South America
Now THAT'S what you call a cold one! Rare bottle of Arctic beer will be opened after 150 years to revive the ancient brew
Devastating impact of Mamdani's election will be FAR WORSE than first thought: Exclusive poll finds America's greatest city facing'historic' population wipeout Trump reveals devastating plan for NYC if'communist' Mamdani gets elected while rejecting comparisons: 'I'm a much better looking person' I won't ever forget what I saw at Andy Cohen's party. He may admit he's hooking up with guys on every dating app but this is the truth about men like him: KENNEDY So many single men are taking this new drug cocktail before dates. The results in the bedroom are startling... as I discovered during one marathon session: JANA HOCKING Putin unveils terrifying new nuclear submarine built to carry'doomsday' weapon capable of unleashing radioactive tidal wave'Trump has lost it with Steve Bannon': Insiders claim third term'plan' has sparked furious MAGA rift... and name group of'irritants' wreaking havoc How Jennifer Aniston found her happy ever after with Hollywood hypnotist and'love guru' Jim Curtis after string of failed romances, 'love triangle' scandal and IVF struggles Meghan Markle'wants to become a billionaire', says royal expert, after Duchess was seen cosying up to brains behind Kardashian brands amid speculation she'could launch a beauty empire' William and Kate throw party for builders and staff who helped them leave'cursed' cottage early Deborra-Lee Furness' bold move after split from Hugh Jackman - and why the actor is not happy about it Trump responds after Dilbert creator makes last-ditch plea to save his life as he'declines rapidly' from cancer Kimberly Guilfoyle's steamy Greek debut sparks envious whispers of a'storm' coming for Trump We've never been so sure of an imminent financial crash: Industry leaders across ALL sectors come together to say these signs of US economic meltdown are undeniable Now THAT'S what you call a cold one! A rare bottle of Arctic beer will be opened to revive the ancient ale, 150 years after it was bottled. Douglas Gunn Sharp, founder of Edinburgh's Innis & Gunn brewery, will open his precious bottle of Allsopp's Arctic Ale - after splashing out ยฃ3,000 for it.
China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show
China waged a campaign of harassment and intimidation directed at a UK university to get it to shut down sensitive research into alleged human rights abuses, documents seen by the BBC show. Sheffield Hallam University staff in China were threatened by individuals described by them as being from China's National Security Service who demanded the research being done in Sheffield be halted. And access to the university's websites from China was blocked, impeding its ability to recruit Chinese students, in a campaign of threats and intimidation lasting more than two years. In an internal email from July 2024, university officials said attempting to retain the business in China and publication of the research are now untenable bedfellows. When the UK government learned of the case, the then Foreign Secretary David Lammy issued a warning to his Chinese counterpart that it would not tolerate attempts to suppress academic freedoms at UK universities, the BBC understands.
I built this 'AI aunt' for women after family tragedy in South Africa
I built this'AI aunt' for women after family tragedy in South Africa A gruesome killing in her own family inspired South African Leonora Tima to create a digital platform where people, mostly women, can talk about and track abuse. Leonora's relative was just 19 years old, and nine months pregnant, when she was killed, her body dumped on the side of a highway near Cape Town in 2020. I work in the development sector, so I've seen violence, Leonora says. But what stood out for me was that my family member's violent death was seen as so normal in South African society. Her death wasn't published by any news outlet because the sheer volume of these cases in our country is such that it doesn't qualify as news.
Spiking Neural Networks: The Future of Brain-Inspired Computing
Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) represent the latest generation of neural computation, offering a brain-inspired alternative to conventional Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). Unlike ANNs, which depend on continuous-valued signals, SNNs operate using distinct spike events, making them inherently more energy-efficient and temporally dynamic. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of SNN design models, training algorithms, and multi-dimensional performance metrics, including accuracy, energy consumption, latency, spike count, and convergence behavior. Key neuron models such as the Leaky Integrate-and-Fire (LIF) and training strategies, including surrogate gradient descent, ANN-to-SNN conversion, and Spike-Timing Dependent Plasticity (STDP), are examined in depth. Results show that surrogate gradient-trained SNNs closely approximate ANN accuracy (within 1-2%), with faster convergence by the 20th epoch and latency as low as 10 milliseconds. Converted SNNs also achieve competitive performance but require higher spike counts and longer simulation windows. STDP-based SNNs, though slower to converge, exhibit the lowest spike counts and energy consumption (as low as 5 millijoules per inference), making them optimal for unsupervised and low-power tasks. These findings reinforce the suitability of SNNs for energy-constrained, latency-sensitive, and adaptive applications such as robotics, neuromorphic vision, and edge AI systems. While promising, challenges persist in hardware standardization and scalable training. This study concludes that SNNs, with further refinement, are poised to propel the next phase of neuromorphic computing.
Frame Semantic Patterns for Identifying Underreporting of Notifiable Events in Healthcare: The Case of Gender-Based Violence
Dutra, Lรญvia, Lorenzi, Arthur, Berno, Laรญs, Campos, Franciany, Biscardi, Karoline, Brown, Kenneth, Viridiano, Marcelo, Belcavello, Frederico, Matos, Ely, Guaranha, Olรญvia, Santos, Erik, Reinach, Sofia, Torrent, Tiago Timponi
We introduce a methodology for the identification of notifiable events in the domain of healthcare. The methodology harnesses semantic frames to define fine-grained patterns and search them in unstructured data, namely, open-text fields in e-medical records. We apply the methodology to the problem of underreporting of gender-based violence (GBV) in e-medical records produced during patients' visits to primary care units. A total of eight patterns are defined and searched on a corpus of 21 million sentences in Brazilian Portuguese extracted from e-SUS APS. The results are manually evaluated by linguists and the precision of each pattern measured. Our findings reveal that the methodology effectively identifies reports of violence with a precision of 0.726, confirming its robustness. Designed as a transparent, efficient, low-carbon, and language-agnostic pipeline, the approach can be easily adapted to other health surveillance contexts, contributing to the broader, ethical, and explainable use of NLP in public health systems.
Impact of clinical decision support systems (cdss) on clinical outcomes and healthcare delivery in low- and middle-income countries: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis
Jain, Garima, Bodade, Anand, Pati, Sanghamitra
Clinical decision support systems (CDSS) are used to improve clinical and service outcomes, yet evidence from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is dispersed. This protocol outlines methods to quantify the impact of CDSS on patient and healthcare delivery outcomes in LMICs. We will include comparative quantitative designs (randomized trials, controlled before-after, interrupted time series, comparative cohorts) evaluating CDSS in World Bank-defined LMICs. Standalone qualitative studies are excluded; mixed-methods studies are eligible only if they report comparative quantitative outcomes, for which we will extract the quantitative component. Searches (from inception to 30 September 2024) will cover MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, CENTRAL, Web of Science, Global Health, Scopus, IEEE Xplore, LILACS, African Index Medicus, and IndMED, plus grey sources. Screening and extraction will be performed in duplicate. Risk of bias will be assessed with RoB 2 (randomized trials) and ROBINS-I (non-randomized). Random-effects meta-analysis will be performed where outcomes are conceptually or statistically comparable; otherwise, a structured narrative synthesis will be presented. Heterogeneity will be explored using relative and absolute metrics and a priori subgroups or meta-regression (condition area, care level, CDSS type, readiness proxies, study design).
Will AI mean the end of call centres?
Will AI mean the end of call centres? Ask ChatGPT whether AI will replace humans in the customer service industry, and it will offer a diplomatic answer, the summary of which is they will work side by side. Humans though, are not so optimistic. Last year, the chief executive of Indian technology firm Tata Consultancy Services, K Krithivasan, told the Financial Times that AI may soon mean that there is minimal need for call centres in Asia. Meanwhile, AI will autonomously resolve 80% of common customer service issues by 2029, predicts business and technology research firm Gartner.
Hamas rejects US accusation it looted aid trucks in Gaza
Why did Israel launch air strikes on Gaza? What life is like in Gaza's crowded tents How is Israel using PR firms to frame its war? Will the US plan for Gaza fail? Hamas has denied accusations by the US Central Command (CENTCOM) that the Palestinian group looted aid trucks in the Gaza Strip. CENTCOM had published drone footage that allegedly showed an aid truck being looted in the enclave.
Navy 'wolf pack' drone boats in warship trial success
A flotilla of uncrewed wolf pack drone boats has successfully been used to escort warships in a Royal Navy and Army trial. The Navy said it was a milestone demonstration of how it could utilise such technology in a real-life scenario. With camera and sensor data being fed back to Patrick Blackett, five 7.2m autonomous Rattler boats safely escorted the two ships playing the role of foreign warships during the 72-hour milestone training exercise, it said. The demonstration was a culmination of months of trials by the Navy's Disruptive Capabilities and Technology Office (DCTO) and the Fleet Experimentation Squadron (FXS). Each of the Rattler boats were operated by a two-person team, with one responsible for piloting the drone and the other monitoring and operating onboard systems, as well as helping to manage live data streams.