The below is attributable to Spokesperson Benjamin Suarato:
On October 7, Administrator Samantha Power spoke with Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Administrator Power and High Commissioner Türk discussed the shared commitment of USAID and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to protect and advance human rights around the world. They discussed the status of detained UN, NGO, and diplomatic staff in Yemen, support for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, the efforts of the Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti, and helping enable the critical work of human rights defenders in Latin America.
The following is attributable to Deputy Spokesperson Shejal Pulivarti:
Last week, Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman led an official delegation with representatives from the White House, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Interior, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency to Palau, Papua New Guinea (PNG), and Fiji. The goal of the interagency delegation was to demonstrate a whole-of-government approach to delivering on the region’s top priorities, especially economic growth. The delegation emphasized that the U.S. government leverages its resources, expertise, and influence from across the entire government to mobilize new investments and strengthen partnerships – particularly with the private sector – to achieve the ambitious goals set forward by our Pacific partners in the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent and the Boe Declaration.
In Palau, the Deputy Administrator met with Republic of Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr., and announced $1.5 million additional humanitarian assistance funding to the American Red Cross to bolster disaster preparedness and response capabilities of the national Red Cross societies in the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Deputy Administrator Coleman also launched a new partnership with the Palau Chamber of Commerce to combat human trafficking, which will raise awareness about trafficking in persons, improve protection for victims, and ensure collaboration among partners.
The Deputy Administrator highlighted the collaboration between USAID and the Department of the Interior under the U.S.-Australia-Japan Trilateral Infrastructure Partnership, where USAID and partners are working to deliver safe, secure, and open internet access for Palauans. She also reinforced the United States’ commitment to finding local solutions to complex problems such as trafficking in persons, and engaged with local partners and the private sector to gain a better understanding of the challenges they face in the country.
The Deputy Administrator led the U.S. government’s delegation at Palau’s Independence Day celebrations, marking 30 years of independence and bilateral partnerships. Deputy Administrator Coleman reinforced the United States’ commitment to and partnership with Palau and the Pacific Islands region as a whole, and that the U.S. government supports Palau’s development goals for more resilient communities, sustainable economic growth, and strong democratic processes.
In PNG, the Deputy Administrator and delegation met with a variety of stakeholders, including Deputy Prime Minister John Rosso, local and international businesses, women entrepreneurs, as well as the diplomatic and development partner community to reinforce the United States’ commitment to partnering with PNG to increase investment, expand electrification, and support increased peace and security for Papua New Guinean communities. While in Port Moresby, Deputy Administrator Coleman launched USAID’s flagship Peace Project, which will empower PNG communities to prevent conflict, promote stability, and empower communities to thrive.
In Fiji, Deputy Administrator Coleman met with Fiji’s Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica, the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lesikimacuata Korovavala, and the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Trade, Cooperatives and Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Mr. Shaheen Ali, and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Baron Waqa to underscore the United States’ commitment to fostering partnerships and help Fiji’s growing democracy deliver economic and social progress, especially to address the effects of climate change and increase economic connectivity. The Deputy Administrator and the delegation met with American businesses operating in the region and Fijian women entrepreneurs to discuss market challenges, overcoming barriers, and unlocking potential for greater economic collaboration and innovation in the Pacific.
The Deputy Administrator participated in the signing of the bilateral framework agreement between USAID and the Government of Fiji. This Agreement demonstrates the United States’ commitment to the Pacific and further solidifies our Pacific Islands regional mission’s presence in Suva, Fiji.
Deputy Administrator Coleman co-hosted a roundtable at the University of South Pacific with students and members of the diplomatic corps focused on the U.S government’s innovative efforts for economic connectivity, trade, climate, and business in the Pacific. At the town hall, the Deputy Administrator announced that USAID intends to provide over $4 million in additional support to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth and increase efforts to withstand the effects of climate change across the Pacific Island countries.
Only 11% of professionals consider career progression a top priority in their professional lives
Higher level job ads remaining vacant for over a year, as candidates want fewer responsibilities
47% say work-life balance is top priority when considering a new job
32% of new managers feel unsupported, 26% experience imposter syndrome and 20% feel overwhelmed and overworked
Recent research by recruitment specialists, Robert Walters, reveals that only 11% of professionals consider career progression as a top priority in their professional lives.
When respondents were asked about the most appealing aspect of career progression, 47% emphasised the importance of work-life balance. Additionally, 29% expressed a preference for increased learning opportunities, while 21% highlighted promotions and job title changes. Just 4% cited increased responsibilities as a key factor.
The study further highlights the significance of work-life balance, with 43% of job seekers considering it the primary deciding factor when evaluating new job opportunities. In comparison, 22% prioritise a competitive salary, 19% focus on company culture, and just 17% prioritise career growth opportunities.
These findings coincide with the observation made by Robert Walters that candidates are increasingly seeking lower-level roles over management positions. Moreover, higher level positions are remaining vacant for extended periods, up to over a year, with potential candidates expressing concerns over the excessive responsibilities associated with these positions.
Work-life balance takes centre stage
Jane Lowney, Senior Director at Robert Walters also mentioned that the current workforce, especially among Gen Z, is more driven by work-life balance. The increased demand for managers to handle remote work and other factors such as office culture has significantly increased the pressure and responsibilities associated with management roles, stressing that there has been a noticeable shift in the mindset of professionals when it comes to career advancement.
Jane said, “less individuals are interested in ‘climbing the corporate ladder’ as they question the value of management positions and the additional responsibilities they entail. Salary no longer comes first, work-life balance is now the priority, so people are hesitant about taking on more responsibilities. This trend could be concerning when we think about the potential consequences on retention of teams and the need to attract leaders over time.”
Manager roles have evolved
Further research from the recruitment experts also emphasises the necessity for increased support for newly promoted managers. Among 2,000 managers surveyed, 32% admitted to feeling lacking in support, while 26% confessed to experiencing imposter syndrome. Additionally, 20% expressed feelings of being overwhelmed and overworked. in their managerial roles. Only 22% reported feeling empowered and adequately supported in their positions.
Jane further explains the evolving role of managers in today’s world. “Previously, managers focused primarily on motivating employees and ensuring productivity. However, in the modern workforce, managers are expected to take on several additional responsibilities such as cultivating team culture and inclusivity, driving digital and AI adoption as well as identifying mental health struggles among team members, and effectively communicate challenging news such as delayed promotions or stagnant pay raises.”
Jane emphasised that it is essential to provide comprehensive training to equip managers with the skills necessary to navigate the complexities of the modern workforce. Current training protocols must be revised to align with the ever-changing demands of the workforce, acknowledging the need for ongoing support and development for newly appointed managers.
Case Study
Gen Z top biller Maddy Shelest, Principal Consultant at Robert Walters was recently given a promotion from managing consultant to manager. However, she quickly realised that she was happier with fewer managerial responsibilities. After only 6 months in the new role, she made the decision to sidestep into an individual contributor role.
Maddy said, “Ensuring a healthy work-life balance is a top priority for me, and I already observed a change in this aspect in the few weeks I was a manager. I found myself carrying work-related concerns home, which wasn’t as much of a problem when I was in a lower position. I soon realised that this added stress wasn’t worth it, so I quickly made the decision to step down. I believe that the conventional career path no longer resonates with the modern workforce. People have learnt how to say no and feel more comfortable deviating from traditional routes of career progression.”
Maddy also highlighted the new complexities of the modern workforce, saying “todays managers have added responsibilities regarding mental health and the need to manage remote work. Being a manager isn’t the same as it might have been 10 years ago.”
She also emphasised that as a young manager, being only 25 when she was promoted, she faced challenges in establishing boundaries between her friendships and her role as a manager. She said, “Being friends with my team members before I became their manager made me feel somewhat uncomfortable. There’s such an expectation to be the ‘cool’ manager, which made it difficult for me to transition from being their friend to managing them. I also think my age posed difficulties in providing guidance in certain situations. For instance, at 25, I was going through similar experiences as my team members and dealing with my own challenges, so it was difficult for me as a 25-year-old to offer advice to other individuals of the same age.”
Maddy said the decision was also influenced by the nature of the billing industry, which already places a high workload and pressure on individuals. She said, “Adding the additional pressures of management on top of billing responsibilities and expectations was not something I wanted to take on. When I was a manager, I noticed my billings went down. It was high stress, low reward. I prefer to focus on maximising my billing potential and did not want to divert my energy and time towards the complexities of managing people.”
To keep up with the evolving workforce, organisations need to adapt their training and support programs for new managers. It is evident that the role of managers has undergone significant changes, and as such, their training should be updated accordingly. Additionally, employee priorities have shifted, with a greater emphasis on time outside of work and work-life balance, especially in the post-Covid era. With the introduction of Gen Z into the workforce, it is imperative for organisations to take steps to make manager positions more appealing to this generation.
About Robert Walters:
Robert Walters is one of the world’s leading specialist professional recruitment consultancies with a global presence spanning 31 countries. The New Zealand business recruits across the fields of accounting & finance, property, general management, human resources, information technology, legal, risk management, compliance & audit, sales, marketing & communications, secretarial & business support and supply chain & procurement.
SAN DIEGO, Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Quick Custom Intelligence (QCI), a leading provider of data activation solutions for the gaming and hospitality industries, today announced a reactivation of their partnership with Context Networks to explore new opportunities for casinos to generate revenue through the global digital marketplace. By integrating Context Networks’ advanced Contextual Promotions Media Network™ (CPMN) into the latest version of QCI’s Enterprise Platform (AGI55), casinos can potentially monetize screentime on player devices by offering it to advertisers.
This collaboration enables casinos to sell advertising space based on player engagement levels, with revenue tied to the duration of ads displayed on secondary gaming screens. With high levels of player interaction, this previously untapped resource presents a substantial revenue opportunity for operators.
The partnership merges Context Networks’ expertise in delivering dynamic, personalized content with QCI’s powerful data activation and artificial intelligence capabilities. This synergy allows casinos to leverage real-time data to enhance the gaming experience, drive customer engagement, improve retention, and optimize marketing efforts.
If new revenue streams are of interest to your organization and you have HTML compliant secondary screens, please reach out and see if you are good fit to test this new innovation.
“Context Networks has consistently been at the forefront of customer engagement and advertising technology within the gaming industry,” said Matthew Olden, CEO of Context Networks. “Our collaboration with QCI enhances the guest experience by incorporating personalized advertising, boosting customer interaction, and delivering a strong return on investment for casino operators.”
Andrew Cardno, Chief Technology Officer of QCI, added, “I am excited to support this innovation, as it holds significant potential. Our mission has always been to provide casinos with the most advanced tools available. By integrating Context Networks’ cutting-edge advertising technology into our QCI Enterprise Platform AGI55, we are offering an unprecedented value proposition to our customers, empowering them to enhance guest engagement and achieve operational excellence.”
ABOUT Context Networks Context Networks, Inc. is a premier programmatic advertising platform that leverages private blockchain technology to deliver transparent, secure, and efficient advertising solutions for the global gaming industry. The company’s platform focuses on three key gaming segments: casino, lottery operators, and iGaming platforms. Context Networks is committed to driving innovation and creating value for its clients through advanced technology and strategic partnerships. For more information, visit http://www.contextnetworks.net.
ABOUT QCI Quick Custom Intelligence (QCI) has pioneered the revolutionary AGI Platform, an artificial intelligence platform that seamlessly integrates player development, marketing, and gaming operations with powerful, real-time tools designed specifically for the gaming and hospitality industries. Our advanced, highly configurable software is deployed in over 250 casino resorts across North America, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Latin America, and The Bahamas. The QCI AGI Platform, which manages more than $24 billion in annual gross gaming revenue, stands as a best-in-class solution, whether on-premises, hybrid, or cloud-based, enabling fully coordinated activities across all aspects of gaming or hospitality operations. QCI’s data-driven, AI-powered software propels swift, informed decision-making vital in the ever-changing casino industry, assisting casinos in optimizing resources and profits, crafting effective marketing campaigns, and enhancing customer loyalty. QCI is based in San Diego, with additional Las Vegas, St. Louis, Denver, Dallas, and Tulsa offices. Visit us at http://www.quickcustomintelligence.com.
About Andrew Cardno Andrew Cardno is a distinguished figure in artificial intelligence and data plumbing. With over two decades spearheading private Ph.D. and master’s level research teams, his expertise has made significant waves in data tooling. Andrew’s innate innovation ability has led him to devise numerous pioneering visualization methods. Of these, the most notable is the deep zoom image format, a groundbreaking innovation that has since become a cornerstone in most mapping tools. His leadership acumen has earned him two coveted Smithsonian Laureates, and teams under his mentorship have clinched 40 industry awards, including three pivotal gaming industry transformation awards. He co-founded Quick Custom Intelligence with Dr. Ralph Thomas, amplifying their collaborative, innovative capacities. A testament to his inventive prowess, Andrew boasts over 150 patent applications. Across various industries—be it telecommunications with Telstra Australia, retail with giants like Walmart and Best Buy, or the medical sector with esteemed institutions like City Of Hope and UCSD—Andrew’s impact is deeply felt. He has enriched the literature with insights, co-authoring eight influential books with Dr. Thomas and contributing to over 100 industry publications. An advocate for community and diversity, Andrew’s work has touched over 100 Native American Tribal Resorts, underscoring his expansive and inclusive professional endeavors.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Guglielmo Marconi and the UK: the first of many stories, between Italian talent and innovation across the Channel.
image of the young Marconi with radio apparatus
In the year in which Italy celebrates the 150th anniversary of Guglielmo Marconi’s birth, the British Embassy in Rome hosted a special event – “Guglielmo Marconi and the UK – Stories of Italian Talent and Innovation Across the Channel ’ – to celebrate the close ties that the Italian genius, Nobel Prize for Physics in 1909, had with the UK.
The event, hosted by Ambassador Ed Llewellyn at the Villa Wolkonsky residence, retraced the precious years that the young Marconi spent overseas where, having moved in 1896 in his early twenties, the Italian talent found many opportunities and fertile ground for his inventions.
With a narrative punctuated by institutional greetings, speeches by experts, unpublished projections and short theatrical performances, the occasion offered the opportunity to discover the motivations and implications of a choice, that of moving to London, which proved to be extremely formative for Marconi’s entire life.
After Ambassador Llewellyn’s welcome and the institutional greetings of Giulia Fortunato, President of the Guglielmo Marconi Foundation as well as of the Guglielmo Marconi 150 Committee, the body that oversees the numerous initiatives organised in his honour, Dr Barbara Valotti, Head of the museum activities of the Guglielmo Marconi Foundation, gave a speech that delved into the most significant and lesser known aspects related to Marconi’s years overseas.
Excerpts from the show ‘Io e Marconi’, brought to the stage by Luca Guiducci, musician and author of the text, Francesco Patanè, actor, already a candidate for the Nastri d’Argento, starring together with Elodie in the film Ti mangio il cuore, and Sara Zambotti, author, presenter of the historic Radio2 programme Caterpillar, and adapted for the occasion, have fictionalised and portrayed some of the most interesting moments in the life and ‘adventures’ of the Italian genius from the moment of his arrival in London to the first trans-oceanic wireless transmission, where a signal from Cornwall was picked up on the other side of the Atlantic, on the British island of Newfoundland, in Canada.
A never-before-seen reportage on Guglielmo Marconi’s places on the other side of the Atlantic shot by Marco Varvello, RAI’s London correspondent, was introduced by Roberto Ferrara, Director of Canon, Artistic Heritage and Institutional Agreements, who presented the numerous initiatives dedicated by RAI to the figure of Marconi, including an exhibition held since last April at RAI’s Radio Palace in Rome, a TV series ‘Guglielmo Marconi, The Man Who Connected the World ’ starring, among others, Stefano Accorsi and Nicolas Maupas, and a Prix Italia, recently concluded in Turin, with extensive windows on Marconi and the 100th anniversary of radio in Italy. Much biographical information on Marconi can be found on Wikipedia.
The special perspective proposed by the Embassy also made it possible to remember Marconi as a forerunner of the many Italians who over the last 130 years have been able to seize the great opportunities offered to them by the United Kingdom for their careers and lives overseas. Testifying to Guglielmo Marconi’s incredible legacy are two of the 600,000 or so Italians currently living and working in the UK, Sara Bernardini, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Oxford and the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, and Teresa Castiello, President of Cardiology at the Royal Society of Medicine and founder/CEO MIAL Healthcare, illustrated the latest achievements in the application of wireless communication to two key areas of our times: Artificial Intelligence and Digital Health, i.e. Digital Medicine.
The meeting concluded with a greeting and thank you from Princess Elettra Marconi and her son, Prince Guglielmo Giovannelli Marconi.
CALGARY, Alberta, Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Canoe EIT Income Fund (“Canoe” or the “Fund”)(TSX – EIT.UN) today announced the 2024 voluntary cash redemption.
Voluntary Annual Cash Redemption
The redemption date for the Fund’s annual voluntary cash redemption will be December 6, 2024. Unitholders are entitled to redeem units of the Fund at a price equal to 95% of the Average Net Asset Value (NAV) of the three trading days preceding the December 6, 2024 redemption date, less direct costs. Direct costs are expected to be less than 1%. If all redemption requests exceed 10% of the aggregate outstanding units of the Fund on November 15, 2024, the final day to submit units for redemption, the Fund will process redemptions to this maximum on a pro-rata basis based on the total number of units tendered. Payment for units that have been tendered and accepted for redemption will be made on or before December 31, 2024.
Unitholders wishing to redeem their units must provide notice of their intent to do so with their investment advisor or brokerage office no later than November 15, 2024. Please note that investment firms may impose an earlier deadline in order to facilitate the processing of redemption requests. Unitholders are strongly urged to consult their investment advisor or brokerage office directly to confirm their internal deadlines. Registered unitholders (those who hold a physical share certificate in their name) should contact the Fund’s transfer agent, Alliance Trust Company, at 1-877-537-6111 to redeem their units. Units that have been submitted for redemption will remain eligible for the October 2024 and November 2024 distributions, which are paid in November 2024 and December 2024, respectively.
Please note that any redemption requests made by non-resident unitholders may be subject to withholding tax.
Key Dates
October 8 – November 15, 2024
Unitholders may tender units for redemption
December 3,4,5 2024
Redemption price determined based on Average NAV of these trading days
December 6, 2024
Redemption date
December 31, 2024
Payment of redemption proceeds on or before this date
About Canoe EIT Income Fund
Canoe EIT Income Fund is one of Canada’s largest closed-end investment funds, designed to maximize monthly distributions and capital appreciation by investing in a broadly diversified portfolio of high quality securities. The Fund is listed on the TSX under the symbol EIT.UN, and is actively managed by Robert Taylor, Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, Canoe Financial.
About Canoe Financial
Canoe Financial is one of Canada’s fastest growing independent mutual fund companies managing approximately $18.0 billion in assets across a diversified range of award-winning investment solutions. Founded in 2008, Canoe Financial is an employee-owned investment management firm focused on building financial wealth for Canadians. Canoe Financial has a significant presence across Canada, including offices in Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.
Not for Distribution to U.S. Newswire Services or for Dissemination in the United States of America.
The Fund makes monthly distributions of an amount comprised in whole or in part of Return of Capital (ROC) of the net asset value per unit. A ROC reduces the amount of your original investment and may result in the return to you of the entire amount of your original investment. ROC that is not reinvested will reduce the net asset value of the fund, which could reduce the fund’s ability to generate future income. You should not draw any conclusions about the Fund’s investment performance from the amount of this distribution. Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investment funds. Please read the information filed about the Fund on http://www.sedar.com before investing. Investment funds are not guaranteed and past performance may not be repeated. This communication is not to be construed as a public offering to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities. Such an offer can only be made by way of a prospectus or other applicable offering document and should be read carefully before making any investment. This release is for information purposes only. Investors should consult their Investment Advisor for details and risk factors regarding specific strategies and various investment products.
If your jaw dropped as you watched the latest AI-generated video, your bank balance was saved from criminals by a fraud detection system, or your day was made a little easier because you were able to dictate a text message on the run, you have many scientists, mathematicians and engineers to thank.
But two names stand out for foundational contributions to the deep learning technology that makes those experiences possible: Princeton University physicist John Hopfield and University of Toronto computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton.
The two researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics on Oct. 8, 2024, for their pioneering work in the field of artificial neural networks. Though artificial neural networks are modeled on biological neural networks, both researchers’ work drew on statistical physics, hence the prize in physics.
Artificial neural networks owe their origins to studies of biological neurons in living brains. In 1943, neurophysiologist Warren McCulloch and logician Walter Pitts proposed a simple model of how a neuron works. In the McCulloch-Pitts model, a neuron is connected to its neighboring neurons and can receive signals from them. It can then combine those signals to send signals to other neurons.
But there is a twist: It can weigh signals coming from different neighbors differently. Imagine that you are trying to decide whether to buy a new bestselling phone. You talk to your friends and ask them for their recommendations. A simple strategy is to collect all friend recommendations and decide to go along with whatever the majority says. For example, you ask three friends, Alice, Bob and Charlie, and they say yay, yay and nay, respectively. This leads you to a decision to buy the phone because you have two yays and one nay.
However, you might trust some friends more because they have in-depth knowledge of technical gadgets. So you might decide to give more weight to their recommendations. For example, if Charlie is very knowledgeable, you might count his nay three times and now your decision is to not buy the phone – two yays and three nays. If you’re unfortunate to have a friend whom you completely distrust in technical gadget matters, you might even assign them a negative weight. So their yay counts as a nay and their nay counts as a yay.
Once you’ve made your own decision about whether the new phone is a good choice, other friends can ask you for your recommendation. Similarly, in artificial and biological neural networks, neurons can aggregate signals from their neighbors and send a signal to other neurons. This capability leads to a key distinction: Is there a cycle in the network? For example, if I ask Alice, Bob and Charlie today, and tomorrow Alice asks me for my recommendation, then there is a cycle: from Alice to me, and from me back to Alice.
In recurrent neural networks, neurons communicate back and forth rather than in just one direction. Zawersh/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA
If the connections between neurons do not have a cycle, then computer scientists call it a feedforward neural network. The neurons in a feedforward network can be arranged in layers. The first layer consists of the inputs. The second layer receives its signals from the first layer and so on. The last layer represents the outputs of the network.
However, if there is a cycle in the network, computer scientists call it a recurrent neural network, and the arrangements of neurons can be more complicated than in feedforward neural networks.
Hopfield network
The initial inspiration for artificial neural networks came from biology, but soon other fields started to shape their development. These included logic, mathematics and physics. The physicist John Hopfield used ideas from physics to study a particular type of recurrent neural network, now called the Hopfield network. In particular, he studied their dynamics: What happens to the network over time?
Such dynamics are also important when information spreads through social networks. Everyone’s aware of memes going viral and echo chambers forming in online social networks. These are all collective phenomena that ultimately arise from simple information exchanges between people in the network.
During the 1980s, Geoffrey Hinton, computational neurobiologist Terrence Sejnowski and others extended Hopfield’s ideas to create a new class of models called Boltzmann machines, named for the 19th-century physicist Ludwig Boltzmann. As the name implies, the design of these models is rooted in the statistical physics pioneered by Boltzmann. Unlike Hopfield networks that could store patterns and correct errors in patterns – like a spellchecker does – Boltzmann machines could generate new patterns, thereby planting the seeds of the modern generative AI revolution.
Hinton was also part of another breakthrough that happened in the 1980s: backpropagation. If you want artificial neural networks to do interesting tasks, you have to somehow choose the right weights for the connections between artificial neurons. Backpropagation is a key algorithm that makes it possible to select weights based on the performance of the network on a training dataset. However, it remained challenging to train artificial neural networks with many layers.
In the 2000s, Hinton and his co-workers cleverly used Boltzmann machines to train multilayer networks by first pretraining the network layer by layer and then using another fine-tuning algorithm on top of the pretrained network to further adjust the weights. Multilayered networks were rechristened deep networks, and the deep learning revolution had begun.
A computer scientist explains machine learning to a child, to a high school student, to a college student, to a grad student and then to a fellow expert.
AI pays it back to physics
The Nobel Prize in physics shows how ideas from physics contributed to the rise of deep learning. Now deep learning has begun to pay its due back to physics by enabling accurate and fast simulations of systems ranging from molecules and materials all the way to the entire Earth’s climate.
By awarding the Nobel Prize in physics to Hopfield and Hinton, the prize committee has signaled its hope in humanity’s potential to use these advances to promote human well-being and to build a sustainable world.
Only 11% of professionals consider career progression a top priority in their professional lives
Higher level job ads remaining vacant for over a year, as candidates want fewer responsibilities
47% say work-life balance is top priority when considering a new job
32% of new managers feel unsupported, 26% experience imposter syndrome and 20% feel overwhelmed and overworked.
Recent research by recruitment specialists, Robert Walters, reveals that only 11% of professionals consider career progression as a top priority in their professional lives.
When respondents were asked about the most appealing aspect of career progression, 47% emphasised the importance of work-life balance. Additionally, 29% expressed a preference for increased learning opportunities, while 21% highlighted promotions and job title changes. Just 4% cited increased responsibilities as a key factor.
The study further highlights the significance of work-life balance, with 43% of job seekers considering it the primary deciding factor when evaluating new job opportunities. In comparison, 22% prioritise a competitive salary, 19% focus on company culture, and just 17% prioritise career growth opportunities.
These findings coincide with the observation made by Robert Walters that candidates are increasingly seeking lower-level roles over management positions. Moreover, higher level positions are remaining vacant for extended periods, up to over a year, with potential candidates expressing concerns over the excessive responsibilities associated with these positions.
Work-life balance takes centre stage
Jane Lowney, Senior Director at Robert Walters Brisbane also mentioned that the current workforce, especially among Gen Z, is more driven by work-life balance. The increased demand for managers to handle remote work and other factors such as office culture has significantly increased the pressure and responsibilities associated with management roles, stressing that there has been a noticeable shift in the mindset of professionals when it comes to career advancement.
Jane said, “less individuals are interested in ‘climbing the corporate ladder’ as they question the value of management positions and the additional responsibilities they entail. Salary no longer comes first, work-life balance is now the priority, so people are hesitant about taking on more responsibilities. This trend could be concerning when we think about the potential consequences on retention of teams and the need to attract leaders over time.”
Manager roles have evolved
Further research from the recruitment experts also emphasises the necessity for increased support for newly promoted managers. Among 2,000 managers surveyed, 32% admitted to feeling lacking in support, while 26% confessed to experiencing imposter syndrome. Additionally, 20% expressed feelings of being overwhelmed and overworked. in their managerial roles. Only 22% reported feeling empowered and adequately supported in their positions.
Jane further explains the evolving role of managers in today’s world. “Previously, managers focused primarily on motivating employees and ensuring productivity. However, in the modern workforce, managers are expected to take on several additional responsibilities such as cultivating team culture and inclusivity, driving digital and AI adoption as well as identifying mental health struggles among team members, and effectively communicate challenging news such as delayed promotions or stagnant pay raises.”
Jane emphasised that it is essential to provide comprehensive training to equip managers with the skills necessary to navigate the complexities of the modern workforce. Current training protocols must be revised to align with the ever-changing demands of the workforce, acknowledging the need for ongoing support and development for newly appointed managers.
Case Study
Gen Z top biller Maddy Shelest, Principal Consultant at Robert Walters Sydney was recently given a promotion from managing consultant to manager. However, she quickly realised that she was happier with fewer managerial responsibilities. After only 6 months in the new role, she made the decision to sidestep into an individual contributor role.
Maddy said, “Ensuring a healthy work-life balance is a top priority for me, and I already observed a change in this aspect in the few weeks I was a manager. I found myself carrying work-related concerns home, which wasn’t as much of a problem when I was in a lower position. I soon realised that this added stress wasn’t worth it, so I quickly made the decision to step down. I believe that the conventional career path no longer resonates with the modern workforce. People have learnt how to say no and feel more comfortable deviating from traditional routes of career progression.”
Maddy also highlighted the new complexities of the modern workforce, saying “todays managers have added responsibilities regarding mental health and the need to manage remote work. Being a manager isn’t the same as it might have been 10 years ago.”
She also emphasised that as a young manager, being only 25 when she was promoted, she faced challenges in establishing boundaries between her friendships and her role as a manager. She said, “Being friends with my team members before I became their manager made me feel somewhat uncomfortable. There’s such an expectation to be the ‘cool’ manager, which made it difficult for me to transition from being their friend to managing them. I also think my age posed difficulties in providing guidance in certain situations. For instance, at 25, I was going through similar experiences as my team members and dealing with my own challenges, so it was difficult for me as a 25-year-old to offer advice to other individuals of the same age.”
Maddy said the decision was also influenced by the nature of the billing industry, which already places a high workload and pressure on individuals. She said, “Adding the additional pressures of management on top of billing responsibilities and expectations was not something I wanted to take on. When I was a manager, I noticed my billings went down. It was high stress, low reward. I prefer to focus on maximising my billing potential and did not want to divert my energy and time towards the complexities of managing people.”
To keep up with the evolving workforce, organisations need to adapt their training and support programs for new managers. It is evident that the role of managers has undergone significant changes, and as such, their training should be updated accordingly. Additionally, employee priorities have shifted, with a greater emphasis on time outside of work and work-life balance, especially in the post-Covid era. With the introduction of Gen Z into the workforce, it is imperative for organisations to take steps to make manager positions more appealing to this generation.
About Robert Walters
Robert Walters is one of the world’s leading specialist professional recruitment consultancies with a global presence spanning 31 countries. The Australian business recruits across the fields of accounting & finance, banking, engineering & operations, general management, human resources, information technology, legal, risk management, compliance & audit, sales, marketing & communications, secretarial & business support and supply chain & procurement.
Headline: Federal Assistance for Hurricane Helene Exceeds $286 Million
Federal Assistance for Hurricane Helene Exceeds $286 Million
FEMA Maintains Focus on Recovery for Helene Survivors While Preparing for Impacts of Hurricane Milton
WASHINGTON – FEMA, under the direction of the Biden-Harris Administration, continues to lead a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach to assist communities impacted by Hurricane Helene. Federal assistance for survivors of Helene has now surpassed $286 million with an additional $180 million in mission assignments to federal partners. FEMA continues to coordinate recovery efforts while preparing for the anticipated landfall of Hurricane Milton along Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Administrator Deanne Criswell is on the ground directing FEMA’s response and recovery operations for the impacted states. The combined efforts of federal, state and local partners ensure that every available resource is mobilized to help those impacted by Hurricane Helene.
As FEMA maintains its focus on Helene response and recovery, the agency is also fully engaged in support of local, tribal and state response efforts ahead of Hurricane Milton. Residents in the storm’s projected path are urged to stay informed and prepare now.
Hurricane Helene Response
The agency is actively working alongside state, local and tribal partners to assess damage and support those affected by Helene. Nearly 7,000 federal personnel are deployed, including FEMA staff. To date, FEMA has shipped over 16.2 million meals, more than 13.9 million liters of water, 210 generators and more than 505,000 tarps to the region. FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance Teams are on the ground in neighborhoods across the affected states helping survivors apply for assistance and connecting them with additional state, local, federal and voluntary agency resources.
Disaster survivors in designated areas of Georgia,Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia can begin their recovery process by applying for federal assistance through FEMA. People with damage to their homes or personal property who live in these areas should apply for assistance, which may include upfront funds to help with essential items like food, water, baby formula and other emergency supplies.
Funds may also be available to repair storm-related damage to homes and personal property, as well as assistance to find a temporary place to stay. Homeowners and renters with damage to their home or personal property from previous disasters, whether they received FEMA funds or not, are still eligible to apply for and receive assistance for Helene.
There are three ways to apply for FEMA assistance:
Voluntary Organizations
Voluntary agencies are supporting all affected states by providing critical feeding operations and support for survivors with hot and prepared meals and shelf-stable meals. Organizations are also providing personnel and resources to the hardest hit areas. The American Red Cross has hundreds of trained disaster workers providing comfort and operating shelters.
People can receive free services like cutting fallen trees, tarping roofs and mitigating mold with the help of Crisis Cleanup by calling 844-965-1386. The hotline is open through Oct. 11 and can connect people with volunteers from local relief organizations, community groups and the faith-based community who may be able to assist.
Additional support and assistance provided to each state includes:
Support for North Carolina
Financial Support: FEMA has approved more than $40 million in housingand other types of assistance for over 30,000 households.
Staffing: As response efforts continue in North Carolina, more than 1,000 FEMA staff are on the ground, with more arriving daily. Over 1,000 Urban Search and Rescue personnel remain in the field helping people. These teamshave rescued or supported over 3,200 survivors to date. President Biden ordered an additional 500 active-duty troops equipped with advanced technological assets to the area to further strengthen recovery operations in Western North Carolina. This brings the total number of active-duty military personnel supporting the response to 1,500. Experienced FEMA leadersfrom around the country are in the field to bolster response efforts.
Sheltering: Shelter numbers continue to decline, with 18 shelters housing just under 800 occupants. Over 2,100 people who cannot return home are staying in safe and clean lodging through FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance program. Transitional Sheltering Assistance is available for North Carolinians displaced by Helene. Residents in declared counties who have applied for disaster assistance may be eligible to stay temporarily in a hotel or motel paid for by FEMA while they work on their long-term housing plan. People do not need to request this assistance. FEMA will notify them of their eligibility through an automated phone call, text message, and/or email, depending upon the method of communication they selected at the time of application for disaster assistance.
Power and Cellular Restoration: As of today, more than 86% of originally reported power outages have been restored. Cellular restoration continues to improve, with more than 85% of cellular sites operating. FEMA is boosting response coordination by providing Starlink units to ensure first responders can communicate with each other.
Commodities: Commodity distribution, mass feeding, and hydration operations are underway in areas of western North Carolina. FEMA commodity shipments are enroute to support operations. Voluntary organizations are supporting feeding operations with bulk food and water deliveries coming via truck and aircraft. Mobile feeding operations are reaching survivors in heavily impacted areas, including three mass feeding sites in Buncombe, McDowell, and Watauga counties.
The Salvation Army has 20 mobile feeding units supporting the massive operation and has provided emotional and spiritual care to more than 2,400 people. To date, The Salvation Army has served over 34,000 meals, 14,500 drinks, and 10,200 snacks. The American Red Cross is engaging in targeted distribution of emergency supplies in low-income communities with high levels of minor or affected residential damage.
Resources:
Residents can visit: ncdps.gov/helene to get information and additional assistance.
Residents can get in touch with loved ones by calling 2-1-1 or visiting unitedwaync.org to add them to search and rescue efforts.
Support for Florida
Recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene continue in Florida even as the federal government is supporting the state in preparing for Hurricane Milton. FEMA has approved more than $129 million for over 35,000 households. FEMA specialists are canvassing Florida communities affected by Helene to help survivors apply for assistance. Additionally, FEMA inspectors are visiting applicants’ homes to verify disaster-caused damage.
Residents in need of information or resources should call the State Assistance Information Line (SAIL) at 1-800-342-3557. English, Spanish and Creole speakers are available to answer questions.
Residents can find additional resources and information at Florida Division of Emergency Management’s website, FloridaDisaster.org.
Support for South Carolina
In South Carolina, FEMA has approved over $65 million for more than 80,000 households. FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance Teams are on the ground in neighborhoods across the affected counties continuing to help survivors apply for FEMA assistance and connect them with additional state, local, federal and voluntary agency resources.
Residents with questions on Helene can call the state’s toll-free hotline, open 24 hours a day, at 1-866-246-0133.
Residents who are dependent on medical equipment at home and who are without power due to Helene may be eligible for a medical needs shelter. Call the state’s Department of Public Health Care Line at 1-855-472-3432 for more information.
Residents can find additional information at South Carolina Emergency Management Division’s website.
Support for Georgia
FEMA has approved over $48 million for more than 59,000 households.
Resources: Residents can find resources like shelters and feeding sites at Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency.
Support for Virginia
To date, FEMA has approved over $850,500 for over 123 households.
Residents can find resources like shelters and feeding sites at Virginia Department of Emergency Management’s website.
Support for Tennessee
FEMA has approved more than $3.1 million for disaster assistance for 192 households.
Residents can call 1-800-824-3463 to report a missing person. Callers should be prepared to provide as much information as possible including names, phone numbers, vehicle identification and last known whereabouts.
Counties continue to establish donation centers. For the evolving list, visit Tennessee Emergency Management Agency’s website.
Space is hard, but it’s not all hardware. The new Lunar Autonomy Challenge invites teams of students from U.S. colleges and universities to test their software development skills. Working entirely in virtual simulations of the Moon’s surface, teams will develop an autonomous agent using software that can accomplish pre-defined tasks without help from humans. These agents will be used to navigate a digital twin of NASA’s ISRU Pilot Excavator (IPEx) and map specified locations in the digital environment. The IPEx is an autonomous mobility robot engineered to efficiently collect and transport lunar regolith, the loose rocky material on the Moon’s surface. Autonomous systems allow spacecraft, rovers, and robots to operate without relying on constant contact with astronauts or mission control. Before hardware is trusted to operate independently on location, which for Artemis missions includes the Moon, it must be tested virtually. High-fidelity virtual simulations allow NASA to anticipate and improve how systems, both software and hardware, will function in the physical world. Testing in virtual simulations also allows technologists to explore different mission scenarios, observe potential outcomes, and reduce risks. In the Lunar Autonomy Challenge, students will develop their knowledge of autonomous systems by working with the same simulation tools created in-house by Caterpillar Inc. of Irving, Texas, over decades of research and development. Teams will need to utilize the IPEx digital twin’s cameras and orientation sensors to accurately map surface elevation and identify obstacles. Like with real lunar missions, teams must also manage their energy usage and consider the Moon’s harsh terrain and low-light conditions. Through the competition, participants will learn more about autonomous robotic operation, surface mapping, localization, orientation, path planning, and hazard detection.
Teams must be comprised of at least four undergraduate and/or graduate students and a faculty advisor at a U.S. college or university.
The challenge will take place between November 2024 and May 2025 and will include both a qualifying round and a final round. Interested teams must apply by Thursday, Nov. 7.
Round 1: Selected teams will develop and train their agent using provided virtual environments. Teams will have three opportunities to submit their agent to run in a qualification environment. For each submission, their agent will be scored based on performance.The top scoring teams will be invited to continue.
Round 2: Teams will work to further refine the agents. Teams will have multiple opportunities in total to submit their agents to the competition environment. The top three teams will be named challenge winners.
Interested teams should carefully review the Challenge Guidelines and the Lunar Autonomy Challenge site for more details, including proposal requirements, FAQs, and additional technical guidance.
The top three highest-scoring teams on the leaderboard in the finals will be awarded cash prizes: First Place: $10,000 Second Place: $5,000 Third Place: $3,000
The Lunar Autonomy Challenge is a collaboration between NASA, The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Caterpillar Inc., and Embodied AI. APL is managing the challenge for NASA.
Source: United States Senator for Alabama Tommy Tuberville
“FEMA is worried more about diversity, equity, inclusion, and climate change than they are helping the people of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.”
WASHINGTON – Yesterday, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) joined “Kudlow” on Fox Business Network with guest host David Asman to discuss the Biden-Harris administration’s slow FEMA response to victims of Hurricane Helene, amid reports of money being allocated to house illegal immigrants and Vice President Harris touting the administration’s move to send another $157 million to Lebanon.
Excerpts from Senator Tuberville’s interview can be found below, and his full remarks can be found on YouTube or Rumble.
ON MAYORKAS CLAIMING FEMA IS OUT OF MONEY
ASMAN: “Senator, thanks so much for being here. Appreciate it. You know, there’s a big question about whether the administration is contradicting itself now based on what they’ve said before about 1.) whether FEMA has enough money to deal with all these crises, these emergencies, and 2.) whether or not they waylaid a lot of that money for spending on migrants.”
“So, it was pretty frank. He said, ‘We don’t have the funds to make it through the season.’ Now the question is, why? Senator, on the one hand, they’re saying this. On the other hand, they say exactly the opposite. I leave it to you now to try to figure out what’s going on here.”
TUBERVILLE: “Well, our country is in a mess and we are in a mess. And this administration, David, has no clue what they’re doing. I’ve been in the Senate now for going on four years, and it’s been like this the entire time. Now, when it comes to spending money, they know how to do that, but they don’t know how to prepare for anything. Let’s go back to North Carolina. First of all, it’s not about money at North Carolina in the first few days. It’s about security. People on the ground like the military, helping find people that are stranded, opening up roads, doing the things to get communication into the area in North Carolina. They heard zero from FEMA for five or six days. It was a disaster. And it’s continued to be a disaster—more people still missing, but David, this administration—Mayorkas being the leader of this pack when it comes to some kind of security, whether it’s the border, or whether it’s FEMA—he’s never prepared. He always blames somebody else. Another blaming President Trump for all this is going on. These people know how to spend money, but that’s the only thing they know how to do. They can’t do anything other than just spend the taxpayers’ money, and they usually waste it when it comes to that.”
ASMAN: “Well, and then they misappropriated. I mean, on the one hand, yes, you know, last week, [Karine] Jean-Pierre was saying that they haven’t used any money from FEMA for the migrants. But in 2022, she said very clearly funding is also available through FEMA’s emergency food and shelter program. That’s money that was going to the migrants. That’s money that the folks in Appalachia need right now.”
TUBERVILLE: “Yeah. And we’ve all known that. They’ve been spending billions of dollars on the illegals coming across the border. Once they get here, they take care of them much more than they take care of our veterans or the homeless people living in this country. David, I was coming from Bogotá, Colombia, a few weeks ago, and half the plane was filled with Venezuelans and people from South America that our government and taxpayer money—they were flying people on those planes to Houston. It was a commercial airliner, and then they were going places from there. It is a disaster. It’s getting worse every day. But this group could care less. All they want [are] votes, David. They don’t want to take care of any American citizen. They want votes to get reelected to carry this power on for another four years and Heaven help us if that happens.”
ASMAN: “And by the way, those folks that were on the plane with you haven’t been vetted. I mean, it’s quite clear that some of them—they just had to arrest, ICE just had to arrest some horrible people. They were child molesters from a bunch of different countries that were flown in and clearly, they hadn’t been vetted because if they had, they would have found out they had a horrible record from where they came from.”
TUBERVILLE: “Exactly. And it’s gonna get worse before it gets better. Our prayers are out to the people of North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina. But, David, let me tell you. I’ve lived in the South for all my life. I’ve been through hurricanes. I went through a terrible one in [Hurricane] Andrew back in ‘91 in Miami when I was coaching down there. There’s one coming named ‘Milton’ coming at Tampa. Right now, it’s a Category Five. It’s supposed to go down a little bit, but that usually never happens. The people of Tampa need to prepare to get out. Thank God, we have Governor DeSantis [who is] preparing for this because I promise you one thing, FEMA is nowhere to be found.”
ON VP HARRIS BRAGGING ABOUT SENDING MONEY TO LEBANON
ASMAN: “Well, meanwhile, while Mayorkas says we are running out of money for FEMA, Vice President Kamala Harris was bragging over the weekend about sending money to Lebanon of all places. She put out an X post saying, ‘I am concerned about the security and well-being of civilians suffering in Lebanon and will continue working to help meet the needs of all the civilians there.’ All the civilians there, what about the civilians here?”
TUBERVILLE: “Well, this is for a longer conversation, David, but that’s a war there. Our friend and ally, Israel is fighting for their livelihood over there. And we’re funding both sides. We’re giving some money, some weapons to Israel, but now we’re sending money to Lebanon who they’re fighting. We continue to do this. We’re sending money to Hamas. We’re building ports for Hamas. We’re letting Iran run rampant in terms of making money to fund all this stuff. […] It is out of control. All they’re trying to do is sell the people in Michigan and some of these areas that have people from Islamic countries that, ‘Hey, we’re taking care of your people over there. Vote for us in four or five weeks. And we promise you, we’ll help you again.’ We care nothing about the American people, and it’s out of control and [I] hope the American people see what’s going on.”
ON DEI STANDARDS IN FEMA
ASMAN: “Senator, one more on FEMA for you. The chief of FEMA—a woman named ‘Deanne Criswell’—claims it’s disinformation to essentially tell the truth of what the administration including Mayorkas, including Jean-Pierre, have been saying about money being used from FEMA for migrants, etcetera. Now she’s the one who last year signed a pledge to, and I’m quoting here, ‘instill equity in disaster relief.’ Do you know what equity in disaster relief is?”
TUBERVILLE: “Well, we probably could ask the ex-Secret Service Director who is the same way when she was all DEI—diversity, equity, and inclusion—in terms of the Secret Service. They almost got President Trump killed. Now the same thing here, people are dying because FEMA is worried more about diversity, equity, inclusion, and climate change than they are helping the people of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Again, these people have no clue about organization and taking care of the people that they are being paid to take care for. So, they need to get off their tails and go to work. But, again, we’ve got another terrible tragedy getting ready to happen here in 36 hours. I hope they get their stuff together. If they need the money, we will pass it for them. But unfortunately, they’ve wasted $20 billion on these illegals coming in for four years, and that has created more disaster than anything else.”
ASMAN: “Senator Tommy Tuberville, great to see you, sir, and we do pray for those folks in the in the line of fire from Milton. I appreciate it.”
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, and HELP Committees.
Source: United States Senator for New Mexico Martin Heinrich
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and U.S. Representative Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) introduced the Broadening Utilization of Proven and Effective Treatment for Recovery Act, or BUPE for Recovery Act, legislation to increase access to buprenorphine — a lifesaving drug used to treat opioid use disorder — by removing barriers providers and patients face when trying to access the medication.
“New Mexicans know too well the heartache of losing a loved one to opioids. Enough is enough. We need an all-hands-on-deck approach to tackle this epidemic with the urgency it demands, which includes eliminating barriers that providers and patients face in accessing lifesaving medication,” said Heinrich. “My legislation aims to change reporting requirements for buprenorphine, ensuring that patients receive timely and effective treatment for opioid use disorder. This will help save lives and help New Mexicans get the care they need.”
“For years, I’ve worked to address this disease of addiction and secure access to lifesaving treatments for the millions of Americans working to find and follow the path to recovery,” said Tonko. “A lynchpin of my efforts to address the opioid crisis is my MAT Act that eliminates outdated, bureaucratic barriers preventing practitioners from prescribing the proven treatment, buprenorphine, to their patients. Our newest bill, the BUPE for Recovery Act further strengthens our push to expand accessibility to this lifesaving drug. I thank Senator Heinrich for spearheading this effort with me and urge my colleagues to join us in advancing this legislation as soon as possible.”
The BUPE for Recovery Act temporarily exempts buprenorphine from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Suspicious Orders Report System (SORS) requirements during the opioid public health emergency. SORS reporting requirements have led to an uncertainty among pharmacies and distributors to stock and dispense buprenorphine, which can prevent individuals suffering from opioid use disorder from receiving timely and effective treatment.
This legislation will mitigate the treatment gap created by stringent SORS reporting requirements, reducing overdose deaths, saving lives, and improving public health outcomes.
The BUPE for Recovery Act is endorsed by the American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists (AAPP), American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Medical Association (AMA), American Nurses Association, American Pharmacists Association (APhA), American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), Association for Behavioral Health and Wellness (ABHW), Faces & Voices of Recovery, Overdose Prevention Initiative at GHAI, International Certification & Reciprocity Consortium (IC&RC), Kent Strategic Advisors, LLC, The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), National Association for Behavioral Healthcare (NABH), National Behavioral Health Association of Providers, National Black Harm Reduction Network (NBHRN), National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), The Kennedy Forum, Treatment Communities of America, Addiction Professionals of North Carolina, California Consortium of Addiction Programs & Professionals, Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), New Mexico American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, and the National League for Nursing.
“Over a million Americans have died from a drug overdose since 1999, exposing millions more to devastating, personal loss,” said Dr. Brian Hurley, President of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). “Policymakers must focus on advancing policies to ensure that pharmacists can fulfill their core function to dispense lawful prescriptions for addiction medications. We thank Senator Heinrich for his leadership in introducing Broadening Utilization of Proven and Effective Treatment for Recovery Act, which would temporarily exempt buprenorphine products approved for the treatment of opioid use disorder from the federal Suspicious Orders Report System and related reporting requirements. ASAM looks forward to working with lawmakers to ensure this vital legislation is enacted swiftly.”
“Over the past several years, New Mexico has made substantial investments to treat substance use disorders and prevent overdoses. At the federal level, significant barriers have been removed for prescribing medications for opioid use disorder, like buprenorphine. Unfortunately, stringent reporting requirements for buprenorphine continue to hinder our progress in the fight against the opioid epidemic. New Mexico ACEP strongly supports legislation that will remove buprenorphine from the Suspicious Orders Reports System and increase access to this evidence-based treatment,” said Scott Mueller, DO, FACEP, President of the New Mexico Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians (NMACEP).
“Buprenorphine is a life saving medication proven to reduce the risk of overdose deaths in individuals with opioid use disorder. Despite strong evidence for the effectiveness of buprenorphine, patients face far too many unnecessary barriers getting this medication. The American Medical Association urges that suspicious order reporting requirements not be triggered based upon orders for buprenorphine and their fulfillment, as buprenorphine has been approved by the FDA for opioid use disorder. If buprenorphine products remain in the Drug Enforcement Administration’s suspicious order reporting requirements, patients will continue to suffer. It is imperative to increase access to buprenorphine to save lives,” said Bobby Mukkamala, MD, President-elect of the American Medical Association and Chair of the AMA Substance Use and Pain Care Task Force.
A summary of the bill is here. The text of the bill is here.
Heinrich has continuously worked to make opioid use disorder treatments more readily available.
In the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS)Appropriations Bill, Heinrich successfully included language directing the DEA to take further action to remove barriers to access for opioid use disorder medications such as buprenorphine. The inclusion of this language will assist local medical and mental health providers and make medications, including buprenorphine, more accessible to New Mexicans.
Find an extensive list of Heinrich’s actions to tackle the fentanyl crisis and make opioid use disorder treatments more readily available here.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
China, ASEAN countries reap fruits of high-quality development via Belt and Road cooperation
An aerial drone photo taken on July 31, 2024 shows a view of Qinzhou Port in Qinzhou, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. [Photo/Xinhua]
BEIJING, Oct. 8 — Chinese Premier Li Qiang will attend the 27th China-ASEAN Summit, the 27th ASEAN Plus Three Summit and the 19th East Asia Summit in the Lao capital Vientiane starting from Wednesday, and pay official visits to Laos and Vietnam.
While pursuing high-quality development and advancing modernization, China has been offering new growth momentum to its neighbors connected by mountains and rivers, notably through Belt and Road cooperation with common development being a highlight.
Experts said that Li’s upcoming trip to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is expected to boost bilateral relations, foster deeper and more substantive cooperation, and enhance people-to-people exchanges, which will further catalyze regional peace, stability and prosperity.
ENHANCING CONNECTIVITY
Laos is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia. Its landscape, largely covered by rugged mountains and high plateaus, forms natural barriers to efficient transportation, hindering the country’s development and the improvement of people’s livelihood.
The China-Laos Railway has helped transform the country’s predicament into a growth opportunity, turning Laos into a land-linked hub on the Indo-China Peninsula.
Passengers are seen at the Vientiane Station of the China-Laos Railway in Vientiane, Laos, April 11, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]
The 1,035-km railway, a landmark Belt and Road project, connects Kunming in southwest China’s Yunnan Province with Vientiane.
Nearly three years into operation, the railway has handled over 10 million tons of imported and exported goods valued at about 5.7 billion U.S. dollars in total, with varieties of goods expanding from the initial 500 to more than 3,000, according to official data.
Since the railway launched its international passenger service in April 2023, it has transported over 222,000 cross-border passengers as of early July this year, providing affordable, convenient and comfortable experiences to travelers.
Daovone Phachanthavong, vice executive president of the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told Xinhua the China-Laos Railway “has promoted regional connectivity and injected vitality into economic and social development along the line.”
Vietnam, a neighbor of Laos, has enjoyed enhanced connectivity and more efficient logistics from infrastructure cooperation with China as well, which includes railway, expressway and port infrastructure.
China-Vietnam freight trains are a good case in point. Since its launch in November 2017, the service has significantly boosted rapid cargo movement between the two countries and further into Southeast Asia.
“China has strengths in capital, technology, and experience in infrastructure construction, while Vietnam is in need of infrastructure development in transportation, energy, and urban areas,” said Do Thi Thu, a senior lecturer at the Banking Academy of Vietnam.
This aerial photo taken on Oct. 16, 2023 shows a China-Vietnam (L) and a China-Laos international cold-chain freight trains pulling out of Yanhe Station of Yuxi City, southwest China’s Yunnan Province. [Photo/Xinhua]
BOOMING HIGH-QUALITY DEVELOPMENT
Infrastructure construction has opened up broader prospects for practical cooperation between China and ASEAN countries in a rich variety of areas, driving stronger economic growth, closer exchanges and high-quality development.
China is the largest foreign investor in Laos. A large chunk of the investment has funded infrastructure, development zones, as well as power transmission lines and hydropower plants, creating many jobs for local people and pushing forward Laos’ industrial upgrade.
Daovone said that Laos sees huge potential for further deepening cooperation with China across such fields as agriculture, electric vehicles and trucks, electricity, mining, solar energy, tourism, as well as hotels and restaurants.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the Lao economy. Laos exports bananas, rubber, cassava, sugarcane and others, with China being the largest buyer.
Through the years, Chinese companies have collaborated with the Lao government on tropical agricultural science and technology, and Laos is seeking to promote sustainable agricultural production and increase exports to China through the China-Laos Railway.
Vietnam, meanwhile, is China’s largest trading partner within ASEAN, and China has been Vietnam’s largest trading partner since 2004. Annual volume of two-way trade has exceeded 200 billion U.S. dollars for three consecutive years.
Do, the Hanoi-based scholar, said that Vietnam-China “large cooperative projects on infrastructure, energy, and border area development have contributed to the socio-economic growth of both nations.”
Vietnam-China trade cooperation “has bright prospects for deeper and more substantive cooperation in the future,” she said.
She also said the introduction of fresh and frozen Vietnamese durians into the Chinese market shows the development of trade cooperation, exemplified by diversifying products within the same category and adding value.
With Chinese consumers’ demand for durians on the rise, China is now the world’s largest importer and consumer of durians. Last year, some 493,000 tons of fresh Vietnamese durians were sold to China.
Vietnamese vendors sell durians in Dongxing, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on May 18, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]
Do also pointed out the abundant opportunities in substantive development of bilateral trade, noting the two countries can further enhance cooperation particularly in high-tech agriculture and e-commerce.
“China has advanced significantly in technology and innovation, while Vietnam is undergoing a digital transformation and developing its digital economy, creating great potential for cooperation in information technology, artificial intelligence, financial technology, and digital transformation in manufacturing,” she added.
CLOSER COMMUNITY FOR BROADER PROSPERITY
The flagship projects realized through high-quality cooperation between China and ASEAN nations have become benchmarks of their ever-closer relationships, the strengthening of which is conducive to regional prosperity and peace, experts have said.
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the China-Laos comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. In October 2023, leaders of the two countries signed a new five-year action plan for building a China-Laos community with a shared future, injecting new momentum into the further development of bilateral ties.
Photo taken on Oct. 16, 2016 shows the border trade on the Beilun River on the China-Vietnam border. [Photo/Xinhua]
Daovone greatly appreciates the friendship between the two socialist countries, which is maintained by the top leaders of both countries and exchanges between the two peoples.
Laos-China relations have been moving forward at a high level, he said, expressing the hope that Li’s upcoming visit to Laos will further advance this relationship. As Laos is the current rotating chair of ASEAN, Li’s attendance at related gatherings “will make the summit more colorful.”
Vietnam, another socialist neighbor, shares cultural and social affinities with China. Last year, the two countries announced the building of a China-Vietnam community with a shared future that carries strategic significance, ushering in a new stage in their ties.
“Mutual assistance during difficult times, such as supporting each other during the resistance against colonialism and imperialism, post-war reconstruction, and overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic, has strengthened the friendship between our two countries,” Do said.
As the world is facing rising challenges and geopolitical competition, “a successful bilateral community like Vietnam-China could inspire other bilateral and multilateral communities with a shared future, such as between China and ASEAN,” she said.
Do noted that working towards a community with a shared future helps Vietnam and China focus on sustainable development goals, including environmental protection, climate change response and food security.
“It allows the two countries to address common challenges and promote development for the benefit of their peoples, as well as for peace, stability, and prosperity in the region,” she said.
Headline: PHOTOS AVAILABLE: Governor Cooper, FEMA Administrator Criswell, Federal Highway Administration Officials Travel to Yancey and Mitchell Counties to Survey Damage, Thank First Responders
PHOTOS AVAILABLE: Governor Cooper, FEMA Administrator Criswell, Federal Highway Administration Officials Travel to Yancey and Mitchell Counties to Survey Damage, Thank First Responders mseets
Today, Governor Roy Cooper traveled to Burnsville in Yancey County and Spruce Pine in Mitchell County and was joined by FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, Federal Highway Administration Acting Administrator Kristin White and other state and federal officials to assess storm damage, thank volunteers and speak with people impacted by Hurricane Helene. The Governor visited the Burnsville and Spruce Pine fire departments and toured the Sibelco Quartz Mine in Spruce Pine, a facility that is integral to the global production of solar panels and semiconductor chips and a major employer in Mitchell County. The facility has been temporarily shut down due to impacts from Helene.
“Today I visited Burnsville and Spruce Pine where more heroic work is being done by volunteers and first responders to save lives and get relief to people who need it,” said Governor Cooper. “We’ll continue our around-the-clock work to surge resources and aid into Western North Carolina, helping communities recover and working to re-open facilities like the Sibelco Quartz Mine that are critical for both local and global economies.”
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is working to quickly get food, water and baby formula to impacted areas in Western North Carolina. DHHS has distributed over 30,000 gallons of water to Mitchell County and nearly 25,000 gallons to Yancey County. In addition, over 95,000 meals ready to eat (MREs) have been distributed to Mitchell County and over 55,000 to Yancey County. Eight pallets of formula via the National Guard have been distributed to 34 feeding sites across Western North Carolina.
Photos from the Governor’s visit to Yancey and Mitchell counties can be foundhere.
North Carolina National Guard and Military Response
More than 3,000 Soldiers and Airmen are now working in Western North Carolina. Joint Task Force- North Carolina, the task force led by the North Carolina National Guard is made up of Soldiers and Airmen from 12 different states, two different XVIII Airborne Corps units from Ft. Liberty, a unit from Ft. Campbell’s 101st Airborne Division, and numerous civilian entities are working side-by-side to get the much-needed help to the citizens in western North Carolina.
National Guard and military personnel are operating more than 40 helicopters and more than 1,200 specialized vehicles in Western North Carolina to facilitate these missions. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is helping to assess water and wastewater plants and dams. Residents can track the status of the public water supply in their area through a website launched on Saturday.
FEMA Assistance
More than $37 million in FEMA Individual Assistance funds have been paid so far to Western NC disaster survivors and more than 123,000 people have registered for Individual Assistance. Approximately 2,600 people are now housed in hotels through FEMA’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance. Federal partners have delivered approximately 9.78 million liters of water and approximately 7.7 million meals in North Carolina to support both responders and people living in the affected communities.
More than 900 FEMA staff are in the state to help with the western North Carolina relief effort. In addition to search and rescue and providing commodities, they are meeting with disaster survivors in shelters and neighborhoods to provide rapid access to relief resources. They can be identified by their FEMA logo apparel and federal government identification.
The Major Disaster Declaration requested by Governor Cooper and granted by President Biden now includes 27 North Carolina counties (Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Clay, Cleveland, Gaston, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Lincoln, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mecklenburg, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes and Yancey) and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
North Carolinians can apply for Individual Assistance by calling 1-800-621-3362 from 7am to 11pm daily or by visiting www.disasterassistance.gov, or by downloading the FEMA app. FEMA may be able to help with serious needs, displacement, temporary lodging, basic home repair costs, personal property loss or other disaster-caused needs.
Help from Other States
More than 1,300 responders from 35 state and local agencies have performed 118 missions supporting the response and recovery efforts through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC). This includes public health nurses, emergency management teams supporting local governments, veterinarians, teams with search dogs and more.
Beware of Misinformation
North Carolina Emergency Management and local officials are cautioning the public about false Helene reports and misinformation being shared on social media. NCEM has launched a fact versus rumor response webpage to provide factual information in the wake of this storm. FEMA also has a rumor response webpage.
Food, Water and Commodity Points of Distribution
Efforts continue to provide food, water and basic necessities to residents in affected communities, using both ground resources and air drops from the NC National Guard. More than 20,000 hot meals a day are being prepared and served by mobile kitchens. Food, water and commodity points of distribution are open throughout western North Carolina. For information on these sites in your community, visit your local emergency management and local government social media and websites or visit ncdps.gov/Helene.
Missing Persons
To report a missing person or request non-emergency support, please call NC 211 or 1-888-892-1162 if calling from out-of-state. NC 211 also has a registry page for missing persons and welfare check requests.
Shelters
A total of 17 shelters are open in Western North Carolina serving 737 people and 106 pets.
Storm Damage Cleanup
If your home has damages and you need assistance with clean up, please call Crisis Cleanup for access to volunteer organizations that can assist you at 844-965-1386.
Power Outages
Across Western North Carolina, more than 107,000 customers remain without power as of Tuesday, down from a peak of more than 1 million. Overall power outage numbers will fluctuate up and down as power crews temporarily take circuits or substations offline to make repairs and restore additional customers.
Road Closures
Travel remains dangerous, with hundreds of roads closed. Many of these roads are primary routes connecting the region. As connectivity and reporting measures improve, these number may increase.
NCDOT is asking people to avoid unnecessary travel to or in Western North Carolina. NCDOT has posted at ncdot.gov an interstate detour map for travelers to avoid western N.C. NCDOT currently has more than 2,050 employees and 1,100 pieces of equipment working on approximately 4,700 damaged road sites.
Fatalities
Eighty-nine storm-related deaths have been confirmed in North Carolina by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner. We expect that this number will continue to rise over the coming days. The North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will continue to confirm numbers twice daily. If you have an emergency or believe that someone is in danger, please call 911. To report that you have been unable to reach a person in Western North Carolina, please call 211.
Volunteers and Donations
Due to dangerous road conditions and the need to maintain open routes for emergency operations, travel to Western North Carolina is strongly discouraged. Instead, consider the following options for donations and volunteer opportunities:
If you would like to donate to the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund, visit nc.gov/donate. Donations will help to support local nonprofits working on the ground.
For information on volunteer opportunities, please visit nc.gov/volunteernc
Additional Assistance
There is no right or wrong way to feel in response to the trauma of a hurricane. If you have been impacted by the storm and need someone to talk to, call or text the Disaster Distress Helpline at 1-800-985-5990. Help is also available to anyone, anytime in English or Spanish through a call, text or chat to 988. Learn more at 988Lifeline.org.
If you are seeking a representative from the North Carolina Joint Information Center, please email ncempio@ncdps.gov or call 919-825-2599.
For general information, access to resources, or answers to frequently asked questions, please visit ncdps.gov/helene.
If you are seeking information on resources for recovery help for a resident impacted from the storm, please email IArecovery@ncdps.gov.
New York, N.Y., Oct. 08, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: NNE) (“NANO Nuclear” or “the Company”), a leading advanced nuclear energy and technology company focused on developing portable, clean energy solutions, today announced that Professor Andrew W. Woods, Ph.D. and Alejandra de Lara, BSc, MPhil have joined its Nuclear Technology and Engineering Team.
“It is a pleasure to see our Nuclear Technology and Engineering team grow with the additions of Dr. Woods and Alejandra,” said Prof. Ian Farnan, Lead for Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Radiation and Materials at NANO Nuclear Energy. “Their experience and unique expertise are a timely addition to the team and the next phase of the development of the ‘ODIN’ microreactor.”
“We are very happy to welcome Dr. Woods and Alejandra to the team,” said Eugene Shwageraus, Lead of Nuclear Reactor Engineering of NANO Nuclear Energy. “The next steps in the development of ‘ODIN’ require a dedicated team of experts to ensure the technology is ready to meet regulatory requirements and progress towards commercialization. I am delighted to work alongside Dr. Woods and Alejandra and develop a portable, secure and reliable solution to the world’s growing energy needs.”
Dr. Woods’ research focuses on developing simplified mathematical and experimental models to study complex fluid flow and heat transfer processes in single and multiphase flow. Applications of his work span various fields, including the dynamics of explosive volcanic eruptions, geothermal power generation, carbon sequestration, and large scale, subsurface energy storage. In recognition of his contributions, Dr. Woods was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2017. He is a Professor in the University of Cambridge.
Figure 1 – NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. Bolsters its Nuclear Technology and Engineering Team with the Additions of Professor Andrew W. Woods (left) and Alejandra de Lara, BSc, MPhil (right).
Alejandra de Lara has submitted her Ph.D. for examination at the University of Cambridge. Her Ph.D. project was sponsored by Framatome and focused on adapting fuel behavior prediction codes to molten salt-cooled reactors and analyzing their benefits compared to Light Water Reactors.
Her research demonstrated several fuel design features that would improve the performance of salt-cooled reactors. High-temperature operation of such reactors enables greater thermodynamic efficiency in power conversion using advanced cycles, while also allowing for the direct use of nuclear heat to drive industrial processes such as synthetic fuel production, hydrogen generation, and district heating.
“The ‘ODIN’ team has grown rapidly in recent months, and it is a pleasure to welcome Dr. Woods and Alejandra,” said James Walker, Chief Executive Officer, and Head of Reactor Development of NANO Nuclear Energy. “Dr. Woods is an experienced and well-versed leader in the field of complex fluid flow and heat transfer processes and I am certain his skills will be invaluable in the next steps of ‘ODIN’s” development. Similarly, Alejandra has proven herself as a leading young researcher and is the perfect example of the next generation’s excellence in nuclear science.”
About NANO Nuclear Energy, Inc.
NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: NNE) is an advanced technology-driven nuclear energy company seeking to become a commercially focused, diversified, and vertically integrated company across four business lines: (i) cutting edge portable microreactor technology, (ii) nuclear fuel fabrication, (iii) nuclear fuel transportation and (iv) nuclear industry consulting services. NANO Nuclear believes it is the first portable nuclear microreactor company to be listed publicly in the U.S.
Led by a world-class nuclear engineering team, NANO Nuclear’s products in technical development are “ZEUS”, a solid core battery reactor, and “ODIN”, a low-pressure coolant reactor, each representing advanced developments in clean energy solutions that are portable, on-demand capable, advanced nuclear microreactors.
Advanced Fuel Transportation Inc. (AFT), a NANO Nuclear subsidiary, is led by former executives from the largest transportation company in the world aiming to build a North American transportation company that will provide commercial quantities of HALEU fuel to small modular reactors, microreactor companies, national laboratories, military, and DOE programs. Through NANO Nuclear, AFT is the exclusive licensee of a patented high-capacity HALEU fuel transportation basket developed by three major U.S. national nuclear laboratories and funded by the Department of Energy. Assuming development and commercialization, AFT is expected to form part of the only vertically integrated nuclear fuel business of its kind in North America.
HALEU Energy Fuel Inc. (HEF), a NANO Nuclear subsidiary, is focusing on the future development of a domestic source for a High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) fuel fabrication pipeline for NANO Nuclear’s own microreactors as well as the broader advanced nuclear reactor industry.
Email: IR@NANONuclearEnergy.com Business Tel: (212) 634-9206 PLEASE FOLLOW OUR SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES HERE: NANO Nuclear Energy LINKEDIN NANO Nuclear Energy YOUTUBE NANO Nuclear Energy TWITTER
This news release and statements of NANO Nuclear’s management in connection with this news release or related events contain or may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In this context, forward-looking statements (including the anticipated benefits to NANO Nuclear of the engineering personnel described herein and statements regarding NANO Nuclear’s regulatory and licensing processes) mean statements related to future events, which may impact our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as “expects”, “anticipates”, “intends”, “plans”, “believes”, “potential”, “will”, “should”, “could”, “would” or “may” and other words of similar meaning. These forward-looking statements are based on information available to us as of the date of this news release and represent management’s current views and assumptions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, events or results and involve significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may be beyond our control. For NANO Nuclear, particular risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements include but are not limited to the following: (i) risks related to our U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) nuclear fuel manufacturing submission and the development of new or advanced technology, including difficulties with design and testing, cost overruns, development of competitive technology, (ii) our ability to obtain contracts and funding to be able to continue operations, (iii) risks related to uncertainty regarding our ability to technologically develop and commercially deploy a competitive advanced nuclear reactor technology, (iv) risks related to the impact of government regulation and policies including by the DOE and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, including those associated with the recently enacted ADVANCE Act, and (v) similar risks and uncertainties associated with the business of a start-up business operating a highly regulated industry. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which apply only as of the date of this news release. These factors may not constitute all factors that could cause actual results to differ from those discussed in any forward-looking statement, and the NANO Nuclear therefore encourages investors to review other factors that may affect future results in its filings with the SEC, which are available for review at http://www.sec.gov and at https://ir.nanonuclearenergy.com/financial-information/sec-filings. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as a predictor of actual results. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this news release, except as required by law.
Tokyo, Japan — Sony Group Corporation (Sony Group) today announced that five research papers on robotic mobility published by Sony Group and Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (SIE) have been accepted at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2024, one of the top international conferences in the fields of AI and robotics.
Tokyo, Japan — Sony Group Corporation (Sony Group) today announced that five research papers on robotic mobility published by Sony Group and Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (SIE) have been accepted at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2024, one of the top international conferences in the fields of AI and robotics.
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics is announced in Stockholm, Sweden, Oct. 8, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics went to two scientists, John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton, for their foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Tuesday.
This year’s laureates for the prize “used fundamental concepts from statistical physics to design artificial neural networks that function as associative memories and find patterns in large data sets,” said Ellen Moons, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics.
Hopfield works at Princeton University and Hinton at the University of Toronto. They used tools from physics to develop methods that are the foundation of today’s powerful machine learning, the academy said in a press release.
Artificial neural networks, now crucial to various fields, have advanced physics research and become integral to daily life, with applications such as facial recognition and language translation, Moons noted.
Moons said the benefits of machine learning are extensive, but the technology’s rapid development has raised concerns about its long-term effects. She stressed that “humans carry the responsibility for using this new technology in a safe and ethical way for the greatest benefit of humankind.”
Source: United States Senator for Wisconsin Tammy Baldwin
EAU CLAIRE COUNTY, WI – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) received the American Farm Bureau Federation’s (AFBF) “Friend of Farm Bureau” award, recognizing her steadfast commitment to Wisconsin farmers and rural communities. Senator Baldwin accepted the award while visiting Messerschmidt Farms in Fall Creek, Wisconsin.
“Wisconsin farmers are the backbone of our state’s economy and the fabric of our rural communities, and it’s my job to hear their concerns and fight for them in Washington,” said Senator Tammy Baldwin. “I’m honored to be named a ‘Friend of Farm Bureau,’ and look forward to continuing to fight in Washington to give Wisconsin farmers and rural communities the tools they need to succeed for generations to come.”
“The Wisconsin Farm Bureau supports Senator Tammy Baldwin for her continued dedication to Wisconsin’s agricultural community,” said Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation President Brad Olson. “Senator Baldwin has led efforts to enforce FDA labeling standards through the Dairy Pride Act and increased funding in Wisconsin businesses through the Dairy Business Innovation Initiative, which has directed almost $40 million to help Wisconsin dairy businesses. Her leadership on key legislation like the Meat Business Innovation Act and the Farmland Security Act reflects her commitment to the future of our farmers and rural communities. Senator Baldwin understands the unique challenges facing Wisconsin agriculture and has consistently been a strong voice in Washington, advocating for policies that promote sustainability and growth in our state’s farming industry.”
AFBF gives the award to members of Congress who were nominated by their respective state Farm Bureaus and approved by the AFBF Board of Directors. Senator Baldwin was given the award based on her legislative efforts to support Wisconsin’s farm families and agriculture economy. Senator Baldwin has introduced several pieces of legislation backed by the Wisconsin Farm Bureau, including:
Farmland Security Act, bipartisan legislation to increase transparency and oversight of foreign ownership in the American agricultural industry.
Protecting Future Farmland Act, bipartisan legislation to ensure that federal investments in rural energy projects prioritizes both land stewardship and responsible deployment of renewable energy to protect America’s farmlands for future cultivation.
Dairy Business Innovation Act, bipartisan legislation to reauthorize and strengthen the Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives, to help more American dairy farmers and processors add value to their businesses, including creating new products, expanding their markets, and modernizing their production facilities. Senator Baldwin successfully created the DBI Initiatives through the Dairy Business Innovation Act in 2018, which passed as part of the 2018 Farm Bill and has since delivered $40 million to help Wisconsin dairy businesses innovate and reach new customers.
Meat Business Innovation Act, legislation that applies the successful model of the Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives to the livestock farming and meat processing industry.
DAIRY PRIDE Act, bipartisan legislation to require non-dairy products made from nuts, seeds, plants, and algae to no longer be mislabeled with dairy terms such as milk, yogurt or cheese.
Downloadable pictures from the visit and of Senator Baldwin receiving the award can be found here.
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Audit Commission personnel attending 16th Assembly and 9th Symposium of Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (with photos) Audit Commission personnel attending 16th Assembly and 9th Symposium of Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (with photos) ******************************************************************************************
The Director of Audit, Professor Nelson Lam, attended the 16th Assembly and 9th Symposium of the Asian Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI) held from September 21 to 27 in New Delhi, India. At the invitation of the National Audit Office of the People’s Republic of China (CNAO), Professor Lam participated as a member of the People’s Republic of China Delegation, which was led by the Auditor General of CNAO and Secretary General of ASOSAI, Mr Hou Kai. The Assembly and Symposium were hosted by the Supreme Audit Institution of India and focused on “Digital Public Infrastructure and Gender Divide – Issues of Inclusion and Accessibility”. Mr Hou participated in the meetings and chaired some agenda items. The President of India, Mrs Droupadi Murmu, attended and spoke at the opening ceremony. Attended by 201 delegates from 44 ASOSAI members and observers, the Assembly endorsed the work report of the ASOSAI Secretariat, made additions and amendments to the ASOSAI Regulations, and held discussions on issues related to the three newly established working groups on state-owned enterprise, information technology audit and data analytics, and regional and municipal audit. Also, members of the new term of the Governing Board and the Audit Committee of ASOSAI were elected. It was affirmed that the next Assembly will be held in Saudi Arabia. Professor Lam, along with Senior Auditor Mr Alfred Wong, who also joined the meetings and activities, exchanged ideas and experiences with Mr Hou, the Commissioner of Audit of the Macao Special Administrative Region, Mr Ho Veng-on, and leaders of audit institutions of various Asian countries on the theme of the Assembly, as well as on the management and development of public sector auditing bodies. Professor Lam also shared on the current work and updates of Audit, and expressed his wish to have further exchanges with the participating audit institutions. Professor Lam said that the ASOSAI Assembly and Symposium, which were held physically for the first time since the pandemic, brought together representatives from various audit institutions to engage in face-to-face exchanges that proved to be fruitful and beneficial. He thanked CNAO and Mr Hou for their support and care for Audit. With strong support from the motherland, auditors from Hong Kong have had the privilege to, as part of the national teams, connect with the world through taking part in worldwide audit forums and United Nations audit assignments. These forums and assignments have provided great opportunities for Hong Kong auditors to assimilate good audit practices from around the world and apply the acquired knowledge in their roles at work. Not only did these valuable experiences enhance professional development within Audit, but they also enabled Audit to tell good stories of China, Hong Kong, and auditing on international platforms.
Ends/Wednesday, October 9, 2024Issued at HKT 11:42
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
More than 90 clinical departments, a flagship emergency center, minimally invasive surgery, innovative equipment, organ transplantation, scientific research and implementation of advanced technologies. This is what it looks like today City Clinical Hospital named after S.P. Botkin. It recently received a new status – Moscow Multidisciplinary Scientific and Clinical Center (MMNCC). This is a natural result of the evolution that the hospital has undergone over the past 10 years. A mos.ru correspondent spoke with doctors about its key transformations.
What specialized medical centers have opened in renovated buildings, how are cancers treated at stage zero, what surgeries are performed by robots, how innovators create cutting-edge technologies, and why is city recognition important to them – in our article.
From emergency care to bone marrow transplants
The transformation of the Botkin Hospital began about 10 years ago, since then 11 buildings have been built and renovated. Specialized medical centers are being opened in them, where they provide a full cycle of care – from diagnostics to treatment and dynamic monitoring.
In 2024, the hospital will celebrate 114 years since its foundation. All these years, it has been providing emergency medical care in various areas. We maintain centuries-old traditions and introduce new technologies into our work. We create unique specialized centers, use innovative equipment, develop minimally invasive surgery, train doctors, conduct scientific research and develop advanced treatment methods. Thanks to the achievements of recent years, the hospital has received the status of a scientific and clinical center Dmitry Grekov Deputy Director for Clinical Work of the Moscow Multidisciplinary Scientific and Clinical Center named after S.P. Botkin
In 2019, the only city ophthalmology center in the capital began operating — one of the largest and most modern specialized centers in Russia and Europe. It treats any eye pathologies. Later, the hematology building was modernized, where courses of chemo-, immuno-, and targeted therapy, as well as bone marrow transplantation, are now conducted. In the outpatient oncology care center, under the supervision of one team of doctors, you can undergo pathomorphological examinations, receive radiation and surgical treatment. The interdistrict nephrology center specializes in the treatment of kidney pathologies: hemodialysis, replacement therapy, transplantation. Another transformation of the Botkin Hospital is the launch in 2021 of the first high-throughput endoscopic center in Moscow for the early diagnosis of oncological diseases of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Patients from the risk group are referred here.
“Every fourth patient in the capital has neoplasms in the gastrointestinal tract. But they can be avoided if screening is performed in time. The center conducts gastro- and colonoscopy under intravenous anesthesia, and if polyps are detected, endoscopists remove them immediately. Sometimes we already see tumor cells in the removed polyps, this is stage zero cancer. After the procedure, the patient does not need medications or operations – only regular examinations. Over three years of work, the center has conducted almost 130 thousand studies and removed about 15 thousand formations. That is, we have already prevented oncology in so many people,” Dmitry Grekov emphasized.
Last year, the Botkin Hospital opened a flagship emergency medical care center; during the first 24 hours of hospitalization, patients undergo diagnostics, surgical treatment, and intensive care. That same year, the Moscow City Urology Center opened, which became the largest in Russia.
The S.P. Botkin MMNCC is a leader in the number of high-tech surgeries performed. Innovative equipment has made it possible to develop minimally invasive surgery. During laparoscopy, the doctor does not make large incisions, but inserts an endoscope with a camera transmitting an image to the screen and instruments through punctures into the organ. With the endovascular method, vessels are operated through punctures.
“Minimally invasive surgery has become commonplace for us. We are also pioneers in robotic technologies. In 2013, the first Da Vinci robot appeared in the hospital in Moscow, now we have six of them. They operate following the surgeon’s commands. Their “hands” can perform complex manipulations, as they rotate 540 degrees. Robots remove tumors in the liver, lungs, stomach, mediastinal tumors (this is an anatomical space in the middle sections of the chest cavity). They have no equal in narrow places: the rectum, pelvis, prostate gland. With the help of the Da Vinci robot, more than 10 thousand operations have already been performed in our clinic,” said Dmitry Grekov.
The MMNCC has modern CT and MRI machines at its disposal. Angiographs visualize the lumen of blood vessels and heart cavities. In neurosurgery and ophthalmology, intraoperative microscopes are indispensable for detailing deep lesions. The neuronavigator builds a route to the affected area of the brain so that the surgeon does not touch functionally significant areas.
“Our center has one of the largest experience in Russia in using minimally invasive methods to treat people with complicated malignant neoplasms. We have almost all medical specialties, which has allowed us to form multidisciplinary teams and make decisions at a single consultation. For example, we have already performed more than 10 operations for kidney tumors, when the tumor thrombus grows along the inferior vena cava and reaches the heart. In such a situation, the operating team consists of urologists, cardiac surgeons, vascular and abdominal surgeons,” the doctor said.
A place where medical work is inseparable from scientific work
Treatment should go hand in hand with science – this is the principle of the S.P. Botkin MMNCC. Since its foundation in 1910 to the present day, the institution remains an innovator. All scientific staff are practicing doctors.
Our goal is to improve treatment methods and medical technologies based on our experience. We see a weak point and try to find a solution. We start by analyzing the results. We performed surgery on 300 people, and 10 percent had postoperative complications. What factors influenced the procedure — age, smoking, diabetes? Statistics indicate the cause, and the team begins to create a medicine, a new treatment strategy, or a device. The development is tested at the center, and then the database is collected again. One study takes an average of three years. In emergency surgery, the results are immediately visible: on the 10th day after the operation, it is clear whether there are complications or not. In oncology, you have to wait for years for the results Pavel Drozdov Deputy Director for Science, S.P. Botkin Moscow Multidisciplinary Scientific and Clinical Center
If the effectiveness is proven, the new technology is “broadcast” to the capital’s medicine. In 2015, the city’s first simulation center opened in the hospital. There are simulators for endovascular and maxillofacial surgery, neurosurgery, and endoscopy. For example, Moscow doctors are taught to perform laparoscopic surgeries on organ dummies. Some simulators recreate acute cholecystitis and appendicitis, and intestinal obstruction.
The MMNCC team has repeatedly received the Russian Federation Government Prize in Science and Technology. Success was achieved in the treatment of pancreatic necrosis, a condition in which part of the pancreas becomes necrotic, causing its juice to digest nearby tissues. The team determined the types of this pathology (the tail, head, or entire gland died) and treatment tactics for each of them, for which they were awarded.
Doctors were also awarded for developing minimally invasive methods of surgical treatment of abdominal tumors: they wrote instructions on how to use laparoscopy and robots for interventions on the liver, stomach, and intestines. Doctors were also encouraged for creating a technology for machine perfusion of donor kidneys and liver. In order for organ cells to function while waiting for a transplant, they began to be enriched with a solution saturated with oxygen. This way they take root faster in the recipient.
“Awards are not the goal of our work, but they are recognition of our contribution to the development of medicine. We managed to prove that we are not just a hospital, and as a result, we received the status of a scientific and clinical center. We plan to expand the staff of scientific employees and continue to improve the quality of care,” added Pavel Drozdov.
Scientific work has been carried out in neurology, cardiology, neurosurgery, hematology and other areas, many projects receive grants from the city. The endoscopic method of operating on ulcers complicated by bleeding comes from the MMNCC. Within the walls of the center, a synthetic prosthesis-loop with a tension control mechanism for people suffering from urinary incontinence has been developed, as well as a program based on artificial intelligence, which helps diagnose prostate cancer, select therapy, and predict the course of the disease.
Currently, doctors are working on an algorithm for performing different types of keratoplasty (surgery to restore the cornea). MMNKTs has something to share: it is the only city clinic that performs corneal transplants.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Despite the growing sophistication of artificial intelligence, investors prefer human expertise when it comes to stock market predictions, according to a new study.
The study, which involved 3,600 US participants, examined responses to S&P 500 stock predictions made by human analysts, AI systems and a combination of both.
Researchers Dr Gertjan Verdickt (University of Auckland) and Francesco Stradi (KU Leuven), say the findings challenge the assumption that AI’s data-crunching prowess might automatically earn investor trust.
“We found that investors are more likely to believe human analysts first, followed by a combination of both human and AI,” says Verdickt, a finance lecturer at the University of Auckland Business School.
“AI-generated predictions are viewed with the most scepticism.”
He says this result was somewhat surprising in light of recent developments in AI technology.
“Previous studies have shown that AI can outperform human analysts, but it’s apparent that trust is a major issue.”
The results also showed notable differences between genders, with women showing more openness to AI-driven advice than men.
“Men tend to be overconfident in their financial abilities, which may explain why they are more sceptical of AI,” says Verdickt.
“Also, we have seen in other studies that women, on average, get different and often worse advice from financial advisers, such as recommendations for products with higher fees and less risk.”
The findings also show that investors with a deeper understanding of AI are more likely to trust its predictions.
Meanwhile, people who gave their political affiliation as Democrat, were more likely to trust AI-generated forecasts than Republicans.
To explore whether using more familiar AI tools could boost trust, the researchers also tested whether investors would view the well-known large language model ChatGPT more favourably.
“Contrary to recent research suggesting familiarity enhances trust in technology, our results indicate that replacing ‘AI’ with ‘ChatGPT’ does not improve investor trust. In fact, we find that investors distrust ChatGPT-generated advice, perhaps even more than the generic ‘AI model’ we reference in our study.”
Verdickt says the findings show that technical effectiveness alone can’t gain investor trust.
“We are the first to study investors’ reactions to AI forecasts from a perspective of credibility and beliefs. Our findings show that financial institutions should approach AI integration cautiously and consider tailored communication strategies for different demographics.”
Source: United States Navy (Logistics Group Western Pacific)
Issued by: on
SINGAPORE (October 3, 2024) Rear Adm. Todd Cimicata, Commander, Logistics Group Western Pacific/Task Force 73 (COMLOG WESTPAC), left, presents a Flag Letter of Commendation (FLOC) to Yeoman 2nd Class Jasilynn Lopez, temporarily assigned to COMLOG WESTPAC, during an awards ceremony on Sembawang Naval Installation (SNI), Oct. 3, 2024. COMLOG WESTPAC supports deployed surface units and aircraft carriers, along with regional Allies and partners, to facilitate patrols in the South China Sea, participation in naval exercises and responses to natural disasters. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Moises Sandoval/Released)
Source: United States Navy (Logistics Group Western Pacific)
Issued by: on
240909-N-BB269-1271 YAP, Federated States of Micronesia (Sept. 9, 2024) – U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Todd Cimicata, commander, Logistics Group Western Pacific/Task Force 73, center, receives a guided tour of the College of Micronesia-Fisheries and Maritime Institute during a campus visit with Pacific Partnership 2024-2 mission personnel in Yap, Federated States of Micronesia, Sept. 9, 2024. Now in its 20th iteration, the Pacific Partnership series is the U.S. Navy’s largest annual multinational humanitarian assistance and disaster relief preparedness mission conducted in the Indo-Pacific. Pacific Partnership works collaboratively with host and partner nations to enhance regional interoperability and disaster response capabilities, increase security and stability in the region, and foster new and enduring friendships in the Indo-Pacific. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Raymond D. Diaz III/Released)
Source: United States Navy (Logistics Group Western Pacific)
Issued by: on
SINGAPORE (October 3, 2024) Rear Adm. Todd Cimicata, Commander, Logistics Group Western Pacific/Task Force 73 (COMLOG WESTPAC), left, presents the award of the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal to Yeoman 1st Class Jamal Thompson, assigned to COMLOG WESTPAC, during an awards ceremony on Sembawang Naval Installation (SNI), Oct. 3, 2024. COMLOG WESTPAC supports deployed surface units and aircraft carriers, along with regional Allies and partners, to facilitate patrols in the South China Sea, participation in naval exercises and responses to natural disasters. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Moises Sandoval/Released)
Taiwan’s Tamkang University President Dr. Huan-Chao Keh led the dream AI team to Australia and paid a visit to Director General David Cheng-Wei Wu. President Keh shared his observations regarding the capacity of Taiwan’s Hi-tech and AI, international student exchange and mandarin learning programs, and future development of Taiwan’s advanced education. Worth mentioning is Tamkamg’s College of Artificial Innovative Intelligence is recognised by AI industry since it is the only university member invited to join the “Taiwan AI Alliance” and serves as a co-organizer.
RICHARDSON, Texas, Oct. 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Mavenir, the Network Software Provider building the future of networks with cloud-native solutions that run on any cloud, today announces that its advanced machine learning (ML) technology is being used by TPG Telecom to protect mobile users from the increasing scourge of AI-driven scam and spam voice calls – resulting in a 280 per cent increase in the number of fraudulent calls being blocked before they reach TPG Telecom customers’ mobile phones.
The Australian telco is already benefiting from Mavenir’s intelligent SpamShield technology protection for SMS messaging for several years. Mavenir is now supplying its robust, real-time CallShield solution –to protect TPG Telecom’s customers across its Vodafone, TPG, iiNet and felix brands from the nuisance and threat of automated and deepfake voice calls initiated by fraudsters.
In the first six months of this year, Mavenir’s CallShield technology has blocked almost 19 million fraudulent mobile calls from reaching TPG Telecom’s customers. This equates to blocking 103,000 illicit calls from reaching customers per day, and more than triple the 4.9 million calls blocked in the first half of 2023. This represents some of the highest scam and spam call prevention figures in the industry.
TPG Telecom also uses Mavenir’s SpamShield platform to stop fraudulent SMS from reaching its mobile users. In the first six months of 2024, Mavenir’s technology blocked more than 59.6 million fraudulent text messages from reaching TPG Telecom’s customers.
Communication Service Providers (CSPs) globally are facing a constantly evolving flow of unsolicited spam and fraud traffic – across both data and voice services – which is increasingly driven by sophisticated AI techniques, making it very difficult to detect and control. In addition to creating a poor experience for users and significant revenue losses for operators, a 2022 report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission highlighted that phone scams cost Australians a concerning A$141 million in losses. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), the regulator of the country’s telecommunications system, is spearheading industry action to crack down on spam and scam calls and ensure that consumers are adequately protected – enforcing regulatory compliance from operators and supporting the roll-out of effective security solutions from technology vendors. Mavenir’s CallShield solution uses real-time machine learning technology to carry out automated security analysis and proactive defense across voice services – helping operators to stay one step ahead of the scammers. The CallShield solution provides CSPs with 360-degree control to effectively address specific situations within their networks with unrivalled speed and flexibility. While traditional detection and prevention techniques are based on deterministic rules that can be easily detected and bypassed, CallShield’s ML detection algorithms with built-in intelligence adapt to current network conditions and subscriber behavior to continually detect and block attempted activity from spammers and fraudster.
TPG Telecom Chief Technology Officer Giovanni Chiarelli said: “Our business is built on the trust of our customers. We are committed to embracing new technologies that provide the best possible protection against the nuisance and threat of malicious harm posed by these spammers and scammers. We are pleased Mavenir’s CallShield technology is providing real-time, automated security analysis and effective security for customers across our voice services.”
Jan Schaar, Asia Pacific Regional Vice President for Mavenir, added: “The speed and sophistication of the techniques being employed by scammers and fraudsters means that a reactive security approach based on purely “reporting” spam is no longer enough. To offer mobile users the assurance and peace of mind they need today, we need to work harder and smarter, and remain one step ahead at all times – continuously learning from and anticipating the scammers’ next move. Our SpamShield platform, with its powerful ML-driven engine, is already delivering state-of-the-art, proactive security and protection across TPG’s messaging services. We are happy to now be extending the solution span by providing our robust CallShield technology – ensuring that TPG’s mobile customers can now enjoy the same superior protection from nuisance and malicious threats that arrive in the form of unwanted voice calls.”
TPG Telecom is an Australian telecommunications company which is home to some of Australia’s most-loved telecommunications brands including Vodafone, TPG, iiNet, AAPT, Internode, Lebara and felix. As the second largest telecommunications company listed on the ASX, TPG Telecom has a strong challenger spirit and a commitment to delivering the best services and products to its customers. http://www.tpgtelecom.com.au.
Mavenir is building the future of networks today with cloud-native, AI-enabled solutions which are green by design, empowering operators to realize the benefits of 5G and achieve intelligent, automated, programmable networks. As the pioneer of Open RAN and a proven industry disruptor, Mavenir’s award-winning solutions are delivering automation and monetization across mobile networks globally, accelerating software network transformation for 300+ Communications Service Providers in over 120 countries, which serve more than 50% of the world’s subscribers. For more information, please visit http://www.mavenir.com
This IQM quantum computer will enable Eviden’s clients to engage in quantum programming and applications.
Paris, France – October 9, 2024 –Eviden, the Atos Group business leading in advanced computing today announces having signed a partnership with IQM Quantum Computers – a global leader in designing, building, and selling superconducting quantum computers – to make quantum computing a reality across businesses and organizations.
While performance is key, the stability and fidelity of the qubits have become a crucial element in the near quantum revolution to run accurate operations. To tackle this challenge, IQM Spark™ is a superconducting quantum computer which offers high single-qubit and two-qubit gates fidelity, ensuring reliable and accurate quantum applications.
Eviden has therefore installed IQM SparkTM, a quantum computer tailored for educational purposes and experimental research, for its customers to learn, experiment, and start developing real-life quantum proofs-of-concept. With this significant milestone in the journey toward quantum adoption, Eviden reaffirms its dedication and commitment to making quantum computing technology more accessible to everyone.
With complete physical access to this machine installed in Eviden’s flagship factory (Angers, France), the Group’s users and clients will benefit from flexible and immediate experimentation. Remote-as-a-service access through an Eviden private cloud will also be deployed to make this technology broadly accessible.
Access to a IQM SparkTM will allow research labs, universities, and industry players to better learn and understand quantum computing technology and discover programming approaches, noise models, usage constraints, and more.
Eviden will also leverage the machine to provide access to the Eviden R&D and internal consulting community, to enhance quantum applications and integration with HPC clusters, and to improve Eviden’s compilers and create new noise-aware compilers.
Access to the machine will be part of Eviden’s Qaptiva offering, a complete quantum computing application development environment, enriched by consulting services and an ecosystem of software and hardware partners.
Dr. Cédric Bourrasset,Global Head of HPC-AI and Quantum Computing, Eviden, Atos Group highlighted “Hosting our very first quantum computer is a major step in our quantum computing journey. With this milestone, Eviden now combines quantum emulation and quantum computing processing to offer a tangible solution to enter the world of quantum physics. This comes with great benefits for programming without the high costs and complexities usually inherent to such technologies, therefore making quantum computing more affordable and accessible.”
Dr. Mikko Välimäki, Co-CEO at IQM Quantum Computers, said: “The installation of IQM Spark, the first fully functional quantum computer at Eviden, adds to the growing network of our systems deployed globally and demonstrates our commitment to accelerate commercial quantum adoption for businesses. We are confident that our system will provide significant value to Eviden’s clients while we look forward to collaborating with other enterprises in their quantum journey.”
“Through our partnership with Eviden, we are not only providing cutting-edge quantum computing technology but also enabling educational and experimental opportunities for future quantum innovators in France as they develop applications and proofs-of-concept, accelerating the journey toward widespread quantum adoption,” added the Vice President Global Business and Marketing at IQM Quantum Computers, Sylwia Barthel de Weydenthal.
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About Eviden1
Eviden is a next-gen technology leader in data-driven, trusted and sustainable digital transformation with a strong portfolio of patented technologies. With worldwide leading positions in advanced computing, security, AI, cloud and digital platforms, it provides deep expertise for all industries in more than 47 countries. Bringing together 47,000 world-class talents, Eviden expands the possibilities of data and technology across the digital continuum, now and for generations to come. Eviden is an Atos Group company with an annual revenue of c. € 5 billion.
About Atos
Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with c. 92,000 employees and annual revenue of c. € 10 billion. European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and high-performance computing, the Group provides tailored end-to-end solutions for all industries in 69 countries. A pioneer in decarbonization services and products, Atos is committed to a secure and decarbonized digital for its clients. Atos is a SE (Societas Europaea), and listed on Euronext Paris.
The purpose of Atos is to help design the future of the information space. Its expertise and services support the development of knowledge, education and research in a multicultural approach and contribute to the development of scientific and technological excellence. Across the world, the Group enables its customers and employees, and members of societies at large to live, work and develop sustainably, in a safe and secure information space.
About IQM Quantum Computers:
IQM is a global leader in designing, building, and selling superconducting quantum computers. IQM provides both on-premises full-stack quantum computers and a cloud platform to access its computers anywhere in the world.
IQM customers include the leading supercomputing centres, enterprises, and research labs which have full access to IQM’s software and hardware. IQM has over 280 employees with offices in Espoo, Munich, Paris, Warsaw, Madrid Singapore, and Palo Alto
Press Release Nokia launches new industrial applications to improve worker safety and enhance operational efficiency
Expands the number of Nokia-owned and best-in-class industry applications integrated on the MX Industrial Edge (MXIE) to drive efficiency, productivity and OT security.
New applications help to improve worker safety and enable responsive video for machine remote control, leading to higher operational efficiency and strengthening OT environment security.
9 October 2024 Espoo, Finland – Nokia today announced six new applications deployed on the Nokia MX Industrial Edge (MXIE) to help enterprises improve worker safety, site security, enhance operational efficiency and secure OT environments in manufacturing, mining, ports, and chemical industries.
According to Analysys Mason, enterprises worldwide using private LTE and 5G are projected to spend $6 billion by 2030 on industrial applications enabling new use cases and enhancing existing ones. In line with industry developments, Nokia MXIE on-premises edge solution, part of Nokia’s private wireless offering, supports ecosystem neutrality enabling the deployment of applications to help support growing diverse Industry 4.0 use case needs.
Offered as-a-service, these new applications are Ascom Ofelia, Fogsphere, innovaphone PBX & myApps, Nokia Real-time eXtended Reality Multimedia (RXRM), OneLayer, and Redinent and join our existing portfolio of Nokia, and third-party digitalization applications.
Improving situational awareness to enhance worker safety and site security Worker safety remains a high priority in industrial settings. The new applications enable digitalization to increase situational awareness, better deal with incidents, and increase the use of real-time data and knowledge which are key to improving worker safety and site security. The new applications include the following:
Ascom Ofelia – Ascom Ofelia helps enterprises shift from separate alarm systems to one unified alarm solution, improving incident management, increasing situational awareness, and ensuring a safer workplace.
Fogsphere® – A comprehensive, multi-modal AI platform to enhance workplace safety, security, and operational intelligence, with real-time solutions for PPE compliance, behavioral analysis, emergency management, access control, intrusion detection and vehicle monitoring.
Connecting workers to achieve higher efficiency Connected worker applications are essential to overcome workforce challenges such as worker shortages, retention issues, and difficulty attracting new talent, which are key to achieving the efficiency and productivity needed to outperform the competition. Applications can give workers real-time information to make their jobs easier and machine tele-operation more efficient. New items include the following:
innovaphone PBX & myApps – Secure, scalable IP telephone system with built-in features like conferencing, voicemail and waiting queues for advanced business communication and smart business applications. Its on-premise MXIE solution ensures full data control and meets ISO27001 standards.
Real-time eXtended Reality Multimedia (RXRM) – Software solution with low latency 360° video and 3D OZO audio capture that helps to improve productivity, employee safety, teleoperations, situational awareness & remote technical support.
Securing OT assets to strengthen the overall security Asset visibility, zero trust principles and effective vulnerability management in OT environments will be enabled by the new applications including:
OneLayer – Discovers, manages, secures, and classifies all IIoT assets on private networks, including those behind cellular routers. Acting as a zero-trust access broker, it enforces zero-trust security principles within OT environments while delivering zero-touch asset management and operational intelligence.
Redinent – Discovers IIoT assets and helps create inventory, identifies IIoT vulnerabilities and ongoing threats. It informs the security operation center (SOC) about the findings.
Stephan Litjens, VP, CNS Enterprise Campus Edge Solutions at Nokia, said: “Keeping workers safe and connected is paramount for enterprises. With the expanded Nokia Industrial Application Catalog we are providing a rich choice to help industries improve important Industry 4.0 use cases such as increasing situational awareness for streamlined decision making in both day-to-day and emergency situations, more efficient operations with machine remote control and many more.”
About Nokia At Nokia, we create technology that helps the world act together.
As a B2B technology innovation leader, we are pioneering networks that sense, think and act by leveraging our work across mobile, fixed and cloud networks. In addition, we create value with intellectual property and long-term research, led by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs.
With truly open architectures that seamlessly integrate into any ecosystem, our high-performance networks create new opportunities for monetization and scale. Service providers, enterprises and partners worldwide trust Nokia to deliver secure, reliable and sustainable networks today – and work with us to create the digital services and applications of the future. . Media inquiries Nokia Press Office Email: Press.Services@nokia.com
Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr. Kao Kim Hourn, attended the ASEAN Leaders’ Interface with Representatives of ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) at the sidelines of the 44th and 45th ASEAN Summits and Related Summits in Vientiane, Lao PDR. The Interface served as an important forum to promote solidarity, understanding and cooperation among the ASEAN Member States, and for an exchange of views between the legislative and executive branches.
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