Author Archives: Danzig

Several new technologies are rolling out to help keep things clean and sanitized – WHNT News 19

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Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants and businesses are stepping up their cleanliness in order to protect both their customers and employees. Some are using new technology, including the owner of several Dairy Queen franchises across Madison County.

He is using a new handwashing technology to make sure that when you come by for an ice cream cone, that is the only thing you are getting.

A company called PathSpot Technologies launched the device that uses a special light to scan for contaminants on your hands.

Employees go to the sink, wash their hands, scrub their fingers and then they scan their hands under the light. The machine lets them know if there are any contaminants lingering around.

It can catch areas people tend to miss, like on your wrists or fingertips.

This isnt the only new technology coming out of the gates since COVID-19. JetBlue is experimenting with the use of a high tech UV light system to keep its planes clear of COVID-19.

A Birmingham company called Sanitizit has also created a cleaning system that sanitizes grocery carts.

And according to ZipRecruiter, the pandemic has also caused a spike in demand for cleaners.

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Several new technologies are rolling out to help keep things clean and sanitized - WHNT News 19

Itron to Present at Oppenheimer’s 23rd Annual Technology, Internet and Communications Conference and Canaccord Genuity’s 40th Annual Growth Conference…

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LIBERTY LAKE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI), which is innovating the way utilities and cities manage energy and water, announced today that Joan Hooper, Itrons senior vice president and chief financial officer, will present at Oppenheimers 23rd Annual Technology, Internet and Communications conference on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020 at 2:40 p.m. EDT. In addition, John Marcolini, Itrons senior vice president for networked solutions, will present on a panel focused on the post-pandemic power grid at Canaccord Genuitys 40th Annual Growth Conference on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020 at 1:30 p.m. EDT.

The investor presentation and live webcasts of both events will be accessible on Itrons Investor Relations website at http://investors.itron.com/events.cfm. A replay of each webcast will be available for 30 days following the events.

About Itron

Itron enables utilities and cities to safely, securely and reliably deliver critical infrastructure solutions to communities in more than 100 countries. Our portfolio of smart networks, software, services, meters and sensors helps our customers better manage electricity, gas and water resources for the people they serve. By working with our customers to ensure their success, we help improve the quality of life, ensure the safety and promote the well-being of millions of people around the globe. Itron is dedicated to creating a more resourceful world. Join us: http://www.itron.com.

Itron is a registered trademark of Itron, Inc. All third-party trademarks are property of their respective owners and any usage herein does not suggest or imply any relationship between Itron and the third party unless expressly stated.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within in the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to our expectations about revenues, operations, financial performance, earnings, earnings per share, cash flows and restructuring activities including headcount reductions and other cost savings initiatives. Although we believe the estimates and assumptions upon which these forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, any of these estimates or assumptions could prove to be inaccurate and the forward-looking statements based on these estimates and assumptions could be incorrect. Our operations involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside our control, and any one of which, or a combination of which, could materially affect our results of operations and whether the forward-looking statements ultimately prove to be correct. Actual results and trends in the future may differ materially from those suggested or implied by the forward-looking statements depending on a variety of factors. Some of the factors that we believe could affect our results include our ability to execute on our restructuring plan, our ability to achieve estimated cost savings, the rate and timing of customer demand for our products, rescheduling of current customer orders, changes in estimated liabilities for product warranties, adverse impacts of litigation, changes in laws and regulations, our dependence on new product development and intellectual property, future acquisitions, changes in estimates for stock-based and bonus compensation, increasing volatility in foreign exchange rates, international business risks and other factors that are more fully described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and other reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Itron undertakes no obligation to update or revise any information in this press release.

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Itron to Present at Oppenheimer's 23rd Annual Technology, Internet and Communications Conference and Canaccord Genuity's 40th Annual Growth Conference...

Breast Imaging Market Research Report by Technology, by End User – Global Forecast to 2025 – Cumulative Impact of COVID-19 – GlobeNewswire

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New York, July 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Breast Imaging Market Research Report by Technology, by End User - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05939979/?utm_source=GNW

The Global Breast Imaging Market is expected to grow from USD 3,512.88 Million in 2019 to USD 5,819.93 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.77%.

Market Segmentation & Coverage:This research report categorizes the Breast Imaging to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:

"The Ionizing Breast Imaging Technology is projected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period"

Based on Technology, the Breast Imaging Market studied across Ionizing Breast Imaging Technology and Non-Ionizing Breast Imaging Technology. The Ionizing Breast Imaging Technology further studied across 3D Breast Tomosynthesis, Analog Mammography, Cone Beam Computed Tomography, Full-Field Digital Mammography, Molecular Breast Imaging/Breast-Specific Gamma Imaging, Positron Emission Mammography, and Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography. The Non-Ionizing Breast Imaging Technology further studied across Automated Whole Breast Ultrasound, Breast MRI, Breast Thermography, Breast Ultrasound, and Optical Imaging. The Non-Ionizing Breast Imaging Technology commanded the largest size in the Breast Imaging Market in 2019. On the other hand, the Ionizing Breast Imaging Technology is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR during the forecast period.

"The Diagnostic Center is projected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period"

Based on End User, the Breast Imaging Market studied across Diagnostic Center, Hospital, and Breast Care Center. The Hospital commanded the largest size in the Breast Imaging Market in 2019. On the other hand, the Diagnostic Center is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR during the forecast period.

"The Asia-Pacific is projected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period"

Based on Geography, the Breast Imaging Market studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas region surveyed across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The Asia-Pacific region surveyed across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa region surveyed across France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. The Americas commanded the largest size in the Breast Imaging Market in 2019. On the other hand, the Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the fastest CAGR during the forecast period.

Company Usability Profiles:The report deeply explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Breast Imaging Market including Aurora Imaging Technology, Inc., CMR Naviscan Corporation, Delphinus Medical Technologies, Inc., Dilon Technologies, Inc., Fujifilm Holdings Corporation, GE Healthcare, Hologic, Inc., KUB Technologies Inc., Micrima Limited, Philips Healthcare, Planmed Oy, Shimadzu Corporation, Siemens Healthineers AG, Sonocin, Inc., and SuperSonic Imagine SA.

FPNV Positioning Matrix:The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Breast Imaging Market on the basis of Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape.

Competitive Strategic Window:The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies. The Competitive Strategic Window helps the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. During a forecast period, it defines the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth.

Cumulative Impact of COVID-19:COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, so for and, the long-term effects projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlaying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report is delivering insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecast, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market.

The report provides insights on the following pointers:1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on the market offered by the key players2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyzes the markets3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and new product developments

The report answers questions such as:1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Breast Imaging Market?2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Breast Imaging Market during the forecast period?3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Breast Imaging Market?4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Breast Imaging Market?5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Breast Imaging Market?6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Breast Imaging Market?Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05939979/?utm_source=GNW

About ReportlinkerReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.

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Breast Imaging Market Research Report by Technology, by End User - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19 - GlobeNewswire

GGRAsia Small steps fortnightly key to Macau rebound: Jefferies – GGRAsia

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Jul 31, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck 

Investors are now understanding the return of meaningful tourism volume in the Macau market is likely to involve small steps every two weeks on the part of the Chinese authorities in terms of relaxation of mainlandtravel policy relative to Macau said a Thursday memo from JefferiesHong Kong Ltd.

Possible clues had been provided by a phase of easing that beganon July 15, via a relaxation of quarantine conditions for travel from Macau to nine cities in the neighbouring Chinese mainland province of Guangdong, which was then extended to the whole of the provincea fortnight later.

The Macau recovery remains dependent on IVS [Individual Visit Scheme], but we expect this to be a gradual and phased reissuance on an individual Chinese city-by-city within each province, said Hong Kong-based analyst Andrew Lee.

He added thatGuangdongis key,given theprovince accounted for46percentand 55percent respectivelyof 2019 andfirst-half 2020mainlandChinese visitors to Macau, with73 percent and 69 percent respectively,of2019 and first-half 2020Guangdongvisitors using IVS.

Hubert Wang, president and chief operating officer of Macau casino operator MGM China Holdings Ltd, said on the second-quarter earnings call of the parent MGM Resorts International on Thursday, he thoughtIVS resumption couldcomein mid-September or even a little bit earlier, possiblystarting with Guangdong province.

The executive added that a return from July 15 of non-tourism exit visas from Guangdong to Macau including for business travel which had been retrospectively reported on Thursday, would be helpful to our business.

Nonetheless, such travellers will still need to provide a timely test certificate showing freedom from Covid-19 infection.

Mr Wangs boss, MGM Resorts chairman Bill Hornbuckle, said on the groups earnings call that recent moves including the easing of quarantine conditions for travel from Macau to Guangdong wereinitial steps in an encouraging direction.

But he noted: Hong Kong borders remain shut and the IVS and tour visa programmes have not yet restarted, which we believe is necessary for a meaningful recovery.

The resumption of the IVS scheme has been widely touted as a key element in a rebound in Macau casino gross gaming revenue, which was down 77.4 percent year-on-year to June 30, according to Macau government data.

IVS travellers accounted for 46.8 percent of the aggregate mainland visitor arrivals to Macau in 2019, and possibly a higher proportion of gaming revenues at the citys casinos for that period, wrote JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd in a January memo at the time the IVS programme was suspended.

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GGRAsia Small steps fortnightly key to Macau rebound: Jefferies - GGRAsia

CE meets with Zhuhai authorities to discuss better bilateral cooperation in pandemic efforts – Macau Business

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Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng held a meeting with the Secretary of the Zhuhai Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) president of Zhuhai Municipality, Yao Yisheng, to discuss better joint efforts in pandemic prevention.

The meeting held yesterday focused on strengthening bilateral cooperation in preventing the epidemic and speeding the completion of Henqgin as Guangdong-Macau special cooperation area.

In the government announcement, both sides were said to have agreed that during the epidemic situation evident results were achieved through joint prevention and control efforts.

It was announced yesterday that the issuing of all types of visas allowing the entry of mainland residents in the Macau SAR with the exception of tourism visas will be reinstated first to Guangdong residents and from August 12, to residents of all Mainland China provinces.

The measure comes as new Covid-19 cases have been controlled in Macau and Guangdong, and despite the recent spike in Hong Kong having delayed efforts to establish a travel bubble between the three regions.

The Zhuhai Mayor was also reported as having said that Hengqing Island has always been the key point of cooperation between Guangdong and Macau, and hoped that through collaboration between the two governments this new deep cooperation zone project could be accelerated.

According to Ho Iat Seng, his new cooperation zone would have to be achieved through structural innovation and pragmatic cooperation in terms of economic and commercial investment, financial management, certification of origin, customs models and social welfare.

The meeting was also attended by the Secretary for Administration and Justice, Andr Cheong, and the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lei Wai Nong, secretary of the CCPs Zhuhai Municipal Committee, Zhao Jianguo, and the CCPs Hengqin New Zone Committee Secretary, Niu Jing.

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CE meets with Zhuhai authorities to discuss better bilateral cooperation in pandemic efforts - Macau Business

Poland says US to deploy troops on eastern border – Macau Business

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Washington will deploy at least 1,000 soldiers in Poland and oversee forces on NATOs eastern flank, Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said Friday after the US announced a massive troop pullout from Germany.

US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said on Wednesday the Pentagon will be sending home about 6,400 military personnel from Germany, and move nearly 5,600 to other NATO countries, including Italy and Belgium.

At least 1,000 new soldiers will be deployed in our country, Blaszczak told the Jedynka public radio.

We will have an American command in Poland. This command will manage the troops deployed along NATOs eastern flank, he said.

It will be the most important centre for ground forces in our region, he said, adding that Warsaw and Washington had sealed a deal for military cooperation.

We will soon sign the final pact with the Americans.

The American pullout will cut the presence of US military personnel in Germany to around 24,000.

Esper has stressed that the action is part of his broader plan to reposition US military forces globally to better address the key threats from Russia and China.

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Poland says US to deploy troops on eastern border - Macau Business

Readers Write: Now is the time for liberal readers to speak up – Opinions – The Island Now

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I am pleased to see that this newspaper continues to print letters from different opinions, although in my opinion, you seem to favor those with a conservative point of view.

Perhaps its just that more conservative people write in. If thats the case, I urge my fellow liberal readers to express yourselves, loud and clear, now more than ever. Our democratic republic is in danger, and it is our duty as citizens to speak up and take action before America succumbs to the fascist elements now in power.

Great Neck has a long and proud history of progressive activism, going back over fifty years to the Civil Rights era. Where are all the progressive people of Great Neck in 2020? Dont stay silent. Now more than ever, its time to take action!

I am on the executive board of Reach Out America, a grassroots progressive non-profit organization thatwas founded over 15years ago by two of Great Necks well known political activists, Shirley Romaine and Fran Reid.

We advocate for human rights, the environment, the social safety net, and world peace. We present monthly speakers on timely topics of interest (meetings will resume in September, online for the time being).

In this time of turmoil across America, I urge interested readers to join this worthwhile organization and make your voice heard.

For more information, please visit our website athttps://www.reachout-america.com/and join us to work for meaningful change on both a local and a national level. We are also on Facebook, athttps://www.facebook.com/ReachOutAmerica.LI/.

Nina K. Gordon

Great Neck

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Readers Write: Now is the time for liberal readers to speak up - Opinions - The Island Now

John Ivison: Whether Trudeau’s testimony worked or not, the winds of change are blowing for Liberals – National Post

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There really are no true friends in politics.

At the centre of this maelstrom is the Prime Ministers Office, led by Katie Telford, who also appeared before the finance committee on Thursday. Tension is said to exist between PMO and Morneaus office over the latters insistence to appoint Tiff Macklem (over Telfords preference, Carolyn Wilkins) as governor of the Bank of Canada.

It is the chief of staffs job to keep her boss out of trouble when it comes to conflicts of interest, yet this is the third occasion that Trudeau has been subject to an investigation by the ethics commissioner on Telfords watch.

It seems inconceivable that the Liberal Party will go into the next election with the same slate of senior staff and ministers that have blundered so often and left the party at the mercy of their opponents.

The WE affair is convoluted at one level. Was WE really the only organization that could administer the program? But its essence is simple do voters believe Trudeaus account, that nothing untoward happened and the government simply approved a volunteer program recommended by the public service; or the Oppositions contention that a cash-strapped charity with close links to the prime minister and finance minister was bailed out by the government.

At this point, the majority 57 per cent, according to Abacus think the Liberals used public money to reward their friends.

Trudeau may have persuaded those still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But there are fewer and fewer of those people.

Canadian-born economist John Kenneth Galbraith once claimed that all successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door.

This feels like a government that is starting to splinter and split.

Email: jivison@postmedia.com | Twitter: IvisonJ

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John Ivison: Whether Trudeau's testimony worked or not, the winds of change are blowing for Liberals - National Post

The Caribbean Is Welcoming Tourists: Updated COVID-19 Safety Measures – Men’s Journal

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When it comes to global travel documents, the U.S. passport has historically been one of the strongest of its kind. In fact, it ranks in the top 10 most powerful, according to the Henley & Partners Passport Index, and those who hold it enjoy some of the most extensive travel freedoms in the world (including access to 185 countries). For comparison, Japan takes the number one spot with access to 191 countries, while Afghanistan comes in last with just 26 countries.

The most recent index, however, does not take the ongoing COVID-19 travel bans into consideration. As destinations across the globe attempt to navigate uncharted territory, many countries have closed their borders entirely to U.S. citizens due to the increasing number of confirmed coronavirus cases. Some have adopted policies that only target specific coronavirus hot spots, while others have permitted U.S. tourists to enter, but only if they follow very specific protocols.

On March 31, the Department of State issued a Global Level 4 Health Advisory, advising U.S. citizens to avoid all international travel due to COVID-19. Travel is an extremely sensitive subject right now, and developments continue to emerge day by day.

That said, many Caribbean nations have started reopening their borders to welcome international visitors. Although the pandemic struck the region during the pinnacle of high season, the Caribbean has reported relatively low coronavirus cases. But ongoing travel restrictions and the absence of cruise ships (combined with an active hurricane season already underway) have caused significant blowsespecially considering how heavily many Caribbean economies depend on tourism.

While some destinations, like Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, have pumped the breaks on reopening plans, many are now feeling prepared to welcome visitors back. With new safeguards and health procedures in place, these Caribbean destinations are hoping to eventually rebound from the devastating past few months. Heres how seven key players are tackling the issue and allowing U.S. citizenS to visit this summer and beyond.

Disclaimer: People planning travel of any kind should visit the websites of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization for the most current COVID-19 alerts and updates. Be sure to also review any travel advisories related to the destination(s) youre planning to visit, and keep yourself and others safe by wearing a face covering, practicing social distancing, and bringing the appropriate food, drinks, and other supplies when possible.

For access to exclusive gear videos, celebrity interviews, and more, subscribe on YouTube!

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The Caribbean Is Welcoming Tourists: Updated COVID-19 Safety Measures - Men's Journal

Cave Shepherd to cease investments in Duty Free Caribbean Holdings jv with Dufry and write down investment – The Moodie Davitt Report – The Moodie…

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Sir Geoffrey Cave: Dufry could take full control of the business

BARBADOS. Cave Shepherd & Co. Limited has decided to not inject any further funds into its Duty Free Caribbean Holdings (DFCH) joint venture with Dufry and to write down its investment.

Cave Shepherd & Co Chairman Sir Geoffrey Cave made the announcement yesterday following a shareholders meeting.

After careful consideration, in light of the immense challenges and uncertainty facing the DFCH business, the Directors of Cave Shepherd & Co. Limited have made the difficult decision not to inject any further funds into DFCH and to fully write down our investment, Sir Geoffrey wrote.

This strategic decision will change the current shareholder structure of DFCH and will likely result in a substantially diminished shareholding by Cave Shepherd & Co. Limited, with the possibility that Dufry could take full control of the retail business.

He continued: The details of this transaction are still very much under negotiation; however, the immediate priority is a comprehensive restructuring of DFCHs business operation, led by Dufry, aimed at repositioning DFCH for long-term viability.

Dufry and Cave Shepherd have been partners since 2000. In that year all Cave Shepherds retail assets held across various territories were sold to Duty Free Caribbean (Holdings), a joint venture partnership formed between Cave Shepherd & Co. Limited and Weitnauer (now Dufry) trading primarily as Cave Shepherd, Colombian Emeralds International and Duty Free Caribbean. Since 2006, Dufry has owned 60% of that business and Cave Shepherd had held the remaining 40%.

Wide appeal: Cave Shepherd has remained attractive as a local and a tourist destination

However, Sir Geoffrey Cave noted that since the global recession in 2008, DFCHs profitability has steadily declined against a backdrop of countless challenges. Despite implementation of several strategic initiatives aimed at repositioning and improving business performance, DFCHs accumulated financial losses continue at unsustainable levels, he said.

The details of this transaction are still very much under negotiation; however, the immediate priority is a comprehensive restructuring of DFCHs business operation, led by Dufry, aimed at repositioning DFCH for long-term viability.

Coupled with this undesirable performance, DFCH is now faced with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. This business relies on visitors to the Caribbean for 90% of its revenue and when international travel came to a virtual halt in late March, all of its 66 stores across seven countries were forced to close and over 600 team members were laid-off temporarily.

At the time of writing, only ten stores are open and with travel and tourism expected to be negatively impacted for the foreseeable future, it is anticipated that DFCHs revenue will be significantly reduced well beyond 2020.

Sir Geoffreycontinued: The most difficult decisions are those that impact people, and this one in particular, being our legacy business, has been deeply felt on a personal level, as it has been for many who have been involved in this difficult process.

The restructuring of DFCH will result in job losses and team members have been given the assurance that due process will be followed and that they will be treated with the dignity they deserve and the fairness they have come to expect. For those team members affected, DFCH will be offering both personal and financial counselling and we have extended our Care Programme to assist the most vulnerable.

He said that the accounting adjustments in the Cave Shepherd Group this year will need to be substantial. They will take the form of write-offs, including impairment of goodwill for the retail business, in addition to losses resulting from the pandemic, which collectively are expected to be over US$39 million.

Outside the travel retail sector, the financial services arm of the Cave Shepherd Group continues to perform well, Sir Geoffrey said. Our Cave Shepherd Card business is well positioned for future growth and is operating steadily, as is SigniaGlobe Financial Group.

Meanwhile, as global markets show resilience despite the pandemic, we anticipate that the diversification strategy adopted by Fortress Fund Managers will generate increasing returns. We are also pleased that DGM Financial continues to contribute positively to our Groups overall financial performance. When combined with our healthy liquid and cash reserves, the Group is secure and well positioned to act on opportunities for further growth and expansion in the years ahead.

About Cave Shepherd & Co

History in the making: Cave Shepherd dubbed its original retail enterprise The Ideal Store, a moniker that has resonated with Barbadians for over a century

On December 17, 1906 two respected Bridgetown businessmen and inveterate salesmen, Rupert George Cave and Julian Packer Shepherd, opened a wholesale supply store on Palmetto Street. A dry goods store on Broad Street was added early the following year. The founders reckoned they enjoyed a crucial point of difference over their many competitors an acute knowledge of customer needs and desires.

They were proven right sooner than they expected. The dry goods (retail in modern parlance) store was overrun in the lead-up to its planned Grand Opening on 4 February, prompting the partners to positively refuse admittance to all and any today on Saturday 2 February 1907.

The Manager says the customers will be well rewarded by waiting until Monday when the windows are properly dressed and the shelves arranged in proper order, noted local newspaper, the Agricultural Reporter. Two days later the same media carried a bold advertising invitation in bold capital letters, COME TODAY TO THE IDEAL STORE. For the ensuing 111 years the company has done its best to live up to that moniker.

From its early days, Cave Shepherd was a shopping magnate not just for locals but for the burgeoning tourist trade. It remained so through good times and bad (including a disastrous fire in December 1969 that gutted the flagship store). In 2000, the tourism focus became more institutionalised as the company formed a joint venture with Swiss travel retail giant Dufry [see panel below]. The result was Duty Free Caribbean (Holdings) Ltd (DFCH), in which Cave Shepherd today owns a 40% stake.

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Cave Shepherd to cease investments in Duty Free Caribbean Holdings jv with Dufry and write down investment - The Moodie Davitt Report - The Moodie...

Pirates of the Caribbean: Why Jack Sparrow Changed The Black Pearl’s Name – Screen Rant

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The Black Pearl's name strikes fear and awe into the hearts of sailors, but it was actually called the Wicked Wench before Jack Sparrow took the helm.

Jack Sparrow'smonochromatic ship, theBlack Pearl, is an iconic element of thePirates of the Caribbean film series, but it was originally known by another name under a different captain. Beginning in 2003 withThe Curse of the Black Pearl, thePiratesfilms follow the fantastical, often supernatural exploits of a seafaring band of outlaws and misfits during the Age of Sail. Jack Sparrow has been the central character of theseriessince his first appearance earned Johnny Depp an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

Although the series is ostensibly based upon the ride of the same name that has been a mainstay at Disney parks for decades, there was in reality very little narrative to draw from that source. As a result, much of the lore of thePirates franchise is an amalgamation of different influences, ranging from novels and video games to actual naval history and entirely new concepts. One notable holdover from the theme park ride is the original name of the ship that would come to be known as theBlack Pearl:theWicked Wench.

Related: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Actors Who Almost Played Jack Sparrow

As a young pirate, Jack Sparrow was first given command of theWicked Wenchby Captain Morgan in a naval battle against Captain Salazar, a Spanish pirate hunter.Some time after the conflict, Sparrow lost possession of the ship, and iteventually becamea simple merchant vessel belonging to Lord Cutler Beckett. As a compromise toreclaim theWench, Sparrow began serving as a captain under Beckett's branch of the East India Trading Company. This was a contentious arrangement, and Sparrow eventually rebelled when asked to transport slaves. In retaliation, Beckett had theWicked Wench razed, leading a desperate Sparrow to make his fateful bargain with Davy Jones in order to save it. The ship was still visibly blackened from its burning, but Sparrow chose to embrace the change, adorning it with black sails and renaming it theBlack Pearl, which he felt was an appropriately fearsome moniker for apirate ship.

This history, which is only briefly touched upon in the films, is interesting in that it inexorably ties Jack, from youth, to many of the adversaries that he would face later in life, with Salazar, Beckett, and Jones all playing a part in bringing theBlack Pearl to him.But, very much in keeping with his chaotically free character, Jack refuses to dwell on this, instead renaming the vessel to cut ties to the past and regain control of his fortune, as well as topursuehis ideal vision of piracy.

Pragmatically speaking, theBlack Pearlremains a consistent plot point throughout a big-budget, blockbuster franchise, so beyond narrative connections, its name and design ultimately had to satisfy aesthetic considerations. This means that, in a meta sense, Sparrow initially named the ship using the same train of thought as the film's creators: just looking for something that sounded cool and piratey. But as the worldbuilding of the Pirates of the Caribbeanseries has grown more complex, it also seems appropriate that Jack Sparrow's beloved ship in turn has grown to signify so much more about the life and attitude of its captain.

Next: Pirates of the Caribbean Movie Timeline Explained

Fixing The Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 2's Viewing Order

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Pirates of the Caribbean: Why Jack Sparrow Changed The Black Pearl's Name - Screen Rant

Latin America & The Caribbean – Weekly Situation Update (20-26 July 2020) As of 26 July 2020 – Barbados – ReliefWeb

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KEY FIGURES

4.3M CONFIRMED COVID-19 CASES IN LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN AS OF 26 JULY

REGIONAL: COVID-19

As of 26 July, PAHO/WHO report 4,348,767 and 182,827 deaths in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as 2,832,380 recovered cases.

PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT NEEDS GROWING

PAHO expects psychosocial support needs for women and children to grow as the risks of violence and deteriorating mental health amid the COVID-19 crisis continue to escalate.

PAHO stresses that mental health is receiving inadequate attention from public health systems, citing datathat shows that the average public expenditure on mental health is only 2 per cent of the total health budget.Prior to the pandemic, women in the Americas were already 50 per cent more likely than men to suffer depression disorders and twice as likely to develop anxiety disorders.

In addition to creating higher levels of stress and anxiety in women, the Organization of American States (OAS) Inter-American Commission of Women says that confinement has increased social gaps, as women in the region are assuming caregiver roles and paid and unpaid domestic work.

KEY FIGURES

54.2% GROWTH IN CASES IN MEXICO FROM 1-20 JULY, DOWN FROM 93.2 FROM 1-20 JUNE

CENTRAL AMERICA & MEXICO: COVID-19

HONDURAS

The Government launched a national response scale-up programme to increase the number of triage centres and medical teams in all 298 municipalities. The programme, which will begin its funding roll out to 12 priority municipalities, is allocating US$18 million to support the installation of triage centres, hiring additional medical personnel, strengthen regional hospitals and help medical teams respond door-to-door.

MEXICO

The Ministry of Health reports that the pace of the national case growth is slowing down as the jump in newdaily cases is becoming proportionately smaller. The Health Ministrys epidemiology lead noted that case growth has decreased from 1.9 per cent to 1.5 per cent in two weeks. The Ministry official also indicated that total cases increased by 54.5 per cent in the first 20 days of July, compared to a growth of 93.2 per cent in the first 20 days of June.

The Ministry also reports that case numbers for Mexico City and the states of Mexico, Baja California, Chiapas, Michoacn and Sinaloa have been stabilizing over the past three weeks.

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Latin America & The Caribbean - Weekly Situation Update (20-26 July 2020) As of 26 July 2020 - Barbados - ReliefWeb

One DeFi Asset Poised for Breakout, With Another Foreshadowing Bitcoins Biggest Rallies, According to Crypto Analysis Firm – The Daily Hodl

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The decentralized finance (DeFi) token COMP looks like its ready to break out, according to the crypto analytics firm Santiment.

COMP, the Ethereum governance token for DeFi lending platform Compound, launched on June 15th. Within one week, the tokens price skyrocketed more than 400% to a high of $381.89. It has since come down to Earth and is currently trading around $135.77.

However, Santiment says several market metrics indicate it may bounce back.

The analytics firm also says traders can track a top altcoin to get a sense of when Bitcoin is likely to make a big move.

Santiment says recent price action supports the long-held theory that Litecoin (LTC) gains are a harbinger of Bitcoin bull runs.

LTC may not be on the crypto communitys radar these days the way it was in 2017s bull run. But the notion that its pumps foreshadow BTC rallies still have serious legs, after it started to rally around 24 hours prior to Bitcoin.

Santiment notes that Litecoins current fundamentals are mixed, with the assets social sentiment looking bullish, while on-chain transaction metrics are leaning bearish.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/sdecoret

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One DeFi Asset Poised for Breakout, With Another Foreshadowing Bitcoins Biggest Rallies, According to Crypto Analysis Firm - The Daily Hodl

Litecoin (LTC) Up $0.65 On 4 Hour Chart, Makes Big Move Relative to Past Three Months; 2 Day Down Streak Ended – CFDTrading

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Litecoin 4 Hour Price Update

Updated July 26, 2020 01:36 AM GMT (09:36 PM EST)

Litecoin closed the previous 4 hours up 1.34% ($0.65); this denotes the 6th candle in a row an upward move has occurred. Relative to other instruments in the Top Cryptos asset class, Litecoin ranked 2nd since the previous 4 hours in terms of percentage price change.

The choppiness in the recent daily price action of Litecoin continues; to start today, it came in at a price of 49.18 US dollars, up 11.32% ($5) since the day prior. The price move occurred on stronger volume; specifically, yesterdays volume was up 349.72% from the day prior, and up 647.68% from the same day the week before. Litecoin outperformed all 5 assets in the Top Cryptos asset class since the day prior. Here is a daily price chart of Litecoin.

Coming into today Litecoin is now close to its 200 day averages, located at 49.61 respectively, and thus may be at a key juncture along those timeframes. Trend traders will want to observe that the strongest trend appears on the 30 day horizon; over that time period, price has been moving up. For additional context, note that price has gone up 5 out of the past 10 days.

For laughs, fights, or genuinely useful information, lets see what the most popular tweets pertaining to Litecoin for the past day were:

Its been 110 days since #Litecoin has had 10+% gains in a single day. Closing the week strong will be the best once since the end of January. Nice moves recently but #LTC still has plenty of work to do.

@cctip_io @LTCFoundation @LitecoinProject @LiteCoinNews @litecoin LTC is finally here! CCTip supports LTC now. You can use CCTip to tip/airdrop LTC on Twitter, Telegram, Discord, reddit and WeChat.To celebrate, were airdropping 5 LTC for 5000 users to share!1Follow @LTCFoundation2Retweet3Add a comment@cctip_io airdrop 5 LTC 5000

The only people surprised about #Litecoin right now, are the ones who dont believe in it.

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Litecoin (LTC) Up $0.65 On 4 Hour Chart, Makes Big Move Relative to Past Three Months; 2 Day Down Streak Ended - CFDTrading

U.S. Eyes Building Nuclear Power Plants on Mars, the Moon – TIME

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(BOISE, Idaho) The U.S. wants to build nuclear power plants that will work on the moon and Mars, and on Friday put out a request for ideas from the private sector on how to do that.

The U.S. Department of Energy put out the formal request to build what it calls a fission surface power system that could allow humans to live for long periods in harsh space environments.

The Idaho National Laboratory, a nuclear research facility in eastern Idaho, the Energy Department and NASA will evaluate the ideas for developing the reactor.

Read more: America Really Does Have a Space Force. We Went Inside to See What It Does

The lab has been leading the way in the U.S. on advanced reactors, some of them micro reactors and others that can operate without water for cooling. Water-cooled nuclear reactors are the vast majority of reactors on Earth.

Small nuclear reactors can provide the power capability necessary for space exploration missions of interest to the Federal government, the Energy Department wrote in the notice published Friday.

The Energy Department, NASA and Battelle Energy Alliance, the U.S. contractor that manages the Idaho National Laboratory, plan to hold a government-industry webcast technical meeting in August concerning expectations for the program.

The plan has two phases. The first is developing a reactor design. The second is building a test reactor, a second reactor be sent to the moon, and developing a flight system and lander that can transport the reactor to the moon. The goal is to have a reactor, flight system and lander ready to go by the end of 2026.

The reactor must be able to generate an uninterrupted electricity output of at least 10 kilowatts. The average U.S. residential home, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, uses about 11,000 kilowatt-hours per year. The Energy Department said it would likely take multiple linked reactors to meet power needs on the moon or Mars.

Read more: HBOs Chernobyl Has Led to a Surge in Tourism for This Forgotten Nuclear Town. Now, Its Trying to Redefine Itself

In addition, the reactor cannot weigh more than 7,700 pounds (3,500 kilograms), be able to operate in space, operate mostly autonomously, and run for at least 10 years.

The Energy Department said the reactor is intended to support exploration in the south polar region of the moon. The agency said a specific region on the Martian surface for exploration has not yet been identified.

Edwin Lyman, director of Nuclear Power Safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit, said his organization is concerned the parameters of the design and timeline make the most likely reactors those that use highly enriched uranium, which can be made into weapons. Nations have generally been attempting to reduce the amount of enriched uranium being produced for that reason.

This may drive or start an international space race to build and deploy new types of reactors requiring highly enriched uranium, he said.

Earlier this week, the United Arab Emirates launched an orbiter to Mars and China launched an orbiter, lander and rover. The U.S. has already landed rovers on the red planet and is planning to send another next week.

Officials say operating a nuclear reactor on the moon would be a first step to building a modified version to operate in the different conditions found on Mars.

Idaho National Laboratory has a central role in emphasizing the United States global leadership in nuclear innovation, with the anticipated demonstration of advanced reactors on the INL site, John Wagner, associate laboratory director of INLs Nuclear Science & Technology Directorate, said in a statement. The prospect of deploying an advanced reactor to the lunar surface is as exciting as it is challenging.

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Contact us at editors@time.com.

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U.S. Eyes Building Nuclear Power Plants on Mars, the Moon - TIME

Artificial intelligence reduces the user experience, and that’s a good thing – ZDNet

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When it comes to designing user experiences with our systems, the less, the better. We're overwhelmed, to put it mildly, with demands and stimuli. There are millions of apps, applications and websites begging for our attention, and once we have a particular app, application and website up, we still are bombarded by links and choices. Every day, every hour, every minute, it's a firehose.

AI winnows a firehose of choices down to a gently flowing fountain

Artificial intelligence is offering relief on this front. User experience, driven by AI, may help winnow down a firehose of choices and information needed at the moment down to a gently flowing fountain. And application and systems designers are sitting up and taking notice.

That's the word from Jol van Bodegraven, product designer at Adyen, along with other UX design experts, authors of a series of ebooks that delve into how AI will impact UX design, and how to design meaningful experiences in an era with AI-driven products and services. "Surrounded by misconceptions and questions regarding its purpose and power, apart from its known ethical and philosophical challenges, AI can be the catalyst for great user experiences," he observes.

In the first work of the series, Bodegraven, along with Chris Duffey, head of AI strategy and innovation at Adobe, introduces how AI affects design processes and the importance of data in delivering meaningful user experiences. For example, AI can "function as an assistant," helping with research, collecting data or more creative tasks. AI also serves as a curator, absorbing data "to determine the best personal experience per individual." AI can help design systems, as it is adept at "uncovering patterns and creating new ones. More and more companies are trusting AI to take care of their design systems to keep them more consistent for users."

With this in mind, the authors make the following recommendations for making the most of AI in designing and delivering a superior UX:

Design for minimal input, maximum outcome. "We get bombarded with notifications, stimuli, and expectations which we all need to manage somehow," Bodegraven and Duffey state. "AI can solve this problem by doing the legwork for us. Think of delimited tasks which can be easily outsourced. Challenge yourself to solve significant user problems with minimal input expected from them."

Design for trust. "it is important that we design for trust by being transparent in what we know about the user and how we're going to use it. If possible, users should be in control and able to modify their data if needed."

Humanize experiences. "Looking at recent findings from Google who studied how people interacted with Google Home, one thing stood out. Users were interacting with it as if it were human. Users said for example 'thanks' or 'sorry' after a voice-command. People can relate more to devices if they have a character. "

Design for less choice.That's right, reduce user choices. "The current high performing, and overly noisy world leaves very little room for users to be in the moment," Bodegraven and Duffey state. "Design for less choice by removing unnecessary decisions. This creates headspace for users and can even result in the appearance of things we hadn't thought of."

The quality of UX will make or break the success of an application or system, regardless of how many advanced features and functions are built within. Simplicity is the path to success when it comes to application design, and AI can bring about that simpicity.

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Artificial intelligence reduces the user experience, and that's a good thing - ZDNet

With AI, Yanbu has become smarter and safer – SmartCitiesWorld

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Artificial Intelligence, as a key part of any smart city initiative, can help keep people safe. Yanbu has successfully shown how AI manages some pressing issues amid urbanisation. As one of the biggest cities in Saudi Arabia, Yanbu has applied Huaweis Intelligent Traffic Management system to reduce road fatalities, with the ultimate goal to change the behaviour of road users and thus becoming a smarter, safer and better city.

As urbanisation progresses, innovative technologies are applied to help build or rebuild cities. Governments and administrations are thus looking for more diverse ways to manage increasing complex issues related to peoples livelihood. Meanwhile, the number of vehicles and how well the road systems are developed have become major indicators to reflect the level of urbanisation.

While such developed cities are getting busier, so are their traffic. The World Health Organisation has estimated that about 1.35 million people are killed on roadways all around the world each year. It means an average of 3,700 road fatalities were recorded every day. More than half of these are pedestrians, motorcyclists, and cyclists. In advanced cities, the number is even higher as traffic control is much more complicated than we could imagine.

Saudi Arabia is a forerunner in embracing digital innovations and new technologies. In 2016, the country announced the Vision 2030 programme, aiming to transform into a smart nation with a series of goals to achieve in three key stages. As one of the major industrial cities of the country, Yanbu Industrial City has taken up the same vision and begun its transformation.

Yanbu Industrial City, commonly known as Yanbu in short, is a major Red Sea port city in the Al Madinah Province of western Saudi Arabia. It has a population of some 240,000 in an area of roughly 606 square kilometres. Many of them are foreign expatriates working in the oil refineries and petrochemical industry.

Though most of them are from Asia, there are still large numbers from the Middle East, Europe, and North America. Known for its industry activities, especially when it is the worlds third largest refining centre, the road traffic is usually busy.

Saudi Arabia is a forerunner in embracing digital innovations and new technologies

Like all other stories of advanced development, Yanbu began with a limited number of surveillance cameras at some major interactions. The devices couldnt do more than just capturing still images, not to mention any functions like video recording, zooming, or some sophisticated recognition and search capability.

The set-up was simply not enough to catch up with the rapid changes stemmed from enlarging population and more frequent road commutation. And with limited surveillance, people just didnt care much about breaking traffic laws putting road users in a more dangerous situation.

This is where artificial intelligence (AI) can play a big role. Collaborating with Huawei, Yanbu installed the e-Police system in 2019. The eyes of the system are indeed the 256 high-definition cameras working at 16 major intersections, providing numerous quality images and videos, which allow authority to trace vehicles or impose different controlling measures to keep the whole road network smooth and safe.

The upgraded hardware in the software defined cameras (SDCs) can feed data into the system to further action. The track-and-trace and the occasional real-time controls require more than just sophisticated programming gimmicks.

Not only are the cameras come with improved image quality and 20 TOPs computing power, but the systems are optimised for extreme environments with intelligent light compensation mechanisms.

Pattern recognition is not new to AI, so the system is already capable to run video search based on license plate number and structured vehicle data such as makes and colours, looking to find out the vehicles of interest.

The Intelligent Traffic Management System (ITMS) puts AI into a more intelligent practice by running smart algorithms to automatically identify traffic violations, such as running red lights, crossing lanes, reverse driving, and lane marking infractions, etc. The query response is much faster, running about 100,000 data records and getting a response within seconds.

The precision is also stunning at 50-centimetre lane-level track recognition, with target and tracking recognition rates both over 95 per cent per cent. Traffic incidents can be detected in just eight seconds, with a monitoring distance of 200 metres, covering the major parts of the scene. Violation snapshots and information are then transferred to the central platform for unified storage and query, while the system automatically processes violation cases.

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With AI, Yanbu has become smarter and safer - SmartCitiesWorld

Hired Partners with Fiddler to Pioneer Responsible AI for Hiring – PRNewswire

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PALO ALTO, Calif., July 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Today Hired announced a partnership with Fiddler to increase transparency and mitigate bias in its tech talent marketplace, which uses its proprietary AI Intelligent Job Matching technology to match candidates with relevant jobs at the world's most innovative companies. All of Hired's AI was built in-house, and the company is layering Fiddler's Explainable AI Platform on top of its proprietary models to generate deeper insights into how its algorithms make decisions.

"At Hired, our mission is to match people with a job they love, and doing that at scale requires advanced technology like AI. Fiddler helps enhance our understanding of the AI algorithms at the heart of this candidate matching process by comparing these insights and explanations with our internally developed solutions to empower our data science and curation teams," said Mehul Patel, CEO of Hired. "With Explainability, our team can build trust with our algorithms and further our commitment to building a truly equitable future. I am excited about Fiddler making AI decisions more explainable across the industry."

One of the biggest promises of AI is its ability to make objective, data-driven decisions, but without visibility into how these algorithms work, businesses run the risk of using sub-par models that could actually increase bias. Fiddler's Explainable AI Platform monitors, explains, and analyzes model performance to provide businesses with rich explanations of exactly why a model generated a particular output, and immediately flag any potential bias.

Fiddler's technology integrates seamlessly with Hired's user interfaces to provide real-time reporting on how their AI models are working. It's specifically used for the following purposes:

"We're excited to partner with Hired to continue our mission of building trustworthy and reliable AI, which was a key driver in this partnership," said Krishna Gade, founder & CEO of Fiddler. "The ability for explainable AI and ML monitoring, and specifically Fiddler's solution to add value to Hired's team to build trust is something that our team is very passionate about. We will continue our efforts to ensure the Hired team is successful in their mission to responsibly and reliably match people to jobs they love."

As AI is more broadly adopted within the hiring and human resources industry, it's critical for every organization to focus on building fair, transparent, and accountable AI systems. Hired is leading the way for the rest of the industry.

About Fiddler Founded in October 2018, Fiddler's mission is to enable businesses of all sizes to unlock the AI BlackBox and deliver trustworthy AI experiences to end-users. Fiddler's next-generation Explainable AI Platform enables data science, product, and business users to explain, monitor, and analyze their AI solutions, providing transparent and reliable experiences to customers. Fiddler works with pioneering Fortune 500 companies as well as emerging tech companies. For more information please visitwww.fiddler.aior follow us on Twitter@fiddlerlabs.

About HiredHired (hired.com) is a marketplace that matches tech talent with the world's most innovative companies. Hired combines intelligent job matching with unbiased career counseling to help people find a job they love. Through Hired, job candidates and companies have transparency into salary offers, competing opportunities and job details. This level of insight is unmatched, making the recruiting process quicker and more efficient than ever before. Hired was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in the United States, Canada, France, and the UK. The company is backed by Lumia Capital, Sierra Ventures and other leading investors.

Media Contact: [emailprotected]

SOURCE Fiddler Labs

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Hired Partners with Fiddler to Pioneer Responsible AI for Hiring - PRNewswire

Tackling Tuberculosis with AI: Novel TBMeld Platform to Transform Research in the Prevention and Treatment of Tuberculosis – GlobeNewswire

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-InveniAI announces partnership with the Mueller Health Foundation (MHF) to create a first of its kind AI-driven platform to be used for the discovery, tracking, and evaluation of 1) novel TB vaccines, 2) new TB treatment combinations with existing medicines, 3) novel TB treatment opportunities with adjuvant combinations, and 4) tailored precision medicine approaches for the prevention and treatment of TB.

GUILFORD, Conn., July 31, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- InveniAI LLC, a global leader pioneering the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to transform innovation across drug discovery and development, is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with The Mueller Health Foundation (MHF), a private foundation dedicated to supporting innovative, accessible and affordable solutions to generate transformational treatment modalities and ultimately cures for lethal infectious diseases across the globe. The main focus for the Mueller Health Foundation has been primarily on the management of multidrug resistance (MDR), extensively drug-resistant (XDR), and programmatically incurable forms of tuberculosis (totally drug-resistant tuberculosis), which pose enormous challenges similar to those in the pre-Antibiotics era. The Mueller Health Foundation will partner with InveniAI to create a new high-value AI-driven machine learning platform called TBMeld to identify and accelerate transformative solutions and vaccines for the management, treatment, and cure of TB. Additionally, the new platform will incorporate predictive modeling functionalities to estimate the effectiveness of TB drug compounds and compound combinations, as well as the effectiveness of new TB vaccines.

Our mission at the Mueller Health Foundation (MHF) is to pioneer the use of precision medicine to be able to provide tailored, highly effective, and shorter treatment options for TB patients affected by both resistant and non-resistant strains of TB. We at MHF are also exploring novel ways of making existing TB vaccines more effective for all types of patients, said Dr. Peter Mueller, Founder and President of the Mueller Health Foundation. He also states: We are particularly excited to make use of machine learning algorithms and predictive modeling capabilities offered by InveniAI to find better approaches to preventing and treating tuberculosis faster and more effectively. What especially excites us is the opportunity to integrate this new platform, TBMeld, into our own blockchain initiative TBConnect, which aims to create a global network of TB scientists, health care providers, NGOs, and government entities to foster the sharing and analysis of both research and public health information.

We are excited to create an AlphaMeld-powered platform that, together with complementary technologies such as blockchain and the crowdsourcing of knowledge, information, and experts around the world, will allow for the comprehensive collation of troves of data to expedite the discovery of novel solutions and vaccines to address this unmet need in TB resistant management. The predictive foresight enabled by the platform will allow us to focus on concepts that will have the highest probability of success, said Krishnan Nandabalan, Ph.D. President and CEO, InveniAI LLC.

About TuberculosisTuberculosis has been named by WHO as one of 10 leading causes of death in the world and it is a disease that occurs in every part of the world. According to WHO latest report in 2019, an estimated 10 million people fell ill with tuberculosis worldwide in 2018. This included 5.7 million men, 3.2 million women and 1.1 million children. An estimated 1.5 million people died of the disease in 2018. There were cases in all countries and age groups. In 2018, the 30 high TB burden countries accounted for 87% of new TB cases. Eight countries account for two thirds of the total, with India leading the count, followed by, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and South Africa. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) remains a public health crisis and a health security threat. WHO estimates that there were 484 000 new cases with resistance to rifampicin. While the TB incidence is falling at about 2% per year globally, this rate needs to be accelerated to a 45% annual decline to reach health targets of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. (Source: WHO 2019 Global Tuberculosis Report)

About The Mueller Health FoundationThe Mueller Health Foundation is a family-led, philanthropic organization installed in February 2015 that prides itself on supporting innovative, accessible and affordable solutions to generate transformational treatment modalities and ultimately cures for lethal infectious diseases across the globe. The Mueller Health Foundation accomplishes this by addressing latency and increased antimicrobial resistance as the underlying core problem. Since inception of The Mueller Health Foundation, the main focus has been primarily on the management of multidrug resistance (MDR), extensively drug resistant (XDR) and programmatically incurable forms of tuberculosis (totally drug resistant tuberculosis). The Mueller Health Foundation focuses on core functions to address tuberculosis that include:

For more information, please visit: http://www.muellerhealthfoundation.org.

About InveniAIInveniAI LLC, based in Guilford, Conn., is a global leader pioneering the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to transform innovation across drug discovery and development by identifying and accelerating transformative therapies for diseases with unmet medical needs. The company leverages AI and ML to harness petabytes of disparate data sets to recognize and unlock value for AI-based drug discovery and development. Numerous industry collaborations in Big Pharma, Specialty Pharma, Biotech, and Consumer Healthcare showcase the value of leveraging our technology to meld human experience and expertise with the power of machines to augment R&D decision-making across all major therapeutic areas. The company leverages the AlphaMeld platform to generate drug candidates for our industry partners and internal drug portfolio. For more information, visit http://www.inveniai.com.

Contact:Anita Ganjoo, Ph.D.CommunicationsInveniAIT: +1 203-273-8388aganjoo@inveniai.com

Judith MuellerExecutive DirectorThe Mueller Health FoundationT: +1 508-333-1184judith@muellerhealthfoundation.org

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Tackling Tuberculosis with AI: Novel TBMeld Platform to Transform Research in the Prevention and Treatment of Tuberculosis - GlobeNewswire

New AI test ‘can identify Covid-19 within one hour’ – Aberdeen Evening Express

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A new test powered by artificial intelligence (AI) could be capable of identifying coronavirus within one hour, according to new research.

Its developers say it can rapidly screen people arriving at hospitals for Covid-19 and accurately predict whether or not they have the disease.

The Curial AI test has been developed by a team at the University of Oxford and assesses data typically gathered from patients within the first hour of arriving in an emergency department such as blood tests and vital signs to determine the chance of a patient testing positive for Covid-19.

Testing for the virus currently involves the molecular analysis of a nose and throat swab, with results having a typical turnaround time of between 12 and 48 hours.

However, the Oxford team said their tool could deliver near-real-time predictions for a patients Covid-19 status.

In a study running since March, the researchers have tested the AI tool on data from 115,000 visits to A&E at Oxford University Hospitals (OUH).

Study lead Dr Andrew Soltan said the tool had accurately predicted a patients Covid-19 status in more than 90% of cases, and argued that it could be a useful tool for the NHS.

Until we have confirmation that patients are negative, we must take additional precautions for patients with coronavirus symptoms, which are very common, he said.

The Curial AI is optimised to quickly give negative results with high confidence, safely excluding Covid-19 at the front door and maintaining flow through the hospital.

When we tested the Curial AI on data for all patients coming to OUHs emergency departments in the last week of April and the first week of May, it correctly predicted patients Covid status more than 90% of the time.

He added that the researchers now hope to carry out real-world trials of the technology.

The next steps are to deploy our AI in to the clinical workflow and assess its role in practice, he said.

A strength of our AI is that it fits within the existing clinical care pathway and works with existing lab equipment. This means scaling it up may be relatively fast and cheap.

I hope that our AI may help keep patients and staff safer while waiting for results of the swab test.

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New AI test 'can identify Covid-19 within one hour' - Aberdeen Evening Express