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showing posts for 'pi'

Coding excursions

blog post image Anonymity with encryption At Outcomes Engine we are working on techniques to gather data from learners, analyse the data, and share the data whilst maintaining anonymity. I was involved in some work in my previous company (pharmaceutical) with the security of personal data - in our case it was data...

The Biggest Discoveries in Computer Science in 2023

"Artificial intelligence learned how to generate text and art better than ever before, while computer scientists developed algorithms that solved long-standing problems." Links to further papers and discussion on topics including: Tackling "P versus NP" Emergent behaviours in large language models...
Source: quantamagazine.org

Opinion: OpenAI's drama marks a new and scary era in artificial intelligence

Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, professors at MIT, lend their insight to the recent drama at OpenAI. "Sam Altman’s dismissal and rapid reinstatement as CEO of OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, confirms that the future of AI is firmly in the hands of people focused on speed and profits, at the expense...
Source: latimes.com

Development and validation of Simulation Scenario Quality Instrument (SSQI)

A validated scale for measuring quality of simulation scenarios in medical education. "Background Due to the unmet need for valid instruments that evaluate critical components of simulation scenarios, this research aimed to develop and validate an instrument that measures the quality of healthcare...
Source: biomedcentral.com

High Pay Centre analysis of FTSE 350 pay ratios • High Pay Centre

Pay inequalities at UK's largest companies remain constant, despite ‘cost of living’ crisis. "The companies with lowest-paid UK employees (based on pay at the 25th percentile) were retailer JD Sports, where the lower quartile threshold was £11,240, pub chain Mitchells & Butlers (£15,161) and...
Source: highpaycentre.org

A systematic review of insight and reflection in post graduate medical education

Great literature synthesis on reflection. "We present a novel description of a hierarchy from discrete episodes of reflection, to cyclic processes that involve reflection, through to a state in which the practitioner is reflective. There is no unified understanding of how an individual ascends this...
Source: wiley.com

Jeff Sebo on digital minds, and how to avoid sleepwalking into a major moral catastrophe

"The general case for extending moral consideration to AI systems is that they might be conscious or sentient or agential or otherwise significant. And if they might have those features, then we should extend them at least some moral consideration in the spirit of caution and humility."
Source: 80000hours.org

“Meet the patient” session: a strategy to teach medical students about autonomic dysfunction after spinal cord injury

Dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system is an important long-term consequence of spinal cord injury (SCI). Yet, there is a scarcity of teaching resources about this topic for preclinical medical students. Given the association of SCI sequelae with emergency complications and mortality, it is imperative...
Source: biomedcentral.com

WHO statement on reported clusters of respiratory illness in children in northern China

WHO has made an official request to China for detailed information on an increase in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children.  At a press conference on 13 November 2023, Chinese authorities from the National Health Commission reported an increase in incidence of respiratory...
Source: who.int

AI cuts treatment time for cancer radiotherapy

The technology will be offered at cost price to all NHS trusts in England, following successful pilot studies.
Source: bbc.com

AI information retrieval: A search engine researcher explains the promise and peril of letting ChatGPT and its cousins search

A new generation of artificial intelligence-based information access systems, which includes Microsoft’s Bing/ChatGPT, Google/Bard and Meta/LLaMA, is upending the traditional search engine mode of search input and output. These systems are able to take full sentences and even paragraphs as input and...
Source: ampproject.org

Digital map created of UK's underground pipes and cables

It is hoped a digital map of power cables, gas pipes and sewers will help avoid accidents.
Source: bbc.com

Was Brexit About Tax Avoidance?

Several years ago I published an article “Is Brexit Really About Tax Avoidance?”, and it’s probably about time to revisit the topic, in the past tense, especially since the Anti Tax Avoidance Directive has now been implemented, and we have the EU/UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement to consider....
Source: politax.com

Gender differences in individual variation in academic grades fail to fit expected patterns for STEM - Nature Communications

Fewer women than men pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), despite girls outperforming boys at school in the relevant subjects. According to the ‘variability hypothesis’, this over-representation of males is driven by gender differences in variance; greater male...
Source: nature.com

Remembering the people

blog post image Please suggest some technology that might help ... but remind me who you are first. What do you use to keep track of everyone that you work with, live near, party with, study with, or just share time with? Mere humans can only maintain about 150 close relationships (Dunbar's number) so just wondering...
Source: wikipedia.org

Newborns to get rapid genetic disease diagnosis

The entire DNA of 100,000 newborns in England will be sequenced to spot rare genetic conditions early.
Source: bbc.com

WHO convenes experts to identify new pathogens that could spark pandemics

The World Health Organization (WHO) is working to compile an updated list of priority pathogens that can cause future outbreaks or pandemics, the UN agency announced on Monday. 
Source: news.un.org

Spem in alium nunquam habui (Hope in any other, never did I have)

This piece of music is probably like nothing you have ever heard. Maybe because it is nearly 500 years old it feels like it is from another world. Maybe because it is written for eight choirs with five voices each the forty parts it's so complex you'd be pressed even to hum some of the tune afterwards....
Source: wikipedia.org

Tax Filing Websites Caught Sending Users' Financial Data to Facebook - ExtremeTech

Filing status, dependent names, adjusted gross income...once it's on any of these three websites, it's likely in Facebook's hands. ”H&R Block, one of the country’s most recognizable tax filing firms, was found using Meta Pixel to obtain users’ health savings account usage data as well as dependents’...
Source: extremetech.com

Aymptomatic testing for COVID could reduce hospital admissions

"The city-wide pilot of community based asymptomatic testing for SARS-CoV-2 was associated with substantially reduced covid-19 related hospital admissions. Large scale asymptomatic rapid testing for SARS-CoV-2 could help reduce transmission and prevent hospital admissions."
Source: bmj.com