Non-Profit Knowledge and Data Analysis Communities 3

Big Data Science In Medicine

Finally, this UK-based Non-Profit Community specializes in using Data Science in Medicine and so it comes under both our Data Science and Health and Fitness headings. Interesting recent discussions include how removing 238 Genes might increase your lifespan!

I invite you to connect with them to learn more.  

Big Data Science in Medicine

Non-Profit Knowledge and Data Analysis Communities 2

Human Rights Data Analysis Group

This Data analysis group applies rigorous data analysis techniques to Human Rights violations around the world.

They are involved in analyzing problems in countries as varied as the US, Syria, Chad and Guatemala and are dedicated to making these statistics as accurate as possible so that policy makers around the world have a reliable basis to take action. Their website is here: Human Rights Data Analysis Group.

I invite you to like their Facebook page.

Human Rights Data Analysis Group

Non-Profit Knowledge and Data Analysis Communities 1

The Open Knowledge Foundation Network

This non-profit states it's aim as:

We want to see enlightened societies around the world, where everyone has access to key information and the ability to use it to understand and shape their lives; where powerful institutions are comprehensible and accountable; and where vital research information that can help us tackle challenges such as poverty and climate change is available to all.

They believe that an enlightened public is a powerful public and have chapters and local groups all around the world. Please Like them on their Facebook page!

Open Knowledge Foundation Network

Together we can

Every year, first weekend of October, we Canadians get together, we wear the white and pink and occupy almost every major city's core downtown of the whole country. We may run, or we walk, along the busiest street.We hold the signs; we cheer and we smile all the way for 5 kilometers. This is the "Run For The Cure", a yearly fundraising event for Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF). Together we raised millions to support our researchers to develop the new technologies to fight the cancer.

• 1 in 4 (26%) cancers diagnosed in women in Canada are breast cancer
• 1 in 9 Canadian women is expected to develop breast cancer during her lifetime
• 1 in 30 women in Canada will die from breast cancer

But we never give up the hope. We raised $21.5 million in 2015. This money was used to fund the research programs in the breast cancer surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy and HR-2 therapy. With the help from everyone of us, we bring the average 5-year survival rate to 88%, and we know we can make it even better. Thanks to the ones who join us. You can see the proud of us with my video ad.

Together we run; Together we engage; Together we develop the technology to save the life!.

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Encouraging knowledge sharing in your organization

Not being able to do the work required can be frustrating - especially if it's because you simply do not have the required knowledge. Knowledge hoarding is having information but refusing to share it. The combination of these two can have a detrimental effect on an organisation. It creates distrust and kills any efforts at collaboration.

You can encourage knowledge sharing in your organisation using these approaches.

• Introduce a mentoring program - each employee needs a mentor to guide them and help them succeed in the organisation.
• When looking for information, look at departments instead of just individuals. After all, two heads are better than one.
• Build trust relationships with your fellow workers. If you trust someone you are more willing to share information with them.
• Reward employees for sharing valuable information - allow nomination.
• Introduce collaboration tools into the organisation - the right tools can make the difference, including blogs and wikis.

Non-Profit organizations for cancer

Hello Everyone,

Kindly find my very first podcast for the Health & Fitness page. This podcast follows my previous post about cancer awareness. Feel free to leave comments below and to provide any feedback and knowledge.

Enjoy!

Charity: water

This short blog post is dedicated for the non-profit organization charity: water. This organization strives to bring clean water to everyone since members believe that everyone deserves it. Charity: water is focused on collecting funds in order to implement clean water projects which they prove through geo-tagged photos once completed.

I invite you to take some time to go through the short set of photos that I referred to below in order to get idea of the valuable help that these projects offer to those people that do not have access to clean water. Please support this non-profit organization either through following them on their social media channels or by giving a donation.

Cancer awareness

Source: http://eftsense.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/VuIIu3s.jpg

Unfortunately one of the most deadly diseases today is cancer. Everyone knows or has a relative that was diagnosed with cancer. Cancer as such is an abnormal growth of cells within the body. There exist different types of cancer such as breast, skin, lung, colon, prostate and lymphoma. When a person is diagnosed with cancer, treatment usually involves chemotherapy, radiation/or surgery. More information on cancer can be found at WebMD.

Another treatment that is gaining momentum in being officially recognized by the Food And Drug Administration – FDA is the engineered T-cells. According to tcells.org T-cells are a type of white blood cell that circulate around our bodies, scanning for cellular abnormalities and infections. Through advancements in technology engineers found a way of re-configuring these T-cells to see cancerous cells as a threat and attack them to destroy them. One successful and interesting example can be found at www.technologyreview.com where a boy named Milton Wright was successfully treated by T-cells re-engineering for the third cancer that he experienced.

Figure 1: A bioreactor bag holds a leukemia patient’s T cells. The cells have been genetically modified to fight cancer. A new receptor has been added. (https://www.technologyreview.com/s/538441/biotechs-coming-cancer-cure/)

Research, tools, and resources required for finding a sound cure for cancer cost a lot of money. Taking the T-cells re-engineering treatment as an example, preparing a dose of T cells can range from $50,000 to $75,000. One very good Non-profit organization that is helping raise such funds is the ‘Stand Up To Cancer’. This initiative raises funds to create a collaborative environment for researches so that a cure can be found quicker to save millions of lives. One can find a lot of information on their website and social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter. One can also easily donate money through the site where millions of people would eventually benefit through the research and treatments developed.

Identifying Northern Right Whales

Identifying Northern Right Whales with Kaggle

Pattern recognition is one of the lesser know areas of Big Data Analysis. A recent competition in Kaggle: NOAA Right Whale Recognition was to help identify Northern Right Whales from photographs. There are thought to be only about 500 Northern Right Whales (or North Atlantic Right Whale) left in the world and tracking them is difficult, expensive, time consuming and needs expert Marine Biologists. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) challenged Kaggle analysts to improve the pattern algorithms that are currently used in their software. This involves being able to identify individual Whales from aerial photographs (see below).    

First place in the competition was won by a company called Deepsense.IO and you can read more about the winning entry and their approach here.

North Atlantic Right Whales

Data Science Non-Profit of the Week: Bayes Impact

Hi Everyone

My Data Science related Non-profit of the this week is a non-profit organisation called Bayes Impact - related to the statistical inference methods named after Thomas Bayes. For more information on Bayesian Analysis, see The International Society for Bayesian Analysis

Bayes Impact is an NGO set up with the goal of using data science to to improve the lives of millions at a scale that is possible only through algorithms.

One interesting project that caught my eye on their site was some work they did with Zidisha, a microfinance organisation, that makes small business loans to people in developing countries who often lack  bank accounts and, even if they could get loans, would be charged very high rates of interest by traditional lenders.

Bayes Impact worked with Zidisha to develop a model that could predict whether a borrower was a good risk based on borrow application history and behaviour. As Zidisha is not a traditional loan company, but one that specializes in poorer borrowers, it has to find a balance between giving out as many loans as it can, but also reducing fraud.


    

Data Science Podcast - What's happening at DataKind?

Hi Everyone

As part of Knowledge Shared; Knowledge Doubled, we will be bring you a series of Podcasts on different subjects. This is the first podcast in the Data Science series, and it's on the subject of DataKind non profit organisation that specializes in doing projects for charities and other institutions.

The link to the podcast is here: Data Science Podcast S01 E01

And you should also be able to subscribe.

Hope you enjoy it!
Duncan.