Managing AI Risks in an Era of Rapid Progress

In this short consensus paper, we outline risks from upcoming, advanced AI systems. We examine large-scale social harms and malicious uses, as well as an irreversible loss of human control over autonomous AI systems. In light of rapid and continuing AI progress, we propose urgent priorities for AI R&D and governance

Managing extreme AI risks amid rapid progress

Preparation requires technical research and development, as well as adaptive, proactive governance

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

SummaryBackground Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatoryactions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospitalwith COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients wererandomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once perday by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatmentgroups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment andwere twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants andlocal study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to theoutcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treatpopulation. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) wereeligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomlyallocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall,561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days(rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days(rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, nosignificant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilationor death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24).Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or otherprespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restrictedto patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication

Synthesis and Characterization of Graphite Filler-Amine Functional Silicone Rubber Nanocomposite for Use as Thermal Interface Material for Better Heat Dissipation in Electronic Devices

Electronic appliances have grown compact and exhibit high power density with each passing day, which has resulted in a surge of heat emanating from these equipment. Superior thermal management solutions have thus become critical for the operation of such devices. Metals have high thermal conductivity (Ks) but when seen at microscopic scale, fail to occupy most crevices between heat conducting surfaces at the interface, thus lowering the actual area of contact resulting in less heat dissipation. Therefore, an elastomer with high thermal conductivity can be used as a thermal interface material (TIM). In this study, we report the synthesis of poly[(aminopropyl) methylsiloxane-co-dimethylsiloxane] - silicone rubber (SR) by base equilibration of 3-aminopropyl-heptamethlcyclotetrasiloxane with octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane and added the graphite via in-situ method, to achieve better dispersion and increase linkage between the matrix and the filler, to form the nanocomposite. We used Nuclear Magnetic Resonance analysis and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy to confirm the reaction. Furthermore, we investigated the heat vs temperature behavior of the nanocomposite with different graphite loadings to identify crystallization exotherms and melting endotherms on Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). In addition to this, we conducted tests to find out Heat Capacity (as a function of temperature) and Ks at 30oC for varying graphite loading using modulation steps on DSC. Elevated heat capacity and thermal conductivity was observed for graphite with SR as compared to neat SR for given temperature. Therefore, we were successful in synthesizing and consequently improving thermal properties of graphite-SR nanocomposite

OLED Hybrid Integrated Polymer Microfluidic Biosensing for Point of Care Testing

This paper reports a microfluidic platform with external hybrid integration of an organic light emitting diode (OLED) as an excitation source. This device can be used as a simple and cost effective biosensing element. The device is capable of rapid in-situ detection of biological elements such as sensing of interaction of antigen with fluorescent tagged antibody conjugates. These portable microfluidic systems have great potential for use an OLED in a single chip with very high accuracy and sensitivity for various point-of-care (POC) diagnosis and lab on a chip (LOC) applications, as the miniaturization of the biosensor is essential for handling smaller sample volumes in order to achieve high throughput. The biosensing element was successfully tested to detect anti-sheep IgG conjugates tagged to Alexafluor using a fluorescence based immunoassay method

Burden of death and disability due to adverse effects of medical treatment in India: An analysis using the global burden of disease 2019 study data

Unsafe patient care can result in an adverse event that may lead to hospitalization, disability, or death. India has a vast and diverse population with varying degrees of access to tertiary healthcare. However, there is a lack of studies analyzing the burden of healthcare-related adverse events. We aimed to determine the burden of adverse effects of medical treatment (AEMT) in India from 2010 to 2019 using the global burden of disease (GBD) 2019 study database. Using the GBD data, we computed estimates for deaths and disability-adjusted life years (DALY) due to AEMT at the national level and stratified them based on age and gender. AEMT contributed to less than 0.01 % of death and DALY rates due to all causes in India. From 2010 to 2019, there was a decrease in the death rate from 2.34 (1.75–2.66) to 2.33 (1.73–2.86) per 100000 population. The number of deaths and DALYs was highest in the 50–74-year age group and in females. There has been a decrease in the death and DALY rates in India over the past decade. AEMT accounts for only a small percentage of deaths due to all causes; however, the potential underreporting and the impact of medical treatment-related adverse events on the public perception regarding healthcare services need to be studied

Health Literacy Status and Understanding of the Prescription Instructions in Diabetic Patients

This study aimed to assess the health literacy (HL) of patients having diabetes mellitus, their understanding of prescription instructions (PI), and the correlation between HL and understanding of PI. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 263 adult diabetic patients who were assessed for their understanding of route of intake of the prescribed medication(s), frequency of intake, number of medication(s) to be consumed each time, indication for the medication(s), and the relation of drug intake with food. The HL of the patients was assessed by using Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine, a screening test comprising of 66 health-related words. The number of correctly pronounced words was used to assign a grade-equivalent reading level. There was a significant difference in the understanding of PI in patients with low and high HL levels. A significant difference was observed between the mean total score for interpreting PI in patients with 7 or fewer years of education compared with the other groups with a higher educational status (P<0.001). To conclude, diabetic patients with low HL level will have difficulty in understanding PI. Hence, an alternative comprehensive strategy needs to be adopted in clinical practice in these patients to provide them the instructions to take medications properly

Fruit and Vegetable Sales at City Municipal Markets, June, 1946

Abstract — Multihop wireless networks are ideal as infrastructures for location-aware network applications, particularly for disaster recovery operations. However, one missing component is an efficient and scalable distributed data location service. Existing approaches impose significant communication overhead on the underlying wireless layer and generally limit the total number of locatable objects in a network. To address this problem, we present the Integrated Data Location Protocol (IDLP), which provides scalable location of a large number of objects by integrating compressed summaries of object signatures into the routing layer. We evaluate our approach using extensive simulations in Qualnet, as well as detailed measurements from a deployed AODV-implementation on the UCSB MeshNet testbed. Results show that IDLP maintains low communication overhead while efficiently locating up to a hundred objects per node. I

Bioresistive identification of heat shock protein 90

90 kDa heat shock protein (HSP90) is a ubiquitous molecular chaperone and is one of the abundant proteins present in a cell under normal and stressed conditions. The adenosine triphosphate (ATP) binding region of HSP90 is currently under a great degree of study because of the interest of its role in cancer and protein maintenance; the binding of ATP to HSP90 induces a large conformational change in the protein as a result of the activity of different types of stressors within the cells. In the present paper, a simple microfluidic biosensor is proposed for the characterization of ATP-HSP90 interactions through the principle of bioresistive variation. The experimental results prove that the present biosensor system is highly suitable for the detection of heat shock proteins present in a real-time biological sample, which is very useful for in-situ biomedical applications and rapid pathogenic detections