Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Perovskite solar cells enhanced by polystyrene
 The research, published by The Royal Society of Chemistry in the journal Nanoscale, showed that polystyrene particles enhanced stability and slashed the manufacturing costs of solar cells.

In place of costly polymers, a team of researchers of The University of Manchester has used insulating polystyrene microgel particles to make perovskite solar cells, unlocking further potential of the next generation solar cell technology.

The research, published by The Royal Society of Chemistry in the journal Nanoscale, showed that polystyrene particles enhanced stability and slashed the manufacturing costs of solar cells.

As their power conversion is approaching parity with established solar PV technology, perovskite solar cells are becoming more commercially attractive.

However, using organometallic halide perovskite as the light harvesting layer instead of silicon makes them vulnerable, as it quickly degrades when exposed to water. These cells also rely on a hole-transportation layer, which promote the efficient movement of electrical current when exposed to sunlight, but is very costly and unstable in the long run.

Popular content

In this research, the weak points have been addressed using insulating polystyrene microgel particles.

“The perovskite layer in solar cells is not inherently unstable, but the required hole-transport material is. HTM layers made of congregated polymers are thin, but they are also relatively expensive and contribute a significant portion of the total cost of the solar cell. In this study we used polystyrene, which is 1/10,000th of the cost of polymers to produce, and is also hydrophobic which helps improve the stability of PSCs,” said Brian Saunders, Professor of Polymer and Colloid Chemistry from the school of Materials at The University of Manchester, noting that more research is required to enable the full potential of the existing PSC technology to be realized.

Output: University of Manchester researchers have successfully used insulating polystyrene microgel particles to produce perovskite solar cells. The replacement material significantly enhanced the stability of the cell, while simultaneously reducing its cost compared to the traditionally-used polymers. Using polystyrene also addressed the issue of water damage when using organometallic halide perovskite, which causes the cells to degrade.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Innogy awarded rights to develop wind projects in north Wales
 Innogy UK Renewables has won the right to develop a large-scale wind project in north Wales through a tender run by Natural Resources Wales (NRW).

The developer has been awarded an option to survey land in Alwen Forest near Ruthin prior to making a planning application for an onshore wind farm on land leased to the Welsh government by Dwr Cymru Welsh Water.

NRW said Innogy’s bid featured a strong community element thanks to their collaboration with Community Energy Wales focusing on community shared ownership of the project.As reported exclusively by subscription-only newsletter reNEWS in February, Innogy and Community Energy Wales teamed up to submit a tender bid for the development of a wind farm of between nine and 11 turbines.Welsh government cabinet secretary for environment and rural affairs Lesley Griffiths said: “I’m pleased the successful bid has a strong community benefit which will enable local people to buy into the scheme.“This approach will ensure that money generated from the scheme will stay in the local community.”If developed, the wind farm would be located in the TAN8 Strategic Search Area A on the Denbighshire/Conwy border, adjacent to Llyn Brenig.

Output: Innogy UK Renewables has been given permission to construct a large-scale wind project in north Wales. The developer has been awarded an option that will permit the company to investigate prospective sites in the Alwen Forest. The tender was run by Natural Resources Wales.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
ASAE unveils operational risk insurance for US associations
 WASHINGTON, Aug. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- ASAE has launched the ASAE Insurance Source. Created through ASAE Business Services, Inc. (ABSI) – ASAE's wholly-owned subsidiary, the ASAE Insurance Source is a new platform designed to help associations effectively manage their operational and governance risks.

All of the products offered through the ASAE Insurance Source have been tailored to include coverage provisions, features, and benefits that reflect and serve associations' unique property and casualty insurance and risk management needs.

"We can't promise a hazard free operating environment, but we can help associations tap into the tools, insights, and supports they need to successfully manage the risks they face, and the ASAE Insurance Source represents a new approach," said ASAE President and CEO John H. Graham, IV, FASAE, CAE. "ASAE, through ABSI, has been engaged in this important work for many years. With this new platform, we will be able to sharpen our focus on associations' evolving risk needs and continue to add resources in the future."

The ASAE Insurance Source will feature competitively priced insurance solutions, including the newly enhanced ASAE-Endorsed Nonprofit Directors' and Officers' (D&O) Insurance program, the ASAE-Endorsed Association Office Package Insurance program, the ASAE-Endorsed Event Cancellation Insurance program, as well as other insurance offerings exclusively provided by Aon Affinity Nonprofits. ASAE-Endorsed Professional Errors & Omissions liability coverage exclusively provided by AXIS PRO®[1], a member company of the AXIS group of insurance companies[2], will also be available via the ASAE Insurance Source.

"The ASAE Insurance Source is another way that ASAE is delivering on its commitment to engage with and support associations as well as those who work in them," Graham added.

To learn more about the ASAE Insurance Source, visit absisolutions.com.

About ASAE and the ASAE Foundation

ASAE is a membership organization of more than 35,000 association executives and industry partners representing 7,400 organizations. Its members manage leading trade associations, individual membership societies and voluntary organizations across the United States and in nearly 50 countries around the world. With support of the ASAE Foundation, a separate nonprofit entity, ASAE is the premier source of learning, knowledge and future-oriented research for the association and nonprofit profession, and provides resources, education, ideas and advocacy to enhance the power and performance of the association and nonprofit community. For more information about ASAE, visit www.asaecenter.org.

About ASAE Business Services, Inc.

The mission of ASAE Business Services, Inc. (ABSI), is to be the trusted source for essential business services for associations and nonprofits. The wholly-owned subsidiary of ASAE, ABSI supports ASAE's efforts to promote excellence in association management. For more information about ABSI, please visit absisolutions.com.

[1]Coverage is underwritten by a member company of the AXIS group of insurance companies. Coverage may not be available in all states and jurisdictions. This information is for descriptive purposes only and does not provide a complete summary of coverage. Consult applicable policy for specific terms, conditions, limits, limitations and exclusions to coverage.

[2]AXIS Insurance is a business segment of AXIS Capital Holdings Limited (NYSE: AXS), a global leader in specialty insurance and reinsurance. Coverages are backed by the financial strength and security of the AXIS Insurance Companies, rated "A+" (Strong) by Standard & Poor's and "A+" (Superior) XV by A.M. Best.

View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/asae-insurance-source-offers-associations-property-and-casualty-insurance-risk-management-support-300501845.html

SOURCE American Society of Association Executives

Output: The American Society of Association Executives has unveiled new insurance products to help associations manage their operational and governance risks. ASAE Insurance Source will offer non-profit directors and officers coverage, an office insurance product, an event cancellation policy as well as other packages. Each can be tailored to an individual association's property and casualty insurance and risk management requirements.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Regus Regus makes a ‘green’ home for users in Cape Town
 Thank you for being patient. We are doing some work on the site and will be back shortly.

Output: Regus’ branch opened in Observatory, Cape Town is heralded as being “green”, as it is part of Black River Park, which was one of the first offices in the country to gain certified Green Star SA ratings for all its buildings from the Green Building Council of South Africa. The location is said to have easy access to amenities including shops, restaurants, major highways and a CrossFit gym.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Collaborative emergency medicine-primary care model could be solution to boosting rural population health
 Michigan emergency physicians are proposing a new health care delivery model that integrates primary care into a rural hospital's emergency department operations, a place that many who need non-emergent care often end up anyway.

The proposal was published this week in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, a journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians or ACEP. It touts the idea that emergency departments in small rural hospitals can serve as "collaborative domains" of both emergency and primary care by embracing the role that they already play in providing primary care and integrating it as an active part of their operations, the authors wrote.

The goal is not to replace the existing outpatient rural safety net that typically includes federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics. Instead, it would work alongside community primary care to boost primary care capacity and address social needs wherever the patient shows up for services. Also, through innovations and a more thorough use of rural facilities, they can achieve financial solvency and survivability.

[Also: Texas rural communities endangered as spiral of hospital closures continues with two more]

The authors highlighted a case study from North Carolina to illustrate how the model might operate. Carolinas HealthCare System Anson in Wadesboro had the opportunity to rebuild their hospital and based their approach on a "community-focused care model."

Anson County's population is a prototypical snapshot of rural America, the authors said. It includes 27,000 residents, two-thirds of which are obese. Also, 30 percent have hypertension and 20 percent have heart disease. Nineteen percent don't have insurance. Only 19 percent have a primary care physician while almost 30 percent of patients who show up at the ED could be treated in a primary care setting.

[Also: CHC launches new hospital collaborative aimed at saving financially struggling rurals]

The original hospital also mirrored the struggles of many US rural hospitals. The building was an old, 52-bed hospital with an average daily inpatient volume between 3 and 5 patients.

The final design of the 43,000-square-foot new hospital is built around an ED and primary care clinic that share the same space. There are no walls separating the ED from primary care and all patient rooms are in one bay. The staffing stations are in the middle. The ED operates 24/7 and has 10 beds and one trauma room.

The primary care side has 11 rooms and an additional space for specialists to treat patients on a rotating basis. Their average volume is 2 or 3 inpatients a night, typically staying between 48 to 72 hours, mostly for observation. Acute patients are transported to larger hospitals.

[Also: Rural hospitals struggling, serving populations with many health disparities, report finds]

To facilitate patient flow, an ED nurse and a physician assistant screen each patient on arrival to determine what kind of care is needed. The hospital also staffs a patient navigator and uses behavioral health and care coordination services out of their emergency medicine–primary care core.

To address further challenges like missed appointments, the hospitals offer van service for patients to transport them for visits. The service is coordinated through a patient navigator who schedules the rides. Community advocates in schools, churches and workplaces monitor and report on community needs.

"Our model leverages the strengths of a diverse health care workforce and is both provider and patient focused. It acknowledges the fact that a rural ED might be the closest point of contact for rural patients. It illustrates how rural EDs and rural hospitals can be optimized to guide patients to the ideal type of care."

Twitter: @BethJSanborn

Output: Emergency doctors in Michigan are proposing a new delivery model for healthcare that will blend primary care with rural hospital emergency departments. This could be the solution for providing rural populations with the healthcare they require, by making emergency providers and primary care practitioners work collaboratively to boost capacity and address social needs. The increasingly innovative healthcare sector could also help to keep both primary care and emergency facilities financially solvent. Rural populations often suffer from a lack of available doctors and emergency care facilities, with patients often lacking insurance or primary care physicians. The new model could help to better triage patients and to provide improved outpatient care, combining transport for patients, providing community advocates and expanding coverage.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
TalkTalk [2]: Wireless WAN failover suggested after rats take down TalkTalk in South London
 Customers of both Sky and TalkTalk were left without service after the incident was first reported on Thursday evening, with both firms apologising for the fault.

Sky tweeted to say the service had been restored on Saturday morning, although a number of customers in the UK capital complained they were left unable to establish an internet connection.

Sky Help Team tweeted on Saturday morning: "South London. Engineers have continued to work overnight & will continue through the day. More updates to follow."

TalkTalk said affected areas included Balham, South Clapham, Streatham, Tootig, and Vauxhall, with 96 Virgin Media cables damaged overall.

Service appeared to be fully restored by Sunday 13 July. A number of customers took to Twitter to complain that the problem had taken too long to fix.

Hubert Da Costa, VP EMEA at Cradlepoint, warned operators and businesses should ensure they have in place a reliable failover for situations such as this. Da Costa added: “When wired internet connectivity experiences a service disruption businesses are exposed to risks of lost revenue, productivity and customer experience issues. The most effective way of avoiding network downtime is to ensure there is a reliable failover.

"Upgrading to a more robust wired connection is one possible solution – but it’s expensive and is still susceptible to outages and service disruption. An alternative option is to bridge the inevitable gap with wireless WAN failover. This option is quick and easy to deploy. Ultimately, when network connections fail, there will be a loss of productivity, brand credibility and revenue. In my experience, there are few businesses that can afford to take that risk.”

Output: Sky and TalkTalk broadband users in South London were left without service at the weekend after rats chewed through fibre cables. “The most effective way of avoiding network downtime is to ensure there is a reliable failover“, said Hubert Da Costa, VP EMEA at Cradlepoint, who suggesting bridging the gap to an expensive wired connection upgrade with wireless WAN failover.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Stop Treating 70- and 90-Year-Olds the Same
 Every summer around this time, pediatricians’ offices are flooded with children getting the vaccines they need to start another year of school.

Doctors base their advice on which shots patients should get when on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine recommendations. The guidelines are presented in two schedules, one for children, the other for adults, both divided into subgroups based on developmental biology and social behaviors common at different ages. Unfortunately, there’s a major problem with the guidelines. And it’s representative of a larger failing in our health care system.

There are 17 subgroupings for children from birth through age 18. That makes sense because, of course, a 6-month-old has had little time to develop immunity, weighs far less than an 8-year-old and is exposed to fewer people than a teenager. There are five subgroups for adults. But all Americans 65 and older — including the two fastest-growing segments of our population, the 80- to 90-year-olds and those over 100 — are lumped in a single group, as if bodies and behaviors don’t change over the last half-century of life.

You don’t need to be a doctor to see that this is absurd. Just as we don’t confuse toddlers with teenagers, or young adults with their middle-age parents, so, too, are we able to distinguish 70-year-olds from the nonagenarians a generation ahead of them.

Output: Despite there being 17 subgroupings for children between the ages of 0 – 18 years, there are only five subgroups for adults, with Americans aged 65 and older categorized as the same. This method of grouping means that older adults are being treated the same, in spite of the physiological changes that occur within the last 35 years of life. The difference between the “young old” and the “old old” is significant, with immune systems becoming weaker in later life, leading to increased rates of hospitalization and susceptibility to infections. Immunizations are less effective, meaning that older adults may require different doses of vaccines, more frequent vaccinations or even vaccines that are entirely different from a biological perspective. Procedures may provide little benefit to older patients, or even cause permanent decline. These issues could be tackled with more specific guidelines for health professionals, covering stressors such as poverty, illness, incarceration or racial prejudice that may prematurely push patients from adulthood into “oldhood”. A push for a greater focus on the older generation in medical studies could also help to better tailor healthcare. The CDC should extend childhood and adulthood classifications to include oldhood, and mandate older adults to be included in clinical studies.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
UK and Indian tech institute work on IoT security blockchain
 A UK university has partnered with an Indian tech institute to examine Blockchain protection against future cyberattacks like WannaCry.

City University London and Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur will work together via a consortium which will focus specifically on arming health care entities and Internet of Things (IoT) components against the effects of international cybercrime.

The UK’s National Health Service was a major victim of WannaCry earlier this year after hackers found easy prey in the state-run network’s legacy operating systems.

“Our consortium will be exploring the use of a privacy-preserving Blockchain architecture for IoT applications in healthcare data-sharing, using attribute-based encryption (ABE) to provide greater security for the devices,” Muttukrishnan Rajarajan, professor of network engineering at City University said, quoted by local news resource Internet of Business.

Research into the capabilities of WannaCry internationally cast further doubt on the ability of certain countries, India among them, to resist infection.

In particular, India’s ATM network could have succumbed to the malicious parties, reports suggested at the time.

Rajarajan said that security of IoT devices used in health networks and elsewhere would also form an area of investigation.

Other countries have been experimenting with Blockchain healthcare for some time, notably Estonia, which has sought to put its records on the Blockchain to increase both flexibility and security.

The NHS also faced calls to meet attackers with Blockchain tools immediately following the hack.

Output: City University London and the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur will develop a blockchain for internet of things (IoT) applications, with a specific focus on protecting healthcare networks. The blockchain will use attribute-based encryption to improve the security of data shared between IoT devices, said Muttukrishnan Rajarajan, professor of network engineering at City University. This comes after the WannaCry ransomware attacks exposed widespread vulnerabilities in cybersecurity.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Lyft looks for new roles for drivers when fleet goes autonomous
 Lyft still sees a place for human drivers in an autonomous fleet There are certain things that self-driving cars just can't do.

The prospect of self-driving cars is particularly concerning to people who make their living by driving, whether it's a taxi or working for Uber or Lyft. Companies such as Lyft have made no secret about being interesting in adding autonomous vehicles to their fleets. But where does this leave their human drivers? Lyft's product director Taggart Matthiesen told Recode that while the company is focusing on self-driving tech, they will always employ people as drivers.

Matthiesen explains that the company already has an advisory board that is working on how human drivers will fit into a vision of a driverless fleet. Humans can do things that self-driving cars simply cannot, such as help with suitcases or assist passengers with mobility impairments. He explained, "There are things we're doing beyond getting a passenger from point A to point B, additional services that we as a company can look at."

Still, it's likely that eventually that most of Lyft's drivers will eventually be replaced by self-driving tech. Last month, the company announced they were opening a research division in Palo Alto focused exclusively on autonomous vehicles. Human drivers may serve more of a concierge function, taking on passengers that need extra help, while self-driving cars will likely take on the bulk of straightforward rides.

Output: Ride-hailing company Lyft is working on autonomous driving technology, but plans to keep drivers as well. The company has set up an advisory board that will explore how best to keep drivers employed while operating a driverless fleet, such as by providing assistance with luggage or aiding those with mobility impairments. However, it is still probable that Lyft will replace most drivers with autonomous technology; the company has opened a research division in Palo Alto dedicated to self-driving vehicles.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
House prices in regional UK tech hubs show highest gains
 Technical hubs that create employment are also having an effect on house prices with locations such as Cambridge, Reading and Oxford seeing values rise substantially since 2012.

London is known for having a thriving tech sector but other cities in the UK are also benefitting with new research also suggesting that Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds and Liverpool are set to be digital hotspots too.

The research looked at 30 digital tech hubs, including London, identified in the latest Tech Nation 2017 report and then ranked each city by average house price, number of digital jobs and digital tech sector growth potential.

The analysis from online estate agents HouseSimple research found that the established tech hubs of Cambridge, Reading and Oxford, with more than 100,000 digital jobs between them, have seen some of the highest property price increases over the past five years of anywhere in the UK.

Their booming tech economies have resulted in a 43% rise in property prices in Oxford and Cambridge, and almost 54% in Reading since 2012. That compares with a 31% average price increase for the UK over the same period.

The research also found that two of the emerging digital tech hubs Ipswich and Exeter, have seen the largest average property price rises over the past 12 months, of any of the 30 regional tech hubs, up 8.9% in Ipswich and 8.7% in Exeter, almost double the UK average.

Looking ahead at cities with the highest digital tech growth potential and most affordable property prices, Manchester came out on top with an average house price of £161,611, more than 60,000 digital jobs and tech sector growth potential of 85%. The report suggests that Manchester is well placed to prosper when Britain leaves the European Union.

Glasgow was next with average house prices just £119,487, and tech sector growth potential of 81%. However, the city currently has a third of the digital jobs in Manchester. Leeds placed third, with slightly higher average property prices than Manchester at £171,052, but the second highest tech sector growth potential of any of the regional tech hubs at 92%.

Although London has established itself as one of the world’s top tech capitals, average house prices at £481,345 are three times higher than in Manchester and four times higher than in Glasgow. As a result, London only ranks 19th, with the report suggesting that it is vulnerable to a mass exodus of digital talent to the thriving regional tech hubs where business costs are cheaper and housing is considerably more affordable.

‘Britain was described by Chancellor Philip Hammond as an innovation powerhouse and the digital tech sector is predicted to lead the way when we leave the EU. The digital economy is expanding rapidly, creating new jobs and opportunities in cities across the UK,’ said Alex Gosling, HouseSimple chief executive officer.

He pointed out that while London has been the beacon for the digital tech sector in the UK, it could be affected by the high cost of living and unaffordable property prices has seen an exodus of tech workers and tech businesses.

‘With tech start-ups able to tap into a growing pool of highly skilled workers outside the capital, the regional tech hubs are thriving. In fact, according to the latest Tech Nation report 68% of total UK digital tech investment in 2016 was in regional clusters beyond London,’ Gosling explained.

‘Regional tech hubs are set to boom over the next few years, as the local digital economies become more established. And the regions best placed to take advantage of the investment being pumped into the digital tech sector will be the ones that can offer not just the best job opportunities but also the best quality of life,’ he added.

Output: Technology hubs in the UK are having a positive effect on the housing market, with house prices in cities such as Reading, Cambridge and Oxford rising steeply since 2012, according to digital estate agents HouseSimple. The research looked at 30 cities, including London, and found there was a 43% rise in house prices in Oxford and Cambridge, with a near 54% rise in Reading, compared with an average increase of 31% across the UK since 2102. In newer high-tech hubs such as Ipswich, Exeter and Manchester, there has been a rise of up to 8.9% in house prices over the past 12 months.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Management consultants take bigger role in planning media spend
 Management consultancies are turning the trust problem between advertisers and their media agencies into an opportunity to muscle in on the number of budgets increasingly prioritizing planning over buying.

There’s growing unease about the lack of transparency in media. As a result, management consultancies see a bigger role for themselves in helping marketers spend their money.

Many of Accenture Interactive’s global clients have asked for help in recent months in examining how they buy advertising, said managing director Joydeep Bhattacharya.

“We’re experiencing a lot of requests from clients asking, ‘How can you make the [media planning] process more transparent’ for the effectiveness of where they’re spending?” Bhattacharya said.

Some of Accenture Interactive’s clients, as a result, have shifted some of their display ad spending to search and video, the latter to do more addressable advertising. The rethink of clients’ digital ad spending coincides with Facebook’s and Google’s efforts to nurture more strategic partnerships. Bhattacharya added, “While they’re dominant players, they’re quite aware that if results are not good from where clients are spending their media money, then effectively they will shift from one supplier to another.”

Procter & Gamble and Unilever did this during the last quarter of this year. P&G ran ads on 978 sites between January and May, down 33 percent from the same period in 2016, according to MediaRadar. Similarly, Unilever ads appeared on 540 sites between January and May, down 11 percent from the same time frame last year.

Management consultants said they’re expecting more of the same as more marketers question why their ads are appearing in the wrong places. Consider Heineken, setting up its own ad server and data-management platform to temper some of those concerns, or Honda’s decision to award its business to independent RPA.

As the likes of Accenture Interactive, Deloitte Digital and PwC push their way closer to the CMO, they insist it will not be to the detriment of the big media buying shops, whose businesses they are disrupting the most. Between Accenture Interactive’s rush to make programmatic premium by chasing brand-building budgets and Deloitte’s Digital bid to position itself as an objective media buyer in an industry marred by transparency concerns, the trading of media to the consulting groups is a small but key part of a broader plan. They want to be the place advertisers turn to when they want media strategy, media buying and media effectiveness

ID Comms, a media-management firm that advises marketers, has noticed consultancies showing up on its projects with global and regional advertisers, including some media pitches. ID Comms said these companies can have sway in directing advertisers in ways that go beyond the limits of the media agency’s role.

However, Sam Tomlinson, a partner at PwC, said PwC’s role on similar projects is more nuanced than that. “It’s often portrayed as consultancies stepping on the toes of media agencies,” he said, “but you could equally argue that by focusing on digital strategy, those same agencies are moving into our area of expertise.”

With the heightened scrutiny into digital spending, PwC sees a chance to increase its auditing business, or “media assurance” as it calls it. PwC saw a rise in audit requests in the wake of the brand-safety scandal earlier this year.

“Rebates are important and shouldn’t be overlooked, but right now, CMOs are probably more concerned with whether their digital ads are being viewed by a human, meet a viewability standard and what sort of content the ad appears alongside,” said Tomlinson.

For some time, holding companies have been trying to shift their business models from the ruthlessly commoditized trading budgets to more premium planning briefs. This is where the management consultants have played for some time and are now redoubling efforts to shore up ahead of increased competition. Out of 42 U.S. pitches research firm Comvergence has tracked so far this year, 16 have moved to independents. Those 16 accounts totaled more than $2 billion in spend.

Companies like Accenture Interactive, Deloitte Digital and PwC see a chance to advise advertisers on issues such as effectiveness, commercial value, user attention and inventory quality. They insist that they’re not looking to handle media spending, which is a lower-margin business than the consulting work they do.

“Clients are turning to consultancies like Deloitte Digital for this type of service now because we’re a one-stop shop with an ultimate goal of bringing their business ambitions to life,” said Andy Main, CEO of Deloitte Digital. “It’s fair to say we are a friend to the media-buying industry, not a threat, because we are doing big business transformation projects that talk about its rebranding, which is helpful to the media-buying industries.”

Image courtesy Accenture Interactive

Output: Advertisers are turning to management consultancies for help in getting more control over their purchasing, as brands become concerned about the lack of transparency in the media planning process. Badly placed ads and misleading metrics have engendered a lack of trust between advertisers and media agencies, so consultants such as PwC, Accenture Interactive and Deloitte Digital now offer clients “media assurance” measures like auditing and advisory services to help direct media spending in areas such as programmatic planning. However, consultants have said they are not looking to move into directing media spend as media agencies' margins are lower than those of their own services.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Chinese researchers design barrel to manage oil spills
 A barrel designed to spontaneously remove oil from water could offer a rapid and simple remedy to spills at sea.

Millions of gallons of oil enter the world’s oceans each year, yet oil clean-up methods, including floating barriers, sponges and dispersants, are often slow, complex or inefficient.

Now, scientists in China have developed a cylindrical container that, dropped into contaminated water, collects oil through an array of microscopic holes in an aluminium sheet. The outer face of the sheet is fluorinated and highly hydrophobic, attracting oil through the holes, but not water. The inner face is highly hydrophilic and pre-coated with water, preventing exit of the collected oil.

This two-faced ‘Janus barrel’ can soak up surface slicks as well as oil droplets dispersed in choppy water. Once collected, the oil can be easily syphoned out of the barrel, which can then be immediately reused. So far, the team have only tested small-volume barrels, but they work quickly. A scaled-up version could collect thousands of litres of oil in minutes.

Output: Chinese scientists have designed a high-tech barrel that is capable separating oil from water, and could offer a cheap and effective solution to oil spills. Called the Janus barrel, it collects oil from water using microscopic holes on its side. The outer surface of the barrel is hydrophobic, meaning that only oil will pass through the holes, while the inner section is hydrophilic, preventing the oil from escaping the container. The equipment can be used again immediately once the oil is siphoned from the barrel.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Fennex app turns Apple AirPods into smartphone hearing aids
 The Fennex app, currently free though it may eventually charge for certain features, is still in its earliest days. Mari says today’s version functions like a “cheap hearing aid”: it simply tests your hearing in each ear and uses those results to act as a personalized, adjustable amplifier. If you’re having trouble hearing in a class, for instance, you could place your phone near the lectern while you’re sitting a few rows back and listening in on a pair of AirPods.

But upgrades are coming, Mari says: the app is slated to gain features that will help reduce unwanted noise and feedback. And beyond helping people who just want to hear better in some situations, the software could eventually work with with Apple’s hardware to serve as a viable alternative to a regular hearing aid for people who have moderate hearing loss, he believes.

“We want to get as close as we can to hearing aid technology,” he says.

Fennex is latching on to a broader trend in using smartphones and earbuds to augment hearing, both for people with hearing loss and for those who simply want to adjust how they hear. Already, there are some similar apps that work with earbuds and smartphones, like Petralex, as well as specialized earbuds that work with their own smartphone apps, like Doppler Labs’ Here One. Unlike hearing aids, which can cost thousands of dollars for a pair, these so-called hearables may cost up to a few hundred dollars on top of the price of a smartphone.

Fennex claims to be the only one designed for the AirPods specifically. And since Apple is clearly moving away from the traditional headphone jack—it cut it out of the iPhones released last year and included just its proprietary Lightning connector for charging—it is possible that in the coming years AirPods will become a lot common.

Larry Humes, a distinguished professor of speech and hearing sciences at Indiana University Bloomington, is optimistic that something like Fennex could take the place of a traditional hearing aid for those with mild to moderate hearing loss. He thinks the recent passage of legislation that orders the FDA to create a new class of over-the-counter hearing aids could help, too, as he expects it will lead to a range of hearing-related products that people can get without needing to visit a doctor.

However, as Mari knows, it’s clearly a risk to focus on making software for one pair of earbuds, since Fennex can’t control what Apple does with its hardware or the access it gives to developers who want to develop software that works with it.

There’s also the issue of hearing delays. Fennex works by using the AirPods’ microphones to record sounds in the world around you, after which it sends the audio to the iPhone app for processing and then back to the earbuds. The delay, for now, is 130 milliseconds, which might be fine for listening but is noticeable if you’re trying to engage in a conversation.

Output: Swiss start-up Fennex has released an app for the iPhone which turns Apple's AirPod wireless earbuds into a cheap hearing aid. The app tests users' hearing in each ear and modulates volume specific to each user's hearing ability. It will soon offer features to help users reduce unwanted noise and feedback, Fennex said. The app is only supported by Apple because an Android phone experiences more latency when processing sound, said Fennex CEO Alex Mari.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Mastercard could face £14bn class action in UK
 A proposed £14bn class action lawsuit against Mastercard is being revived after lawyers filed to appeal against a ruling that barred the case from heading to trial last month.

Lawyers for former financial ombudsman Walter Merricks have made their application to the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal just weeks after it refused to certify his claim.

Merricks’ claim was lodged on behalf of nearly 46 million consumers and alleged that Mastercard’s interchange fees forced consumers to pay higher prices to businesses that accept the credit card over a 16-year period, therefore breaching EU competition law. The damages being sought were more than £14bn.

The tribunal last month ruled that the case could not proceed through a so-called collective action, saying that even if losses had been suffered and could be estimated across the whole class, there was no way of ensuring that an individual would receive an amount compensating for any loss suffered.

Merricks says that the tribunal should have considered the “clear policy intent” behind the claim against Mastercard.

“In essence this is a simple case. It has been conclusively established that Mastercard acted unlawfully and anti-competitively in imposing excessive credit and debit card fees,” Merricks said.

He added: “If I can establish the total amount of harm that Mastercard has caused to UK consumers, then why should consumers then get nothing at all if I cannot calculate the precise loss that each individual consumer suffered?

“Rather than allow consumer recovery, this would reward unlawful conduct by allowing companies to keep their ill-gotten gains.’

Mastercard has until 8 September to respond to the filing, after which point the tribunal could decide to hold a hearing on the appeal application before issuing its judgment.

A spokesman for Mastercard, which last month said it welcomed the tribunal’s ruling, said that an appeal against the CAT’s decision would be “without merit”.

“Consumers across the UK and around the world derive real value from Mastercard’s payments technology through the benefits of security, convenience and consumer protection.

“We believe that any appeal or review by Walter Merricks is without merit and that the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s judgment to refuse certification for the proposed collective action was the correct decision.

“Mastercard maintains that this claim is completely unsuitable to be brought under the collective actions regime.”

Output: Mastercard faces the revival of a £14bn ($18bn) class action lawsuit which was barred from heading to trial last month. Lawyers for Walter Merricks, the former financial ombudsman, filed an application to the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal after the ruling. Merricks, who claims that Mastercard’s interchange fees breached EU competition law by forcing consumers to pay more to firms accepting the credit card, lodged his claim on behalf of almost 46 million consumers. The tribunal had ruled that the case could not proceed as there was no means of ensuring individuals would receive an amount compensating for their loss.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
US K-12 teachers struggle to implement personalised learning
 Personalized learning, which gives students a choice in how they receive education, often with technology, has effectively increased students’ college readiness and graduation rates at some schools. But, when implementing personalized learning initiatives, educators have faced many hurdles.

A recent study by Rand of 40 K–12 schools with personalized learning initiatives finds that teachers had difficulty implementing the education innovation, reports Education Week. Teachers tell Rand they didn’t have enough time to develop customized lessons or to balance the priorities of offering this kind of instruction versus meeting common standards. The educators report that when students worked at their own pace, many of them worked too slowly.

The study also reveals that the schools found a lack of high-quality digital instruction materials.

However, the Rand study finds that personalized learning provided teachers more one-on-one time with students, which boosted their understanding of where each student stood academically. Students also saw small gains in math and reading scores with a customized education, adding to the hope that with proper implementation personalized learning can be successful.

“It’s important to set expectations. This may not work everywhere, and it requires careful thought about the context that enables it to work well,” says John F. Pane, a senior scientist at Rand, in the Education Week article.

The Keys to Personalized Learning Success

The Rand study recommends that state and district policymakers lead the way for personalized learning implementation by allowing for flexibility in course progressions; revising grading policies to fit competency-based standards; and communicating these standards clearly to students, families and educators. The study also indicates that at the district and state levels, policymakers can look to early adopters of personalized learning programs for tips on proper application.

This is the impetus behind Rhode Island’s Lighthouse Schools Challenge Grant. As part of the state’s effort to foster more widespread personalized learning, policymakers challenged early adopters to submit models of personalized learning that can be adapted on a wide scale. The state’s Office of Innovation aims to offer support for learning efforts, curriculum changes and technology use.

Rand suggests that districts and schools provide teachers with the resources and the time to pilot new instructional approaches and collaborate with their peers on new ideas.

Future Ready Schools’ guidelines indicate that giving teachers the same personalized learning experience for professional development is also quite beneficial.

“There’s promise here,” Pane tells Education Week. “But, we have to do the scale-up in a way that’s cautious and thoughtful.”

Output: US K-12 teachers are finding it difficult to implement personalised learning, despite the method being proven to increase students’ readiness to go on to college, according to a study by research firm Rand. Teachers do not have the time or resources to create customised lesson plans or focus on higher level teaching on top of making sure students reached basic standards. Furthermore, many personalised learning programmes let some students work too slowly. However, the study found personalised learning provides teachers with more individual time with students, giving them slightly better scores.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
UK needs more flexible working and paternity leave: EHRC
 Sweeping employment changes, including advertising all UK jobs with flexible working and giving fathers additional paternity leave, should be made to tackle the gender pay gap, the equalities watchdog has recommended.

Offering flexible hours to all job applicants will help combat pay disparities between men and women, while increasing job opportunities for disabled people, according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The recommendations form part of a strategy for tackling pay imbalances across gender, ethnicity and disability, outlined in a report published on Tuesday that shows some of the biggest divisions in salaries across the country. The watchdog’s findings come weeks after the BBC revealed a vast disparity between the pay rates of its highest-earning men and women.

Caroline Waters, the deputy chair of the EHRC, said: “We need new ideas to bring down pay gaps. While there has been some progress, it has been painfully slow. We need radical change now, otherwise we’ll be having the same conversation for decades to come.”

Britain should follow Scandinavian countries in offering working fathers greater levels of paid paternity leave, the report said, which could prompt more men to request flexible working arrangements. This in turn would help alleviate pressure on women to take lengthier breaks or leave their jobs. Research from the Trades Union Congress shows that by 42, mothers who are in full-time work earn 11% less than women without children who work full-time.

During the general election campaign, Theresa May pledged to tackle the “injustice” of the gender pay gap, pay disparity between ethnic groups and discrimination against disabled people. She argued that companies should be made to disclose how pay rates vary by ethnicity, while ministers have promised to take action on the gender pay gap in the public and private sectors. All employers with more than 250 staff will have to publicly report their gender pay gap from next year.

However, Labour criticised the government earlier this month for being happy to “talk the talk” while failing to take action, after the Guardian found that it would take the civil service more than 37 years to achieve pay equality between men and women, amid widening gaps at one in four government departments over the past decade.

Figures in the EHRC report show that while the gender pay gap is 18.1%, there is also an ethnic minority imbalance of 5.7% and a disability pay gap of 13.6%. While the differences are smaller than between men and women, there are stark contrasts for certain groups.

Male Bangladeshi immigrants had the largest pay gap of 48% compared with white British men, while men with epilepsy earn 40% less than those without the condition. Despite these figures, most female ethnic minority groups had a pay advantage over white British women.

Research from the Resolution Foundation thinktank published earlier this month found that minority ethnic families in the UK earn as much as £8,900 a year less than their white British counterparts.

Men with depression or anxiety have a pay gap of about 30%, while women with mental health problems earn 10% less, according to the EHRC report. The research also shows that women, disabled people and people from ethnic minorities are more likely to be paid less than the “national living wage” of £7.50 per hour for over 25s.

The EHRC said the public sector has a smaller gender pay gap than the private sector, while countries across Europe in which higher proportions of fathers take longer-term parental leave tend to have smaller disparities.

Last month, a string of high-profile female BBC employees, including Clare Balding, Emily Maitlis and Kirsty Wark, wrote to the BBC director general, Tony Hall, demanding action. Hall responded by saying he hoped to close the gap at the corporation before 2020.

Dr Carole Easton, the chief executive of the Young Women’s Trust, welcomed the EHRC’s proposal for more equal childcare responsibility. “Without action, today’s young women face a lifetime of unequal pay,” she said.

Output: The gender pay gap in the UK should be tackled through widespread changes to employment practices, including offering flexible working to all job applicants and additional paternity leave, according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The recommendations are part of a strategy to combat pay imbalances relating to disability, ethnicity and gender. The report reveals pay gaps of 18.1% for gender, 5.7% for ethnicity and 13.6% for disability. The largest pay gap was experienced by male Bangladeshi immigrants at 48% compared to white British men. However, most female ethnic minority groups had a pay advantage over white British women.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Scientists trialling stem cells implants to cure type 1 diabetes
 Stem cells have been cultured to treat many different of conditions Lewis Houghton/Science Photo Library

Last week, two people with type 1 diabetes became the first to receive implants containing cells generated from embryonic stem cells to treat their condition. The hope is that when blood sugar levels rise, the implants will release insulin to restore them to normal.

About 10 per cent of the 422 million people who have diabetes worldwide have type 1 diabetes, which is caused by the body’s immune system mistakenly attacking cells in the pancreas that make insulin. For more than 15 years, researchers have been trying to find a way to use stem cells to replace these, but there have been several hurdles – not least, how to get the cells to work in the body.

Viacyte, a company in San Diego, California, is trying a way to get round this. The firm’s credit-card-sized implant, called PEC-Direct, contain cells derived from stem cells that can mature inside the body into the specialised islet cells that get destroyed in type 1 diabetes.

Advertisement

The implant sits just below the skin, in the forearm, for example, and is intended to automatically compensate for the missing islet cells, releasing insulin when blood sugar levels get too high.

“If it works, we would call it a functional cure,” says Paul Laikind, of Viacyte. “It’s not truly a cure because we wouldn’t address the autoimmune cause of the disease, but we would be replacing the missing cells.”

Monitoring the blood

A similar device has already been safety tested in 19 people with diabetes, using smaller numbers of cells. Once implanted, the progenitor cells housed in the device did mature into islet cells, but the trial didn’t use enough cells to try to treat the condition.

Now Viacyte has implanted PEC-Direct packages containing the cells into two people with type 1 diabetes. A third person will also get the implant in the near future. Once inside the body, pores in the outer fabric of the device allow blood vessels to penetrate inside, nourishing the islet progenitor cells. Once these cells have matured – which should take about three months – the hope is that they will be able to monitor sugar levels in the blood, and release insulin as required.

If effective, it could free people with type 1 diabetes from having to closely monitor their blood sugar levels and inject insulin, although they would need to take immunosuppressive drugs to stop their bodies from destroying the new cells.

Plentiful supply

“If successful, this strategy could really change the way we treat type 1 diabetes in the future,” says Emily Burns of the charity Diabetes UK. A similar way to treat the condition with pancreas cells from organ donors has been in use for nearly 20 years, successfully freeing recipients from insulin injections, but a shortage of donors limits how many people are able to have this treatment.

This isn’t a problem with stem cells. The embryonic stem cells used to make the progenitor cells originally came from a spare early stage embryo donated by a woman who was having IVF. Because embryonic stem cells, and the progenitor cells made from them, can be multiplied in limitless amounts, Laikind says that, if the treatment works, the method would be able to treat everyone who has the condition.

“A limitless source of human insulin-producing cells would be a major step forward on the journey to a potential cure for diabetes,” says James Shapiro at the University of Alberta, Canada, who has collaborated with Viacyte on this project, and who pioneered the donor pancreas method decades ago. “For sure, this will in the end prove to be a durable landmark for progress in diabetes care.”

Output: Scientists from biotech firm Viacyte are trialling a stem cell implant treatment to cure type 1 diabetes. Using embryonic stem cells, the credit card-sized PEC-Direct implants release insulin to return blood sugar levels to normal. The implant is put below the skin of the forearm, and the cells within should automatically balance the body’s system to account for diabetes sufferers’ missing islet cells. The implants are being trialled on two patients, with maturation due within three months. The system could provide a cure for the type 1 disease, which affects 10% of the 422 million diabetes sufferers worldwide.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
3D printing lowers surgery costs and waiting times
 Using 3D printing, a team from the University of California San Diego and Rady Children’s Hospital has reduced surgery time by approximately 25 percent.

The project focused on treatment of the most common hip disorder occurring in children aged between 9 and 16. The finding of the study are published in the Journal of Children’s Orthopaedics.

Engineers working together with pediatric orthopedic surgeons created surgical planning models using a 3D printer. The study compared the operating time on 5 patients where the 3D printed models were used to a control group of a further 5 patients.

Dr. Vidyadhar Upasani, pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Rady Children’s and UC San Diego, is the lead author of the study. Speaking about the results he said, “Being able to practice on these 3D-models is crucial,” said and the paper’s senior author.

Saving money and time with 3D printing

The study calculates that by using a 3D printed model to plan the surgery the time savings translate into a cost saving of $2700 per surgery. The models were produced using a moderately priced 3D printer costing $2200. The material cost for each model was approximately $10.

The research looked at a condition called slipped capital femoral epiphysis. This condition causes the patient’s femur to move against the bone’s growth plate – leading to deformation. Surgery is required to remove part of the femur and help restore hip function.

Performing this task in the operating room can be problematic as the areas of focus are not directly visible. Therefore using a 3D printed model to understand the anatomy and challenges of a particular operation in advance is desirable.

Prior to adopting this new approach surgical teams would use X-rays for planning and also during the operation. Using X-ray fluoroscopy in the operating room was not only time-consuming, but also meant additional exposure to radiation for the patient.

Future research goals

The work was performed in conjunction with Jason Caffrey, Ph.D. candidate in bioengineering at UCSD, and Lillia Cherkasskiy, currently studying for an M.D. Bioengineering professor Robert Sah, and colleagues were also assisted with the study.

Input data for the 3D prints came from CT scans of the patient’s pelvis. A computer model was then created to visualize the bone and growth plate.

Seeing the benefit of 3D printing, Rady Children’s orthopedics department now has it’s own 3D printer. Dr. Upasani said. “I’ve seen how beneficial 3D models are,” he said. “It’s now hard to plan surgeries without them.”

Members of the research team are now investigating 3D printed models to assist in the treatment of infant hip dysplasia.

For all the latest news about 3D printing in healthcare, follow our active social media sites and sign up to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter.

Our 3D printing jobs is launching soon. You can register here.

Output: Three-dimensional printing has helped cut surgery time and costs at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego. A team from the hospital and the University of California, San Diego used a 3D printer to create surgical training models for treatment of the most common hip problem occurring in children, slipped capital femoral epiphysis. Practice on the models saved about $2,700 per operation and reduced surgery time by nearly 25%, according to a study published in the Journal of Children's Orthopaedics.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Virtual reality offers fresh alternatives for therapists
 SAN FRANCISCO — Dawn Jewell recently treated a patient haunted by a car crash. The patient had developed acute anxiety over the cross streets where the crash occurred, unable to drive a route that carried so many painful memories.

So Dr. Jewell, a psychologist in Colorado, treated the patient through a technique called exposure therapy, providing emotional guidance as they revisited the intersection together.

But they did not physically return to the site. They revisited it through virtual reality.

Dr. Jewell is among a handful of psychologists testing a new service from a Silicon Valley start-up called Limbix that offers exposure therapy through Daydream View, the Google headset that works in tandem with a smartphone.

“It provides exposure in a way that patients feel safe,” she said. “We can go to a location together, and the patient can tell me what they’re feeling and what they’re thinking.”

Output: Virtual reality (VR) is offering therapists a new way of treating patients. Colorado psychologist Dr. Dawn Jewell used exposure therapy to treat a patient who was unable to drive past an intersection where they had been involved in a car crash. But rather than revisiting the site itself, they used a VR service from start-up Limbux, which offers therapy through Google headset Daydream View. The service uses Google Street View to offer exposure in a manner that makes "patients feel safe", said Dr. Jewell.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Scientists change cell's genetic code for organ repair
 Researchers demonstrate a process known as tissue nanotransfection at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. In laboratory tests, this process was able to heal the badly injured legs of mice in just three weeks with a single touch of this chip. The technology works by converting normal skin cells into vascular cells, which helped heal the wounds. Credit: The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Ohio State's College of Engineering have developed a new technology, Tissue Nanotransfection (TNT), that can generate any cell type of interest for treatment within the patient's own body. This technology may be used to repair injured tissue or restore function of aging tissue, including organs, blood vessels and nerve cells.

Results of the regenerative medicine study published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

"By using our novel nanochip technology, injured or compromised organs can be replaced. We have shown that skin is a fertile land where we can grow the elements of any organ that is declining," said Dr. Chandan Sen, director of Ohio State's Center for Regenerative Medicine & Cell Based Therapies, who co-led the study with L. James Lee, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering with Ohio State's College of Engineering in collaboration with Ohio State's Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center.

Researchers studied mice and pigs in these experiments. In the study, researchers were able to reprogram skin cells to become vascular cells in badly injured legs that lacked blood flow. Within one week, active blood vessels appeared in the injured leg, and by the second week, the leg was saved. In lab tests, this technology was also shown to reprogram skin cells in the live body into nerve cells that were injected into brain-injured mice to help them recover from stroke. Device instantly delivers new DNA or RNA into living skin cells to change their function. Credit: The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

"This is difficult to imagine, but it is achievable, successfully working about 98 percent of the time. With this technology, we can convert skin cells into elements of any organ with just one touch. This process only takes less than a second and is non-invasive, and then you're off. The chip does not stay with you, and the reprogramming of the cell starts. Our technology keeps the cells in the body under immune surveillance, so immune suppression is not necessary," said Sen, who also is executive director of Ohio State's Comprehensive Wound Center.

TNT technology has two major components: First is a nanotechnology-based chip designed to deliver cargo to adult cells in the live body. Second is the design of specific biological cargo for cell conversion. This cargo, when delivered using the chip, converts an adult cell from one type to another, said first author Daniel Gallego-Perez, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and general surgery who also was a postdoctoral researcher in both Sen's and Lee's laboratories.

TNT doesn't require any laboratory-based procedures and may be implemented at the point of care. The procedure is also non-invasive. The cargo is delivered by zapping the device with a small electrical charge that's barely felt by the patient.

"The concept is very simple," Lee said. "As a matter of fact, we were even surprised how it worked so well. In my lab, we have ongoing research trying to understand the mechanism and do even better. So, this is the beginning, more to come."

Researchers plan to start clinical trials next year to test this technology in humans, Sen said.

More information: Topical tissue nano-transfection mediates non-viral stroma reprogramming and rescue, Nature Nanotechnology (2017). DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2017.134 Journal information: Nature Nanotechnology

Output: Ohio State University researchers have developed a device which changes the genetic code of cells for treatment inside a patient's body. The non-invasive tissue nanotransfection (TNT) device is placed on the skin, where it can reprogramme cells into elements of any organ using a harmless electrical pulse before being removed. The TNT technology could be used to repair injured or deteriorating tissue, giving it potentially revolutionary medical applications


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Photo-sharing app Colorful Balloons trialled by Facebook in China
 Facebook is testing a photo-sharing app called Colorful Balloons in China.

The social network was banned in China in 2009, but has been working since then to find a way to get reintroduced into the country.

Colorful Balloons apes Facebook’s Moments app by allowing users to share photos with friends and family members.

However, it doesn’t work through Facebook’s interface but via WeChat, the biggest app in the region, and was released by a local company called Youge Internet Technology.

The trials were first reported by The New York Times, which described the quiet rollout as “unprecedented” and evidence of how Facebook is trying to “see how Chinese users digitally share information with their friends or interact with their favorite social media platforms.”

Meanwhile, Facebook told The Verge that it is “spending time understanding and learning more about the country in different ways. Our focus right now is on helping Chinese businesses and developers expand to new markets outside China by using our ad platform.”

Output: Facebook has been trialling its photo-sharing app Colorful Balloons among users in China. The social media platform has been looking for a way to re-enter the Chinese market since it was banned in 2009. Colorful Balloons lets users share photos with family and friends, in a similar manner to Facebook's Moments app, however it works through WeChat rather than Facebook's own interface.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Flo adds $5m to its AI-driven women's health platform
 AI-driven women’s health platform Flo has raised $5 million in a Series A funding round, led by Flint Capital, which, along with Haxus Fund, tossed in $1 million in seed round funding in December 2016.

Other investors in the Series A round include Natalia Vodianova, a supermodel and social activist who also joined the company’s board of directors, as well as a handful of angel investors.

Since its launch as a period tracker in October 2015, Flo has attracted over 10 million monthly active users, and is currently adding about million of them each month. Some of the new features include personalized health insights and a closed, anonymous community of experts and peers, which have helped the product evolve into a more comprehensive platform.

Flo recently added a pregnancy mode, and with the move, it has fashioned an identity for itself as a tailored health solution for women at any stage of the reproductive cycle: teenagers, those willing to conceive, pregnant women, young moms, women going through menopause, etc. Currently, close to 100,000 women get pregnant each month with help from Flo.

“Flo is a strong tool for preventive medicine, including period tracking, pregnancy mode and more,” said Yuri Gurski, Flo founder and president, in a statement. “Users can simply download Flo to track periods, but then continue to use it to better understand their body, feel calm and confident about their health. Users enjoy AI-driven personalized health insights based on their logs, and a closed anonymous space to socialize with peers and get experts’ opinion. Most importantly, users’ data is a 100 percent secure and confidential, as the company maintains highest levels of data security standards.”

With fresh support from Vodianova, Flo has earmarked the month of September to launch its “Let’s Talk About It. Period.” ad campaign, which will encourage women to speak freely about their bodies, and their physical and mental well-being.

The company cites experience as the primary driver behind its swift progress. Among its co-founders are Yuri Gurski, advisor and investor to MSQRD, Prisma and MAPS.ME; the former vice president at Mail.ru, the biggest Internet company in Eastern Europe; and Dmitry Gurski, Max Scrobov, and Andrew Kovzel, who worked together on more than 15 other projects. Advisors and early stage investors include Matvey Timoshenko and Peter Skoromnyi, co-founders of Apalon, a mobile app developer acquired by IAC in 2014.

The Series A investment will help the company accelerate its growth, expand its presence into the US market, and perfect its intelligence system to include more accurate and up-to-date content. The company also plans to partner with top medical research centers and universities to advance female health science.

Flo is available in 20 languages on iOS and Android. The app already holds top position among period tracking apps and other women's health related products in the App Store in over 50 countries, including the US.

Output: Women's digital health platform Flo has raised $5m in funding to accelerate its growth, expand its presence in the US market and develop its artificial intelligence capabilities. Since the period tracker launched in 2015, Flo has attracted 10 million monthly active users. More recently, the platform has added around one million users per month. Flo offers features including personalised health insights, a tracker for women wanting to conceive, and an anonymous forum of experts and peers.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Stanford team turns CO2 and water into ethanol
 Stanford researchers Thomas Jaramillo, associate professor of chemical engineering and of photon science and Christopher Hahn, associate staff scientist at SLAC, recently innovated a renewable method of producing the fuel additive, ethanol. This method simply delivers water, carbon dioxide and electricity through a copper catalyst.

United States scientists’ common method of manufacturing ethanol uses miles of open terrain to produce fermented corn and other crops. Current agricultural workers use millions of acres of farmland to produce 14 million gallons of ethanol consumed yearly by drivers in the United States. Many automated vehicles operate on a mixture of gasoline and the fuel additive, ethanol.

Stanford researchers have created a substitute for the fuel-additive ethanol by modifying copper catalysts to produce ethanol using water and carbon dioxide. This innovation has enticed scientists and current state-of-the-art electrocatalysts will be improved in product selectivity and energy efficiency to make this alternative solution viable for the future.

In efforts to improve the catalyst’s production abilities for a more sustainable ethanol, researchers stated, “We show how the coordination environment of Cu surfaces influences oxygenate vs. hydrocarbon formation, providing insights on how to improve selectivity and energy efficiency toward more valuable CO2 reduction products.”

Thomas Jaramillo is a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford and a professor of photon science at the SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) National Accelerator Laboratory. As the study’s chief investigator, Jaramillo states that one of their main goals is to produce a renewable type of ethanol that doesn’t damage the agricultural market internationally.

“Copper is one of the few catalysts that can produce ethanol at room temperature,” he said in a Stanford news report. “You just feed it electricity, water and carbon dioxide, and it makes ethanol. The problem is that it also makes 15 other compounds simultaneously, including lower-value products like methane and carbon monoxide. Separating those products would be an expensive process and require a lot of energy.”

Scientists hope to create copper catalysts that directly convert carbon dioxide into denser chemicals (such as propanol), with as little waste as possible. To create an innovative source with few byproducts, they must fully understand how the catalysts convert carbon dioxide into water.

Stanford scientists conducted a study with Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) using three samples of crystalline copper: copper (100), copper (111) and copper (751) to describe the behavior of single crystals upon the surface.

“Copper (100), (111) and (751) look virtually identical but have major differences in the way their atoms are arranged on the surface,” said Christopher Hahn, an associate staff scientist at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and co-leader of the study to Stanford news reporter Mark Shwartz. “The essence of our work is to understand how these different facets of copper affect electrocatalytic performance.”

Researchers had produced copper electrodes with single-crystals but for this study, Hahn and his co-workers at SLAC discovered a new way to grow single crystal-like copper on top of silicon and sapphire. This innovation resulted in films of each form of copper with a 6-square centimeter surface, 600 times bigger than typical single crystals.

Copper (100), (111) and (751) proved to be the idealistic samples for a conversion into a renewable ethanol for cars and truck in the United States.

“The eye on the prize is to create better catalysts that have game-changing potential by taking carbon dioxide as a feedstock and converting it into much more valuable products using renewable electricity or sunlight directly,” Jaramillo said in a Stanford news article. “We plan to use this method on nickel and other metals to further understand the chemistry at the surface. We think this study is an important piece of the puzzle and will open up whole new avenues of research for the community.”

We necessitate fuel for our daily transportation and without a renewable source, in the near future, we wouldn’t be able to sustain our environment for further reproduction.

Electrocatalytic technology has the potential to impact climate change by enabling sustainable routes for the production of fuels and chemicals. If we are able to efficiently produce ethanol using these renewable sources (such as electricity), humankind would ascertain a prolonged future.

Contact Pratyusha Macherla at pmacherla09 ‘at’ gmail.com

Output: Researchers from Stanford University have developed a more renewable method for producing ethanol by modifying copper catalysts to make the substance using only water and carbon dioxide. “Copper is one of the few catalysts that can produce ethanol at room temperature,” said Thomas Jaramillo, a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford. "The problem is that it also makes 15 other compounds simultaneously, including lower-value products like methane and carbon monoxide. Separating those products would be an expensive process and require a lot of energy." The next step is to create copper catalysts that directly convert CO2 into denser chemicals, such as propanol, with less waste.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Genome sequencing technique offers precision mutation detection
 Whole genome sequencing using long fragment read (LFR), a technology that can analyze the entire genomic content of small numbers of cells, detected potentially targetable mutations using only five circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in a patient with metastatic breast cancer.

The study is published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, by Brock Peters, PhD, senior director of research at Complete Genomics Inc. in San Jose, California, and BGI-Shenzhen in Shenzhen, China; John W. Park, MD, professor of clinical medicine, and director of Novel Therapeutics, Breast Oncology, at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF); Hope S. Rugo, MD, professor of medicine and director of breast oncology and clinical trials education at UCSF.

The Complete Genomics team and colleagues from UCSF evaluated CTCs from two liquid biopsies drawn from a 61-year-old female patient with ER-positive/HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer at two different time points during her course of treatment. First, they isolated 34 highly pure CTCs using immunomagnetic enrichment/fluorescence-activated cell sorting (IE/FACS) technology developed by Park and Mark Magbanua, PhD, at UCSF. Then they used LFR to perform advanced whole-genome sequencing by splitting the genomic DNA from the CTCs into 3,072 individual compartments, with each compartment containing approximately 5 percent of the cancer genome. The DNA in each compartment was subsequently labeled with a unique barcode, the compartments were combined, and the genomic DNA and barcodes were sequenced.

"From 34 cells we accurately detected mutations present in as few as 12 percent of CTCs, established the tissue of origin, and identified potential personalized combination therapies for this patient's highly heterogeneous disease," said Peters.

According to Peters, this research is the first application of LFR technology to CTCs. "LFR subdivides the genome into compartments, allowing us to count the fragments with somatic mutations across all the compartments to accurately quantify the number of mutations present in a population of cells. It also serves to remove false-positive single nucleotide variants," explained Peters.

"LFR, which explores the more than 20,000 genes in the genome and all non-coding regions, is more comprehensive than gene panels, which examine about 100 genes and focus on small genomic regions typically associated with a disease," he continued.

Because prior studies indicate that five CTCs can be expected in about half of the patients with metastatic disease, and evaluating 34 CTCs is cost-prohibitive, Peters and colleagues analyzed five different batches of five CTCs and replicated their findings. The researchers estimated that the cost of their advanced whole genome sequencing technique on five CTCs would be about $3,000 within the next few years, in line with current oncology diagnostic tests.

"That our sequencing method could detect the most important somatic mutations from just five CTCs in a noninvasive liquid biopsy is important, demonstrating cost-effectiveness and utility in clinical settings," said Peters.

"Our work highlights the importance and utility of using accurate and quantitative whole genome analysis in a clinical setting," said Peters. "We identified targetable mutations that would have been missed by current clinical sequencing strategies. In the near precision medicine future, this type of information will be critical for selecting effective personalized multi-drug treatments."

Study co-author John W. Park, MD, professor of clinical medicine, and director of Novel Therapeutics, Breast Oncology, at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), said, "We observed that it is possible to develop a robust strategy for liquid biopsy using whole genome sequencing of circulating tumor cells. This approach allows detailed molecular profiling across the patient's entire cancer genome."

Study co-author, Hope S. Rugo, MD, professor of medicine and director of breast oncology and clinical trials education at UCSF, said, "The IE/FACS allows for exquisite and full-scale isolation of highly pure CTCs with little or no contamination of normal blood cells, thus providing the robustness needed for accurate whole genome sequencing of a few cells. Taken together, the liquid biopsy platform we described in this study suggests a viable approach for minimally invasive yet comprehensive and real-time testing of metastatic cancer in the clinic."

According to Peters, the main limitations to the study are that only a single patient was studied and none of the suggested possible therapies could actually be tested, emphasizing the need for larger studies.

Output: Scientists from the University of California have discovered theoretically targetable mutations in a breast cancer patient, using whole genome sequencing. The team were able to isolate and study the 61-year-old patient's liquid biopsies at two stages of her treatment, using only five circulating tumor cells at a time, due to the prohibitive cost of larger batches. The patient is suffering from ER-positive/HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer. The group's findings were published in the Cancer Research journal.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Crest Nicholson partners with A2 Dominion to build ecohomes
 First phase of new Daventry neighbourhood takes major step forward with over 200 homes planned A new neighbourhood in Daventry has taken a significant step forward after Midlands-based homebuilder Spitfire Homes and Crest Nicolson secured reserved matters approval to build 222 properties on land at Malabar Farm. Read more

Last chance for apartment living at Crest Nicholson’s north Surrey developments Local housebuilder Crest Nicholson has just 10 homes remaining at its sought-after Upper Longcross and Walton Court Gardens developments in Surrey. The remaining one- and two-bedroom apartments offer buyers a last chance at purchasing a brand-new Crest Nicholson home in these popular north Surrey towns. Read more

Crest Nicholson secures planning permission as part of wider housebuilding scheme in East Staffordshire Award-winning developer Crest Nicholson has secured planning permission for the latest phase of a Sustainable Urban Extension (SUE) at Branston Locks, Burton-On-Trent, in the beautiful county of Staffordshire, in the centre of England. This phase of the development will feature 284 new homes, and is part of a wider scheme being delivered by multiple developers, to provide a total of 2500 homes, alongside commercial, educational and leisure facilities. Read more

Housebuilder hosts walking bus from local Stoke Gifford development as part of Walk to School Week Local housebuilder Crest Nicholson partnered with St Michaels CofE Primary School on a walking bus initiative as part of Walk to School week. Pupils, parents, guardians, carers, teachers and staff of the school took part in two walking buses on Thursday morning, that began at Crest Nicholson’s Highbrook View and Brooklands Park developments in Stoke Gifford. The two walking buses, which saw young pupils chaperoned on the walk to school, took separate routes to collect a number of pupils en route. Crest Nicholson donated high visibility jackets for the pupils of St Michaels to ensure they could be kept safe along the walk. Read more

Crest Nicholson secures planning approval for next phase at Westwood Park Local housebuilder Crest Nicholson has secured planning approval for the next phase of its Westwood Park development in Coventry. The newest phase will feature 296 new homes, with 40% designated as affordable homes as well as a convenience store, allotments, a play area, multi-use games area and 25 acres of public open spaces. Read more

Crest Nicholson unveils new show home at Horley development Local housebuilder Crest Nicholson has announced the launch of a brand new show home at its Westvale Park development in Horley, Surrey. The four-bedroom ‘Romsey’ show home has been carefully designed with modern family living in mind by interior designers Clayton & Company, allowing potential home buyers to imagine what life could be like living at Westvale Park. Read more

Crest Nicholson acquire new land at Norton Fitzwarren, Taunton Award winning housebuilder Crest Nicholson has completed on the purchase of a new parcel of land at Norton Fitzwarren, Taunton. Crest currently have a live planning application pending on the site, with construction targeted to commence in 2024, with the potential to deliver more than 300 private and affordable homes. Read more

Crest Nicholson opens doors to view three storey home in Lydney Crest Nicholson has launched a brand new three storey view home at its Mirum Park development in Lydney, Gloucestershire. The award winning housebuilder will be throwing open the doors to its brand new and spacious four bedroom ‘Filey’ home, set over three floors on Saturday 20th May. Read more

Crest Nicholson organises West Midlands parties to celebrate King’s Coronation Local Midlands housebuilder Crest Nicholson is organising parties for the local communities at its Westwood Park and Blythe Valley developments in the West Midlands to celebrate the King’s Coronation. Read more

Output: UK housing developers Crest Nicholson and A2 Dominion have released details of their plans for an £80m environmentally-friendly residential scheme in Bicester. The development will see 232 ecohomes built over 25 acres as part of the existing Elmsbrook ecotown, with 30% reserved for affordable housing. The properties will feature rainwater harvesting systems, digital home information systems, solar panels, electric car charging ports and a district heating plant. Construction will begin in 2018, with residents moving in by mid 2019.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Medicaid's budget bursting over climbing prices of older drugs
 Skyrocketing price tags for new drugs to treat rare diseases have stoked outrage nationwide. But hundreds of old, commonly used drugs cost the Medicaid program billions of extra dollars in 2016 vs. 2015, a Kaiser Health News data analysis shows. Eighty of the drugs -- some generic and some still carrying brand names -- proved more than two decades old.

Rising costs for 313 brand-name drugs lifted Medicaid's spending by as much as $3.2 billion in 2016, the analysis shows. Nine of these brand-name drugs have been on the market since before 1970. In addition, the data reveal that Medicaid outlays for 67 generics and other non-branded drugs cost taxpayers an extra $258 million last year.

[Also: Insurers, Medicaid's 'proof of progress' and pricing require more guidance from policymakers]

Even after a medicine has gone generic, the branded version often remains on the market. Medicaid recipients might choose to purchase it because they're brand loyalists or because state laws prevent pharmacists from automatically substituting generics. Drugs driving Medicaid spending increases ranged from common asthma medicines like Ventolin to over-the-counter painkillers like the generic form of Aleve to generic antidepressants and heartburn medicines.

Among the stark examples:

Ventolin, originally approved in 1981, treats and prevents spasms that constrict patients' airways and make it difficult to breathe. When a gram of it went from $2.58 to $2.90 on average, Medicaid paid out an extra $54.5 million for the drug. Naproxen sodium, a painkiller originally approved in 1994 as brand-name Aleve, went from costing Medicaid an average of $0.72 to $1.70 a pill, an increase of 136 percent. Overall, the change cost the program an extra $10 million in 2016. Generic metformin hydrochloride, an oral Type 2 diabetes drug that's been around since the 1990s, went from an average 10 cents to 13 cents a pill from 2015 to 2016. Those extra three pennies per pill cost Medicaid a combined $8.3 million in 2016. And cost increases for the extended-release, authorized generic version cost the program another $6.5 million.

[Also: Hepatitis C drug again tops Part D spend list at $7 billion]

"People always thought, 'They're generics. They're cheap,'" said Matt Salo, who runs the National Association of Medicaid Directors. But with drug prices going up "across the board," generics are far from immune.

Historically, generics tend to drive costs lower over time, and Medicaid's overall spending on generics dropped $1.6 billion last year because many generics did get cheaper. But the per-unit cost of dozens of generics doubled or even tripled from 2015 to 2016. Manufacturers of branded drugs tend to lower prices once several comparable generics enter a market.

Medicaid tracks drug sales by "units" and a unit can be a milliliter or a gram, or refer to a tablet, vial or kit.

[Also: Congressional hearing examines concerns about oversight, abuse of 340B drug discount program]

Old drugs that became far more expensive included those used to treat ear infections, psychosis, cancer and other ailments:

Fluphenazine hydrochloride, an antipsychotic drug approved in 1988 to treat schizophrenia, cost Medicaid an extra $8.5 million in 2016. Medicaid spent an average $1.39 per unit in 2016, an increase of 347 percent vs. the year before. Depo-Provera was first approved in 1960 as a cancer drug and is often used now as birth control. It cost Medicaid an extra $4.5 million after its cost more than doubled to $37 per unit in 2016. Potassium phosphates -- on the market since the 1980s and used for renal failure patients, preemies and patients undergoing chemotherapy -- cost Medicaid an extra $1.8 million in 2016. Its average cost to Medicaid jumped 290 percent, to $6.70 per unit.

A shortage of potassium phosphates began in 2015 after manufacturer American Regent closed its facility to address quality concerns, according to Erin Fox, who directs the Drug Information Center at the University of Utah and tracks shortages for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

When generics enter a market, competition can drive prices lower initially. But when prices sink, some companies inevitably stop making their drugs.

"One manufacturer is left standing … [so] guess who now has a monopoly?" Salo said. "Guess who can bring prices as far up as they want?"

According to a Food and Drug Administration analysis, drug prices decline to about half of their original price with two generic competitors on the market and to about a third of the original price with five generics available. But if there's only one generic, a drug's price drops just 6 percentage points.

The increases paid by Medicaid ultimately fall on taxpayers, who pay for the drugs taken by its 68.9 million beneficiaries. And those costs eat "into states' ability to pay for other stuff that matters to [every] resident," said economist Rena Conti, a professor at the University of Chicago who co-authored a National Bureau of Economics paper about generic price hikes in July. The manufacturers' list prices for the drugs named here also rose in 2016, according to Truven Health Analytics, which means customers outside Medicaid also paid more.

Conti said that about 30 percent of generic drugs had price increases of 100 percent or more the past five years.

Medicaid spending per unit doesn't include rebates, which drug manufacturers return to states after they pay for the drugs upfront. Such rebates are extremely complicated, but generally start at the federally required 23.1 percent for brand-name drugs, plus supplemental rebates that vary by state, Salo said. Final rebate amounts are considered proprietary, he noted. "All rebates are completely opaque … [it's] "black-box stuff."

Fox said drug prices could also jump when a pharmaceutical product changes ownership, gets new packaging or just hasn't had a price increase in a long time.

Recently named FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has made increasing generic competition a core mission. Plans include publishing lists of off-patent drugs made by one manufacturer and preventing brand-name drugmakers from using anti-competitive tactics to stave off competition.

Doctors, pharmacists and patients don't always receive a warning when a price hike is about to occur, Fox said.

"Sometimes, we will get notices. Other times, it's like a bad surprise," she said, adding that the amount of wiggle room for alternatives depends on the drug and the patient.

Following some price hikes, doctors can use fewer units of a drug or switch it out entirely, she said.

Ofloxacin otic, long used to treat swimmer's ear, became so expensive when generic manufacturers exited the market that doctors started using eye drops in patients' ears, Fox said.

When old drugs get more expensive, hospitals try to eliminate waste by making smaller infusion bags and keeping really expensive drugs in the pharmacy instead of stocked in readily available shelves and drawers. But that's not always possible.

"These drugs do have a place in daily therapy. Sometimes they're life-sustaining and sometimes they're lifesaving," said Michael O'Neal, a pharmacist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "In this case, you just need to take it on the chin, and you hope one day for competition."

KHN's coverage of prescription drug development, costs and pricing is supported in part by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Output: Skyrocketing price tags for new drugs to treat rare diseases have stoked outrage nationwide. But hundreds of old, commonly used drugs cost the Medicaid program billions of extra dollars in 2016 vs. 2015, a Kaiser Health News data analysis shows. Eighty of the drugs -- some generic and some still carrying brand names -- proved more than two decades old.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Bitcoin surpasses PayPal in market cap
 The bitcoin price broke $4,000 for the first time over the weekend, and it continued its record-setting run on Monday. The bitcoin market cap soared ...

The bitcoin price broke $4,000 for the first time over the weekend, and it continued its record-setting run on Monday. The bitcoin market cap soared past $70 billion, initiating an event the cryptocurrency community has been anticipating for years: bitcoin now has a greater total valuation than payment-processing behemoth PayPal.

Record Bitcoin Price Initiates Flippening

The bitcoin price rose another 8% on August 14, briefly spiking past $4,300 before settling down to its present value of $4,276. Monday’s trading raised the bitcoin market cap to a staggering $70.6 billion. According to Yahoo Finance, this makes bitcoin $400 million more valuable than PayPal, whose market cap is $70.2 billion.

Just a few months ago, ethereum backers anticipated the “Flippening”: a moment when ethereum would surpass bitcoin to become the most valuable cryptocurrency. Ethereum was unable to achieve that feat before the market correction in July, and bitcoin increasingly separated itself from the pack. With Monday’s events, it now seems clear that the real Flippening we have been waiting for is not another cryptocurrency topping bitcoin; it is bitcoin surpassing one of the world’s most ubiquitous payment processors.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether bitcoin will hold above its current record levels. The bitcoin price has, after all, doubled in the past month, leading some analysts to question whether or not the market is in a temporary melt-up. In any case, today is a monumental day for cryptocurrency and should earn its place in the history books.

Crypto Market Cap Approaches $140 Billion

Bitcoin continues to carry the total crypto market cap to record levels. Since surpassing its June peak on August 7, the total value of all cryptocurrencies has reached new heights almost daily. At present, the total cryptocurrency market cap is $139.8 billion.

Ethereum Price Continues to Hold at $300

Ethereum’s rally has stalled in recent days, leaving the ethereum price hovering at $300 while bitcoin continued to climb. At present, the ethereum price is $302, a 4% gain over Sunday’s low of $289. Ethereum maintains a market cap of about $28.5 billion.

Altcoin Markets Generally Positive

The altcoin markets were generally positive on Monday, with only two coins in the top 10 declining more than 1%. The Ripple price saw a welcome advance following a disappointing week; it increased by 4% to $0.173. Like ethereum, bitcoin cash continues to hold at about $300, although its market cap is just over $5 billion. The IOTA price led the top 10 with a 16% increase, lifting it to the 5th place spot in the market cap rankings.

The litecoin price declined 1% to about $46, while NEM dipped 3.6% to $0.258 and the 7th-place ranking.

August has been an incredible month for NEO. Just last week, NEO became the 10th cryptocurrency to attain a $1 billion market cap. Since then, its value has more than doubled to $2.3 billion. NEO briefly rose to 5th in total market cap, but it has since settled down to 8th.

Bitcoin Dominant Once Again

On Monday, bitcoin once again claimed a dominant market status, meaning bitcoin accounts for more than half of the total crypto market cap. Bitcoin’s gains came at the expense of nearly every other major cryptocurrency. Ethereum’s share of the market declined to 20.4%, while Ripple’s dropped below 5% for the first time since April. Litecoin–whose percentage of the market had climbed past 2.5% in July–is now just 1.7%.

Output: Bitcoin has surpassed the market cap of PayPal, giving the cryptocurrency a larger total valuation than the payment processing giant. The bitcoin market cap hit $70.6bn shortly after its price broke the $4,000 mark for the first time. This makes bitcoin $400m more valuable than Paypal, which has a market cap of $70.2bn, according to Yahoo Finance.