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Human Behavior

How space travel puts the world in perspective – Asia Times

Frank White is an expert on space philosophy. Over time, he has written various renowned books about space exploration.

He wrote The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution about the psychological shift in thinking astronauts experience.Having interviewed many astronauts who have been to space, Frank understands the psychology of space exploration and has given extensive thought to the future of humanity beyond the Earth.

White spoke to Asia Times about his books, the need to foster international collaboration in the space sector, and the recent nomination of the International Space Station for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Vidhi Bubna: The Overview Effect was mentioned at the Democratic National Convention. How did you come about the idea of something as personal yet so overwhelming as the overview effect?

Frank White: The Overview Effect talks about the shift in perspective that a person undergoes when they witness the Earth from a distance. I have spent a great part of my life interviewing astronauts, whom I consider to be proxies for future space community members. I am a curious social scientist and I also have training in psychotherapy.

Through several experiences of personal growth and transformation, I have come to the understanding that astronauts have the potential to be agents for social change. Most astronauts say that being in space makes you realize that Were all in this together.

The Earth is a tiny place for human habitation and survival and the rest of the universe is vast. When you look at the Earth from far away, the realization hits you that this planet is really all that we have got.

Space travel changes our consciousness. We are able to develop a new appreciation of Earth as a system when we see it from above. And I am really interested in exploring how this shift in consciousness can impact our behavior. That is what the overview effect is all about.

VB:What excites you toward understanding the psychology of astronauts?

FW: Astronauts have to work in an environment where divisions created by human beings really do not last. They hail from different countries which could be entangled in several conflicts, but when they are out there, they need to build a station and work together.

They experience weightlessness. Their heart shrinks and they become taller as the spine is not compressed, and even their brain begins to change. The experiences of astronauts are really valuable when one seeks to explore the impact of shift in overall consciousness, over human behavior and community relations. It is not just about the visual consciousness, but also temporal.

Your understanding of time changes, because you witness around 16 sunrises and sunsets over the duration of what we know as one day.

These experiences that astronauts bring back to Earth could really be very insightful to explore their impact on human behavior and social structures, and most importantly, our ability to survive. As you would know, on Earth we enjoy protection from harmful radiations. But in outer space, [on the] moon or Mars, we are really very vulnerable. It is worth thinking how this is going to impact mutations and the possibility of diseases.

VB: With the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been increased nationalism. How can the world increase international collaborations during the pandemic?

FW: In the initial days of the Covid-19 outbreak, there had been a lot of collaboration among countries. I believe that much of it is probably still there, even though it is not being reported. I just hope that once we come out with a vaccine to counter the virus, we do not forget what living during the pandemic had been like. The world is in this together. Covid is trying to live in you no matter whether you are in India, China or the USA.

This is a lot similar to space exploration. The astronauts, when they come back, tell you that there is a lot of noise and division amongst us. But up there, they feel it as a matter of fact that we are all together. This sense of togetherness and cooperation needs to be augmented in us time and again, so that we dont let our older tendencies of tribal divisions interfere with our united humanitarian consciousness.

VB:What is the Copernican Perspective? Is it something that you came out with?

FW: Well, Copernicus was the first person to suggest that the sun does not revolve around the Earth, but it is rather the other way round. This understanding that the Earth in itself is not whole, but part of a larger system is what the Copernican perspective entails.

The visual and temporal shifts in consciousness that I just spoke about, these help us in building a new sort of connection with the universe in our minds. The farther away you shift from Earth, the greater the paradigm shift in your level of consciousness.

Being on the moon is going to be different than being on the Earths orbit. Being on Mars is going to be very different because of physical factors. Every planet and region in space will change our perspective differently. We need to understand that our perspectives will change a lot when we inhabit other places in space.

VB: There were three missions to Mars sent from different countries this year. Do you think that the countries could have collaborated for the Mars mission?

FW: One of my projects focuses on building a Human Space Program that will be about a global commitment to exploring the universe. The world needs to collaborate more as we explore outer space. Our goal should not be to send a particular country on this journey, but to send humanity as a whole. We need programs that aim to create and foster collaboration.

We need to realize that every choice that we make right now is going to impact the lives of our descendants on Mars and the moon who would have to live with the consequences of our decisions.

VB:Tell us something about the other book of yours, The Cosma Hypothesis, and what it deals with.

FW: When astronauts reach space, they get to see a lot more stars unblinking in their atmosphere. Experiences of the universe like these [are] what I have tried to capture in The Cosma Hypothesis.

It talks about our evolutionary purpose as a species which, I believe, is to make life and the universe more intelligent, and to help humanity.The hypothesis is that our purpose is to spread life, intelligence, and self-awareness into the universe; another way of saying it is to make the universe more alive, intelligent, and self-aware.

VB:The ISS has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Do you believe at some level, theres a broad correlation between your theory and the nomination itself?

FW: Well, I dont know if I had a part to play in it, but the International Space Station but The Overview Effect encourages environmental advocacy and greater peace on Earth. I was one of the people who sent a letter across in support of ISS winning the Nobel Peace Prize. I think they deserve it.

VB:Last, on a personal level, do you believe human settlement is going to find Mars as its new abode? How much do you agree or disagree on that? What are the challenges that will come in its way, psychologically and otherwise?

FW: If humans are going to live on Mars some day, it is worth wondering whether we would be terribly hit by homesickness and depression. Maybe people born there wont feel homesick, because they would be Martians.

I once spoke to the c0-founder of Mars One, a short-lived organization which was planning to offer one-way tickets to Mars. I told them that it wasnt a good idea to have one-way tickets because people would not want to go unless they could return. He said that many people who expressed interest to go did not want to come back and wanted to build a civilization there.

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How space travel puts the world in perspective - Asia Times

Human Behavior

Our short-lived Anthropocene and the coming Algorithmocene – Medium

The Anthroposcream

Almost lost in the cacophony of terrible news for us humans this year have been the recent signals of irreversible damage we humans have been doing to the planet.

The melting of Greenlands ice sheet has essentially passed the point of no return according to a study published this August in Nature. And as one of the studys co-authors puts it there is obviously more to come. In particular, there are now strong indications that other irreversible climate tipping points, like deforestation, permafrost thawing and slowing of ocean circulations, are rapidly being reached. All in all, more climate scientists are now seeing the International Panel on Climate Changes worst-case God help us scenario, once almost universally dismissed as alarmist climate porn, as the base-case for the future[1].

The blood-orange skies and destroyed homes from historic wildfires in the US, like the recent ones in the Amazon and Australia, offer a grim preview of such a future. Its also a grim future for wildlife and their habitat. The damage in the US this year is still ongoing, but in last years Australian fires alone, over a billion animals and just as many trees are believed to have perished. The Amazons ecosystem never evolved to cope with fire, but that is also now part of its future. As a result, the worlds largest rainforest and richest store of biodiversity is in danger of becoming a dry savannah within the next several decades. Overall, the planet has lost almost 70% of its wildlife since 1970, and possibly half of all species will be gone by the end of this century in what is now recognized as Earths 6th Great Extinction event. Here too, the once unthinkable is looking more like the inevitable.

Yet as surreal as it is to say it, climate change and species extinction are only a part of the seismic disruptions the Anthropocene the epoch of humans is creating this century. To my mind, they are probably the middle half. In order of what we can think of as their future geological footprint, the four biggest trends shaping the century are

Each of these trends alone is big and complex enough to count as its own challenge of the century for global civilization. So its understandable that theyre often discussed as if happening in separate silos. But of course they are anything but separate. Instead theyre deeply linked in a mutual feedback loop entangling the entire triad of society, the environment and technology. As such, their convergence to a perfect storm this century is not a coincidence. They are also driven by socioeconomic rules as old as the Neolithic revolution. That, to my mind at least, essentially guarantees their continuation no matter how many warning lights are flashed in our faces.

As humankind blithely stares down the barrel of the truly unthinkable, one possible outcome this century is the infamous Great Filter: a collapse of global civilization and probably human populations. For all we know, this may even be the most likely outcome. But like many, I wouldnt equate this scenario with the outright extinction of our species or even our technology. The minimum viable human population needed to avoid extinction is estimated to be less than 1,000 individuals. That could readily be managed, for example, in a few self-sustaining cave systems. Especially if, as expected under such extreme conditions, a disproportionate number of the survivors are engineers.

But if the survivors do eventually repopulate the planet, or if civilization manages to avoid collapse in the first place, one can argue it can only be with a very different dynamic between human society, the environment and technology. So different that, however this century plays out, the term Anthropocene as a new epoch in Earth history may not be as fitting as another: the Algorithmocene.

Before going there, lets understand the magnitude of each of the above four disruptions in the context of their future geological footprint on Earth.

Like a symphony is organized into movements, sections, phrases and measures, Earths 4.5 billion year history is organized by geologists into nested time intervals of eons, eras, periods and epochs (ignoring for simplicity the shortest interval of ages). Specifically, eons (10-10 years) are divided into eras(10-10 years) which are divided into periods (10-10 years) which are divided into epochs (10-10 years).

What we think of as human civilization began with the Neolithic revolution and has happened wholly within the

One peculiar thing of note is that each of the above is the shortest in its respective time unit. That is, our Holocene is the shortest of all of Earths 38 epochs. Similarly, our Quaternary, Cenozoic and Phanerozoic are the shortest among Earths 22 periods , 10 eras and 4 eons respectively. If we imagined selecting these as independent random samples[2], the odds of getting this streak would be about 0.003%; the same odds as getting a royal flush in 7-card Texas hold em. No doubt this just an odd coincidence (somewhat like Bodes Law in astronomy shows odd coincidences in the solar systems planetary orbits). But if we pretend for a moment that it isnt, the trend would predict something interesting (just as Bodes Law predicted Neptunes orbit). Namely, that our current Holocene epoch should be ending sooner than later.

And indeed, we know the Holocene is ending even faster than sooner. Sometime in the next year or so, the International Commission on Stratigraphy is due to officially introduce the long awaited Anthropocene the epoch of humans into Earths history book [3].

In keeping with the above imagined trend, the changes our species has set in motion go much further than moving to the next epoch. Specifically, we can see the following links

Before going further down the geological footprint list, lets pause for a moment and notice something important about ourselves. The fact that even our normal civilized activity (i.e. sans nuclear war or similar) is upending the last 65 million years of Earths history should leave us all stupefied. Such a terrifying tally should lead us, as rational, civilized beings, to an immediate and complete overhaul of our daily life and the socioeconomic rules that drove us here in the first place.

But of course nothing of the kind is happening, nor can we expect it to. After all, we still build homes in the middle of fire hazard zones and floodplains. Even during this pandemic, otherwise rational people are happy to gather in large, maskless crowds. More than 50 years after the first official warnings at the highest levels of government and industry, global carbon emissions still track one thing: global GDP. In short, the apocalypse remains abstract and remote for as long we think were able to personally avoid its consequences. As climatologist Ken Caldeira has remarked in the Guardian: If people are rich enough to air-condition their lives, they can watch whatever is the successor to Game of Thrones on TV, as the natural world decays around them.

Case in point: even after making this tally, I havent changed my daily routine. Sure, for a Western urbanite I try to behave in (what passes here for) an environmentally conscious way. But only until that hits an actual pain point. Things like recycling, public transport and buying local-organic are fortunately easy where we live. But I still binge on my favorite TV series and Youtube channels with a carbon footprint of 10 kg per hour; and I certainly wont give up my five cups of coffee a day, each with a water footprint of 130 liters per cup.

Thats not because I dont believe in the dangers Im writing about, but because thats just how we humans are. At least thats how humans in technological societies are. From the bottom of the pyramid to the top 1% and across the political belief spectrum, the vast majority of us will not leave our behavioral comfort zones until were blasted out with dynamite. Yes, there are deep-seated socio-psychological reasons for this. But its also because technological civilization is based on a simple premise. Even when faced with problems of our own making, why improve our behavior when we can improve our technology instead?

Which brings us to the existential irony of this point in human history. The problems created by our technological civilization are so massive and approaching so fast that only a virtual miracle can now avert the worst. If it can be averted at all. Blaming callous 1%-ers and their political cronies, socioeconomic inequality, poor education, wasteful consumer culture, human moral failing in general and even the Neolithic revolution itself may all have their proper place. But these debates are also centuries old and not going to move any needles anytime soon. Wishful thinking aside, at this point in the 21st century we are simply out of time to improve human behavior. The only miracle left to hope for is technology.

To be clear, thats not intended as a cornucopian argument as much as a fatalistic one. The risk of this miracle cure being worse than the disease is real. And it may be too late anyway: even if innovation is the infinite resource, as Ramez Naam claims, thats irrelevant when time is finite. Every collapsed civilization in history is a testament to that fact.

Either way, having broken Earths natural equilibria, our global 21st century civilization will try its technological best to impose its artificial equilibria. And as technologies go, artificial intelligence has the greatest potential of all to fall in that category.

AI is already driving the greatest technological arms race in history. Businesses and nations great and small already see AI as the ultimate strategic investment in their own future. From finance, design, manufacturing, distribution, and transportation to agriculture, politics, law-enforcement, work-life, social life, health and entertainment, AI is already transforming how our world works. Its also (one might say unsurprisingly) transforming how our very hackable minds work.

Yet its also clear to everyone that the story of artificial intelligence on planet Earth has barely begun. Its capabilities grow at least as fast as Moores Law, and the transformation of every corner of life is already baked in. Whatever fears (founded or unfounded) of a Terminator world we may have: the scale and complexity of navigating this century will, to my mind, ensure that AI will become the dominant factor shaping the world going forward. So much so that the concept of AI as a human tool, I argue, will eventually lose its meaning.

But before that sets off any woo-woo alarms: none of the above is a claim about the singularity, AI consciousness or even general artificial intelligence (all of which Im skeptical for different reasons). Its rather a claim about where the information processing action on planet Earth will be. And about how that action should be understood.

As the overwhelming mass of the worlds high-level information flow shifts from humans to machines, and algorithms get better at hacking into our mental space, an obvious question emerges. Where in the array of human affairs does any causal chain of events begin? How meaningful is the very concept of human intention in such a world? One might pretend that at least human programmers and their intentions are still behind it all, but in the age when algorithms pre-process everyones information and options, is this not merely a distinction without a difference?

In short, if visiting aliens survey our world next century and are able to follow the money i.e. the flow of information they may well decide theyre looking at a world run by machine-based algorithms. Whether they will pay much attention to the two-legged carbon-based creatures servicing them is another question. After all, any visiting aliens may well be machines from their own Algorithmocene age.

Its worth noting that for any future geologists, our Algorithmocene should leave a clear signal in the fossil record. Already there are more IoT devices in the world than humans, and their numbers are set to skyrocket in the coming decades. Given the 50 million tons of electronic waste the world produces every year, the fossil record may even already have its so-called golden spike: Agbogbloshie on the outskirts of Accra, Ghana. Agbogbloshie is said to be home to the worlds largest e-waste dump, nicknamed Sodom for its constant dumpster fires. As filmmaker Florian Weigsamer described it in a 2018 interview with CBC Radio When you first come there, it looks like an apocalyptic placeit seems like a place where everything ends

Image from the Blacksmith Institute for a Pure Earth, a non-profit working to improve recycling conditions in Agbogbloshie and elsewhere.

For the next few decades at least, its hard to see how the future will not continue to devolve into ever more terrible versions of the present. Everything trending badly in the world now is doing so for reasons much bigger than any conceivable public policy tweaks that might mitigate them. But for the longer term towards the end of the century, three possible scenarios seem conceivable enough to describe briefly in terms of famous sci-fi memes.

Footnotes:

[1] To dispel any illusions about the world effectively addressing climate change, see NOAAs atmospheric carbon dioxide monitoring site. Even the latest UN report on renewables 2020 states that current global commitments to reduce carbon fall far short of what would be needed to limit world temperature increases to less than 2 degrees Celsius.

[2] They are of course neither independent nor random. But even if the estimate is off by an order of magnitude, its an impressive coincidence.

[3] The term Anthropocene was widely popularized at the beginning of this century by Paul Crutzen and others since. However the International Committee on Stratigraphy is an extremely deliberative body. It is set to formally review the adoption of the term in 2021.

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Our short-lived Anthropocene and the coming Algorithmocene - Medium

Human Behavior

Parasite infestations revealed by tiny chicken backpacks – Jill Lopez

Blood-feeding livestock mites can be detected with wearable sensor technology nicknamed "Fitbits for chickens."

To help farmers detect mite infestations, a team of entomologists, computer scientists, and biologists led by UC Riverside entomologist Amy Murillo has created a new insect detection system. The team's work is detailed in the journalScientific Reports.

In recent years, concern for the well-being of livestock has given rise to more farms where poultry are allowed to roam. Though this freedom improves the quality of chickens' lives, free-range chickens are still subject to insect infestations.

"The trend in egg sales is 'cage free,' but that doesn't necessarily mean the chickens are insect free," Murillo said.

Of particular concern to scientists is the northern fowl mite, which Murillo said feeds on chicken blood and lives on hens in feathers surrounding "the butt area of the chicken."

In addition to the economic consequences of infected hens laying fewer eggs, mites can make the chickens sick and cause lesions to develop on their skin.

"Fowl mites are very unpleasant for the birds being fed upon and cause an itchy immune response," Murillo said.

To devise their detection system, Murillo's team first identified three key chicken pastimes closely linked to chickens' well-being: pecking, preening, and dustbathing. The team hypothesized they would see a big increase in preening and dustbathing among infected chickens because these activities keep feathers clean.

The team placed motion sensors into tiny backpacks the chickens could wear without discomfort. The next challenge was translating data from these sensors into algorithms that could be detected as behaviors.

Alireza Abdoli, a doctoral student in computer science at UCR, explained that quantifying fowl behavior isn't as simple as working with human behaviors like walking, because it isn't as regular.

In order to train a computer to recognize chicken behaviors, Abdoli had to take an unusual approach. He created an algorithm, or set of instructions, for the computer that considers the shape that the backpack sensor data makes on a graph, as well as features of the data such as mean and max.

"Most algorithms use either shape or features, but not both," Abdoli said. "Our approach is exciting because it increases the accuracy of the data so much and is key to making good decisions about the chickens' health."

Traditional animal behavior studies have had to rely on video or visual observations, which can be both time consuming and prone to errors. Murillo did some flock observations at the beginning of the project to make sure the computer's conclusions about behaviors were accurate. Once they were certain, observations were no longer necessary, and the computer could take over.

Not only does this new approach increase the reliability of scientists' observations, it also increases the number of animals and length of time they can be tracked.

The flock in this study did suffer from a mite infestation, which the team related to an increase in cleaning behaviors. Once the birds were treated and healed, the data showed preening and dust baths went back to normal levels.

Far more than farm fashion, these "Fitbits for chickens" offer valuable information for livestock farmers.

"These results could let farmers know it's time to examine their birds for parasites," Murillo said. "And the tools we developed can also be used examine the effects of any change in a bird's environment or diet."

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Parasite infestations revealed by tiny chicken backpacks - Jill Lopez

Human Behavior

Uncertainty during the pandemic can lead to depression, anxiety – University of Miami

Experts in psychology and business discuss how doubt affects individuals during times of increased stress.

Uncertainty is a constant in our lives.

Plan on a picnic. It might rain.

Ready for a trip and your car may get a flat tire or your reservations get lost.

Yet the uncertainty many feel during this pandemic seems to feel different. It seems more permanent.

Humans like to feel like they are in control, said Jill Ehrenreich-May, professor of psychology in the University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences. We work hard to feel in controlwhat we do for a living, how we run our families, and how we engage in social interactions.

COVID-19 has thrown off most vestiges of control, she said.

During COVID-19, that illusion of control has been taken away from us because we actually do not have the same freedoms and ability to enact those freedoms, said Ehrenreich-May.

Restrictionssuch as not being able to go to restaurants, bars, gyms, and the movies, or to visit relatives in nursing homes or hospitalsdisrupt the human psyche. Our lack of activity and routines during this pandemic may lead to increased depression and anxiety, she said. Uncertainty may worsen these conditions, because there is no timeline for the pandemic to end and for us to resume our pre-pandemic routines.

A recent study published in the American Medical Associations journal JAMA Network Open determined that nearly a quarter of people in the United States are experiencing symptoms of depression. These numbers are three times higher than before the pandemic, the study found.

But there are ways we can help ourselves, said Ehrenreich-May, and these involve focusing on what we can control.

For example, students may not be able to physically attend all classes, yet they can control how much they study and prepare for those classes, she pointed out. Also, mindfulness activities can help to keep us focused on remaining in the moment and learning to sit in the discomfort instead of jumping to maladaptive behavior such as drinking or overeating, she added.

Uncertainty can also offer unforeseen opportunities.

Alex Horenstein, assistant professor in economics at the University of Miami Patti and Allan Herbert Business School, focuses his research on financial and behavioral economics. He studies uncertain shocks that may affect the market and develops methods to mitigate those shocks in clients portfolios.

Most decisions involve some level of uncertainty, he said. The uncertainty itself is not what is generating high levels of anxiety right now, but its magnitude. It is the difficulty in being able to forecast what is going to happen. One thing is when a shock is transitory. Another thing is when there is a pandemic and you dont know if there will be a vaccine in a month, two months, or never.

His work has taught him that the best course to follow when there is uncertainty is to be conservative and not to panic. He mentioned those investors who back in March (at the beginning of the pandemic in the U.S.) decided not to invest in the stock market for fear that it would fall or even crash.

That was not a good decision because the stock market has had an incredible rally since then, Horenstein said. Historically, it has been a bad decision to sell after a drop in the stock market, because the U.S. economy soonerrather than latergoes back to the growing path.

He also noted that humans tend to be averse to risk.

We suffer more from losing than from winning, he said. And a period of uncertaintysuch as the one we are living incan also lead many to visualize the worst-case scenario. Thinking in a negative way can cause paralysis, Horenstein explained.

According to Ehrenreich-May, it is understandable that many will feel negatively and focus on the worst-case scenario. But, she pointed out, there are many resources to help.

She suggested an app, like Headspace, that provides mindfulness and meditation exercises for stress, anxiety, and other mental health issues.

For students, the app WellTrack, which can be accessed through the Counseling Center website, also offers useful exercises to deal with stress.

For those who may need more, she suggested books on cognitive behavior techniques, as well as seeking counseling.

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Uncertainty during the pandemic can lead to depression, anxiety - University of Miami

Anatomy

Does Computerized CT-based 3D Planning Of The Humeral Head Cut Help To Restore The Anatomy Of The Proximal Humerus After Stemless Total Shoulder…

Background:Restoration of proximal humeral anatomy (RPHA) after total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA) has been shown to result in better clinical outcomes than is the case in non-anatomical humeral reconstruction. Preoperative virtual planning has mainly focused on glenoid component placement. Such planning also has the potential to improve anatomical positioning of the humeral head by more accurately guiding of the humeral head cut, and selection of anatomical humeral component sizing. Hypothesis of the study: The use of preoperative 3D planning helps to reliably achieve RPHA after stemless TSA.

Methods:One hundred consecutive stemless TSA (67 males, 51 right shoulder, mean age of 62 9.4 years) were radiographically assessed using pre- and postoperative standardized AP radiographs. The RPHA was measured with the so-called circle method described by Youderian et al. We measured deviation from the premorbid center of rotation (COR), and more than 3mm was considered as minimal clinical important difference. Additionally, pre- and postoperative humeral head diameter (HHD), head neck angle (HNA) and humeral head height (HHH) were measured to assess additional geometrical risk factors for poor RPHA.

Results:The mean distance from of the premorbid to the implanted head COR was 4.3mm 3.1mm. Thirty five shoulders (35%) showed a deviation of less than 3mm (mean 1.9, 1.1) and 65 shoulders (65%) a deviation of 3mm (mean 8.0 3.7). Overstuffing was the main reason for poor RPHA (88%). The level of the humeral head cut was responsible for overstuffing in the 46 of the 57 overstuffed cases. The preoperative HHD, HHH and the HNA were significantly larger, higher and more in valgus angulation in the group with accurate compared to the group with poor RPHA (HHD of 61.1mm 4.4 vs 55.9 6.6, p<0.001; HHH 8.62.2 vs 7.62.6 p=0.026, varus angulation of 134.7 6.4 vs. 131.0 7.91, p=0.010).

Conclusion:Restoration of proximal humeral anatomy after stemless TSA using CT-based 3D planning was not precise. A poorly performed humeral head cut was the main reason for overstuffing which was seen in 88% of the cases with inaccurate RPHA. Preoperative small HHD, low HHH and varus angulated HNA are risk factors for poor RPHA after stemless TSA.

Clinical significance:While Preoperative CT-based 3-D planning gives insight into the proximal humeral anatomy, execution of this insight through visual based surgery without guides or navigation, does not appear to increase accuracy of RPHA.

Level of evidence:Level IV; Case Series; Treatment Study.

Keywords:CT based 3D planning of total shoulder arthroplasty; Humeral head cut; Humeral head implant size; Restoration of proximal humerus anatomy; Total shoulder arthroplasty; preoperative virtual planning.

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Does Computerized CT-based 3D Planning Of The Humeral Head Cut Help To Restore The Anatomy Of The Proximal Humerus After Stemless Total Shoulder...

Anatomy

Anatomy on the half shell: U of T alumnus draws on education to become champion oyster shucker – News@UofT

Most kinesiology graduates go on to have careers in exercise, health or education.Patrick McMurraywenton to open acclaimed sea food restaurants and break Guinness World Records for oyster shucking and credits his University of Toronto education, no less.

Born into a family of teachers, McMurray planned to become a teacher after completing his bachelors degree in physical health and education at U of T in 1992.

Yet, McMurray says his undergraduate education was quietly preparing him for a career in the food industry all along.

During my time at the university, I was the social director, organizing monthly pubs and social gatherings, and helping out with frosh weeks, he says. I was also working in restaurants as a server during that time to help pay for school.

McMurray started his own restaurant called Starfish in 2001 and six months later won the Canadian shucking championship a third time. Next, he was off to Ireland to compete in the world championship, taking his new blade and training regimen with him.

Going from a Canadian championship to a world championship is like switching from a sprint to a long distance race. says McMurray. You have to use a different approach.

The Canadian championship requires contestants to shuck 18 oysters. At the world championships, contestants have to shuck 30 Irish native oysters, which are a different species and are technically more difficult to open. McMurray used his university education to help him train. Leaning on the lessons he learned in his biomechanics and ergonomics classes, he designed an ergo-dynamic knife, which gave him a better grip and more leverage. He also developed a technique that would help him open the oysters more efficiently.

The difficulty of shucking an oyster comes from it being hard on the outside and soft on the inside, he explains. You have to sever the muscle that holds the two shells together and serve the oyster without cutting the meat, so the competitions are a combination of speed and dexterity.

You can save a lot of time by training your hands to do different things.

Murray came up with the idea ofserving his customers plates of 30 oysters for $35 while they timed him shucking oysters on a table the same height as the competition table. He went on to win the Galway World Championships that year, the first Canadian to accomplish the feat. When he returned home to Canada, he was invited on Christine Cushings show on Food TV.

I thought Id make an attempt at the Guinness world record, set at 27 oysters in one minute, a perfect time frame for TV, McMurray says. I brought 40 Oysters, opened 33 in 60 seconds, and after sending in the video and letters, was awarded my first Guinness world record.

Ever since, McMurray has received calls from around the world asking him to attempt tobreak his own record which he did in 2007 inBeijing, where he shucked 38 oysters per minute.Then, in2017, he went head to head with Gordon Ramsay on The F-Word Live show, setting the new record of 39 oysters per minute. His Guinness world record now stands at 1,114 oysters in one hour.

Oysters have taken McMurray around the world, across Canada and throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Travelling around the globe has shown me that oyster culture is found wherever ocean touches land, McMurray says.

In 2007, he published his first book on oysters, calledConsider the Oyster:a Shuckers Field Guide, in which he wrote about the global nature of oysters and created the oyster tasting wheel. In 2018, he published a second edition calledThe Oyster Companion, which includes recipes and more stories.

Oysters are a rare food that can take you back to an exact location and memory, he says. Thats because when the muscle closes, it captures sea water that it uses as its lifeblood. That little drop of ocean water has the flavour of the region its been plucked from, so I can open up an oyster from Ireland here in Toronto and smell the sea breeze in western Ireland.

Thats why I always tell people to first smell the oyster, then chew it.

McMurray is often invited to speak at special events, judge shucking contests and make TV appearances, most memorably on Martha Stewarts TV show, where he showed her, Snoop Dogg and Wanda Sykes how to shuck oysters and spoke about oyster etiquette, such as choosing the right sauce.

If you look at Tabasco sauce, thats great for someone from Louisiana, but if youre in Paris, why are you using a Louisiana sauce on a Parisian order of French oysters? Regional sauces would be more appropriate, he says. On the other hand, the Olympia oyster should be eaten without sauce. Its the size of a loonie and it takes five years to grow it and it virtually melts on the palette. Its so small, but its the most complex of all oysters.

When hes not teaching celebrities about oysters, McMurray teaches a culinary and hospitality class at Centennial College, having finally come full circle from his days at U of T when he planned to become a teacher.

When I teach my class about oysters, I talk about the different species, the anatomy of the oyster and how to open it. I learned all about muscles in my anatomy class at U of T, he says.

He saysthere is no better food source for protein than oysters. Theyre low on fat, contain Omega 3 and Omega 6, zinc, selenium and vitamin D. And, he says, they are among the most sustainable foods to grow, with the ocean doing most of the work.

Eat an oyster, save an ocean, says McMurray. Theyre good for you and the environment.

His words of advice for new students starting their education in the most unusual of times? Enjoy it.

You never know where you will end up, but know that youll always be able to use what youre learning and apply it perhaps in different ways than originally intended, says McMurray.And, follow your passion. My passion turned out to be food, but I used so much of what I learned in school about nutrition, anatomy and biomechanics in my career.

Inset photo: Patrick McMurray (centre, kneeling) and the rest of his team at U of Ts annualBed Races event (photo courtesy of Patrick McMurray)

Originally posted here:
Anatomy on the half shell: U of T alumnus draws on education to become champion oyster shucker - News@UofT

Anatomy

Anatomy of a super app in APAC factors shaping its evolution – The Paypers

Joshua Chong, Analyst at Kapronasia, elaborates on the key factors that drive the popularity of super apps in APAC and shape their evolution

Alipay. WeChat. Grab. Gojek. These household names have become synonymous with the term super app in APAC. Presenting a dizzying array of apps housed under one roof, super apps continue to make the headlines with game-changing strategic moves. As super apps in APAC expand across the region and extend their reach into seemingly unrelated services and sectors, the question on everyones mind is Whats next for these super apps?.

Factors driving the popularity of super apps in APAC

Understanding the factors driving the widespread popularity of super apps in APAC can give us a glimpse of what the future may hold. In general, there are five social, economic, and technological factors that have contributed to this development:

High mobile and smartphone penetration, with daily usage ingrained into consumer habits. Countries such as Indonesia, China and the Philippines have a high smartphone device ownership among internet users and a growing share of web traffic moving to mobile devices in recent years. The familiarity with mobile phones and the reliance on them have set the stage for more services to be delivered through this platform.

Significant unbanked population with limited access to basic banking services. Outside of capital and tier 1 cities, customers find it hard to access basic services such as cash withdrawal, domestic money transfer, and bill payments. Their best option may often be the time-consuming and error-prone process of physically carrying cash to a bank outlet a few hours away in a neighbouring village.

Numerous micro-small-medium enterprises (MSMEs) that increasingly want to accept digital payments or are forced to do it. For a business to accept payments on an app, all it takes is a two-step process of downloading the app and registering with basic information. Coupled with government initiatives such as demonetisation in India, it is easy to see why platforms like Paytm and BharatPe have experienced a rapid growth.

Lower concern and consumer awareness about data privacy issues. Consumers in APAC and especially in emerging Southeast Asian nations tend to show little concern about how companies use their personal data. The promise of a juicy discount or cashback generally attracts many customers to provide their personal details, often without much consideration for data security and privacy measures.

Presence of many areas with high population density and similar socio-economic standing. Group buying websites have utilised this trend to offer attractive ecommerce discounts and become a big hit in China and many Southeast Asian nations.

Evolving through mergers and partnerships

It is worthwhile to consider that super apps generally started off as single-service apps. These single-service apps rode on the waves of the key trends highlighted above and, upon reaching a critical mass, turned to mergers and partnerships.

Consolidations have played a key role in forming Chinese super apps, and they tend to be driven by competitive pressures. Didi, the Chinese transportation platform, was formed from a 2015 merger of Kuadi Dache and Didi Dache. Despite their dominance, the companies were tangled in price wars that saw them lowering fees and offering financial concessions to capture market share. Their coming together is likely what drove Uber to relinquish its position in China, and it placed Didi in a better position to weather future government regulation.

Not surprisingly, rumours about a possible Grab-Gojek merger started making their rounds on the internet in early 2020, as the two are currently burning cash while they compete to attract drivers and customers to their apps. Mergers are likely to be a trend in the near future, as platforms increasingly realise the benefits of combining their treasure troves of data to improve offerings and cross-sell services.

Meanwhile, strategic partnerships have enabled app platforms to expand their offerings beyond the core services. For instance, Gojek has partnered with major local production houses and international studios to launch a video streaming service, GoPlay, on its core ride-hailing platform. On the other hand, Ant Financial, the operator of Alipay, announced a partnership with Vanguard to bring investment advisory services to retail consumers in China. As this range of services continues to expand, users will increasingly find themselves attached to the app, as it will be intertwined with every facet of their lives.

What does the future hold for APAC super apps?

The APAC region consists of nations with vastly distinct cultures, economies, and commercial practices. Even leading players such as Gojek have found it challenging to gain traction outside of their home market, as it turned out that unique product adaptations and strategies were required to succeed in each neighbouring country. For this reason alone, it is unlikely that super apps will make bold product launches across the ocean. While the core services of super apps will likely remain in the region, the boldest ones will extend their reach behind the scenes by taking equity stakes and forming partnerships with foreign up-and-coming tech startups. The goal here would be to incorporate the startups technology and data into the super apps native ecosystem.

This is especially applicable to players such as Tencent and Grab who have increased their focus on fintech with ambitions of developing a global digital banking ecosystem. Instead of expansion, the new buzzword for fintech-focused super apps could very well be integration.

This article was published in our Payments Methods Report 2020, an extensive overview of whats new in how people pay in the most relevant ecommerce markets.

About Joshua Chong

Joshua is an analyst at Kapronasia and has experience across banking, payments, and capital markets. Before Kapronasia, Joshua was with Morgan Stanley Equity Research in London and held strategy and business development roles with UK-based fintechs in the payments and asset management industries. Joshua graduated from the London Business School with a Master of Science in Financial Analysis and holds a BBA degree from BI Norwegian Business School.

About Kapronasia

Kapronasia is a leading independent research and consulting company focused on the Asian financial services industry. We help financial institutions, technology vendors, consultancies, and private equity companies understand the impact of business, technology, and regulatory issues in banking, payments, insurance, and capital markets.

Original post:
Anatomy of a super app in APAC factors shaping its evolution - The Paypers

Anatomy

What is Shonda Rhimes’ net worth? How she makes and spends her fortune – Business Insider – Business Insider

At age 50, Shonda Rhimes has already created a legacy.

The success of her production company Shondaland's show "Grey's Anatomy" on ABC made Rhimes the first Black woman to showrun a successful primetime drama on a broadcast network. But that was only the beginning. Her following hit shows "Scandal" and "How to Get Away With Murder" brought Rhimes into the cultural lexicon with #TGIT ("Thank God It's Thursday"), dubbed as such because of how Rhimes' shows dominated TV's Thursday night primetime line-up.

In 2017, she ended her contract early with ABC, trading in her $10 million base salary for a four-year deal with Netflix worth an estimated $150 million, per The New York Times.

It's all made Rhimes one of the highest-paid showrunners in TV, with Forbes estimating her net worth at $135 million. A representative for Rhimes didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment regarding Rhimes' net worth and spending.

From buying the "Grey's Anatomy" cast vacations to snapping up properties around Los Angeles, here's how Rhimes spends her millions.

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What is Shonda Rhimes' net worth? How she makes and spends her fortune - Business Insider - Business Insider

Anatomy

Anatomy of the New Supercapacitor Industry – IDTechEx.com

Surprises abound in the new IDTechEx Research report, "Supercapacitor Markets, Technology Roadmap, Opportunities 2021-2041". In 2010, there were no Chinese manufacturers in the top ten supercapacitor manufacturers. In 2020, 40% of them are Chinese. This has been achieved by world-class R&D, being in one of the largest markets globally, strong investment and government support including protective trading. However, China is not leading in capacitor-supercapacitor hybrids where the USA saw a $7 million follow on order recently.

An exception to the commoditisation is small supercapacitors in the form of battery-supercapacitor hybrids BSH, aerospace and military ones working at 150C, capacitor-supercapacitor hybrids beating tantalum electrolytics on ripple and one fifth to one tenth of the size and weight and ones in odd formats such as to go in a watch or smart card. Those working at 85C, -40C and 3V as single cells are less common and in demand.

Several companies declare their supercapacitors to be "graphene" as a badge of honour. It can mean non-flammable, relatively non-toxic, no use of the volatile, toxic carcinogen acetonitrile, valuably improved series resistance, better voltage and energy density in a pure EDLC - all good things justifying higher price.

Raghu Das predicts, "Acquisitions and mergers will continue. One billion dollar supercapacitor businesses may be created by 2045. If the addressable markets we have analysed are strongly penetrated, then it will be much earlier. Given past disappointments, our upside forecast currently stands at $7 billion in 2041."

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Anatomy of the New Supercapacitor Industry - IDTechEx.com

Anatomy

Spineology Announces FDA De Novo Grant of Minimally Invasive OptiMesh Expandable Interbody Fusion System – Business Wire

ST. PAUL, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Spineology Inc., an innovator in anatomy-conserving surgery, is excited to announce the FDA grant of its proprietary Spineology Interbody Fusion System, now called the OptiMesh Expandable Interbody Fusion System. The grant follows the successful completion of the SCOUT (Spineology Clinical Outcomes Trial) Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) trial. OptiMesh is a unique mesh device that expands in three dimensions, enabling surgeons to perform interbody fusion procedures through the smallest access in the spine industry.

The SCOUT IDE trial outcomes data was presented at the Society for Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery (SMISS) Annual Meeting in November 2019, by the trials lead investigator, John Chi, M.D., M.P.H. Dr. Chi is Director of Neurosurgical Oncology at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Chi and his co-authors reported:

We have found this innovative, minimally invasive device to be a safe and effective option for lumbar interbody fusion procedures, said Dr. Chi. The outcomes, including high fusion rates, improved function, reduced pain and high satisfaction rates, are very favorable. Additionally, the minimal exposure requirements yielded an exceptional safety profile.

Spineology is preparing for a Q1 2021 launch of the OptiLIF procedure utilizing the OptiMesh device. This procedure enables enhanced recovery and exceptional efficiency, and its outcomes are supported by prospective FDA IDE clinical data.

OptiLIF is the least invasive lumbar fusion procedure that I can do, said Dr. Stephane Lavoie of DeLand, Florida, an investigator in the SCOUT study. The unique OptiMesh implant can be inserted through a one-centimeter incision and then expanded to restore anatomy, which provides neural decompression and optimally conforms to a patients endplates. As a result, patients recover quickly, and the impact to procedure efficiency is significant. OptiLIF will have a major impact on the standard of care related to low back and leg pain.

The FDA De Novo grant of the OptiMesh Expandable Interbody Fusion System opens the door to commercialization of Spineologys OptiLIF procedure, which supports Spineologys anatomy-conserving product strategy.

I am pleased to announce the De Novo grant of our OptiMesh implants and instrumentation to support the OptiLIF procedure. Based on the strong SCOUT study results and experiences of our investigators, we are preparing for a full market launch in Q1 of 2021. I anticipate OptiLIF will help take surgery for low back and leg pain to the next level through its ability to provide excellent patient outcomes, enhanced recovery and exceptional efficiency, said John Booth, Spineologys CEO.

About Spineology Inc.

At Spineology, we are dedicated to transforming spine surgery by providing innovative, anatomy-conserving technologies for surgeons and their patients. Our proprietary mesh technology is used in the OptiMesh and Duo implants, which expand in three dimensions to create large footprints and allow placement of anatomy-conforming interbody fusion devices through very small incisions. This technology preserves spinal anatomy, increases procedural efficiency, and accelerates patient recovery. Learn more at spineology.com.

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Spineology Announces FDA De Novo Grant of Minimally Invasive OptiMesh Expandable Interbody Fusion System - Business Wire