CIDRAP (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy): New data-sharing platform aims to boost antibiotic discovery. “The publicly available database and interactive data-sharing tool, called the Shared Platform for Antibiotic Research and Knowledge (SPARK), will include curated antibiotic discovery data from accessible sources, along with unpublished data, related content, and expert analysis. The hope is that SPARK will allow scientists from around the world who are working on antibiotic discovery to share data, gain new insights, collaborate, and ultimately advance research on molecules that can penetrate and stay inside gram-negative bacteria—the toughest and most pressingly important bacterial pathogens.”
public health
University of Washington: Rain Increases Joint Pain? Google Suggests Otherwise
University of Washington: Rain increases joint pain? Google suggests otherwise. “Some people with achy joints and arthritis swear that weather influences their pain. New research, perhaps the deepest, data-based dive into this suggestion, finds that weather conditions in 45 U.S. cities are indeed associated with Google searches about joint pain. But it might not be the association you’d expect.”
Global News (Canada): ’13 Reasons Why’ series led to a spike in Google suicide searches, study warns
Global News (Canada): ’13 Reasons Why’ series led to a spike in Google suicide searches, study warns. “It’s a highly controversial show: a teenage girl dies by suicide, leaving behind a series of tapes that chronicle her plight and those who hurt her in her downward spiral. Now, a new study suggests that the popular Netflix series 13 Reasons Why triggered a steep spike in searches on suicide.”
The Intercept: 100,000 Pages Of Chemical Industry Secrets Gathered Dust In An Oregon Barn For Decades — Until Now
The Intercept: 100,000 Pages Of Chemical Industry Secrets Gathered Dust In An Oregon Barn For Decades — Until Now. “FOR DECADES, SOME of the dirtiest, darkest secrets of the chemical industry have been kept in Carol Van Strum’s barn. Creaky, damp, and prowled by the occasional black bear, the listing, 80-year-old structure in rural Oregon housed more than 100,000 pages of documents obtained through legal discovery in lawsuits against Dow, Monsanto, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, the Air Force, and pulp and paper companies, among others. As of today, those documents and others that have been collected by environmental activists will be publicly available through a project called the Poison Papers.”
NLM Shutting Down NIHSeniorHealth.gov Web Site
The National Library of Medicine is shutting down the NIHSeniorHealth.gov web site. “Beginning August 1, 2017, NIHSeniorHealth.gov will redirect visitors to the Health and Aging section of NIA Web site. There, visitors will find up-to-date and reliable information on aging research and health and wellness for older adults. Additionally, the NIA Go4Life Web site offers exercises, motivational tips, and free resources to help older adults start and continue exercising. Other sources of information for older adults and their families include the NIHSeniorHealth YouTube Channel, which includes more than 110 videos about various health and wellness information, and the NLM consumer health Web site, MedlinePlus, which offers three topics Exercise for Seniors, Nutrition for Seniors, and Seniors’ Health.”
Xinhua: Social media help to predict epidemics in New Zealand
Xinhua: Social media help to predict epidemics in New Zealand. “The Ministry of Health is trialing an innovative approach aimed at improving its response to epidemics by predicting outbreaks earlier. The project uses alternative sources of information to detect trends that indicate the spread of infectious diseases, including social media and a range of historic and current data sets, Coleman said.”
Search and deploy: Google may be the next weapon to beat epidemics (Cosmos)
Cosmos: Search and deploy: Google may be the next weapon to beat epidemics. “In research published in PLOS Computational Biology, an international team has used a mathematical modelling tool to track dengue-related Google searches to better predict dengue fever activity…. Despite the huge number of individuals at risk each year, governments rely on hospital-based reporting to monitor the disease, a method hampered by poor communication and time constraints. In response to the demand for an effective disease surveillance tool, the researchers drew on a simple premise: the more people affected by dengue, the more Google searches on the topic.”
