(Author, Year)
CHD = coronary heart disease; CVD = cardiovascular disease; HR = hazard ratio; TC = Total cholesterol; HDL = high density lipoprotein; LDL = low density lipoprotein.
High versus low.
Eight studies compared the highest level with the lowest (or referent) level categories of total serum cholesterol [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 27 , 28 , 31 , 32 , 33 ] ( Figure 3 ). In 1 study [ 25 ] the HR was divided by dividing the age group of 50 years and 70 years, and in another study [ 32 ], male and female groups were divided and analyzed, which was considered as a separate study in our study. The study outcomes of 6 studies were CVD mortality [ 24 , 25 , 27 , 31 , 32 , 33 ], and 2 studies were CHD mortality [ 23 , 28 ]. The overall results were pooled in each study using a fixed-effects model first and a random effect model when the heterogeneity was moderate or higher. The summary HR was 1.27 (95% CI, 1.19–1.36; Figure 3 ), with moderate heterogeneity ( I 2 = 64.1%; p < 0.01).
Forest plot for pooled HRs and 95% CIs of CVD mortality for highest versus lowest categories of Serum Total cholesterol (TC) level [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 27 , 28 , 31 , 32 , 33 ]. The overall effect was obtained from a random-effect model.
We found a significant log-linear dose-response association between serum total cholesterol level and CVD death ( p < 0.01) and moderate heterogeneity across studies (Q = 8.95, I 2 = 66.5%) ( Figure 4 ).
Dose-response meta-analysis between serum total cholesterol level and the hazard ratio of CVD mortality. The solid line represents point estimates of the association of serum total cholesterol and CVD mortality with the use of restricted cubic splines models, and the dashed lines indicate 95% CIs.
Seven studies compared the lowest level with the highest (or referent) level categories of HDL-C [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 26 , 27 , 29 , 33 ]. The outcomes of 6 studies were CVD death [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 27 , 29 , 33 ] and 1 study was sudden cardiac death [ 26 ]. The overall results were pooled in each study using a fixed-effects model first and a random effect model when the heterogeneity was moderate or higher. The summary HR was 0.56 (95% CI, 0.45–0.70; Figure 5 ), with moderate heterogeneity ( I 2 = 40.0%; p < 0.01) ( Figure 5 ).
Forest plot for pooled HRs and 95% CIs of CVD mortality for lowest versus highest categories of serum High-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HLD-C) level [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 26 , 27 , 29 , 33 ]. The overall effect was obtained from a random-effect model.
We found a significant linear dose-response association between serum HDL-C level and CVD death ( p < 0.01) and moderate heterogeneity across studies (Q = 7.15, I 2 = 44%) ( Figure 6 ).
Dose-response meta-analysis between serum High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol level and the hazard ratio of CVD mortality. The solid line represents point estimates of the association of serum HDL cholesterol and CVD mortality with the use of restricted cubic splines models, and the dashed lines indicate 95% CIs.
Four studies compared the highest level with the lowest (or referent) level categories of LDL-C [ 26 , 27 , 30 , 33 ].The outcomes of 3 studies were CVD death [ 27 , 30 , 33 ], and 1 study was sudden cardiac death [ 26 ], which were aggregated together using a fixed-effect model for each study. The summary HR was 1.25 (95% CI, 1.11–1.41; Figure 7 ), without evidence of heterogeneity ( I 2 = 0%; p = 0.66) ( Figure 7 ).
Forest plot for pooled HRs and 95% CIs of CVD mortality for highest versus lowest categories of serum Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) level [ 26 , 27 , 30 , 33 ]. The overall effect was obtained from a random-effect model.
Assessments of the relationship between serum cholesterol (TC, LDL-C, and HDL-C) and incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and CVD mortality have been studied for several decades. However, there is an absence of a meta-analysis on CVD mortality and serum levels of cholesterol, which is routinely referred to as a causal factor in producing CVD and is a target of medical treatment of CVD [ 35 ].
We conducted a meta-analysis of cohort studies to evaluate the relationship between serum cholesterol (TC, LDL-C, and HDL-c) and CVD mortality. The results of this meta-analysis demonstrate that TC and LDL-C are associated with an increased risk of CVD mortality (HR 1.24, 95% CI 1.16–1.32/1.21, 95% CI 1.09–1.35, respectively), and HDL-C is inversely associated with a risk of CVD mortality. In a dose-response analysis, the relationship between cholesterol (TC, HDL-C) and CVD mortality was linearly associated. Importantly, only population-based studies were included in our study, so these results provide the best available estimates of cholesterol risk in the general population.
Elevated TC is a well-documented and established risk factor for cardiovascular disease. One large meta-analysis based on observational studies found that high levels of serum TC were associated with an increased coronary heart disease mortality rate [ 36 ]. The Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT) found an association between high serum TC levels and the incidence of ischemic stroke [ 37 ]. In an observational study of patients with CHD, TC levels were associated with the risk of ischemic stroke (RR, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.20–1.70), whereas another study in patients without CHD did not show an association with serum lipids [ 38 ]. However, several studies revealed that elevated TC is not associated with CVD, and TC is not the most accurate predictor of future CVD [ 39 , 40 ]. Thus, in recent studies about serum cholesterol, the interest in the role of LDL-C is increasing. There are many studies that show that LDL-C, one of the cholesterols constituting TC, causes atherosclerosis-related disease. However, according to a comprehensive review of the association of LDL-C with atherosclerosis, some studies have shown a lack of an association between LDL-C and severity of atherosclerosis, and in a study of 304 women, there was no association between LDL-C and coronary calcification [ 41 , 42 ].
Despite several conflicting studies, total cholesterol and LDL-C are key components of cardiovascular risk prediction models that are widely used in clinical practice to estimate an individual’s risk of CVD and to guide clinical decision-making regarding the initiation of statin therapy and other lipid-level regulating drugs [ 43 ]. In studies of the relationship between cholesterol and CVD occurrence, treatment with TC or LDL-C lowering drugs reduces CVD mortality [ 44 , 45 ]. In our meta-analysis, TC and LDL-C are risk factors for CVD death, which supports previous studies suggesting that maintaining adequate levels of cholesterol is important in lowering CVD death risk [ 46 ].
On the contrary, we observed that high levels of HDL-C were significantly associated with decreased risk of CVD mortality. The first compelling study of the inverse association between HDL-C and CHD was from the Framingham Heart Study [ 47 ]. This observational study formed the basis for the widely acknowledged concept of HDL-C as the good cholesterol and led to the idea that HDL-C might have properties that protect against atherosclerosis, and intervention to increase HDL-C would reduce CHD risk (the HDL-C hypothesis). This hypothesis was supported by a series of animal studies and observation studies after the Framingham reports [ 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ]. However, some studies suggested that very high HDL-C levels are no longer effectively protective, which is removing cholesterol from the periphery. Also, the cholesterol content of HDL does not represent many important HDL functions that are related to CVD risk, such as anti-inflammatory, antiapoptotic, antioxidant, and vasorelaxant properties.
Previous studies have shown that levels and normal ranges of cholesterol vary by age, gender, and race, accordingly, and the level of cholesterol as a risk factor for disease may be different. Studies included in our meta-analysis targeted patients of various ages. In one study, they studied patients aged 50 and 70 separately [ 25 ]; in other studies, only the age range of the patients was presented [ 26 , 27 , 31 ]. In the remaining studies [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 32 , 33 ], the mean age of the subjects was presented, and the mean age ranged from 42.1 [ 33 ] to 73.8 [ 30 ] years old. The gender of the study subjects showed various ratios in each study. In one study, males and females were analyzed separately [ 32 ]. Five studies were conducted on Asians [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 31 ], and the rest were on Europeans. In addition, the observation period of the cohort varied from 7.8 [ 27 ] to 33 [ 28 ] years. Two studies divided into two groups according to age and gender did not coincide with each other and were regarded as two different studies [ 25 , 32 ].
As we know, this is the first meta-analysis that explains the relationship between serum cholesterol and CVD mortality. The analysis shows that TC and LDL-C are associated with increased CVD mortality, whereas HDL-C is inversely associated. Our study may be useful in determining the therapeutic targets of serum cholesterol. Furthermore, there are several studies showing different ideal serum levels of cholesterol by age and gender, so a subgroup meta-analysis of these studies would provide useful information. The main results of the analysis were CVD mortality, and the study used it when CHD mortality was presented as a study outcome [ 23 , 28 ]. One study, in which the study outcome was sudden death, was included in the final meta-analysis [ 26 ].
In our study, TC showed a linear relationship with CVD mortality. This will serve as a theoretical basis for suggesting target levels of TC to reduce CVD mortality, and further studies will be needed to obtain accurate target levels of cholesterol according to patient characteristics in the future.
We are aware of several potential limitations. First, measured LDL-C also comprises the fraction that is transported with lipoprotein(a); we did not take this fact into consideration. Second, studies with meaningful results may be more likely to be published, and are preferentially published in English journals [ 52 ]. Third, although adjusted estimates were reported in general, the observational design had its inherent weak point that any association may be because of the presence of inapposite measured or unmeasured residual possible confounding variables. Fourth, as noted above, the risk of bias in index studies meant that evidence quality in relation to study outcomes was categorized as very low. Fifth, our decision to meta-analysis data may be questioned, given the marked heterogeneity between each study. However, we noted that overall statistical heterogeneity for each meta-analysis, as measured by the I 2 statistic, was moderate, and we chose a random-effect model to account for differences in effect size between each study [ 53 ]. Sixth, all studies included in our meta-analysis provided no information about lipid-level regulating medication that affected overall study results. Seventh, in some studies, different HR values according to age and sex were reported, but our study could not report it because the number of studies was too small, and the heterogeneity between studies was high. Lastly, in general, the serum LDL-C level is not measured directly but instead is estimated from its cholesterol concentration. The LDL-C-related studies included in our meta-analysis did not address the method of direct or indirect calculating of LDL-C levels, which may have affected the outcomes.
In our meta-analysis, high serum levels of TC and LDL-C increased the CVD mortality above the reference level, and low HDL-C was associated with an increased CVD mortality. We believe that this study will be helpful in setting appropriate cholesterol management targets, and personal characteristics, such as age and gender, are thought to influence the ideal serum cholesterol level, so further research is needed.
This research was funded by Chonnam National University Hospital grant number BCRI-19018.
Formal analysis, E.J. and Y.S.R.; Investigation, S.D.S. and S.Y.K.; Methodology, H.H.R.; Resources, E.J. and Y.S.R.; Supervision, Y.S.R. and S.D.S.; Writing—original draft, E.J.; Writing—review and editing, H.H.R. and S.D.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest. The company had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.
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Inflation is difficult to control. Its cause is often even harder to pinpoint.
In attempting to understand the 2022 spike in inflation that followed the pandemic, some policymakers — up to and including President Joe Biden — blamed shortages in the supply chain. But a new study shows that federal spending was the cause — significantly so.
“Our research shows mathematically that the overwhelming driver of that burst of inflation in 2022 was federal spending, not the supply chain,” said Mark Kritzman, a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan.
In writing “ The Determinants of Inflation ,” Kritzman and colleagues from State Street developed a new methodology that revealed how certain drivers of inflation changed in importance over time from 1960 to 2022.
In doing so, they found that federal spending was two to three times more important than any other factor causing inflation during 2022.
Specifically, their results showed that:
Kritzman said that using government stimulus money to help the economy rebound during the pandemic made sense, given the unprecedented circumstances. “People really didn’t know if we were going to have a 1930s-type depression, so the government erred on the side of more stimulus than less stimulus,” he said.
“I don’t judge that to be a bad thing to have done, but it did cause this big spike in inflation ,” Kritzman said. “What was surprising is not just that [the driver] was federal spending but that it was so overwhelmingly federal spending.”
The authors arrived at their conclusion by using the Mahalanobis distance statistic , which has been used in a range of projects, from measuring turbulence in the financial markets to detecting anomalies in self-driving vehicles.
In their paper, researchers first used a hidden Markov model to identify four regimes of shifting inflation: stable, rising steady, rising volatile, and disinflation.
Then they used the Mahalanobis distance to figure out how eight different economic variables caused the economy to shift between those regimes. The economic variables the authors looked at were producer prices, wages/salaries, personal consumption, inflation expectations, interest rates, the yield curve, the money supply, and federal spending.
Finally, by applying an algorithm to the data from 1960 to 2022, they were able to see how inflation drivers had changed in importance over time. This enabled them to predict the likely path of future inflation — a capability that could potentially be of help to policymakers and investors alike.
The results dispel the notion that the supply chain could be blamed for the 2022 spike in inflation, Kritzman said.
“The narrative at the time was that the cause of inflation was interruptions to the supply chain because of COVID-19,” Kritzman said. “But that didn’t show up in producer prices. In other words, if supplies became scarce, then the prices of those supplies would go up, which we don’t see in our results at that point in time.”
The researchers’ findings indicate that the government and the Fed sometimes operate at cross purposes, Kritzman said. When the federal government overstimulates the economy, the Federal Reserve has to delay lowering interest rates.
“The more overstimulation there is, the more hawkish the Fed has to be to keep inflation under control,” Kritzman said.
Taking the same approach that the researchers did, the Federal Reserve might be able to gain a deeper look at “the dynamics that are going on” — not just that inflation is up or down, he said. Instead, it offers insight into how the drivers of inflation change in importance through time.
“I think that the Fed would be well advised to take this methodology and make it operational in how they monitor inflation and other things that they’re interested in,” Kritzman said.
Related articles.
The research also has takeaways for investors, especially in terms of portfolio construction. It can help them project the path of inflation because the methodology provides a historical record of how factors changed in importance throughout history and will likely do so again.
“There are sequences that sort of repeat themselves,” Kritzman said. For example, inflation expectations often follow federal spending as the main driver of inflation. “Once you have inflation, then inflation’s persistent and you expect more inflation,” Kritzman said.
Inflation can greatly affect the returns of a portfolio. If inflation is staying stubbornly high, that increases the likelihood that the Fed will raise rates or at least keep them high, which hurts asset values, Kritzman said.
“The way you should be managing your assets is not to just find the portfolio that’s optimal on average across all periods, but to the extent you can detect regime shifts — i.e., stable inflation to rising steady — you can come up with portfolios that are more tailored to these different regimes,” he said.
William Kinlaw, Michael Metcalfe, and David Turkington, all of State Street, are Kritzman’s co-authors on the paper. They hope to update the research in the future to account for the current state of inflation.
Read next: Is this new forecasting model is better than machine learning?
Rechargeable alkali metal–chlorine batteries: advances, challenges, and future perspectives.
* Corresponding authors
a Department of Applied Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China E-mail: [email protected]
The emergence of Li–SOCl 2 batteries in the 1970s as a high-energy-density battery system sparked considerable interest among researchers. However, limitations in the primary cell characteristics have restricted their potential for widespread adoption in today's sustainable society. Encouragingly, recent developments in alkali/alkaline-earth metal–Cl 2 (AM–Cl 2 ) batteries have shown impressive reversibility with high specific capacity and cycle performance, revitalizing the potential of SOCl 2 batteries and becoming a promising technology surpassing current lithium-ion batteries. In this review, the emerging AM–Cl 2 batteries are comprehensively summarized for the first time. The development history and advantages of Li–SOCl 2 batteries are traced, followed by the critical working mechanisms for achieving high rechargeability. The design concepts of electrodes and electrolytes for AM–Cl 2 batteries as well as key characterization techniques are also demonstrated. Furthermore, the current challenges and corresponding strategies, as well as future directions regarding the battery are systematically discussed. This review aims to deepen the understanding of the state-of-the-art AM–Cl 2 battery technology and accelerate the development of practical AM–Cl 2 batteries for next-generation high-energy storage systems.
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Earnings season has officially kicked off this week, and it could bring the most painful correction for stock prices since the 2022 bear market.
That's according to Ned Davis Research, which offered a preview of what will matter most during the deluge of second-quarter earnings results over the next few weeks.
"The biggest risk could be a shift from accelerating to decelerating year/year growth toward the end of 2024 and into 2025," NDR strategist Ed Clissold said in a Thursday note.
That means that as strong as profit results might be this quarter, the future success of the stock market will largely hinge on company outlooks for the second half of the year.
Here's what investors should look out for during the second quarter earnings season, according to NDR.
The typical pathway of Wall Street earnings growth estimates is for them to be overly optimistic at the start of the year, only to slowly be revised lower towards the end of the year.
Therefore, it's not a matter of whether analysts will cut their second-half earnings growth estimates but rather by how much they will cut.
"Last year, the growth rate was revised down 4.8% points, much less than the long-term average of 8.1%. It is one of the reasons why the S&P 500 surged 24.2%. So far in 2024, consensus has only been revised down 1.3% points, again one of the reasons for the 18.1% year-to-date gain," Clissold said.
Current analyst projections suggest S&P 500 earnings growth of 5.7% in the second quarter, 19.2% in the third quarter, and 19.6% in the fourth quarter.
And those rosy growth estimates could ultimately be setting the stock market up for failure, especially considering expectations for a slowdown in the US economy's growth rate during the second half of this year.
Since the start of the now 18-month-old bull market, at least 78% of S&P 500 companies have exceeded consensus estimates, which is historically high.
That trend of breadth within company earnings beats will have to continue if the next inevitable stock market correction is to be pushed further down the road.
"Another high beat rate may be required to justify the rally," Clissold said. "Management teams have guided the Q2 year/year growth rate down to 5.7% from 7.0% at the end of May. The lowered bar makes a high beat rate more attainable."
"The concept that earnings growth is good for stocks seems intuitive. It is true, but with an important caveat. Investors look ahead, and they often view extremely strong year/year earnings growth as unsustainable," Clissold said.
With earnings growth surging in recent quarters, how sustainable that growth rate is remains a top question for investors, as decelerating growth is rarely rewarded with higher stock prices.
"Earnings are in the sharp acceleration phase, and consensus estimates are calling for them to remain there through Q3. During Q2 earnings season, watch for whether expected year/year EPS acceleration comes to fruition and for guidance on how long it can continue," Clissold said.
Since the start of this bull market, much of the S&P 500's earnings growth has been driven by a handful of mega-cap tech companies like Nvidia , Amazon , and Meta Platforms.
"Five of the seven grew by at least 20% versus Q1 2023, and three grew by at least 100%," Clissold said of the mega-cap tech's earnings growth.
As strong as that growth has been, it sets a high bar for these companies to continue to post fast enough growth that impresses investors.
"The hurdle is high. Consensus is calling for five members of the Mag 7 to post slower growth rates in Q2 than in Q1. Even strong beats may not be enough for Mag 7 growth rates to continue to accelerate," Clissold said.
For the bull market to continue, the other 493 S&P 500 stocks need to start pulling their weight in terms of earnings growth, and this earnings season could be the quarter it finally happens.
The 493 companies are expected to grow earnings by 1.1% in the second quarter, compared to first-quarter expectations of a 5.7% decline. These companies ultimately posted first-quarter earnings growth of 0.3%.
"Analysts are banking the Mag 7 to continue to drive earnings growth, but the rest of the market to participate more. The bar is noticeably lower outside the mega-cap favorites," Clissold said.
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Vaccine inequity, inconsistent public health measures and new variants such as Omicron are prolonging the COVID-19 pandemic, but controlling the virus remains possible.
As we enter the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health leaders must take stock of where we are and how we can end the crippling hold that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has over us all. All pandemics end. The COVID-19 pandemic will end, but it is not over yet. Already, we have endured two years of missed opportunities, missed education, missed connections with family and loved ones. Without action, 2022 could be the same. But it doesn’t have to be.
The virus will continue to affect our lives and livelihoods unless the global community collectively addresses inequitable access to vaccines, therapeutic agents and diagnostics, as well as the fact that we are giving the SARS-CoV-2 virus the room it needs to thrive through uneven and inconsistent national policies to reduce transmission, some of which are undermined by division and politicization. At the same time, governments must invest in preparedness, prevention and in science.
One of the greatest scientific achievements of the pandemic has been the speed of the development of several safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. Robust data continue to show that COVID-19 vaccines are very effective at preventing people from getting seriously ill and dying. This protection seems to be maintained against the more transmissible Delta variant and over time .
However, we continue to see persistent inequities in access to COVID-19 vaccines. Of the more than 7 billion doses administered so far, less than 3% have been in countries on the African continent. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that those at higher risk of severe disease and health workers be prioritised for COVID-19 vaccination in all countries. The number of doses administered by the end of September 2021 was enough to have covered 40% of the population in all countries. The failure to provide access of sufficient doses of vaccines to low- and middle-income countries is not only unethical, but it is epidemiologically and economically unwise, and is prolonging the pandemic.
Unfortunately, vaccines alone will not end this pandemic, in part because of more transmissible new variants and also because vaccines are primarily designed to protect against severe disease and death. The more the virus is allowed to circulate, the more opportunity the virus has to evolve. Throughout the course of the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 has shown its ability to become better adapted to the human host, with variants Alpha and Delta demonstrating enhanced transmissibility. One of the biggest unknowns in 2022 will be how this evolution continues. Delta continues to evolve, and the Omicron variant has shown that the virus will continue to adapt, and such variants may be more transmissible, cause more or less severe disease, and/or develop properties of immune escape .
In 2022, epidemiological and genomic surveillance efforts should be expanded in all countries to detect SARS-CoV-2 variants and ensure that robust testing systems are linked to public health action. As we track the evolution of the virus, the WHO and partners will continue to closely assess and monitor the effect of virus evolution on public health and medical countermeasures, including diagnostics, therapeutic agents and COVID-19 vaccines .
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the WHO has recommended comprehensive measures to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Current vaccines by themselves are insufficient to stem transmission, and so increases in cases should be expected whenever public health and social measures are lifted, irrespective of vaccination coverage. In 2022, much of the world will need to continue with effective measures as we bring transmission under control. This includes, for example, wearing well-fitting masks, hand hygiene, physical distancing, improving ventilation of indoor spaces, avoiding crowded spaces and being supported to stay home if unwell.
It is essential to continue to improve national and sub-national public health infrastructure to better target and tailor local responses. Although the seasonal patterns of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus have been disrupted owing to the interventions for COVID-19, they have not disappeared from circulation, and governments should prepare for them to circulate again.
Preparedness for the next epidemic or pandemic pathogen does not begin when the current emergency is over. It begins now, with investing in integrated respiratory disease surveillance, a well-protected work force, early clinical care, access to health care, better personal protective equipment, further research and development for diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines and addressing long-standing inequalities. This will not only help to control COVID-19, but also ensure that we are in a better position to confront the next outbreak.
In 2022, with increasing population level immunity, there will be substantial reductions in the number of people experiencing severe disease and death. This will alleviate some of the strain COVID-19 has exercised on even the most robust health-care systems. However, it is likely that there will be continued surges in transmission among unprotected individuals and strain on health-care systems in areas where vaccine coverage is low. The risk of more transmissible variants or variants with immune escape properties means that governments and communities must continue efforts to reduce transmission and protect the vulnerable, while slowly and carefully reopening our societies. Controlling this virus was always in our control, it remains in our control.
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New York's much-discussed new trash cans have been shown off nearly two years after the city spent $1.6 million to contract with consulting giant McKinsey in 2022.
On Monday, NYC Mayor Eric Adams revealed the wheeled bin alongside NYC Department of Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch , who symbolically put a black bag from his official residence, Gracie Mansion, into the container.
Video of the launch, which saw Adams wheeling a bin onto the street while Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind" played, quickly went viral, drawing memes and ridicule from citizens of cities that have had similar bins for decades.
Time to Get (EVEN MORE) Stuff Clean! Join us right now in Manhattan as we kick off the next phase in our trash revolution: https://t.co/AEDRQNXmUT — NYC Mayor's Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) July 8, 2024
Under the new rules, which come into force on November 12, 2024, all properties with one to nine residential units will be required by law to use one of the latch-lidded waste collectors, now available to purchase online from $46.
The newly introduced requirement seeks to minimize the number of sidewalk rats . It isn't known exactly how many rats are in NYC, but a 2014 study suggested there were around two million, and a pest control firm in 2023 estimated there were close to three million rats in NYC.
Adams said the program was part of his administration's "Trash Revolution," which aims to clean up the city's streets. Officials estimate New Yorkers produce around 14 billion pounds of trash each year. But with the new rule directed at removing about 70% of this, curbside garbage piles are hoped to become a problem of the past.
Plans for the new bins follow the city's work with consulting giant McKinsey & Company, which was drafted in to help the city assess how to contain its waste. A Sanitation Department official told New York Streetsblog at the time that the project was worth around $4 million, but a spokesperson for the department told Business Insider $1.6 million was paid out to McKinsey for the contract.
According to an October 2022 New York Times article, McKinsey was scheduled to spend 20 weeks working with the Sanitation Department to determine what sort of bins would suit different streetscapes, what they should look like, and which vendors to use. The department told Business Insider that work on the contract concluded in April 2023.
The goal was to design a program capable of combating New York's decadeslong garbage problem, looking at waste collection methods used in urban areas around the world and focusing on containerization — or, in simple terms, putting trash bags in bins rather than on the street.
A New York City Sanitation Department spokesperson told Business Insider, "DSNY's limited work with McKinsey a couple of years ago is not directly related to this week's wheelie bin announcement."
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"McKinsey did not determine or recommend policy — they did math around the fact that the City was interested in waste containerization, a strategy the Adams Administration is now aggressively pursuing," the spokesperson added. The bin design was the result of work conducted by city employees, another DSNY spokesperson told BI.
The solution decided upon is similar to systems already used in cities like Barcelona, where fleets of colored, uniform bins are often found on residential blocks.
The bin project is far from the firm's first consultation in New York. The Office of the New York State Comptroller shows that McKinsey has worked on at least 10 other projects with the state.
McKinsey declined to comment when contacted by Business Insider.
Correction: July 11, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated McKinsey's role in working with the New York City Sanitation Department. The department said that it hired McKinsey to help inform its efforts at waste management but that the decision to pursue the wheeled bins unveiled Monday was the city's and not a McKinsey recommendation. The story was also updated with a statement from a New York City Sanitation Department spokesperson and with new information from the department that the contract with McKinsey, originally said to be as high as $4 million, was ultimately worth $1.6 million.
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Smartphones dependency risk analysis using machine-learning predictive models. Claudia Fernanda Giraldo-Jiménez. Javier Gaviria-Chavarro. André Luiz Felix Rodacki. Article Open Access 31 Dec 2022.
Articles in 2022. Filter By: Article Type. All. All; Article (1079) Author Correction (78) ... Research Highlight 22 Dec 2022. Daily briefing: Watch spines form in an artificial human embryos.
In this end-of-year roundup, we share key insights and trends from HBR's most-read research articles of 2022, exploring topics from embracing a new identity to fostering equity in the workplace ...
collection. Collection12 March 2023. Journal Top 100 - 2022. This collection highlights our most downloaded* research papers published in 2022. Featuring authors from around the world, these ...
A healthcare worker administers COVID-19 booster shots at a vaccination clinic in April 2022 in San Rafael, California. ... The research led to the surprising revelation that early humans ...
Show / hide sections navigation 2022 Breakthrough of the Year Runners-up Breakdowns Videos. On 11 July, in a live broadcast from the White House, U.S. President Joe Biden unveiled the first image from what he called a "miraculous" new space telescope. ... Last year, the research lab OpenAI presented a software system called DALL-E that when ...
By Frontiers' science writers Image: Shutterstock.com As part of Frontiers' passion to make science available to all, we highlight just a small selection of the
In 2022, epilepsy research has made advances across a range of clinically important areas, from self-management, genetics, imaging, and surgical planning to understanding febrile seizures and coma-related periodic patterns. Most notably, in May 2022, the World Health Assembly adopted the Intersectoral Global Action Plan on Epilepsy and Other Neurological Disorders, which aims to address gaps ...
stories of 2022. Previously excavated bodies of two ritually sacrificed Inca children, including this girl still wearing a ceremonial headdress, have yielded chemical clues to a beverage that may ...
January 25, 2022. Prevalence and Durability of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies Among Unvaccinated US Adults by History of COVID-19. JAMA. Research Letter. March 15, 2022. Association Between 3 Doses of mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine and Symptomatic Infection Caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron and Delta Variants. JAMA.
1. Like this meta-analysis: Screen media and mental health. Ferguson, C. J., et al. This meta-analysis in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice (Vol. 53, No. 2) suggests that exposure to screen time, including smartphones and social media, is not linked to mental health issues in adults or children. Researchers analyzed 37 data sets from 33 separate studies published between 2015 and ...
To mark the end of the year, MIT News is looking back at 10 of the research stories that generated the most excitement in 2022. We've also rounded up the year's top MIT community-related stories. Designing a heat engine with no moving parts. In April, engineers at MIT and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) designed a heat ...
The WHO just released in May 2022 a report on the state of the obesity pandemic in Europe, stating that 60% of citizens in the area of Europe are either overweight or obese, and highlighting the implications of the obesity pandemic, especially as it interacts with the COVID pandemic to create a twin pandemic, to increase morbidity and mortality ...
Inflation in the U.S. at a 40-year high. Small talk around the watercooler (mainly the virtual one, nowadays) certainly feels heavier than it used to. Recent Gallup data indicates that in 2022, companies and managers remain challenged by the task of raising employee engagement to pre-pandemic levels. Nearly half of global workers (44%) surveyed ...
Large-scale genotyping and phenotyping of a worldwide winter wheat genebank for its use in pre-breeding. Albert W. Schulthess. Sandip M. Kale. Jochen C. Reif. Data Descriptor Open Access 26 Dec 2022.
Published in mAbs. "In this 13th annual installment of the annual 'Antibodies to Watch' article series, we discuss key events in commercial antibody therapeutics development that occurred in 2021 and forecast events that might occur in 2022.". 7. Lessons learned from the fifth wave of COVID-19 in Hong Kong in early 2022.
10. An Authoritative Study of Two High-Impact Learning Strategies. Spacing and retrieval practices are two of the most effective ways to drive long-term retention, confirms an authoritative 2022 review spanning hundreds of studies on the topic—and students should know how and why the strategies are effective. In the review, researchers ...
Pew Research Center's surveys have shed light on public opinion around some of the biggest news events of 2022 - from Russia's military invasion of Ukraine to the overturning of Roe v. Wade to Americans' experiences with extreme weather events.Here's a look back at the past year through 15 of our most striking research findings, which cover these topics and more.
In 2022, 21 Research Exchange articles were published, which represent a 50% increase from the previous volume year (Volume 45 (2021), n = 14). With this increase in published Research Exchange, the journal published one less full-length article in 2022 (n = 57) when compared to the previous volume year (n = 58). Additionally ...
This article summarizes the top 20 research studies of 2022 identified as POEMs (patient-oriented evidence that matters), excluding COVID-19. Statins for primary prevention of cardiovascular ...
In July, 2022, WHO declared mpox—a viral zoonotic illness—a public health emergency of international concern, due to the rising number of cases and its spread to many countries outside Africa.1 By May, 2023, reported cases of mpox had reduced in regions outside Africa, leading to the lifting of the emergency declaration. In August, 2023, the WHO Director-called upon state parties to ...
The Gun Violence Archive, a database mostly used for research, 5 defines a mass shooting as an incident with 4 or more individuals shot or killed, not including the shooter. This case series used data from a 9-year period (January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2022) to calculate cumulative incidence rates of mass shooting event types based on incident characteristics and the total number of ...
Published online 2022 Jul 6. ... and 5579 articles were deleted after assessing the title or abstract. After reviewing the full articles, another 126 papers were excluded, resulting in a meta-analysis of 14 articles. ... The Nippon General DATA 90 research group: CVD mortality <HDL>: 0.27 (0.14-0.52) Kunutsor. S. K (2017) Finland: 23: 42-61 ...
Research Highlight 02 Dec 2022 New Year's fireworks chase wild geese high into the sky Tracking data show that the birds fly farther than usual on the last evening of the year and are more ...
"Our research shows mathematically that the overwhelming driver of that burst of inflation in 2022 was federal spending, not the supply chain," said Mark Kritzman, a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan. In writing " The Determinants of Inflation ," Kritzman and colleagues from State Street developed a new methodology that revealed how certain ...
a Department of Applied Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China ... Article type Review Article. Submitted 09 Apr 2024. First published 15 Jul 2024. Download Citation.
Antimicrobial-resistant infections remained above pre-pandemic levels in 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported July 16. CDC data show that infections, which increased 20% during the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period — peaked in 2021.
Second quarter earnings season could trigger the most painful stock correction since 2022, according to NDR. The research firm warned of a shift from accelerating to decelerating growth in heading ...
In 2022, with increasing population level immunity, there will be substantial reductions in the number of people experiencing severe disease and death. ... Research articles Reviews & Analysis ...
New York's much-discussed new trash cans have been shown off nearly two years after the city spent $1.6 million to contract with consulting giant McKinsey in 2022.