Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Guest Commentary: A value-based case for collaboration to keep patients at home
 Our healthcare delivery system is transforming faster than ever imagined, with organizations aggressively taking new approaches to improve patient outcomes and lower costs. Value-based initiatives in particular are spreading farther and wider, with no sign of that trend changing.

Yet the healthcare delivery system is often too slow in introducing the innovations needed to get us where we all need to go. We need to embrace change, look for innovations and work together to achieve better quality and higher savings.

A case in point is the attitude toward healthcare being delivered at home. The concept of people aging in place is popular, and demand continues to grow. With Americans living longer and more patients suffering from chronic illness, services provided by the home health sector are often misunderstood, underused, undervalued and, as a direct consequence, overlooked.

Why the reluctance to follow a course that has demonstrated its value repeatedly over the decades? The answer is that under fee-for-service, providers and payers focused largely on episodic care, based on the acuity of a condition. Before the push to reward value over volume, no strong financial incentives existed to motivate healthcare organizations to think long-term and make sure care is continuous rather than piecemeal.

Providers, particularly physicians, hospitals and health systems, should take note of the advantages home health offers. Payers, ever on the lookout for efficiencies and synergies among healthcare players, also should recognize the benefits both clinically and financially. To cite one example, consider a 2016 study by UCLA researchers published in the February issue of the journal Medical Care: it found that patients who were referred to home healthcare following hospital discharge experienced better outcomes and incurred lower costs.

Demographics combined with strong consumer preference demand this shift to healthcare at home. According to HHS, 70% of people turning 65 can eventually expect to use some form of long-term care. No fewer than 90% of seniors say they want to stay at home as they age, not in an institutionalized setting, according to an AARP survey. With 85% of Medicare home health patients suffering from at least three chronic conditions, maintaining continuity as care moves from acute to chronic will be even more essential.

Compounding matters, the average length of a hospital stay is growing ever shorter. The rigors of discharge planning and transitions of care have assumed new complexity and importance.

Indeed, home healthcare increasingly pioneers new approaches to monitoring, managing and treating chronic illness. Clinicians ranging from nurses to therapists are leveraging point-of-care technology, implementing telehealth initiatives, and deploying predictive modeling and analytical capabilities to ensure high-quality care in the home. And we must continue to build on those capabilities.

At Amedisys, we recently rolled out new protocols for patients with heart failure and COPD. Those programs encourage patients to participate more in taking care of themselves, a key element in the home-health equation. Concurrently, we've broadened and deepened our efforts to train clinicians in the latest techniques and technologies. We're also developing analytical capabilities that enable us to predict the risk of re-hospitalizations. These programs and tools should help divert low-acuity hospitalizations, increase the home health option for sicker patients and be proactive with patients who we know have a high risk of bouncing back into institutions.

Only recently has Medicare introduced a system for rating home healthcare, with ratings of one to five stars assigned to care centers. These performance evaluations, made public for all to see, hold the industry strictly accountable for its work, all while keeping caregivers, families, providers and payers fully informed.

No individual or organization can go it alone in healthcare, and that's certainly true for the professionals delivering services directly to patients at home. Responsibilities are shared. Care needs to be coordinated to meet population health needs and the challenge of affordability. All the players that provide post-acute care–from health systems to health plans and accountable care organizations–need to forge strategic partnerships with home-care providers.

Let's come together sooner rather than later. Let's take on risks together, align incentives together, demonstrate creativity together and, above all, serve patients well together–and at home, where they most want to be.

Paul Kusserow is president and CEO of Amedisys, a national home health, hospice and personal care services provider.

Output: Our healthcare delivery system is transforming faster than ever imagined, with organizations aggressively taking new approaches to improve patient outcomes and lower costs.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Working to Disarm Women’s Anti-Aging Demon
 A couple of years ago I had a light bulb moment. So many women color their hair to cover the gray. Many resent the effort and expense, and it’s a major way in which we make ourselves invisible as older women. When a group is invisible, so are the issues that affect it. Suppose the world saw how many we are, and how beautiful, I mused. Suppose we morphed together, in solidarity: the Year of Letting Our Hair Go Gray! It would be transformative!

I posted the idea on my This Chair Rocks Facebook page. I got a ton of blowback. I deserved it. “You go first,” was one notable comment, so I did, bleaching my whole head. (I keep part of it white, partly as an age-solidarity dye job and partly because I figure no one believes the brown is real.) Mainly I learned an important lesson: Who was I to be telling women how they should look or what they should do? To each her own. We each have to age in our own way on whatever terms work for us.

One thing we can all agree on, though? Aging is harder for women. We bear the brunt of the equation of beauty with youth and youth with power — the double-whammy of ageism and sexism. How do we cope? We splurge on anti-aging products. We fudge or lie about our age. We diet, we exercise, we get plumped and lifted and tucked.

These can be very effective strategies, and I completely understand why so many of us engage in them. No judgment, I swear. But trying to pass for younger is like a gay person trying to pass for straight or a person of color for white. These behaviors are rooted in shame over something that shouldn’t be shameful. And they give a pass to the underlying discrimination that makes them necessary.

Output: A couple of years ago I had a light bulb moment. So many women color their hair to cover the gray. Many resent the effort and expense, and it’s a major way in which we make ourselves invisible as older women. When a group is invisible, so are the issues that affect it.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
As a matriarch’s days draw to a close, a vision comes calling
 In the winter of 2010, 90-year-old Helen Budzinski described what she saw, which no one else could see.

A blond girl, age 5 or so, at the foot of her bed. Then twin girls. Then a pair of boys named Michael and David.

advertisement

Helen’s stroke in October sharpened what had been a slow decline. Her granddaughter, Jocelyn Pappas, whom she raised, now served as Helen’s full-time caregiver at Jocelyn’s home in rural Connecticut.

On Monday morning, Dec. 20, with darkness shrouding the woods outside the window, Jocelyn placed a hand on the back of her grandmother’s blue floral nightgown and eased her upright.

“Oh, you work so hard for me, Jocelyn,” Helen said.

advertisement

“I only work hard for you, Nana.”

“You only have to work five more days,” she said. “I got my ticket.”

“What do you mean, your ticket?”

Helen said she would be leaving this world at 4 a.m. on Friday. “They’re coming for me.”

“She was so absolutely convinced,” Jocelyn said.

Jocelyn called her grandmother’s hospice nurse, who explained that nothing on Helen’s chart suggested she was near death.

The hospice team may have disagreed with Helen’s self-administered prognosis, but did not discount the value of the vision. The dying often talk of death not as a character clothed in reaper garb but as one rendered in the visage of a loved one or kind stranger offering safe passage.

While hospice workers understand this, many families, patients and non-hospice clinicians do not. And so patients keep quiet about what they see.

That, said Dr. Christopher Kerr, one of the few researchers to venture into this territory, strips patients of what is often a great gift. “Patients need permission to experience and express this, because it often carries profound meaning and very much lessens the fear of dying,” he said. “Dying is isolating enough — to deny them this is even more isolating.”

Helen was no champion of the supernatural. She was a deeply beloved family matriarch who lavished attention on the youngest members of her vast family. She was active through her 80s, opting for a walker only as she approached 90.

Still, as Christmas that year approached, Helen’s visions grew more vivid: Her husband John, dead for nearly 20 years, began visiting, and a door materialized on the wall near her bed. Helen frantically searched for keys to open it, until Jocelyn found a spare set to placate her.

Jocelyn said she didn’t share these newer visions with others. She was consumed by the swirl of taking care of her grandmother and her own family.

Helen’s condition began slipping in the three days after she spoke of her impending departure: She was eating and drinking less and sleeping more. Jocelyn exhorted family members to pay their last respects.

Newsletters Sign up for Morning Rounds Your daily dose of news in health and medicine. Please enter a valid email address. Privacy Policy

Her cousin Bennett MacKinney, who had come east from Phoenix, arrived Thursday afternoon and joined the chorus of family members who were, by now, joking with Jocelyn about Helen’s prediction.

Helen had grown largely unresponsive, and the family suspected that she may indeed be close to dying. But when she woke, her family said, she showed no signs of emotional distress.

By 10 p.m. on Thursday night most of the relatives had departed; MacKinney and Jocelyn chatted past midnight, at which point she moved to Helen’s bedside. MacKinney slept on a downstairs couch for about three hours, and when he woke, he recalled a vivid dream.

In it, MacKinney saw Jocelyn leaning over Helen’s bed, which was now angled toward the wall. Two children were playing on the floor and a third stood at the head of the bed. Moving closer, he saw his grandfather with his arms around Helen, pulling her toward the wall.

MacKinney said he began weeping in the dream, and Jocelyn appeared. She hugged him and said she knew why he was crying. She said: “If I tell you that I am seeing the same thing that you are seeing, then you will know this is really happening.”

At 3:45 a.m., MacKinney heard Jocelyn’s cellphone alarm. He went upstairs, where she and Helen were sleeping peacefully.

Jocelyn’s cat was nearby. McKinney sat and turned on his iPad. “When it said 3:59, I looked at the cat as if to jokingly say, ‘Ok, here it comes.…’”

Nothing happened.

MacKinney went back to the iPad. At 4:05 he looked up at Helen again.

“She made two little coughs,” he recalled, “and her breathing stopped.”

He checked her pulse and her breathing. “I teared up and said, ‘Goodbye, Nana.’”

MacKinney woke Jocelyn. They called the relatives, then traded more stories about their grandmother. Jocelyn told him about Helen’s visions during the week. She talked about the children, and Helen’s husband, and, finally, she mentioned the door Helen had described.

He asked Jocelyn where Helen had seen that door, and Jocelyn nodded toward the wall where, in MacKinney’s dream, their grandfather was carrying their grandmother.

MacKinney paused a long moment. Then he took a deep breath and told his cousin about a dream he’d had.

Output: In the winter of 2010, 90-year-old Helen Budzinski described what she saw, which no one else could see. A blond girl, age 5 or so, at the foot of her bed. Then twin girls. Then a pair of boys named Michael and David.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Aging in America: Land of the Free, Home of the Gray
 Getting old isn't what it used to be.

At least, that's what Bob Lowry has found in recent years as he's blazed a trail through what many would consider to be an early retirement. In 2001, at the age of 52, Lowry stepped away from his job running a management consulting company for radio stations. His wife, Betty, left her teaching job not long after, and the two began to figure out exactly what to do with the rest of their lives.

But retirement – and, more broadly, getting older – hasn't played out exactly as Lowry expected. In fact, through his effort to spread awareness about aging and retirement through his blog, A Satisfying Retirement , Lowry's found there's a lot of confusion out there as to what getting older actually looks like in the 21st century.

"The biggest misconception is that at the age of 65 you retire and go to Florida. That was really the generation before mine. Very few of my readers are content to sit on a lawn chair and play 18 holes of golf a day," says Lowry, who opted to remain in Scottsdale, Arizona, when he retired rather than uproot and move away from family. "They want to be engaged and involved and do a lot of volunteer work."

Much ado has been made about the baby-boom generation reaching retirement age and either leaving the workforce en masse – in part straining the country's Social Security funds – or remaining in their jobs long after the historically standard retirement age. A Gallup poll earlier this year found that 74 percent of U.S. adults said they planned to work in some capacity beyond age 65.

This changing attitude toward work is only one cultural shift the nation and its 50 states will need to grapple with as an aging America becomes less of a far-off prediction and more of a full-blown reality. Changing attitudes toward health care – and the increasingly common desire for the elderly to age and die in their own homes – and lifelong learning experiences will force states to adapt their budgets more to the needs of the post-50 generation and less to those just starting out in life.

A brief glance at elderly employment statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals this dynamic is already playing out. More than 9.2 million Americans over the age of 65 held either a full- or part-time job in August – a 64 percent increase from the 5.6 million elderly workers the U.S. maintained a decade prior.

"In the past 30 years or so, there has been a steady incremental increase in the percentage of workers … 65 and over who are in the workforce," David Nathan, a media relations manager at the AARP, told U.S. News in an email. "The figure in 1985 was 10.8 percent – a little more than one in 10 of those 65 and over. With only one or two exceptions, the percentage has gone up every year since then and now stands at nearly one in five – 19.2 percent. That percent is expected to continue to increase in the coming years."

Part of older Americans' reluctance to leave the workforce comes from the fact that people are living longer today than they were decades ago. Per the Social Security Administration , the average 65-year-old man today can expect to live at least another 19 years. The average 65-year-old woman, meanwhile, can expect at least another 21.5 years. One in four 65 year olds can expect to live past age 90, and one in 10 is expected to reach 95.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , the average 65 year old in 1960 would be lucky to make it to 80. And while the CDC in 2015 identified a slight downtick in average U.S. life expectancy – from 78.9 years to 78.8 – expectancy is still considerably higher than it was decades ago.

"Personally, I think that's a healthy change. While people have been living longer, they've also been generally healthier in old age, more vital, disability rates have gone down and so on over the course of the 20th century," says Ronald Lee, a demography professor at the University of California—Berkeley's economics department. "It doesn't seem intergenerationally fair that older people who are living longer and are healthier should be retiring earlier and earlier and receiving support from working-aged people who are struggling themselves."

But the ability to – or, in the case of many whose nest eggs were walloped by the Great Recession, the necessity of – working later in life only scratches the surface of the demographic and economic upheaval associated with America's aging population, which is starting to put a considerable strain on many state budgets in the form of elevated health care burdens and lower tax revenues as Americans tend to pay fewer taxes as they get older – in part because of retirement and in part because they naturally tend to spend less than younger adults, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A report published earlier this year by the Urban Institute noted that the demographic shift "puts pressure on both sides of the ledger, lowering some tax revenue sources while pushing up the need for spending on services, especially health care." And, indeed, a separate study from the National Association of State Budget Offices in June found that 33 states reported fiscal 2017 revenue collections were lower than they'd forecasted. Aging populations are believed to be one of several factors exacerbating individual states' budget situations.

In an effort to get a more hands-on look at how individual states are faring under a demographic shift expected to play out for decades to come, U.S. News put together the Best States for Aging ranking.

The U.S. News Best States for Aging ranking measures states' efforts to effectively serve their senior citizens by keeping them healthy, financially secure and involved in their communities. States are scored relative to each other in 12 factors that average into one overall score.

The factors are:

Colorado took the top spot in the rankings, followed by Maine, Hawaii, Iowa and South Dakota to round out the top five. The Centennial State ranked in the top 10 across several subcategories, including nursing home quality, life expectancy, overall health and senior unemployment.

But Colorado was also among the more expensive states in terms of health care costs – a status that has not been lost among the state's budget-conscious as its population ages rapidly. The Colorado Department of Local Affairs last year pegged it as the third-fastest growing state in terms of population growth among those at least 65 years of age. Among the complications associated with that distinction was a tighter job market and "an expected decline in per capita tax revenues to the state and many local governments."

And given the combination of lower per capita tax revenues and higher state burdens for programs such as Medicare, Colorado officials are looking at ways to head off the potential costs associated with the state's ongoing demographic shift.

"If we don’t get out ahead of [rising health care costs], it’s just going to take a greater and greater proportion of each state's government economy. And it’s gonna squeeze K-12 [education funding]. It’s gonna squeeze higher ed, our universities. It’s gonna squeeze transportation," says Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, indicating that he's determined to "really ... go aggressively after cost" to make health care more affordable to citizens and less of a burden on the government.

Still, Colorado was among the 10 youngest states U.S. News profiled, with just 14 percent of the state's population at least 65 years of age. In states such as Maine, West Virginia and Florida – where the elderly population accounts for 20.5 percent, 19.1 percent and 18.7 percent of the population, respectively – the population shift is even more acute.

(Deidre McPhillips for USN&WR)

But it's not just individual states that are concerned about rising health care costs. Lawmakers across the country have expressed concerns as their constituents' health care burdens continue to rise and cash-strapped retirees try to figure out how to cover their medical bills.

"The biggest fear is not the overall financial situation, it's health costs. Medicare is great, but it only covers 80 percent if you're lucky. And the way Congress acts, nothing is guaranteed," Lowry says of interactions he's had with readers and other elderly Americans through his blogging and book writing. "You can go to the gym 12 hours a day, but you're still going to get old, and you're still going to fall apart. It's going to cost a very pretty penny."

Indeed, Fidelity Investments in August estimated the average 65-year-old couple retiring this year would need $275,000 stashed away to cover health care costs over the rest of their lives. That's up 6 percent from just a year ago.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics' consumer price index, meanwhile, shows nursing home and adult day services have seen costs rise 37.2 percent across the country over the past 10 years. Broader medical care costs, meanwhile, have gone up 35 percent.

The index estimates prices included in its calculations have climbed only 18 percent over that period. So medical care costs are essentially doubling the country's broader rate of inflation.

"The health care side is where the big concern is for the U.S., and really, it's probably underappreciated in many other countries as well," Lee says. "Right now, Medicare and Medicaid are still relatively modest compared to GDP, but they're going to be increasing fairly rapidly."

Still, physical therapy, in-home care and medical employment as a whole have soared along with prices. Affording quality care has become a concern for many, but millions of others have found themselves new job opportunities in industries such as health care and retirement planning as baby boomers transition into their golden years.

Outside of these aging-adjacent industries, though, much of the private sector stands to benefit from the introduction of products that may not have seemed marketable years ago. Gillette recently unveiled the new TREO razor designed to make shaving another person easier – potentially a boon for the growing pool of adult children tasked with looking after their parents as they age.

"That can be seen as, 'Wow, that is great social responsibility.' But it's also fantastic business. It's a great analysis of an unmet need in the marketplace that they can fill," says Michael Hodin, CEO of the Global Coalition on Aging. "The global number is there's about a $15 trillion silver economy, which is what we call this."

States such as Florida and Maine naturally enjoy stronger silver economies than younger and more spread-out states like Utah and Alaska, where just 10.9 percent and 11.3 percent of the already small populations are at least 65 years of age, respectively. But the advent of remote monitoring technology through screens and in-house tools could completely revolutionize how health care is practiced in these areas, allowing older workers to either remain at home or in areas where immediate access to a physical caregiver isn't as much of an issue as it is now.

"Aging in place is all the rage now, and globally, too. [Remote patient monitoring] is about to really take off," says Hodin, who notes that Intel and Phillips, in particular, are at the forefront of some of these elder-focused technological innovations. "The opportunity to transform the delivery of health care, where remote monitoring becomes the standard of care and where, instead of having to run to the physician's office or a hospital, is phenomenal."

Hodin's coalition partners with a host of private sector companies such as Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, General Electric, Intel, Deloitte, Pfizer and others as they aim to raise awareness about the global aging trend, prepare companies to maintain older payrolls and potentially identify new business opportunities to better connect with that older demographic.

This effort to make corporate America more elderly-friendly is crucial, he says, if companies want to attract older customers and ultimately take advantage of the glut of older workers remaining in the workplace longer. He likens the potential impact of a more accepting corporate environment for older Americans to the rise of women in the workplace decades ago.

"We opened up an entire part of society that has added trillions of dollars in economic impact and has been a driver of growth through the women's movement. And you can do the same thing with a 55-plus category," he says. "I think that's the model from a societal point of view."

In some sense, that model may be a necessity for many companies as they struggle to attract younger workers in the years ahead. America's aging trend is twofold in that folks are living longer while birth rates have diminished. According to the CDC, the number of U.S. births fell 1 percent in 2016 alone, dropping the general fertility rate to 62 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44.

"When you look at the trend line, particularly from a public policy point of view, it's the low birth rates that have the biggest impact, because it profoundly transforms the character of society," Hodin says. "There are more old than young around the world. The U.S. is less dramatically involved in that at this moment, but it's coming to us very rapidly."

But the story of aging appears to have taken on a more negative connotation in recent years than was the case a few decades ago, Lee says. Concerns about health care funding, Social Security viability, state pension burdens and tax revenue reduction have become the new norm, and elderly health in some sense appears to have plateaued.

"It’s also disturbing that the people just before the threshold of getting older, say, between 50 and 65, they’ve had rising disability rates, increasing obesity, increasing diabetes, and as they start turning 65, they may well be in worse health than earlier generations," he says. "That’s a cloud on the horizon."

Still, Lowry says aging and retirement in the 21st century isn't all doom and gloom. He describes his own experience as "extremely positive" and notes that, even though recent studies have suggested middle-aged Americans aren't the pinnacles of health that they once were, the country's older individuals today are largely more mobile and healthy than they were in decades past. In some sense, he says, 65 is the new 75.

"It's an extremely positive experience now, but I remember at my parents' age, they did just kind of sit. They really didn't do anything," Lowry says of the aging process. "It's really been reinvented; the idea of moving to Sun City and driving around in a golf cart all day is just not acceptable anymore."

Casey Leins and Deidre McPhillips contributed to this story.

Output: Getting old isn't what it used to be. At least, that's what Bob Lowry has found in recent years as he's blazed a trail through what many would consider to be an early retirement. In 2001, at the age of 52, Lowry stepped away from his job running a management consulting company for radio stations.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Colorado Is the Best State for Aging
 Colorado's burgeoning young population is not the only group to benefit from the state's flourishing economy and resulting culture boom: Colorado is the Best State for Aging, according to a new U.S. News ranking.

At a time when the nation is aging rapidly, presenting challenges to care for the 65-and-older population, Colorado has made it a priority to ensure it serves its older residents well. As a result, Colorado has one of the healthiest 65-and-older populations of any state, and it provides its residents with some of the best Medicare and nursing home quality in the nation.

Colorado's older population is growing faster than most others: In 2010, 10.9 percent of Colorado residents were 65 or older, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates . In 2016, that percentage jumped to 13.4 percent, though still lower than the national average of 15.2 percent.

By 2030, the Colorado State Demography Office predicts the 65-and-older population will rise to 1.27 million, a 77 percent increase from 2015. Much of this growth comes from the state's residents who are aging in place. A majority of older residents have lived in Colorado for more than 20 years, and many say they don't plan to leave.

Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat who has been in office since 2011, attributes the state's No. 1 ranking in part to a strong collaboration among the government, the private sector and local municipalities.

In September, for example, Hickenlooper's office announced the state would create a senior adviser on aging position to lead Colorado's aging-related efforts, funded by a grant from the Next Fifty Initiative, a nonprofit organization that aims to improve community services for the elderly population and caregivers. And Hickenlooper says the state is working with the private sector by providing incentives for private nursing home facilities to improve their quality.

Nursing home quality is one of the areas where Colorado performed the best in the Best States for Aging ranking, earning the No. 6 spot. And quality nursing homes are key to controlling overall health costs, according to the governor.

Colorado also performed well in many health-related categories. New Hampshire and Hawaii are the only states with a greater share of older people who say their health is good or better. About 2 in 3 older people in Colorado are able-bodied, and just 5 percent of Colorado's older people say they are experiencing frequent mental distress, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

The active lifestyle in Colorado could contribute to better health outcomes for seniors, says Mindy Kemp, director of Colorado's Division of Aging and Adult Services. Just 22.3 percent of older people have had no physical activity in their leisure time in the past month; fellow outdoorsy states Washington and California are the only two to rank higher than Colorado for this metric, according to CDC data.

"It's hard to tell where [staying healthy at an older age] is an individual's choice or the services provided to them," Kemp says. "In communities like Boulder, there's a lot of outdoor activities, great recreational activities, community engagement, senior centers and things like that. So I'm sure that helps, but you also need people to be willing to take advantage of that."

The state also offers a Regional Care Collaborative Organization, which connects members of Colorado's Medicaid Program with providers. "[The program] does a really good job of very cost-effectively providing a medical home for people of lesser means," says Hickenlooper, who has been at the forefront of a bipartisan governor resistance to the two Affordable Care Act replacement bills proposed by Republicans in recent months.

Hickenlooper, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and a handful of other governors say the GOP bills would threaten their states' abilities to provide health insurance to residents. And in Colorado, which expanded Medicaid under Obamacare, seniors could be adversely affected because they account for a large percentage of the state's Medicaid costs. People with disabilities and seniors accounted for 59 percent of the program's cost in 2014, though they only made up 20 percent of enrollees.

Colorado's top-notch health care comes with a hefty price tag: The state's health care costs, and cost of living, are higher than in most other states.

Colorado places in the middle of the pack for assisted living facility costs, at an average of $4,900.17 per month . The problem is exacerbated in growing metro areas such as Denver, where housing affordability is a major challenge. As young people move to the state and "are getting paid pretty well to work in this economy," housing prices are jumping, according to Hickenlooper.

"Denver is growing, and there's a huge need for housing, so you see people who could potentially lose their rental housing, and that's a problem," says Angela Cortez, communications director for AARP Colorado, which serves roughly 340,000 members who are 65 or older. "Those are the challenges of a growing community, and yes, if they go into nursing care [or assisted living], it is very expensive."

While stakeholders and advocates agree that affordable housing is a pressing issue for the state, Colorado's leadership has introduced initiatives to help older residents stay in their homes longer, including a property tax break for residents who are 65 and older and have lived in their homes for at least 10 years. The state already has one of the lowest property tax rates in the country.

Jill Clark, a 65-year-old Colorado Springs resident, and her 72-year-old husband have benefited from the property tax break for several years, and she estimates that about half her neighborhood also enjoys the tax break.

Conversely, the state's fast-growing economy prevents seniors from being pushed out of the workforce. The unemployment rate for people over 65 is lower in Colorado – 2.5 percent – than the national average of 3.8 percent, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

"We need every able-bodied worker we can get," Hickenlooper says. The state has programs to make sure people with varying levels of disabilities get training to take their place in the economy. "Sometimes those are older people," he adds.

In addition to its economic challenges, Colorado must address the needs of its senior residents who live in less-accessible areas.

"What's interesting about Colorado is we have some urban and some rural and frontier areas, so the needs are different when we go around the state and ask about the challenges," Kemp says, citing the difficulty of serving larger populations in metro areas and getting home-delivered meals to older people in more remote areas.

Kemp and Jody Barker, chair of the Colorado Commission on Aging, say the state's agencies have worked with Colorado's local municipalities to "do more with less" and creatively address age-related challenges. For example, Kemp's department is considering an initiative to help older people who no longer drive get to doctor's appointments, the grocery store or anywhere else. A driver who volunteers to take the older person to their destination would receive a voucher from the senior, which they could then exchange for cash from the department.

"When we have that level of support already at that upper level, then it enables us … to move forward doing the work that serves the seniors in our community. It's been fantastic," says Barker, who also directs the Central Colorado chapter of the national Alzheimer's Association.

Colorado's 65-and-older population is also benefiting from the fact that the state's young population is growing rapidly. Over the last 10 years, Clark says her neighborhood has become significantly younger and more eclectic, adding that "millennials are looking to live in places that aren't cookie cutter." Now, she enjoys a brewery down the street and an arts scene downtown that "adds to the quality of life."

Hickenlooper says he thinks some older people are moving to Colorado to be with their grandchildren, and is proud how fewer people are moving away from Colorado for retirement than from other states.

"One of the things that helps you [live] longer is to be part of a community and to know your neighbors and have relationships with them," Hickenlooper says. "What that really tells you is that should be a primary goal for any state government to try to encourage as many seniors as possible to age in place."

Output: Colorado's burgeoning young population is not the only group to benefit from the state's flourishing economy and resulting culture boom: Colorado is the Best State for Aging, according to a new U.S. News ranking.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Emerging Technology Looks to Help Older Americans Age Better
 Americans once wanted to live to an old age. Now, as people are living longer than ever, they want to age well.

Each day, more than 10,000 adults are turning 65, and by 2060, nearly one in four Americans – 98.2 million people – will be 65 or older. ( Florida and Maine are nearly there.) And a sizable chunk of those older U.S. residents across the country – almost 20 million – will be at least 85 in 2060, according to U.S. Census projections.

With that shift has come an increasing focus among researchers, health care professionals and commercial brands alike on how to help older Americans age healthily and comfortably in their own homes.

At the forefront of that movement have been high-tech companies with innovations designed to look after older adults and improve their quality of life, with inventions ranging from a smart refrigerator that orders food from the grocery store after sensing there is not enough, to remote monitoring devices and apps that allow people to check in on their older family members.

At the same time America is graying, older generations are using technology in increasing numbers. Forty-two percent of the nearly 50 million adults 65 and over today own smartphones , a sharp jump from the 18 percent who had smartphones in 2013, a survey from Pew Research Center found. And 79 percent of older adults say the lack of internet access is a serious disadvantage.

"Older adults don't adopt new technologies quite as quickly as younger people," says Elizabeth Zelinski, a technology and aging expert at the University of Southern California . "But one of the ideas we have with technology adoption is that if people find it useful, and it's accessible – meaning it's cheap enough, it's easy enough, it's ubiquitous enough – people will adopt it."

Over the next two decades, overall spending by people 50 and older is expected to increase 58 percent, while spending by Americans 25 to 50 will grow by only 24 percent, according to a 2013 investment report from the AARP . And because baby boomers – Americans born between 1946 and 1964 – spend the most across all categories, particularly health care, "this market is too big to ignore," the report said.

Within the burgeoning movement to create high-tech products geared toward older Americans, there's an emphasis on health, social well-being and safety. And the nation's $3 trillion-per-year health care industry is closely monitoring tech innovations that could prevent falls or other accidents and alleviate health risks, particularly as the number of health care workers has dwindled in recent years.

Falls are the leading cause of injury and death among older Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , contributing to about 27,000 deaths annually. In 2014 alone, older Americans' 29 million falls resulted in 7 million injuries and cost about $31 billion in annual Medicare costs.

Fall-detection wearables that can call for help are nothing new – think Life Alert's "Help, I've fallen" pendants that have been around since the late 1980s – but implementing the same technology into sleeker, more attractive devices may entice older Americans who find the pendants stigmatizing and unattractive, says Laurie Orlov, who has been analyzing industry trends since 2009 for her blog, Aging in Place Technology Watch.

Sensosafe , for example, recently released a smartwatch that monitors the wearer's heart rate, step count and can even call a designated family member if he or she falls. The watch allows family members to monitor an older person's safety while maintaining their privacy and independence. While only a small share of adults 65 and older owned wearables in 2016, according to an AARP survey , those rates will likely increase as the devices become more commonplace.

"A lot of older people feel that their children are worrying about them too much, and the younger people are saying, 'Well, I want to make sure Mom's OK,' but the difficulty is getting to the right balance between privacy and security," Zelinski says.

As older Americans increasingly live alone, concerns arise regarding their security and health. About one-third of Americans 65 or older live alone, according to the Institute on Aging. Women are twice as likely as men to live on their own – nearly half live alone by the time they hit 75. Social isolation and loneliness contribute to poor health outcomes, including depression and declining mobility, according to a report published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Branding its product ElliQ as the "active aging companion," Intuition Robotics hopes to alleviate some of those social and health problems. ElliQ, a tabletop robot that uses artificial intelligence and speaks with a female voice, is designed to simplify communication and other social interactions for older Americans.

Rather than waiting for the user to start the interaction, ElliQ suggests activities to keep older Americans engaged and active. If Grandma has a game of bridge on the calendar, for example, ElliQ will offer to practice with her, or if the weather is nice, ElliQ will suggest going for a walk. Intuition Robotics plans to commercially release the robotic companion in 2018.

"If you look at [Apple's] Siri or something like that, the goal for us as users is A) for us to initiative the conversation, and B) for it to be completed as quickly and efficiently as possible," Intuition Robotics CEO Dor Skuler says. "ElliQ has much more of a persona attributed to her, whether it's her ability to show body language to communicate … or her ability to personalize her approach to different people based on what she learns about them."

Skuler says ElliQ's use of emotional intelligence and body language make the device feel more natural for older Americans who may be tech-averse. ElliQ's proactiveness is what makes the device an asset for older users, Skuler says, because older people often fall into routines of passivity and inactivity. Research suggests that remaining physically active and social can help older Americans fend off health issues such as Alzheimer's disease and high blood pressure, and can even increase longevity.

But Orlov says ElliQ and other tabletop robotic assistants designed specifically for the elderly may be missing the mark. Older people just need popular devices to allow for more personalization and easier-to-use interfaces, such as the "easy mode" on Samsung Galaxy phones that enlarges icons and simplifies the home screen, she says.

"Having standardized hardware and configurable software is what would make these devices simpler to use. There doesn't need to be an entirely separate product," Orlov says, citing controls that parents of young children can enable on their smartphones.

"Alexa," the digital assistant built into the Amazon Echo , is an example of how a universal device can be tailored to meet the needs of its user. Older Americans can ask Alexa to remind them to take their medicine and adjust lights and temperature, for example, and their adult children can use the accompanying app to check in. The newest version of the device, the Echo Show, also includes a screen, allowing people to check their home security cameras and make video calls.

Orlov says that for older Americans to adopt new tech devices en masse, they must be affordable and unobtrusive, so another major draw for existing digital assistants is the price: The Amazon Echo starts at around $180, while the Google Home is even cheaper. There is no set price for ElliQ yet, but Skuler says his team is "targeting the product to be as affordable as other sophisticated consumer electronics products."

American workers' top retirement fear is outliving their money – not declining health or loneliness – according to a 2015 survey by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies , which may make older Americans wary of new products with high price tags. Still, Americans may find that the higher price tags of some tech devices are worth the splurge if they seem to make Grandma's life easier – and their own by default.

"I think there's a lot out there that can be very helpful," Zelinski says. "And the older people who are most responsive to that have money."

Output: Americans once wanted to live to an old age. Now, as people are living longer than ever, they want to age well. Each day, more than 10,000 adults are turning 65, and by 2060, nearly one in four Americans – 98.2 million people – will be 65 or older. (Florida and Maine are nearly there.) And a sizable chunk of those older U.S. residents across the country – almost 20 million – will be at least 85 in 2060, according to U.S. Census projections.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Spider-imitating drones fire string to perch or park from mid-air
 (Tech Xplore)—Getting a drone up in the air is only one step ahead for those who work on and study drones. The feats to accomplish further rest in how well they fly, self-balance, perch, land and, if used in numbers, how they may move in formation.

No surprise, then, that researchers, in engineering drones to last longer and navigate around obstacles, look to nature's creatures such as birds, bats, insects to explore how their mechanisms help for energy-efficient, precise flight control.

A new drone takes its inspiration from spiders and the results are most interesting.

Introducing SpiderMAV: a micro aerial vehicle, specifically, a DJI Matrice 100 drone with customized perching module mounted on top, said IEEE Spectrum, and stabilizing module at the bottom.

The perching module consists of a magnetic anchor launcher and an actuated spooling system using polystyrene thread, the report said.

The drone is from Imperial College London's Aerial Robotics Laboratory. Their work was presented at IROS 2017.

Their paper is titled, "SpiderMAV: Perching and Stabilizing Micro Aerial Vehicles with Bio-inspired Tensile Anchoring Systems," by K. Zhang, P. Chermprayong, T. M. Alhinai, R. Siddall, and M. Kovac.

What's special about the drone and how does it mimic spiders? The answer is that the little vehicle shoots webs for perching and stabilization—such that it can hang from ceilings and perch.

And it does so wherever it needs to. "The SpiderMAV can shoot actual silk strings at walls in order to stabilize itself to perch against structures wherever necessary or convenient." said Marco Margaritoff in The Drive.

Evan Ackerman in IEEE Spectrum stepped readers through that process.

"When SpiderMAV finds a magnetic surface (a metal ceiling or beam, ideally) that it wants to perch beneath, the launcher uses compressed gas to fire the anchor, which trails the thread behind it. With the anchor attached, SpiderMAV reels in the thread to keep it taut, and then can slow or shut off its motors, hanging securely from the ceiling."

This is all being done while the drone is mid-air. And the feat is not limited to perching but to building infrastructure for it. "By using tensile anchors to support structures made of silk, spiders can create custom-stabilized perching locations that would otherwise not exist, because they're in mid-air."

The inspiration came from Darwin's bark spider. "It's inspired by the Darwin's bark spider that spins a circular web with anchor lines up to 25 meters (82 feet) long," said Steven Dufresne in Hackaday.

The perching aspect of their drone is quite important for those who explore drone endurance. Ackerman discussed this in his article.

"Perching is turning out to be a very desirable skill for aerial robots. The ability to land on walls or ceilings, rather than having to go to the ground, gives a drone the advantage of being high up in the air (probably why you're using a drone in the first place) without the disadvantage of having to spend a lot of energy not falling."

IEEE Spectrum posted videos earlier this month of the 1-SpiderMAV Outdoor Stabilization Test and 2-SpiderMAV: Micro Aerial Vehicles With Bio-inspired Tensile Anchoring Systems.

Why their work matters: According to Ackerman, "The researchers conclude by saying that SpiderMAV 'opens up a new trend in the field of robotics on investigating string-driven systems with active moving platform.'"

Moving forward, Marco Margaritoff in The Drive said "this drone is still very much in its early stages of development, with all of the aforementioned capabilities functioning well yet in preliminary testing phases."

More information: SpiderMAV: Perching and Stabilizing Micro Aerial Vehicles with Bio-Inspired Tensile Anchoring Systems, IROS 2017. ras.papercept.net/conferences/ … ontentListWeb_4.html Abstract

Whilst Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) possess a variety of promising capabilities, their high energy consumption severely limits applications where flight endurance is of high importance. Reducing energy usage is one of the main challenges in advancing aerial robot utility. To address this bottleneck in the development of unmanned aerial vehicle applications, this work proposes an bioinspired mechanical approach and develops an aerial robotic system for greater endurance enabled by low power station-keeping. The aerial robotic system consists of an multirotor MAV and anchoring modules capable of launching multiple tensile anchors to fixed structures in its operating envelope. The resulting tensile perch is capable of providing a mechanically stabilized mode for high accuracy operation in 3D workspace. We explore generalised geometric and static modelling of the stabilisation concept using screw theory. Following the analytical modelling of the integrated robotic system, the tensile anchoring modules employing high pressure gas actuation are designed, prototyped and then integrated to a quadrotor platform. The presented design is validated with experimental tests, demonstrating the stabilization capability even in a windy environment.

© 2017 Tech Xplore

Output: A drone that can shoot string at walls in order to perch against structures has been developed by engineers in London. The "SpiderMAV" craft has been developed by researchers at Imperial College London, and takes its inspiration from the way spiders shoot silk to spin their webs. The drone's stabilising system works by firing a magnetic anchor on a string at metallic surfaces while in mid-air, then reeling it in to keep the line taut, before slowing or shutting off its motors to save energy.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Reddit unveils partnership with Time Magazine to unearth stories
 Time magazine has a new, formalized source of inspiration for stories. On Oct. 12, the Time Inc. flagship is announcing an editorial partnership with Reddit, the community and platform that has helped and flummoxed publishers for years.

Through the partnership, Reddit staffers will help find and flag original stories written by Reddit community members for Time editors, who will tell those stories and compile the results in an article series that will publish every Thursday. The posts will be distributed on Time’s owned and operated properties, its Reddit profile page and Apple News.

In the past year, Reddit has formed partnerships with companies including CrowdTangle and Taboola, as well as publishers including The Washington Post. Meanwhile, Time’s parent, Time Inc., is scrambling to cut costs, reportedly planning to cut the publishing frequency of titles like Fortune and Sports Illustrated, while also trying to offer digital publishers the chance to create print editions of their own products. Neither side would comment on whether there is a financial dimension to the partnership.

“We have opportunities to grow each other’s audiences,” said Alexandra Riccomini, Reddit’s director of business development and media partnerships.

Publishers big and small have spent years mining Reddit for stories. Gawker famously feuded with Reddit’s community over the perception that Gawker staffers relied too heavily on the platform to surface stories they later aggregated. To this day, most digital journalists are constantly prowling Reddit’s 140,000 active subreddits looking for viral story fodder, Alexis Ohanian said on a recent Digiday podcast.

This partnership is different. Rather than surfacing stories from other websites or posts from ill-lit corners of the internet, members of Reddit’s community team will help flag top-performing original posts published by Reddit users, with a special focus on content that does not fit into any of the established lists that Time’s competitors might access through CrowdTangle. Those community specialists will also connect those Reddit users to Time editors to help the editors secure permission to use photographs or other media created by those Reddit users.

“We really wanted to find a way to leverage the user-generated content from their community,” said Brittany Robins, engagement editor for Time Inc.’s Time, Fortune and Money.

For much of the past decade, Reddit has played a unique role in the digital media ecosystem. It has long been a top-10 source of referral traffic for publishers globally, according to Parse.ly data, routinely topping much larger platforms like LinkedIn. Historically, Robins said, it has been a top-five source of social traffic for Time.

Yet overall, the flow of referral traffic has been unpredictable for publishers. Unlike other platforms where publishers can set up their own accounts and pump as much content into the platforms as they wish, Reddit’s community would actively police publishers that tried to spam its ecosystem, either by downvoting the content or getting the publisher’s user accounts banned.

That has begun to change. Over the summer, it created the option for publishers to create profile pages on its platform, a program it launched in open beta with Time, The Washington Post and AL.com. It also began allowing users to upload native video to its platform, an opportunity Time has embraced: A video it uploaded this summer about the history of solar eclipses remains one of Reddit’s most popular uploaded videos.

Reddit’s partnerships with Taboola and CrowdTangle also give publishers greater visibility into how content performs inside Reddit’s labyrinthine ecosystem. “We’ve been making an effort, holistically, to engage more with publishers,” Riccomini said.

While Time’s coverage of national affairs has historically defined the brand, its current audience seems more interested in stories that emerge from the internet. A recent story, which happened to be sourced from Reddit, about a grandmother who bears a striking resemblance to actress Scarlett Johansson became one of the publisher’s top-performing posts of the year.

As two websites looking to diversify their audiences, Reddit and Time are an excellent match. The former’s audience is 62 percent male, and more than two-thirds of its visitors are under the age of 34, while the latter’s audience is 60 percent female, and nearly two-thirds of its visitors are over the age of 35. Both sites attract 47 million unique U.S. visitors per month, all according to comScore data; Reddit claims a global audience of 330 million.

As the partnership develops, Robins said the stories Reddit unearths could serve as the raw material for a video project or another multimedia effort. “This is our passion project,” she said. “We’re just going to see where it goes.”

Output: Social news aggregation site Reddit is partnering with Time magazine to compile the best-performing posts on its site and use them to create a weekly article that will be distributed on Time's properties. The move is seen as an ideal way for the chalk-and-cheese sites to diversify their audiences, and followed Reddit partnerships with publishers including the Washington Post. Reddit has been a major source of referrals to publishers for some time. While any financials behind the deal have not been revealed, Time's parent company, Time Incorporated, is battling to reduce costs across its portfolio.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Robots, 3D printing combine in spinal operation for first time
 If you thought an autonomous robot dentist implanting 3D printed teeth into a patient’s mouth was astoundingly innovative and maybe a little scary, buckle your seat belt – for the first time, a robot has completed spinal surgery on a child with severe progressive scoliosis. The groundbreaking surgery took place at the University Hospital of Amiens (CHU d’Amiens) in France.

6-year-old Louis is handicapped with a genetic disorder known as infantile spinal amyotrophy – his back was bent at an extreme angle, which has caused him some breathing trouble. Rehabilitation, back braces, and orthopedic corsets were not helping, and he has spent the last six months lying flat in bed.

A robot named ROSA was tasked with completing a very important part of the obviously necessary surgery: the installation of ilio-sacral screws into the patient’s spine.

“It was a question of placing illio-sacral screws and hooks at the top of the back, connected by arched rods to straighten the back,” explained Professor Richard Gouron, the patient’s head of surgery. “The installation of the screws seven millimeters in diameter in a bone corridor of eight millimeters near the roots nervous system remains very complex and rare, they are voluminous in view of the small size of the child’s bones.”

Over the past year, Professor Gouron, pediatric orthopedic surgeon Dr. François Deroussen, and neurosurgeon Dr. Michel Lefranc have been working tirelessly to simulate the robotic operation before it took place.

Dr. Lefranc said, “The surgeon plans the operation, the robot carries the instruments, and takes into account the movements of the patient. He brings the precision and three-dimensional vision.”

Thanks to 3D printing technology, a reproduction of the young patient’s spinal column was added to a mannequin for simulation purposes, so that the 15-person surgical team could practice ahead of time, and even simulate the entire operation twice before even attempting it on Louis.

“This is two firsts in one. A first in simulation, and a first surgery, the placement of ilio-sacral screws with the help of a robot,” explained Professor Gouron.”The incisions are smaller thanks to the robot, there is less post-operative pain and the patient can sit more quickly.”

We’ve seen studies that show 3D printed surgical models can save on costs, but more importantly, they can also reduce the amount of time patients have to spend on the operating table, because it gives surgeons the chance to practice complicated procedures ahead of time.

The successful surgery took place on September 28th, and it only took three hours to place screws in the pelvis and hooks at the top of the back, which were then connected by rods. Louis has recovered very well – not only can he breathe better, but he can also sit up correctly again.

Dr. Deroussen, who originally initiated the project, said, “This is a great victory.”

Due to the success of this first robotic spinal surgery, four other children will soon have identical surgeries to fix their spines.

Among the partners contributing technologies to the procedure were:

Novaspine: processing of the scanner image

Creaplast: realization of moldings based on thermosetting resins (modeling and 3D printing)

Spinevision: supplier of ilio-sacral screws

NuVasive: manufacturer of MAGEC spinal equipment and distraction system

Stryker France: supplier of implants

GE Healthcare: scanning

Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com, or share your thoughts below.

[Sources: CHU Amiens France Bleu / All Images: CHU Amiens]

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

Output: A spinal operation on a child has been completed using robots for the first time. Medical staff at France's University Hospital of Amiens used a robot called ROSA for part of the procedure, which involved inserting screws into the spine. Before it took place, specialist surgeons had spent a year preparing for and simulating the operation using a replica of the patient's spinal column produced using 3D printing technology. After the success of the operation, four other children are due to undergo the same procedure.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Twitch launches humorous video channels, cutting out YouTube
 Twitch is becoming more and more well-rounded with every announcement. It hosted various marathons just this year, including Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and Carl Sagan's Cosmos. In another bid to break free from its established image as a streaming platform for games, Twitch has announced two new funny channels you can watch: FailArmy and The Pet Collective. FailArmy publishes viral clips submitted by its millions of fans, while The Pet Collective publishes trending animal videos. You might know one or both of them from their other homes online, but if Twitch is your platform of choice, then you no longer have to venture to YouTube to watch their new uploads.

Twitch Director of Business Development Jane Weedon explained why the company decided to form a partnership with the shows' creators:

"The meteoric rise of IRL vlogging category on Twitch is a clear sign that our community loves commentating on everyday activities. We have also witnessed the appeal of shared experiences when it comes to watching programmatic TV marathons together. FailArmy has the top collection of IRL viral clips from all over the world and The Pet Collective is representative of the Internet's love for cute animals. Bringing their programming to Twitch breathes new life into the content by adding commentary from viewers, while tapping into their love of collective viewing."

Both FailArmy's and The Pet Collective's channels are now live. The former will also debut a "Fails of the Week" series exclusively for Twitch later today, October 12th, at around 4:53PM ET.

Output: Live streaming and video platform Twitch is offering two additional channels after forming partnerships with their creators. FailArmy and The Pet Collective both feature content submitted by fans and include commentary from viewers. The channels are also available on the likes of YouTube. The first shows humorous footage of everyday mishaps and the second animal videos uploaded by owners. The move is aimed at helping Twitch, owned by Amazon subsidiary Twitch Interactive, to be seen as more than a streaming platform for gamers.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
AI start-up Neurensic acquired by Trading Technologies
 Trading Technologies has acquired artificial intelligence (AI) and market surveillance specialist Neurensic.

The deal will enable Trading Technologies to integrate its execution platform with AI-led compliance and surveillance systems.

Neurensic was founded in 2015 and has developed AI that can identify complex patterns on trading behaviour on a large scale across multiple markets in near real-time. It utilises big data processing and machine learning technology to provide firms with a continuous assessment of their compliance risk associated with trading.

Rick Lane, CEO of Trading Technologies, said: The ability to provide literal pushbutton access to advanced machine learning surveillance capabilities, with zero infrastructure investment and zero integration cost, will allow our partners to further benefit from the value of our platform and network.”

Trading Technologies said the market surveillance functionality of Neurensic was just the first of “several solutions” it would offer using the technology, but did not provide details of what it is developing.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Output: Trading Technologies has acquired artificial intelligence start-up Neurensic. Terms of the deal were not reported. The trading firm will initially use Neurensic's technology to survey and monitor markets, identifying trends in trading activity across a number of markets. Neurensic also allows firms to understand compliance risks associated with their trading activities. The firms have plans for more applications of the technology.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Blackstone, Lone Star, Paulson face losses over Puerto Rico storm

 Deep-pocketed investors like Paulson & Company, Lone Star Funds and the Blackstone Group pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into Puerto Rico real estate in recent years. In hindsight, that doesn’t look like such a great idea.

The island’s economy is in tatters in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Storm damages could add up to $95 billion, according to one estimate.

“We sustained a lot of damage, and we’re facing very significant losses,” Brian Tenenbaum of the Morgan Reed Group, a major office landlord, told the New York Times.

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

Hedge funder John Paulson, famous for betting against the U.S. housing market in 2007, flew to Puerto Rico on his company’s private jet days after the storm to inspect the damage. Two of the company’s hotels were slightly damaged. A third shut down for now. In a statement the firm said it looks “forward to welcoming guests as early as the winter season.”

CPG Real Estate had to charter a private plane carrying canned goods, diapers and batteries to open part of an outdoor shopping mall in San Juan.

Some investors see light at the end of the tunnel: federal funding. “I think a lot of money will be spent fixing Puerto Rico, and that should be better for everyone,” Marc Lasry, of Hedge Fund Avenue Capital Group, told the Times. [NYT] — Konrad Putzier

Output: Investors such as Blackstone, Paulson and Lone Star, who have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into Puerto Rican real estate, are at risk of major losses following Hurricane Maria. The damage caused by the hurricane could add up to around $95bn, and has left the island's already struggling economy in tatters. “We sustained a lot of damage, and we’re facing very significant losses”, said Brian Tenenbaum of the Morgan Reed Group.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
WhatsApp signals payments service to be rolled out in India
 To access this post, you must purchase September/October 2017

Output: WhatsApp users in India could be the first to make instant payments with the messaging app. A beta version of WhatsApp Payments was uncovered by WABetaInfo and if confirmed, could mean that up to 200 million users in the country would have access to the service. WhatsApp has said it's testing bank-to-bank transfers "with UPI", the Reserve Bank of India's Unified Payments Interface. It is not clear when WhatsApp Payments would be rolled out in other countries.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
AI start-up Petuum raises $93m for app-building platform
 Join top executives in San Francisco on July 11-12, to hear how leaders are integrating and optimizing AI investments for success. Learn More

Petuum, a startup that aims to provide enterprises with the tools they need to deploy machine learning, announced today that it has raised a whopping $93 million series B funding round, led by SoftBank.

The funds will be used primarily to hire engineers, salespeople, and marketers, as Petuum works to commercialize its software, according to Eric Xing, the company’s founder and CEO.

Petuum is working to create a platform for building machine learning and deep learning applications through its own custom virtualization and operating system. The company is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is staffed by people from Carnegie Mellon University, where Xing is a tenured professor of Computer Science.

The company’s location has been a boon, Xing said. Petuum relies on engineers with rigorous training and discipline, and CMU’s history of artificial intelligence research means that Petuum has qualified technical talent available to it.

Event Transform 2023 Join us in San Francisco on July 11-12, where top executives will share how they have integrated and optimized AI investments for success and avoided common pitfalls. Register Now

What’s more, the location doesn’t seem to be an impediment to fundraising. Xing said that multiple investors came calling just months after the company closed its $15 million series A last year.

In addition to SoftBank, the round included participation from returning investor Advantech Capital, and others.

This investment wasn’t part of SoftBank’s famed $100 billion Vision Fund, but rather comes as part of the company’s normal investing activities.

The move is consistent with SoftBank’s other venture investing activities — the company is not averse to putting large amounts of money into businesses it sees as working on the cutting edge of emerging technologies, like artificial intelligence.

Right now, Petuum is working with a group of customers to beta test its product and help shape the software it’s building. Xing wouldn’t name names, but he said his company is working toward building solutions for the health care and manufacturing sectors, among others.

Details on Petuum’s customers might be available later next year, Xing said. The company is in the process of building out an office in Silicon Valley, in addition to its headquarters in Pittsburgh.

Output: Pittsburgh-based start-up Petuum has raised $93m in a series B funding round led by SoftBank and featuring participation from existing investor Advantech Capital, among others. Petuum, staffed by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, is developing tools to enable companies to use machine learning and artificial intelligence, and is currently working on solutions for the healthcare and manufacturing sectors. CEO Eric Xing said the new funds would be used to hire engineers, salespeople and marketers to help commercialise its software.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Hurricane Ophelia touted to batter UK and Ireland
 Advertisement

Britain could be hit by 70mph winds from a hurricane crossing the Atlantic Ocean that is forecast to arrive on our shores on the 30th anniversary of the 1987 Great Storm.

Hurricane Ophelia was upgraded from a tropical storm overnight and the US National Hurricane Center warns it could strengthen over the coming days, with the remnants looking set to reach the UK on Sunday and Monday.

The volatile weather system could bring heavy downpours and gusts of up to 70mph when it hits Britain's shores at the start of next week, with the Met Office warning that the unsettled weather is expected to cause disruption.

This graphic shows the percentage chance of tropical-storm force winds above 39mph hitting parts of Britain by next Monday

The US National Hurricane Center has plotted the probable path of Hurricane Ophelia across the Atlantic Ocean into Britain

The storm system is expected to track across the Atlantic over the next few days and arrive in Britain on Sunday into Britain

Ophelia is not expected to be strong enough to be labelled as a hurricane when it hits Britain, but will still pack strong winds

Ophelia is the tenth hurricane of the 2017 Atlantic season. On average there are six hurricanes in the Atlantic basin a year

The west of Britain will see the worst of the weather, with winds of 60mph to 70mph forecast. The NHC said last night that Ophelia was 760 miles south west of the Azores and packing maximum sustained winds of 75mph.

Its arrival in the UK will coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Great Storm of 1987, which hit southern England overnight on October 15 and caused damage estimated at £1billion as well as claiming 18 lives.

The strong winds are expected to arrive after a possible 77F (25C) heatwave this weekend that will see hot air pulled up from southern Spain that will bring conditions more associated with summer from tomorrow.

The warmth is also being fuelled by the remnants of Hurricane Nate and will provide a respite for North West England which was under a weather warning yesterday, with up to 4in (100mm) of rain forecast to fall in Cumbria.

Pleasant conditions are expected for most parts of Britain today, although there will be rain in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Much of the country will enjoy plenty of sunshine and clear skies - but this satellite image shows cloud is waiting in the wings

Your browser does not support the iframe HTML tag. Try viewing this in a modern browser like Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Internet Explorer 9 or later.

The Great Storm of 1987 (pictured) hit southern England overnight on October 15 and caused damage estimated at £1billion

18 dead, £1bn damage and 15m trees toppled The Great Storm on October 15, 1987 saw devastating hurricane-force winds tear across Britain, killing 18 people and causing £1billion of damage. Some 15 million trees were uprooted, trains derailed, and parts of the country plunged into darkness as pylons were toppled. The storm involved an unusual combination of forces, including a kink in the jet stream funnelling air through a narrow corridor high in the atmosphere and pockets of high-speed wind known as 'jet streaks'. It also featured a very rare violent event known as a 'sting jet' that was only recognised in 2004 by scientists. The strongest gust was 115mph in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex. The storm, which left hundreds of thousands of homes without power, was the most damaging since 1703. In addition to the lives lost in the UK, it killed another four people in France. In his lunchtime BBC broadcast on October 15, forecaster Michael Fish famously said: 'Earlier on today apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she'd heard there was a hurricane on the way. Well, if you are watching, don't worry, there isn't.' Advertisement !- - ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/ru/news/none/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_1 - ->

Met Office forecaster Alex Burkhill said today: 'Ophelia became a hurricane overnight and the forecast track takes it eastwards towards Iberia for the weekend.

'After that, indications are that by that point it will then have weakened and be no longer a hurricane or tropical storm, it will be extratropical.

'But then it will continue its way towards the British Isles, probably reaching us very early next week.'

Mr Burkhill said cold sea temperatures mean Ophelia will not be strong enough to be categorised as a hurricane when it hits Britain.

But he added: 'It's definitely something that we are keeping an eye on, for the possibility of some disruptive weather early next week.'

The unsettled weather looks likely to continue into Tuesday due to a separate band of low pressure, and will remain changeable throughout the rest of the week.

Yesterday. flash flooding caused chaos in parts of Cumbria after more than half of the month's predicted rainfall hailed down in less than 24 hours - leaving parts of the village of Blennerhasset almost completely submerged.

Forecasting the high temperatures, Grahame Madge, another forecaster for the Met Office, told MailOnline yesterday: 'We've got warmer air being pulled up from Iberia.

'As we go into the weekend, we'll be looking to see those temperatures creeping up to the low-20s. For Saturday we're looking at probably a 20C (68F) for most, possibly creeping up to 22C (72F) for some

'On Sunday, a bit more of a range - we could still see temperatures in the low 20s, but there could be the odd isolated 24C (75F). On Monday there is a possibility of temperatures even higher than that.'

Mr Madge said that the average maximum for Middlesex in October is about 15.3C (59.5F), based on records from 1981 to 2010, so London could potentially be up to 10C above the average that would be expected.

The maximum UK temperature for October recorded last year was 22.2C (72F), in Trawscoed, near Aberystwyth in West Wales, on the 31st - while the top reading in 2015 was 22.7C (72.9F) at Braemar in Aberdeenshire on the 1st.

In 2014 an October maximum of 23.6C (74.5F) was recorded at Gravesend in Kent and Kew Gardens in London on the 31st, while the top reading in 2013 was 23C (73.4F) in Skegness, Lincolnshire, on the 8th.

Following the predictions of warm weather this weekend, bookmaker Coral has cut the odds on Halloween this year being the hottest on record in the UK from 10-1 to 5-1. The current record is the 23.6C (74.5F) from 2014.

Output: Weather reports suggest Hurricane Ophelia could deliver a storm with winds of up to 70 mph to the UK and Ireland in the coming days. Whilst it is not expected to carry hurricane status if it makes landfall, its potential for destruction is being likened to the Great Storm that occurred around the same date in 1987, causing billions of pounds worth of damage. As we reported in September, AccuWeather warned that the UK is at greater risk of being battered by hurricane-based storms this autumn, which could cause flooding and transport disruption.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
UK ad blocking loses publishers more than £2.9bn yearly
 The UK has one of the highest rates of adblocking worldwide, with over a third (39%) of page views blocking ads, resulting in a loss of more than £2.9bn in publisher revenue in 2017, according to report by OnAudience.com.

The UK has one of the highest rates of ad blocking worldwide, according to OnAudience

The revenue gulf has increased 15% from the £2.5bn loss UK publishers suffered in 2016. Internationally, the loss of publisher revenue from ad blocking has risen by a third to $42bn (£32bn), indicating that the threat of adblockers on sites reliant on advertising for revenue is becoming a more pressing issue.

However, the figures represent a marked increase from other adblocking reports. In June eMarketer's report claimed that more than one-fifth (20.9%) of UK internet users will use adblocking software this year, with the total number number forecast to hit 11.4 million. IAB UK's figures put the proportion of internet users using adblocking software at 22.1%, but the association has said that some of those claiming to use an ad blocker cited their anti-virus software as their ad blocker, meaning the actual figure drops to 18%. Page Fair's report puts the proportion of UK adblockers at 16%, while comScore's puts it at 18%.

The report has been run by OnAudience.com, a part of Cloud Technologies Group, and supported by PHD Media Direction, a part of Omnicom Group. It represents the scale of ad blocking in 60 markets across the world to raise awareness of the issue across the entire industry.

The study compares key market research concerning the scale of ad blocking, with display market value and the estimated loss due to ad blocking, as well as e-commerce turnover generated by ad blocking users.

The results from the UK reflect a broad trend across the European market where consumers are more likely to block ads, with almost a third (32%) of internet users in the region utilising ad blocker plugins. Poland was found to have the highest ad blocking rates at 46%, followed by Greece (44%), Norway (42%), Germany (41%), and Denmark (40%). The Netherlands and Ireland were identically ranked to the UK, with 39% of page views blocking ads.

However, the adoption of ad blockers across the globe is not so prevalent. The USA and Japan recorded ad blocking rates of just 26%, where education and awareness of ad blockers is high, but consumers choose not to use them, the report suggested.

The lowest rates were found in Latin America, with Paraguay recording the lowest rates of ad blocked page views (5%), while Peru and Venezuela scored the second and third lowest ad blocking rates globally (13% and 10% respectively).

The OnAudience.com report also demonstrates the impact of ad blocking on the e-commerce industry, reporting that a third (32%) of consumers visiting e-commerce sites in Europe have an ad blocker installed.

In total, almost two in five (38%) of online shoppers who complete an online transaction do not see an ad before purchasing.

Maciej Sawa, chief commercial officer at OnAudience.com, said: "There has been much discussion calling for advertising to provide a better user experience, but this report clearly shows that not enough is being done as ad blocking rates continue to rise – causing a significant loss for publishers and the advertising industry as a whole.

“Ultimately user experience is key, so it is extremely important for the entire digital marketing industry to keep the consumer in mind and ensure that their journey is relevant, contextual, and meaningful – if we are to ever convince them not to install ad blockers."

Output: More than a third of UK consumers use adblockers, resulting in revenue losses of more than £2.9bn ($3.8bn) for publishers during 2017, according to an OnAudience.com report. This represents a 15% increase on the previous year's figure of £2.5bn. The study also revealed a significantly higher percentage of UK adblocker users than earlier surveys carried out by eMarketer, the IAB UK and PageFair, which reported levels of 20.9%, 22.1% and 16%, respectively. Maciej Sawa, CCO at OnAudience.com called on the advertising industry to ensure ads were "relevant, contextual and meaningful".


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Cortana comes to Skype
 Join top executives in San Francisco on July 11-12, to hear how leaders are integrating and optimizing AI investments for success. Learn More

AI assistant Cortana is now available on Skype, Microsoft announced today. Cortana on Skype can chat either one-on-one, like you would with any friend, or be summoned into conversations to handle tasks like scheduling events, finding nearby restaurants, or sharing IMDB movie reviews. Cortana for Skype will begin to roll out today for iOS and Android users in the United States, according to a blog post.

Cortana will now appear as a permanent contact in every Skype user’s contact list. When chatting one-on-one, Cortana can answer questions the same way she can elsewhere: Ask for things like directions or a weather forecast and Cortana will deliver answers via visual cards.

In addition to doing things like making restaurant reservations, Cortana on Skype can serve up suggested replies like “I’m doing ok” when someone asks “How are you?” or “Create reminder” when you’re making plans with friends. Reminders will then be sent to other devices you have authorized to use Cortana.

Event Transform 2023 Join us in San Francisco on July 11-12, where top executives will share how they have integrated and optimized AI investments for success and avoided common pitfalls. Register Now

Cortana on Skype does not yet work in voice or video calls. Also yet to come are Skype video bots, which launched in preview earlier this year.

At launch, Cortana on Skype has many features similar to the Facebook Messenger intelligent assistant M and in some ways is similar to how Google Assistant functions in the lesser known Allo chat app. In each instance, the AI assistant listens to words used in your conversation in order to anticipate the needs of a user or group of users.

The Skype announcement comes ahead of the widely expected release of the Harman Kardon Invoke this fall, a smart speaker with Cortana inside, and follows a Skype redesign that took place in June for iOS and Android devices. The redesign gave Skype the kind of stories that disappear in 24 hours now common on Snapchat, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, as well as access to third-party bots.

With Cortana in Windows 10, 500 million devices have access to Cortana. About 140 million users speak with Cortana at least once a month, according to Microsoft VP Jordi Ribas.

Output: Android and iOS users in the US can now access Microsoft's artificial intelligence assistant Cortana via Skype. Although it doesn't have voice or video functionality, Cortana will appear as a permanent contact on Skype users' lists, and will answer queries with images, as well as offering suggested replies to broader queries. The addition of Cortana follows Skype's redesign for iOS and Android devices in June, which included giving it access to third-party chatbots.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Redrow Public enquiry hears 160 home could destroy feeding grounds
 Redrow’S plan to build 160 homes on the old Allerton Priory site could destroy the feeding grounds for owls and other birds of prey, a public enquiry heard today.

A wildlife expert also said the 33-acre field was also home to small mammals and had enough different species of butterflies to nominate the land as a designated “wildlife site.”

The public inquiry is being held because Redrow appealed against Liverpool Council’s decision to oppose its housing scheme for the land.

Today the inquiry heard from achael Rhodes, an ecologist from Merseyside Environmental Advisory Service. She said:“The proposal represents an inappropriate and unjustified form of development within designated Green Wedge which will cause an intrusive and urbanising impact on the landscape, affecting the predominantly open character of the Green Wedge and will physically and visually reduce the Calderstones/Woolton Green Wedge between existing built up areas.”

Species of bird including song thrush, cuckoo, dunnock, house sparrow, starling, herring gull, cinnabar moth, noctule bat, soprano pipistrelle bat have all been seen on the site.

Mrs Rhodes added: “The site provides a mosaic of habitats which are of ecological value.

“Development will result in the loss of five individual mature trees and three groups of trees from the woodland to allow the formation of access to the site.

“The semi-natural, unmanaged nature of the appeal site provides greater habitat diversity which supports a greater range of species than managed amenity sites.

“Woodland and scrub on site provides nesting sites for bird species whilst the associated tall herb and grassland habitats provide foraging areas for these bird species.

“The woodland provides a habitat corridor for bird, small mammal and invertebrate species to move through the site to adjacent sites within the Green Wedge.

“Unmanaged grassland and tall herbs such as thistle and scrub provide nectar for invertebrate species such as butterflies which in turn provide food for other species.

“Seed and berries provide food sources for birds and small mammals.

“A total of 12 butterfly species have been recorded on site which is reflective of the range of habitats present and the unmanaged nature of the site.

“The grassland has been unmanaged and unmown for approximately ten years, this has allowed the biodiversity value of this site to develop.”

The housing plan has met with fierce local opposition and since the inquiry has been underway the council has had to remove graffiti daubed on a listed wall of Allerton Priory.

The message - “Say No to 160 Houses” - was plastered in white paint - but the Save Allerton Priory campaign group insisted it was nothing to do with them.

Spokeswoman Sue Earle told the ECHO: “We totally condemn this sort of behaviour.”

The Allerton Priory application does not form part of the council’s £205m deal with Redrow as their preferred housing partner to build 1,500 homes and bring up to 1,000 properties back into use over the next five years.

The inquiry continues.

Output: UK housebuilder Redrow's controversial development of 160 homes on the old Allerton Priory site in Liverpool would destroy a "mosaic of habitats which are of ecological value", according to Rachael Rhodes, an ecologist from Merseyside Environmental Advisory Service. Speaking during an ongoing public inquiry, launched after Redrow appealed against Liverpool Council's rejection of the development, Rhodes said the land qualified for designation as a wildlife site.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Hong Kong probes 'substandard work' by 15 firms on IPOs
 HONG KONG (REUTERS) - Hong Kong's securities regulator is probing "substandard work" by 15 firms in their roles as sponsors for initial public offerings (IPOs) in the Asian financial hub, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Thomas Atkinson, who heads enforcement at Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), told the Thomson Reuters Pan-Asian Regulatory Summit that the regulator was currently investigating 136 "active fraud cases", of which 28 were "particularly serious".

The sloppy work from the 15 unnamed sponsors, as investment banks and securities firms that underwrite listings are called, caused billions of dollars in investment losses, he added.

The shortcomings included checking basic issues such as verifying customers or revenue data for listing candidates, Atkinson said, adding that some of the behaviour could be considered "reckless".

"Quite a number of these serious cases involve gross overstatement of revenue and circular financing, many facilitated by related parties and false customers," Atkinson said. "Of course, one of the risk management tools that's essential for preventing this kind of fraud is our IPO sponsorship regime."

In October 2013, the SFC introduced a strict new regime to hold sponsors of IPOs to higher standards and said it would hold banks liable if listing prospectuses were found to have misled investors.

In January, the regulator filed a suit against Standard Chartered, UBS Group and four other parties over the 2009 IPO of timber company China Forestry Holdings Co Ltd.

Output: Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) is investigating "substandard work" by 15 firms that acted as sponsors for IPOs in Hong Kong, said SFC's Thomas Atkinson. 136 active fraud cases are under investigation, of which 28 were "particularly serious", said Atkinson. The regulator believes that poor work by these investment banks and securities firms resulted in billions of dollars in losses. Citigroup, Standard Chartered, CCB International and UBS are among those under investigation and facing fines. This comes as the Hong Kong Monetary Authority investigates eight banks for anti-money laundering.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Redrow Community Group calls for comment on Chester housing scheme
 Something went wrong, please try again later.

Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later.

It's more important than ever to stay informed - Get the free CheshireLive newsletter direct to your inbox

A residents' group is urging the people of Chester to comment on plans for a massive housing scheme for up to 1,400 homes alongside Wrexham Road .

Westminster Park Residents’ Association is also inviting locals to go along to a public meeting next week to discuss the project with traffic concerns likely to be high on the agenda.

In June Redrow Homes lodged an initial application with Cheshire West and Chester Council (CWaC) for 509 homes and associated infrastructure including a shopping centre with supermarket, restaurant and pub plus a health centre, nursery and primary school with playing fields.

The new neighbourhood will be created on farmland removed from the green belt when the Local Plan was adopted by CWaC, as planning authority, to make provision for future growth.

Redrow and Taylor Wimpey will deliver the majority of the homes.

Also submitted is a linked plan showing a proposed ecological area where great crested newts will be relocated. Two more planning applications will follow to include the rest of the housing plus more detailed proposals around the infrastructure.

Current plans can be viewed online or in hard copy at Lache library.

A number of responses have already been received, particularly in relation to the effect the development will have on traffic in Chester and the surrounding area.

Pauline Brown, chair of Westminster Park Residents’ Association, said: “A lot of people have still not woken up to the fact that this development will go ahead and it will have a huge impact on the traffic both south and north of the River Dee.

“This new estate will be almost twice the size of Westminster Park and the number of vehicle journeys that it is going to generate will be enormous.

“Quite apart from people commuting to work, in the early stages of development, while there is no school, shops or health centre on the estate, people will need to reach all of these facilities via the Wrexham Road on a daily basis.”

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will auto-play soon 8 Cancel Play now

The association is keen to put forward a response to the council that is ‘representative’ of residents’ views’ and hopes they will go along in force to a public meeting taking place at Westminster Park Community Centre at 8pm on Wednesday, October 18.

Pauline added: “Although traffic impact is a big issue, there are also other aspects of these plans that people need to look at including how the development will affect the provision of education and healthcare in the area, how the drainage and ecology of the area will be managed and how the archaeological assets of the site will be conserved.”

The plans can be searched on the planning section of the council website under the following reference numbers: 17/02453/OUT (housing) and 17/02444/FUL (newt mitigation area).

Output: Westminster Park Residents’ Association is calling for Chester locals to attend a public meeting to discuss a 1,400 home development proposed by UK housebuilders Redrow and Taylor Wimpey. Redrow lodged its application for more than 500 homes with Cheshire West and Chester Council in June, but locals argue the development will have a negative impact on traffic in the surrounding area. The meeting is set to be held at Westminster Park Community Centre on 18 October.