Aided by Machine Learning, Scientists Find a Novel Antibiotic Able to Kill Superbugs in Mice
February 21st, 2020Via: STAT:
A study published Thursday in the journal Cell describes how researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used machine learning to identify a molecule that appears capable of countering some of the world’s most formidable pathogens.
When tested in mice, the molecule, dubbed halicin, effectively treated the gastrointestinal bug Clostridium difficile (C. diff), a common killer of hospitalized patients, and another type of drug-resistant bacteria that often causes infections in the blood, urinary tract, and lungs.
CHINA: 92% PERCENT DROP IN CAR SALES IN FIRST HALF OF FEBRUARY
February 21st, 2020Via: South China Morning Post:
A 92 per cent drop in car sales in China in the first half of February provided the first real indicator of the economic impact of the coronavirus epidemic, with officials also warning of a sharp decline in Chinese exports and imports for the first two months of the year.
The China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) on Friday said that sales dropped to just 4,909 units in the first 16 days of the month, down from 59,930 vehicles in the same period a year earlier.
“Very few dealerships opened in the first weeks of February and they have had very little customer traffic,” said the CPCA.
Coronavirus: China’s Manufacturing Supply Chain Pummelled from All Sides in Efforts to Restart
February 21st, 2020Let me know if you start to notice product shortages, or unusual events related to the coronavirus situation. Assuming anything major is going to happen outside of China, my guess is that a lot of mainstream media will go with censorship, diversion, and lies for as long as possible.
The only obvious coronavirus related shortages I’ve seen so far where I live (New Zealand) are N95 masks and hand sanitizer.
I walked around my local Warehouse (which is a bit like Walmart) and it’s still packed with mostly low quality garbage from China.
Via: South China Morning Post:
Choked off from suppliers, workers, and logistics networks, China’s manufacturing base is facing a multitude of unprecedented challenges, as coronavirus containment efforts hamper factories’ efforts to reopen.
Many of those that have been granted permission to resume operations face critical shortages of staff, with huge swathes of China still under lockdown and some local workers afraid to leave their homes. Others cannot access the materials needed to make their products, and even if they could, the shutdown of shops and marketplaces around China means demand has been sapped.
Related: U.S. Exposed To Immediate Impact From “Supply-Chain Shock”, Deutsche Says
Coronavirus Infections Outside Of China Are Growing Exponentially
February 20th, 2020Via: Peak Prosperity:
Hackers Were Inside Citrix for Five Months
February 20th, 2020Via: KrebsonSecurity:
Networking software giant Citrix Systems says malicious hackers were inside its networks for five months between 2018 and 2019, making off with personal and financial data on company employees, contractors, interns, job candidates and their dependents. The disclosure comes almost a year after Citrix acknowledged that digital intruders had broken in by probing its employee accounts for weak passwords.
Cruise Ship Is a Coronavirus Factory
February 19th, 2020Via: The Times:
Japan’s incompetent quarantining of thousands of passengers on a British cruise ship created a “coronavirus machine” that risks further spreading the disease, one of the country’s leading experts has said.
Kentaro Iwata, a professor of infectious disease, condemned the decision to release most of the passengers following two weeks of quarantine today because of the danger that infected people who are showing no symptoms of the disease will return to families and jobs unaware that they are passing on the contagion.
More: Coronavirus Quarantine on Diamond Princess Cruise Ship ‘Chaotic,’ Japanese Expert Claims
How China Is Working to Quarantine the Truth About the Coronavirus
February 19th, 2020“Censorship, diversion, and lying.”
Google’s core principals?
*I crack myself up*
This piece is useful in understanding state behavior, in general, and their large, lapdog media and social networking organizations.
Via: DefenseOne:
In its battle to contain the coronavirus, the Chinese government has undertaken a wide range of measures, from shutting down cities to using drones to monitor and compel public compliance with public health edicts. But the regime is also waging a second battle: a campaign to control the world’s discussions of the first.
The weapons in this information war are Beijing’s massive media and online control mechanisms. Its three prevailing tactics—all too common across authoritarian regimes and wider online warfare— are censorship, diversion, and lying. China’s efforts show how an online battle for public security sometimes works in opposition to public health, and it reveals the priorities of an authoritarian regime.
China Deploys 40 Mobile Incinerators to Wuhan
February 19th, 2020In other news: China’s Coronavirus Figures Don’t Add Up. ‘This Never Happens With Real Data’:
A statistical analysis of China’s coronavirus casualty data shows a near-perfect prediction model that data analysts say isn’t likely to naturally occur, casting doubt over the reliability of the numbers being reported to the World Health Organization.
…
Barron’s re-created the regression analysis of total deaths caused by the virus, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of last year, and found similarly high variance. We ran it by Melody Goodman, associate professor of biostatistics at New York University’s School of Global Public Health.
“I have never in my years seen an r-squared of 0.99,” Goodman says. “As a statistician, it makes me question the data.”
Real human data are never perfectly predictive when it comes to something like an epidemic, Goodman says, since there are countless ways that a person could come into contact with the virus.
For context, Goodman says a “really good” r-squared, in terms of public health data, would be a 0.7. “Anything like 0.99,” she said, “would make me think that someone is simulating data. It would mean you already know what is going to happen.”
—
And now…
Via: Daily Star:
China has reportedly deployed 40 industrial incinerators to the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak Wuhan.
Chinese media reports that the furnaces have been shipped to the city amid ongoing fears the death toll is being covered up.
NTD reports that the cabins are for the disposal of animal carcasses, while China Ship news reports the incinerators are for medical waste.
…
Sources quoted in Chinese media raise questions over whether or not the incinerators are for animals, or will be used to dispose of human remains.
Thousands of Frozen Meat Containers Pile Up at Chinese Ports
February 18th, 2020Via: Bloomberg:
Thousands of containers of frozen pork, chicken and beef are piling up at some major Chinese ports as transport disruptions and labor shortages slow operations, people familiar with the matter said.
Deliveries are mounting at ports including Tianjin, Shanghai and Ningbo because there aren’t enough truck drivers to collect containers due to travel curbs imposed in the country to control the coronavirus, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak publicly.
Ports are also starting to run out of electricity points to freeze the containers and some ships have been told to reroute to other destinations in mainland China and Hong Kong, the people said.
China is a massive importer of meat from South America, Europe and also the U.S., and has been boosting purchases to help ease shortages caused by African swine fever. The country increased imports of meat and offal by almost 50% in 2019 to a record of about 6.2 million tons, customs data show.
Coronavirus Could Impact 5 Million Companies Worldwide
February 18th, 2020Via: CNBC:
The new coronavirus outbreak and subsequent shutdown of huge swathes of China could impact more than 5 million businesses worldwide, according to a new study.
A special briefing issued by global data analytics firm Dun & Bradstreet analyzed the Chinese provinces most impacted by the virus, and found they are intricately linked to the global business network.
The affected areas with 100 or more confirmed cases as of February 5 are home to more than 90% of all active businesses in China, according to the report, and around 49,000 businesses in these regions are branches and subsidiaries of foreign companies.
Almost half (49%) of the companies with subsidiaries in impacted regions are headquartered in Hong Kong, while the U.S. accounts for 19%, Japan 12% and Germany 5%.
