Rice University computer scientists have overcome a major obstacle in the burgeoning artificial intelligence industry by showing it is possible to speed up deep learning technology without specialized acceleration hardware like graphics processing units (GPUs).
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The World Health Organization’s new action plan to speed up universal access to safe blood and blood products pulls together existing recommendations and recommends new improved ways of working. It’s the start of a four-year collaborative effort to improve blood transfusion and blood-based therapies in all countries.
Safe blood saves lives in all sorts of circumstances, not least in emergency and epidemic settings. Blood transfusion and blood products are critical for birth delivery for both the mother and baby; the survival and quality of life of patients suffering from life-threatening conditions such as haemophilia, thalassemia, immune deficiency and cancer; treating severe injuries and carrying out medical and surgical procedures.
But progress in blood safety and availability has been slow in many parts of the world, placing patients’ safety at risk and putting undue pressure on health workers. Progress is also mostly restricted to developed countries. Out of the approximate 118 million blood donations collected globally, 42% are collected in high-income countries, home to 16 % of the world’s population. And one out of four low-income countries do not test all donated blood, while 54% of countries do not have surveillance systems to securitise the supply chain from blood donor to patient.
Challenges include: slow implementation of national blood policies and weak blood regulatory systems; insufficient number of voluntary blood donors (who are considered the safest donors); poor quality management of screening tests, blood grouping and compatibility testing; inappropriate clinical use of blood; insufficient national funding for blood safety.
To address these, WHO has set out six key objectives for all countries and in particular those with weak blood systems:
The Organization looks forward to working with partners worldwide to implement the plan, improve blood supply particularly in the low and middle-income countries where this is so urgently needed, and save lives. The plan will run from 2020-2024.
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https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/26-02-2020-who-steps-up-action-to-improve-access-to-safe-blood
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The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi, Ghana and Zambia have licensed an Ebola vaccine, just 90 days after World Health Organization (WHO) prequalification. Registration of the vaccine is expected in additional countries in the coming weeks.
The licensing of the vaccine means that the manufacturer can stockpile and widely distribute this vaccine to African countries at risk of Ebola virus disease outbreaks. Once licensed doses are available, use of the vaccine will not require clinical trial or other research protocols.
“The approval of the Ebola vaccine by these countries is another milestone in the fight against this unforgiving disease,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Africa has rallied to cement hard-fought progress to keep its people safe from Ebola.”
WHO accelerated the licensing and roll-out of the Ebola vaccine by certifying that it met the organization’s standards for quality, safety and efficacy in its fastest vaccine prequalification process ever, announced in November 2019.
The speed with which this has been achieved has been made possible by a different approach, where national licensing procedures were done in parallel based on one single scientific review process. Usually, these process are done one by one, which can take years. The process was led by WHO with the participation of the African Vaccine Regulatory Forum (an African network of national regulatory authorities and ethics committees), the European Medicines Agency, and Merck.
“The rapid approval of the Ebola vaccine by countries in the Africa Region helps ensure this critical prevention tool will be available when and where it is needed most,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “This kind of collaboration and innovation is a model for other health priorities.”
The injectable Ebola vaccine, Ervebo, is manufactured by Merck (known as MSD outside the US and Canada). Preliminary study results have shown a 97.5% vaccine efficacy. Data also suggests that vaccinating people who are already infected reduces their chances of dying.
In response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the DRC, over 290 000 people have been vaccinated under compassionate use protocols. Once licensed doses are available, use of the vaccine in DRC will no longer require these protocols
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https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/14-02-2020-four-countries-in-the-african-region-license-vaccine-in-milestone-for-ebola-prevention
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Spanish train operator Renfe on Thursday said it had signed a $6-billion deal with US rail developer Texas Central to design, build and run a high-speed rail line in the United States.
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Can a little strip of tape on a 35-mile-per-hour speed limit sign cause a self-driving car to accelerate? Yes—and press attention, too. Researchers from security company McAfee wanted to see if they could dupe a Tesla car into thinking the speed limit was different than posted, and they succeeded.
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In Stephen King’s new novel, Doctor Sleep, King brings back the character of Danny Torrence, the little boy in The Shining. In interviews King says that when fans ask about the fate of specific characters (the one’s that actually live through the horror), he’s been more interested in the those that question the fate of Danny. I think most people who have seen the movie remember the cute little boy on a tricycle with a bowl haircut racing down the empty corridors of The Overlook Hotel. Later to run from a mad “white knuckle alcoholic” who was his father.
Doctor Sleep is, in my opinion, semi autobiographical. Like Duma Key, which deals with the aftermath of a man who is in a horrendous accident (like King), Doctor Sleep deals with the reality of what it is like to be a recovering alcoholic. I didn’t know King was an alcoholic, but he has been in recovery for over twenty years. So he knows the depths to which one can plunge as well as the difficulties in trying to remain sober. In Doctor Sleep, Danny is an alcoholic like his father and a chain smoker like his mother (who, in the novel, has died of lung cancer). When writing the book, King’s son, Owen, told him that the “plunge” he had given Danny, now Dan, was not far enough to equal the plunge Dan’s father, Jack, had taken. King takes his advice. So, if you don’t want gross, speed read ahead. Dan, after having picked up a girl, gotten in a fight, spends all of his paycheck on cocaine, wakes up still drunk and has to go to the bathroom. “Another lurch from his unhappy gut… That released all of the puke triggers: the vinegar smell of hard cooked eggs in a big glass jar, the taste of barbecue-flavored pork rinds, the sight of french fries drowning in a ketchup nosebleed. All of that crammed into his mouth last night between shots. He was going to spew… ” And that he does in spectacular fashion. But that leads to the main reason for the scene… Dan’s plunge. As he’s leaving the bathroom, out of another room comes a toddler with a baggy diaper full of everything a baby discards, sees the coke on the table, runs to it crying, “canny, mama, canny!” Danny keeps him from getting the “canny” and the little boy falls asleep with his drunk mother. Danny notices bruises on the little boy’s body. While the mom is passed out, he goes through her wallet taking all of her money. Justifying this by saying she’d been the one who made him spend his paycheck on coke. The taking of the money haunts Dan. And the bruises on the little boy haunt Dan. This, to me, is the real crux of the novel. Dan can not get beyond the demons of his past, his murderous, alcoholic father, the dead but not dead people from The Overlook who visit him leaving behind pieces of their rotting, putrefying bodies and the mother with her bruised baby boy. Dan discovers “that memories are the real ghosts” and that, “you take yourself with you, wherever you go.”
Of course in every King novel there has to be some type of supernatural forces causing havoc. In this novel, King expands on the concept of “the shining”. It’s the ability to read other people’s minds, or move objects, or project out of one’s self. Dan has it and so does a young teenage girl named Abra. In Doctor Sleep, they have to battle a bunch of centuries old serial killers, the True Knot, disguised as RV driving pensioners who literally feed off the pain of others. They only feed on those with “the shining”, and they make their deaths particularly brutal. It makes for better “steam”. They get a big kick out of 9/11 and other tragedies. The leader of this group, a woman named Rose, has a tusk. In Doctor Sleep, Dan fights his past with much greater dread and sense of terror than he does the woman with the tusk. Dan does, through AA, “come to know a new freedom and new happiness.” He also comes to realize that he “will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.” With this novel King, apparently, is not shutting the door on his past.
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Source by Linda M Caminiti
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Some women are still having problems of smelly vagina although they have been washing it every day. If this is your case, you should realize by now that symptoms of smelly vagina could be a signal of candida yeast infection. This is especially true, if the bad odor is accompanied by severe itch, thick white discharge, soreness and inflammation on the vagina area.
Treating candida yeast infection can be rather tricky. Most people who conveniently bought over the counter medications to treat their yeast infections will more often than not be facing recurring symptoms once they stopped taking them. Worst, some of them are even affected by the medications’ side effects.
Fortunately, there are alternative treatment for smelly vagina that is available which will actually cure candida yeast infection at the same time. You can do the the following tips to treat smelly vagina and yeast infection symptoms.
This alternative treatment for smelly vagina will produce even better results to your total well-being if they are included in your daily diet. The benefits of Nigella Sativa are simply too much to be listed here. Dubbed as the “cure to all ailments” by medical experts, Nigella Sativa’s potency in curing yeast infection is simply amazing.
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Are you currently unhappy with the pace of your personal computer? Is it not functioning as quickly as the first day you had it?
Alas this situation happens to be an all too very common problem. It can result in unnecessary stress, hamper your productiveness and even result in your PC to freeze and lose your entire work. Thankfully though it does not have to be like this and there are various methods of getting back the performance of your personal machine.
The most common suggestions from analysts is to defrag your personal machine and then to carry out a computer speed test to determine exactly where the issue lies. A good computer speed test gives you figures, which is fantastic if you are a technically capable but won't assist the normal individual who just would like to get their personal computer fixed.
So how can you fix the issues afflicting your personal machine? What software or service do you need?
To begin with you'll need a tool which can comprehensively identify the issue then recommend possible solutions to overcome these issues. PC Speed Doctor is one such all-in-one tool and has been designed to increase the overall performance, internet speed and output of virtually any computer with just a few simple mouse clicks. There are several computer speed optimization software available on the market, however PC Speed Doctor is different from its challengers in that it's straightforward to use and just simply works!
The product stands up tall to all of the promises it offers. Where the majority of optimization programs only scan the surface of your computer, PC Speed Doctor carries out a powerful intense deep scan which gets to the cause of the problems and then undertakes any necessary steps to overcome the problems. It also optimises your personal computer to give you a machine which is as quick as the day you got it.
PC Speed Doctor also increases your web browsing by performing a computer speed test that discovers all likely bottlenecks that will affect your web experience. Not many other products and solutions check internet speed, but with this tool it can detect the issues and solve them effortlessly. PC Speed Doctor has been critically recommended by industry gurus and buyers world-wide.
Reading user reviews are essential in every purchase and this tool does not get it wrong in receiving thumbs up reviews to its recognition from experts within the compug industry. As well as exceptional evaluations there are numerous recognized instances when people have noted that their PCs are running faster and more optimally.
Cost is also an important consideration in any product purchase and PC Speed Doctor does not fall short here either. It can be downloaded completely Free Today. This will help you scan your computer and determine many of the problems that are affecting your computer. Buy the affordable paid model to mend every one of these things and reinstate your PC to its former glory.
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Source by Arif Hanid
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