facility:imperial college

Solving a Problem with Bayes’ Theorem and Decision Tree
▻https://hackernoon.com/solving-a-problem-with-bayes-theorem-and-decision-tree-f65ed8cdaea9?sour

https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*yplVciJOo17QTTYcGEUk7A.jpeg

Learn how to solve a playing chess problem with Bayes’ Theorem and Decision Tree in this article by Dávid Natingga, a data scientist with a master’s in engineering in 2014 from Imperial College London, specializing in artificial intelligence.Playing chess — independent eventsSuppose you are given the following table of data. This tells you whether or not your friend will play a game of chess with you outside in the park, based on a number of weather-related conditions:Now, establish using Bayes’ theorem, whether your friend would like to play a game of chess with you in the park given that the Temperature is Warm, the Wind is Strong, and it is Sunny.AnalysisIn this case, you may want to consider Temperature, Wind, and Sunshine as the independent random variables. The formula for the extended (...)

#bayes-theorem #decision-tree #bayesian-statistics #data-science #machine-learning

The #Opioid Timebomb: The #Sackler family and how their painkiller fortune helps bankroll London arts | London Evening Standard
▻https://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/the-opioid-timebomb-the-sackler-family-and-how-their-painkiller-fortune-

We sent all 33 non-profits the same key questions including: will they rename their public space (as some organisations have done when issues arose regarding former benefactors)? And will they accept future Sackler philanthropy?

About half the respondents, including the Royal Opera House and the National Gallery, where Dame Theresa Sackler is respectively an honorary director and a patron, declined to answer either question.

Of the rest, none said it planned to erase the Sackler name from its public space. The organisations’ positions were more guarded on future donations.

Only the V&A, Oxford University, the Royal Court Theatre and the National Maritime Museum said outright that they were open to future Sackler grants.

The V&A said: “The Sackler family continue to be a valuable donor to the V&A and we are grateful for their ongoing support.”

Millions for London: Where Sackler money has gone
MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES

Serpentine Galleries

Grants received/pledged: £5,500,000
Used to fund (among other things): Serpentine Sackler Gallery
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Won’t say

Tate

Grants received/pledged: £4,650,000
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Gallery, Sackler Escalators, Sackler Octagon
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Won’t say

Dulwich Picture Gallery

Grants received/pledged: £3,491,000
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Centre for Arts Education
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Won’t say

V&A Museum

Grants received/pledged: £2,500,000
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Courtyard
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Yes

The Design Museum

Grants received/pledged: £1,500,000
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Library and Archive
Will you accept future Sackler grants? No reply

Natural History Museum

Grants received/pledged: £1,255,000
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Biodiversity Imaging Laboratory
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Subject to vetting that typically takes into account “reputational risk” and “all relevant new information about the donor in the public domain”

National Gallery

Grants received/pledged: £1,050,000
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Room (Room 34)
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Won’t say

National Portrait Gallery

Grants received/pledged: £1,000,000
Used to fund (among other things): Pledged grant still being vetted
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Being vetted. Subject to vetting that typically takes into account “reputational risk” and “all relevant new information about the donor in the public domain”

The Garden Museum

Grants received/pledged: £850,000
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Garden
Will you accept future Sackler grants? No reply

National Maritime Museum

Grants received/pledged: £230,000
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Research Fellowships
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Yes

Museum of London

Grants received/pledged: Refused to disclose grants received
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Hall
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Subject to vetting that typically takes into account “reputational risk” and “all relevant new information about the donor in the public domain”

Royal Academy of Arts

Grants received/pledged: Refused to disclose grants received
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Wing, Sackler Sculpture Gallery
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Subject to vetting that typically takes into account “reputational risk” and “all relevant new information about the donor in the public domain”

THE PERFORMING ARTS

Old Vic

Grants received/pledged: £2,817,000
Used to fund (among other things): Productions and projects
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Won’t say

Royal Opera House

Grants received/pledged: £2,500,000
Used to fund (among other things): Won’t say
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Won’t say

National Theatre

Grants received/pledged: £2,000,000
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Pavilion
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Won’t say

Shakespeare’s Globe

Grants received/pledged: £1,660,000
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Studios
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Won’t say

Royal Court Theatre

Grants received/pledged: £360,000
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Trust Trainee Scheme
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Yes

UNIVERSITIES/RESEARCH

University of Oxford

Grants received/pledged: £11,000,000
Used to fund (among other things): Bodleian Sackler Library, Keeper of Antiquities
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Yes

University of Sussex

Grants received/pledged: £8,400,000
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Won’t say

King’s College, London

Grants received/pledged: £6,950,000
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Institute for Translational Neurodevelopment
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Subject to vetting that typically takes into account “reputational risk” and “all relevant new information about the donor in the public domain”

The Francis Crick Institute

Grants received/pledged: £5,000,000
Used to fund (among other things): One-off funds raised via CRUK to help build the Crick
Will you accept future Sackler grants? N/A

UCL

Grants received/pledged: £2,654,000
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Institute for Musculo-Skeletal Research
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Subject to vetting that typically takes into account “reputational risk” and “all relevant new information about the donor in the public domain”

Royal College of Art

Grants received/pledged: £2,500,000
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Building
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Subject to vetting that typically takes into account “reputational risk” and “all relevant new information about the donor in the public domain”

The Courtauld Institute of Art

Grants received/pledged: £1,170,000
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Research Fellowship, Sackler Lecture Series
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Won’t say

Royal Ballet School

Grants received/pledged: £1,000,000
Used to fund (among other things): Won’t say
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Won’t say

Imperial College London

Grants received/pledged: £618,000
Used to fund (among other things): Knee research
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Subject to vetting that typically takes into account “reputational risk” and “all relevant new information about the donor in the public domain”

Old Royal Naval College

Grants received/pledged: £500,000
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Gallery
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Won’t say

OTHER

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Grants received/pledged: £3,100,000
Used to fund (among other things): Sackler Crossing footbridge
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Subject to vetting that typically takes into account “reputational risk” and “all relevant new information about the donor in the public domain”

Moorfields Eye Hospital

Grants received/pledged: £3,000,000
Used to fund (among other things): New eye centre (pledged only)
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Won’t say

The London Library

Grants received/pledged: £1,000,000
Used to fund (among other things): The Sackler Study
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Won’t say

The Prince’s Trust

Grants received/pledged: £775,000
Used to fund (among other things): Programmes for disadvantaged youth
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Subject to vetting that typically takes into account “reputational risk” and “all relevant new information about the donor in the public domain”

Westminster Abbey

Grants received/pledged: £500,000
Used to fund (among other things): Restoration of Henry VII Chapel
Will you accept future Sackler grants? Won’t say

Royal Hospital for Neurodisability

Grants received/pledged: £350,000
Used to fund (among other things): Won’t say
Will you accept future Sackler grants? No reply

cc @hlc

Food giants’ claims palm oil does not damage rainforests ’problematic’, say researchers | The Independent
▻https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/palm-oil-food-supply-sustainable-deforestation-indonesia-malaysia-ora

Il faut reconnaître que l’image est assez forte, genre les manifestants à NDDL : dégage !

https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2018/06/02/18/orangutan.jpg

Food firms cannot claim the palm oil in their products does not destroy rainforests because supply chains are so complex, scientists say.

“No-deforestation” promises printed on packaging could be failing despite the good intentions of manufacturers, according to a report by researchers at Imperial College London.

Palm oil plantations in eastern Asia are blamed for pushing orangutans, Borneo elephants and Sumatran tigers to near-extinction as their rainforest habitats are being continually torn or burned down. The destruction also releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, reduces biodiversity and drives indigenous people from their homelands.

#huile_de_palme #déforestation #accaparement_des_terres #agriculture

Scientists Find Magic Mushrooms Could Help Fight Fascism
▻https://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/scientists-find-magic-mushrooms-could-help-fight-fascism

Researchers found unlikely heroes in keeping the world from authoritarianism - magic mushrooms. Scientists from the Psychedelic Research Group at Imperial College London showed that psilocybin...

Why do male climate change ‘sceptics’ have such a problem with women?

Although there are women who appear to be sceptical about climate change, anyone who has engaged with ‘sceptics’ will have learned that it is the men who are most vocal about their views. They tend to lack any training or qualifications in climate science, but still appear to believe that they know better than the experts.

And there is also a degree of male chauvinism that often underlies the arguments put forward by ‘sceptics’ during public discussions. For instance, when Lord Lawson was asked to comment on a statement by Professor Dame Julia Slingo, the chief scientist at the Met Office, about the link between flooding and climate change, he did not refer to her by her professional title but instead as “this Julia Slingo woman”.

Other climate change ‘sceptics’ routinely refer to female climate scientists in a dismissive way. For instance, Professor Joanna Haigh of Imperial College London was called a “puffed-up missy” in a trademark rant by James Delingpole for the extremist website Breitbart.

Mr Delingpole also referred on his website to Dr Emily Shuckburgh, an experienced climate scientist who specialises on impacts in polar regions, not by her name or job title but as “some foxy chick from the British Antarctic Survey”.

Conclusion:

Of course not all climate change ‘sceptics’ are male chauvinists, but it is clear that those who most obsessively promote climate change denial are usually male, arrogant, and unable to accept that the experts are right, particularly if they are female.

▻http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/news/male-climate-change-sceptics-problem-women
#changement_climatique #femmes #hommes #genre #scepticisme #sexisme #science #académie #université

Magic Mushrooms Fight Authoritarianism | Alternet
▻https://www.alternet.org/drugs/magic-mushrooms-fight-authoritarianism-psilocybin-psychedelics

https://www.alternet.org/sites/default/files/story_images/magic_mushrooms_greenoid_flickr.jpg

Psychedelic drugs have been associated with anti-authoritarian counter-cultures since the 1960s, but a new study suggests using psilocybin, the psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms, actually makes people less likely to embrace authoritarian views, PsyPost reports. The study conducted by the Psychedelic Research Group at Imperial College London was published in the journal Psychopharmacology.

While other studies have linked the use of psychedelics to a greater sense of oneness with nature, openness to new experiences and political and social liberalism, this is the first to provide experimental evidence their use can leading to lasting changes in these attitudes.

In the study, researchers gave two oral doses of psilocybin to seven participants suffering from treatment-resistant major depression while a control group of seven healthy subjects did not receive psilocybin. Researchers surveyed participants about their political views and relationship to nature before the sessions, one week after the sessions, and 7-12 months later.

Subjects who received the psilocybin treatment showed a significant decrease in authoritarian attitudes after treatment, and that reduction was sustained over time. They also reported a significant increase in a sense of relatedness to nature.

"Before I enjoyed nature, now I feel part of it. Before I was looking at it as a thing, like TV or a painting… But now I see there’s no separation or distinction—you are it,” one participant told researchers.

Subjects who had not received psilocybin did not exhibit significant changes in attitudes.

#Psychédéliques #Psylocybine #Pharmacologie

LSD Microdosing Is Trending in Silicon Valley, But Can It Actually Make You More Creative? | Alternet
▻http://www.alternet.org/drugs/lsd-microdosing-trending-silicon-valley-can-make-more-creative

http://www.alternet.org/sites/default/files/story_images/lsd_pink_elephants_on_parade_blotter_lsd_dumbo_wikim_1.jpg

Microdosing LSD also purportedly enhances overall well-being, helping to reduce stress and anxiety while improving sleep and leading to healthier habits. Although a widely reported phenomenon in the media, the lack of scientific studies on microdosing makes the prevalence near impossible to estimate. Reports suggest that what started off as an underground practice in Silicon Valley may be spreading rapidly to other workplaces.

It is currently unknown how such low doses of psychedelics act in the brain to produce these intriguing self-reported effects on creativity. Like all classic hallucinogens, LSD produces its potent mind-altering effects primarily by mimicking the effects of the brain chemical serotonin, which regulates our mood. In particular, LSD activates 5-HT2A receptors in the pre-frontal cortex, which increases activity of the chemical glutamate in this region. Glutamate enables signals to be transmitted between nerve cells, and plays a role in learning and memory.

In humans, two distinct effects of recreational doses of LSD have been reported. Initially, people experience psychedelic and positive feelings of euphoria. This may be followed by a later phase characterised by paranoia or even a psychotic-like state. LSD at low doses may produce mood elevation and creativity, mediated by the serotonin-mimicking effects. Actions on both glutamate and serotonin may also act to improve learning and cognitive flexibility, necessary for creativity, in the workplace. These findings could partly help to explain the microdosing phenomenon.

Clinical research with psychedelics is currently undergoing a major revival after having been brought to a halt in the 1960s. One of the benefits of conducting research into psychedelics is their potential to help deepen our understanding of consciousness. In 2016, researchers from Imperial College London were the first to use brain scanning techniques to visualise how LSD alters the way the brain works. One key finding was that LSD had a disorganising influence on cortical activity, which permitted the brain to operate in a freer, less constrained manner than usual.

In a small pilot study, LSD in combination with psychological therapy also led to a slight improvement in anxiety experienced by terminally ill cancer patients. Many of these psychiatric disorders are characterised by inflexible, habitual patterns of brain activity. By introducing a disordered state of mind, LSD and other psychedelics may help to break these inflexible patterns.

In an increasingly competitive world it is tempting to find a quick fix to help us achieve more, better and faster. Yet, is this right? As a society we should consider the reasons as to why healthy people choose to use drugs in the first place. A reliance on cognitive-enhancing technologies to cope with demanding working conditions may ultimately reduce the health and well-being of individuals. So we must take care to ensure that enhancement is not seen as a substitute for a healthy working environment.

It is therefore important that more research is done on the safety and efficacy of microdosing. In the meantime, physical exercise, education, social interaction, mindfulness and good quality sleep have all been shown to improve cognitive performance and overall well-being.

#psychédéliques #LSD #études_médicales #santé_publique

Risk of death from surgery greater at the weekend, study finds | Society | The Guardian
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/may/28/death-risk-higher-nhs-fridays

The research, published on the British Medical Journal’s website, found that the risk of death within 30 days of a planned operation increased every day of the week after Monday.

“Compared with Monday, the adjusted odds of death [taking into account case mix] for all elective surgical procedures was 44% higher, and 82% higher, if the procedures were carried out on Friday or at the weekend respectively,” according to the team, which was led by Paul Aylin, a clinical reader in epidemiology and public health at Imperial College London.

▻http://www.bmj.com/highwire/filestream/647445/field_highwire_fragment_image_m/0/F1.medium.gif
Adjusted odds of death and 95% confidence intervals by day of procedure in English hospitals for 2008-9 to 2010-11

L’étude dans le BMJ ▻http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f2424

Le résultat était connu pour l’ensemble des admissions à l’hôpital le week-end. Il s’agit ici d’une étude sur les opérations programmées à l’avance afin d’éliminer les différents facteurs qui pourraient introduire un biais de sélection pour les opérations du week-end.

Psilocybin, or ‘Magic Mushrooms,’ a memory enhancer? | Death and Taxes
►http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/179464/psilocybin-or-magic-mushrooms-a-memory-enhancer

Psilocybin, or magic mushrooms, aren’t just for magnificently beautiful trips and future cluster headache treatment—there are indications that they have a marked effect on other human experiences as well.
In a recently published study titled “Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin,” researchers at the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit at Imperial College London found that Psilocybin has positive effects on individual depression and memory.