In the past month, the pace of change in Londons office market has moved up a gear.

Despite the start of the Brexit negotiations, uncertainty on the future of Londons financial cluster, and the inconclusive general election result, demand for office space has increased.

Office demand in the first half of 2016 was 6.4 million sq ft up from 5.5 million sq ft in the six months to June2016.

On the face of it, this feels disingenuous, given the very real obstacles facing the London economy. While no one has seen the final Brexit deal, one would have to be a huge optimist to imagine the capital will not lose some financial jobs to EU cities like Dublin or Frankfurt.

Yes, the London office market would probably be seeing higher demand today without the political uncertainty, but Brexit has not been an insurmountable barrier to doing deals.

This is because in the property world now, the bread-and-butter...

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Why technology is driving the City's office boom - Telegraph.co.uk

American technology companies are bringing automation and robotics to the age-old task of battling mosquitoes in a bid to halt the spread of Zika and other mosquito-borne maladies worldwide. Firms including Microsoft Corp and California life sciences company Verily are forming partnerships with public health officials in several US states to test new high-tech tools.

In Texas, Microsoft is testing a smart trap to isolate and capture Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, known Zika carriers, for study by entomologists to give them a jump on predicting outbreaks. Verily, Alphabets life sciences division based in Mountain View, California, is speeding the process for creating sterile male mosquitoes to mate with females in the wild, offering a form of birth control for the species.

While it may take years for these advances to become widely available, public health experts say new players brings fresh thinking to vector control, which still relies heavily on traditional defenses such as larvicides and insecticides. Its exciting when technology companies come on board, said Anandasankar Ray, an associate professor of entomology at the University of California, Riverside. Their approach to a biological challenge is to engineer a solution.

Pregnant women are at greater risk of contracting Zika virus. (Shutterstock)

The Zika epidemic that emerged in Brazil in 2015 and left thousands of babies suffering from birth defects has added urgency to the effort. While cases there have slowed markedly, mosquitoes capable of carrying the virus Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are spreading in the Americas, including large swaths of the southern United States. The vast majority of the 5,365 Zika cases reported in the United States so far are from travellers who contracted the virus elsewhere. Still, two states Texas and Florida have recorded cases transmitted by local mosquitoes, making them prime testing grounds for new technology.

In Texas, 10 mosquito traps made by Microsoft are operating in Harris County, which includes the city of Houston. Roughly the size of large birdhouses, the devices use robotics, infrared sensors, machine learning and cloud computing to help health officials keep tabs on potential disease carriers. Texas recorded six cases of local mosquito transmission of Zika in November and December of last year. Experts believe the actual number is likely higher because most infected people do not develop symptoms.

Pregnant women are at high risk because they can pass the virus to their foetuses, resulting in a variety of birth defects. Those include microcephaly, a condition in which infants are born with undersized skulls and brains. The World Health Organization declared Zika a global health emergency in February 2016.

The Microsoft machines differentiate insects by measuring a feature unique to each species: the shadows cast by their beating wings. When a trap detects an Aedes aegypti in one of its 64 chambers, the door slams shut. Other companies, meanwhile, are developing technology to shrink mosquito populations by rendering male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes sterile. When these sterile males mate with females in the wild, their eggs dont hatch. The strategy offers an alternative to chemical pesticides. But it requires the release of millions of laboratory-bred mosquitoes into the outdoors. Males dont bite, which has made this an easier sell to places now hosting tests.

At MosquitoMates labs in Lexington, immature mosquitoes are forced through a sieve-like mechanism that separates the smaller males from the females. These mosquitoes are then hand sorted to weed out any stray females that slip through. Thats basically done using eyeballs, said Stephen Dobson, MosquitoMates chief executive.

Enter Verily. The company is automating mosquito sorting with robots to make it faster and more affordable. Company officials declined to be interviewed. But on its website, Verily says its combining sensors, algorithms and novel engineering to speed the process. Verily and MosquitoMate have teamed up to test their technology in Fresno, California, where Aedes aegypti arrived in 2013.

Officials worry that residents who contract Zika elsewhere could spread it in Fresno if theyre bitten by local mosquitoes that could pass the virus to others. That is very much of a concern because it is the primary vector for diseases such as dengue, chikungunya and obviously Zika, said Steve Mulligan, manager of the Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District in Fresno County. The study, which still needs state and federal approval, is slated for later this summer.

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Saving Face: Investment in Recognition Technology Heats Up in China Wall Street Journal (subscription) SHANGHAIA Chinese startup that sells facial recognition systems to police forces secured venture-capital funding that values it at more than $1.5 billion, underscoring the sector's emergence as one of technology's hottest areas of interest. Beijing ... and more »

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Computing is undergoing a massive shift, and the company known for making the brains behind many of the worlds computers and servers has not shifted as fast as competitors.

Jefferies equity analyst Mark Lipacis came to that conclusion Monday, reporting in a note that Intel Corp. INTC, -0.36% stands to take a hit in its data-center business amid a move to a new computing paradigm focused on artificial intelligence and connected devices that he believes represents a tectonic shift in technology. Instead, Nvidia Corp. NVDA, +0.03% is best-positioned to be the chip leader in the new landscape, Lipacis wrote.

With dominant market share in the data center, we think Intel has the most to lose as the industry shifts, Lipacis wrote in the more all-encompassing note in a pair issued Monday morning, while suggesting that Nvidia is years ahead of its competition.

A shorter note included a downgrade of Intel, from hold to underperform, and dropped Jefferies price target on the stock to $29 from $38. Intel stock declined to a 52-week intraday low of $33.23 in Mondays session following the downgrade, before closing down 0.7% at $33.65. Shares have dropped 6% in the past three months, as the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.22% has gained 3%.

Lipaciss thesis on the semiconductor industry is that computing paradigms undergo dramatic shifts roughly every 15 years, with mainframe-focused technology giving way to minicomputers and then personal computers, and later to mobile phones and cloud data-center architecture. While Intel was a dominant player in the second and third epochs of the computing era, with its chips finding a home in PCs and data-center servers, Lipacis believes the current shift to parallel processing and the so-called Internet of Things will belong to different chip makers.

Dont miss: Nvidia upgraded as cybercurrency miners go bonkers for its chips

Parallel processing has been important to the development of AI-focused developments in neural networks and deep learning, with the ability to work faster in tandem than the single microprocessor architecture espoused by Intel for the past two decades. With connected devices scattered throughout the world collecting data, the advanced computing techniques developed through those efforts will be better able to crunch and understand that data, which Lipacis believes will become a core function of technology.

We believe we are at the start of the fourth tectonic shift now, to a parallel processing/IoT model, driven by lower memory costs, free data storage, improvements in parallel processing hardware and software, and improvements in AI technologies like neural networking, that make it easy to monetize all the data that is being stored, he wrote.

While Intel offers parallel processing solutions and plans to launch new chips aimed at data centers this year, Lipacis believes the worlds largest chip maker is too far behind other players that jumped on the trend earlier.

We think those companies that have architected their hardware and software platforms from the ground up for parallel processing are best positioned to benefit, Lipicis wrote, specifically mentioning Xilinx Inc. XLNX, +0.28% Cavium Inc. CAVM, +0.74% and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD, +0.98% as beneficiaries, along with Nvidia. Jefferies upgraded Xilinx and Cavium to buy ratings in conjunction with the note while maintaining a buy rating on Nvidia with a $180 price target.

Read also: Upcoming Nvidia cryptocurrency GPUs pose a threat to AMD

Nvidia may be the first major tech company to find large financial gains from AI, as its server revenue nearly tripled year-over-year in the most recently reported quarter, thanks to large cloud players like Alphabet Inc.s Google GOOGL, -0.11% GOOG, -0.23% and Amazon.com Inc.s AMZN, -0.70% Amazon Web Services gobbling up its graphics-processing units for advanced workloads.

Those gains have helped spark a huge jump for Nvidia stock, which is up 57.2% in the past three months and more than 200% in the past year. Shares increased another 4.7% Monday, after Needham analyst Rajvindra Gill pushed his price target to $200 from $130.

Gill focused more on another business Nvidia has championed with its AI focus, self-driving cars. Gill wrote that Nvidias deal for autonomous-driving technology with Toyota Motor Corp., announced at the chipmakers annual GTC conference in May, could bring in $1 billion to $1.7 billion in revenue during the next two years, based on discussions with Toyota execs on their plans to deploy the technology.

See also: Nvidia forges more partnerships with auto makers for self-driving tech

Intel is also trying to catch up to Nvidia in self-driving cars, with its $15.3 billion bid for Mobileye NV MBLY, +0.02% . That deal has not yet closed.

As Nvidias stock price has skyrocketed, so have analysts price targets on the stock. The average target price for Nvidia was $93.30 at the end of last year, and is now $135.16, according to FactSet.

Read more:

Intel seen losing to Nvidia amid 'tectonic shift' in technology - MarketWatch

Kimball Perry The Columbus Dispatch @kimballperry

They are ghosts of lives lost, all-but-forgotten whispers of barely noticed deaths.

Pulled from the Scioto River a decade ago, the two males are buried but have no headstones because they have yet to be identified.

And the attempt to put names to the two unidentified bodies has stalled. "They've kind of grown stale," Matt Caudill said of the cases.

Caudill is director of operations for the Franklin County coroner's office, which is responsible for collecting bodies, identifying them and determining what caused their deaths.

His office has worked for years with law enforcement to try to identify the two men, who were found dead a year apart, hoping to contact their families and perhaps give them some closure.

"We're looking at ways to raise awareness of these cases that remain unidentified," Caudill said. "There are very, very few" such cases.

The coroner's office has four such bodies, but two have been tentatively identified.

Little is known about the other two:

The decomposed body of John Doe 06-1082 was found March 30, 2006, in the Scioto River nearHigh Street and Williams Road on the South Side.

Officials think he died in December 2005. The brown-haired man wasbetween 30and 50 years old, and was wearing Converse brand socks. He was between 5 feet 6 inches and 6 feet tall and had poor dental hygiene, a healed collarbone fracture and a poorly healed fracture of the right cheek. Officials are unsure of the cause or manner of death. A homicide detective was assigned to the case, but police say the man also could have drowned.

John Doe 07-1801 was dead several weeks before his body was pulled from the Scioto River on May 30, 2007, off Dublin Road near the Columbus Dublin Road Water Treatment Facility. He likely drowned.

The black-haired, white or Latino male was 25 to 40 years old, weighed 125 to 145 pounds and was between 5 feet 7 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall. He was wearingsize 8 women's pants; a gray, button-up, long-sleeve shirt; and one brown shoe with the brand name Earth Shoe.

The coroner usually uses fingerprints and dental records to comparea body with missing-persons records. That was done in these cases, but "we didn't get a hit," said Amanda Alvarez, the coroner's chief of investigations and morgue operations.

Frustrated police also couldn't identify the men.

"I don't want to close these cases," said Columbus Police Homicide Sgt. Dave Sicilian."Before we really want to close the case, we'd want to notify the next of kin.

"I don't know how we're going to identify them."

Technology, Sicilian hopes, will give the men names.

DNA from both bodies was submitted to the Ohio attorney general's Project LINK, or Linking Individuals Not Known. LINK compares DNA from unidentified bodies with that from missing persons, provided by the missing person's relatives or from the missing person's toothbrush or hairbrush.

DNA gathered for LINK is used only to help identify missing persons, attorney general spokeswoman Jill Del Greco said.

The LINK database now has 90 unidentified remains, dating from 1969,that can be compared to DNA provided by families looking for lost relatives. It also can be compared to the 964 missing-persons cases 747 children and 217 adults that LINK has in another database.

Since LINK started in 1999, it has helped identify at least 30 people.Two years ago, LINK identified Cheryl Wilson of Toledo from skeletal remains found in Holmes County in 2008, after Wilson's family members submitted their DNA six months earlier to be included in the LINK database.

Columbus-based researchers announced a victoryrecently that might fulfill Sicilian's belief that the bodies, and others in the same situation, ultimately will be identified using new technology.

"I think it is a big step ... a significant improvement," said Mark Wilson, research leader in Applied Genomics for Battelle.

Battelle,the world's biggest nonprofit research and development agency, announced the findings of a two-year project for the National Institute of Justice.

That study sought to determine whether a newer technology called Massively Parallel Sequencing, or MPS, could produce the same findings in the lab of testing done now on DNA.

It does.

MPS can be relied on for the same accuracy as current DNA testing but it is much more powerful, providing massive amounts of additional data.

Wilson said that current DNA testing uses 25 to 27 genetic "markers" used to identify individuals. The new test will use 100 to 150 markers. With MPS less DNA is needed, even from poor sources such as weathered bones or old hair shafts, to conclude whether the DNA matches.

MPS "provides the accuracy, reproducibility and sensitivity needed to support forensic investigation," Wilson said. "Itvastly increases the speed, processing power and resolution of DNA sequencing.

"The promise is there, but needs to be fully developed," Wilson said.

To volunteer to submit DNA for Project Link, call 855-BCI-OHIO (224-6446).

kperry@dispatch.com

@kimballperry

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New technology could identify these two bodies - The Columbus Dispatch

JERUSALEM Israel is looking for firms to manage four high-tech investment funds that will be traded on the stock exchange and given state protection for any losses, the government said on Sunday.

Israel's government has been under pressure to open the country's thriving technology sector to more local investment as foreigners are seen to be mainly reaping the returns of Israel's tech boom.

Most of the capital invested in Israeli companies is in research and development and many firms are acquired by foreign ones at relatively early stages.

Last week, Symantec Corp said it was buying Israeli cybersecurity startup Fireglass, while earlier this year Intel agreed to buy Israeli autonomous vehicle tech firm Mobileye for $15 billion. In 2013, Google bought Israeli mapping service Waze for some $1 billion.

The government will put out to tender on Sunday the management of the two new investment funds, the Finance Ministry and Israel Securities Authority (ISA) said in a joint statement.

Up to four managers will be selected for the funds, which will each have a minimum of 400 million shekels ($113 million), they said.

The funds will combine investments in tech stocks that are already traded, while at least 30 percent will be made in early stage startups, enabling investors -- including institutions -- to benefit from returns in the tech sector in a relatively secure manner, the statement said.

For each fund, the government will provide guarantees of up to 50 million shekels ($14 million). The funds will also be able to raise credit backed by the state of up to 100 million shekels.

"Our proposal is intended to create an investment instrument for the general public that will enable it to participate for the first time in the success of Israeli technology companies, while providing state protection," said Shmuel Hauser, chairman of the ISA, Israel's markets regulator.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

Apple Inc on Friday disputed the timeline of events leading up the disclosure by Imagination Technologies Group Plc that Apple plans to drop the graphics chip supplier, a loss of the UK company's largest customer that sent shares plummeting.

LONDON Alcohol and automobiles famously do not mix - but one Scottish scientist has disproved that maxim by driving a car powered by biofuel derived from making whisky.

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Israel seeks managers for state-backed technology funds - Reuters

Shares in Tokyo rose for the first time in three sessions as the yen slid following better-than-expected U.S. jobs data that backed the case for a moderate rate hike cycle targeted by the Federal Reserve.

Technology stocks provided the biggest support for the broader market, tracking their U.S. counterparts gains, while automakers also advanced on the yens weakness. Data on Friday showed the worlds largest economy added 222,000 jobs in June, topping the 178,000 median estimate from economists.

Concern over tapering thats faster than the global economy could endure is receding, said Tomoichiro Kubota, an analyst at Matsui Securities Co. in Tokyo. Buying is returning to Japanese stocks that took the heaviest blow from such woes, he added, noting select technology shares are taking this opportunity for a strong rebound.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to testify before Congress on Wednesday. Investors are looking for clues about when the U.S. central bank, which lifted rates in June and signaled one more rate hike in 2017, plans to start reducing its balance sheet.

At home, Prime Minister Shinzo Abes approval continued to slip, with the Yomiuri newspaper reporting a disapproval rating of more than 50 percent. The drop is cause for concern,Shoji Hirakawa, chief global strategist at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute Co. said, because theres a correlation between support rates and foreign investors buying Japanese shares.

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Technology Shares Lead Rally by Japanese Stocks as Yen Weakens - Bloomberg

Accomplished academic background just one of the skills which immigration boss brings to job

Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn Prousoontorn, author of the now-familiar policy as chief of the Immigration Bureau: Good guys in, bad guys out. He has led crackdowns on foreign criminals seeking to hide out in Thailand, such as four Russians caught last March in Pattaya. (Photo by Pawat Laopaisarntaksin)

A look at the educational background of Immigration Bureau chief Nathathorn Prousoontorn can easily give the impression he pursued an academic career first rather than a career in the police force.

In fact, his senior rank in the immigration service might follow naturally from his solid academic grasp of science and computer technology, two areas in which immigration hopes to take new steps as it introduces tougher measures to screen undesirable elements from entering the country.

Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn is looking forward to the introduction in the next two months of a comprehensive computer-based screening system called Biomatrix, a fingerprint, face and eye scanner which should help overcome the traditional problem of crooks travelling on fake passports.

The immigration chief says modern technology not only ensures efficiency in blocking foreign criminals from entering the country, but could also help tackle crooked officers because they will be replaced by what he believes will be unbiased machines.

A scientific approach is in keeping with Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn's academic background, which perhaps makes him ideally suited to shepherd in the new system at the country's main airports and border passes.

He earned a masters degree in science with a focus on computer technology from Chulalongkorn University, a rare shift from the police field into science.

That is just a part of his academic journey. The Chachoengsao native was earlier admitted to Thammasat University's Faculty of Law after graduating from high school, but decided to opt for a career in the police force by enrolling at the Royal Police Cadet Academy instead.

After practising interrogation skills as a deputy police inspector of Pathumwan station in Bangkok, he went abroad to do a masters degree in public administration at Kentucky State University.

His thirst for knowledge at the graduate level then led him to earn two more masters degrees at Chulalongkorn University, including study in the field of the arts including Thai and English translations.

Yet his joy of learning did not stop. He took it another step further, earning a doctorate degree in political science at Chulalongkorn University and, going back to his earlier interest in law, a bachelor's degree in law from Ramkhamhaeng University.

These are only examples of his learning journey, which also includes short training courses in the police field which he attended abroad.

People clear through immigration, the country's frontline security screening, at Don Mueang airport, during the busy New Year holidays. (Photo byPattarapong Chatpattarasill)

In his Immigration Bureau job, his language skills aid his cooperation with foreign immigration police.

But it is Biomatrix where he hopes to make the most progress in screening out foreign criminal suspects, often pretending to be tourists.

The equipment will help officers carry out their work, ensuring more accurate outcomes.

The machines, in Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn's view, are like well-trained police reinforcing the work of his Immigration Bureau, which is a security front gate to the country.

With Biomatrix and ongoing crackdowns on suspicious foreigners, the bureau chief hopes his aim, which sounds simple but requires strenuous efforts, will be achieved.

"My target is good guys in, bad guys out," Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn said, arguing a mix of modern technology and manpower can pave the way for success.

Many transnational criminal suspects eye Thailand as a hideout where they hatch illegal activities from passport forgery to drug trafficking. According to the bureau, their numbers are rising at an alarming rate.

"We've nabbed so many suspects that we feel the arrests we've made are quite historic," said Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn, who was appointed bureau chief in 2015.

These people must be "cleared out of Thai society as soon as possible," Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn insisted.

If they are bad, his agency ejects them, sends them back to their home countries and puts their names on a black list.

This method ensures faster action than removing them under the criminal deportation law which is more time-consuming.

Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn also hopes to clamp down on dishonest behaviour by immigration police and, in this respect too, technology will play an important role.

The idea is to use machines to do certain jobs which officers can exploit for demanding bribes.

Reflecting on his job, Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn said he is happy with his role. It allows him to introduce better management of foreign tourists and immigrant workers drawn to Thailand because of the attractive pay.

The rank of immigration commander is all he aspires for. "I don't want to think any further as the path towards national police chief is difficult," Pol Lt Gen Nathathorn said.

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Master of technology guards the gates - Bangkok Post

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Crispr Patent-Holders Move Toward Easing Access to Gene-Editing Technology Wall Street Journal (subscription) A holder of key patents to the Crispr gene-editing technology is willing to join a world-wide joint patent poola development that medical and legal experts think could hasten the development of new human therapies. The Broad Institute of MIT and ...

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Apple Expands Bet on Cutting Edge Privacy Technology Wall Street Journal (subscription) Last year, Apple Inc. kicked off a massive experiment with new privacy technology aimed at solving an increasingly thorny problem: how to build products that understand users without snooping on their activities. Its answer is differential privacy, a ... and more »

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Over time, Facebook could make the Oculus speech recognition technology work offline, Philip said. The company also may eventually support languages other than English.

Beyond that, Facebook employees weren't specific about exactly where the company is headed.

At a high level, said Deng, "we want to build a deep semantic understanding of people's interests, and also of content."

It's possible to guess about what could come next if you think about where Facebook excels. The company has data about your interests, your friends' interests and their friends' interests. It has users' pictures, videos and text posts, along with articles and other content that people have shared on the social network over the years.

"Other voice assistants may be geared toward what they have data for," Deng said.

Today, Facebook is all about community. That's another good guideline to consider when you imagine what sorts of voice-activated experiences Facebook might decide are worth pursuing.

"The stuff we would attempt to do has to be lined up with the mission and also the data that we have here," Deng said.

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Inside Facebook's speech recognition factory - CNBC

The average refugee is displaced for a decade. Take a moment to think about that.

Uprooted from their home. Fleeing for safety. Forced to desperately try to rebuild better lives for themselves and their families. Food, shelter and other more traditional forms of aid are vital in meeting their immediate needs in the aftermath of conflict.

But the shocking length of displacement and the fact that 60 percent of refugees are living in cities and communities not refugee camps means that handing out stuff is no longer sufficient.

Technology and digital banking, in particular, can offer some solutions. Refugees are people who have the ability to decide for themselves what their needs are, and the response system needs to be shaped towards that fact.

At the International Rescue Committee (IRC), we know that the refugee crisis is manageable not unsolvable. Manageable if we rethink our perception of todays refugee, and exploit the digital opportunities for delivering aid and vital services.

That means treating refugees as wed like to be treated ourselves. Not with prescriptive solutions to the challenges they face, but with the tools and resources they need to write their own story.

World leaders will meet at the end of this week (7-8 July) in Hamburg, Germany, for the G20 summit.

The German presidency of the G20 has shown their commitment to this kind of bold thinking. They have focused on building the resilience of refugees. Labour ministers, digital ministers, finance ministers and business leaders have discussed this at the highest levels.

Now is their opportunity to translate words into action.

Refugees resilience depends on structural changes that allow for self-reliance, rather than entrapping people in a system of dependence. That means safe and decent work, education, and a secure digital way of managing finances.

Refugees, who may be displaced for generations, need to manage their savings and wages. For over 60 percent of the worlds adults, a bank account is a given. But right now, many refugees are being denied that right only seven percent of adults living in crises have one.

We must do better to help people fleeing a crisis, to overcome barriers to banking that include lost or invalid identity documents and inflexible rules.

We are pleased that the German presidency has pushed up the financial inclusion of refugees and migrants in the G20 agenda. Now the G20 must commit to the financial resilience and inclusion of refugees, and deliver policy solutions to address barriers.

For many refugees, their mobile phone is their lifeline, including for managing and receiving finances. So digital connectivity is key.

The G20s digital ministers agreed a target for all people around the world to have access to the internet by 2025. But the IRCs research has found that high-risk, disaster-prone countries are too often neglected in initiatives to expand digital infrastructure.

Lets help refugees build their independence and get online whilst on the move. In the short-term, this means emergency electronic payments from aid agencies (cash relief) and, in the longer-term, money transfers, salaries and mobile banking. A secure, pro-market solution that helps to integrate refugees into a new economy.

This week, world leaders will have the opportunity to define G20 commitments and set the agenda for action when they come together in Hamburg.

They will also have the opportunity to bring business together with government and humanitarian agencies in support of refugees.

Lets start to shift the mindset of a helpless population of refugees, who bring with them a "burden" of expense, and begin to recognise refugees as intelligent, independent and resilient people, who want to re-build their future for themselves and their families.

Lets bank on a better future for them and let them define their own opportunities. Its self-defeating not to offer them the services and tools technology offers to rebuild their lives. And it will be better for everyone in the long term.

Daphne Jayasinghe is an Economic Recovery & Development Policy Adviser at the International Rescue Committee.

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Technology and digital banking could help refugees - EUobserver

In Brief Scientists have found a way to introduce a quantum principle into wireless charging systems. This innovation could expedite charging time and functionality while doing away with the previous limitations of wireless charging tech. A Better Range

While wireless chargingis an improvement over amess of entangled wires, the technology does not solve the issue of mobility your phone still needs to remain in one place to charge. This could change with the development of a new type ofcharging.

Current wireless charging devices operate using an electromagnetic field. For the power transfer between the charger and the device to remain optimal, the distance between the two must remain fixed. However, ateam out of Stanford has created a charger that cantransfer power to moving devices up to a meter away. Their research has been published in Nature.

The system uses a quantum mechanical principle called parity-time symmetry. Essentially, this means their charger can automatically adjust its power flow depending on the situation. The researchers demonstrated their device using an LED bulb. When the bulb moved further away, the distance was mitigated by the charger. This allowed the bulb to retain its brightness despite the motion.

Though this study only demonstrates the technology at a minor level, if scalable, it could essentially enable us to charge devices at the optimum rate despite a varying distance. This has exciting applications in a number of fields beyond just allowing you to comfortably use your phone while charging it.

Theoretically, it could revolutionize our ability towirelessly charge electric vehiclesas charging devices could be built into roads to charge the EVsas they drive past.The study also cites the potential to charge medical implants more efficiently. These devices are all implantedat slightly different depths, which can make charging them using existing technology complicated. This new technology would give patients the ability to move around while charging, as well.

While the teams technology is still in its nascent stages and has only charged a single moving LED so far, the concept has the potential to radically change how we power our lives in the future. Now, its just a matter of scaling it up.

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A Quantum Principle Could Change Wireless Charging Technology Forever - Futurism

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Experts believe we are on the brink of a solar minimum.

The sun follows cycles of roughly 11 years where it reaches a maximum and then a minimum, with the latter seeing the less heat emitted.

Professor Yvonne Elsworth at the University of Birmingham says that the next solar minimum could be in about two years but before then, the sun is expected to unleash significantly more radiation towards Earth.

Solar minimums create a heap of cosmic ray activity, which cause air showers of particles which pummel the atmosphere.

GETTY

These storms can wreak havoc on global technology as the radiation which strikes our planet heats up the outer atmosphere, causing it to expand.

This means satellite signals will struggle to penetrate the swollen atmosphere, leading to a lack of Internet service, GPS navigation, satellite TV such as Sky and mobile phone signal.

GETTY

Additionally, increased currents in the Earths magnetic field or magnetosphere could theoretically lead to a surge of electricity in power lines, which can blow out electrical transformers and power stations leading to a temporary loss of electricity in a region.

Prof Elsworth says that experts are already seeing signs that the solar minimum is coming.

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She wrote in a study: This is not how it used to be and the rotation rate [of the sun] has slowed a bit at latitudes around about 60 degrees.

We are not quite sure what the consequences of this will be but its clear that we are in unusual times.

However, we are beginning to detect some features belonging to the next cycle and we can suggest that the next minimum will be in about two years.

Originally posted here:

Technology to WIPED OUT by sun's radiation before world is plunged into 'solar minimum' - Express.co.uk

Many business leaders argue that technology is taking the "human" aspect out of human resources. However, from recruiting to hiring to connecting teams worldwide, the argument can be made that technology is greatly improving the human experience.

Related: A New Wave of HR Technology Is Disrupting the Market

Consider the case of Sarah Wilson, director of talent acquisition and principal staff officer at the Toronto bookstore, Indigo: Wilson has been using AI recruiting software to help personalize the hiring process.

"We started using Ideal.com last year, and we saw results within the first week," Wilson told me. "I think some people dismiss AI because they think it will hurt their candidate experience. We saw it as an opportunity to further improve ours."

The HRdirector said she didn't want hiring scenarios for her company that resembledthose of most large retailers, where candidates hear no response. Instead, AI technology helped her team cut out many time-consuming administrative tasks. This decreased the response time for getting back to applicants and helped her team spend more time with candidates they wanted to meet in person.

While Wilson was able to effectively use HRtech to improve the candidate experience, in general a balance between tech and human interaction can be hard to achieve. Here are four ways companies can use technology to improve the human experience:

Human connection is the end goal for business leaders, and HR tech is providing them the time to grow meaningful relationships.

"Both HR and recruiting professionals get caught up in the monotonous tasks associated with their jobs," Mahe Bayireddi, CEO of Phenom People, a talent-relationship marketing platform in Horsham, Pa., explained via email. "Where many people view HR tech as a human replacement, I view it as a bridge to a very apparent gap between HR and recruiting technology and the human element the industry has lost sight of in the past."

Bayireddi said he believes HR pros get overwhelmed with mundane tasks, making it impossible for recruiters to be more personal in their communications. By using automated technology, they're able to focus on building relationships and bringing on the best talent for their teams.

Tip: Help employees be more productive and motivated in their relationships by first understanding what tasks are holding them back. Before signing up for automation software, ask team members what tasks are preventing them from honing-in on the human element of recruiting and HR. Then, research which software can take care of these tasks and free up their time to target the best job candidates.

Related: Why Tech Is HR's Friend, Not Its Enemy

There's no doubt that things move fast in a startup. So, leaders often forget to stop and ask employees for feedback.

Steffen Maier, co-founder of Impraise, a performance-management software company in New York City, said he believes that letting feedback slip out of view can be detrimental to an entire organization.

"The emergence of feedback apps helped to change this by encouraging employees to ask for feedback when they need it, instead of waiting for an annual review," Maier said via email. "Creating an environment in which it's okay to ask for feedback, whether from your manager, reports or colleagues, means that information flows more freely throughout the organization."

Enhancing feedback, especially by offering the option of anonymity, gives managers the information they need to have a more meaningful dialogue with their employees.

Tip: Use a feedback or communication platform to perform a company-wide anonymous survey on employee or organizational matters. From pay and benefits to after-work activities, Maier has improved employees' performance and work experience by using their feedback.

The immersion of video in HR tech is fast evolving how leaders do business worldwide. Gayle Wiley, chief people officer at Lifesize, a video, audio and web-conferencing company based in Austin, puts her company to the test by using video conferencing for her recruiting needs.

"Externally, I use video-conferencing for interviewing candidates who are not located nearby," Wiley explained. "Internally, it is my main communications vehicle for conducting productive meetings with our entire global workforce -- for performance reviews, town hall meetings, onboarding of new employees, training and development and more."

With today's increasingly dispersed workforce, one-click face-to-face interactions are crucial in building the human experience. Co-workers who were once able to connect only over the phone or via email are now able to see one another and interact as though they were in the same room.

Tip: If possible, try the following exercise: Spend a few days communicating with people in your office via phone, email and on messaging platforms. Then, after a day or two of limited facial contact, connect with people via video.

Take notice of the deeper connection with co-workers that's restored through your return to face-to-face discussion. Now, imagine the connections being missed due to the absence of these personalized interactions.

With evolving tools, employers are able to take what were once limited standard procedures and create improved, more expansive experiences for their teams. Such experiences are especially relevant for employee perks and benefits.

Tip: With tools like Maestro Health, an employee health and benefits platform, employers are able to offer complete solutions in a personalized and simpler format. The platform allows users to be shown and to choose from a variety of health benefits to find the ones that are right for them.

Related: This Tech Start-up is Helping Companies Cut HR Expenses

Whether in the health and benefits arena or as part of the overarching employee experience, employees want perks that meet their individualized needs -- not everyone else's. With HR tech, they now have the tools to do this through improved, personalized human experiences.

Waldorf, Md.-basedHeather R. Huhmanis a career expert, experienced hiring manager and president ofCome Recommended, a content-marketing and digital-PR consultancy for job-search and human-resources technologies. She is the...

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4 Ways Technology Improves the Human Resources (and Human) Experience - Entrepreneur

The technology sector has always been a haven for high-growth companies, leading the way forward with innovative ideas that, in some cases, change the world. If you want to invest in a variety of tech stocks through a single investment, exchange-traded funds that specialize in technology can be a great way to go. The following five ETFs are among the most popular for technology investors, and they can help you spice up your portfolio with higher-growth prospects.

Technology ETF

Assets Under Management

Expense Ratio

5-Year Average Annual Return

Technology Select Sector SPDR (NYSEMKT:XLK)

$16.2 billion

0.14%

17.3%

Vanguard Information Technology (NYSEMKT:VGT)

$13.1 billion

0.10%

17%

First Trust Dow Jones Internet (NYSEMKT:FDN)

$4.4 billion

0.54%

18.9%

iShares U.S. Technology (NYSEMKT:IYW)

$3.4 billion

0.44%

17%

First Trust Nasdaq-100 Technology Sector (NYSEMKT: QTEC)

$2 billion

0.60%

23.1%

Data sources: Fund providers.

Different technology stocks have differing scope across the sector. Some funds include every bit of the industry, including hardware, software, telecommunications, technology manufacturing equipment, and information technology services. The tech ETFs with the broadest scope include some stocks that you wouldn't necessarily first think of as being tech stocks, but they often share the same growth characteristics as traditional tech names.

Three of the ETFs on the list have a big-picture approach to tech. The Technology Select SPDR is the largest, and it has the vast majority of its money spread across software, internet, hardware, services, and semiconductors. Telecom makes up a small but still significant portion of the ETF's assets, and overall, you'll see nearly 75 stocks that give good coverage of the sector as a whole.

The Vanguard Technology ETF has slightly lower costs, and its approach doesn't entirely mirror that of the SPDR Tech ETF. Internet companies are the industry with the greatest weight in the Vanguard ETF, followed by hardware, systems software, and semiconductors. The holdings are more extensive, with 365 stocks in its portfolio as of its most recent report.

The iShares Technology ETF has a higher expense ratio than the Vanguard and SPDR ETFs, but its holdings look eerily similar. The fund's software and services industry, which includes both traditional and internet-related offerings, make up more than half of the assets of the fund. Hardware is another quarter, with semiconductors representing all but a tiny fraction of remaining assets. One notable difference is that telecom is almost unrepresented in the iShares ETF's portfolio.

Image source: Getty Images.

One issue with all three of the ETFs discussed above is that their holdings are weighted by market capitalization. That leads to the top stocks in the ETFs having huge weightings compared to the remainder of the stocks in the portfolio, so fund performance relies heavily on those key players.

The First Trust Nasdaq 100 Technology ETF uses a different approach. It looks at the tech stocks in the Nasdaq 100 index and then invests on an equal-weight basis, rebalancing quarterly. Therefore, all 34 holdings have weights of about 3%. That works out well when the top stocks in the industry are doing poorly, but it can lead to lagging performance when tech giants do well. You can see from relative returns that those smaller stocks have done a good job over the past five years, and that has bolstered the First Trust ETF's performance.

Another First Trust fund focuses only on internet stocks, defined as getting half of annual revenue from the internet. First Trust Dow Jones Internet has 42 holdings, and although it takes market capitalization into account in weighting those stocks, it also looks at average share volume and accounts for float-adjusted factors. That's especially important with internet stocks, many of which release only a small portion of their outstanding shares in initial public offerings.

Internet related stocks include a vast array of companies, ranging from internet retailers and online brokerage companies to cloud-computing specialists and social media sites. The growth of those subindustries has led to outperformance for the ETF, and investors hope that favorable trend will continue.

These top technology ETFs offer investors several options to get their tech exposure. You should be able to find a fund that will match up well with where you think the future of the technology sector will be.

Dan Caplinger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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The 5 Top Technology ETFs - Motley Fool

On average, almost 115,000 Americans are shot in murders, assaults, suicides and suicide attempts or unintentional shootings each year. About 34,000 people die from gun violence, a type of violence that requires a fast response either to save a life and catch an assailant, or to quickly assess the situation and plan the correct police action.

Sadly, sometimes that response isnt fast enough. Furthermore, with fewer than one in five shooting incidents reported, gun crime is vastly underreported, and even when 911 calls are made, the location information provided tends to be inaccurate. People bleed out and die, and perpetrators run away, never to be seen again.

This is about to change though. ShotSpotter SSTI, -0.23% uses sophisticated audio sensors to detect and locate gunfire incidents, and to alert law enforcement agencies in real time. Sensitive microphones ascertain the location of the gunshot (within 10 feet) and send the information to the trained officer doing the surveillance.

After they have confirmed the source and the nature of the gunshot (that it is a weapon discharge, and not a pyrotechnic device), an alert is sent to police officers and an investigation can begin.

The real-time digital alerts sent by the ShotSpotter include a precise location on a map with corresponding data such as the address, number of rounds fired, type of gunfire, etc. The alert can be delivered to any browser-enabled device.

Its precisely because of that additional information that the officers can prepare their response more effectively. From the moment a blip appears on their screen, they will know if theyre facing a lone gunner, or if they would have to resolve a complex shootout.

The entire process between shooting the gun and uncovering its exact location takes approximately 45 seconds, which is significantly faster than dialing 911 and determining where the incident took place in an old-fashioned way this alone means a lot in scenarios where seconds make a difference between life and death.

ShotSpotter is currently available in 90 cities worldwide, including cities in 23 U.S. states and territories (New York City; San Francisco; Boston; New Haven, Conn.; Canton, Ohio; Milwaukee, Wis.; Miami Gardens, Fla.; Camden, N.j.; Denver; and San Antonio). Each sensor network covers radius of more than 300 miles.

There have been some concerns about privacy violations involving ShotSpotter microphones, but it seems theres no cause for alarm. First of all, sensors are located 30 feet or more above the street level. Second, the microphones dont record sounds quieter than a gunshot, which means that microphones are not sensitive enough to record conversations. Finally, once activated, sensors record mere seconds of the gunfire, because thats all thats required for triangulation and analysis of the recorded signal.

The implementation of ShotSpotter has failed in a number of cities. While its official website claims this is mainly because of poor practice in using the system, another thing is also mentioned: budget constraints and the resulting limited implementation of the sensor network. Not enough sensors means not only the existence of gaps in coverage, but also less accuracy.

So, how expensive is this technology? The annual subscription fee is between $65,000 and $95,000 per square mile, with a minimum of three square miles covered.

On the other hand, 26 out of 28 U.S. cities employing the ShotSpotter reported a median 29% reduction of gun violence within a year of implementation. Some have even reported up to 80% in gunfire reduction and 40% reduction in related violent crime and homicides.

So, will ShotSpotter solve the problem of gun violence? Absolutely not on its own its a tool that can help a well-coordinated police force and community to better respond to incidents. It will also help protect both officers and civilians, but Its success depends on how well it has been implemented and used in daily police work.

What do you think about the importance of using technology in resolving violence on the streets? Let me know in the comment section below.

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Opinion: How technology can reduce gun violence - MarketWatch

Many people have a hard time walking away from their devices, even when they know they should.

A study from GfK found that over a third of internet users worldwide agree they have a hard time disconnecting from technology. Younger users struggle most with technology attachment.

In fact, nearly half (44%) of respondents ages 15 to 19 agree that its difficult for them to take a break from their devices. Respondents ages 20 to 29, and those in the 30-to-39 age bracket, were not too far behind in their agreement. Overall, few internet users under the age of 40 said it was easy to take a break from technology.

Meanwhile, many older respondentsparticularly those over the age of 60said they didnt have a difficult time breaking away from technology. Only 15% of internet users in that age group said they have trouble disconnecting.

In the US, the findings were similar. Younger users were more likely than their older counterparts to say that its difficult for them to walk away from technology.

Also in the US, the 60-plus age group had a significantly higher percentage (44%) of respondents who didnt think it difficult to take a break from technology. Thats an 11-percentage point difference compared with global respondents in that same age group.

But these differences in behavior by age arent surprising. Separate data from Safe Home, a home security ranking and review company, found that older people in the US would be more likely to give up on technology, or stop using it, if they felt it could be a threat to their privacy.

Nearly four in 10 (38%) internet users over the age of 65 said they would not use a device due to a privacy threat, and nearly as many respondents ages 45 to 54 and those 55 to 64 agreed.

By contrast, fewer respondents under the age of 45 would stop using their device due to a privacy threat. For example, just 15% of 18- to 24-year-olds would end device use out of privacy concerns.

Rimma Kats

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For Many, Technology Addiction Is Real - eMarketer

Parking apps have been of limited benefit to drivers looking for open spaces in congested areas like Bostons Newbury Street.

A few years back, it seemed like one of the perennial headaches of urban life parking was about to be vanquished by the equivalent of an extra-strength aspirin.

Startups installed sensors in the pavement that would alert your smartphone when a space opened up, or hired armies of valets who would scoot over to pick up your car and whisk it into a garage. One company, FlightCar, even made use of your vehicle when you left it in an airport lot, by renting it out to incoming travelers and giving you free parking and a car wash in exchange.

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Many of the companies, including FlightCar, have since gone out of business, or discontinued their original services while rushing to figure out something else that might work.

Parking, it turns out, is an especially vexing problem to solve in part because the way we get around cities is so much in flux.

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It was 2013 when Uber launched its lower-cost UberX car service in Boston. (Before that, Uber only offered pricier town cars). Lyft followed shortly after. So in 2014, as many of the parking startups were promoting their apps, they were competing with two very deep-pocketed companies that were pitching chauffeur services, and had millions of dollars to spend on marketing. Why drive your own car if you could go from Cambridge to Beacon Hill and back in an Uber for $20?

By October 2015, Uber reported it had served 28 million riders in Massachusetts. Disruptors, it turns out, can make life difficult for other disruptors.

Startups like San Francisco-based Luxe tried to compete by offering new users $30 in free parking, and daily rates that felt like a steal. You could use the Luxe app to have a valet pick up your car, stash it in a garage for the day, and then return it with a maximum daily rate that would never exceed $25. Compare that with 90 minutes in the Prudential Centers garage, which will set you back $30.

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I remember the joke around town was that everyone was parking on the venture capitalists dime with Luxe, because even the everyday consumer knew that the prices were too good to be true for the company to ever make money, says Braden Golub, founder of SPOT, a Boston parking startup. The first time I used Luxe, I even got a free T-shirt that said We Pahk Your Car. That was in June 2015; Luxe discontinued its Boston operation in January 2016.

SPOT, meanwhile, is growing. It runs a marketplace for private parking spaces, allowing the owner to rent them out by the hour, day, or week, similar to what Airbnb does for spare bedrooms. Unlike Luxe, you do the parking yourself. The company has six employees, and has raised $1.6 million in funding, according to Golub.

FlightCar, headquartered in San Francisco, made its entrepreneurial path even steeper by trying to build a business around airport parking. Customers would show up at a FlightCar lot, leave their car, and get a ride to the terminal. The company would try to rent out their vehicle while they were away. But airport authorities, it turns out, like to tax car rental agencies and regulate everyone that picks up and drops off passengers at the terminal, which FlightCar was doing. After spending $40 million, and facing a lawsuit from the San Francisco Airport, FlightCar shut down last July.

Co-founder Rujul Zaparde, who put a Harvard University acceptance on hold to start the company, now works as a product manager at Airbnb. He observes that parking is not a very scalable business, which makes the economics challenging. Parking a car requires one human at a time, and thus cant be made much more efficient with scale, he says. Thats different from Uber and Lyfts carpooling offerings, which can pair two or three riders with similar routes, or a meal delivery venture that can transport several dinners at once, Zaparde says.

A City of Boston experiment with broadcasting information about available spaces in the Fort Point Channel neighborhood ran from 2013 to 2014, in partnership with a Silicon Valley startup called Streetline. The sensor tech is good but not perfect, explains Kris Carter, co-chair of the Mayors Office of New Urban Mechanics. Sometimes, he explains, the information about an open space just took too long to be displayed by the mobile app which meant the space would be filled before the driver arrived. (That was the case when I tried the app in 2014. My own eagle eye delivered better results.) Carter says that it was also difficult to get a lot of drivers to download an app that only contained data about 330 available parking spots in just one part of Boston.

Carter says that a different kind of sensor is now being used to monitor how many vacant parking spots there are on the street. And the objective has changed: pole-mounted sensors are now being used to raise or lower metered parking rates based on how many spots are available. That, the city hopes, will ensure that a space is more likely to be open if youre willing to pay a higher price. Carter says that could cut the amount of time drivers spend circling the block hunting for a spot, which would help reduce traffic.

SpotLight Parking was hatched on the campus of Tufts University in 2013; it has raised about $500,000 from investors, according to co-founder Michael Miele. The company ran a beta test in Boston to see whether it could help drivers save time by avoiding that seemingly-endless search for a space in city garages. Youd use the SpotLight app to let the garage know you were getting close and request a valet. Then a garage employee would come out to take possession of your vehicle.

SpotLight tested a $5 or $10 surcharge for the service, but it didnt take off with users, and garage attendants werent wild about doing one more job even though they could earn a tip, says Miele. SpotLight ended its valet parking test in May 2016, but Miele and co-founder Karan Singhal are working on another tech offering for garage operators, which they hope to test later this summer.

Silicon Valley investor Semil Shah observes that the billions of dollars being spent to develop self-driving vehicles is another factor casting a shadow over the whole business of parking. (Shah is an investor in Luxe.) That, in combination with app-summoned car services like Uber, creates fear in the venture [capital] space to invest in parking startups, Shah explains.

One other dynamic that Shah highlights is an expected decline in vehicle ownership among young people, especially in big cities where the parking business is concentrated.

I asked Miele, 25, whether he owns a car. He said that he does, primarily to get to business meetings and garages around the city. Among his peers who live in the city, though, he says close to zero percent own cars. The only ones who do are salesmen who drive up to Connecticut or New Hampshire every week for their jobs, he says. Thats about it. Instead, twenty-somethings in the city rely on Uber and Lyft both of which are developing self-driving technology that will enable vehicles to run more or less 24/7. Those vehicles will have no need for a parking spot, only a garage in the outskirts of the city where theyll recharge (or gas up) and be maintained.

Its possible that, given some time, the headache of Boston parking will go away on its own.

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Why technology hasn't solved our parking problems - The Boston Globe

This week's long-range missile test by North Korea marks a distinct, if unsteady, advance in its quest to develop the capability to hit the U.S. mainland, according to two experts.

The distance this missile traveled confirms that North Korea is "no longer just a regional problem. This is a U.S. problem," ABC News aviation consultant Steve Ganyard, a retired Marine Corps colonel, said.

"This is the first time, if the analysis is correct, that we're seeing a North Korean weapon that can hit the United States. Not the mainland, but Alaska is very much part of the United States, and this is a very worrying development," he said on "Good Morning America" today.

Ganyard previously said, "The North Koreans launched this missile almost straight up ... because they didn't want to overfly Japan or Russia."

"The missile itself reached an apex of almost 1,700 miles, which means, had it been on a max-range trajectory, it could have reached Anchorage and wouldn't have been far from reaching Seattle," he said Tuesday on ABC News' "World News Tonight."

Scott Snyder, a senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that while the latest test clarified North Korea's ability to fire missiles longer distances, a number of key questions remain.

"There's still a debate whether or not North Korea has been able to make a nuclear weapon small enough to put on the head of the weapon to deliver it, and there's still a debate whether or not North Korea ... has developed re-entry technology," he said.

Such technology would allow a missile to leave Earth's atmosphere and return without burning up, Snyder said.

"The North Koreans are claiming that they have achieved some of those technologies, but it has not yet been definitively proven, and so as a result, there's a little bit of confusion and ambiguity," Snyder said.

"We know they're working on it, so it's really a matter of time before they develop those technologies," he said. "It's not good news."

On the other side, the United States has been working to perfect its system designed to counter North Korea's long-range missile threat.

But that system still needs work, according to Ganyard.

"The U.S. has been developing a ground-based interceptor system that's designed to knock down incoming North Korean missiles, but it's very complex science," he said on "World News Tonight."

"It's very much like hitting a bullet with a bullet, and although the most recent test was successful, the system itself is still only barely over 50 percent reliable," Ganyard said.

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N. Korean missile test leaves clues, doubts about its technology - ABC News