position:lead author

Training a single AI model can emit as much carbon as five cars in their lifetimes - MIT Technology Review
▻https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613630/training-a-single-ai-model-can-emit-as-much-carbon-as-five-cars-in

https://cdn.technologyreview.com/i/images/datacentercolored.jpg?cx=0&cy=275&cw=3000&ch=1688&sw1200

In a new paper, researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, performed a life cycle assessment for training several common large AI models. They found that the process can emit more than 626,000 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent—nearly five times the lifetime emissions of the average American car (and that includes manufacture of the car itself).

It’s a jarring quantification of something AI researchers have suspected for a long time. “While probably many of us have thought of this in an abstract, vague level, the figures really show the magnitude of the problem,” says Carlos Gómez-Rodríguez, a computer scientist at the University of A Coruña in Spain, who was not involved in the research. “Neither I nor other researchers I’ve discussed them with thought the environmental impact was that substantial.”

They found that the computational and environmental costs of training grew proportionally to model size and then exploded when additional tuning steps were used to increase the model’s final accuracy. In particular, they found that a tuning process known as neural architecture search, which tries to optimize a model by incrementally tweaking a neural network’s design through exhaustive trial and error, had extraordinarily high associated costs for little performance benefit. Without it, the most costly model, BERT, had a carbon footprint of roughly 1,400 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent, close to a round-trip trans-American flight.

What’s more, the researchers note that the figures should only be considered as baselines. “Training a single model is the minimum amount of work you can do,” says Emma Strubell, a PhD candidate at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the lead author of the paper. In practice, it’s much more likely that AI researchers would develop a new model from scratch or adapt an existing model to a new data set, either of which can require many more rounds of training and tuning.

The significance of those figures is colossal—especially when considering the current trends in AI research. “In general, much of the latest research in AI neglects efficiency, as very large neural networks have been found to be useful for a variety of tasks, and companies and institutions that have abundant access to computational resources can leverage this to obtain a competitive advantage,” Gómez-Rodríguez says. “This kind of analysis needed to be done to raise awareness about the resources being spent [...] and will spark a debate.”

“What probably many of us did not comprehend is the scale of it until we saw these comparisons,” echoed Siva Reddy, a postdoc at Stanford University who was not involved in the research.
The privatization of AI research

The results underscore another growing problem in AI, too: the sheer intensity of resources now required to produce paper-worthy results has made it increasingly challenging for people working in academia to continue contributing to research.

#Intelligence_artificielle #Consommation_énergie #Empreinte_carbone

Long-Term Use of Antibiotics Tied to Heart Risks - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/well/live/long-term-use-of-antibiotics-tied-to-heart-risks.html

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/09/14/well/well_pog_heart/well_pog_heart-facebookJumbo-v2.jpg

Using antibiotics for two months or longer may be linked to an increase in a woman’s risk for cardiovascular disease.

The finding, published in the European Heart Journal, applied to women who used the drugs when they were 40 and older.

Researchers used data on 36,429 women free of cardiovascular disease at the start of the study who were participating in a continuing long-term health study. Beginning in 2004, the women reported their use of antibiotics.

Over seven years of follow-up, there were 1,056 cases of cardiovascular disease. Compared with women who never used them, women who used antibiotics for two months or longer during their 40s and 50s had a 28 percent increased risk for cardiovascular disease, and women over 60 who used them that long had a 32 percent increased risk.

The study controlled for family history of heart attack, body mass index, hypertension, the use of other medications and other factors.

“It’s difficult to distinguish the effect of the antibiotic on cardiovascular disease from the effect of the disease for which the antibiotic was taken, and that’s a potential limitation of the study,” said the lead author, Lu Qi, now a professor of epidemiology at Tulane University. “But that we are seeing the effect of the disease instead of the antibiotic is unlikely, because we see the effect in so many different diseases where antibiotics are used.”

#antibiotique #risque_cardiovasculaire #femmes

Record High #Remittances Sent Globally in #2018

Remittances to low- and middle-income countries reached a record high in 2018, according to the World Bank’s latest Migration and Development Brief.

The Bank estimates that officially recorded annual remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries reached $529 billion in 2018, an increase of 9.6 percent over the previous record high of $483 billion in 2017. Global remittances, which include flows to high-income countries, reached $689 billion in 2018, up from $633 billion in 2017.

Regionally, growth in remittance inflows ranged from almost 7 percent in East Asia and the Pacific to 12 percent in South Asia. The overall increase was driven by a stronger economy and employment situation in the United States and a rebound in outward flows from some Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the Russian Federation. Excluding China, remittances to low- and middle-income countries ($462 billion) were significantly larger than foreign direct investment flows in 2018 ($344 billion).

Among countries, the top remittance recipients were India with $79 billion, followed by China ($67 billion), Mexico ($36 billion), the Philippines ($34 billion), and Egypt ($29 billion).

In 2019, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries are expected to reach $550 billion, to become their largest source of external financing.

The global average cost of sending $200 remained high, at around 7 percent in the first quarter of 2019, according to the World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide database. Reducing remittance costs to 3 percent by 2030 is a global target under Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10.7. Remittance costs across many African corridors and small islands in the Pacific remain above 10 percent.

Banks were the most expensive remittance channels, charging an average fee of 11 percent in the first quarter of 2019. Post offices were the next most expensive, at over 7 percent. Remittance fees tend to include a premium where national post offices have an exclusive partnership with a money transfer operator. This premium was on average 1.5 percent worldwide and as high as 4 percent in some countries in the last quarter of 2018.

On ways to lower remittance costs, Dilip Ratha, lead author of the Brief and head of KNOMAD, said, “Remittances are on track to become the largest source of external financing in developing countries. The high costs of money transfers reduce the benefits of migration. Renegotiating exclusive partnerships and letting new players operate through national post offices, banks, and telecommunications companies will increase competition and lower remittance prices.”

The Brief notes that banks’ ongoing de-risking practices, which have involved the closure of the bank accounts of some remittance service providers, are driving up remittance costs.

The Brief also reports progress toward the SDG target of reducing the recruitment costs paid by migrant workers, which tend to be high, especially for lower-skilled migrants.

“Millions of low-skilled migrant workers are vulnerable to recruitment malpractices, including exorbitant recruitment costs. We need to boost efforts to create jobs in developing countries and to monitor and reduce recruitment costs paid by these workers,” said Michal Rutkowski, Senior Director of the Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice at the World Bank. The World Bank and the International Labour Organization are collaborating to develop indicators for worker-paid recruitment costs, to support the SDG of promoting safe, orderly, and regular migration.

Regional Remittance Trends

Remittances to the East Asia and Pacific region grew almost 7 percent to $143 billion in 2018, faster than the 5 percent growth in 2017. Remittances to the Philippines rose to $34 billion, but growth in remittances was slower due to a drop in private transfers from the GCC countries. Flows to Indonesia increased by 25 percent in 2018, after a muted performance in 2017.

After posting 22 percent growth in 2017, remittances to Europe and Central Asia grew an estimated 11 percent to $59 billion in 2018. Continued growth in economic activity increased outbound remittances from Poland, Russia, Spain, and the United States, major sources of remittances to the region. Smaller remittance-dependent countries in the region, such as the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, benefited from the sustained rebound of economic activity in Russia. Ukraine, the region’s largest remittance recipient, received a new record of more than $14 billion in 2018, up about 19 percent over 2017. This surge in Ukraine also reflects a revised methodology for estimating incoming remittances, as well as growth in neighboring countries’ demand for migrant workers.

Remittances flows into Latin America and the Caribbean grew 10 percent to $88 billion in 2018, supported by the strong U.S. economy. Mexico continued to receive the most remittances in the region, posting about $36 billion in 2018, up 11 percent over the previous year. Colombia and Ecuador, which have migrants in Spain, posted 16 percent and 8 percent growth, respectively. Three other countries in the region posted double-digit growth: Guatemala (13 percent) as well as Dominican Republic and Honduras (both 10 percent), reflecting robust outbound remittances from the United States.

Remittances to the Middle East and North Africa grew 9 percent to $62 billion in 2018. The growth was driven by Egypt’s rapid remittance growth of around 17 percent. Beyond 2018, the growth of remittances to the region is expected to continue, albeit at a slower pace of around 3 percent in 2019 due to moderating growth in the Euro Area.

Remittances to South Asia grew 12 percent to $131 billion in 2018, outpacing the 6 percent growth in 2017. The upsurge was driven by stronger economic conditions in the United States and a pick-up in oil prices, which had a positive impact on outward remittances from some GCC countries. Remittances grew by more than 14 percent in India, where a flooding disaster in Kerala likely boosted the financial help that migrants sent to families. In Pakistan, remittance growth was moderate (7 percent), due to significant declines in inflows from Saudi Arabia, its largest remittance source. In Bangladesh, remittances showed a brisk uptick in 2018 (15 percent).

Remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa grew almost 10 percent to $46 billion in 2018, supported by strong economic conditions in high-income economies. Looking at remittances as a share of GDP, Comoros has the largest share, followed by the Gambia , Lesotho, Cabo Verde, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Togo, Ghana, and Nigeria.

The Migration and Development Brief and the latest migration and remittances data are available at www.knomad.org. Interact with migration experts at ▻http://blogs.worldbank.org/peoplemove

▻http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2019/04/08/record-high-remittances-sent-globally-in-2018?cid=ECR_TT_worldbank_EN_EXT
#remittances #statistiques #chiffres #migrations #diaspora

#Rapport ici :

https://i.imgur.com/dIgQYKO.png https://i.imgur.com/YHr41Gv.png

ping @reka

New studies show how easy it is to identify people using genetic databases - STAT
▻https://www.statnews.com/2018/10/11/genetic-databases-privacy

https://www.statnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/AP_18123601803275-1024x576.jpg

n recent months, consumer genealogy websites have unleashed a revolution in forensics, allowing law enforcement to use family trees to track down the notorious Golden State Killer in California and solve other cold cases across the country. But while the technique has put alleged killers behind bars, it has also raised questions about the implications for genetic privacy.

According to a pair of studies published Thursday, your genetic privacy may have already eroded even further than previously realized.

In an analysis published in the journal Science, researchers used a database run by the genealogy company MyHeritage to look at the genetic information of nearly 1.3 million anonymized people who’ve had their DNA analyzed by a direct-to-consumer genomics company. For nearly 60 percent of those people, it was possible to track down someone whose DNA was similar enough to indicate they were third cousins or closer in relation; for another 15 percent of the samples, second cousins or closer could be found.

Yaniv Erlich, the lead author on the Science paper, said his team’s findings should prompt regulators and others to reconsider the assumption that genetic information is de-identified. “It’s really not the case. At least technically, it seems feasible to identify some significant part of the population” with such investigations, said Erlich, who’s a computer scientist at Columbia University and chief science officer at MyHeritage.

The Science paper counted 12 cold cases that were solved between April and August of this year when law enforcement turned to building family trees based on genetic data; a 13th case was an active investigation.

The most famous criminal identified this way: the Golden State Killer, who terrorized California with a series of rapes and murders in the 1970s and 1980s. With the help of a genetic genealogist, investigators uploaded a DNA sample collected from an old crime scene to a public genealogy database, built family trees, and tracked down relatives. They winnowed down their list of potential suspects to one man with blue eyes, and in April, they made the landmark arrest.

To crack that case, the California investigators used GEDmatch, an online database that allows people who got their DNA analyzed by companies like 23andMe and Ancestry to upload their raw genetic data so that they can track down distant relatives. MyHeritage’s database — which contains data from 1.75 million people, mostly Americans who’ve gotten their DNA analyzed by MyHeritage’s genetic testing business — works similarly, although it explicitly prohibits forensic searches. (23andMe warns users about the privacy risks of uploading their genetic data to such third party sites.)

“For me, these articles are fascinating and important and we shouldn’t shy away from the privacy concerns that these articles raise. But at the same time, we should keep in mind the personal and societal value that we believe that we are accruing as we make these large collections,” said Green, who was not involved in the new studies and is an adviser for genomics companies including Helix and Veritas Genetics.

He pointed to the potential of genomics not only to reunite family members and put criminals behind bars, but also to predict and prevent heritable diseases and develop new drugs.

As with using social media and paying with credit cards online, reaping the benefits of genetic testing requires accepting a certain level of privacy risk, Green said. “We make these tradeoffs knowing that we’re trading some vulnerability for the advantages,” he said.

#Génomique #ADN #Vie_privée

Humans reached Madagascar 6,000 years earlier than previously thought
▻https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/humans-reached-madagascar-6000-years-earlier-than-previously-thought

https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/09/12214255/madagascar_2934_CROP-1200x800.jpg

Beyond revealing new information about early human migrations, the findings are significant because they seem to indicate that Madagascar’s megafauna wasn’t driven to extinction by the first wave of humans that reached the island.

“We already know that Madagascar’s megafauna – elephant birds, hippos, giant tortoises and giant lemurs – became extinct less than 1,000 years ago. There are a number of theories about why this occurred, but the extent of human involvement hasn’t been clear,” lead author James Hansford from Zoological Society of London’s Institute of Zoology said via a press release.

“Our research provides evidence of human activity in Madagascar more than 6,000 years earlier than previously suspected – which demonstrates that a radically different extinction theory is required to understand the huge biodiversity loss that has occurred on the island. Humans seem to have coexisted with elephant birds and other now-extinct species for over 9,000 years, apparently with limited negative impact on biodiversity for most of this period, which offers new insights for conservation today.”

#Madagascar #préhistoire

The Psychological Challenges of Just Getting to Mars - Facts So Romantic
▻http://nautil.us/blog/the-psychological-challenges-of-just-getting-to-mars

http://static.nautil.us/14775_bf0a8e1dc5c86ca9c4ebb1716579ba9a.jpg

Though space may be the quintessential I.C.E. environment, Musk appears to be aiming to make trips to Mars—aspirationally scheduled to commence in 2024—as far away from I.C.E.-y as possible.Photograph by NASALife outside Earth has its own Hobbesian description: isolated, confined, and extreme—or I.C.E. “Space is the quintessential ICE environment,” according to a new paper, published in American Psychologist. Space includes inhospitable planets like Mars, whose arresting vistas, canyons, and mountains beckon. But only humans sealed inside cumbersome suits, trained to weather such nerve-racking circumstances, can explore them. Just getting to Mars, says Lauren Blackwell Landon, the paper’s lead author and a behavioral performance researcher at NASA, presents a major challenge. “The (...)

Premature Birth Rates Drop in California After Coal and Oil Plants Shut Down
▻https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22052018/air-pollution-coal-power-plants-oil-health-risks-premature-births

The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found that the rate of premature births dropped from 7 to 5.1 percent after the plants were shuttered, between 2001 and 2011. The most significant declines came among African American and Asian women. Preterm birth can be associated with lifelong health complications.

The results add fresh evidence to a robust body of research on the harmful effects of exposure to air pollution, especially in young children—even before they’re born.

“The ah-ha moment was probably just seeing what a large, estimated effect size we got,” said lead author Joan Casey, who is a post-doctoral fellow at UC Berkeley. “We were pretty shocked by it—to the point that we did many, many additional analyses to try to make it go away, and didn’t succeed.”

#pollution #air

Rollin’ With the Dragon: Opioids Are Gaining Popularity in the Club Scene | Alternet
▻https://www.alternet.org/drugs/rolling-dragon-opioids-gaining-popularity-club-scene

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

The EDM scene has long been known for drug use, but the researchers warn that the turn to opioids is a dangerous trend that should not be ignored.

“We’ve always known that electronic dance music party attendees are at high risk for use of club drugs such as ecstasy or Molly, but we wanted to know the extent of opioid use in this population,” said Palamar, the study’s lead author and an associate professor of population health at NYU School of Medicine.

The most popular prescription opioid reported in this scene was Oxycontin, which, like many prescription opioids, is used to relieve pain, but also produces euphoric effects, inducing relaxation and happiness. Following close behind were Vicodin, Percocet, codeine, and Purple Drank. About 15 percent of opioid users reported snorting them, while 11 percent reported injecting them, both forms of ingestion more likely to result in dependence.

People who had already used opioids reported a much higher propensity for using them again than did people who had never used them. Among previous users, nearly three-quarters (73.4 percent) said they would do them again, while only about 6 percent of non-users said they would try them if offered.

#Opioides #Dance_music

The Moon’s origins may be far different than we thought
▻https://massivesci.com/articles/moon-origin-new-theory-debris

We’re still learning the basic about Earth’s nearest neighbor

https://takeshape-prod.imgix.net/fd194db7-7b25-4b5a-8cc7-da7f31fab475%2Fdev%2Fbaa2875a-4dd0-43d2-a30d-6d0193496d29%2Fbryan-goff-353928-unsplash.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=faces&fit=crop&fm=jpg&h=600&q=75&w=900

New Study Finds Sea Level Rise Has Accelerated – gCaptain
▻http://gcaptain.com/new-study-finds-sea-level-rise-has-accelerated
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYnReLNLAZ0

Global sea level rise has been accelerating in recent decades, rather than increasing steadily, according to a new study based on 25 years of NASA and European satellite data.

This acceleration, driven mainly by increased melting in Greenland and Antarctica, has the potential to double the total sea level rise projected by 2100 when compared to projections that assume a constant rate of sea level rise, according to lead author Steve Nerem. Nerem is a professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, a fellow at Colorado’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), and a member of NASA’s Sea Level Change team.

If the rate of ocean rise continues to change at this pace, sea level will rise 26 inches (65 centimeters) by 2100 — enough to cause significant problems for coastal cities, according to the new assessment by Nerem and colleagues from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; CU Boulder; the University of South Florida in Tampa; and Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. The team, driven to understand and better predict Earth’s response to a warming world, published their work Feb. 12 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“This is almost certainly a conservative estimate,” Nerem said. “Our extrapolation assumes that sea level continues to change in the future as it has over the last 25 years. Given the large changes we are seeing in the ice sheets today, that’s not likely.”

Many Academics Are Eager to Publish in Worthless Journals - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/science/predatory-journals-academics.html

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/10/31/science/31SCI-JOURNALS/31SCI-JOURNALS-facebookJumbo.jpg

Call it a classic case of supply meeting demand.

Universities, colleges, even community colleges insist that faculty publish scholarly research, and the more papers the better. Academics and the schools they teach at rely on these publications to bolster their reputations, and with an oversupply of Ph.D.’s vying for jobs, careers hang in the balance.

Competition is fierce to get published in leading journals. But what about the overworked professors at less prestigious schools and community colleges, without big grants and state-of-the-art labs? How do they get ahead?

As it turns out, many of their articles are appearing in “journals” that will publish almost anything, for fees that can range into the hundreds of dollars per paper. These publications often are called predatory journals, on the assumption that well-meaning academics are duped into working with them — tricked by flattering emails from the journals inviting them to submit a paper or fooled by a name that sounded like a journal they knew.

But it’s increasingly clear that many academics know exactly what they’re getting into, which explains why these journals have proliferated despite wide criticism. The relationship is less predator and prey, some experts say, than a new and ugly symbiosis.

Recently a group of researchers who invented a fake academic: Anna O. Szust. The name in Polish means fraudster. Dr. Szust applied to legitimate and predatory journals asking to be an editor. She supplied a résumé in which her publications and degrees were total fabrications, as were the names of the publishers of the books she said she had contributed to.

The legitimate journals rejected her application immediately. But 48 out of 360 questionable journals made her an editor. Four made her editor in chief. One journal sent her an email saying, “It’s our pleasure to add your name as our editor in chief for the journal with no responsibilities.”

The lead author of the Dr. Fraud sting operation, Katarzyna Pisanski, a psychologist at the University of Sussex in England, said the question of what motivates people to publish in such journals “is a touchy subject.”

“If you were tricked by spam email you might not want to admit it, and if you did it wittingly to increase your publication counts you might also not want to admit it,” she said in an email.

#Publications_scientifiques #Open_access #Fraude_scientifique

Arctic sea ice may be declining faster than expected: study
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-arctic-research/arctic-sea-ice-may-be-declining-faster-than-expected-study-idUSKBN1CT2JD

https://s3.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20171024&t=2&i=1206815049&w=&fh=545px&fw=&ll=&pl=&sq=&r=LYNXMPED9N1JJ#.jpg

Arctic sea ice may be thinning faster than predicted because salty snow on the surface of the ice skews the accuracy of satellite measurements, a new study from the University of Calgary said on Tuesday.

The report from the Canadian university’s Cryosphere Climate Research Group published in the academic journal Geophysical Research Letters found satellite estimates for the thickness of seasonal sea ice have been overestimated by up to 25 percent.

That means the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free much sooner than some scientific predictions, which forecast sea ice will first disappear completely during summer months between 2040 and 2050, according to lead author Vishnu Nandan.

Uber and Lyft limit personal car use, study says - Business Insider Deutschland
▻http://www.businessinsider.de/uber-and-lyft-limit-personal-car-use-study-2017-8

Ride-hailing giants have said for years that their services will start to kill car ownership by giving urban dwellers a cheaper and more efficient way of getting around.

A recent study from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, Texas A&M Transportation Institute, and Columbia University supports that notion.

Uber and Lyft left Austin, Texas in May 2016 after servicing the city since 2014. The ridehailing giants called it quits after voters upheld strict regulations on the companies, like issuing fingerprint-based background checks.

Uber and Lyft returned in May after lawmakers passed a bill overriding the strict regulations.

The departure offered a unique window of opportunity for researchers to investigate how people changed their habits after growing accustomed to ride-hailing services.

The study surveyed 1,200 Austin locals and asked what trips they typically took using an Uber or Lyft. It then asked how they were making those same trips now that the ride-hailing services weren’t available.

The study found that 41% switched back to their own cars to fill the void left by Uber and Lyft. Among the people who turned back to their own vehicles, 9% bought an additional car strictly for the purpose of getting around without the ride-hailing giants.

From there, 42% of people surveyed switched to another ride-hailing company in the area. A flurry of community-based services and smaller apps entered Austin in the wake of Uber and Lyft’s departure, such as Arcade City Austin.

Only 3% of participants surveyed said they turned to public transit.

The takeaway isn’t so much that Uber and Lyft reduce the need to own a car, but rather they limit how often people use a car they already own, Robert Hampshire, lead author of the study, said in an interview.

“A large faction of these people already had a car and just weren’t using it as much,” he said. “Then when Uber and Lyft left, they began to use it more often.”

Still, it’s noteworthy that roughly 100 people felt the need to buy a car without the presence of a major ride-hailing service. Additionally, people who switched to their personal vehicle were 23 times more likely to report making more trips than those who switched to a community-based service like Arcade City Austin.

“What I thought stood out the most was for those who did switch to their personal vehicle, they drove considerably more often,” Hampshire said.

Having to weigh the cost of each individual ride may encourage people to take fewer trips, Hampshire said. Most people don’t think about how much they drive after purchasing a vehicle outright.

That could be good news for major cities, which are grappling with worsening congestion. If people feel compelled to only take a Lyft or Uber when it’s absolutely necessary, that reduces the number of cars on the road. In a small number of cases, the services’ presence could compel someone to forego purchasing a car altogether.

Hampshire said he was surprised by how few people opted to take public transportation.

“In Austin, their public transit system is not as built out as other cities. It may not be seen as a viable option,” he said.

Automakers are preparing for the death of car ownership in cities. General Motors launched in 2016 its car-sharing service called Maven. Maven is primarily used by millennials who may be reluctant to own a car in expensive cities like New York and San Francisco.

Although the study bodes well for traffic relief, it’s worth taking it with a grain of salt.

Ditching a personal car in favor of ride-hailing apps can help alleviate traffic if done on a wide enough scale. But unless more people start to rely on carpool services like Lyft Line or UberPOOL, ride-hailing still contributes to more single-occupancy cars on the road.

Hampshire said of the people surveyed who used Uber and Lyft as their primary method for getting around, only 12% elected to use the companies’ carpool options.

The study’s results may also vary in cities that have better access to public transportation.

Either way, the study shows ride-hailing can make it easier to ditch personal cars in large cities.

#Uber #disruption #USA

Believing the future will be favorable may prevent action — ScienceDaily
▻https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170803145643.htm
/images/2017/08/170803145643_1_540x360.jpg

... partisans believe they are so correct that others will eventually come to see the obviousness of their correctness," says behavioral scientist Todd Rogers of the Harvard Kennedy School, lead author on the research. "Ironically, our findings indicate that this belief in a favorable future may diminish the likelihood that people will take action to ensure that the favorable future becomes reality

#ideas #truth #belief #reality

Saturn’s moon offers glimpse of Earth’s past | BBC Sky at Night Magazine
▻http://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/saturn%E2%80%99s-moon-offers-glimpse-earth%E2%80%99s-past

Astronomers have discovered evidence of molecules on Saturn’s largest moon #Titan that could lead to the development of life, with the detection of vinyl cyanide in its upper atmosphere.

Under the right conditions, the organic molecule vinyl cyanide could coalesce into microscopic spheres resembling cell membranes.

Methane is known to rain down onto the icy surfaces of Titan and into rivers, lakes and seas.

These pools of hydrocarbons create a unique environment that may help molecules of vinyl cyanide link together to form membrane features resembling the cell membranes of living organisms on Earth.

Astronomers studying data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array telescope (ALMA) in early 2014 have found compelling evidence that molecules of vinyl cyanide are present on Titan.

“The presence of vinyl cyanide in an environment with liquid methane suggests the intriguing possibility of chemical processes that are analogous to those important for life on Earth,” says Maureen Palmer of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and lead author of the study.

Titan’s atmosphere is a chemical melting pot. Through harnessing energy from the Sun and fast moving particles that orbit Saturn, simple organic molecules are able to convert into larger, more complex chemicals.

However, this does not mean that the conditions on Titan are right for the development of life as we know it.

“As our knowledge of Titan’s chemistry grows, it becomes increasingly apparent that complex molecules arise naturally in environments similar to those found on the early Earth, but there are important differences,” says Martin Cordiner, also with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and a co-author on the paper.

One important difference between Earth and Titan to consider is Titan’s surface temperature of -178°C, which is colder than Earth at any point in our planet’s history. At this temperature, all water on Titan’s surface remains completely frozen.

Édulcorants artificiels : leurs dangers enfin prouvés ?
▻http://www.futura-sciences.com/sante/actualites/nutrition-edulcorants-artificiels-leurs-dangers-enfin-prouves-68032/#xtor=RSS-8
Une nouvelle étude a découvert un lien entre les édulcorants artificiels et plusieurs problèmes de santé, parmi lesquels la prise de poids à long terme, le risque accru d’obésité, le diabète, l’hypertension et les maladies cardiaques.

« Il convient de rester prudent tant que les effets des édulcorants artificiels à long terme sur la santé ne sont pas complètement connus », explique Meghan Azad, auteure principale de l’étude, dont l’équipe au Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba est également en train d’étudier les effets de la consommation d’édulcorants artificiels pendant la grossesse sur la prise de poids, le métabolisme et la flore intestinale de l’enfant.

Artificial sweeteners linked with weight gain, little health benefit
▻http://www.wsaw.com/content/news/Artificial-sweeteners-linked-with-weight-gain-little-health-benefit-435409873.

http://media.graytvinc.com/images/810*455/sweetner1.jpg

Two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and those who diet sometimes turn to alternative sweeteners — including aspartame, sucralose and stevioside — to cut calories.

Now, a new review of many studies suggests that doing so might not be the best idea.

The scientists took a comprehensive look at more than 11,000 studies and found that, for overweight individuals or those with high blood pressure (hypertension) or diabetes, the benefits of consuming zero-calorie, “non-nutritive sweeteners” were modest to nil. For other people, there was an increased risk of weight gain, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, stroke and heart disease. [7 Biggest Diet Myths]

“Overall, the evidence does not support the intended purpose of weight loss and suggests that there might be adverse effects in the long term,” said Meghan Azad, lead author of the review and an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba.

Previous research had suggested that non-nutritive sweeteners were not the healthiest choice, but those studies were smaller in scope than the new review, and tended to focus on one outcome at a time, said Azad, who researches the development of chronic diseases.

Regular Consumption of Artificial Sweeteners Linked to Increased Risk of Obesity, Diabetes, Other Health Issues
A literature review of 37 studies has found that regular consumption of artificial sweeteners is associated with long-term weight gain and an increased risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
▻http://www.sci-news.com/medicine/regular-consumption-artificial-sweeteners-linked-risk-obesity-diabetes-050

dossier #edulcorants (nb : je suit hyper intolerante aux edulcorants de synthèse, qui sont parfois cachés dans certains produits d’où le suivi de ce sujet.) #alimentation #bombe_a_retardement

Fear of Brexit brain drain as EU nationals leave British universities

Failure to guarantee rights of staff and students will damage ability to recruit, say academics

▻https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/03/brexit-universities-academics-eu-rights
#brain_drain #université #UK #Angleterre #Brexit #étudiants #citoyens_européens

The Arc: Building a Palestinian State

suisman.com/portfolio/projects/the-arc-palestinian-state-master-plan/

Je ne mets pas les liens parce que ça a planté seenthis hier, mais la visite du site est particulièrement intéressante avec ce projet époustouflant de transport pour relier les différentes parties de la population palestinienne de Gaza à haïfa en passant par la Cisjordanie

Developed by RAND and Suisman, this widely acclaimed vision and strategy would help a prospective Palestinian state emerge, and succeed

The RAND Corporation, in partnership with Suisman Urban Design, has published the most comprehensive recommendations ever developed for the creation of a new Palestinian state, including a landmark proposal for a new national transportation and infrastructure corridor called the Arc. Doug Suisman is the lead author of the book, entitled, “The Arc: A Formal Structure for a Palestinian State”. The Arc is a vision for an integrated interurban rail and infrastructure line linking the West Bank and Gaza. It connects existing Palestinian urban centers with a series of new development areas along the rail line, providing a framework for significant population growth.



https://dl.dropbox.com/s/cpql4050179dyjo/Arc_1.jpg?dl=0 https://dl.dropbox.com/s/zvr1hht9qywu6fb/Arc_2.jpg?dl=0



https://dl.dropbox.com/s/nno8x5wynop9kzj/Arc_3a.jpg?dl=0 https://dl.dropbox.com/s/nno8x5wynop9kzj/Arc_3a.jpg?dl=0 https://dl.dropbox.com/s/w7ujodks9ud4289/Arc_3b.jpg?dl=0 https://dl.dropbox.com/s/bfmpmn60q2yjn1c/Arc_4.jpg?dl=0 https://dl.dropbox.com/s/mgi9fj75h8su4hl/Arc_5.jpg?dl=0 https://dl.dropbox.com/s/d9pfxoieraopnoz/Arc_6.jpg?dl=0

Without Safe Passage, We Leave Refugees at Mercy of Extremists

Refugees are vulnerable to exploitation by extremist groups at 10 risk ‘hot spots’ along the migration route, a new report from U.K.-based counter-extremism organization Quilliam has found. Nikita Malik, lead author of the report, explains their research.

https://newsdeeply.imgix.net/20170206115211/Mideast-Libya.jpg?w=640&fit=max&q=60&dpr=2#.jpg

Lien vers le rapport (payant, sic) :

http://www.quilliaminternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/refuge-pathways-of-youth-fleeing-extremism-542x600.jpg

Does a Doctor’s Gender Affect Your Chance of Survival? - The New York Times
▻http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/12/19/health/ap-us-med-doctor-sex-survival-.html

What if your doctor’s gender could influence your chance of surviving a visit to the hospital?

A big study of older patients hospitalized for common illnesses raises that provocative possibility — and also lots of questions. Patients who got most of their care from women doctors were more likely to leave the hospital alive than those treated by men.

The differences were small — about 11 percent of patients treated mostly by women died within 30 days of entering the hospital, versus 11.5 percent of those treated by men. But the all-male research team estimated that there would be about 32,000 fewer deaths each year in the U.S. if male physicians performed at the same level as their female peers.

The study didn’t probe why there might be these differences in survival. And Dr. Ashish Jha, the lead author, said the study doesn’t mean patients should avoid him and all other male physicians.

But he said male doctors could take a cue from women doctors’ tendencies that might contribute to better care. According to other research, women doctors are more likely than men to follow treatment guidelines, provide preventive care more often and communicate more with patients.

Restoring degraded land could mean big financial gains for Latin America
▻https://news.mongabay.com/2016/11/restoring-degraded-land-could-mean-big-financial-gains-for-latin-amer

https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/11/04195052/brazil_154769.jpg

The report finds that the restoration of even 20 million hectares of this degraded land could bring in $23 billion. WRI chose to focus on that number in pursuit of Initiative 20×20, a multinational effort to restore 20 million hectares in Latin America by 2020.

“Degraded, unproductive land is a drag on local farmers and national economies alike,” Walter Vergara, Senior Fellow at WRI and lead author of the report, said in a statement. “But it also represents a tremendous opportunity. WRI’s economic analysis of restoration shows for the first time that if we can bring productivity back to underperforming land, restoration not only pays for itself, but it creates billions of dollars of additional value, brings in environmental co-benefits and represents a major opportunity for carbon storage and therefore to efforts in climate change mitigation.”

https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/11/04194721/1104-climate-emissions-map.png

#dégradations_des_sols #sols #restauration_des_sols #climat #cartogragraphie

Hydroelectric dams emit a billion tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, study finds | Global development | The Guardian

▻https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/nov/14/hydroelectric-dams-emit-billion-tonnes-greenhouse-gas-methane-study-cli

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/abaa1df6900575c25b5be0b9d97593766e15c72c/0_333_5000_3000/master/5000.jpg?w=1200&h=630&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=crop&bm=normal&ba=bottom%2Cleft&blend64=aHR0cHM6Ly91cGxvYWRzLmd1aW0uY28udWsvMjAxNi8wNS8yNS9vdmVybGF5LWxvZ28tMTIwMC05MF9vcHQucG5n&s=82464fa9a8a6f5cf99b9ff0f5eabc4bf

Hydroelectric dams contribute more to global warming than previously estimated, according to a study published in BioScience.

It appears that the current and planned boom of hydroelectric projects would double the current cover of dams in the world and will aggravate the problem.

Researchers found that rotting vegetation in the water means that the dams emit about a billion tonnes of greenhouse gases every year. This represents 1.3% of total annual anthropogenic (human-caused) global emissions.

When considered over a 100-year timescale, dams produce more methane than rice plantations and biomass burning, the study showed.

“We estimate that dams emit around 25% more methane by unit of surface than previously estimated,” said Bridget Deemer, from the School of Environment at the Washington State University in Vancouver, and lead author of the study.

#eau #barrages #énergie #émissions_CO2

How the sugar industry has distorted health science for more than 50 years
▻http://www.vox.com/2016/9/12/12864442/jama-sugar-industry-distort-science

“[...] Is it really true that food companies deliberately set out to manipulate research in their favor? Yes, it is, and the practice continues.” Nestle has been documenting the instances where companies fund nutrition studies that overwhelmingly return favorable results to the industry sponsors.

“Our research emphasizes that industry-funded science needs to be heavily scrutinized, and not taken at face value,” said Kearns, the lead author on the JAMA paper. “There are so many ways a study can be manipulated — from the questions that are asked, from how the information is analyzed, even to how the conclusions are described in the paper.”

In this case, the sugar industry involvement in science influenced not only the scientific enterprise but also public-health policy, and potentially, the health of millions of people. Kearns points out that the most recent World Health Organization sugar guidelines focus on reducing consumption because of sugar’s role in obesity and tooth decay — not the heart risk.

#sucre #santé

Cancer du sein : Quand les craintes des patientes augmentent les mauvais effets des traitements
▻http://www.20minutes.fr/sante/1912171-20160823-cancer-sein-quand-craintes-patientes-augmentent-mauvais-e

Douleurs articulaires, gain de poids et bouffées de chaleur… L’importance des effets secondaires de certains traitements du cancer du sein, notamment l’hormonothérapie dépendrait étroitement des craintes des patientes, celles redoutant le pire souffrant des effets les plus importants.

Researchers discover real reason why turtles have shells
▻http://phys.org/news/2016-07-real-turtles-shells.html

http://cdn.phys.org/newman/gfx/news/hires/2016/denvermuseum.jpg

“Why the turtle shell evolved is a very Dr. Seuss-like question and the answer seems pretty obvious – it was for protection,” said Dr. Lyson, lead author of Fossorial Origin of the Turtle Shell, which was released today by Current Biology. “But just like the bird feather did not initially evolve for flight, the earliest beginnings of the turtle shell was not for protection but rather for digging underground to escape the harsh South African environment where these early proto turtles lived.”

#tortues #évolution