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TalkTalk TalkTalk customers left without internet pursued over cancelled contracts
 When Stuart and Carol Corkett received a £525 bill from British Gas they immediately knew something was wrong.

The reading for their gas meter was wildly off, and it didn't take long to work out what had happened: British Gas had used the meter for their neighbour's house, which is 6ft away.

Yet what seemed like a simple misunderstanding turned into a nine-month ordeal, with the retired couple forced to fend off debt collectors.

Initially the Corketts, from Taunton in Somerset, received a stream of letters from British Gas demanding urgent payment. They wrote to the energy company twice and made numerous phone calls to explain about the meter confusion.

Unwelcome: Figures show that gripes about debt collection practices at big firms and government bodies have more than doubled over the past year, rising from 830 to 2,006

But the demands continued, and soon they started to get letters and phone calls from Moorcroft Debt Recovery, a debt collection agency.

Each time Stuart, 65, rang British Gas to call off the agents, he got a different customer services representative and had to explain the whole saga again.

Nothing seemed to work and the stress got so much that he had to see his doctor.

'I kept appealing to British Gas, but they weren't listening,' Stuart says. 'It felt like I was at a dead end and the next thing I knew they'd put debt collectors on to us.

'I don't understand how companies can be allowed to do this, as a lot of elderly people would be so intimidated they would probably pay up.'

The Corketts' ordeal at the hands of one of Britain's biggest companies is far from an isolated incident. Money Mail readers report similar bullying tactics from a range of energy and telecoms firms, as well as government bodies such as councils, HM Revenue & Customs and BBC licence fee collectors.

Customers are routinely chased for debts they do not owe, often due to a billing blunder or a case of mistaken identity.

Innocent: Retired couple Stuart and Carol Corkett had to fight off debt collectors after a meter reader read the meter for their neighbour's house by mistake

Then, with no warning, they start getting terrifying letters and calls from debt collectors who threaten court action.

It can prove almost impossible to get the debt collectors called off. Victims say they have suffered sleepless nights and been afraid to open their doors in case bailiffs turn up.

Figures from complaints service Resolver show that gripes about debt collection practices at big firms and government bodies have more than doubled over the past year, rising from 830 to 2,006.

Complaints about the tactics used by debt collection agencies and bailiffs themselves soared 77 per cent from 864 to 1,529.

'I WAS TREATED LIKE A CRIMINAL'

Linda and Brian Dowse have faced a battle with Ovo Energy since June, when they downsized to a one-bed flat in sheltered housing.

Linda, 75, a retired carer, and Brian, 73, a former painter and decorator, asked Ovo to take final meter readings and transfer their account to their new home.

Two weeks after the move, a letter from Ovo arrived saying the couple were £18.97 in credit.

Just a fortnight later, they received a letter from a debt collection agency, LCS, demanding £233.61.

Linda called Ovo and was told to ignore the letter as it was an error. But two further demands from LCS arrived in August.

'I was appalled — my rule is I never lend money and I never borrow it,' Linda says. 'I've never even owned a credit card. It's been murder trying to clear this up.'

One firm that is mentioned regularly in Money Mail's inbox is Extra Energy.

We exposed the company earlier this year for using debt collectors to chase customers for money they didn't owe. It is under investigation by the energy regulator Ofgem. A spokesman for Extra Energy says it has apologised to 'the small number' of customers affected and also compensated them.

Narendra and Sarla Shah, 77 and 57, from Crawley, were chased by First Utility's debt collectors for £170 in September — nearly a year and a half after they had closed their account.

The couple thought they had paid all outstanding charges and say they were given no warning before the debt was passed to MIL Collections. Narendra, a retired electrical engineer, says: 'It was very intimidating. I felt like I was being treated like a criminal.'

First Utility says it emailed the Shahs about the debt in June 2016, but has apologised for not contacting them again before passing it to MIL. It has waived part of the bill as a goodwill gesture.

British Gas apologised to the Corketts and says it has called off the debt collectors and sent a goodwill payment of £250.

A spokeswoman says: 'Mr Corkett alerted us to a meter number mix-up on his account after we sent him his final bill. We reviewed this and then sent him a corrected bill confirming that he had nothing to pay.'

Ovo says it is sorry the Dowses were incorrectly billed and has cleared the debt.

HARASSED OVER PHONE SWITCH

Energy suppliers aren't the only firms to have been guilty of harassing customers. Jennifer and Bernard Algar, 69 and 72, from March in Cambridgeshire, were left without an internet connection for a month after they switched to TalkTalk. The couple say they asked TalkTalk time and again to fix the line.

After endless excuses and delays, they told the firm they'd had enough and were switching to Sky. But that just prompted TalkTalk to send letters and emails demanding £353 for cancelling the contract early. The Algars refused to pay.

Jennifer and Bernard Algar, 69 and 72, from March in Cambridgeshire, were left without an internet connection for a month after they switched to TalkTalk

Then, out of the blue, their case was passed to Debt & Revenue Services — a debt collector — which sent more demands. Jennifer, a retired teaching assistant, says: 'It's disgusting, threatening behaviour to blame us after all TalkTalk's own failings.

'When we get a bill we always pay it the next day, but why should we pay for a service we haven't received? Now we are being treated like delinquents.'

Terry and Barbara Bowen, 74 and 71, from Cardiff, were chased for £243 when they moved house and were told they couldn't take their Virgin Media internet, TV and phone line with them.

They moved to nearby Porth in March to be closer to family after the death of their son Darran last year from multiple sclerosis. Virgin said it couldn't supply their new address, so they had to break their contract early. They were threatened with debt collectors if they didn't pay.

Terry, a retired Royal Mint supervisor, felt he had no option but to relent. 'I told Virgin about the reasons we were having to move and they said they were sorry but it was all in the contract.'

Ofcom is investigating the exit penalties Virgin imposes when it can't supply a customer's new address.

Virgin says it will give the Bowens a refund as it can review charges in 'unforeseeable and unfortunate circumstances'. A Virgin Media spokeswoman says: 'We urge all of our customers to consider the length of contracts before entering into them. We advise our customers that the details of early disconnection fees are on our website.'

TalkTalk apologises for the Algars' experience and has cleared the debt.

BITTEN OVER £204 DENTIST BILL

Another reader, a 69-year-old former pharmacy dispenser from Cambridgeshire, was chased for debts by the NHS.

The pensioner received a 'letter before action' demanding payment of £204 from NHS Dental Services after mistakenly believing she was still entitled to free check-ups.

The bill included a late payment charge of £146, and she was threatened with debt collectors if she didn't pay.

One reader received a 'letter before action' from NHS Dental Services after mistakenly believing she was still entitled to free check-ups

The pensioner says the receptionist had handed her a pre-filled form to sign, saying she qualified for free treatment. She didn't realise she didn't because her husband had gone back to work and their joint income had increased.

'It was an honest mistake and I would have been happy to settle the original £58 charge for the appointment, but I wasn't given the chance,' she says. The NHS says she can appeal using its website.

The Mail has also revealed that customers are being hauled to court over unpaid BBC licence fees — only to have their cases thrown out because they were vulnerable or unwell. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has also been caught setting debt collectors on unsuspecting taxpayers.

James Walker, founder of Resolver, says: 'Collection agencies work by piling on the pressure to intimidate you into coughing up the cash. Many people are afraid to make complaints in case it makes things worse, but they should fight back.'

HOW YOU CAN FIGHT BACK

If you're chased for money you don't owe, the last thing you should do is ignore it.

The sooner you act the better. Contact the company immediately and let it know why you are disputing the bill.

Keep copies of letters and emails you send, and keep a log of phone calls you make, including who you spoke to and what was discussed.

Provide evidence to support your case — such as meter readings or details of your attempts to resolve the matter.

If the company doesn't put the situation right within eight weeks, ask for a 'deadlock letter'. Then you can take your complaint to the relevant ombudsman.

For energy firms, this is the Energy Ombudsman (ombudsman-services.org; 0330 440 1624).

For telecoms companies, use either Ombudsman Services: Communications (ombudsman-services.org; 0330 440 1614) or the Communications and Internet Services Adjudication Scheme (cedr.com/cisas; 020 7520 3827). Your supplier must tell you which to use.

If your complaint is about a credit card firm or another lender, go to the Financial Ombudsman Service (financial-ombudsman.org.uk; 0300 123 9 123).

If a bill is passed to a debt collector, contact the agency to say you are challenging the demand.

Under an industry code of conduct, debt collectors must halt any action against you until they have gone back to the company concerned and investigated.

The Credit Services Association, which administers the code, requires members to offer 30 days 'breathing space' if customers say they are seeking debt advice. It also says that agencies must only contact you at 'reasonable times and intervals'.

If you believe a debt collector has treated you unfairly, after eight weeks you can complain to the relevant ombudsman for the company it is representing.

New guidelines that came in at the start of this month set out the steps a company or its debt collectors must follow before taking you to court. Firms must set out a full breakdown of charges and other details of the original contract in a Letter of Claim.

You will have 30 days from the date on the top of the letter to return a reply form before the company can start court proceedings.Once you return the form, you and the business then have a further 30 days to discuss the debt. During that time you should attempt to resolve the matter amicably.

If you request more information about the debt and proceedings in the reply form, the business must wait another 30 days after supplying the answers before dragging you to court.

If a company fails to follow the new rules — called Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims — a court may reduce the amount you have to pay. A judge could also put the proceedings on hold until the company complies.

The rules do not apply to HMRC. If you disagree with a bill or penalty from HMRC, contact the tax office mentioned in your letter straight away, as you may be able to delay payment while you are appealing the decision. You can also call the tax tribunal helpline on 0300 123 1024.

Peter Wallwork, chief executive of the Credit Services Association, which represents debt collectors, says complaints are falling.

'If you receive a letter from one of our members, and particularly if you think it is a mistake, contact the agency straight away and they will help you resolve it.'

l.milner@dailymail.co.uk

Output: Debt collectors were set on a couple who cancelled their contract with TalkTalk after the firm failed to provide them with a connection to the internet. Despite numerous appeals to the company, Jennifer and Bernard Algar still had no internet connection a month after signing up with TalkTalk and switched to Sky. TalkTalk then claimed the Algars owed the company £353 and passed the sum to debt collectors when the couple refused to pay. Jennifer Algar, a retired teaching assistant, described TalkTalk's behaviour as disgusting.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Certain older adults don't get to the hospital soon enough when experiencing a heart attack
 Credit: CC0 Public Domain

For individuals experiencing a heart attack, delays in getting to the hospital can have life-threatening consequences. A new study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that certain factors—non-white race, atypical symptoms, and heart failure—are linked with such delays in older individuals.

The study included 2500 patients aged 75 or older hospitalized for heart attack. Pre-hospital delay (six or more hours before getting to the hospital) was much more common (42%) than in studies of younger heart attack populations, in whom the reported prevalence ranges from 20% to 25%.

"Delays in presentation can have huge consequences for older adults with heart attacks. Based on the results of our study, we need to develop better clinical and public health strategies to ensure timely presentation, especially among non-white communities, those with atypical symptoms, and those with heart failure," said lead author Dr. Gregory Ouellet, of Yale University.

Output: For individuals experiencing a heart attack, delays in getting to the hospital can have life-threatening consequences. A new study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that certain factors—non-white race, atypical symptoms, and heart failure—are linked with such delays in older individuals.


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LA cops back year-long drone-deployment tests amid opposition
 The Los Angeles Police Department, one of the nation’s largest municipal police forces, approved a one-year pilot program for drones—making it the largest city in the nation to undertake such an evaluation.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the LA Police Commission approved a set of policies that limits "their use to a handful of tactical situations, searches or natural disasters." Each drone flight must also be signed off by a "high-ranking officer on a case-by-case basis." The drones are also not to be weaponized. The decision, which was announced Tuesday, was made despite vociferous protest.

Already the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department uses drones, as do other agencies in California, including the Ventura County Sheriff's Department and the Alameda County Sheriff's Organization.

"It's a great idea and will save lives," Sgt. Raymond Kelly, of the ACSO, e-mailed Ars.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California urged its supporters to oppose the vote, noting that only a small fraction of citizens in Los Angeles expressed affirmative support for the use of drones.

In a recent letter to the LAPD, the ACLU of Southern California wrote that the new "drone policy inadequately protects residents of Los Angeles and fails to take into account public mistrust of the LAPD's surveillance activities."

Output: The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has approved a year-long test of drones in tactical scenarios, natural-disaster relief and manhunts. The flights will need to gain approval on a case-by-case basis, and cannot be weaponised. While the LA Sheriff’s department already uses drones, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California opposes their wider use, saying that only a small number of the city's residents supported the LAPD plan. It said the “drone policy inadequately protects residents of Los Angeles and fails to take into account public mistrust of the LAPD's surveillance activities”.


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BlueVine raises $130m to expand SME-focused online lending
 REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Oct. 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- BlueVine is expanding its reach in online business lending with new debt financing of up to $130 million and a new additional line of credit product that allows business owners to make monthly, instead of weekly, payments, over 12 months.

BlueVine, the leading provider of working capital financing to small and medium-sized businesses, secured significant debt capital financing from leading banks and investors. The company is proud to partner with Silicon Valley Bank, SunTrust Bank, Bank Leumi and TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp. in its latest fundraising activities. The new funds will support the scaling of BlueVine's pioneering online invoice factoring product and the company's overall growth.

Including the latest investments, BlueVine, which was founded in 2013, has raised $273 million in funding, including $68 million in equity financing and up to $205 million in debt financing.

"The new capital raise reflects BlueVine's relentless dedication to serving our customers, as well as our momentum as a business. We are thrilled to partner with Silicon Valley Bank, SunTrust Bank, Bank Leumi and TriplePoint Venture Growth on our way to future milestones," said Ana Sirbu, BlueVine's Vice President of Finance and Capital Markets. "We are building a business for the long term and we continuously strive to offer our customers the best working capital financing products. As a testament to that, over 80 percent of our business is now through returning customers."

BlueVine secured major funding as the company rolls out a 12-month business line of credit based on monthly payments, a new offering that would make it easier for business owners to meet their everyday funding needs.

BlueVine introduced the new product in response to client requests for a longer-term business line of credit with monthly payment plans. The new financing underscores the fintech pioneer's commitment to innovation based on customer needs.

The new product gives business owners 12 months to repay each withdrawal in full, meaning lower payments each month.

"BlueVine's goal is to offer the optimal solution for every working capital challenge faced by business owners, and our new product is another step forward in fulfilling this vision," says BlueVine Founder and CEO Eyal Lifshitz. "Business owners have diverse needs, and by augmenting our product offering, we are able to offer the solution that fits best."

For the other requirements and more information on the 12-month business line of credit, please visit BlueVine.com

About BlueVine

BlueVine provides flexible working capital financing to small and medium-sized businesses, giving them quick access to funds needed to purchase inventory, cover expenses, or expand operations.

A fintech pioneer, BlueVine developed a fully-online cloud-based platform for invoice factoring, revolutionizing the 4,000-year old financing system that allows businesses to receive cash advances on outstanding invoices. BlueVine also offers Flex Credit, business line of credit financing based on 6-month and 12-month payment terms. Based in Redwood City, Calif., BlueVine has raised $273 million in equity and debt funding and is funded by Lightspeed Venture Partners, 83NORTH, Correlation Ventures, Citi Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Rakuten Fintech Fund and other private investors.

Press Contact

Amberly Asay

BlueVine Public Relations

801-461-9776

[email protected]

SOURCE BlueVine

Related Links

http://www.BlueVine.com

Output: California-based BlueVine has raised up to $130m to expand its online lending service to small businesses. The company, which offers working capital financing, will also add a credit product that lets firms make monthly, instead of weekly, payments over a year. Since its foundation in 2013, BlueVine has raised $273m in funding, including $205m in debt financing and $68m in equity financing.


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 Autoplay ad videos face new restrictions on Safari and Chrome
 You can’t browse the internet too long without running into an autoplay video ad. So ingrained (and derided) have autoplay video ads become that the leading browsers are cracking down. Apple is updating its Safari browser to block videos that play automatically with sound on and Google’s Chrome is expected to follow suit early next year when it starts filtering out ad formats that turn off users.

Facebook’s role

The explosion in autoplay can be traced back to Facebook, which started autoplaying videos in its news feed in September 2013. Facebook also has heavily promoted video in its feed generally. Since then, the number of daily video views on Facebook has skyrocketed, reaching 8 billion daily video views in November 2015, the last number it made public, up from 4 billion in April 2015 (although it only counts views as 3 seconds or more).

Now, 61 percent of video ads autostart in Chrome, the dominant browser (compared to 66 percent in Safari), according to JW Player.

Autoplay pile-on

Facebook’s use of autoplay, along with YouTube, Snapchat and Twitter, paved the way for publishers to pile on. Today, about one-third of sites autostart more than 75 percent of their video ads, according to MediaRadar, based on an analysis of sites that run video. One-third autostarts video ads 50 to 75 percent of the time. The final third autostarts video ads less than 50 percent of the time.

The drive for ad revenue that’s driven the use of autoplay seems to be universal; everyone from Refinery29 to The Wall Street Journal runs autoplay, and they’re just as likely to be small as big publishers, said Todd Krizelman, CEO of MediaRadar. “This was surprising and reinforces that video drives revenue for all size publishers,” he said.

MediaRadar also found that consumer-aimed sites overall are almost twice as likely as business-to-business sites to run autoplay video ads (69 percent versus 37 percent), with the highest rates found among business/finance- and technology-focused sites, he said.

Ad blocking

Autoplay also has been linked to increased rates of ad blocking, which is now employed by 18 percent of internet users in the U.S. and 11 percent globally, according to PageFair’s 2017 Adblock Report. PageFair, a company that helps publishers circumvent blocked ads, found that interruptive ads were the second most common motivation for blocking ads (cited by 29 percent), behind virus and malware concerns (30 percent). Non-interruptive ad formats are largely tolerated, while interruptive ones, starting with unskippable video ads, are the biggest annoyances.

“You hear people say, ‘It’s not fair with mobile phones; [autoplay] consumes data,'” said Mike Green, vp of Brightcove. “I think it’s just more the disruption of a quiet workspace.”

Negative sentiment

Still more evidence that people hate autoplay comes from Brandwatch, which found that since January, autoplay video has been mentioned more than 25,000 times on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Reddit. Interest peaked on two days in May when Pinterest introduced autoplay ads. There also were big spikes in mentions on news relating to Chrome combating autoplay videos. During that time period, the overall sentiment toward autoplay was 74 percent negative, according to Brandwatch.

Output: Autoplay videos are facing new restrictions on leading browsers and have been cited by users as the most unacceptable form of advertising. The prevalence of such interruptive ads is driving more users to use ad blocking applications, with 18% of users in the US doing so. The trend was accelerated by Facebook, which began autoplaying videos in its newsfeeds in 2013, and 61% of video ads in Chrome now autostart. Apple is now taking action to block autoplaying videos with sound from its Safari browser, and Google Chrome is expected to do the same next year.


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Twitter's video website card achieves higher clickthrough rates
 Twitter has added to its ad offering with the Video Website Card unit, which – as the name suggests – combines an autoplay video with a web link.

It might sound basic, but previously video ads had to include any URLs in the body of the tweet itself. This new unit brings video ads in line with the Website Card that is used for most embedded links on Twitter.

Advertisers can choose to optimise the ad unit for video views, website clicks or awareness objectives, paying for the action that most matters for their campaign.

“The Video Website Card is designed to work across a variety of brand objectives, as well as in the grey spaces that often exist between objectives,” said Twitter product manager Sean Huang. “So whether a brand is pairing the Video Website Card with the high reach of First View to announce a product launch, inviting travelers to click through to learn more about a featured destination, or showcasing game play to drive advance sales of a new video game, the Video Website Card removes friction for the consumer to engage, learn, or convert at their own rate.”

Twitter has been trialling the ad unit with advertisers including Bank of America and Jaguar, and reports a clickthrough rate of twice the industry benchmark for mobile video ads.

Output: Twitter has extended its ad features by adding a Video Website Card unit, which offers autoplaying videos with a web link. Before the update, video ads had to be posted with URLs in the tweet’s body text. Advertisers can select optimisation of the ad unit for video views, awareness objectives or website clicks. The new ad unit has been tested by Twitter with advertisers such as Jaguar and the Bank of America, and has reported a clickthrough rate that is twice the mobile video ad industry benchmark.


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Scientists develop AI for accurate cancer diagnosis
 Every year 40,000 women die from breast cancer in the U.S. alone. When cancers are found early, they can often be cured. Mammograms are the best test available, but they’re still imperfect and often result in false positive results that can lead to unnecessary biopsies and surgeries.

One common cause of false positives are so-called “high-risk” lesions that appear suspicious on mammograms and have abnormal cells when tested by needle biopsy. In this case, the patient typically undergoes surgery to have the lesion removed; however, the lesions turn out to be benign at surgery 90 percent of the time. This means that every year thousands of women go through painful, expensive, scar-inducing surgeries that weren’t even necessary.

How, then, can unnecessary surgeries be eliminated while still maintaining the important role of mammography in cancer detection? Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School believe that the answer is to turn to artificial intelligence (AI).

As a first project to apply AI to improving detection and diagnosis, the teams collaborated to develop an AI system that uses machine learning to predict if a high-risk lesion identified on needle biopsy after a mammogram will upgrade to cancer at surgery.

When tested on 335 high-risk lesions, the model correctly diagnosed 97 percent of the breast cancers as malignant and reduced the number of benign surgeries by more than 30 percent compared to existing approaches.

“Because diagnostic tools are so inexact, there is an understandable tendency for doctors to over-screen for breast cancer,” says Regina Barzilay, MIT’s Delta Electronics Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a breast cancer survivor herself. “When there’s this much uncertainty in data, machine learning is exactly the tool that we need to improve detection and prevent over-treatment.”

Trained on information about more than 600 existing high-risk lesions, the model looks for patterns among many different data elements that include demographics, family history, past biopsies, and pathology reports.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to apply machine learning to the task of distinguishing high-risk lesions that need surgery from those that don’t,” says collaborator Constance Lehman, professor at Harvard Medical School and chief of the Breast Imaging Division at MGH’s Department of Radiology. “We believe this could support women to make more informed decisions about their treatment, and that we could provide more targeted approaches to health care in general.”

A recent MacArthur “genius grant” recipient, Barzilay is a co-author of a new journal article describing the results, co-written with Lehman and Manisha Bahl of MGH, as well as CSAIL graduate students Nicholas Locascio, Adam Yedidia, and Lili Yu. The article was published today in the medical journal Radiology.

How it works

When a mammogram detects a suspicious lesion, a needle biopsy is performed to determine if it is cancer. Roughly 70 percent of the lesions are benign, 20 percent are malignant, and 10 percent are high-risk lesions.

Doctors manage high-risk lesions in different ways. Some do surgery in all cases, while others perform surgery only for lesions that have higher cancer rates, such as “atypical ductal hyperplasia” (ADH) or a “lobular carcinoma in situ” (LCIS).

The first approach requires that the patient undergo a painful, time-consuming, and expensive surgery that is usually unnecessary; the second approach is imprecise and could result in missing cancers in high-risk lesions other than ADH and LCIS.

“The vast majority of patients with high-risk lesions do not have cancer, and we’re trying to find the few that do,” says Bahl, a fellow doctor at MGH’s Department of Radiology. “In a scenario like this there’s always a risk that when you try to increase the number of cancers you can identify, you’ll also increase the number of false positives you find.”

Using a method known as a “random-forest classifier,” the team's model resulted in fewer unnecessary surgeries compared to the strategy of always doing surgery, while also being able to diagnose more cancerous lesions than the strategy of only doing surgery on traditional “high-risk lesions.” (Specifically, the new model diagnosed 97 percent of cancers compared to 79 percent.)

“This work highlights an example of using cutting-edge machine learning technology to avoid unnecessary surgery,” says Marc Kohli, director of clinical informatics in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at the University of California at San Francisco. “This is the first step toward the medical community embracing machine learning as a way to identify patterns and trends that are otherwise invisible to humans.”

Lehman says that MGH radiologists will begin incorporating the model into their clinical practice over the next year.

“In the past we might have recommended that all high-risk lesions be surgically excised,” Lehman says. “But now, if the model determines that the lesion has a very low chance of being cancerous in a specific patient, we can have a more informed discussion with our patient about her options. It may be reasonable for some patients to have their lesions followed with imaging rather than surgically excised.”

The team says that they are still working to further hone the model.

“In future work we hope to incorporate the actual images from the mammograms and images of the pathology slides, as well as more extensive patient information from medical records,” says Bahl.

Moving forward, the model could also easily be tweaked to be applied to other kinds of cancer and even other diseases entirely.

“A model like this will work anytime you have lots of different factors that correlate with a specific outcome,” says Barzilay. “It hopefully will enable us to start to go beyond a one-size-fits-all approach to medical diagnosis.”

Output: Researchers at MIT have developed an artificial intelligence-powered system that improves the success rate of detecting cancer. In tests, the system correctly diagnosed 97% of malignant breast cancers, a rate that would reduce benign surgeries by more than 30%. Currently, mammograms are the best test but often produce false positives that result in unnecessary invasive surgery and biopsies for women. The AI uses machine learning and, while researchers believe the technology can be refined, the model could be used for detecting other types of cancers.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Gates uses Ripple tech to open digital finance to the poor
 The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has tapped Ripple’s Interledger Protocol (ILP) to help level the economic playing field for the 2 billion people who ...

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has tapped Ripple’s Interledger Protocol (ILP) to help level the economic playing field for the 2 billion people who are trapped in poverty, many of whom solely because they do not have access to a bank account or other basic financial services.

Gates Foundation Calls on Ripple

On Monday, the Gates Foundation released Mojaloop, software intended to provide the world’s unbanked population with access to digital financial services. The software is open-source, so banks will be able to adapt and implement it into their digital platforms with reduced effort and cost. The project was funded by the Gates Foundation and developed by a group of fintech companies, including Ripple.

Mojaloop uses Ripple’s ILP technology to create an interoperability layer that connects bank accounts, mobile wallets, and merchants in a single loop. According to Ripple, this will enable market participants to conduct digital transactions as “freely and fluidly” as cash, which will help not only individuals but also the wider local and national economies.

Kosta Peric, Gates Foundation deputy director of financial services for the poor, explained in a statement that interoperability has been one of the primary obstacles preventing the poor from using digital wallets to access basic financial services:

“Interoperability of digital payments has been the toughest hurdle for the financial services industry to overcome. With Mojaloop, our technology partners have finally achieved a solution that can apply to any service, and we invite banks and the payments industry to explore and test this tool.”

In an announcement posted on the startup’s blog, Ripple Chief Technology Officer Stefan Thomas added that Mojaloop has the potential to introduce millions of people into the digital economy:

“Enabling the poor to make payments to anyone, anywhere, using a mobile wallet has implications beyond increased access to their domestic economies. It has the potential to bring millions into the fold of the global digital economy. We are honored to have been a part of this project.”

Ripple Price Declines

Unlike the announcement from fellow fintech startup Stellar, this project does not initially appear to rely on the firm’s native cryptocurrency. Consequently, it is unlikely to have a noticeable effect on the price of XRP. In fact, the ripple price has declined to a present value of $0.256 after briefly climbing to $0.291 Monday morning ahead of the opening of “Swell”, a Toronto fintech conference hosted by Ripple.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

Output: The Gates Foundation has partnered with several fintech firms, including Ripple, to launch open-source software Mojaloop, aimed at offering financial services to some of the world's two billion people stuck in poverty. The software, developed on Ripple's interledger protocol, brings together merchants, mobile wallets and banks to allow free and fluid transactions. Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas said Mojaloop had the "potential to bring millions into the fold of the global digital economy".


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Q3 catastrophe losses estimated at $1.35bn for XL Catlin
 XL Group Ltd. and Markel Corp. on Wednesday released preliminary loss estimates for the third quarter of 2017, both citing the impacts of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

Both insurers said the losses were within their expectations.

Hamilton, Bermuda-based XL Group, which does business as XL Catlin, said that its preliminary estimate of net losses totaled about $1.33 billion due to the three hurricanes. Preliminarily estimated third-quarter catastrophe losses including smaller loss events totaled about $1.48 billion, XL Group said in a statement.

The preliminary estimates are pretax and net of reinsurance, reinstatement and adjustment premiums and redeemable noncontrolling interest. After taxes, XL Catlin said, the preliminary estimate of total catastrophe net losses for the quarter is about $1.35 billion.

The estimates are based on a combination of catastrophe modeling, exposure analysis and preliminary ground-up notifications and are consistent with private insured market loss estimates for the three hurricanes in the range of $75 billion to $90 billion.

Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria each contributed roughly 25%, 40% and 25%, respectively, to the company loss estimates, XL Catlin said, with 10% related to all other events in the quarter, most notably the Mexican earthquakes and Typhoon Hato, which struck Macau and southern China in August.

The estimated losses are about evenly split between the company’s insurance and reinsurance segments. XL said it continues to have significant catastrophe reinsurance protections remaining for 2017 and 2018, including catastrophe bond protections, some of which extend through 2019.

XL Catlin CEO Mike McGavick said in the statement that “given the specific nature of the events themselves our estimated losses are largely in line with our expectations.”

Morgan Stanley said in a research update that XL's losses were roughly in line with expectations. “The news should alleviate recent investor concerns about an outsized loss from XL and any concerns about capital raise needs,” the update said.

Richmond, Virginia-based Markel, meanwhile, said it expects to report third-quarter pretax underwriting losses of $503 million, net of reinstatement premiums, from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria as well as the Mexico City earthquake.

Markel said its estimate for the hurricane and earthquake losses is based on claims received to date and detailed policy level reviews, industry loss estimates, output from both industry and proprietary models, and a review of in-force contracts.

Markel’s estimate is preliminary and dependent on broad assumptions about coverage, liability and reinsurance. Co-CEO Richard R. Whitt III said in a statement that “these significant losses fell within our expectations.”

Output: XL Catlin has said it estimates catastrophe losses for Q3 2017 will total about $1.35bn after taxes, due largely to the effects of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. The losses are in line with expectations, CEO Mike McGavick noted. The firm says it does have reinsurance protections remaining for this year and 2018, as well as issued catastrophe bonds, some of which don't expire until 2019. Of the three major storms, Irma had the biggest impact on the insurer, accounting for 40% of its Q3 losses.


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XL Catlin offers cyber clients free trial of security software
 Or log in with

Output: Clients purchasing cyber insurance policies from XL Catlin will also be offered a free 90-day trial of cybersecurity software Security as a Service (SecS)² provided by California-based Clarium Managed Services. Following the trial, clients will be offered the use of Clarium's software at a discount for two years. The insurer said firms taking proactive preventative steps against cyber attacks suffer reduced financial losses and less reputational harm when a cyber breach occurs.


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Regus Regus finds slow broadband puts people off working remotely
 Slow broadband remains a major barrier to working remotely

More than a quarter of the workforce are still put off from working remotely because of slow or inadequate broadband connectivity, according to a recent study. Some 27 per cent of UK professionals said that poor internet provision was the biggest barrier against working remotely, despite the fact that remote working may boost individual productivity. A survey from workspace provider Regus asked more than 1, 700 workers about their attitudes towards working remotely. Internet provision was revealed to be a crucial part of what most people required from working outside of office premises. Especially vital to working remotely were internet-enabled apps and tools which made file sharing and communication more efficient. The majority of respondents emphasised the necessity of Dropbox (72 per cent) and Skype (62 per cent) to remote working, for example. In a previous study from Regus, the ability to work remotely was hailed by 44 per cent of professionals as being beneficial to productivity, and by 32 per cent as being beneficial to morale. Commenting on the findings, Regus? UK chief executive, Richard Morris, said: Having access to fast, reliable internet along with a quiet, professional working space is one of the essential ingredients for successful remote working. the benefits are undeniable, and the take-up of flexible working space across the UK provides demonstrable evidence that increasing numbers of forward-thinking firms are adopting a remote working model. Internet connectivity has long been a major issue for small UK businesses, and the government has launched a number of major initiatives to improve the country’s broadband infrastructure. Last month, the first stage of the government’s planned £200m broadband project began, with six UK regions receiving £10m each to test various ways of connecting local business premises and public buildings with super-fast broadband networks.In recent weeks, the issue of inadequate broadband infrastructure has again hit headlines. The chair of the National Infrastructure Commission, Lord Adonis, highlighted poor broadband as a key UK infrastructure challenge. The country currently falls behind major economies including the USA, Netherlands and Japan in terms of its 4G and broadband speeds. How recent rural broadband developments may help your business

Output: 27% of UK professionals are unable to work remotely due to inadequate internet provision, according to a survey by Regus. Out of more than 1,700 workers, almost three-quarters said quality internet was crucial to using file-sharing sites such as Dropbox, and 62% said communication tools like Skype were a necessity outside the office. The UK government's £200m ($263m) broadband project got underway last month, while National Infrastructure Commission, Lord Adonis, said the UK's broadband issue was a "key infrastructure challenge".


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China will open markets to foreign investors: President Xi
 Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech at the opening session of the Chinese Communist Party's five-yearly Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on October 18, 2017.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday stressed the benefits of "socialism with Chinese characteristics" at the beginning of the Communist Party's once-every-five-year Party Congress.

The president told the assembled members of the party that his nation's prospects are bright, but it faces severe challenges. He proceeded to lay out his vision for a socialist future.

"We will unite the Chinese people of all ethnic groups and lead them to a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and in the drive to secure the success of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era," he said, according to a translation from China Daily.

Xi touted the success of China in recent years during the address, including what he characterized as overwhelming momentum for his anti-corruption campaign.

Under Xi, Beijing has waged a relentless fight against deep-rooted graft since assuming power five years ago, with more than one million officials punished and dozens of former senior officials jailed.

The president also claimed during his address that China will let the market play a decisive role in resource allocation in the economy. Beijing has called for a greater role for market forces in the economy in order to improve efficiency and develop a more sustainable growth model, but some have been skeptical of its progress on that front.

On the economic policy front, Xi also said Beijing will push mergers and acquisitions for state-owned assets, it will expand market access for the services sector, and it will deepen financial reform. He also said the country will deepen its market-oriented reform of exchange and interest rates.

China, Xi said, will continue to open up to the world, including relaxing market access for foreign investment.

The president also highlighted Beijing's firm opposition to Taiwan independence over the last five years.

The full title of Xi's working report that he presented Wednesday is "Secure a Decisive Victory in Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects and Strive for the Great Success of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era."

—The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Output: China's Communist Party congress has begun its twice-a-decade meeting. In his opening speech, President Xi Jinping promised to relax market access for foreign investors, let the market play a key role in resource allocation in the economy and push for more market-oriented reform of exchange and interest rates. He also stressed China's strong opposition to Taiwan independence and hailed the success of his anti-corruption drive.


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Regus Regus renews lease at Penn Plaza in New York City
 Global office provider Regus plans to stay at 5 Penn Plaza for at least the next decade.

Regus renewed its lease at the 26-story building, where the company occupies 60,000 square feet across the entire 19th and 23rd floors, the Commercial Observer reported. The asking rent for the space was $68 per square foot.

CBRE’s Peter Turchin, along with Jason Pollen, Dave Caperna and Hilary Whittier, represented landlord Haymes Investment Company in the deal. JLL’s Jim Wenk and Transwestern’s Patrick Heeg (formerly of JLL) represented Regus.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter SIGN UP By signing up, you agree to TheRealDeal Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.

In May, health care tech firm Remedy Partners signed a lease for 28,640 square feet of pre-built space at 5 Penn Plaza. Haymes received a $300 million CMBS loan from Citigroup for the 631,000-square-foot property last year.

In July, Regus announced that it would open its co-working concept Spaces at RXR Realty’s Helmsley Building. Spaces already has 35 locations worldwide and another 28 set to open in the near future. [CO] — Kathryn Brenzel

Output: Abstract: Flexible workspace provider Regus has renewed its lease on the 60,000 sq ft Penn Plaza building in New York, ensuring its tenancy for the next 10 years. The firm currently occupies the 19th and 23rd floors of the 26-story building. Regus paid $68 per sq ft in rent, according to Commercial Observer.


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Plummeting insect numbers could cause 'ecological Armageddon'
 The abundance of flying insects has plunged by three-quarters over the past 25 years, according to a new study that has shocked scientists.

Insects are an integral part of life on Earth as both pollinators and prey for other wildlife and it was known that some species such as butterflies were declining. But the newly revealed scale of the losses to all insects has prompted warnings that the world is “on course for ecological Armageddon”, with profound impacts on human society.

The new data was gathered in nature reserves across Germany but has implications for all landscapes dominated by agriculture, the researchers said.

The cause of the huge decline is as yet unclear, although the destruction of wild areas and widespread use of pesticides are the most likely factors and climate change may play a role. The scientists were able to rule out weather and changes to landscape in the reserves as causes, but data on pesticide levels has not been collected.

“The fact that the number of flying insects is decreasing at such a high rate in such a large area is an alarming discovery,” said Hans de Kroon, at Radboud University in the Netherlands and who led the new research.

“Insects make up about two-thirds of all life on Earth [but] there has been some kind of horrific decline,” said Prof Dave Goulson of Sussex University, UK, and part of the team behind the new study. “We appear to be making vast tracts of land inhospitable to most forms of life, and are currently on course for ecological Armageddon. If we lose the insects then everything is going to collapse.”

The research, published in the journal Plos One, is based on the work of dozens of amateur entomologists across Germany who began using strictly standardised ways of collecting insects in 1989. Special tents called malaise traps were used to capture more than 1,500 samples of all flying insects at 63 different nature reserves.

The malaise traps set in protected areas and reserves, which scientists say makes the declines even more worrying. Photograph: Courtesy of Courtesy of Entomologisher Verein Krefeld

When the total weight of the insects in each sample was measured a startling decline was revealed. The annual average fell by 76% over the 27 year period, but the fall was even higher – 82% – in summer, when insect numbers reach their peak.

Previous reports of insect declines have been limited to particular insects, such European grassland butterflies, which have fallen by 50% in recent decades. But the new research captured all flying insects, including wasps and flies which are rarely studied, making it a much stronger indicator of decline.

The fact that the samples were taken in protected areas makes the findings even more worrying, said Caspar Hallmann at Radboud University, also part of the research team: “All these areas are protected and most of them are well-managed nature reserves. Yet, this dramatic decline has occurred.”

The amateur entomologists also collected detailed weather measurements and recorded changes to the landscape or plant species in the reserves, but this could not explain the loss of the insects. “The weather might explain many of the fluctuations within the season and between the years, but it doesn’t explain the rapid downward trend,” said Martin Sorg from the Krefeld Entomological Society in Germany, who led the amateur entomologists.

Goulson said a likely explanation could be that the flying insects perish when they leave the nature reserves. “Farmland has very little to offer for any wild creature,” he said. “But exactly what is causing their death is open to debate. It could be simply that there is no food for them or it could be, more specifically, exposure to chemical pesticides, or a combination of the two.”

In September, a chief scientific adviser to the UK government warned that regulators around the world have falsely assumed that it is safe to use pesticides at industrial scales across landscapes and that the “effects of dosing whole landscapes with chemicals have been largely ignored”.

The scientists said further work is urgently needed to corroborate the new findings in other regions and to explore the issue in more detail. While most insects do fly, it may be that those that don’t, leave nature reserves less often and are faring better. It is also possible that smaller and larger insects are affected differently, and the German samples have all been preserved and will be further analysed.

In the meantime, said De Kroon: “We need to do less of the things that we know have a negative impact, such as the use of pesticides and the disappearance of farmland borders full of flowers.”

As well as being pollinators insects provide food for birds and other animals and help control pests. Photograph: Kevin Elsby/Alamy

Lynn Dicks at the University of East Anglia, UK, and not involved in the new research said the work was convincing. “It provides important new evidence for an alarming decline that many entomologists have suspected is occurring for some time.”

“If total flying insect biomass is genuinely declining at this rate – about 6% per year – it is extremely concerning,” she said. “Flying insects have really important ecological functions, for which their numbers matter a lot. They pollinate flowers: flies, moths and butterflies are as important as bees for many flowering plants, including some crops. They provide food for many animals – birds, bats, some mammals, fish, reptiles and amphibians. Flies, beetles and wasps are also predators and decomposers, controlling pests and cleaning up the place generally.”

Another way of sampling insects – car windscreens – has often been anecdotally used to suggest a major decline, with people remembering many more bugs squashed on their windscreens in the past.

“I think that is real,” said Goulson. “I drove right across France and back this summer – just when you’d expect your windscreen to be splattered all over – and I literally never had to stop to clean the windscreen.”

Output: The number of flying insects in the world has fallen by 76% over the past 27 years, a rate of roughly 6% per year, according to data gathered from German nature reserves. The scale of the loss has led to warnings of an “ecological Armageddon”. Insects, which constitute roughly two thirds of life on Earth, serve as pollinators for flowers and crops, and provide food for other species. Some insects also fulfil ecologically important roles as predators. The cause of the decline in numbers remains uncertain, but habitat destruction, widespread pesticide use and climate change are all potential factors.


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Plummeting insect numbers could cause 'ecological Armageddon'
 Abstract Global declines in insects have sparked wide interest among scientists, politicians, and the general public. Loss of insect diversity and abundance is expected to provoke cascading effects on food webs and to jeopardize ecosystem services. Our understanding of the extent and underlying causes of this decline is based on the abundance of single species or taxonomic groups only, rather than changes in insect biomass which is more relevant for ecological functioning. Here, we used a standardized protocol to measure total insect biomass using Malaise traps, deployed over 27 years in 63 nature protection areas in Germany (96 unique location-year combinations) to infer on the status and trend of local entomofauna. Our analysis estimates a seasonal decline of 76%, and mid-summer decline of 82% in flying insect biomass over the 27 years of study. We show that this decline is apparent regardless of habitat type, while changes in weather, land use, and habitat characteristics cannot explain this overall decline. This yet unrecognized loss of insect biomass must be taken into account in evaluating declines in abundance of species depending on insects as a food source, and ecosystem functioning in the European landscape.

Citation: Hallmann CA, Sorg M, Jongejans E, Siepel H, Hofland N, Schwan H, et al. (2017) More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas. PLoS ONE 12(10): e0185809. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185809 Editor: Eric Gordon Lamb, University of Saskatchewan, CANADA Received: July 28, 2017; Accepted: September 19, 2017; Published: October 18, 2017 Copyright: © 2017 Hallmann et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files. Funding: CH and EJ were supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO grants 840.11.001 and 841.11.007), and NH by the Triodos Foundation. The investigations of the Entomological Society Krefeld and its members are spread over numerous individual projects at different locations and in different years. Grants and permits that have made this work possible are listed below: Bezirksregierungen Düsseldorf & Köln, BfN - Bundesamt für Naturschutz, Land Nordrhein-Westfalen - Europäische Gemeinschaft ELER, Landesamt für Agrarordnung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Landesamt für Natur, Umwelt und Verbraucherschutz Nordrhein-Westfalen, Landesamt für Umwelt Brandenburg, Landesamt für Umwelt Rheinland-Pfalz, LVR - Landschaftsverband Rheinland, Naturschutzbund Deutschland, Nordrhein-Westfalen Stiftung, RBN Bergischer Naturschutzverein, RVR - Regionalverband Ruhr, SGD Nord Rheinland-Pfalz, Universitäten Bonn, Duisburg-Essen & Köln, Untere Landschaftsbehörden: Kreis Düren, Kreis Heinsberg, Kreis Kleve, Kreis Viersen, Kreis Wesel & AGLW, Stadt Düsseldorf, Stadt Köln, Stadt Krefeld, Rheinisch Bergischer Kreis, Rhein Kreis Neuss & Rhein-Sieg-Kreis. Members of the Entomological Society Krefeld and cooperating botanists and entomologists that were involved in the empirical investigations are greatly acknowledged: U.W. Abts, F. Bahr, A. Bäumler, D. & H. Beutler, P. Birnbrich, U. Bosch, J. Buchner, F. Cassese, K. Cölln, A.W. Ebmer, R. Eckelboom, B. Franzen, M. Grigo, J. Günneberg, J. Gusenleitner, K. Hamacher, F. Hartfeld, M. Hellenthal, J. Hembach, A. Hemmersbach, W. Hock, V. Huisman-Fiegen, J. Illmer, E. Jansen, U. Jäckel, F. Koch, M. Kreuels, P. Leideritz, I. Loksa, F. B. Ludescher, F. J. Mehring, G. Milbert, N. Mohr, P. Randazzo, K. Reissmann, S. Risch, B. Robert, J. de Rond, U. Sandmann, S. Scharf, P. Scherz, J. Schiffer, C. Schmidt, O. & W. Schmitz, B. P. & W. Schnell, J. L. Schönfeld, E. Schraetz, M. Schwarz, R. Seliger, H. W. Siebeneicher, F. & H. Sonnenburg W. J. S. & P. Sorg, A. Ssymank, H. Sticht, M. Weithmann, W. Wichard and H. Wolf. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction Loss of insects is certain to have adverse effects on ecosystem functioning, as insects play a central role in a variety of processes, including pollination [1, 2], herbivory and detrivory [3, 4], nutrient cycling [4] and providing a food source for higher trophic levels such as birds, mammals and amphibians. For example, 80% of wild plants are estimated to depend on insects for pollination [2], while 60% of birds rely on insects as a food source [5]. The ecosystem services provided by wild insects have been estimated at $57 billion annually in the USA [6]. Clearly, preserving insect abundance and diversity should constitute a prime conservation priority. Current data suggest an overall pattern of decline in insect diversity and abundance. For example, populations of European grassland butterflies are estimated to have declined by 50% in abundance between 1990 and 2011 [7]. Data for other well-studied taxa such as bees [8–14] and moths [15–18] suggest the same trend. Climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation, and deterioration of habitat quality have been proposed as some of the prime suspects responsible for the decline [9–11, 13, 18–22]. However, the number of studies on insect trends with sufficient replication and spatial coverage are limited [10, 23–25] and restricted to certain well-studied taxa. Declines of individual species or taxa (e.g. [7, 26]) may not reflect the general state of local entomofauna [27]. The total insect biomass would then be a better metric for the status of insects as a group and its contribution to ecosystem functioning, but very few studies have monitored insect biomass over an extensive period of time [28]. Hence, to what extent total insect biomass has declined, and the relative contribution of each proposed factor to the decline, remain unresolved yet highly relevant questions for ecosystem ecology and conservation. Here, we investigate total aerial insect biomass between 1989 and 2016 across 96 unique location-year combinations in Germany, representative of Western European low-altitude nature protection areas embedded in a human-dominated landscape (S1 Fig). In all years we sampled insects throughout the season (March through October), based on a standardized sampling scheme using Malaise traps. We investigated rate of decline in insect biomass, and examined how factors such as weather, habitat and land use variables influenced the declines. Knowledge on the state of insect biomass, and it’s direction over time, are of broad importance to ecology and conservation, but historical data on insect biomass have been lacking. Our study makes a first step into filling this gap, and provides information that is vital for the assessment of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem health in agricultural landscapes.

Discussion Our results document a dramatic decline in average airborne insect biomass of 76% (up to 82% in midsummer) in just 27 years for protected nature areas in Germany. This considerably exceeds the estimated decline of 58% in global abundance of wild vertebrates over a 42-year period to 2012 [56, 57]. Our results demonstrate that recently reported declines in several taxa such as butterflies [7, 25–27, 58], wild bees [8–14] and moths [15–18], are in parallel with a severe loss of total aerial insect biomass, suggesting that it is not only the vulnerable species, but the flying insect community as a whole, that has been decimated over the last few decades. The estimated decline is considerably more severe than the only comparable long term study on flying insect biomass elsewhere [28]. In that study, 12.2m high suction traps were deployed at four locations in the UK over the time period 1973–2002, and showed a biomass decline at one of the four sites only. However, the sampling designs differ considerably between the two studies. Suction traps mainly target high-flying insects, and in that study the catches were largely comprised of flies belonging to the Bibionidae family. Contrary, malaise traps as used in the present study target insects flying close to the ground surface (up to 1 meter), with a much wider diversity of taxa. Future investigations should look into how biomass is distributed among insect species, and how species trends contribute to the biomass decline. Although the present dataset spans a relatively large number of years (27) and sites (63), the number of repetitions (i.e. multiple years of seasonal distributions at the same locations) was lower (n = 26). We are however confident that our estimated rate of decline in total biomass resembles the true rate of decline, and is not an artifact of site selection. Firstly, our basic model (including an annual rate of decline) outperformed the null-model (without an annual rate of decline; ΔDIC = 822.62 units; Table 3), while at the same time, between-plot variation (i.s. σ site ) and residual variation (v) decreased by 44.3 and 9.7% respectively, after incorporating an annual rate of decline into the models. Secondly, using only data from sites at which malaise traps were operating in at least two years, we estimated a rate of decline similar to using the full dataset (Fig 4), with the pattern of decline being congruent across locations (S4 Fig). Taken together, there does not seem to be evidence that spatial variation (between sites) in this dataset forms a confounding factor to the estimated temporal trend, and conclude that our estimated biomass decline is representative for lowland protected areas in west Germany. In light of previously suggested driving mechanisms, our analysis renders two of the prime suspects, i.e. landscape [9, 18, 20] and climate change [15, 18, 21, 37], as unlikely explanatory factors for this major decline in aerial insect biomass in the investigated protected areas. Habitat change was evaluated in terms of changes in plant species composition surrounding the standardized trap locations, and in plant species characteristics (Ellenberg values). Land use changes was evaluated in terms of proportional surface changes in aerial photographs, and not for example changes in management regimes. Given the major decline in insect biomass of about 80%, much stronger relationships would have been expected if changes in habitat and land use were the driving forces, even with the somewhat crude parameters that were at our disposal. The decline in insect biomass, being evident throughout the growing season, and irrespective of habitat type or landscape configuration, suggests large-scale factors must be involved. While some temporal changes in climatic variables in our study area have taken place, these either were not of influence (e.g. wind speed), or changed in a manner that should have increased insect biomass (e.g temperature). However, we have not exhaustively analysed the full range of climatic variables that could potentially impact insect biomass. For example prolonged droughts, or lack of sunshine especially in low temperatures might have had an effect on insect biomass [59–62]. Agricultural intensification [17, 20] (e.g. pesticide usage, year-round tillage, increased use of fertilizers and frequency of agronomic measures) that we could not incorporate in our analyses, may form a plausible cause. The reserves in which the traps were placed are of limited size in this typical fragmented West-European landscape, and almost all locations (94%) are enclosed by agricultural fields. Part of the explanation could therefore be that the protected areas (serving as insect sources) are affected and drained by the agricultural fields in the broader surroundings (serving as sinks or even as ecological traps) [1, 63–65]. Increased agricultural intensification may have aggravated this reduction in insect abundance in the protected areas over the last few decades. Whatever the causal factors responsible for the decline, they have a far more devastating effect on total insect biomass than has been appreciated previously. The widespread insect biomass decline is alarming, ever more so as all traps were placed in protected areas that are meant to preserve ecosystem functions and biodiversity. While the gradual decline of rare insect species has been known for quite some time (e.g. specialized butterflies [9, 66]), our results illustrate an ongoing and rapid decline in total amount of airborne insects active in space and time. Agricultural intensification, including the disappearance of field margins and new crop protection methods has been associated with an overall decline of biodiversity in plants, insects, birds and other species in the current landscape [20, 27, 67]. The major and hitherto unrecognized loss of insect biomass that we report here for protected areas, adds a new dimension to this discussion, because it must have cascading effects across trophic levels and numerous other ecosystem effects. There is an urgent need to uncover the causes of this decline, its geographical extent, and to understand the ramifications of the decline for ecosystems and ecosystem services.

Acknowledgments CH and EJ were supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO grants 840.11.001 and 841.11.007), and NH by the Triodos Foundation. The investigations of the Entomological Society Krefeld and its members are spread over numerous individual projects at different locations and in different years. Grants and permits that have made this work possible are listed below: Bezirksregierungen Düsseldorf & Köln, BfN—Bundesamt für Naturschutz, Land Nordrhein-Westfalen—Europäische Gemeinschaft ELER, Landesamt für Agrarordnung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Landesamt für Natur, Umwelt und Verbraucherschutz Nordrhein-Westfalen, Landesamt für Umwelt Brandenburg, Landesamt für Umwelt Rheinland-Pfalz, LVR—Landschaftsverband Rheinland, Naturschutzbund Deutschland, Nordrhein-Westfalen Stiftung, RBN—Bergischer Naturschutzverein, RVR—Regionalverband Ruhr, SGD Nord Rheinland-Pfalz, Universitäten Bonn, Duisburg-Essen & Köln, Untere Landschaftsbehörden: Kreis Düren, Kreis Heinsberg, Kreis Kleve, Kreis Viersen, Kreis Wesel & AGLW, Stadt Düsseldorf, Stadt Köln, Stadt Krefeld, Rheinisch Bergischer Kreis, Rhein Kreis Neuss & Rhein-Sieg-Kreis. Members of the Entomological Society Krefeld and cooperating botanists and entomologists that were involved in the empirical investigations are greatly acknowledged: U.W. Abts, F. Bahr, A. Bäumler, D. & H. Beutler, P. Birnbrich, U. Bosch, J. Buchner, F. Cassese, K. Cölln, A.W. Ebmer, R. Eckelboom, B. Franzen, M. Grigo, J. Günneberg, J. Gusenleitner, K. Hamacher, F. Hartfeld, M. Hellenthal, J. Hembach, A. Hemmersbach, W. Hock, V. Huisman-Fiegen, J. Illmer, E. Jansen, U. Jäckel, F. Koch, M. Kreuels, P. Leideritz, I. Loksa, F. B. Ludescher, F. J. Mehring, G. Milbert, N. Mohr, P. Randazzo, K. Reissmann, S. Risch, B. Robert, J. de Rond, U. Sandmann, S. Scharf, P. Scherz, J. Schiffer, C. Schmidt, O. & W. Schmitz, B. P. & W. Schnell, J. L. Schönfeld, E. Schraetz, M. Schwarz, R. Seliger, H. W. Siebeneicher, F. & H. Sonnenburg W. J. S. & P. Sorg, A. Ssymank, H. Sticht, M. Weithmann, W. Wichard and H. Wolf.

Output: The number of flying insects in the world has fallen by 76% over the past 27 years, a rate of roughly 6% per year, according to data gathered from German nature reserves. The scale of the loss has led to warnings of an “ecological Armageddon”. Insects, which constitute roughly two thirds of life on Earth, serve as pollinators for flowers and crops, and provide food for other species. Some insects also fulfil ecologically important roles as predators. The cause of the decline in numbers remains uncertain, but habitat destruction, widespread pesticide use and climate change are all potential factors.


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Claimants won't lose coverage over Ophelia claims
 Kevin Thompson, chief executive of Insurance Ireland said it was “too early” to comment on whether insurance premiums would rise after Storm Ophelia. Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill/The Irish Times

It's too early to say whether insurance premiums will rise after claims made on the back of Storm Ophelia, Insurance Ireland has said.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland radio show, Insurance Ireland chief executive Kevin Thompson was asked whether consumers could expect a rise in insurance premiums after the cost of Storm Ophelia is counted.

Mr Thompson said that it was “too early to say”, noting that the industry had been able to cope with losses in the past and would be able to do so in the future.

Asked whether those who do make a claim will have trouble getting re-insured, Mr Thompson said “there is no blacklisting in relation to insured events”.

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Yesterday, FBD chief executive Fiona Muldoon said "while it is too soon to give an estimate of the ultimate net cost of the storm to FBD, unfortunately given its severity, we can be sure that a number of our customers are affected".

An Insurance Ireland spokesman told The Irish Times on Monday that it would be Tuesday before insurers would be in a position to start assessing damage and how much of that is likely to end up in claims.

Output: Irish customers who make claims in the wake of Storm Ophelia won't face a loss of coverage in the future, the head of the country's insurance trade association has said. It's too early to tell if premiums will rise as a result of storm claims, Insurance Ireland CEO Kevin Thompson told a radio show, noting that the Irish insurance market had seen itself through unforeseen events like Ophelia in the past.


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Input:
London flat sales drop by half as buyers wait for lower prices
 Sales of flats across London have collapsed 47% in just a year with first time buyers in particular waiting to see if pries come down, new research suggests.

It is a result of the London market being overvalued for at least three years with the number of sales falling from 4,709 in July 2016 to just 2,494 in July this year, according to the report from independent estate agents James Pendleton.

The research also shows that sale of other types of property also fell but not so severely. The number of detached properties sold fell 5% in 12 months to 143 in July this year, semi-detached sales were down 1% to 516 and sales of terraced houses down 8% to 1,476.

Over the same period sale prices of flats crept up 2%, terraces rose 3%, semis gained 13% and detached houses fell 5%. In the previous month, June 2017, sales of flats were 43% down on June 2016, potentially pointing to a market that is prone to a well-overdue correction in prices.

It comes despite latest figures revealing first time buyers in London borrowed 8% more in the second quarter of 2017 compared with the previous year and the report suggests this points to fewer first-time buyers at the bottom end of the market being able to transact at all, while those in a better financial position continued to buy further up the ladder with many taking advantage of the Help To Buy scheme.

Despite a persistent housing crisis in the capital, the firm believes that many first time buyers believe prices are simply too high and are unable or unwilling to meet such steep valuations even in a cheap lending environment.

‘This a classic sign that first time buyer demand is sensitive. There is a temptation to wait on the side lines while prices become more realistic. When that happens it can only be a good thing, because housing markets are most stable when transactions are healthy across the board,’ said Lucy Pendleton, director of James Pendleton,

‘A reality check is in the offing after such strong growth in London and the scale of this drop in sales of flats tells me it is now more likely to be inevitable. Solid numbers of people are showing some reluctance at current prices and signalling to all the other market participants they can’t transact unless they come back down,’ she added.

Output: London flat sales volumes have slumped by almost half in the past year as first-time buyers held off purchasing until prices fall further, according to research from estate agent James Pendleton. Sales slid to 2,494 in July from 4,709 a year earlier, it said. Other property types suffered smaller declines, with detached properties sales dropping 5% and semi-detached sales slipping 1%. In the same period, sale prices mainly edged higher: flats were 2% dearer, terraces rose 3%, semis gained 13% and detached houses fell 5%.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Amazon builds Alexa into a pair of glasses
 Amazon's first wearable device will be a pair of smart glasses with the Alexa voice assistant built in, according to a report in the Financial Times. The device will reportedly look like a regular pair of glasses and use bone-conduction technology so that the user can hear Alexa without the need for earphones or conventional speakers. It won't, however, likely have a screen or camera, although Google Glass founder Babak Parviz has apparently been working on the project following his hiring by Amazon in 2014.

The FT report also says that Amazon is working on a home security camera separate from its ever-expanding lineup of Echo devices; the product that ultimately turned out to be the Echo Look was widely assumed to be a more conventional security camera when it first leaked. Amazon's Echo Show already lets you view the feed from other security cameras, a feature naturally pegged for the company's own upcoming model.

Output: Amazon is developing a pair of smart glasses, featuring the company's voice assistant Alexa. The glasses are the first wearable product Amazon has developed, and will use bone conduction, instead of speakers or headphones, to transmit Alexa's voice to users. Google Glass founder Babak Parviz, who was hired by Amazon in 2014, is reportedly working on the project. The glasses may arrive this year alongside an updated and expanded line of Echo products, according to the Financial Times.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Gates Foundation release open-source financial services software
 SEATTLE, Oct. 16, 2017 – The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today released a new open-source software for creating payment platforms that will help unbanked people around the world access digital financial services. The software is designed to provide a reference model for payment interoperability between banks and other providers across a country’s economy. It is available now, free-of-cost, for software developers to adapt and banks, financial service providers and companies to implement. Information on the code can be found at mojaloop.io.

Current data from the World Bank shows that nearly two billion people in developing economies lack bank accounts and miss out on the benefits and security that basic financial services provide. Digital financial services, such as mobile money on cell phones, have rapidly expanded over the last two decades because they are convenient for users and cost-effective for companies aiming to serve new markets. In Kenya, an estimated 194,000 households have moved out of extreme poverty due in part to their access to M-Pesa, a mobile money platform, and users’ ability to save money more effectively. Digital financial services are now available in nearly 100 countries according to GSMA, an organization representing mobile network operators. However, global expansion of these services—especially to the world’s poor—has been hampered, in large part, by a lack of interoperability between digital financial services and payment platforms.

The new software, called Mojaloop, establishes a blueprint for connecting today’s financial services sector, and can be used as a solution to barriers that banks and providers seeking interoperability have traditionally faced. Delivering financial services to the poor is prohibitively challenging for many businesses because they struggle to invest adequately in complex technology while maintaining a commitment to low-cost, inclusive services. This has led to a prevalence of consumer payment options that are out of reach for many people in developing economies, or which limit customers’ ability to transact across products, banks and borders. These and similar challenges have dissuaded many companies from expanding into developing markets altogether.

Mojaloop can be used by financial institutions and commercial providers, to simplify and reduce the cost of developing inclusive payment platforms. It was designed to serve ultimately as a model for national payment switching systems that, for example, enable an individual’s digital wallet to connect with her employer’s bank account and her children’s school account to complete monthly transactions. The code can also be applied to adapt and improve existing services.

“Interoperability of digital payments has been the toughest hurdle for the financial services industry to overcome. With Mojaloop, our technology partners have finally achieved a solution that can apply to any service, and we invite banks and the payments industry to explore and test this tool,” said Kosta Peric, Deputy Director, Financial Services for the Poor, at the Gates Foundation. “Just as the internet revolutionized digital communication, open-source solutions like Mojaloop can spark innovation and democratize access to digital payments, empowering billions of new customers and driving massive economic growth in developing markets.”

Mojaloop (building off the Swahili word “moja,” which means “one”) was created in partnership with fintech developers Ripple, Dwolla, ModusBox, Crosslake Technologies and Software Group, using cutting-edge technology such as the Interledger Protocol, a solution for settling funds among multiple providers across their individual systems. It joins other promising digital financial software, but is the first model that can help extend interoperability from mobile money providers to any bank, merchant or government institution in a customer’s economy in a way that specifically meets the needs of the poor.

“Interoperability is necessary both for financial inclusion and market maturity, but it is a complex thing to achieve,” said Benno Ndulu, Governor of the Bank of Tanzania, the country’s national bank. “We are excited to explore implementation of this because of how it can simplify that capability for businesses and governments, and speed up access to financial services.”

“As we modernize and develop national and cross-border payments infrastructure in Africa, the only way to sustainably reach and serve the world’s unbanked communities is through new technologies,” said Chris Hamilton, CEO of BankservAfrica. “Our aim as an organization is to offer national payments platforms for the next generation of financial innovators and Mojaloop gives us some tantalizing new options for doing that in a way that integrates with the entire national economy.”

Developers can access the new software on GitHub, the world’s leading open-source development platform. It includes four components: an interoperability layer, which connects bank accounts, mobile money wallets, and merchants in an open loop; a directory service layer, which navigates the different methods that providers use to identify accounts on each side of a transaction; a transactions settlement layer, which makes payments instant and irrevocable; and, components which protect against fraud. The software will not be owned or implemented by the Gates Foundation. It will be used in the foundation’s ongoing work to promote the development of pro-poor, digital payment platforms.

Mojaloop was created by the Gates Foundation’s Level One Project, which is aimed at leveling the economic playing field by crowding in expertise and resources to build inclusive payment models to benefit the world’s poor. Alongside Mojaloop’s development, the project also brought together four mobile systems companies—Ericsson, Huawei, Telepin, and Mahindra Comviva—to develop an Open API for mobile money interoperability. These APIs will allow mobile money providers to integrate seamlessly with Mojaloop and products built from it.

“In order to achieve the full potential of mobile money, we must evolve today’s complex and often fragmented digital payments ecosystem,” said Mr. Shi Yaohong, President of Software Product Line at Huawei. “I look forward to exploring opportunities to leverage Mojaloop to help us achieve our goal of bringing digital financial services to all poor and low-income customers.”

For technical documentation and to contribute and use the Mojaloop software, visit github.com/leveloneproject. For more information on the Level One Project, visit leveloneproject.org.

About the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.

Media Contact: [email protected]

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Output: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has launched open-source software called Mojaloop for establishing payment platforms to extend access to digital financial products and services. The software will be a blueprint for developers to adapt for free for financial institutions’ use, resolving issues of interoperability. According to the World Bank, almost two billion people based in developing economies do not have bank accounts, leaving their finances at risk. Digital financial services have enabled access for users in remote or disadvantaged areas, but progress has been impeded by interoperability problems between payment platforms and digital financial services.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Snap, NBCUniversal to produce scripted shows for mobile platforms
 Snap and NBCUniversal are creating a Hollywood studio dedicated to the future of app-centric entertainment.

Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, is teaming with NBCUniversal to bring scripted programming — like short-form comedies and dramas — to mobile screens. The companies have established a studio joint venture to produce programming exclusively for the social-messaging and media platform. The new JV will work with a handful of creative partners, signing their first deal with indie filmmakers Mark and Jay Duplass.

The studio, 50-50 owned by Snap and NBCU, marks a bet by both parties that entertainment for mobile platforms requires a different way of producing content — one they believe traditional Hollywood studios aren’t equipped to do.

“We fundamentally believe that mobile is a new medium,” said Sean Mills, Snap’s head of content. “Because that creative process is so unique, we felt there was a need for a fully dedicated entity focused on that.”

The companies have recruited Lauren Anderson, who has served as NBC Entertainment’s senior VP of current programming, to be the JV’s chief content officer. “Lauren was a great get for us,” said Mills, who has worked with Anderson on the NBC shows created for Snapchat. “She has tremendous experience, and instantly got what we were going for.”

The new studio — which doesn’t have a name yet — will be overseen by Mills and and Maggie Suniewick, president of NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises.

Over the past year, Snapchat has worked with NBC as well as other networks and media companies to produce original, short-form shows for its platform. Those have included NBC News’ “Stay Tuned,” E!’s “The Rundown,” and NBC’s offshoot of “The Voice” on Snapchat — which garnered an Emmy nomination.

For NBCU, the high level of engagement of Snapchat’s audience on the shows it has produced convinced the media company to go forward with the plan to form a scripted-programming studio, Suniewick said. For the second quarter, Snapchat had an average of 173 million active daily users.

“This is really about figuring out what resonates on the platform,” Suniewick said.

Another reason NBCU is throwing in with Snap: The app maker, unlike Facebook and other digital platforms, lets the media company sell advertising against the content it distributes on Snapchat.

The new studio will be housed in a separate office in Santa Monica, close to Snap’s headquarters in Venice and NBC Entertainment’s in Burbank, Calif.

The formation of the studio joint venture comes after NBCU invested $500 million in Snap earlier this year as part of Snap’s initial public offering. Suniewick said the amount NBCU is investing in the studio JV is separate from that. The companies declined to disclose the level of investment in the JV, or how many staffers they expect to bring on board under Anderson’s purview.

Meanwhile, Snap is continuing to work with partners on scripted programming. Those include Time Warner, which pacted to develop and produce up to 10 shows per year for Snapchat from across its divisions, including those with scripted drama and comedy formats.

The Duplass brothers, among other projects, are co-creators of the HBO original series “Room 104” and “Togetherness” and inked a four-movie deal with Netflix two years ago.

For Snapchat, Mark Duplass said he and his brother have about a half-dozen concepts for scripted and unscripted shows, including comedy, drama, horror and documentary genres. The deal with NBCU and Snap doesn’t specify a total number of series or amount of content the Duplass brothers will produce. They’re targeting 8-10 minutes per episode, with the first series to debut in 2018.

“We’re definitely thinking about their user base, what would appeal to their core group of users, who are essentially millennials,” Mark Duplass told Variety. “If we make one show and it’s really doing well, we might just stick with that – and do 100 episodes of that show.”

As to what the shows will be about, Snap and NBCU “are wildly trusting,” said Mark. “They let us know in no uncertain terms, ‘You go be you.'” The Snapchat shows will come out of the Duplass Bros. Productions’ Donut shingle, an in-house branded-content agency the duo set up this year.

In general, Mark Duplass said, he has concerns about producing content for digital and mobile platforms: “There’s just too much shit,” he explained. “If we’re going to do something, I hope it’s additive – and it’s something people will come to watch.”

The Snap-NBCU offer was attractive because they gave the Duplass brothers assurances that their work would be featured as part of a select group of creators. “They said, ‘We’re going to work with only a few partners, we’re not going to buy 1,000 shows. We’re going to put you front and center,'” Mark Duplass said.

The interesting challenge in producing Snapchat shows will be shooting in the vertical-frame format, he added: “It’s an exciting process of discovery: How do I use this frame in an interesting way to tell a story?”

Snapchat has focused on creating an artificial-scarcity model when it comes to shows, and the new studio is following suit. Instead of opening up the platform to any and all comers, as YouTube and Facebook do, it has cut deals with a limited set of media partners.

“It’s not about licensing things that are being shopped out there,” said Snap’s Mills.

So far, the roster of companies producing Snapchat shows include NBC, ESPN, the NFL, ABC, BBC, A+E Networks, Discovery Networks, Turner, Scripps Networks, Vertical Networks, Vice, MGM Television, and CBS.

Output: Snapchat’s parent company Snap and broadcaster NBCUniversal are joining forces to establish a Hollywood studio focused on app-based entertainment. The studio will create scripted programmes such as short-form dramas and comedies for mobile platforms. The joint venture has already agreed a deal with Mark and Jay Duplass, two independent filmmakers. NBC Entertainment’s senior VP of current programming Lauren Anderson will be the chief content officer of the new unit, which will be based in Santa Monica.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Mayo Clinic offers medical advice through Amazon Echo - Velocity Alert
 Basic health information and advice provided by the Mayo Clinic is now available on Amazon Alexa-enabled devices. Owners who have downloaded the Mayo Clinic First Aid skill (Amazon’s version of apps) need only voice their concerns to receive answers to dozens of everyday health issues or other self-care instructions.

“Mayo Clinic produces trusted, evidence-based health guidance to empower people to effectively manage their health,” Dr. Sandhya Pruthi, general internal medicine physician and associate medical director at Mayo Clinic Global Business Solutions, said in a statement. “This is the first health guidance skill Mayo Clinic has developed and launched for Amazon Alexa. Voice-enabled experience is a new and growing channel for reaching people and delivering information they are seeking, whether or not they have an existing relationship with Mayo Clinic.”

Users may open the voice-driven platform to access and browse a listing of common health topics. Otherwise, vocally addressing Alexa with the name of the skill and a specific question will prompt a spoken response from the device.

The Mayo Clinic First-Aid skill does not replace medical care and should not be used in emergency situations, the provider cautions. It joins the clinic’s other Amazon Alexa service, Mayo Clinic News Network, which offers listeners a 60-second daily presentation with easy-to-understand health tips.

But the Mayo Clinic is not the only provider of health info in the Amazon Alexa ecosystem. This March, WebMD launched their own integration with the platform to provide users information on a range of health-related topics such as conditions, medication, tests, and treatments. Users of the WebMD skill can have the information read to them aloud, or sent as text to their Alexa app.

"There are a number of reasons that voice-enabled interfaces are growing in popularity — they are generally hands-free, people can talk faster than they type, and when done right, they make it easier for consumers to quickly and easily get to the information they need,” WebMD Vice President Ben Greenberg, whose product team developed the new voice capabilities, said in a statement accompanying the launch.

Other voice-assisted health services available on Amazon Alexa include Fitbit integration, Boston Children’s Hospital’s KidsMD skill, and Healthtap’s Doctor AI diagnosis tool.

Output: Owners of Amazon Alexa-enabled devices, such as the Echo, may now use them to seek basic health information and advice. Users that have downloaded the Mayo Clinic First Aid app can voice their concerns to Alexa and receive immediate answers to everyday health issues and other self-care instructions. However, the Mayo Clinic, a multi-state US healthcare provider, has cautioned that the app should not be used in emergency situations and does not replace traditional medical care.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Redrow Leeds housing plan for 241 homes looks set for approval
 Yorkshire Property Joshua Hammond

A housing plan that generated in excess of 280 written objections looks set to be approved this week after the application was recommended for approval by the chief planning officer.

Plans submitted by Stocks Bros and Redrow Homes (Yorkshire) envisage the redevelopment of the former Stocks Blocks site in Garforth village. The plans would redevelop the land into a total of 241 homes.

The 22.2-acre site was used for the manufacture of aggregate and masonry blocks until the operation closed and was relocated to a £12m state-of-the-art facility in Cross Green.

The site would feature 29 two-bed, 79 three-bed and 118 four-bed homes as well as four one-bed and 11 two-bedroom flats.

Of those, a total of 36 units are identified as affordable units; 12 of the two-bed houses, 15 of the three-bed houses, three of the one-bed flats and six of the two-bed flats.

Objections from 282 local residents and interested parties, including the Garforth Flood Group and local Labour branch, have been received raising a number of issues.

Key concerns included the development making existing flooding issues worse, adding to existing traffic congestion and a lack of sufficient public transport.

The report of the chief planning officer, said: "It is considered the proposed development would positively contribute to the city’s overall housing requirements and bring back into active use a brownfield site which is located in a sustainable location.

"The detailed design of the development is considered appropriate and incorporates the best site features in terms of retention of the most important trees.

"The development would provide a high level of amenity for future residents without compromising the amenities of existing neighbouring residents and appropriate measures are included to ensure the highway impact of the development is acceptable.

It added: "The proposals are considered to comply with relevant policies in the Development Plan and other relevant planning guidance, as listed above and with the National Planning Policy Framework.

"It is therefore recommended that the application is approved, subject to the conditions suggested above and completion of a legal agreement covering the planning obligations detailed at the start of this report."

Output: Approval may be granted for a housing plan that has garnered more than 280 written objections. The proposal, submitted by house builders Redrow Homes and Stocks Bros, is for the redevelopment of the former Stocks Blocks location in Garforth village, near Leeds into 241 houses on a 22-acre site. Concerns have been raised that the development will worsen existing flooding problems and increase traffic locally. The house builders have said the development will use a brownfield site and would provide a “high level” of amenity for residents. The application has been recommended for approval by the chief planning officer.