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Machine Learning Can Be Used to Improve the Ability to Predict Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes in Women with Lupus – Lupus Foundation of America

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Nearly 20% of pregnancies in people with lupus result in an adverse pregnancy outcome (APO). In a new study, scientists were able to improve prediction accuracy of APOs using machine learning. Machine learning refers to the process by which a computer is able to improve its own performance by continuously incorporating new data into an existing statistical model.

Using a previously developed APO prediction model utilizing data from a larger multi-center, multi-ethnic study of lupus pregnancies known as the Predictors of pRegnancy Outcome: bioMarkers In Antiphospholid Antibody Syndrome and the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (PROMISSE) study, and statistical analysis coupled with machine learning, researchers analyzed data from 385 women in their first trimester of pregnancy. They identified lupus anticoagulant positivity, disease assessment score, diastolic blood pressure or resting heartbeat, current use of antihypertension medication, and platelet count as significant baseline predictors of APO.

Researchers suggest that the ability to identify, lupus patients at high risk of APO early in pregnancy, could enhance the capacity to manage these patients and conduct trials of new treatments to prevent pre-eclampsia and placental insufficiency.

Further studies to identify new biomarkers and risk factors for APO are still needed. The Lupus Foundation of America provided the study author, Jane Salmon, MD, with a three-year grant for her IMPACT study, the first trial of a biologic therapy to prevent adverse pregnancy outcomes in high-risk pregnancies in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) with or without systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), which also helped support this new research. Learn more about lupus and pregnancy.

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Machine Learning Can Be Used to Improve the Ability to Predict Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes in Women with Lupus - Lupus Foundation of America

Circulating serum metabolites as predictors of dementia: a machine learning approach in a 21-year follow-up of the Whitehall II cohort study – BMC…

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Global Health Estimates 2020: Deaths by Cause, Age, Sex, by Country and by Region, 2000-2019. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2020.

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Circulating serum metabolites as predictors of dementia: a machine learning approach in a 21-year follow-up of the Whitehall II cohort study - BMC...

Zuckerberg Says No ‘Shadow Banning’ on Facebook but Admits ‘Mistakes’

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Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook has no "shadow banning" policy, but admitted that mistakes do happen.

In a three-hour interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the Meta CEO talked about topics from the metaverseto his views onthe credibility of the FBI, calling it a "legitimate institution."

Rogan then asked Zuckerberg to explain whether "shadow banning" occurred on social media platforms such as Facebook. He replied: "There's no policy that is 'shadow banning', so I think it's sort of a slang term. But that maybe refers to some of the demotions [of posts] that we're talking about."

Zuckerberg was referring to posts that are marked as false, misinformative, or fall into harmful content categories. They include foreign nations interfering in politics, terrorism, child pornography, and blatant intellectual property violation.

If a post is "marked as false by a fact-checker, it will get somewhat less shown," Zuckerberg said. "But if there's some history within a page, then there can be some kind of broader policy that applies."

He continued: "Unfortunately, there are a lot of mistake, and part of the issue is that there's 3.5 billion people using these services, and if we make a mistake 0.1% of the time, there's still million of mistakes ... and that sucks."

He also blamed "some bug in the system, or some system didn't work like it was supposed to," for posts that get banned. "It is a real issue, but it isn't an ideological issue."

Zuckerberg said some posts failed to reach a wide audience simply because they are not very good.

"Empowering people is very deep in the ethos of the company," he said. "Whenever we mess that up which we do, frequently we pay the price for it and people don't like those things that we do and we have to run them back."

Zuckerberg, who is worth $58. billion according to Forbes, created Facebook while studying at Harvard University in 2004 to help other students match names and photos of classmates.

The company listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012 and was last year renamed Meta. It also owns Instagram and WhatsApp.

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Zuckerberg Says No 'Shadow Banning' on Facebook but Admits 'Mistakes'

Democrat California Tells Drivers to Stop Charging Cars, Right After …

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More green madness from Americas worst and most radical state.

California Gov. Newsom signs executive order to increase electricity supply as state braces for major heatwave

By Fox News, August 31, 2022

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday signed an executive order that will allow the state to ramp upelectricity supplyas its power grid braces for stress during a weeklong heatwave.

Speaking at a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Newsom said the executive order would grant California more flexibility across the spectrum in terms of procuring supply toprepare for the heatwave.

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Warzone shadow banned, explained – Dot Esports

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Cheating is one of the biggest issues in Call of Duty: Warzone. The game is notorious for the number of cheaters who sneak through the cracks of its anti-cheat system and exploit the games various weaknesses to dominate games unfairly. To help combat this, the Warzone team uses a few different methods, including the practice of shadow banning suspected cheaters.

Getting shadow banned isnt quite the same as being banned. Players who are shadow banned can still open the game and play, seemingly like normal. What shadow banning does, however, is take accounts that are cheating and group them into a separate player pool, away from the normal servers of players who arent suspected of cheating. The logic is simple: make the cheaters play against other cheaters, instead of ruining the game for players who are legitimate. The game does not tell you if youre shadow banned to keep cheaters playing the shadow ban version of the game for as long as possible.

Unfortunately, this system isnt perfect. There have been plenty of cases of players who werent cheating but still managed to get shadow banned. If you think you mightve been shadow banned, here are the signs to look for to confirm it and how to get rid of the shadow ban.

The first and most obvious way to tell if youre shadow banned is if you notice a sizable uptick in cheaters in your lobbies. This can sometimes be a bit difficult to tell, however. Sometimes, it just seems like everyone in the lobby is better than you, and theres nothing you can do about it. Generally speaking, accounts of players that arent already good at Warzone usually wont get shadow banned, meaning that cheaters will be most noticeable if you generally got good results while playing Warzone and then suddenly seem to hit a wall for no reason in gun fights.

Of course, not all cheats are created equal. If your killcam constantly looks like your opponents have inhuman aim, you might be playing in shadow ban lobbies.

On the other hand, there are cheaters who dont get shadow banned and still manage to run around in regular player lobbies. In this case, another good way to tell if your account has been shadow banned is if your queue times suddenly get considerably longer. Since the shadow ban pool of players is so much smaller than the regular pool of players, it takes longer for lobbies to bring in enough players for games.

One final way to tell if youre shadow banned in Warzone is if you suddenly start seeing your game struggle with ping. If youre used to a certain level of ping and then your game seems to consistently go over 300 ping for no reason related to your internet connection, its another clue that your account might be shadow banned.

All of these signs might indicate a shadow banned account, but if you seem to notice more than one of these clues, or all three, the odds that your account has been shadow banned increase considerably.

If you think that youve been mistakenly shadow banned, there are a couple of ways you can go about trying to lift the ban from your account. The first way is the easiest: wait a while. If youve been banned on accident, shadow bans usually lift in a week or two. After that time period, your game should return to normal and you can play in regular Warzone lobbies again.

If thats too long to wait, players can also appeal the ban via the Activision Ban Appeal page. This will require you to log into your Activision account (which you can do with your information from the platform on which you play Warzone), and then plead your case to Activision. If you were cheating, on the other hand, trying to submit an unban request in this way is extremely unlikely to help your case.

It may be that you submit an unban request and it turns out that your account wasnt shadow banned at all. And while that might be a little hit to your ego, theres no harm in still trying to see if you can lift a shadow ban if you think one has been mistakenly placed on your account.

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Warzone shadow banned, explained - Dot Esports

Labour will ban foie gras and hunting trophies imports if it takes power – iNews

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Labour would ban imports of foie gras and hunting trophies very early after winning power, Shadow Environment Secretary Jim McMahon has said.

Animal welfare campaigners were outraged earlier this month when Liz Truss junked a Conservative commitment to outlaw the controversial pt.

Nature and farming groups are also dismayed that the new administration has paused post-Brexit subsidies that incentivised agriculture without saying what will replace them.

Speaking to i at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, Mr McMahon could hardly contain his glee at the furious backlash to a threatened rolling-back of environmental protections. He says the Tories are taking their rural heartlands for granted and will suffer the electoral consequences.

But he acknowledged that he will come under immediate pressure to make good on a host of long-standing promises cherished by Labour supporters to improve animal welfare, of which import bans on foie gras and hunting trophies are the most high-profile.

i revealed last year that Jacob Rees-Mogg, now the Business Secretary, was leading efforts to shelve the proposed ban on foie gras and last week it emerged that it had been scrapped entirely.

To produce foie gras which translates as fatty liver male ducks and geese are force fed grain and fat three or four times a day in a process known as gavage. The forced feeding causes the birds livers to swell to up to 10 times their normal size.

Asked when a Labour government would bring in the bans, Mr McMahon said: There will be a lot to do in that first Queens Speech but there will be an expectation on Labour to set our stall on animal welfare very early that I am working hard to achieve.

He added that he was exploring whether the bans could be implemented without passing new laws to free up Commons time for other high-priority legislation, saying: Its about the art of the possible.

Mr McMahon said the bans are the easier stuff and added: The question for us and the current Government is how do you marry higher animal welfare standards with new international trade deals.

Ms Truss, when she was International Trade Secretary, won a Cabinet battle to force through a new trade deal with Australia despite worries it exposed British farmers to competition from producers with lower standards. Mr McMahon said the party was considering banning any future such deals and would double down on efforts to make the UK a world leader in ethical and green food.

He said he was astonished that the new Environment Secretary, Ranil Jayawardena, paused plans for post-Brexit farm subsidies, the Environment Land Management Scheme, without saying what comes next leaving the National Farmers Union and green groups united in fury.

I know Ranil reasonably well, Mr McMahon said. Im staggered that hes been missing in action. He should have been on the phone to the big groups like the NFU and Wildlife Trust. Its just a matter of respect. Even if the intention isnt to throw it all out but to pause, reflect and rebuild theres going to be a breakdown in trust.

The former Oldham council leader admitted his current job was not necessarily an obvious fit: The only greenery I saw as a kid were the weeds growing through the cracks in the pavement.

Unsurprisingly for a politician he showered praise on farmers and fishermen as grafters who are the best of British but also said he wants to make townies care more about the county by bringing it into urban areas.

Of course I am going to fight for the shires and coastal communities who have some of the most beautiful parts of the country on their doorstep, Mr McMahon said. But you cant just pitch up in somewhere like Oldham and say, Its your responsibility to tackle the climate change emergency, when whats their own environment like? Its grey and its depressing and theres no access to safe green spaces. Theres a huge opportunity there for Labour to fill in the gap.

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Labour will ban foie gras and hunting trophies imports if it takes power - iNews

State lawmaker says pulling books for review isnt censorship – WFAA

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Keller ISD pulled 41 books, including the Bible and an adaptation on "Diary of Anne Frank."

FORT WORTH, Texas Some public school libraries in Texas are now on the frontline in the ongoing culture wars.

Officials in the Keller ISD yanked 41 books off the shelves throughout the district for further review after they were challenged by parents. That includes the Bible and Anne Franks Diary: The Graphic Adaptation.

State Representative Matt Krause is the state lawmaker who started his own book inquiry last fall when he asked schools if they had some 850 titles on their campuses. Many of the titles pulled in Keller were also on his list.

The Fort Worth Republican says he doesnt view it as subjective censorship, but instead finding the right balance for our kids.

I think it's always a good idea to ensure that the books that are in the library's bookshelves in your schools are appropriate, age appropriate, Rep. Krause said on Inside Texas Politics. And as you and I have talked about, what's appropriate in a Keller ISD high school may not be appropriate in a Keller ISD middle school. So, I think you always have those conversations. I think they're constructive.

As for the Bible, Rep. Krause doesnt think it will be off shelves for long. He thinks it was a tit-for-tat type challenge, where a parent or group said if youre taking books from our side, well take some books from your side.

But the Republican also firmly believes these decisions should remain local, even if in the future a new school board would decide to make a Bible ban permanent.

We've always said the power of what should be or should not be in these libraries is up to the local communities. And you're right, maybe in five, 10 years, Keller ISD, the parents, the taxpayers, the school board, the superintendent all decide this shouldn't be in our libraries. That should be up for them to decide, he told us.

The Republican also says he expects state lawmakers to consider more laws concerning library books when they return to Austin in January. He says they, too, have to find a balance.

You want to make sure you continue to allow for that autonomy and community input. But I do think the legislature will take a look at it, said Krause. It may be some guiding standards, some guiding principles on what you should do, and then the particulars will be addressed by the individual school districts.

Rep. Krause himself wont be there in January. Hes leaving office after giving up his seat to run for Tarrant County District Attorney. But he lost in a runoff to Phil Sorrells.

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State lawmaker says pulling books for review isnt censorship - WFAA

Democrats Exposed: Klobuchar Delays Media Cartel Bill After Cruz …

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After nearly two years of lobbying by representatives of the nations largest, wealthiest, and most pro-censorship media companies, after being killed in the House and then revived in the Senate, the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) is (temporarily) dead again killed by its champion, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), because Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) successfully added an amendment that would prevent media companies and tech companies from colluding on content moderation.

The core concept of the JCPA is allowing media companies to form a legal cartel in the U.S., for the sole purpose of negotiating with tech giants for special favors.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Mark Zuckerberg Smiles during testimony (Pool/Getty)

Sen. Cruzs amendment, which passed by a narrow 11-10 vote of the Senate Judiciary Committee, limits the scope of those negotiations: the media cartel would be allowed to negotiate with Big Tech on fair payments for their content, but on nothing else including content moderation.

In his remarks, Sen. Cruz made it clear that the purpose of his amendment was to prevent big media companies from negotiating the suppression of their competitors with tech giants like Facebook and Google.

What this amendment would do, is it would say [that] when the cartel sits down to negotiation, it would say were not going to discuss censorship, were going to discuss price,' said Cruz.

Sen. Klobuchars response was to pull the bill from proceedings rather than pass it out of committee with the Cruz amendment. In doing so, she effectively revealed that enabling collusion between Big Media and Big Tech on censorship has always been a core Democrat aim behind the JCPA.

Sen. Cruz successfully won over his colleagues on his amendment. In tense exchanges at this mornings markup hearing on the bill, a somewhat panicked-sounding Sen. Klobuchar attempted to persuade the lead Republican co-sponsor of the bill, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), that the amendment preventing censorship collusion between Big Media and Big Tech could not be allowed.

Senator Kennedy weve worked on this months. We wont be able to support the Cruz amendment here If this is in it, we cant support the bill.

I dont understand why, responded Kennedy. To me, the issue is supposed to be about money, and not about moderating content, and this [the amendment] just makes explicit what I thought was implicit in the bill.

Klobuchars last-ditch efforts to persuade Republicans were unsuccessful, and the Cruz amendment passed by a narrow 11-10 vote of the committee.

Immediately afterward, Klobuchar pulled the JCPA from proceedings, saying she could not support the bill with the addition of the Cruz amendment, which she said would blow up the bill.

This was a surprise, this is a long-negotiated bill, stated a rattled-sounding Klobuchar as committee proceedings wrapped up.

The Cruz amendment effectively exposed what JCPA supporters have been attempting to conceal from Republicans: that one of the core conditions of Democrat support for the bill is that it allows media companies to collude with Big Tech to censor their competitors.

Presented to Republicans as a way for struggling news companies to fight back against Big Tech, and obtain more ad revenue from them, Sen. Klobuchars actions today reveal that Democrats intend the bill to be far wider in scope.

Sen. Cruzs attempt to limit negotiations just to payment exposed the true aims of the Democrats: not saving independent journalism, but crushing it with censorship, censorship, and more censorship.

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News.He is the author of#DELETED: Big Techs Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.

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Democrats Exposed: Klobuchar Delays Media Cartel Bill After Cruz ...

The Strain Of Censorship On Public Libraries : 1A – NPR

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Our new series will feature our favorite authors talking about their work. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images hide caption

Our new series will feature our favorite authors talking about their work.

This summer, a library in Lafayette, Louisiana, was forced to remove a Pride Month display after conservative Christian activists joined its board of directors.

In Iowa, a proposed bill would give city councils the power to overturn librarians' decisions about what books to buy and where they're displayed.

And librarians in Missouri canceled their bookmobile to several schools after a law passed in the state criminalizing anyone who makes visually explicit content available in schools.

So far, the American Library Association has reported 681 challenges to more than 1,600 titles this year. That puts 2022 on track to see the highest number of book challenges in decades.

What future do public libraries and library workers have in this climate of unprecedented censorship? And what role do larger, out-of-state libraries play in combating it?

The American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom's Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the former director of Boundary County Public Library in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, Kimber Glidden, the Michigan Library Association's Deborah Mikula, author and professor of English, the University of Mississippi, Kiese Laymon, and freelance writer and literary critic, Connor Goodwin all join us for the conversation.

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The Strain Of Censorship On Public Libraries : 1A - NPR

Nebraska school officials close newspaper after LGBTQ issue

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GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) Administrators at a Nebraska school shuttered the schools award-winning student newspaper just days after its last edition that included articles and editorials on LGBTQ issues, leading press freedom advocates to call the move an act of censorship.

The staff of Northwest Public Schools 54-year-old Saga newspaper was informed on May 19 of the papers elimination, the Grand Island Independent reported. Three days earlier, the newspaper had printed its June edition, which included an article titled, Pride and prejudice: LGBTQIA+ on the origins of Pride Month and the history of homophobia. It also included an editorial opposing a Florida law that bans some lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity and dubbed by critics as Dont Say Gay.

Officials overseeing the district, which is based in Grand Island, have not said when or why the decision was made to eliminate the student paper. But an email from a school employee to the Independent cancelling the student papers printing services on May 22 said it was because the school board and superintendent are unhappy with the last issues editorial content.

The papers demise also came a month after its staff was reprimanded for publishing students preferred pronouns and names. District officials told students they could only use names assigned at birth going forward.

Emma Smith, Sagas assistant editor in 2022, said the student paper was informed that the ban on preferred names was made by the school board. That decision directly affected Saga staff writer Marcus Pennell, a transgender student, who saw his byline changed against his wishes to his birth name of Meghan Pennell in the June issue.

It was the first time that the school had officially been, like, We dont really want you here, Pennell said. You know, that was a big deal for me.

Northwest Principal P.J. Smith referred the Independents questions to district superintendent Jeff Edwards, who declined to answer the questions of when and why the student paper was eliminated, saying only that it was an administrative decision.

Some school board members have made no secret of their objection to the Sagas LGBTQ content, including board president Dan Leiser, who said most people were upset with it.

Board vice president Zach Mader directly cited the pro-LGBTQ editorials, adding that if district taxpayer had read the last issue of the Saga, they would have been like, Holy cow. What is going on at our school?

It sounds like a ham-fisted attempt to censor students and discriminate based on disagreement with perspectives and articles that were featured in the student newspaper, said Sara Rips, an attorney for the Nebraska chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Nebraska Press Association attorney Max Kautsch, who specializes in media law in Nebraska and Kansas, noted that press freedom is protected in the U.S. Constitution.

The decision by the administration to eliminate the student newspaper violates students right to free speech, unless the school can show a legitimate educational reason for removing the option to participate in a class that publishes award-winning material, Kautsch said. It is hard to imagine what that legitimate reason could be.

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Nebraska school officials close newspaper after LGBTQ issue