Every day now comes with a new set of coronavirus data: numbers for positive tests, negative tests, deaths, patients hospitalized, ventilator shortfalls and hospital beds occupied. And, more rarely, the racial and ethnic breakdown of those who have tested positive, and those who have died.
These numbers enable epidemiologists, officials, journalists and the public around the world to track the evolution of Covid-19 in almost real time, making it the first “data-driven pandemic.” There’s a lot at stake in these numbers, and there’s a major problem: The data on which we are basing decisions is imperfect and incomplete.
For health departments, it can be challenging to stay on top of the numbers. This is especially true in the U.S., which lacks shared standards for Covid-19 data across states and counties. In Sedgwick County, Kansas, home to more than 500,000 inhabitants, the health department had to hire more staff to deal with case investigations into people who have tested positive for Covid-19.
“This is the most data we’ve collected, and not only about cases but all the surrounding data,” said Christine Steward, health protection director for the Sedgwick County Department of Health.
We show that approaches maximizing AI accuracy (by using Log-loss) may lead to suboptimal team utility. Instead, we propose and optimize a new loss function based on the team’s expected utility. (2/5)
Efforts to make research results open and reproducible are increasingly reflected by journal policies encouraging or mandating authors to provide data availability statements. As a consequence of this, there has been a strong uptake of data availability statements in recent literature. Nevertheless, it is still unclear what proportion of these statements actually contain well-formed links to data, for example via a URL or permanent identifier, and if there is an added value in providing such links. We consider 531, 889 journal articles published by PLOS and BMC, develop an automatic system for labelling their data availability statements according to four categories based on their content and the type of data availability they display, and finally analyze the citation advantage of different statement categories via regression. We find that, following mandated publisher policies, data availability statements become very common. In 2018 93.7% of 21,793 PLOS articles and 88.2% of 31,956 BMC articles had data availability statements. Data availability statements containing a link to data in a repository—rather than being available on request or included as supporting information files—are a fraction of the total. In 2017 and 2018, 20.8% of PLOS publications and 12.2% of BMC publications provided DAS containing a link to data in a repository. We also find an association between articles that include statements that link to data in a repository and up to 25.36% (± 1.07%) higher citation impact on average, using a citation prediction model. We discuss the potential implications of these results for authors (researchers) and journal publishers who make the effort of sharing their data in repositories. All our data and code are made available in order to reproduce and extend our results.
Now, in this era of big data, scholars have the opportunity to revisit the history of eviction anew. They can do so because the parliamentary debates of Great Britain since the 19th century, all those words spoken in the House of Lords and the House of Commons, have now been fully digitized. Commonly known as “Hansard,” in reference to the main printers who published and sold records of the debates, the transcript offers one of the most faithful records of what was said during every parliamentary meeting of the century.3 What can big data reveal about Britain’s history of debating property, both at home and around the British Empire?
Looking at a century of public, political speech about empire allows us to ask questions about whether ideas of property and eviction really are as unchanging as the laws of nature. It might be assumed that the language of Britain’s white, male parliamentary representatives would steadily enforce an unchanging right of property through the 19th century. This, after all, was a period when the British Empire was rapidly growing, and considered to be the heyday of the free market.
In fact, however, a long-term analysis shows something different: here, big data reveals how the British Empire was forced to debate changing ideas of property, and to reckon with the consequences of strict definitions of property law.
The data shows that speakers became increasingly concerned over the consequences of property laws for the dispossessed across the empire.
There are about 2.3 million prisoners in the United States, and so far the number of reported Covid-19 deaths is 251, or higher by the time you are reading this. If you know of a better data source, please let me know.
For purposes of contrast, Rhode Island has about a million people and currently 266 deaths (and rising). Connecticut has 2,339 Covid-19 deaths, and a population of about 3.5 million, or in other words almost ten times the deaths as the prisons without having even twice the population. In other words, at least nominally the prison system seems to be doing better against Covid-19 than either The Nutmeg State or The Ocean State.
Two minors in Illinois have sued social media platform TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, for allegedly violating that state’s biometric privacy law by collecting users’ faceprints.
“TikTok users are never told that Defendants collect, capture, receive, obtain, store, and/or use their biometric information,” the underage users — identified by their initials “P.S.” and “M.T.W.” — allege in a class-action complaint brought last week in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
May 1st was my last day as a VP and Distinguished Engineer at Amazon Web Services, after five years and five months of rewarding fun. I quit in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of Covid-19.
What with big-tech salaries and share vestings, this will probably cost me over a million (pre-tax) dollars, not to mention the best job I’ve ever had, working with awfully good people. So I’m pretty blue.
What happened · Last year, Amazonians on the tech side banded together as Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), first coming to the world’s notice with an open letter promoting a shareholders’ resolution calling for dramatic action and leadership from Amazon on the global climate emergency. I was one of its 8,702 signatories. ¶
The public-comment process leading up to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s December 2017 repeal of net neutrality rules attracted more than 22 million comments, but millions were made using stolen identities. The NYT filed a FoIA request for server logs related to public comments in June 2017, but the newspaper narrowed its request multiple times in response to the FCC’s refusal to provide the records. The pared-down request the judge approved is for timestamps, originating IP addresses, and user-agent headers related to public comments, which are contained in an API proxy server log at the FCC.
Colleges around the U.S. are formulating plans to welcome students back to campus this fall — afraid they’ll be headed for financial catastrophe if they remain closed.
The big picture: Social distancing could still be in place and medical experts say a second wave of coronavirus cases is possible in the fall, but for many universities, the revenue blows that would come with an online semester are too severe to weather. They’ve got no option but to figure out how to reopen.
They wanted the campus experience, but their colleges sent them home to learn online during the coronavirus pandemic. Now, students at more than 25 U.S. universities are filing lawsuits against their schools demanding partial refunds on tuition and campus fees, saying they’re not getting the caliber of education they were promised.
The suits reflect students’ growing frustration with online classes that schools scrambled to create as the coronavirus forced campuses across the nation to close last month. The suits say students should pay lower rates for the portion of the term that was offered online, arguing that the quality of instruction is far below the classroom experience.
The ongoing coronavirus outbreak has brought privacy and surveillance concerns to the forefront – from hacked video conferencing sessions to proposed government tracking of people’s cellphones as a measure to limit and prevent the spread of the virus. Over the past year, Pew Research Center has surveyed Americans on their views related to privacy, personal data and digital surveillance.
Here are 10 key findings that stand out.
1. More Americans think location tracking through cellphones won’t make a difference in limiting the spread of COVID-19 than say it would help1Six-in-ten Americans say that if the government tracked people’s locations through their cellphone, it wouldn’t make much of a difference in limiting the spread of COVID-19
Several coronavirus antibody tests have been authorized for public use, but so far their accuracy has been iffy. A new test created by Roche and cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use today, May 3rd, significantly ups the standard.
Roche announced that its test is 100% accurate at detecting coronavirus antibodies and 99.8% accurate at ruling out the presence of those antibodies, meaning only one in 500 tests will get a false positive. Antibody tests use blood samples to assess whether a person had been previously infected, so they’re useful to determine the true spread of coronavirus.
The Australian model has attracted criticism because of the amount of data held by the federal government, even though the government has stressed only state health officials will have access to it.
More than 3.5 million people downloaded the app in the first five days following its release. Uptake is voluntary, but the prime minister, Scott Morrison, has said “millions more” will be needed. He said uptake of the app would inform discussions in national cabinet about easing restrictions.
Apple and Google today published step-by-step screenshots of how public health authorities could design their apps, starting with sign-up. For the exposure-tracking apps to be useful, you’ll need to enable notifications (though you don’t have to, and you can also turn them off at any time). You can share a positive covid-19 diagnosis within the app, which you verify by working with your local public health department to obtain a unique test identification number and the date of the test.
Online May 12, starting at 5 p.m. EDT. “This month we have two guests from CoronaWhy, an international group of volunteers using data science to help the medical community better understand COVID-19.” [rsvp required]
Online May 18-22. “The conference theme is “Engaging Everyone”. The conference will include keynote addresses by Roxy Peck from California Polytechnic State University and Hillary Parker from Stitch Fix. There will also be thirty-minute breakout sessions, online workshops, and virtual poster sessions.” [$$]
Online May 12, starting at 12 p.m. EDT. “The conference will convene leading medical technologists, entrepreneurs, executives and investors from the biotech, pharma, and life sciences industries to discuss how the most innovative companies and top experts are addressing the novel coronavirus crisis, as well as how they are looking forward at the lasting impacts on the health care industry.” [registration required]
“CDS began offering Data Science for Everyone (DS-UA 111) to the NYU community three years ago. Since then, the course, which introduces students to the world of data science, has become one of the most in-demand courses at CDS with waitlists growing every semester. This is why we are so excited to announce that this summer CDS will be offering the course as an innovative 6-week, 4-credit remote learning experience and that the course will be offered to non-NYU students as well!” Deadline to enroll is May 12 (non-NYU).
“We are keen to support those with an interest in learning more about preprints and in developing skills to equip you in becoming a resource for your community. If you are interested in a more structured training and support program, then do apply for the ASAPbio Fellow program – this is a six-month program structured to provide participants with the tools and skills they need to drive discussions about the productive use of preprints in the life sciences, and to become ASAPbio representatives at their institutions or scientific conferences.” Deadline for applications is May 15.
Brown Institute is “delighted to announce its 2020-2021 Magic Grant program. Due to the impacts of COVID-19, the proposal deadline has been extended until May 15, 2020!”
Online July 23. “We are announcing the first AI workshop hosted in Animal Crossing New Horizons. This is an experiment to see what it feels like to experience a workshop located in Animal Crossing. We would like to build a space for AI researchers to have meaningful interactions, and share their work.” Deadline for submissions is June 12.
Yes, you can experience the benefits that come with it more often, including being self-motivated, more productive, and more empowered, according to violinist and keynote speaker Diane Allen, who’s become an expert at helping people find their flow state. Finding your flow state can guide your career, relationships, and even your hobbies.
Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health
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1. Make sure the model fits the question you are trying to answer.
There are many different types of models and a wide variety of questions that models can be used to address. There are three that can be helpful for COVID-19:
Models that simplify how complex systems work, such as disease transmission. This is often done by putting people into compartments related to how a disease spreads, like “susceptible,” “infected,” and “recovered.” While these can be overly simplistic with few data inputs and don’t allow for the uncertainty that exists in a pandemic, they can be useful in the short term to understand basic structures. But these models generally cannot be implemented in ways that account for complex systems or when there is ongoing system or individual behavioral change.
Forecasting models try to predict what will actually happen. They work by using existing data to project out conclusions over a relatively short time horizon. But these models are challenging to use for mid-term assessment—like a few months out—because of the evolving nature of pandemics.
Strategic models show multiple scenarios to consider the potential implications of different interventions and contexts. These models try to capture some of the uncertainty about the underlying disease processes and behaviors. They might take a few values of such as the case fatality ratio or the effectiveness of social distancing measures, and play out different scenarios for disease spread over time. These kinds of models can be particularly useful for decision-making.
