PAWS for thought

Being a ranger in Cambodia is an incredibly risky job, with four rangers being killed by poachers just last year. It is difficult to know when and where to patrol in order to catch poachers in the act- until now.

Researchers at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering have developed a novel way for rangers to decide on a safe and effective patrol route.

The “Protection Assistant for Wildlife Security” (or “PAWS”) is a predictive AI software, employing mathematical models and game theory.

It is used in combination with the digital tracking tool already employed in natural reserves across the world, the “Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool” (or “SMART”). This software enables rangers to collect data from their patrols, which can then be analysed – but SMART is unable to predict the poaching hot spots, which is the advantage of using PAWS as well.

And this combination has been proven to be effective. Since last year, PAWS has been trialled in Srepok wildlife sanctuaries. Twenty-four rangers patrolled areas identified by PAWS finding more than 1,000 snares between mid-December and late January – more than doubling their findings before the software was employed.

James Lourens, law enforcement technical adviser for the Srepok Wildlife Sanctuary said that he has been very happy with the results: “PAWS helped us move from a reactive position to a more proactive approach”.

Field testing is expected to continue into the summer, with data from December and January being incorporated into the model to give a richer understanding and maximise outcomes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07kkc53

https://magazine.viterbi.usc.edu/spring-2019/features/srepok-wildlife-sanctuary/

Retribution or rehabilitation?

In countries that still serve capital punishment for various crimes retribution, defined as “deserved and severe punishment” [1], is the name of the game. But for the rest of the world, such as in the UK, should we be questioning whether the most constructive form of imprisonment is retribution or rehabilitation?

In Norway, re-offending rates were sharply curtailed by a shift in the approach of prisons 20 years ago from a punitive “lock-up” to effectively a rehabilitation centre set-up.

This vast change in the approach to prisoner treatment meant that recidivism in Norway has dropped from about 60-70% in the 1980s (a similar statistic to that of the USA at present) to the shocking figure of 20% after 2 years of incarceration currently.

So what are they doing so differently, and how has it been this effective?

Are Hoidal, the governor of Norway’s maximum security Halden prison said in an interview with BBC news “In Norway, the punishment is just to take away someone’s liberty. The other rights stay. Prisoners can vote, they can have access to school, to health care; they have the same rights as any Norwegian citizen. Because inmates are human beings. They have done wrong, they must be punished, but they are still human beings.” [2]

This radical change in thinking is employed as a combination of increased programmes, focus from the beginning of a prisoner’s sentence on what they can do once they get out, vocational training, opportunities to take qualifications, but most importantly the role of the “guards” (or, as they are called in Halden max, prison officers) has been completely changed.

“Guards and prisoners are together in activities all the time. They eat together, play volleyball together, do leisure activities together and that allows us to really interact with prisoners, to talk to them and to motivate them.”

In the UK, prison guards are trained for 12 weeks, whereas in Norway they undergo 2 to 3 years of training, including studying law, ethics, criminology, reintegration and social work, followed by a year training in a prison, then taking their final exams.

When asked if he would feel comfortable employing a guard that had been trained for only 3 months, Hans-Jorgen Brucker of the University College of the Norwegian Correctional Service said that “I think there is a high risk for corruption with a short training.”

He also said that violence in Norwegian prisons is vastly reduced; “Of course, in some of our older prisons there is occasional violence but I really don’t remember the last time we had violence here,” he reflects. “Maybe we had one or two incidences of spitting?”

It is clear that this method of punishment is effective. Perhaps, in the UK, we should also be looking at a shift from retribution-based prison systems to a greater focus on rehabilitation.

[1] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/retribution

[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-48885846

Saudi Arabia: Freedom to Travel

A year after Saudi Arabia broke world headlines for the lifting of the ban on women driving, another step has been made in the kingdom for women’s rights. Saudi Arabian women can now apply for a passport and leave the country without the permission of a male guardian.

Previously, if a woman wanted to obtain a passport, she would need to have permission from her male guardian or “wali”, who could be her husband, father, brother, uncle or even her son. Although this isn’t written in law, male guardianship is followed by government officials, courts and businesses as well as individuals in Saudi Arabia which makes it difficult for women to take legal action against a guardian as they would require permission to do so.

In Sunni Islam, which is the largest denomination of Islam, “hadith”, the Arabic word for “report”, “account”, or “narrative” refers to reports of statements or actions of Muhammad, or of his tacit approval or criticism of something said or done in his presence. Hadith are derived from and are second only to the Qu’ran. From these two sources, Sharia rulings, or God’s divine law, are taken. It is this religious law that resulted in male guardianship existing in Saudi Arabia. [1] [2]

Last Friday, government rulings were published in the official gazette, Umm Al-Qura, including: “A passport will be granted to any Saudi national who submits an application,” and a statement that anyone over the age of 21 would not need permission to leave the country.

Along with the overturning of the restrictions on travel, it was decreed that women would now also have the right to register births, marriage or divorce.

Until recently, it was also legal that a man could divorce a woman without notifying her, but this was overturned by the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in January 2019 with the Saudi supreme court issuing a law that women would receive a text notification if they had been divorced.

Such reforms have come about as Saudi Arabia faces scrutiny over its human rights record including an ongoing trial of women activists who have long demanded that the guardianship system be dismantled.

That includes Loujain AlHathloul, a prominent rights activist who marked her 30th birthday this week in a Saudi prison, campaigners said.

Activists are sceptical that the country, which in 2016 was ranked 141st out of 144 in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index [3], will ever abolish male guardianship or will just continue to grant cosmetic exclusions in order to appease those campaigning.

However, with the travel ban being lifted, a great degree more freedom has been afforded to the women of Saudi Arabia. Previously, women have had to seek asylum in other countries if, for example, they needed to travel for their career.

It’s a small step, but a significant one for the personal freedoms of the women of Saudi Arabia.

[1] Campo, Juan Eduardo. “Hadith”. Encyclopedia of Islam.

[2] Tayeb El-Hibri, Maysam J. al Faruqi (2004). “Sunni Islam”. In Philip Mattar (ed.). The Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa (Second ed.). MacMillan Reference.

[3] “Global Gender Gap Index 2016”. World Economic Forum. 2016.

A life-saving app?

Acute kidney injury (AKI) affects 1 in 5 people admitted to hospital and, if not treated quickly, can affect other organs. In the UK it accounts for around 100,000 deaths each year.

Using traditional methods, it can be many hours before the results of blood tests are available for doctors treating patients with this time-sensitive illness. However, with a new app developed by the Royal Free alongside technology firm DeepMind, results can be delivered in as little as 14 minutes, leading to much faster diagnosis and therefore treatment of this life-threatening condition.

AKI refers to when the kidneys stop working. This can be anywhere between minor loss of kidney function and complete kidney failure. Certain groups are particularly at risk of this such as those over 65, those with a severe infection or sepsis, and those with a long term condition, for example, diabetes. [1]

Tests for those with suspected AKI look for a larger than normal quantity of creatinine in the blood. Creatinine is a by-product of the metabolised creatine, an acid that assists in muscle contractions. It is naturally found in the blood in small quantities as a result of normal wear and tear in the body, but higher levels indicate that the kidneys are not working properly in their function as blood filters, so this is a good indicator of AKI. [2][3]

The app and specific care pathway set out by this research improves diagnosis times by using a panel of specialists in conjunction with e-alerts to provide real-time evaluation of blood samples. At present, this method of diagnosis hasn’t been proven to improve recovery from AKI due to the short time-scale of the study, but it is projected that with the significantly faster diagnoses that have been proven, in the future this could lead to faster recovery. [4]

This research shows that e-alerting systems could be the future in medical care, rather than the outdated methods of communication currently used in many hospitals to deliver results to doctors, such as pagers. Faster diagnoses save lives.

[1] https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/acute-kidney-injury/

[2] https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/creatinine

[3] https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/what-creatinine

[4] npj Digital Medicine volume 2, Article number: 67 (2019) “Evaluation of a digitally-enabled care pathway for acute kidney injury management in hospital emergency admissions”, Alistair Connell et al.

350 Million Trees

Image by Heiss from Pixabay

According to statistics from the UN, Ethiopia’s forest coverage has declined from 35% of total land at the beginning of the 20th Century, to scarcely above 4% in the 2000s. As a result of this deforestation the country has become prone to droughts and other climate emergencies.

However, on Monday, in a project lead by the Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, over 350 million trees were planted in just 12 hours, breaking the record previously set in India in 2016. Public offices were shut down for the day in order to allow civil servants to take part in the project among the other volunteers at 1000 sites across the country.

This 12 hour campaign is part of the start of an initiative to plant 200 million seedlings over the summer, with the end goal of reforesting the country by planting 40 tree seedlings per head.

Dr Azene Bekele, the expert for “Agro-Forestry and Land Use” at The Horn of Africa Regional Environmental Centre and Network, stated that if Ethiopia continues with the momentum of this project, up to $390 million per annum could be saved by the country due to no longer needing to import forest products.

He said that “Ethiopia has tremendous potential for afforestation as plants grow
throughout the year. Hence, the country can save $390 million for
importing forest products and [being] able to export and earn foreign currency
beyond fulfilling the domestic demand.”

He also added that it is important that follow-up care and conservation by experts is carried out in order to maintain this new forestry.

The Ethiopian minister of agriculture, Umar Hussen, said last Thursday, of the 12-hour seedling plant, that “Nationwide monitoring of planted seedlings will be conducted to ensure that the planted trees would be grown.”

He also said that the country “had lost billions of trees and forest resources
over the past decades”, so this shows a remarkable change not only for the future environment of Ethiopia, but also in the political leadership of this country.

We can only hope that other countries follow suit in this effort; helping to reduce atmospheric carbon, therefore reducing the greenhouse effect, using the best filters we have – trees!

Ps. if you want to help increase the number of trees on the planet consider using https://www.ecosia.org/ as your default search engine. Not only do they use ad revenue to plant trees but they also won’t track your searches or sell your data to advertisers, and every search is SSL-encrypted, meaning that your privacy is a great deal safer!

Finding Hope

In wars of the past, standard rules about harming civilians in acts of war have existed, as well as neutral zones where forces weren’t allowed to attack, including hospitals. There is something incredibly dehumanised about bombing hospitals but, horrifyingly, this has become a standard in the Syrian conflict that has been ongoing for 8 gruelling years.

This grisly reality reached a new low in 2016 when six medical facilities, including a children’s hospital were reportedly destroyed by Russian and Syrian government planes.

However, out of this despicable act, an organisation called “CanDo” went to work, crowdfunding and then building a new children’s hospital in 3 months – very aptly named the “Hope Hospital”.

This was the 7th hospital built by the organisation lead by Dr Rola Hallam, a British-trained Syrian anaesthetist, who returned to the hospital, situated outside of Northern Aleppo, in May this year for the first time since its building was completed in April 2017.

Travelling to the hospital from the UK is not an easy feat. In December 2016 “The People’s Convoy” began the journey, passing through several armed checkpoints on the way and crossing the border from Turkey – a country who has been, since 2011, one of the main supporters of the armed “rebel” fighters in Syria – in order to transport the required medical equipment and supplies to Jarabulus, the city on the border of Syria and Turkey that plays host to the Hope Hospital,

There have been some claims that the charity CanDo is taking a direct political stance by providing this support in a territory of the country that is still host to Turkish and Syrian government rebels, and thus potentially helping children of those committed to the radical Islamist ideology which is supported by the UK and US governments, as opposed to refusing to take sides as humanitarians. However, surely it is incredibly difficult to build a hospital somewhere where it won’t benefit either side of a conflict advantageously?

This criticism aside, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. The Syrian government have recently regained full control of all areas surrounding the capital, Damascus, which were previously occupied by rebel and terrorist groups. This has enabled civilians to begin to return to the capital and rebuild their former lives.

Whichever political viewpoint you subscribe to, from a humanitarian stance, this is definitely positive.

The Future of Music

Summer is festival season for millions of people around the globe, with huge, world-renowned festivals such as Glastonbury being host to some of the hottest artists of the minute. Also, in the UK, the most well-known classical music event is taking place at the Royal Albert Hall; The Proms.

Even if you choose not to subscribe to either mainstream of music, your life involves countless movie soundtracks, Spotify playlists, advert jingles and radio broadcasts – so why on earth is music education losing its funding?

In a 2018 survey, the University of Sussex found that the percentage of schools where studying music was compulsory until year 9 had almost halved in six years, bringing the percentage of schools that do make it compulsory down to 47.5%.

Whilst music is still part of the national curriculum up to year 9, many schools do not have to follow this, such as free schools and academies. However, the blame cannot be put down to a lack of appreciation by those deciding curricula on a school level; there is a distinct lack of financial support for music teachers from the government. In the same report, it was found that over a third of schools had reported a decrease in number of music staff compared to two years previously.

Where there is a short-falling of government budget, schools have to rely on local councils for support, meaning that in more disadvantaged areas arts subjects are increasingly being cut.

That said, a Department for Education spokesperson stated: “We take the study of the arts extremely seriously which is why music and art remain compulsory parts of the national curriculum up to age 14.We invest heavily in arts and music subjects, with more money going into education programmes to support them than anything else aside from PE.

“In total, we have invested nearly £500 million in music and arts education programmes between 2016 and 2020, which includes £300 million for a network of music education hubs to make sure every child has the opportunity to learn a musical instrument.”

A four year study called Exchanging Notes undertaken by Birmingham City University and the national charity “Youth Music” reported: “One of the significant findings from the Exchanging Notes projects is that schools gain from working with community and industry-based partners and the children and young musicians involved benefit from joined-up provision that makes a difference not only to their music making and music creating, but significantly to the development of them as people and as useful and contributing members of society.”

As a young musician, I have directly seen the impact that music has on the lives of those that study it. Learning to play music teaches critical skills such as concentration, listening and organisation, as well as less obvious skills like logic – which applies directly to STEM subjects – and empathy, which I personally believe is the most important trait for humanity to possess. How can one expect to flourish in the difficult world young people are growing up in today without these attributes?

In the wise words of Led Zeppelin’s front man, Robert Plant: “Music is for every single person that walks the planet.” We need to encourage a musical education for children from all backgrounds in order to keep providing music for humanity.

Free stuff!

Okay, now I’ve lured you in with a literally not incorrect title, let’s get to the real business.

STDs aren’t sexy or fashionable or not-embarrassing, so it’s hard to talk about them. If, like me, you’re a 20-something year old student, you will have been taught about STDs in school and probably been, more than anything, scared about the prospect of ever catching one. And, you probably know that regular STD checks are a good idea.

But talking to your GP about them, or the prospect of going to an STD clinic sounds horrifically embarrassing, so (and this isn’t meant to patronise, this is all from personal experience of embarrassment at talking) you put off getting checked…

I won’t scare you with horror stories of what happens if you, god forbid, catch an STD, because you’ve almost definitely heard it all before, but what if I told you that it’s actually not difficult or, more importantly, mortifying to get hold of a test and do it at home? For free?! Enjoy the benefits of the NHS while you still can and do yourself a favour: if you live in Southampton, even if just during term time, you can order a test to be sent straight to your house, you do it at home and post back, then receive the results by text. FOR FREE! So why not?!

https://www.letstalkaboutit.nhs.uk/worried-about-stis/order-a-test-online/

“Worried-about-stis” is a bit of a mis-labelling I feel, as current advice states that if you are sexuality active you should get tested at least once a year and every time you have sex with a different partner [ref: CDC.gov].

See https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/how-to-use-self-test-kits-safely/ for more information about what’s safe, and how to get hold of free tests in various parts of the country.

Seriously consider doing a test. It’s one of the best things you can do for your health, takes minimal time and effort, and you can be safe in the knowledge that you won’t pass anything on to any future partners. Woo free stuff!!

Anti-malarial.. fungus?!

In a recent Science article, researchers from Burkina Faso and the USA published their discovery that a type of fungus could be used to stop the spread of Malaria.

In the cited study it was found that a population of 1,500 mosquitoes collapsed just 45 days after first being exposed to the genetically-modified fungus – dropping down to just 13 individuals.

Metarhizium pingshaense already naturally infects the Anopheles mosquitoes, which carry malaria, so the next step was to adapt this fungus to serve as a toxin to the mosquito.

Finding that a species of Australian funnel-web spiders produce a toxin which they use to kill insects, the researchers altered the DNA of the fungus so that once it was inside the mosquitoes, this toxin would be produced.

The idea of this study, conducted by researchers from the IRSS research institute, Burkina Faso and the University of Maryland, USA, was not to make the mosquitoes go extinct but to prevent the spread of malaria. It should also be noted that this fungus is specific to targeting Anopheles mosquitoes; other insects are not harmed by this method.

It is estimated that malaria kills more than 400,000 people per year. There are approximately 219 million cases of this disease reported per year, it being spread when the female mosquitoes drink blood.

It is particularly important that this new research has come to light as the wide-spread use of insecticide-coated mosquito nets starts to become obsolete due to the increasing insecticide-resistance of mosquitoes.

This study paves the way to a potential solution to a problem that has caused so many fatalities. The ingenuity of such researchers as well as their multi-national collaboration gives hope for further developments in this disease solution and making it more wide-spread.

Amazonian tribe win against oil company

Ecuador’s indigenous Waorani tribe numbers 4800 people, and occupy various areas of the Amazon. Part of their land in Ecuador, however, has fallen under dispute as the wealth in the sub-soil is owned by the government and had been being investigated for oil potential in a manner deemed unconstitutional by the indigenous people living there.

The constitution states that such people as those belonging to this tribe have the right “to maintain possession of their ancestral lands and obtain their free adjudication.”

The Waorani people took the matter to court, stating that they had been “duped” in previous agreements in 2012 and wanted control back over the 180,000 hectares of land that the Ecuadorian government planned to open up to the oil bidding process.

After two weeks of deliberation, the court in Puyo, central Ecuador, accepted the Waorani bid for court protection in the disputed patch of land, the Pastaza province.

Also in the constitution is the requirement for prior consultation before any underground work is undertaken, as the environmental and cultural impacts on the tribal communities living there could be huge.

Their attorney, Lina Maria Espinosa said that the case “has created a significant precedent for the Amazon…It has been demonstrated that there was no consultation and that the state violated the rights of this people, and therefore of other peoples.”

This case demonstrates the increasing importance of the rights of indigenous people in the present day, a far cry from the old days of empires and conquering; humanity is progressing at an ever increasing rate.