online inter-bank funds transfer system, the recipient does not need to be an OCBC account holder.

Fast has been a feature of the OCBC Mobile Banking app since 2014, allowing its customers to send money directly to any bank account in Singapore using just the recipient's mobile number, e-mail address or Facebook account. It was revolutionary because senders need not know the recipient's bank account details to make a transfer.

Last month, UOB launched a similar keyboard dubbed UOB MyKey. It works on the UOB Mighty app in similar ways as the OCBC Keyboard to allow users to send money instantly via PayNow, using WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. It is also an Android-only feature.

Output: OCBC Bank has introduced a keyboard that enables mobile banking customers to transfer funds to another mobile number via WhatsApp, Facebook, Gmail and Instagram. After making the OCBC keyboard their default option, users can click an icon to start the peer-to-peer (P2P) payment. Users must enter the recipient's mobile number, the amount they want to transfer, their banking username and password, and a one-time password sent to their mobile. Users of fund transfer service PayNow will receive the funds instantly, while others will receive an SMS with a link to register.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Ford and Domino's pretend to deliver pizza in autonomous vehicles
 Ford and Domino’s Pizza are teaming up to test self-driving pizza delivery cars in Michigan, as part of an effort to better understand how customers respond to and interact with autonomous vehicles.

In the coming weeks, randomly selected Domino’s customers in Ann Arbor, Michigan will have the option to accept pizza deliveries from a Ford Fusion Hybrid autonomous research vehicle. But the car won’t be driving itself.

Each car will be driven by a Ford safety engineer

Each car will be driven by a Ford safety engineer, with other researchers onboard, who will zero in on the last 50 feet of the customer experience.

Sherif Marakby, Vice President of Ford Autonomous Vehicles and Electrification, described the project as ethnographic research in an interview with The Verge. “We don’t want to wait until we get everything done on the tech and remove the driver. We’re trying to start doing the research. We still are working on the technology, because it’s not ready to be put on public streets,” he said. “It’s simulating that the vehicle is in autonomous mode.”

Those who participate in the test can track their order through a Domino’s app and will receive a unique code that matches the last four digits of their phone number to be used to unlock the so-called Heatwave Compartment — a container that keeps pizzas warm in the back of the car. Information will be communicated through screens and speakers on the exterior of the cars.

photo: Ford Motor Company

“We’re interested to learn what people think about this type of delivery,” Russell Weiner, president of Domino’s USA, said in a statement. “The majority of our questions are about the last 50 feet of the delivery experience.”

Areas of focus include how willing are people to come outside to pick up their orders, the way they approach the car, and how they interact with the screen outside of the vehicle to get the food.

Marakby said this is the first of multiple partnership between Ford and other companies as part of efforts to ramp up autonomous vehicle testing. “The key thing is that our development is going to benefit from these partnerships,” Marakby said. “We will incorporate changes when we launch at scale in 2021, whether it’s perishable or non-perishable deliveries.”

Ford, like many other carmakers, has invested heavily in autonomous technology, with an eye toward bringing self-driving cars to market by 2021. Earlier this year, the company announced plans to invest $1 billion in Argo AI, an artificial intelligence startup.

“The human aspect is the most significant piece here. We know we can create technology, but it has to be based on the human element of how we’re using the AVs,” Marakby said.

Output: Ford has partnered with fast food chain Domino's Pizza to assess how US customers cope with autonomous-vehicle deliveries. Randomly chosen customers in Ann Arbor, Michigan, will have the option to have their food delivered by a Ford Fusion Hybrid "autonomous" vehicle, which will actually be driven by a Ford safety engineer. Those who choose the autonomous option will receive a unique code to unlock the Heatwave Compartment, which keeps pizzas warm in the back of the car with information relayed through screens and speakers on the exterior of the cars.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Less than third of Harvey's expected losses may be insured
 Hurricane Harvey’s second act across southern Texas is turning into an economic catastrophe – with damages likely to stretch into tens of billions of dollars and an unusually large share of victims lacking adequate insurance, according to early estimates.

Harvey’s cost could mount to $30 billion when including the impact of relentless flooding on the labor force, power grid, transportation and other elements that support the region’s energy sector, Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler with Enki Research, said in an email Monday. That would place it among the top eight hurricanes to ever strike the U.S.

Less than a third of Harvey’s losses are likely to be insured, Watson said.

“A historic event is currently unfolding in Texas,” Aon Plc wrote in an alert to clients. “It will take weeks until the full scope and magnitude of the damage is realized,” and already it’s clear that “an abnormally high portion of economic damage caused by flooding will not be covered,” the insurance broker said.

Many forecasters were hesitant over the weekend to make preliminary estimates for how much insurers might pay. Researchers were shifting from examining Harvey’s landfall Friday as a roof-lifting category 4 hurricane to the havoc it later created inland as a tropical storm. Typical insurance policies cover wind but not flooding, which often proves costlier. Blaming one or the other takes time.

In the Houston area, rainfall already has surpassed that of tropical storm Allison in 2001, which wreaked roughly $12 billion of damage in current dollars. In that case, only about $5 billion was covered by insurance, according to Aon.

Those storms are dwarfed by Hurricane Katrina, which struck in 2005 and devastated New Orleans. By some estimates, it inflicted $160 billion in total economic damage. About 47 percent of Katrina losses were covered by the insurance industry, but only about 27 percent is expected to be insured for Harvey, Watson said.

Most people with flood insurance buy policies backed by the federal government’s National Flood Insurance Program. As of April, less than one-sixth of homes in Houston’s Harris County had federal coverage, according to Aon. That would leave more than 1 million homes unprotected in the county. Coverage rates are similar in neighboring areas. Many cars also will be totaled.

“A lot of these people are going to be in very serious financial situations,” said Loretta Worters, a spokeswoman for the Insurance Information Institute. “Most people who are living in these areas do not have flood insurance. They may be able to collect some grants from the government, but there are not a lot, usually they’re very limited. There are no-interest to low-interest loans, but you have to pay them back.”

The federal program itself is already struggling with $25 billion of debt. The existing program is set to expire on Sept. 30 and is up for review in Congress, which ends its recess Sept. 5.

Investors Brace

Costs still will likely soar for insurance companies and their reinsurers, biting into earnings. As Harvey bore down on the coastline Friday, William Blair & Co., a securities firm that tracks the industry, said the storm could theoretically inflict $25 billion of insured losses if it landed as a “large category 3 hurricane.”

Policyholder-owned State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. has the largest share in the market for home coverage in Texas, followed by Allstate Corp., which is publicly traded. William Blair estimated that, in that scenario, Allstate could incur $500 million of pretax catastrophe losses, shaving 89 cents off of earnings per share.

Investors began bracing for losses last week. But many didn’t believe that Harvey could wipe out bonds that were issued to protect insurers against storm damage in the region, according to Brett Houghton, a managing principal at Fermat Capital Management. His firm manages more than $5 billion, with allocations to catastrophe bonds.

The Swiss Re Cat Bond Price Return Index dropped 0.44 percent in the week ended Aug. 25, the steepest decline since January. The benchmark is recalculated every Friday, so it’s unclear how the debt performed as the storm continued through Sunday. Reinsurers, which provide a backstop for primary carriers, also may get burned. That group include Bermuda-based companies Arch Capital Group Ltd., Axis Capital Holdings Ltd. and RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd., according to a note last week from Meyer Shields, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

Interrupting Business

Businesses are probably better covered than individuals. Companies across the retailing, manufacturing, health-care and hospitality industries will be seeking reimbursements from insurers for lost revenue during the storm and subsequent repairs, said Aon’s Jill Dalton, who helps manage claims.

But for Texas’s massive energy industry, it’s still too early to project how badly the storm will disrupt supply and distribution. That’s because the devastation keeps spreading.

“If it continues to rain, I just don’t think the situation is going to get better any time soon,” said Rick Miller, who leads Aon’s U.S. property practice. “In fact, it could get a lot worse.”

Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Output: Less than a third of the losses from Hurricane Harvey are likely to be insured, given the high proportion caused by flooding, according to Chuck Watson of Enki Research. Many insurance policies do not cover flooding, and only one sixth of homes in the affected region were estimated to have coverage from the federal government’s National Flood Insurance Programme in April, leaving up to one million homes unprotected. Experts said it is too early to predict the impact of the storm on Texas' energy industry.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Farmed salmon suffer hearing loss
 To grasp the wide-ranging impacts of our industrial food systems, take a peek inside a salmon’s ear. That’s what marine biologist Tormey Reimer did when, in 2013 at the University of Melbourne, she began to investigate deformities that were developing on the structures that salmon use to hear.

Bony fish species have structures called otoliths in their ears, small crystals that they use to detect sound. Biologists have for decades relied on otoliths to age fish, using them like rings on a tree. But what Reimer saw was an altogether larger, lighter, and more transparent crystal called a vaterite, growing into the otolith and obstructing the fish’s ability to hear. “I did a bit of digging and found it was much more common in farmed salmon than wild,” she says. And, she began to suspect it had something to do with the accelerated growth rates in fish farms.

Now, in a recent paper, she’s confirmed that hunch. By surveying groups of farmed salmon, Reimer discovered that the biggest feature underpinning a salmon’s likelihood of developing vaterites – beyond diet, and genetics – was their growth speed. “The fastest-growing fish were three times more likely to have vaterites than the slow-growing fish,” Reimer says. Farmed fish typically get high-nutrient feed, and are exposed to longer light conditions than they would experience in the wild. Because salmon will eat whenever it’s light, this system creates constantly guzzling fish that grow faster and more efficiently.

Reimer still doesn’t know precisely why faster growth leads to vaterite formation; one theory is that it might have something to do with rapid skeletal growth, which could usurp resources intended for the proper development of otoliths. But she does know that fish afflicted with vaterites will have impaired hearing for life. “I see this as one of many puzzle pieces in animal welfare,” she says. “What’s surprising is that we’ve known about most of the issues in aquaculture for a really long time, but this is a brand new one that’s just popped up.”

Aquaculture has reached such a scale and degree of efficiency that hearing-impaired fish have simply become an artefact of its success. Crowded conditions and disease outbreaks are already problems that the industry has to tackle; adding a human-caused disability to that list takes the concern to a new high. And it’s only likely to intensify.

Aquaculture is now the fastest-growing sector of food production. Roughly half –probably more – of the fish we produce worldwide comes from farms. All this is set against a backdrop of globally dwindling and stagnating wild fisheries, which also increases aquaculture’s desirability on a global stage. What does this mean for the industry’s future, and the welfare of the farmed fish we’ll come to rely on more and more?

“There’s only so much wild fish you can pull from the ocean, and it’s not going to grow. We need more fish and it’s going to come from aquaculture,” says Rebecca Gentry, a marine ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She’s the author on another recent study that explored a different concern in aquaculture: productivity. In the research she found that every coastal country on the planet technically could meet its seafood needs – and do so sustainably – via offshore fish farming in only a small portion of its coastal waters.

By identifying only the most suitable habitat for aquaculture globally – areas of ocean with the right depth for fish farms, and which exist outside marine protected areas and busy shipping lanes – Gentry proved that we could produce 100 times our current seafood needs. Crucially, she showed that in countries whose populations experience serious food insecurity, aquaculture can provide a cheap and reliable source of protein. The limits on the success of marine aquaculture aren’t space, which is in abundance, the study concluded. Instead, it’s economics, and governance, that will determine aquaculture’s future.

Salmon farming in Hitra Bay, west of Trondheim in Norway. Each circular net contains some 120,000 salmons. Photograph: Celine Serrat/AFP/Getty Images

Another major limitation is aquaculture’s poor reputation, marred by problems like the persistent outbreaks of viral disease, which spread rapidly in the close quarters and often beyond the farm enclosures to infect wild fish. The antibiotics and pesticides used to control these outbreaks in turn often pollute the surrounding waters. But as Gentry’s study shows, aquaculture also has the power to solve some of our most pressing food security concerns, because by creating an abundant supply of farmed fish, it lessens the pressure on overfished stocks. “It’s not black and white. Aquaculture has, and hasn’t, done really well. I mean, mowing down mangroves for shrimp farms – that’s so red hot, sustainably,” Gentry says. “We need to step back and think, what is sustainable aquaculture?”

And, how does the welfare of of salmon – and other fish – slot into that goal? The problem is big enough to consider seriously. In another previous study, Reimer was part of a team that sampled Norwegian hatchery-raised salmon, and discovered that almost all of the fish in the sample were afflicted with vaterites. When she compared the results with studies on other farmed fish, she found that the rate was similarly high. “Vaterite has been found in other farmed fish species: in carp, eel, red drum. So I do believe that really any fish that has an otolith and is farmed in a way that maximises growth rate, should be looked at to see if this is affecting them,” Reimer says.

At such a scale, this should push us to examine the ethics of fish farming as we expand aquaculture, the same way we might do for cattle, poultry, and pigs. “It may not seem like a big deal to say that many farmed fish are hearing impaired. But if you were to say to someone that a high proportion of the cows you eat are blind in the field, there would be an uproar,” Reimer says.

It’s true that fish hardly inspire the same degree of affection as the mammals we farm. But it’s more than a question of emotion; it’s also a practical issue that aquaculture companies can’t ignore. Many countries, including the UK, demand the “Five Freedoms” for all farmed animals, including fish. One of these requires that animals be capable of expressing normal behaviours. That’s a freedom that Reimer and colleagues assume that hearing-impaired salmon do not enjoy.

None of this is intended to undermine aquaculture, she says. “Farmers want to grow fish as quickly as possible and get them to market. I wouldn’t expect aquaculture companies to reduce growth rates.” Instead Reimer hopes for further research to illuminate what’s really going on, perhaps hitting on a way to reduce the risk of vaterites, maybe via diet, while still keeping growth rates intact. “It’s a good opportunity to put the resources into that research and to get it solved as quickly as possible. Through ignorance, we have let it go on for quite some time.”

Certainly, as aquaculture continues its global spread, we’ll need to find creative and varied solutions to the challenges that will inevitably arise. The case of the deafened salmon is omen-like, crystallising some of the biggest concerns about aquaculture’s future growth. It brings to our plates an uncomfortable awareness about the huge scope of damage that our food systems can create.

And yet, if we do it well, aquaculture could also become an invaluable tool for fixing some of the damage we’ve wrought through our traditional fisheries. Pragmatically, Reimer says: “While they’re both doing terrible things to the environment, one can be improved. The other cannot.”

Output: Farmed salmon are developing crystals called vaterites that are obstructing their ability to hear, according to a study by an Australian scientist. Marine biologist Tormey Reimer discovered that faster growing fish were three times more likely to develop the vaterites. As farmed fish receive high-nutrient feed, and are exposed to longer light conditions which boost feeding, they grow more quickly and efficiently. Aquaculture is the most rapidly expanding sector of food production with at least 50% of fish produced worldwide coming from farms. Marine ecologist Rebecca Gentry has proved that the sector could potentially produce 100 times existing seafood needs.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Farmed salmon suffer hearing loss
 World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision, Key Findings and Advance Tables (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2015).

Tilman, D. & Clark, M. Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health. Nature 515, 518–522 (2014).

The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2016: Contributing to Food Security and Nutrition for All (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2016).

Maxwell, S. L., Fuller, R. A., Brooks, T. M. & Watson, J. E. M. The ravages of guns, nets and bulldozers. Nature 536, 143–145 (2016).

Pelletier, N. & Tyedmers, P. Forecasting potential global environmental costs of livestock production 2000–2050. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 18371–18374 (2010).

Lovatelli, A., Aguilar-Manjarrez, J. & Soto, D. Expanding Mariculture Farther Offshore: Technical, Environmental, Spatial and Governance Challenges Technical Workshop 73 (FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, 2013).

Merino, G. et al. Can marine fisheries and aquaculture meet fish demand from a growing human population in a changing climate? Glob. Environ. Chang. 22, 795–806 (2012).

Hall, S. J., Delaporte, A., Phillips, M. J., Beveridge, M. & O’Keefe, M. Blue Frontiers: Managing the Environmental Costs of Aquaculture (The WorldFish Center, Penang, Malaysia, 2011).

Tacon, A. G. J. & Metian, M. Fish matters: importance of aquatic foods in human nutrition and global food supply. Rev. Fish. Sci. 21, 22–38 (2016).

Campbell, B. & Pauly, D. Mariculture: a global analysis of production trends since 1950. Mar. Policy 39, 94–100 (2013).

Primavera, J. H. Overcoming the impacts of aquaculture on the coastal zone. Ocean Coast. Manag. 49, 531–545 (2006).

Goldburg, R. J., Elliott, M. S. & Naylor, R. L. Marine Aquaculture in the United States: Environmental Impacts and Policy Options (Pew Oceans Commission, Arlington, Virginia, 2001).

Holmer, M. Environmental issues of fish farming in offshore waters: perspectives, concerns and research needs. Aquac. Environ. Interact. 1, 57–70 (2010).

Froehlich, H. E., Smith, A., Gentry, R. R. & Halpern, B. S. Offshore aquaculture: I know it when I see it. Front. Mar. Sci. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00154 (2017).

Troell, M. et al. Does aquaculture add resilience to the global food system? Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 111, 13257–13263 (2014).

Godfray, H. C. J. et al. Food security: the challenge of feeding 9 billion people. Science 327, 812–818 (2010).

Kapetsky, J. M., Agular-Manjarrez, J. & Jenness, J. A Global Assessment of Offshore Mariculture Potential from a Spatial Perspective (Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy, 2013).

Jiang, W. & Gibbs, M. T. Predicting the carrying capacity of bivalve shellfish culture using a steady, linear food web model. Aquaculture 244, 171–185 (2005).

Ferreira, J. G. et al. Analysis of coastal and offshore aquaculture: application of the FARM model to multiple systems and shellfish species. Aquaculture 289, 32–41 (2009).

Froehlich, H. E., Gentry, R. R. & Halpern, B. S. Synthesis and comparative analysis of physiological tolerance and life-history growth traits of marine aquaculture species. Aquaculture 460, 75–82 (2016).

Pauly, D. & Munro, J. L. Once more on the comparison of growth in fish and invertebrates. Fishbyte 2, 21 (1984).

Pauly, D., Moreau, J. & Prein, M. A comparison of overall growth performance of Tilapia in open waters and aquaculture. In Second Int. Symp. Tilapia Aquaculture 469–479 (ICLARM Conference Proceedings, 1988).

Mathews, C. P. & Samuel, M. Using the growth performance index Φ’ to choose species aquaculture: an example from Kuwait. Aquabyte 3, 2–4 (1990).

Alvarez-Lajonchère, L. & Ibarra-Castro, L. Relationships of maximum length, length at first sexual maturity, and growth performance index in nature with absolute growth rates of intensive cultivation of some tropical marine fish. J. World Aquac. Soc. 43, 607–620 (2012).

Duarte, C. M., Marba, N. & Holmer, M. Rapid domestication of marine species. Science 316, 382–383 (2007).

Froehlich, H. E., Gentry, R. R., Rust, M. B., Grimm, D. & Halpern, S. Public perceptions of aquaculture: evaluating spatiotemporal patterns of sentiment around the world. PLoS ONE 12, e0169281 (2017).

Brown, J. H., Gillooly, J. F., Allen, A. P., Savage, V. M. & West, G. B. Toward a metabolic theory of ecology. Ecology 85, 1771–1789 (2004).

Edwards, P. Aquaculture environment interactions: past, present and likely future trends. Aquaculture 447, 2–14 (2015).

O’Leary, B. C. et al. Effective coverage targets for ocean protection. Conserv. Lett. 9, 398–404 (2016).

Halpern, B. S. et al. A global map of human impact on marine ecosystems. Science 319, 948–952 (2008).

Halpern, B. S. et al. Spatial and temporal changes in cumulative human impacts on the world’s ocean. Nat. Commun. 6, 7615 (2015).

Sanchez-Jerez, P. et al. Aquaculture’s struggle for space: the need for coastal spatial planning and the potential benefits of allocated zones for aquaculture (AZAs) to avoid conflict and promote sustainability. Aquac. Environ. Interact. 8, 41–54 (2016).

Halpern, B. S. et al. An index to assess the health and benefits of the global ocean. Nature 488, 615–620 (2012).

FAO Global Aquaculture Production Statistics Database Updated to 2013: Summary Information (FAO, 2015).

Krause, G. et al. A revolution without people? Closing the people–policy gap in aquaculture development. Aquaculture 447, 44–55 (2015).

Knapp, G. & Rubino, M. C. The political economics of marine aquaculture in the United States. Rev. Fish. Sci. Aquac. 24, 213–229 (2016).

Klinger, D. & Naylor, R. L. Searching for solutions in aquaculture: charting a sustainable course. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 37, 247–276 (2012).

Bell, J. D. et al. Mixed responses of tropical Pacific fisheries and aquaculture to climate change. Nat. Clim. Chang. 3, 591–599 (2013).

Cheung, W. W. L. et al. Large-scale redistribution of maximum fisheries catch potential in the global ocean under climate change. Glob. Chang. Biol. 16, 24–35 (2010).

Nguyen, H., Hien, P., Nang, T. & Lebailly, P. Vietnam’s fisheries and aquaculture development’s policy: are exports performance targets sustainable? In ISSAAS 2016: Int. Congress General Meeting (2016).

Golden, C. et al. Fall in fish catch threatens human health. Nature 534, 317–320 (2016).

Belton, B., Bush, S. R. & Little, D. C. Are the farmed fish just for the wealthy? Nature 538, 171 (2016).

Béné, C. et al. Contribution of fisheries and aquaculture to food security and poverty reduction: assessing the current evidence. World Dev. 79, 177–196 (2016).

IPCC Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report (eds Core Writing Team, Pachauri, R. K. & Meyer L. A.) (IPCC, 2015).

Fairbanks, L. Moving mussels offshore? Perceptions of offshore aquaculture policy and expansion in New England. Ocean Coast. Manag. 130, 1–12 (2016).

Naylor, R. L. et al. Feeding aquaculture in an era of finite resources. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 15103–15110 (2009).

Ramos, J. et al. Perceived impact of offshore aquaculture area on small-scale fisheries: a fuzzy logic model approach. Fish. Res. 170, 217–227 (2015).

R Core Team R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, 2016); https://www.r-project.org/.

Locarnini, R. A. et al. World Ocean Atlas 2009 Volume 1: Temperature (2010); ftp://ftp.nodc.noaa.gov/pub/WOA09/DOC/woa09_vol1_text.pdf.

Rubino, M. Offshore Aquaculture in the United States: Economic Considerations, Implications & Opportunities (US Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2008).

Harris, J. O., Maguire, G., Edwards, S. J. & Johns, D. R. Low dissolved oxygen reduces growth rate and oxygen consumption rate of juvenile greenlip abalone, Haliotis laevigata Donovan. Aquaculture 174, 265–278 (1999).

Diaz, R. J. Overview of hypoxia around the world. J. Environ. Qual. 30, 275–281 (2001).

Vaquer-Sunyer, R. & Duarte, C. M. Thresholds of hypoxia for marine biodiversity. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 105, 15452–15457 (2008).

Blanchette, C. A., Helmuth, B. & Gaines, S. D. Spatial patterns of growth in the mussel, Mytilus californianus, across a major oceanographic and biogeographic boundary at Point Conception, California, USA. J. Exp. Mar. Bio. Ecol. 340, 126–148 (2007).

Page, H. M. & Hubbard, D. M. Temporal and spatial patterns of growth in mussels Mytilus edulis on an offshore platform: relationships to water temperature and food availability. J. Exp. Mar. Bio. Ecol. 111, 159–179 (1987).

Saxby, S. A. in A Review of Food Availability, Sea Water Characteristics and Bivalve Growth Performance at Coastal Culture Sites in Temperate and Warm Temperate Regions of the World 132 (Department of Fisheries, Western Australia, 2002).

Inglis, G. J., Hayden, B. J. & Ross, A. H. An Overview of Factors Affecting the Carrying Capacity of Coastal Embayments for Mussel Culture (National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, 2000).

Langan, R. The role of marine aquaculture in meeting the future demand for animal protein. J. Foodserv. 19, 227–233 (2008).

Puniwai, N. et al. Development of a GIS-based tool for aquaculture siting. ISPRS Int. J. Geoinf. 3, 800–816 (2014).

Kaiser, M. J., Snyder, B. & Yu, Y. A review of the feasibility, costs, and benefits of platform-based open ocean aquaculture in the Gulf of Mexico. Ocean Coast. Manag. 54, 721–730 (2011).

IUCN & UNEP World Database on Protected Areas (2009); http://www.wdpa.org/.

Day, J. et al. Guidelines for Applying the IUCN Protected Area Management Categories to Marine Protected Areas (IUCN, 2012).

Wood, L. J., Fish, L., Laughren, J. & Pauly, D. Assessing progress towards global marine protection targets: shortfalls in information and action. Oryx 42, 340–351 (2008).

Keys, A. B. The weight–length relation in fishes. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 14, 922–925 (1928).

Froese, R. Cube law, condition factor and weight–length relationships: history, meta-analysis and recommendations. J. Appl. Ichthyol. 22, 241–253 (2006).

Gaspar, M. B., Santos, M. N. & Vasconcelos, P. Weight–length relationships of 25 bivalve species (Mollusca: Bivalvia) from the Algarve coast (southern Portugal). J. Mar. Biol. Assoc. UK 81, 805–807 (2001).

Commission Regulation (EC) No 710/2009 of 5 August 2009 Amending Regulation (EC) No 889/2008 Laying Down Detailed Rules for the Implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 15–34 (European Union, 2009).

Sim-Smith, C. & Forsythe, A. Comparison of the International Regulations and Best Management Practices for Marine Finfish Farming (New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries, 2013).

Output: Farmed salmon are developing crystals called vaterites that are obstructing their ability to hear, according to a study by an Australian scientist. Marine biologist Tormey Reimer discovered that faster growing fish were three times more likely to develop the vaterites. As farmed fish receive high-nutrient feed, and are exposed to longer light conditions which boost feeding, they grow more quickly and efficiently. Aquaculture is the most rapidly expanding sector of food production with at least 50% of fish produced worldwide coming from farms. Marine ecologist Rebecca Gentry has proved that the sector could potentially produce 100 times existing seafood needs.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Toxic cloud off UK coast may have been caused by ship
 Authorities investigating the cause of Sunday’s chemical cloud are working on the assumption that it came from a ship in the Channel after environmental monitoring sites picked up a localised spike in pollution levels.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is working with the Environment Agency to establish the source of the cloud, which left 150 people seeking medical treatment and caused the evacuation of Birling Gap beach in East Sussex.

So far there is no evidence that the cloud came from an inland source, and authorities have also played down speculation that it could have drifted from as far as France.

A source close to the investigation said: “It might be a ship venting, but let’s wait and see.”

A satellite imaging agency may have located a possible source of the chemical plume to a boat close to the East Sussex shore. Neodaas, a facility of the UK Natural Environment Research Council that works with the Plymouth Marine Laboratory and the University of Dundee, tweeted images appearing to show a plume coming off a boat on Sunday morning.

One image showed a plume of around 3.5km long. Neodaas is urging the Met Office to help determine whether wind speeds at the time could have drawn the plume onshore.

Two pollution monitoring sites on the south coast picked up a quadrupling in ozone levels in a 30-minute period on Sunday afternoon, suggesting the toxic cloud came from a nearby ship.

One site at Devonshire Park in Eastbourne, and the national monitoring site at Lullington Heath, East Sussex, are both within five miles of Birling Gap.

Timothy Baker, from King’s College London’s environmental research group, which manages the pollution monitoring network for Sussex local authorities, said these readings suggested the source was nearby and offshore because of the wind direction at the time.

“We are not sure what it was, but there was a very distinct peak: the levels quadrupled at the time that incident was reported. Within the space of about half an hour the readings we were getting from those sites went from 30 up to about 120 parts per billion of ozone,” said Baker.

No other sites recorded a rise, he said. Similar levels of ozone pollution were reported during the 2003 heatwave, but at the time the levels did not rise so quickly, and no one reported stinging eyes, sore throats and vomiting as they did on Sunday.

Baker said: “The most likely scenario is that it was either ozone combined with something else, or it is something that has reacted in a similar way to ozone and hence triggered the analysers.”

He added: “It was probably something relatively close. I’ve heard speculation that it may have drifted over from France. The speed of the rise and very isolated points at which it was detected would seem to indicate that was less likely, because the further away the source the more it spreads.

“All the indications were that the wind was coming in off the sea at the time.”

Asked if the pollution came from a ship, he said: “All I can say is that it was something that came in off the sea.”

An Environment Agency spokesman said: “We are currently investigating any potential onshore sources of the pollution and to date we have not identified anything that could be attributed to the mist and we are liaising with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, who are doing similar investigations offshore.”

Baker said the source of the cloud was still a mystery. “We have spent most of the day looking at it and we haven’t got a definitive answer yet. We don’t think it is just ozone that caused it. The monitoring sites don’t record all possible pollutants. If it was an unusual chemical it is possible that it may have triggered a similar reaction within the analyser to ozone.”

Nothing was seen on other polluting detectors including those for nitrogen dioxide, Baker said.

“Ozone is not an emitted pollutant. It is caused by reactions within the atmosphere. The levels of pollution didn’t indicate that this was a normal reaction, because ozone usually rises slowly and builds to a peak during the middle of the afternoon. This went up to four times what it was in half an hour,” he said.

East Sussex fire and rescue service said the investigation was likely to take some time.

Gas-monitoring equipment used in the aftermath of the incident failed to conclusively identify the gas, it said. It said the expert team investigating the incident concluded that the gas was unlikely to be chlorine “due to the symptoms and situation described”.

It added: “All agencies involved ask that investigators are given time to carry out their work rather than speculate on possible causes.”

Output: A chemical cloud that appeared over the coast of Sussex in the UK on Sunday, and which forced 150 people to seek medical treatment, could have come from a ship in the Channel. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency, in conjunction with the Environment Agency, is attempting to identify the source of the cloud which led to the evacuation of Birling Gap beach. Two pollution monitoring sites on the coast identified a quadrupling of ozone levels in a half-hour period on Sunday afternoon, increasing speculation that the toxic plume emerged from a vessel.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Hurricane Harvey costs could reach $100bn
 With the catastrophic Texas floods triggered by the former Hurricane Harvey expected to worsen, early estimates suggest the financial damage it has inflicted has already run into tens of billions of dollars, and one forecaster has predicted the final bill could be as high as $100bn (£77bn).

The tropical storm continues to batter south-eastern Texas, where it has so far claimed at least nine lives, and is expected to reach southern Louisiana. Thousands of homes have been flooded, forcing residents to seek emergency shelter. US authorities estimate 30,000 people will need shelter.

So far, predictions of the final cost of the damage vary widely, although Harvey is expected to be one of the costliest storms in US history. Some analysts are putting the likely damage at $30 to $50bn – but point out that not all of this sum will be covered by insurance. However, David Havens, an insurance analyst at Imperial Capital in New York, told Bloomberg News the final bill could reach as much as $100bn.

This compares with economic damage of $176bn inflicted by hurricane Katrina in 2005, which included $82bn of insured losses, and the $75bn economic losses caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, of which $31bn was insured. The figures are from Swiss Re Institute.

Chuck Watson, of US data analytics firm Enki, said: “Harvey is so destructive not because it was a category 4, but because of the rain and flooding … I would not be surprised to see numbers approaching $42bn, which would put the storm in the top 10, and at the fringes of the top five, most costly storms in US history.”

As personal insurance policies tend to exclude flood cover, most of the flood-related claims will be borne by the US National Flood Insurance Programme.

However, many people in eastern Texas have failed to buy coverage from NFIP or have let their policies lapse, the New York Times reported. It said many never had to buy flood insurance because their property was not listed as being on a 100-year floodplain.

Donald Trump said the cost of recovery from Harvey – the first natural disaster during his presidency – would be “very expensive” but pledged that “the federal government stands ready, willing and able to support that effort”.

Barrie Cornes, a London-based analyst at Panmure Gordon, said the wind damage and flooding, which was showing no sign of let-up, was likely to cause total economic losses of $30 to $50bn.

As for how much of this is insured, Edward Morris and Michael Huttner, insurance analysts at JPMorgan Cazenove, said: “At this stage, it remains early to provide reliable loss estimates, but something in the $10bn to $20bn range appears likely, and could easily be exceeded given the extent of flood damage.”

Lloyd’s of London firms Lancashire, Beazley and Hiscox are expected to be the worst-affected UK insurers. Cornes estimates they face bills of at least £100m each.

Harvey has swamped the Texas oil industry, which processes a third of America’s oil. Companies including Exxon Mobil have shut down their facilities and it will be weeks before refineries return to full operation. This is likely to push up gasoline prices at the pump.

Goldman Sachs estimates that refinery shutdowns have affected 3m barrels a day, about 17% of refining capacity.

“The slow-moving nature of the storm will likely lead to these shutdowns continuing in coming days and may generate persistent damage as well,” Damien Courvalin, the head of energy research at Goldman Sachs, said in a note on Monday morning.

Apart from energy, the construction and shipping industries will bear the brunt of the commercial damage, according to the Lloyd’s of London insurance market. It said it was too early to put a figure on the likely damage.

A spokesman added: “In terms of Lloyd’s exposure, which in Texas includes the construction, energy, marine and hospitality industries, we’ll likely play a key role in the restoration of damaged businesses and communities. In the last five years, the Lloyd’s market has paid out $6.3bn in catastrophe claims payments in North America, so this is an area where we have deep experience.”

Andreas van Embden, an analyst at Peel Hunt, said the US flood programme bears all homeowners’ losses up to $4bn and only transfers 25% of the next $4bn to the private reinsurance market. So if Harvey triggers an $8bn flood loss, reinsurers would face a $1bn claim. He estimates insured losses of up to $12bn.

“Whilst Harvey is a major event we do not see this as being the size of a Katrina or Sandy,” he said.

The top five natural disasters – insured losses and (total economic losses)

2005 Hurricane Katrina – $82bn ($176bn)

2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami – $38bn ($229bn)

2012 Hurricane Sandy – $31bn ($75bn)

1992 Hurricane Andrew – $28bn ($46bn)

1994 Northridge earthquake – $25bn ($73bn)

Source: Swiss Re Institute

Output: The financial cost of the flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in Texas could range from $30bn to $100bn, according to analysts. The storm could be one of the most expensive in US history, with not all losses covered by insurance. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 resulted in losses of $176bn, including $82bn of insured losses, according to Swiss Re. The majority of flood-related claims for Harvey will be borne by the US National Flood Insurance Programme (NFIP). However, many residents lack NFIP coverage. Lloyd's-owned insurers Lancashire, Beazley and Hiscox are expected to face costs of £100m ($129m) each.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Greenko mulls bid for $2bn Reliance-owned Mumbai power utility
 MUMBAI: India’s leading renewables company Greenko is in talks with Anil Ambani-led Reliance Infrastructure to acquire its Mumbai electricity business for an enterprise value of Rs 10,000-13,000 crore ($1.75-2 billion), people aware of the discussions said.The Mumbai business caters to 3 million customers, making it the country’s largest private sector integrated power utility, entailing 1800 mw of distribution along with generation facilities, besides over 1,000 km of underground network. The distribution franchise is nine decades old with the licence valid till August 2036.In November 2015, R-Infra entered into a non-binding pact to sell 49% stake in the business to Public Sector Pension Investment Board ( PSP Investments ) of Canada. Those exclusive negotiations lapsed, following which the company engaged with other potential suitors, said sources in the know.Hong Kong-headquartered CLP has also held discussions with Reliance, said a company official on condition of anonymity, but Greenko is believed to be the front-runner. However, no binding agreements have been signed yet, said the sources mentioned above.Spokespersons for R-Infra and Greenko refused comment on what they termed as speculation. “India is a primary growth market for CLP Group and the company has built its portfolio steadily for the last 15 years. In line with its growth strategy, the company routinely evaluates different opportunities. The matter in question is speculative and as a policy, we don’t respond to market speculation,” a CLP spokesperson told ET.In FY17, R-Infra’s electrical division (Mumbai and Delhi together) clocked Rs 4,165 crore EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) on the back of Rs 22,556 crore revenues. The Mumbai division accounted for around Rs 9,750 crore revenues and Rs 2,000-2,500 crore EBITDA, sources said. The company does not disclose city-wise breakup.The Mumbai circle licence, along with the generation, transmission and distribution assets, will be carved out and transferred to a subsidiary and then sold, explained the official mentioned above.Within 10 years, Greenko has become India’s largest renewable power producer with 2.5 gigawatts (gw) of operational portfolio of wind, solar and hydropower projects. By September 2017 end, the company plans to raise capacity to 3 gw.The operating portfolio is believed to have generated around $450 million EBITDA in FY17. This arguably places the company among the top 5 private sector owners and operators of power assets across all verticals (coal, renewable and hydro).The privately held company that was previously listed on London’s AIM exchange, counts Singapore’s GIC and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) as key shareholders. Greenko has been making bold bets. Last year, it took over SunEdison’s India portfolio and this year it completed the world’s largest solar project (500 mw) in five months in Andhra Pradesh. In the past 12 months, it has raised $2 billion in equity and debt.Sources said the foray into transmission and distribution along with technologies relating to energy storage will help Greenko derisk its portfolio and control the entire value chain. Both GIC and ADIA will be infusing equity to back this transaction, like they have in the past.CLP entered India’s power sector in 2002. It has grown its wind energy business consistently to become the largest independent producer. It currently operates 3148 mw and has been looking to add 250-300 mw of renewable capacity annually.Since past two years, cash-strapped Reliance Infrastructure has been looking at exiting capex-heavy businesses such as cement and roads to focus on the newer defence division. It has exited cement entirely and is looking at either divesting or listing its roads portfolio.R-Infra’s debt on a consolidated basis stands at about Rs 29,000 crore, which, according to the company brass, is expected to fall to Rs 20,000 crore following various deleveraging initiatives.“There is no exclusivity with PSP and Reliance is free to talk to or engage with various parties. These are crown jewels, so naturally there is interest from investors from all over. But nothing concrete has taken place,” said an official directly involved, on condition of anonymity. The transaction is likely to reduce Reliance Group’s debt by at least Rs 10,000 crore.“In power distribution, the company has been able to reduce loss levels significantly in both cities with loss level in Mumbai at ~9% (vs average of 30% for India) and at 13% in Delhi (vs 55% earlier),” said Dhirendra Tiwari and Anish Hariprasad of Antique Stock Broking.“The sale of cement business to Birla Corporation and the recent filing of DRHP for raising funds through InViT (Infrastructure Investment Trust) and the proceeds from arbitration process are likely to lead to substantial reduction of debt,” felt Mangesh Bhadang of Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities.

Output: Indian renewables company Greenko is in talks to acquire Reliance Infrastructure's Mumbai electricity business for INR100bn-130bn ($1.75bn-$2bn), said people familiar with the matter. With 3 million customers, the Mumbai business is India's largest private sector integrated power utility. Hong Kong-based utility holding company CLP has also discussed acquiring the Mumbai business with Reliance, however, Greenko is the frontrunner, according to several sources.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Amazon, Facebook and Google match $3m to help Harvey victims
 SAN FRANCISCO — It took fewer than 24 hours for several tech companies to hit their matching goals of $1 million in funds raised to aid victims of Hurricane Harvey.

Facebook met its $1 million fundraising matching goal within just a few hours, according to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy’s Hurricane Harvey Recovery Fund, which received the funds.

Google fulfilled its $1 million matching campaign in under 24 hours, raising funds from Google users and staff for Red Cross efforts in Texas and other affected areas. Its staff donated $250,000 to the American Red Cross, which the company matched dollar for dollar, and Google also made a corporate contribution of $250,000.

Amazon, and its newest acquisition Whole Foods Markets, met its $1 million matching goal within days, the company said..

The Amazon wish list from the Red Cross gives a sense of the immediate needs of those in flood-ravaged areas: phone chargers and children's bedding. Amazon fulfillment teams in northern and central Texas continue to ship the needed items to Red Cross distribution centers.

Apple donated $2 million to the American Red Cross for Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. The company has also pledged to match employee donations two to one.

In addition, Apple is making it easy for users to donate to the Red Cross via its iTunes page, which now features buttons for donating between $5 and $200. The money is transferred directly to the American Red Cross from iTunes, so those donating won't get a tax writeoff. But they also won't have to do anything more than click a button on a site they probably visit frequently.

AT&T has pledged $350,000 to help communities impacted by Hurricane Harvey. The AT&T Foundation will also match employee donations up to $100,000. In addition, customers can text ‘HARVEY’ to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross.

Microsoft made an initial donation of $100,000 to the Red Cross, with the company and its employees pledging to do more.

More:Inside the convention center, Harvey evacuees cramped but safe

More:Humanitarian efforts aim to minimize Harvey's misery

More:FEMA: Emergency housing for Hurricane Harvey refugees will be 'frustrating' and 'a long process'

Output: Amazon, Facebook and Google are among the companies making significant donations to help victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas. Google matched the $250,000 donation made to the American Red Cross by its staff, as well as making a corporate gift of $250,000. The company has launched a further $1m matching campaign to encourage donations from staff and users. Amazon will match donations made in its stores or on its website up to $1m. Facebook has pledged to match every dollar raised on its site up to a total of $1m. AT&T and Microsoft have also made donations.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
$9.5bn of city water projects available for investment: CDP
 Research finds cities join companies to lead on water security development following climate change and urban population pressure.

August 29, 2017: New research from CDP, the international environmental reporting and data non-profit, today reveals that US$9.5 billion worth of city water projects are now open for investment. Released for World Water Week (27 August – 1 September) CDP’s new infographic report ‘Who’s tackling urban water challenges’, produced in partnership with AECOM, the global infrastructure firm, and funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, shows the first and most comprehensive dataset of global water action by cities and companies produced to date. Using information gathered from 569 cities and 1,432 companies, each reporting their water management activity, it illustrates how global cities and companies are responding to the escalating challenge of climate change and urban population growth.

The cities most concerned about their water supply lie in Asia and Oceania (84%); with serious risks also identified in Africa (80%) and Latin America (75%). 63% of North American cities deem climate change a risk to water supply, with fewer cities concerned in Europe (34%). 196 cities reported risks of water stress and scarcity; 132 a risk of declining water quality and 103 a risk of flooding.

For example, in December 2015 Chennai faced the worst flooding from rain storms in the last 100 years. With a population of 7,600,000, many hundreds of people were killed, millions were without clean water and business operations were severely disrupted. The city is now investing in its resiliency with water conservation education, building a storm water management system and additional infrastructure.

Together with US$14 billion of water impacts reported from companies, such as loss of production last year, 62% of cities are now working with companies to address water and climate change issues with 80 cities seeking US $9.5 billion for 89 water management projects. Water investment opportunities are greatest in Latin America (US$6.7bn), where Quito, Ecuador is looking for US$800 million to manage their water supply. The city aims to build three hydropower stations and address the contamination of 246km of Quito’s rivers and streams. Development in Latin America is followed by North America (US$2.7bn); Asia and Oceania (US$27.4m); Europe (US$22.3m) and Africa (US$6.19m).

Morgan Gillespy, Head of CDP’s Water Program, said:

“Our report shows just how crucial water management is becoming to our cities. We are seeing critical shifts in leadership from cities and companies in response to the very real threat of flooding, for example, to local economies. Combined with innovation and financial capital, this puts the tipping point for a sustainable economy in reach, and this data shows how important investors are in making this happen. These funds are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of where we must go, with live infrastructure projects currently calling out for US$9.5 billion. Furthermore, in conjunction with investment, we must take a holistic approach to water. Our vision is to achieve a secure and sustainable water supply by 2030 but to get here we need a sharp U-turn in how we manage our natural resources. Water must be recognised as a critical asset at city and board level, so it’s down to us all to build it into our thinking.”

Claire Bonham-Carter, Principal and City Resilience Lead, AECOM notes:

“From our work with cities around the world, water has consistently come up as a key resilience challenge. Many of them, regardless of size, from Mexico City, Mexico to Berkeley, California, are addressing both long-term water supply issues as well as chronic urban flooding. In thinking about the immediate flooding and future water scarcity issues through a resilience lens, we are helping cities to address issues of socio-economic disparity and environmental justice, in addition to solving their technical challenges.”

Explore how cities and companies are acting on water, the CDP infographic report ‘Who's tackling urban water challenges’, with case studies and full data is available at www.cdp.net/cities.

- ENDS -

For more information please contact

Yasmine Svan

ESG Communications

t : +44 (0)7598 148296

e : [email protected]

Charlotte Webster

Communications Manager

CDP

t: +44 (0)7990 583307

e: [email protected]

Notes to Editors

The full ‘Who's tackling urban water challenges’ data set is available at www.cdp.net/cities Water data from companies is from the 2016 CDP Water Report, available at www.cdp.net/water City data is from the 2017 reporting cycle, full data available at https://data.cdp.net

About CDP

CDP is an international non-profit that drives companies and governments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, safeguard water resources and protect forests. Voted number one climate research provider by investors and working with institutional investors with assets of US$100 trillion, we leverage investor and buyer power to motivate companies to disclose and manage their environmental impacts. Nearly 6,000 companies with some 60% of global market capitalization disclosed environmental data through CDP in 2016. This is in addition to the over 500 cities and 100 states and regions who disclosed, making CDP’s platform one of the richest sources of information globally on how companies and governments are driving environmental change. CDP, formerly Carbon Disclosure Project, is a founding member of the We Mean Business Coalition. Please follow @CDP.

About AECOM

AECOM is built to deliver a better world. We design, build, finance and operate infrastructure assets for governments, businesses and organizations in more than 150 countries. As a fully integrated firm, we connect knowledge and experience across our global network of experts to help clients solve their most complex challenges. From high-performance buildings and infrastructure, to resilient communities and environments, to stable and secure nations, our work is transformative, differentiated and vital. A Fortune 500 firm, AECOM had revenue of approximately $17.4 billion during fiscal year 2016. See how we deliver what others can only imagine at aecom.com and @AECOM.

Output: Around two thirds of cities from around the world are teaming up with companies to develop water management projects designed to cope with problems caused by rising urban populations and increasingly scarce water resources, according to a report by environmental non-profit, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). The study states that $9.5bn of city water projects are now available to investors. Latin America is the region with the greatest opportunities for water investment at  $6.7bn, while the greatest concern about supply is found in cities in Asia and the Pacific, followed by Africa and Latin America.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Hotter, wetter US weather is hurting solar output
 Continued warm, wet conditions in the second quarter of 2017 brought a departure from normal global horizontal irradiance, the key variable for PV plant production.

GTM has partnered with Vaisala, a company that monitors solar performance across the U.S., to give the industry a better understanding of how these weather trends are driving solar performance around the country.

The most recent set of maps evaluate departure from normal solar resource conditions in the second quarter of 2017.

Spring 2017 did not follow the usual climatological script. Rather, following the trend from the first quarter of the year, Q2 overall featured continued warm and wet weather for much of the contiguous U.S.

As illustrated by Vaisala’s Q2 map, wet and cloudy conditions prevailed in the Northeast, Southwest and Upper Midwest, while clear and dry conditions were experienced in the Southeast and the Plains region. This pattern of above- and below-normal solar conditions across the country is also consistent with extreme temperature and precipitation conditions recorded by NOAA for the second quarter.

The contiguous United States had its second-warmest year to date, from January to June 2017. Nationally, extremes in maximum and minimum warm temperatures, one-day precipitation totals, days with precipitation, the spatial extent of wetness, and land-falling tropical cyclones were all above average. The U.S. Climate Extremes Index (USCEI) for the year to date was the third-highest value on record, at more than double the average.

On the regional scale, the Northeast, Upper Midwest, Ohio Valley, Southeast, South and West each had record or near-record high CEI value for the year to date. In the Northeast and Upper Midwest, the number of days with precipitation was significantly above average, leading to lower-than-normal solar resource. One-day precipitation totals and days with precipitation in the Ohio Valley were also well above normal.

Parts of the Southeastern U.S. experienced drought conditions at the start of Q2, with wildfires burning in Florida and southern Georgia. They later saw a significant transition with near eradication of drought due to intense rainfall events during the month of June. In the South and the West, single-day precipitation totals showed significant departures from normal conditions with spatial coverage and days with precipitation being well above average.

Warmer-than-normal winter and spring conditions have a direct effect on the energy industry because they reduce energy demand related to heating. As with Q1 2017, energy demand in Q2 was extremely low. For context, the contiguous U.S. temperature-related energy demand during spring 2017 was the fourth lowest in the 123-year period of record, according to data from NOAA’s Residential Energy Demand Temperature Index.

These conditions also affected the solar industry because wetter springtime weather typically comes with significant cloud cover, reducing the available solar resource. This has the obvious effect of reduced power production and decreased project revenue, but can have the added consequence of bringing negative attention to solar in locations where it may not be politically stable.

One example is Minnesota, where the solar energy capacity of the state rose 80 percent during the first half of 2017. This was after a consecutive quarter of leapfrog growth as several major solar arrays were switched on. Altogether, Minnesota's solar arrays have the capacity to crank out roughly the same amount of power as one of Xcel Energy's larger natural-gas-fired plants -- at least when skies are clear and sunny.

And there lies the challenge. Without the ability to properly attribute weather as the cause of lower-than-expected performance and rougher-than-planned grid integration, the local solar industry runs the risk of backlash from utilities and politicians opposed to the newly installed systems.

Looking at Vaisala’s Solar Performance Map of the second quarter, the observed regional pattern of negative and positive anomalies speaks to the importance of weather impacts on project performance even when the installations are small.

For more details, read our month-by-month summaries below to learn how specific weather conditions and anomalous patterns throughout April, May and June may have influenced solar production across your portfolio.

April

A highly variable upper-level circulation sent many troughs and slow-moving closed lows across the contiguous United States (CONUS), which left bouts of cooler weather, heavy precipitation, and severe storms in their wake, especially at the beginning and end of the month. The overall circulation pattern and its widespread above-normal precipitation caused the U.S. to have the second wettest April on record.

Weather across the country this month was dominated by a highly variable jet stream circulation, which dropped above-normal precipitation across much of the country, especially in Hawaii, the West, Plains, Midwest, and parts of the Southeast. Above-normal precipitation in the Pacific Northwest meant three different states experienced their top 10 wettest April within the 123-year record. The associated cloud coverage produced solar resource anomalies of 5 percent or greater below normal for the month.

These jet stream conditions and their southerly flow funneled moisture from the Gulf of Mexico into the Southern Plains to Ohio Valley, and parts of the Southeast, with heavy rains causing extensive flooding along the mid-Mississippi Valley. North Carolina had the wettest April on record, which threatened some newly installed solar farms and forced their owners to monitor flood plains and deal with groundwork issues.

May

Like April, May 2017 did not follow the usual climatological patterns. Similar to the previous month, a highly meridional and variable upper-level circulation sent many troughs and slow-moving closed lows across the U.S., which left bouts of cooler weather, heavy precipitation, and severe storms in their wake.

The highly variable jet stream circulation continued into May with above-normal precipitation across much of the eastern half of the country, especially from the lower Mississippi Valley to the Ohio Valley and central Appalachians. The fronts and upper-level lows triggered periods of severe weather and kept temperatures cooler than normal across much of the central U.S.

Cold fronts and low-pressure systems combined with the upper-level lows to create unstable air and dynamics favorable for severe weather. A particularly strong, widespread and severe weather outbreak occurred at mid-month, covering Colorado in a blanket of snow. It also dropped hailstones up to 2.75 inches in diameter onto the NREL research facility in Golden, Colo. Miraculously, out of 3,168 solar panels at NREL’s Research Support Facility, only one sustained damage, a true testament to the resilience of PV technology.

For areas not in the path of these weather systems, the month was drier than normal, with eight states in the Plains and West having below-average precipitation for May. These drier-than-normal conditions contributed to above-average solar resources, particularly in Montana, which unfortunately does not currently have many solar project installations to take advantage of the excellent conditions.

June

Solar adoption in the Southeast has taken off. North Carolina moved into second place and Georgia has claimed eighth position on the list of top 10 solar states. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with the increase in solar plants in these states by bringing sunny weather. Instead, June’s weather negatively impacted available solar resources during what should have been a high-production month.

Areas of heavy rain were observed, especially along the Gulf Coast, with accompanying low solar resource conditions affecting projects in the area. High levels of rain in the South and Northeast meant that five states in these regions ranked in the top 10 wettest category -- Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Vermont.

Cold fronts and surface low-pressure systems moving in the jet stream flow east of the Rockies were funneled into the Eastern and Southern U.S. by the long-wave trough, where they tapped moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean.

Without inhibitors related to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation shearing tropical systems, the Atlantic and East Pacific saw slightly more vigorous tropical cyclone activity than average. The Atlantic hurricane season typically runs from June 1 through November 30, and two tropical systems developed in the North Atlantic during June. The cloudiness and rain which accompanied Tropical Storm Cindy gave several states in the Southeast a cooler-than-normal June, in addition to being wetter than normal.

The fronts from the North and systems from the South diverged around the mid-Atlantic region, contributing to a sunnier-than-normal month for an area encompassing Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. The system that moved across the West brought rain during the second and third weeks, but the ridge kept most of the West and Great Plains sunnier than normal, and the monthly average was near normal.

Output: Warm conditions across the US in the first half of 2017 reduced energy demand related to heating. Meanwhile, the significant cloud cover that came with wetter springtime weather reduced the availability of solar resource. These factors reduced power production and projects revenues, which could expose local solar industries to backlash from utilities and politicians opposed to installed systems.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
When given the chance, will patients choose cheaper prescription drugs?
 Functional Functional Always active

The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.

Output: Significant cost savings and changes in drug selection has been linked to reference pricing, which leverages insurer/employer contributions to encourage patients to select cheaper drugs that are as effective as their name-brand counterparts, according to a new study.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
The debate over single-payer healthcare in California isn't going away. Here's why
 Members of the California Nurses Association and supporters rally at the state Capitol for a single-payer health plan June 28.

A bill to establish single-payer healthcare screeched to an abrupt halt earlier this summer — but that hasn’t blunted its continuing influence on California politics.

Calls for a sea change in the state’s healthcare system have proved remarkably durable, even after Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon shelved a measure in June that would have made the state responsible for paying all of its residents’ medical costs.

A recently filed ballot initiative, budding campaigns against sitting lawmakers — including a recall effort against Rendon — and new plans for legislators to wrestle with how to achieve universal healthcare have taken shape in recent weeks, and the conversation is poised to take on national heft as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) prepares to introduce a “Medicare for all” measure in the fall.

Advertisement

It all sets the stage for a combustible coming election year, in which questions about the viability of single payer will be posed to gubernatorial candidates, incumbent lawmakers and new entrants to politics galvanized by the healthcare debate.

“People are literally dying because of a lack of healthcare,” said Don Nielsen, government relations director for the California Nurses Assn. “It’s not a matter of waiting until somebody high enough in the power structure decides it’s time…. The time is now.”

The nurses group was the prime driver behind the legislation, SB 562, which would have established a single-payer system in California. The plan proposed to largely do away with private insurance companies and instead have the state cover the tab for residents’ healthcare expenses. The proposal’s total cost ranged from $330 billion to $400 billion but passed out of the state Senate without identifying a revenue source to fund it.

What would California’s proposed single-payer healthcare system mean for me? »

The effort to push through the measure came at a time of increasing awareness — and growing approval — of the single-payer concept. Pew Research Center found that nationally, 33% of respondents backed a single-payer healthcare system, a 12-percentage-point bump in approval since 2004. Statewide, the Public Policy Institute of California found in May that 65% of all adults backed the single-payer insurance system that would have been established by SB 562. But that support plunged more than 20 percentage points if the plan would require raising taxes.

Facing the prospect of saddling his caucus with an unpopular tax vote — or approval of a measure without determining how it would be paid for — Rendon opted to table the bill in June, igniting an immediate outcry from its supporters.

Two months later, that ardor has not fizzled. Last week, a new ballot measure was filed with the goal of removing “roadblocks” to establishing single payer. The initiative, filed by Dale Fountain, who leads the Facebook group Enact Universal Healthcare for California, would create a special account expressly for healthcare that would be exempt from rules that dictate how the state’s general fund dollars must be spent.

The initiative also states its purpose is to spur the Legislature to act, since its passage would theoretically underscore public support for single payer.

Days after the initiative was filed, Rendon announced that informational hearings would be held during the fall legislative recess. He said lawmakers would examine a number of healthcare models, such as Medicare for all or an expansion of the Affordable Care Act, to achieve universal healthcare coverage.

SB 562 has become the most widely known single-payer proposal in the state, but it is not the only road map.

Jonathan Oberlander, professor of social medicine at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, said that single-payer systems — broadly defined as those in which the government is the sole payer of healthcare costs — can vary in financing, benefits and cost-sharing. And single payer is not the only way to achieve universal coverage.

“Countries like Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland and others have universal coverage but not through single-payer arrangements,” Oberlander said. “The notion that the choice is the U.S. status quo or Canadian-style single payer is a prevalent myth.”

By providing a forum to hash out the healthcare debate through the fall, the hearings almost certainly will propel the issue into 2018. But the conversation holds political risk: Will Democrats be expected to produce a bill at the hearings’ close? Will their findings satisfy the most zealous advocates?

People rally in favor of single-payer healthcare in California outside Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon’s office in South Gate on June 27. (Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images)

“I don’t want anybody to have an impression that we’ll do two or three hearings and then, boom, we’ll have a magical solution,” said Assemblyman Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg), one of two Democrats leading the panel.

He insisted the hearings would not be a meaningless exercise.

“This is a real effort,” Wood said. “I would hope people would be patient and would learn along with us as we move forward, because there is a lot to learn.”

Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno), the committee’s co-chairman, said he expects the conversation will spill over to the contest to succeed Gov. Jerry Brown.

“It’s imperative to bring healthcare to that governor’s race,” Arambula said.

The top Democratic candidates have staked out varying positions on the topic: Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has called a state-level single-payer plan “snake oil,” while Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is backed by the nurses association, has called for universal healthcare but has not yet rolled out a proposal. Treasurer John Chiang has signaled support for the concept of single payer but said he has concerns over implementation.

Rendon’s call for hearings was immediately greeted with suspicion from SB 562’s most ardent backers, including those behind a nascent recall effort against him.

“The speaker’s decision to release this misleading statement at this time demonstrates clearly that the speaker has decided not to change course, but rather that the public pressure that has been brought to bear on Speaker Rendon is succeeding,” said Steve Elzie, an attorney advising the recall proponents.

Although the nurses group is not backing the recall, it is keeping the heat on other Assembly Democrats. During the summer break, the union held town halls and knocked on doors in a number of districts. It’s also sent mailers to constituents asking why their representatives aren’t supporting SB 562.

All signs point to the pressure continuing into 2018, and Nielsen did not rule out recruiting challengers to take on Democratic incumbents.

“All options are on the table,” he said. “This is a key issue. This is an issue that really should separate the serious progressive politicians from those who are not serious about the issue.”

melanie.mason@latimes.com

Follow @melmason on Twitter for the latest on California politics.

California Assembly leader Anthony Rendon’s decision to shelve single-payer healthcare angers progressive activists

Q&A: You asked, we answered. Here are some of our readers’ questions on California’s proposed single-payer plan

Updates from Sacramento

Output: A bill to establish single-payer healthcare screeched to an abrupt halt earlier this summer — but that hasn’t blunted its continuing influence on California politics.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
What Happens If You’re Forced To Switch Health Plans When You’re Sick?
 Joanna Joshua, 39, panicked when she opened a letter from her family’s insurer, Cigna, only to learn it was pulling out of California’s individual market next year.

The Santa Clarita resident would have no choice but to change health plans.

“What am I going to do?” Joshua wondered. Her 2-year-old daughter, Jasmine Winning, needs heart surgery next year because of a rare disease she’s had since birth. The toddler has had two heart operations already because she was born with a malformed heart — a condition resulting from Heterotaxy syndrome, in which internal organs are not where they should be.

Joshua believes it’s critical to keep the same doctors for her daughter because they know her unique anatomy. Disrupting the relationship between Jasmine and her medical team would be a “threat to her life,” the girl’s mother said.

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

Cigna’s decision, along with the recent news that Anthem Blue Cross will pull out of the individual market across a large swath of California, has prompted a key state lawmaker to propose legislation that would help seriously ill patients like Jasmine keep their doctors even if those doctors don’t contract with the new health plan.

Anthem cited market instability, tied to uncertainty about federal policy, as a principal reason for pulling out. Cigna also cited instability. State Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina) said the new bill, which he introduced, would protect vulnerable patients from being harmed by it.

“We have to make sure there’s stability and some calm [for] the consumer,” said Hernandez, chairman of the Senate Health Committee.

For people who buy their own insurance and have to switch plans because their insurer is pulling up stakes, the Hernandez bill would require the new plan to cover treatment by the same physicians, even if they are not in the new insurer’s network.

The provision would apply for enrollees under treatment for a chronic, acute or terminal illness, and in cases of pregnancy. The coverage would be contingent on the doctor accepting the payment offered by the new health plan, and the insurer would have to continue covering the services of that provider for up to one year. The coverage could extend beyond a year if the patient were terminally ill.

Similar protections already exist for people with job-based insurance policies that are under the purview of state regulators.

Jasmine Winning is the poster child for the proposed new law — literally. If passed, it would be dubbed “Jasmine’s Law.”

Her two operations were performed by Dr. Frank Hanley, a pediatric cardiac surgeon at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. Hanley is not covered by other health insurers selling in the ZIP code where Jasmine and her family live, the girl’s mother said.

Individual policyholders in many other parts of the country could also be scrambling to keep their doctors next year. In Texas, eight health insurers pulled out of the individual market. By next year, Aetna will have completely withdrawn from the 15 subsidized marketplaces where it has sold at one time or another since 2014. Thousands of people in Nevada will not be able to buy subsidized health plans after Anthem pulled back from many counties in that state’s insurance exchange.

The California bill would also modify an existing law that protects patients awaiting organ transplants. Under current statute, people in job-based coverage who are forced to switch health plans can keep their medical teams for up to a year if they’re on a transplant waiting list. The proposed legislation would apply the same rule to people who buy their own insurance. And it would allow both employer-based and individual market enrollees to keep their doctors even longer if it took more than a year for them to get the transplant. They could receive follow-up care from the same medical team after the procedure.

California insurers are particularly concerned about the transplant provision of the bill, saying it could allow patients to see out-of-network providers “potentially for decades.”

Mary Ellen Grant, a spokeswoman for the California Association of Health Plans, said in an email that the transplant patient provision would hamper insurers’ ability to manage the cost of care for all their members.

Roughly 6,000 customers who have individual policies through Cigna will have to find new coverage next year, according to the California Department of Insurance. This year, Cigna is selling individual and family coverage in California’s large urban regions, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego. It does not sell policies on the state’s insurance exchange, Covered California.

A spokesman for the company, Joe Mondy, said in an email that Cigna is discontinuing service to individual consumers next year because of “the relative instability” of the marketplace. People who have job-sponsored coverage with Cigna will not be affected by the decision.

Cigna’s footprint in the state’s individual market has been shrinking for years, said Janice Rocco, deputy commissioner of health policy at the California Department of Insurance (CDI). That may be due in part to the fact that the company declined to participate in Covered California, she said.

In California, it has been more common for insurers to pull out from certain geographic areas than to leave the individual market altogether, Rocco said. But complete withdrawal is not unheard of. Right before Covered California opened for business in 2014, Aetna and UnitedHealthcare stopped selling to individuals, though UnitedHealthcare returned temporarily in 2016 before exiting again this year.

Next year, Anthem Blue Cross plans to close shop for almost 300,000 individual policyholders in about half of California’s counties, and will sell only Exclusive Provider Organization plans (EPOs) in the areas where it remains.

Health consumer advocates say the retreat by the two insurers in California will be a “huge disruption” for patients, and now is the time to protect them with new legislation.

Angela Perry, a policy analyst at Consumers Union, said seriously ill patients should be guaranteed coverage that allows them to stay with providers they know and trust.

“There may be a treatment plan that’s been designed to go on a long period of time,” Perry said. “Changing the provider … throws all of the patient’s treatment into disarray.”

Jasmine Winning’s mom, Joanna Joshua, doesn’t know what she will do about her daughter’s pending surgery at Stanford next year if she can’t find a plan that will cover it.

That’s why after getting the letter from Cigna in June, she drove 350 miles up to Sacramento to knock on the doors of state lawmakers.

Sen. Hernandez loaned her a sympathetic ear.

‘“It’s not just this kid,” he said. “I’m sure there’s other families that could potentially be facing similar situations.”

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

Output: Joanna Joshua, 39, panicked when she opened a letter from her family’s insurer, Cigna, only to learn it was pulling out of California’s individual market next year. The Santa Clarita resident would have no choice but to change health plans.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Looking Beyond the Obamacare Debate to Improve Health Care
 Obamacare has helped 20 million people gain access to insurance, and it appears to have helped slow the growth in health care costs. But even former President Barack Obama has said that there is still work to be done. The United States spends much more on medical care than other rich countries, like Britain, Australia and the Netherlands, according to a recent Commonwealth Fund report, yet its citizens live shorter lives and suffer from more illnesses and injuries than people in other industrialized nations.

One option that appears to have gained support among the public is a single-payer system, which proponents like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren call “Medicare for All.” A Kaiser Family Foundation poll found in June that 53 percent of Americans favor such a system. This was up from 46 percent, according to an average of seven polls conducted in 2008 and 2009. But moving to a single-payer system from one dominated by employer-paid health coverage would be a big leap, and in any case the political climate is clearly not ready for it. Many Democratic voters as well as party leaders like Representative Nancy Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer have been reluctant to embrace the idea, and, no surprise, most Republican voters and lawmakers oppose it.

Single-payer advocates point out that the United States is the only advanced nation without universal health care, which is true. Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland have achieved universal coverage and affordable health care with, essentially, more comprehensive and generous forms of Obamacare that require people to buy insurance, tightly regulate insurers and provide subsidies to the poor and middle class.

State and federal lawmakers are exploring ways to increase coverage and lower costs. For example, the Nevada Legislature passed a bill in June that would have allowed people who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid to buy into that program. The bill, which would have required a federal waiver, did not become law because Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican, vetoed it. But the idea has other backers. Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii said on Tuesday that he would introduce a bill that would explicitly allow states to let people buy into Medicaid.

Another approach would be to let people buy into Medicare at some point before they become eligible for the program at age 65. Hillary Clinton proposed this during her presidential campaign. Congress could also provide more generous subsidies to help middle-class people buy insurance on Obamacare exchanges. At the state level, four million people would gain coverage if Florida, Georgia, Texas and the 16 other states that have not expanded Medicaid under Obamacare changed their minds and opted in.

Output: Now that Republicans in Congress appear to have at least temporarily abandoned their crusade against the Affordable Care Act, it seems like a good time for lawmakers to come up with plans to fulfill their promises to increase access to health care and to lower costs.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
The GOP Has One Last Health Care Plan. It Would Also Cause Millions to Lose Coverage
 Now that Republicans have failed to pass multiple versions of health care bills to repeal and replace Obamacare, or just repeal it, there’s only one GOP health care bill left floating around: one offered by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and cosponsored by Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV).

In broad strokes, the plan would reduce spending over time by converting Medicaid payments to the states into block grants while gradually reducing federal support. It would also give states more leeway to place limits on health care coverage.

But an analysis by the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities published on Thursday finds that the plan would have effects similar to other Republican plans scored by the Congressional Budget Office: “It would cause many millions of people to lose coverage, radically restructure and deeply cut Medicaid, increase out-of-pocket costs for individual market consumers, and weaken or eliminate protections for people with pre-existing conditions.”

According to CBPP, the reductions would hit a handful states especially hard: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Virginia, plus the District of Columbia. These states embraced expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, and a result account for a large share of spending under the expansion. The Cassidy-Graham bill takes aim at that spending and essentially redirects the money toward non-expansion states, even as it reduces payments overall. Funding for Medicaid expansion would end entirely after 2026.

This redistributive effort appears to be central to the political strategy behind the bill. Former Sen. Rick Santorum recently told Breitbart that he has “no question that we can get very broad support among the Republican base and frankly this will get support from a Democrat or two. The reason is because of the way that Obamacare is structured, it benefits a handful of states.”

Taking from New York and giving to Alabama may indeed be a winning strategy. That may be why former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Andy Slavitt recently tweeted that “The most viable effort 2 repeal the ACA is Graham Cassidy Heller.”

You can review the CBPP analysis in full here.

Output: Now that Republicans have failed to pass multiple versions of health care bills to repeal and replace Obamacare, or just repeal it, there’s only one GOP health care bill left floating around: one offered by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and cosponsored by Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV).


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Older patients do not participate in fall prevention activities
 Save

This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Older patients do not participate in fall prevention activities

Source/Disclosures Source: Narayan Shakar K, et al. Inj Epidemiol. 2017;doi:10.1186/s40621-017-0114-y ADD TOPIC TO EMAIL ALERTS Receive an email when new articles are posted on . Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on Subscribe ADDED TO EMAIL ALERTS You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

Patients aged 65 and older who go to the ED for a fall-related injury are not likely to take part in a fall prevention program after being discharged even after receiving a flyer advertising such a program, according to findings recently published in Injury Epidemiology.

“To better understand older adults’ experience of engaging in fall prevention behaviors after a fall-related ED visit, we investigated postfall behaviors by community-dwelling older adults during the 60 days following an ED visit for a fall or fall-related injury,” Kalpana Narayan Shankar, MD, MPH, of the department of emergency medicine at Boston University Medical Center and colleagues wrote.

Researchers recruited 87 participants aged 65 years and older that presented to an ED with a fall, or fall-related injury, and were sent home with a flyer advertising the Matter of Balance course.

Narayan Shankar and colleagues then conducted follow-up interviews over the phone 60 days after the patient’s ED visit, gathering information on postfall behaviors, attempts to include family and the primary care providers in care, participants registering in a falls prevention program, participants’ attitudes towards falling and any subsequent falls.

Researchers found that:

•71% spoke to a health care provider about the fall that led to their enrollment in the study;

•46% talked to a family member about things the patient can do to avoid falls;

•37% spoke to their health care provider about reducing risk for falls — the same amount indicated talking to friends about ways to prevent falls;

•22% spoke to their health care provider about how medications can affect risk for falls;

•2% tried to reach out to a falls prevention program; and

•0% attended a falls prevention program, such as tai chi or Matter of Balance.

In addition, 14% of the participants reported another fall, and 8% said they returned to the ED after the incident.

Narayan Shankar suggested ways that doctors can implement the study’s findings into their practice.

“A falls history should be a regularly asked thing at all primary care physician visits for older adults given its morbidity and mortality,” she told Healio Family Medicine in an interview. “Fall prevention is not a one-off conversation and the more providers talk about it, the more patients will view it as an important health topic.”

A different study suggested that an exercise regimen that involves activities of daily living such as walking sideways or bending the knees reduced the risk of falls by 31% in elderly participants.

PAGE BREAK

A third of those aged 65 and older experience a fall, and falls are the leading cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries in this age group, according to a press release, which also stated that in 2015, direct medical costs for such incidents were calculated at between $31.3 billion and $36.8 billion. – by Janel Miller

Further reading :

American Geriatrics Society Guideline for the Prevention of Falls in Older People

http://www.americangeriatrics.org/files/documents/health_care_pros/JAGS.Falls.Guidelines.pdf Accessed August 21, 2017.

National Council on Aging’s Program Summary: A Matter of Balance https://www.ncoa.org/resources/program-summary-a-matter-of-balance/ Accessed Aug. 21, 2017.

Preventing Falls: A Guide to Implementing Effective Community-Based Fall Prevention Programs https://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/falls/community_preventfalls.html Accessed August 21, 2017.

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.

Output: Patients aged 65 and older who go to the ED for a fall-related injury are not likely to take part in a fall prevention program after being discharged even after receiving a flyer advertising such a program, according to findings recently published in Injury Epidemiology.