New Data on T Cells and the Coronavirus – Science Magazine

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Well, I was writing just the other day about what we dont know about the T-cell response to coronavirus infection, and as of today we know quite a bit more. And from what I can see, we have encouraging news, mixed with some things that were going to need to keep an eye on.

Heres a post from May on a paper in Cell that looked at T cell responses in recovering SARS CoV-2 patients and compared them to reports of people who had been infected with original SARS back in 2003, and to people who had never encountered either. It also has some background on T cells in general, which might be useful if you dont have that info right at the top of your brains queue. Thats the paper that showed that the T-cell response to this virus is less Spike-o-centric than it was to SARS. It also showed that there are, in fact, people who have both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells that recognize protein antigens from the new coronavirus even though they have never been exposed to SARS, MERS, or the new virus. The paper speculated that this might be due to cross-reactivity with proteins from the common cold coronaviruses, and raised the possibility that there might be a part of the population that has at least some existing protection against the current pandemic.

Now comes a new paper in press atNature. It confirms that convalescent patients from the current epidemic show T-cell responses (mostly CD4+ but some CD8+ as well) to various epitopes of the N (nucleocapsid) protein, which the earlier paper had identified as one of the main antigens as well (along with the Spike and M proteins, among others, with differences between the CD4+ and CD8+ responses as well). Turning to patients who had caught SARS back in 2003 and recovered, it is already known (and worried about) that their antibody responses faded within two or three years. But this paper shows that these patients still have (17 years later!) a robust T-cell response to the original SARS coronaviruss N protein, which extends an earlier report of such responses going out to 11 years. This new work finds that these cross-react with the new SARS CoV-2 N protein as well. This makes one think, as many have been wondering, that T-cell driven immunity is perhaps the way to reconcile the apparent paradox between (1) antibody responses that seem to be dropping week by week in convalescent patients but (2) few (if any) reliable reports of actual re-infection. That would be good news indeed.

And turning to patients who have never been exposed to either SARS or the latest SARS CoV-2, this new work confirms that there are people who nonetheless have T cells that are reactive to protein antigens from the new virus. As in the earlier paper, these cells have a different pattern of reactivity compared to people who have recovered from the current pandemic (which also serves to confirm that they truly have not been infected this time around). Recognition of the nsp7 and nsp13 proteins is prominent, as well as the N protein. And when they looked at that nsp7 response, it turns out that the T cells are recognizing particular protein regions that have low homology to those found in the common cold coronaviruses but do have very high homology to various animal coronaviruses.

Very interesting indeed! That would argue that there has been past zoonotic coronavirus transmission in humans, unknown viruses that apparently did not lead to serious disease, which have provided some people with a level of T-cell based protection to the current pandemic. This could potentially help to resolve another gap in our knowledge, as mentioned in that recent post: when antibody surveys come back saying that (say) 95% of a given population does not appear to have been exposed to the current virus, does that mean that all 95% of them are vulnerable or not? Ill reiterate the point of that post here: antibody profiling (while very important) is not the whole story, and we need to know what were missing.

There are still major gaps in our knowledge: how many people have such unknown-coronavirus-induced T-cells? How protective are they? How long-lasting is the T-cell response in people who have been infected with the current SARS CoV-2 virus, and how protective is it in the declining-antibody situation that seems to be common? What sorts of T cell responses will be induced by the various vaccine candidates? We just dont know yet. But were going to find out.

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New Data on T Cells and the Coronavirus - Science Magazine

Is the coronavirus airborne? The latest guidance from the WHO, explained. – Vox.com

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Since the beginning of the pandemic, the World Health Organization has stressed that, primarily, Covid-19 spreads through very close personal contact. The virus-laden droplets exhaled from a sick persons mouth and nose, the thinking goes, are heavy, and fall to the ground before they can get much farther than 6 feet.

But as the pandemic has unfolded, contact tracing studies have shown this isnt always the case. In China, an air conditioner pushed virus-laden air across three tables in a restaurant, infecting people seated at each one. Researchers reviewed video from the restaurant and saw many of these patrons were more than 6 feet apart from one another, suggesting that the virus traveled through the air.

In Washington state, one person at a choir practice infected 52 of the other participants; its thought the singing could have led more virus to linger in the air. Carefully controlled laboratory studies are also suggesting that under the right indoor conditions, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, can float in the air and, to a certain degree, spread that way.

Last Thursday, the WHO changed its language to recognize that fact. Short-range aerosol transmission, particularly in specific indoor locations, such as crowded and inadequately ventilated spaces over a prolonged period of time with infected persons cannot be ruled out, the WHO now states. Previously, the organization maintained that airborne transmission was unlikely to occur outside the hospital setting, where some procedures can generate super-small particles that linger in the air longer than large respiratory drops.

This change comes after a letter appeared in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, co-signed by 239 scientists and engineers, which implored WHO and other public health agencies that its time to address airborne transmission of Covid-19. With the WHOs recognition of this mode of transmission, the authors hope, communities can think more about the ventilation of indoor spaces and perhaps engineer solutions to make these spaces safer.

It turns out scientists have been debating whether respiratory diseases like the flu and coronavirus should be labeled airborne for a century. More commonly, the airborne designation is only applicable to extremely contagious diseases, like measles.

A lot of these terms are confusing (even to the scientists), and they dont answer the question laypeople care about: Which air is safe to breathe in during the Covid-19 pandemic, and which air is not safe?

To answer that question, its helpful to understand two different scientific perspectives on the matter. One is: What physically happens when a sick person breathes, sneezes, or coughs into a room? The other is: What patterns have epidemiologists observed in the way people are exposed to the virus and get sick?

Lets start with the first.

Theres a relatively simple, if outdated, way of thinking about how respiratory diseases can spread.

It starts like this: When you exhale, sneeze, or cough, you release a cloud of gas and liquid droplets.

If those droplets are relatively big, theyre heavy and fall to the ground before evaporating, like raindrops do. Others are smaller, and made smaller still by evaporation. These smaller droplets can linger in the air longer, drifting on air currents for perhaps hours. If a droplet is small enough, the moisture in it evaporates before it has the chance to reach the ground (provided the humidity in the room is average). If theres stuff like germs in that droplet, they become light enough to float on air currents, like the dust you can see suspended in the air. These particles are often called aerosols.

This framework is old, and it comes from William Wells, a scientist who studied tuberculosis transmission in the 1930s. In a 1934 paper, Wells concluded: It appears, therefore, that transmission of infection through air may take one of two forms depending upon the size of the infected droplet.

When it comes to Covid-19, one of the first questions epidemiologists tried to answer was: Is the virus spread in the dust that floats or the big drops that fall?

If its the small dust, alarm bells go off. These are the prototypical airborne diseases. They include measles, chickenpox, and tuberculosis, and they are extremely contagious. On average, one person infected with measles will infect 12 to 18 others.

If its the big drops, its still concerning. Diseases like the flu, whooping cough, the common cold, and coronaviruses are primarily large droplet-borne. With these diseases, only the closest contacts to an infected person get infected because large droplets quickly fall to the ground (within 6 feet or so). Its also possible for these big drops to fall on surfaces, and those surfaces can become contaminated too. Luckily, in the case of Covid-19, theres a growing consensus that getting sick from touching contaminated surfaces is rare. But keep washing your hands!

(Interestingly, theres no one reason a new virus, like SARS-CoV-2, would go one route or the other. Its possible, says University of Leicester virologist Julian Tang, that there may be a difference in the immune response with these airborne diseases that makes saliva and mucous less viscous, leading to more virus in small drops. Also, Tang writes in an email, it is possible (though no one has studied this yet) that exhaled breath from measles/chickenpox cases may just be shedding much more virus (maybe millions of virus per minute) compared to respiratory viruses, which only exhale 100s to 1000s of viruses per minute.)

A part of why the terminology here is so confusing, and theres so much debate about it, is that the words aerosol and droplet mean different things to different scientific disciplines.

An aerosol is a particle in the air, said Lidia Morawska, an engineer and the director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health at Queensland University of Technology. A droplet is a liquid aerosol. To her, the distinction between droplets and aerosols doesnt make any sense. To her, they are all aerosols.

Wells outlined a clear distinction between droplets and aerosols according to their size. Big drops fall, and little aerosolized drops float. Its now appreciated that the actual picture is a lot more complicated.

Were always exhaling, in fact, a gas cloud that contains within it a continuum spectrum of droplet sizes, says Lydia Bourouiba, an MIT researcher who studies the fluid dynamics of infections. And, as she explained in a March paper in JAMA, the conditions of the cloud itself can affect the range of some of the droplets. If propelled by a cough or sneeze, Bourouiba finds, droplets can travel upward of 20 feet. The cloud mixture, not the drop sizes, determines the initial range of the drops and their fate in indoor environments.

The speed of the cloud, the temperature and humidity of the environment, and the individual droplet makeup of each cloud determines how long the droplets persist in the air, Bourouiba explained in JAMA.

Which is to say: There are conditions (coughing and sneezing) under which large drops dont immediately fall to the floor and can spread more than 6 feet away from a person, and they can linger in the air for longer.

Theres growing theoretical evidence for the airborne spread of the coronavirus. Lab studies, in idealized conditions, also show that the virus can live in an aerosolized form for up to 16 hours (the scientists in this case intentionally created aerosolized droplets with a machine).

Another study tracked with lasers the various droplets expelled from a human mouth during speech. It found normal speech generates airborne droplets that can remain suspended for tens of minutes or longer and are eminently capable of transmitting disease in confined spaces.

Some studies, the WHO reports, have found evidence of the viruss RNA in the air of hospital rooms, but notes no studies have found viable virus in air samples, meaning the virus was either incapable of infecting others or was in very small quantities unlikely to infect others.

What we are trying to say is, well, lets not worry about whether you call it aerosol or whether you call it a droplet, Morawska, the co-author of the recent commentary imploring the WHO and others to address airborne transmission of Covid-19, says. It is in the air, she says, and you inhale it. Its coming from our nose from our mouths. Its lingering in the air and others can inhale it.

That the WHO updated its language is a sign that its starting to appreciate this perspective.

But this perspective is limited. These lab studies cant perfectly generalize to the real-world conditions in which the virus spreads and infects others. Just because a virus travels far in a drop doesnt mean it can infect people across great distances. Viruses can degrade quickly outside the body. Also, dose matters. Small exposures to the virus may not be enough to get a person sick.

So to find out how people actually get sick with Covid-19, we need contact tracing studies.

Lab studies note the theoretical possibility of airborne transmission. But thats only one part of the answer to the question which air is safe to breathe? Epidemiologists come at this question from another angle, looking at patterns of virus spread observed in the real world and working backward to determine if airborne spread factors in.

Contact tracing studies show us that while droplets being inhaled by people within 6 feet of an infected person explains most of the transmission of Covid-19, there are limited times and environments in which SARS-CoV-2 can behave a bit like an airborne virus.

So we need to define which types of contact, which type of environments, lead to that type of transmission, Muge Cevik, a physician and virology expert at the University of St. Andrews, says. In households, she says, an infected person can be isolated in one room and not spread the virus to others in the home (if they remain isolated). A systematic review of studies in The Lancet of both SARS-CoV-2 and similar viruses found large reductions in risk if people just stay 1 meter (3 feet) away from one another. This suggests a lot of the risk of catching Covid-19 is from the large drops that fall quickly to the ground.

But then there are cases where people are packed together in an enclosed space like a church, with singing or shouting where the transmission looks a little more like airborne transmission.

The infamous choir practice in Washington state is an example of where airborne transmission might have happened. But what made this event so risky was the convergence of many risk factors: the singing activity (during which the infected person released viral particles into the air), the time spent together (the practice was 2.5 hours), and the interaction between the choir members in an enclosed space (not only did they all practice together, they also split up into smaller groups and shared cookies and tea).

Another study from China investigated an outbreak that started at a Buddhist temple event, tracing much of the spread to the confines of one of the buses transporting people to the function. The bus had one sick person aboard, and 24 out of 67 people on that bus got sick, possibly indicating airborne transmission. Those who sat by the windows fared better, indicating the importance of ventilation.

I think we just need to get away from this terminology and give much more clear definitions, Cevik says. For her, its about getting people to think critically about which situations are riskier than others. Risk is a spectrum. Its not only the distance, but its about timing, what type of activities youre involved in. I know its a bit complex, but thats the reality.

Perhaps part of the reason the WHO has been slow to address the airborne transmission of Covid-19 is because in a health care setting, airborne means a very specific thing.

Though infection prevention experts know theres a fuzzy boundary between drops that fall and specks that float, the dichotomy between airborne and droplet-borne is baked into how health care workers are trained to respond to outbreaks. Weve trained [health care workers] for decades to say, airborne is tuberculosis, measles, chickenpox, droplet is flu and pertussis and meningitis, Saskia Popescu, a hospital epidemiologist in Arizona, says. And thats, unfortunately, kind of antiquated. But thats how weve always done it.

They do it because there are very specific sets of guidelines in place to deal with extremely contagious airborne diseases in a hospital setting. For instance, a patient with a dangerous airborne disease often needs to be put in a room with an air pressure lower than the rest of the rooms in the building. That way, no virus in the air of that room can escape it (since air flows from high pressure to low pressure).

For droplet transmission, health care workers can be a little more lax; they can wear simple surgical masks during routine care and can save high-filtration (and sometimes scarce) respirators for the most dangerous procedures and cases.

In this light, it makes some sense that the WHO has been hesitant to label Covid-19 an airborne infection. Its not an airborne infection like measles is. It is not as contagious. Contact tracing studies consistently find that Covid-19 is spread most readily among people in the closest physical contact to one another. Airborne means something very specific, very resource-intensive, and very scary for hospitals and the people who work in them. And Covid-19 doesnt match that definition.

The debate often isnt very nuanced because of these rigid categories, Daniel Diekema, an infectious diseases physician and epidemiologist at the University of Iowa, says. As soon as you say airborne in the hospital infection prevention world, it brings to mind pathogens like tuberculosis, measles, chickenpox. Its clear the respiratory viruses, influenza, coronaviruses, are not airborne in the same way that the measles, varicella [chickenpox] become airborne.

But at the same time, with Covid-19 and other respiratory viruses, there definitely are small-particle aerosols produced, he says. And in the right setting, where theres poor ventilation, indoors, and a crowded environment, there is a risk for transmission among individuals, even if they may be more than 6 feet apart.

Neither contact tracing studies nor lab studies can perfectly answer the question of which air is safe? But thats science for you. Scientists use imperfect methods, attacking from many angles, to try to arrive at the truth, which can take a while to nail down precisely.

Overall, the recognition that Covid-19 can spread through the air shouldnt really change how we, individually, protect ourselves and others against it. Six feet of distance between people is still a good barrier to prevent spread via large drops. Mask-wearing could help prevent both large drops and small drops from being released in the first place. Time matters too: the longer we spend in an enclosed, poorly ventilated space with others, the greater the chances of being exposed to an infectious dose of the virus.

The bottom line, as a trio of engineers from Clarkson University writes in the Conversation, is that while staying six feet from other people reduces exposure, it might not be sufficient in all situations, such as in enclosed, poorly ventilated rooms.

We still need to think about the environments were in: Indoors is much riskier than outdoors (where greater airflow can disperse drops and aerosols more quickly, and where the environment is less conducive to SARS-CoV-2 survival). And indoors, ventilation can make a big difference. An indoor space where the air is constantly refreshed with air from the outdoors is better than one where the air is stagnant. (The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers has published extensive guidelines on how to reopen buildings with increased ventilation during the pandemic.)

We also still need to think about the activity were engaging in. Shouting, singing, and other such activities produce more droplets (of any size) than just sitting quietly.

Morawska hopes that in bringing attention to airborne spread of Covid-19, there can be more attention paid to engineering solutions for indoor spaces to mitigate the spread of the pandemic.

Public health officials have continually stressed social distancing, mask-wearing, and hand-washing as ways to stop the spread of Covid-19. But have you ever heard a restaurant reopening announce theyve improved ventilation or increased ventilation? No. This is really the point, Morawska says. If Covid-19 is in indoor air, we should also be doing something about the air.

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Is the coronavirus airborne? The latest guidance from the WHO, explained. - Vox.com

Coronavirus update: Global COVID-19 cases climb to 13.6 million after record one-day tally of 230,400 new infections – MarketWatch

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The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus illness COVID-19 world-wide rose to 13.6 million on Thursday, after a record of about 230,400 new infections were counted on Wednesday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

That was higher than the previous one-day record of roughly 229,000 counted last Friday, the data show. The U.S. recorded another 66,300 cases on Wednesday, just below the record of more than 67,000 cases reported on Tuesday.

A full 43 states and territories have seen case numbers rise in the past 14 days, according to a New York Times tracker, showing Florida is the new hot spot in the U.S. Hospitals in parts of the South and West are straining to handle the case load. The cities of Houston, Miami and Phoenix are reporting dire shortages of intensive-care unit beds and staff.

Public health experts and academics are astounded at the White House move to order hospitals to report COVID-19 data to the Department of Health and Human Services, instead of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nations premier public health agency. The decision is expected to make the data less transparent to the public and to researchers.

See also:Trumps pandemic response was hindered by missed opportunities, ignored warnings

... HHS and the White House broke a system that was working to put in a no-bid contract contractor, inexperienced to try to do something that is mission-critical to solve the pandemic, said Tom Frieden, a former head of the CDC and now a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. Just when you think cant get less organized or less functional, it does, in this country.

There was further outrage about Georgias Gov. Brian Kemp ban on Georgias cities and counties from ordering people to wear masks in public places. Kemp voided orders on Wednesday that at least 15 local governments across the state had adopted, as the Associated Press reported.

Georgia has lost 3,091 people to the pandemic so far, the Johns Hopkins data show.

The ban comes as other states are moving in the opposite direction, ordering residents to cover their faces, including Alabama on Wednesday. Public health experts agree that wearing a face mask, washing hands frequently and socially distancing are vital measures to contain the spread. Retailers Walmart Inc. WMT, +0.15% and Kroger Co. KR, -0.11% have both said face masks are mandatory for shoppers in their stores. The National Retail Federation is recommending that all retailers follow their example.

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson was the first local official to defy Kemp and order masks, and had said police would start writing $500 citations to businesses that didnt enforce the law. Johnson called Kemp out by name on Twitter.

The Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI) shot down a suggestion by CDC Director Robert Redfield earlier this week that COVID-19 cases in the South were being caused by people from the North vacationing there after Memorial Day weekend. Redfield said there was a pop in cases around June 12 to June 16 caused by vacationers driving down south.

This is not what the data say, the HGHI said in a report. Infections in states including Nevada and Florida actually stared rising on June 1.

Remember that there is always a lag between when infections occur and when they begin to be diagnosed, said the report. This means that the increase in confirmed cases around June 1 comes from infections occurring around May 24, right around the Memorial Day weekend (and well before mid-June, as Dr. Redfield suggests.) So the data show that these outbreaks started before Northern vacationers supposedly traveled South.

The more likely explanation is that infections are spiking because states reopened far too early.

Virginia, on the other hand, remaine

d in phase 1 of its reopening through the end of May and has fared significantly better than its neighbors, said the report.

The HGHIs tracking tool is currently showing 11 states flashing red, led by Florida, which now has a seven-day average rate of 51.8 cases per 100,000 people. Harvard researchers say those states the other 10 are Arizona, Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Nevada, Tennessee, Mississippi and Idaho need to reimpose stay-at-home orders.

The number of confirmed deaths from COVID-19 climbed to 584,990, while the number of people who have recovered climbed to 7.6 million.

The U.S. leads the world with 3.49 million cases and 137,420 deaths.

Brazil is second to the U.S. with 1.97 million cases and 75,366 deaths. India is third measured by cases at 968,876 followed by Russia with 751,612 and Peru with 337,751.

The U.K. has 45,138 fatalities, the highest in Europe and third highest in the world.

China, where the illness was first reported late last year, has 85,247 cases and 4,644 fatalities.

Read also: Russia accused by U.S., Britain, Canada of hacking coronavirus vaccine trials

Johnson & Johnson CFO Joseph Wolk told CNBC that the company expects the Phase 1 trial for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate to begin next week.

Wolk said the Phase 1 trial is expected to enroll more than 1,000 participants, primarily between the ages of 18 and 55 years old, although the company also plans to include a group of people who are 65 years old or older in the early-stage trial.

He also said that J&J is in talks with the National Institutes of Health to move up the timeline for the anticipated Phase 3 trial to late September.

The science still has to play out, Wolk said.

Dynavax Technologies Corp. DVAX, +1.38% announced that it will work with the Icahn School of Medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital system in New York on a universal influenza vaccine. Mount Sinai has received funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to develop a vaccine and aims to use Dynavaxs adjuvant technology to support that process.

A universal flu vaccine would get rid of the need for annual flu vaccination, the organizations said in a news release.

See also: This new study shows how well a coronavirus vaccine must work before we can stop social distancing

The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits fell slightly in the second week of July to a post-pandemic low of 1.30 million, but the grudgingly small decline points to ongoing stress in the labor market as the economy struggles to cope with the latest coronavirus outbreak, MarketWatchs Jeffry Bartash and Greg Robb reported.

New applications for unemployment compensation, a rough gauge of layoffs, fell 10,000 in the seven days ended July 11 to 1.30 million from a revised 1.31 million in the prior week, the Labor Department said Thursday. The figures are seasonally adjusted.

Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast 1.24 million new claims. These figures reflect applications filed the traditional way through state unemployment offices.

An unadjusted 928,488 people also applied for benefits through a temporary federal-relief program.

Initial jobless benefit claims have stalled since mid-June when they hit 1.57 million. An economic rebound in May and June has lost momentum in July amid a fresh wave of coronavirus cases that has forced many states to either reimpose partial lockdowns or pause reopening plans.

The latest setback is expected to put more people out of work again and delay the return of others to their jobs, making it harder for the economy to recover. Economists say Washington has to extend emergency unemployment benefits and increase other aid to prevent the situation from getting worse.

The trend in initial jobless claims has now just about stopped falling; next week could easily see an increase, for the first time since March, in the wake of the continued gradual reimposition of restrictions across the South and parts of the West, said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Separately, sales at U.S. retailers posted a big increase in June for the second month in a row, but that trend too may be sapped by the rise in new cases. Retail sales climbed 7.5% last month following a record 18.2% increase in May, the government said Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast a 5.4% increase.

Retail sales may have had a strong showing for June, but thats old news given how quickly the coronavirus resurgence is beating up the economy, said Robert Frick, corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union.

Morgan Stanley and Bank of America were the latest big banks to post earnings and they showed the same trend as other banks of strong trading and investment banking fees, offset by the need to set aside huge provisions for potential loan losses.

Banks are warnings that they may be facing a wave of defaults as companies struggle in the pandemic.

There was more upbeat news from Dominos Pizza, which has been thriving during lockdown periods and as consumer eat at home more. Johnson & Johnson beat profit and sales estimates for its latest quarter, amid strong demand for drugs.

Cowen downgraded Walt Disney Co.s DIS, -1.21% stock on concerns that its parks and film business will be disrupted for longer than investors anticipate, and Citi reiterated a sell rating on Tesla Inc. TSLA, -2.93%, after its massive year-to-date rally, which has come even as its main plant in Fremont, California was shut down for much of the last quarter.

What hasnt changed, in our view, is the lack of evidence to support the recent narrative in the stock-namely that Tesla is already experiencing seemingly unlimited demand thats decoupled from autos, that traditional & emerging competitors stand little chance, that FSD/AV [fully self-driving technology] is industry leading and that Tesla should be valued vs. large Tech names, analyst Itay Michaeli wrote in a note to clients.

It is tough to fight the momentum, but its even tougher to construct a fundamental risk/reward framework that makes sense here (particularly with COVID-19 risks), even if one is constructive on Tesla the company.

Elsewhere, companies offered updated guidance and outlined ways they are managing liquidity in the pandemic, among other issues. MMM, +0.73%

Heres the latest news about companies and COVID-19:

3M Co. MMM, +0.73% , the maker of Post-it Notes and industrial products, has filed 18 lawsuits and shut down thousands of deceptive websites and social media posts as it moves to prevent COVID-19 fraud and profiteering. The company is working with law enforcement agencies to help protect the public against those parties who are exploiting the strong demand for its products, which include N95 masks and other equipment. The schemes we shut down were not only unlawful, they also endangered lives and wasted precious time and resources by diverting buyers from legitimate sources of much-needed respirators, Denise Rutherford, senior vice president of corporate affairs said in a statement. 3M has created hotlines and websites for consumers to report suspected fraud and has published pricing information for N95 masks to help them avoid inflated prices. The company has won 6 temporary restraining orders and 4 preliminary injunction orders from courts that halted unlawful actions, said the statement.

Abbott Laboratories ABT, -0.34% reported second-quarter profit and revenue that beat expectations and provided an upbeat full-year outlook. For 2020, the company expects adjusted EPS of at least $3.25, above the FactSet consensus of $2.90. Were a leader in the global COVID-19 testing efforts, weve continued to advance our pipeline and, importantly, we saw significant improvements in growth trends throughout the quarter in the business areas that were initially most impacted by the pandemic, said Chief Executive Robert Ford.

Alcoa Corp. AA, +6.30% reported a narrower second-quarter loss and sales were slightly ahead of expectations. The company made progress on its continuing asset review in preparation for potential sales and cost-cutting goals related to the pandemic. It increased its liquidity after completing the sale of $750 million worth of bonds on Monday, at a 5.5% coupon rate that was lower than any of its previous debt issuance. Despite challenging market conditions, our team has lowered production costs, increased output, maintained stable shipments, and improved our balance sheet, Chief Executive Roy Harvey said in a statement. We continued to make progress in executing our strategic actions and 2020 programs, and we finished the quarter with a cash balance of nearly one billion dollars.

American Airlines Group Inc. AAL, -7.36% sent notices to 25,000 workers -- about one-fifth of its workforce -- about potential furloughs as the airline copes with what it calls slackening demand for air travel during the pandemic. American, which is prohibited from slashing jobs or pay rates through Sept. 30 under terms of $25 billion in federal payroll support, also urged employees to take buyout and early retirement packages before being forced to cut their jobs. The airline, which reported an 80% plunge in June revenue, says it will be overstaffed by 20,000 when federal aid expires Oct. 1.

Separately, American Airlines Group Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp. JBLU, -4.58% announced a partnership aimed at creating more options for travelers in the Northeast U.S., to give the more choices across the airlines domestic and international routes. The partnership includes an agreement that proposes code-share and loyalty benefits for flight offerings in New York and Boston. The partnership will allow American to launch service from New Yorks JFK airport to Tel Aviv and to Athens, and the JFK to Rio de Janeiro flight will return as a daily route in winter 2021, and will allow JetBlue to add flights in New Yorks LaGuardia Airport and New Jerseys Newark airport and grow its presence at JFK.

Bank of America Corp. BAC, -2.72% posted net income of $3.5 billion, or 37 cents a share, in the second quarter, down from $7.3 billion, or 74 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. The number was weighed down by a $4 billion build in loan loss provisions during the coronavirus pandemic. Revenue fell to $22.3 billion from $23.1 billion. The FactSet consensus was for EPS of 28 cents and revenue of $21.8 billion. Strong capital markets results provided an important counterbalance to the COVID-19-related impacts on our consumer business, Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said in a statement. Net interest income fell 11% to $10.8 billion, driven by lower interest rates. Noninterest income rose 5% to $11.5 billion, buoyed by strong capital markets results. Sales and trading revenue rose 28% to $4.2 billion, as FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) revenue climbed 50% to $4.2 billion and equities revenue rose 7% to $1.2 billion. Investment banking fees rose 57% to a record $2.2 billion, amid record capital raising by companies seeking to bolster liquidity during the pandemic.

Charles Schwab Corp. SCHW, -2.07% reported a second-quarter profit that topped expectations but revenue that fell why, as the pandemic created a myriad challenges for its clients. Total client assets as of the end of June were $4.11 trillion, up 11% from a year ago. We grappled with the ongoing health crisis, a contracting U.S. economy, and sustained pressures on interest rates, yet there were some encouraging signs as the quarter progressed, including domestic equity markets recovering to pre-pandemic levels, said Chief Executive Walt Bettinger.

Dominos Pizza Inc. DPZ, -1.48% reported second-quarter earnings and revenue that far exceeded expectations during the pandemic. U.S. same-store sales grew 16.1%, and international same-store sales rose 1.3%. The FactSet consensus was for domestic growth of 11.9% and a global rise of 0.7%. As of June 14, Dominos had $248 million in cash and equivalents and $4.17 billion in total debt. The company borrowed $158 million under its variable funding notes during the quarter as a precautionary measure.

Bankrupt department store retailer J.C. Penney Co. Inc. JCPNQ, -0.36% announced a company restructuring that includes 152 store closures and a head count reduction of 1,000 workers across corporate roles, management and internationally. J.C. Penney filed for bankruptcy protection in May after which Cowen analysts forecast the company would have to shutter 25% of its locations. J.C. Penney has 90,000 employees, according to FactSet and, as of February 2020, had 850 locations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

J.Jill Inc. JILL, +38.07% reached an agreement with lenders to extend a forbearance period to July 23 to give the company more time to complete negotiations. We are making progress with the negotiations and expect a resolution soon, Interim Chief Executive Jim Scully said in a statement. The Quincy, Mass.-based womens clothing retailer entered the forbearance agreements in June after falling out of compliance with certain covenants on its asset-based lending facility and term loans during pandemic. The uncertainty created by recent events generate scenarios that raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date the financial statements are issued, the company said in its 10k filing published in June.

Johnson & Johnson JNJ, +0.66% reported second-quarter profit and sales that beat expectations, and raised its full-year outlook. Consumer health sales fell 7.0% to miss expectations, while pharmaceutical sales grew 2.1% to slightly top expectations and medical device sales dropped 33.9% but was above expectations. Our second quarter results reflect the impact of COVID-19 and the enduring strength of our pharmaceutical business, where we saw continued growth even in this environment, said Chief Executive Alex Gorsky. The company raised its 2020 guidance ranges for adjusted EPS to $7.75 to $7.95 from $7.50 to $7.90 and for sales to $79.9 billion to $81.4 billion from $77.5 billion to $80.5 billion

Morgan Stanley MS, +2.51% reported a second-quarter profit that rose above expectations, amid strength in the trading and investment banking businesses. Net income increased to $3.20 billion, or $1.96 a share, from $2.20 billion, or $1.23 a share, in the year-ago period. The FactSet consensus for earnings per share was $1.12. Revenue 30.9% to $13.41 billion. Noninterest revenue grew 28% to $11.81 billion, to beat the FactSet consensus of $9.36 billion and net interest income rose 31% to $1.60 billion to top expectations of $985.2 million. Within noninterest revenue, trading revenue soared 71% to $4.68 billion and investment banking revenue jumped 35% to $2.14 billion. The second quarter tested the model and we performed exceedingly well, delivering record results, said Chief Executive James Gorman. This builds on the momentum of a very strong first quarter, while more than 90% of our employees continue to work from home, demonstrating the ongoing operational resilience of our platform.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. NCLH, -15.62% is offering $250 million of stock in a syndicated deal. J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Mizuho Securities and UBS are joint book-runners on the deal. Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes. Cruise operators have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, which has halted all sailings due to the high risk of passengers becoming infected in close quarters.

Penske Automotive Group Inc. PAG, +3.82% preannounced expectations of a surprise second-quarter profit, citing a significant improvement in operations during June. Based on the performance of its U.S. and U.K. retail automotive dealerships and its used vehicle supercenter, Penske expects to report EPS of 52 cents to 57 cents, which compares with the FactSet consensus for a loss of 16 cents a share. All of its U.S. retail automotive dealerships are open after closing during the pandemic. Strong sales of used units in June led to combined U.S. and U.K. operations generating a profit that was more than double that of the period last year. Our performance in June is the result of a strong operational focus to control costs, manage vehicle inventory, and maximize gross profit, said Chief Executive Rob Penske.

Sleep Number Corp. SNBR, -9.19% reported a steep drop in second-quarter revenue caused in large part by the pandemic. The mattress companys revenue tumbled 20% to $284.9 million from $356 million a year ago. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected sales of $251 million.

Additional reporting by Tim Rostan and Jaimy Lee

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Coronavirus update: Global COVID-19 cases climb to 13.6 million after record one-day tally of 230,400 new infections - MarketWatch

New e-government law will streamline administrative proceedings – International Law Office

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Introduction E-government law Comment

Introduction

Under the Administrative Procedure Code (Decree-Law 57/99/M, dated 11 October 1999), administrative acts in Macau must generally be performed in writing. Thus, given the way in which COVID-19 has affected everyday life, Law 2/2020 (dated 30 March 2020), which was recently approved by the General Assembly, could not have come at a more appropriate time.

This article sets out the main features of the new law, which will enter into force on 28 September 2020.

E-government law

This e-government law enables public bodies to undertake various actions and formalities electronically. Together with Law 5/2005 (dated 8 August 2005), which establishes the legal regime for electronic documents and signatures in Macau, Law 2/2020 provides the tools for modern, paperless proceedings.

Under the law, if it is possible to execute an entire proceeding and prepare the corresponding final decision electronically, the relevant public bodies may cease any related paper-based processes.

The law provides that electronic documents issued by public bodies satisfy the written legal requirement provided that a digital format which can support written text is used and that the electronic means of identification provide an appropriate guarantee of the document's author or origin.

Thus, for any legally permitted purpose, public bodies can now perform the following acts electronically instead of producing paper copies:

Integrated or automated proceedings are also possible. Thus, interested parties can request the simultaneous assessment of applicable conditions and issuance of decisions by various competent bodies. This will make a big difference in cases where the involvement of different public departments is legally required and existing paper-based processes make obtaining their various opinions time consuming. To allow for integrated proceedings, the law permits existing paper-based processes to be reviewed and simplified or adapted to enable them to be performed electronically, including with respect to the order in which actions must be performed. Processes may also be divided into different phases or by types of request. All of the above should not only simplify administrative processes but also reduce costs for interested parties.

The evidential value of the abovementioned digital documents is equivalent to the corresponding paper documents.

Comment

Law 2/2020 is a landmark development, with many welcoming the new rules and the anticipated streamlining of administrative tasks and proceedings involving public bodies. Nonetheless, as Macau is attempting to become a 'smart city', much more needs to be done in this respect. For instance, in terms of court proceedings, Macau is still very much in the stone age compared with other jurisdictions.

For further information on this topic please contact Pedro Corts or Madalena Perestrello at Rato, Ling, Lei & Corts Advogados by telephone (+853 2856 2322) or email (cortes@lektou.com or perestrello@lektou.com). The Rato, Ling, Lei & Corts Advogados website can be accessed at http://www.lektou.com.

The materials contained on this website are for general information purposes only and are subject to thedisclaimer.

ILO is a premium online legal update service for major companies and law firms worldwide. In-house corporate counsel and other users of legal services, as well as law firm partners, qualify for a free subscription.

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Lighthouse concern group calls on culture officials to offer greater protection – Macau Daily Times

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The Concern Group for the Protection of the Guia Lighthouse has pressed for further action to protect the views from and of the Guia Lighthouse during a meeting with officials from the social affairs and culture field on Wednesday.In the hopes of better protecting the lighthouse, the concern group cited several entities that have given opinions, such as the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of the Peoples Republic of China and UNESCO, to argue that the local government should work harder to safeguard the lighthouse.The concern group noted in its post-meeting statement: The visual integrity and the principal sightlines of the Guia Lighthouse must be protected and decisive measures should be taken to reduce the height of buildings adjacent to the [lighthouse].Of particular concern to the group is the height clearance on Avenida do Doutor Rodrigo Rodrigues. Currently, pursuant to the Executive Order 83/2008, the clearance is set to 90 meters.The height limit of 90 meters for the buildings under construction and the buildings to be built along the Avenida do Dr. Rodrigo Rodrigues is insufficient to maintain the visual integrity of the Guia Lighthouse, the concern group said in the statement.It also said that any new developments near the lighthouse should be evaluated in conformity with certain guidelines through Heritage Impacts Assessments.Furthermore, the concern group questions the progress of the Macao Historic Centre Protection and Management Plan.In 2005, the World Heritage Committee recommended that every effort to develop a management system should be made so as to retain the existing structural and visual integrity of the lighthouse, as well as to maintain the principal sightlines of the nominated area within its contemporary setting. A related master plan has not been made since then, the group pointed out.

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Ground-breaking new footage captures nuclear reaction that unlocks deep space travel – Essex Magazine

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World first footage showing a never before seen glimpse into the future of space travel technology has been recorded by scientists in the UK.

Specialist cameras have filmed close-up footage of a rocket firing up using deep sea protective cases and shielding to protect the cameras from destruction.

Scientists at Pulsar Fusion based in Bletchley captured the 4k footage facing into the nozzle of a hyper-fast rocket engine, which is designed for use in deep space.

In the video, viewers can see a ring of plasma at the core burning at millions of degrees hotter than any gas on Earth and confined by an electromagnetic field which is firing out particles at speeds of over 20km a second.

The fuel heavy, fiery exhausts of todays space rockets will eventually be replaced by super-hot, plasma thrusters as seen in the video.

This type of thruster is not suitable for launching spacecraft but becomes effective once the craft has left the atmosphere.

Pulsar thrusters are able to operate at speeds far greater than conventional combustion rockets, so these could provide the key to reducing mission times and costs to far-off planets currently out of our reach.

Following this milestone, the privately owned UK business now plans to test the technology in space.

Dr James Lambert, head of operations at Pulsar Fusion said Pulsar has earned its place as one of the most advanced, privately owned space propulsion companies in the World. We are delighted with the result.

Pulsar Fusion CEO Richard Dinan said Pulsar will now commence testing of this technology in real world conditions with our partners in the USA, whilst simultaneously beginning construction of our larger, next generation device due for completion in 2022.

This project aims to operate a plasma firing at temperatures of several hundred million degrees and will involve advanced materials currently being developed alongside government fusion reactors.

Pulsar Fusion specialises in developing Nuclear Fusion technology for use as propulsion. Whilst governments plan to demonstrate the worlds first nuclear fusion reactor (ITER) in 2025, Pulsar Fusion, a nimble start up in the UK, aims to have demonstrated nuclear fusion rocket engines in space before fusion technology is harnessed for grid power supply on Earth.

Fusion rocket engines are useful technology using nuclear fusion technology today, whilst fusion for energy may still be several decades away due extensive additional technological requirements and the multi-national and typically highly bureaucratic power station timescales.

Fusion rockets do not require large steam turbines and much of the expensive equipment necessary for a power station build project that can take many years to finance and construct.

However, by 2100, world governments predict nuclear fusion will be the dominant power supply of our planet, replacing nuclear fission.

Nuclear Fusion rocket technology has the ability to half mission times to Mars and could open up the possibility of visiting planets outside of our solar system.

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Ground-breaking new footage captures nuclear reaction that unlocks deep space travel - Essex Magazine

NASA Updates Planetary Protection Policies for Space Travel to the Moon and Mars – Interesting Engineering

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As human spaceflight forges forwards, NASA is attempting to protect the Moon, Mars and Earth from any contamination by introducing two new directives.

On Thursday, the American space agency unveiled the new NASA Interim Directives (NIDs) that lay out the new requirements for human and robotic missions to and from the Moon, Mars, and Earth.

SEE ALSO: THE MOON VANISHED IN 1110, SCIENTISTS MAY NOW KNOW WHY

The point of the new directives is to protect these planetary bodies from potential biological contamination coming from Earth and ultimately that could lead to compromised scientific research.

One of the NIDs focuses on potential forward biological contamination, which is brought from Earth to another planetary object, and ultimately to the Moon.

The second NID deals with Mars and looks at both forward and backward contamination, which includes contamination brought back to Earth from another cosmic body too.

"We're trying to balance the interests of the science community, the interest of the human exploration community, and the interest of the commercial community," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

It's important to leave "a pristine environment so we have the ability to know that what we discover in the future was not something that was left there by us ," continued Bridenstine.

"We have to make sure that we are inventorying every kind of biological substance and even nonbiological substance organics for example that could leave something behind on the moon that could be problematic for future research."

In speaking of the missions to the Moon, Associate Administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Thomas Zurbuchen, stated "These sites have immense scientific value in shaping our understanding of the history of our planet, the moon, and the solar system."

Currently, neither of the two NIDs is set in stone. These are interim directives and not policy ones, so there is still room for changes when the need arises down the road.

As Bridenstine said himself "It's probably going to be modified a lot of times now and into the future."

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Voxprotocol Launches Among The Stars, a Space Themed Voice App for Amazon Alexa – PRNewswire

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DENVER, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Voxprotocol, the global leader in voice app entertainment, today announced the launch of its Alexa exclusive voice app "Among The Stars," focusing on the history and exciting future of spaceflight.

Among The Stars is a sonically immersive edutainment voice app that focuses on the much-needed modernization of historical space travel audio, which is currently scattered across different websites and in many different formats.

"Using our proprietary audio techniques, we can take lengthy and sometimes hard to listen to files and create informative snackable 2 to 4-minute sized space-themed audio missions. Allowing a new generation of Travelers to enjoy easily," says Steven Austine, Founder and CEO of Voxprotocol. "And in celebration of the upcoming anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, we hope you enjoy Mission 1969."

To access just say "Alexa, launch Among The Stars" to your Alexa enabled device: an Amazon Echo Show, Echo Dot, Fire TV, or even a mobile device with the Alexa app installed and start experiencing your time Among The Stars.

Link on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CNH1VCM

About VoxprotocolBased in Denver and founded in 2018, Voxprotocol is a leader in voice app content creation. The company produces a range of voicefirst entertainment and distributes its titles through the Amazon Alexa Skills Store. Their mission is to create engaging voice entertainment apps that inspire people to fully embrace the change in how they can now interact, listen, and play.

Contact Website: https://voxprotocol.comKim Garvey 650.491.9910 [emailprotected]

SOURCE Voxprotocol

https://voxprotocol.com

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CASETiFY launches new collection of NASA iPhone Cases and Apple accessories – 9to5Toys

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Today, CASETiFY is launching its latest collection of iPhone cases and other Apple accessories in partnership with NASA. Across the collection, youll find plenty of imagery inspired by the space agency, including iconic logos, blueprints, and more. Alongside cases for the latest handsets, theres also leather Apple Watch bands, and much more on the way. Head below for a closer look at the new NASA accessories and all the details for how to score them for yourself.

Todays new CASETiFY drop continues the brands ongoing theme of partnering with iconic properties like Pokmon, Coca-Cola, and more. But now were getting arguably the most unique batch of releases yet thanks to a collaboration with NASA.

All of the upcoming NASA iPhone cases sport out of this world designs, just like youd expect. Some are decked out in iconic imagery like the old school NASA logo all the way to depictions of the Space Shuttle schematics and more. CASETiFY has cases for just about every current-generation iPhone, so youll be covered whether youre rocking a new iPhone 11 Pro or iPhone 7.

Just about all of the cases will sell for between $45 and $55 depending on which style you opt for. Each of CASETiFYs releases will come decked out in various prints, so youll be able to choose what level of protection is right for you, as well. Though some offerings are only available on the newer smartphones from Apple.

Alongside the iPhone cases, CASETiFY also has plenty of other Apple accessories available in its new NASA collection. From leather Apple Watch bands with the agencys insignia to AirPods covers and more, there are plenty of ways to represent your love of space travel.

CASETiFY will be launching its collection of NASA iPhone cases and other accessories on July 30. Youll be able to bring home all of the upcoming gear starting under $40.Right now, you can sign up for a waitlist, which will give you priority access to everything included in the collection once it launches.

Just about every time CASETiFY decides to drop a new product line, its accessories sell out within a few days of hitting its online storefront. So if any of the NASA designs catch your eye, its best to pick them up sooner than later. Like just about all of CASETiFYs collaborations, this batch of new gear is part of a limited run.

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How Amazons Jeff Bezos and Teslas Elon Musk have inspired an artist – Gadgets Now

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Amazon CEO and Blue Origins founder Jeff Bezos is the richest person on Earth while Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is one of the most well-known tech innovators globally. Apart from being tech billionaires, what these two have in common is a passion for space travel and exploration, which, if we just were to go by the amount of tweets and compare, Musk pursues doggedly like a true believer in his cause, while Bezos is comparatively more secretive about his plans for space. Lincoln Townley, a UK-based contemporary artist, has tried to capture the age of the private space travel with his new art collection called the Universe, and says that the space programs of tech tycoons like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic) have served as inspiration for his latest art collection, as per a report by Business Insider.

Universe will be exhibited in Saatchi Gallery, London, in September. According to the report, Lincoln Townley is known for making portraits of Hollywood royalty and that Sir Michael Caine even referred to him as the next Andy Warhol in 2016.

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How Amazons Jeff Bezos and Teslas Elon Musk have inspired an artist - Gadgets Now

Space Perspective wants to take you on a ride through the stratosphere – Lifestyle Asia

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Over the past decade or so, the likes of Space X and Virgin Atlantic have been at the forefront of making commercial space flights viable.

While this is still being worked on, Space Perspective is looking at things from a different perspective to say the least. The company will be offering a trip to the edge of space onboard the Neptune Space Balloon.

It will function very much like the high-altitude weather balloons, only at a much larger scale. There will be an attached pressurised capsule below, able to accommodate up to eight passengers at once. It will launch from the NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA and head in an upwards trajectory towards the Milky Way Galaxy.

You will travel upwards of 100,000 feet above the ground before stopping at the very edge of outer space. Here, the balloon will anchor itself for two hours, allowing you to take in the entire view from all angles. This suborbital flight will allow you to experience and witness firsthand the true curvature of the planet. To sweeten the deal, amenities like an onboard bar will also be available.

Dont worry about attire or dress codes with this trip; Space Perspective offers a shirt-sleeves environment this means that you wont have the chance to put on a spacesuit.

As you descend, the balloon will make a sea landing, from which you will transfer onto a ship and taken back to shore. The entire experience begins at the break of dawn and will go on for roughly six hours. According to Space Perspective, the Neptune balloon could be starting commercial flights as early as 2021.

If youre a true flat earther, this is the best way to know for sure if the earth truly is flat.

This article was first published on Lifestyle Asia KL. All images courtesy of Space Perspective.

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Chicago Cubs, City Leaders Working To Allow Weekend Night Games – Forbes

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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - JULY 03: In an aerial view from a drone, Wrigley Field is seen prior to summer ... [+] workouts on July 03, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images)

Whether under the ownership of the Ricketts family or the Tribune Company, the Cubs have a long history of battling the city of Chicago over regulations involving Wrigley Field.

Construction of outfield bleachers and scoreboards led to a long-running battle with the city and owners of rooftops. Day games werent allowed until 1988 and the city has only slowly expanded the number of night games and concerts that are permitted.

But COVID-19 appears to have improved the alliance between the National League team and local politicians, especially Alderman Tom Tunney, who has represented the 44th Ward since 2003. The Cubs are seeking to play all of their Friday and Saturday home games at night, and on Thursday received tentative approval from aldermen on a one-season lifting of bans on Friday and Saturday night games.

Tunney gave the move his blessing in front of the citys License Committee on Thursday.

This is a long story of night games at Wrigley Field and the prohibition on Friday and Saturday nights, Tunney said at a hearing reported by the Chicago Tribune. But ... these are extraordinary circumstances, and I think we need to be working as diligently to get the Cubs schedule and season (completed), that being 30 games in Lakeview, and not to prohibit Friday and Saturday for this year only. This is a one-time exception.

The Cubs have six weekend home series on Major League Baseballs 60-game schedule, so would have six games each on Friday and Saturday nights. Tunney has long cited the crush of crowds in Wrigleyville, along with the interest of neighborhood homeowners, for keeping Friday and Saturday night games off the schedule but MLB is opening the season without fans and it seems unlikely that will change given the citys COVID-19 guidelines.

The city has said that the nearby rooftops can operate at 25-percent capacity. That provides some relief to Chairman Tom Ricketts and the team, which owns 11 of the operations alongside Waveland Avenue and Sheffield Street.

The team is not ruling out the possibility of having crowds in Wrigley Field at some point in 2020. Cubs Vice President Mike Lufrano said the team continues to hope fans will be admitted but said it will heed the direction of city health officials.

The one-year exception to the night game ordinance is expected to be on the agenda for the city council next week.

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Chicago Cubs, City Leaders Working To Allow Weekend Night Games - Forbes

BU and MIT Renew Partnership on Technology Law – BU Today

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A lot has happened since the first of two BU-MIT law clinics opened in 2015 to provide free legal services to MIT student innovators while giving BU School of Law students experience in the rapidly expanding fields of technology and startup law.

More than 750 MIT student teams have received support from LAW students, who have provided them with approximately 50,000 hours of client work, accounting for well over $10 million worth of free legal services.

In a major entrepreneurship competition at MIT last year, two-thirds of the finalists had benefited from the clinics support. On BUs side, 44 law students worked in the clinics during the past school year and over the summer, accounting for almost one-sixth of the entire law class.

A lot of advanced computer science research can look and feel like the sort of hacking that is prohibited by laws like the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. So, often were helping clients stay on the other side of hacking laws.

The numbers show the importance students place on being on sound legal footing, as they bring a disruptive startup or revelatory research paper into the world. It was an easy decision in May for the two schools to renew the clinics operations for five more years.

For a startup or an academic researcher, its not knowing [about potential issues] that can be the most paralyzing thing, says Andrew Sellars, a LAW clinical instructor who directs the Technology Law Clinic at BU. What we offer is we can give them the map. We can say here are the legal issues, heres where the law is pretty settled, heres where the law is unsettled, here are some things to do to mitigate your risk. And by doing all that we can add some extra confidence and energy to the venture.

BU and MITs collaboration began in September 2015 with the launch of the first clinic targeted towards entrepreneurs and supporting students as part of a new Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, and Cyberlaw Program at BU. A year later, the second clinic began operations as planned, focusing on complex student needs in the technology area. Both clinics, at their founding, consisted of a supervising lawyer and eight student advocates.

What we realized pretty much immediately was, that wasnt going to do itwe needed to grow, Sellars says. And the major story of the last four years has been figuring out what the needs are and growing to meet those needs.

Today both clinics provide an expanded level of service. The Startup Law Clinic helps student entrepreneurs navigate issues associated with launching a venture, like establishing a corporation or LLC, securing intellectual property, and hiring employees. The Technology Law Clinic, whose client base includes researchers as well as entrepreneurs, helps ensure students work aligns with laws around data collection, privacy, information disclosure, encryption, and more.

Each clinic includes three licensed attorneys, although BUs law students do most of the work advising and representing clients. The students also write white papers on specific legal areas and conduct presentations at locations around MIT, including the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and the MIT Media Lab, to reach a broader audience. The clinics hold regular office hours at the Martin Trust Center, the Media Lab, the MIT Sandbox, and elsewhere at MIT, making it easy for MIT students to access clinic services. They also do similar work for BU clients at the BUild Lab and elsewhere.

Our goal is to educate our law students to do the work and have the client relationships, although were there supervising, says James Wheaton, a LAW clinical associate professor who became director of the Startup Law Clinic in 2018.Since 2017, the collaboration has been bolstered by the Matthew Z. Gomes Fellowship Fund, a program that supports students from underrepresented communities in order to foster greater diversity among the next generation of technology and startup lawyers. Four of the seven fellows working for the clinics this summer are Gomes Fellows.

The tech sector has known this about itself for some time: We have a major diversity problem in all corners of tech, including in the lawyers who represent tech companies, Sellars says. We wanted to think of some ways to improve diversity in technology by improving the pipeline.

In 2014, MIT PhD candidate Amy Johnson filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the CIA seeking information about the agencys Twitter account. When the CIA failed to produce any documents, Johnson worked with the Technology Law Clinic to file a lawsuit against the agency, which sent her just 30 documents related to her request.

Johnson and her legal team decided that wasnt enough, and, after several more rounds of litigation, she has now received approximately 400 records. That case is ongoing and Johnson is still seeking more documents.

We really kicked in the door by suing the CIA our first year, Sellars says.

The CIA case is one of several high-profile projects the law clinics have been involved with. The Technology Law Clinic also helped MIT researchers publish a study revealing bias in multiple companies facial-analysis programs. The study showed the algorithms had an error rate of just 0.8 percent for light-skinned men but 34.7 percent for dark-skinned women. The clinic helped the researchers ensure the study complied with computer access laws and to coordinate disclosure of the results of the study with the companies in advance of its publication.

More recently, the clinic helped researchers in MITs Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory as they published technical papers that exposed security vulnerabilities in a mobile voting application that had been used in the 2018 midterm elections. The vulnerability gave hackers the opportunity to alter, stop, or expose how users voted.

A popular area we work in is computer science, both because of the huge population of CS students at MIT, and also because a lot of advanced computer science research can look and feel like the sort of hacking that is prohibited by laws like the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. So, often were helping clients stay on the other side of hacking laws, Sellars says. Then there are a lot of data-related questions[dealing with] data privacy, access to data, use of data, and web scraping, which is writing a script that systematically gathers info across the web.

While the field of computer science accounts for a large portion of the clinics work, students from across MITs campus have benefited from the clinics support, something people familiar with MITs innovation ecosystem expected from the start.

Im not surprised at all that the clinics have supported students from all five of MITs schools, says MITs David H. Koch Professor of Engineering Michael Cima, who also serves on the board of the clinics. Student-led startups, in particular, are very diverse in their makeup. These include not only for-profit oriented businesses, but also sustainable nonprofits.

The clinics provide the BU students with invaluable practical experience in increasingly important areas of the law. Felicity Slater (LAW22), who joined the Technology Law Clinic in May, has worked with seven different clients across a wide array of MIT departments.

Several of the clients that Im working with are graduate student researchers at the Media Lab, doing truly unique and fascinating research, Slater says. Im also working with a few clients who are starting businesses, and I assisted an MIT undergraduate with an employment law question. Im finishing out my summer by working on a dispute about a Freedom of Information Act request that is in active litigation.

Its pretty revolutionary to have the opportunity to work with real clients, Slater notes. It brings the work alive and makes everythingthe research, the writing, the editingmore meaningful, she says. Ive thought about how the uncertainty and trepidation that people can sometimes have around the lawCan I do this? Is this legal?can cause stress, and make people hesitant to take on interesting and important work.

Slater says shes become increasingly interested in pursuing a career in tech law in some form, but is also committed to doing work that promotes civil rights. Im going to be a research assistant for LAW professor Danielle Citron next year, Slater says, and I am really looking forward to learning more about her work on cyber civil rights.

The disruptions caused by COVID-19 have forced everyone to adjust to remote work, but they havent slowed the law clinics work in support of innovation at MIT. In fact, April 2020 was the busiest month in the clinics history, and theyve continued to see a dramatic increase in work as students pursue ideas to help with the pandemic.

Now that the clinics have been renewed for five more years, their directors are brainstorming ways to further expand their services. The pandemic has shown the clinics can work even if members cant meet in person, and has reinforced the idea that technology can help scale operations.

We know no matter how big we grow, the program will never fully meet the needs of the MIT student body, and because of that were trying to think of more ways to have an impact, even if youre not a client, Sellars says, noting the clinics have started work on guides and how to documents for students that will be offered on the clinics websites.

The clinics have been successful teaching and learning labs for both MIT and BU students, and have helped our students advance their passion for innovation and entrepreneurship, says Mark DiVincenzo, vice president and general counsel at MIT. The issues have been varied, cutting edge in many ways, allowing BU students to assist MIT students in projects that are [impacting] or will impact the world.

This article was adapted from an MIT News Office story.

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BU and MIT Renew Partnership on Technology Law - BU Today

Global Automotive Turbocharger Market (2019 to 2024) – Technology Landscape, Trends and Opportunities – PRNewswire

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DUBLIN, July 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Technology Landscape, Trends and Opportunities in the Global Automotive Turbocharger Market" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The technologies in automotive turbocharger have undergone significant change in recent years, with exhaust gas turbocharger to low exhaust emission turbocharger. The rising wave of new technology, such as Variable Geometry Turbocharger (VGT) is creating significant potential for the automotive turbocharger due to low emission of exhaust, the lower volumetric displacement of the turbo engine, frictional, and lesser thermal losses.

In automotive turbocharger market, various technologies are used which include variable geometry turbocharger (VGT)/variable nozzle turbocharger (VNT), wastegate, and twin turbo. Increasing trends towards engine downsizing, stringent government emission norms for fuel efficiency, growth in vehicle production, and consumer concerns about fuel efficiency are creating opportunities for various automotive turbocharger technologies.

This report analyzes technology maturity, degree of disruption, competitive intensity, market potential, and other parameters of various technologies in the automotive turbocharger market.

The study includes technology readiness, competitive intensity, regulatory compliance, disruption potential, trends, forecasts and strategic implications for the global automotive turbocharger technology by application, technology, and region.

Some of the automotive turbocharger companies profiled in this report include Borg-warner, Honeywell International, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, IHI Corporation, Continental, and Cummins.

Key Questions Answered:

Key Topics Covered:

1.Executive Summary

2.Technology Landscape2.1.Technology Background and Evolution2.2.Technology and Application Mapping2.3.Supply Chain

3.Technology Readiness3.1.Technology Commercialization and Readiness3.2.Drivers and Challenges in Automotive Turbocharger Technologies3.3.Competitive Intensity3.4.Regulatory Compliance

4.Technology Trends and Forecasts Analysis from 2013-20244.1.Automotive Turbocharger Opportunity4.2.Technology Trends (2013-2018) and Forecasts (2019-2024)4.2.1.Variable Geometry Turbocharger (VGT)/Variable Nozzle Turbocharger (VNT)4.2.2.Wastegate4.2.3.Twin turbo4.3.Technology Trends (2013-2018) and Forecasts (2019-2024) by Application Segments4.3.1.Passenger Cars4.3.1.1.Variable Geometry Turbocharger (VGT)/Variable Nozzle Turbocharger (VNT)4.3.1.2.Wastegate4.3.1.3.Twin turbo4.3.2.Light Commercial Vehicles4.3.2.1.Variable Geometry Turbocharger (VGT)/Variable Nozzle Turbocharger (VNT)4.3.2.2.Wastegate4.3.2.3.Twin turbo4.3.3.Heavy Commercial Vehicles4.3.3.1.Variable Geometry Turbocharger (VGT)/Variable Nozzle Turbocharger (VNT)4.3.3.2.Wastegate4.3.3.3.Twin turbo

5.Technology Opportunities (2013-2024) by Region5.1.Automotive Turbocharger Market by Region5.2.North American Automotive Turbocharger Technology Market5.2.1.United States Automotive Turbocharger Technology Market5.2.2.Canadian Automotive Turbocharger Technology Market5.2.3.Mexican Automotive Turbocharger Technology Market5.3.European Automotive Turbocharger Technology Market5.3.1.The United Kingdom Automotive Turbocharger Technology Market5.3.2.German Automotive Turbocharger Technology Market5.3.3.French Automotive Turbocharger Technology Market5.4.APAC Automotive Turbocharger Technology Market5.4.1.Chinese Automotive Turbocharger Technology Market5.4.2.Japanese Automotive Turbocharger Technology Market5.4.3.Indian Automotive Turbocharger Technology Market5.4.4.South Korean Automotive Turbocharger Technology Market5.5.ROW Automotive Turbocharger Technology Market

6.Latest Developments and Innovations in the Automotive Turbocharger Technologies

7.Companies/Ecosystem7.1.Product Portfolio Analysis7.2.Market Share Analysis7.3.Geographical Reach

8.Strategic Implications8.1.Implications8.2.Growth Opportunity Analysis8.2.1.Growth Opportunities for the Automotive Turbocharger Market by Technology8.2.2.Growth Opportunities for the Automotive Turbocharger Market by Application8.2.3.Growth Opportunities for the Automotive Turbocharger Market by Region8.3.Emerging Trends in the Automotive Turbocharger Market8.4.Disruption Potential8.5.Strategic Analysis8.5.1.New Product Development8.5.2.Capacity Expansion of the Automotive Turbocharger Market8.5.3.Mergers, Acquisitions, and Joint Ventures in the Automotive Turbocharger Market

9.Company Profiles of Leading Players9.1.Borg-warner9.2.Honeywell International9.3.Mitsubishi Heavy Industries9.4.IHI Corporation9.5.Continental9.6.Cummins

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/3kvqhy

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [emailprotected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

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Nectar Adds World Wide Technology to Roster of Gold Partners – Business Wire

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JERICHO, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nectar Services Corp., the leader in the development and deployment of proactive unified communications monitoring and performance management software for the voice, video and collaboration market, today announced that market-leading technology solution provider World Wide Technology has joined its Partner Program as a Gold Partner. Serving as the largest Cisco partner, World Wide Technology will now bring Nectars support for unified communications (UC), contact center and collaboration platforms to its portfolio of customers, providing easy-to-use performance management, monitoring, diagnostics and reporting tools to advance business communications networks globally.

Nearly every business is undergoing digital transformation to remain competitive in todays marketplace, said Brandon Echele, Practice Manager of Video & Conferencing at World Wide Technology. Nectars partner ecosystem is dedicated to advancing the digital experience, making it easier to access enterprise-grade tools for network monitoring and diagnostics. Nectar is the ideal partner to bring solutions that ease the task of managing complex, multi-vendor UC environments to the industries we serve.

As collaboration moves deeper into the cloud and becomes more complex to manage, Nectars goal is to provide the solution, tools and overall partner experience that is easy to consume and has the flexibility to expand as both Nectar and our partners continue to grow to meet customer demands, said Cathy Rowell, Senior Vice President, Channel & Sales Effectiveness, Nectar. Nectar is committed to diversifying our set of channel partners to include solutions providers, such as World Wide Technology, to bring our best-in-class solutions to businesses as UC and contact center environments continue to evolve.

With thousands of IT engineers, hundreds of application developers and unmatched labs for testing and deploying technology at scale, World Wide Technology helps customers bridge the gap between IT and overarching business goals. By bringing best-in-class technology such as Nectars UC performance management tools together in its Advanced Technology Center, World Wide Technology integrates impressive technologies to produce game-changing solutions in business sectors such as financial, retail, government and education.

To learn more about Nectars Partner Program, please visit: https://www.nectarcorp.com/partners/partner-programs/

About Nectar Services Corp. Nectar, a global market leader in providing the most comprehensive monitoring and diagnostics software solution for Unified Communication services, enables IT and operation organizations to proactively ensure the end-user experience. Nectar improves visibility and service delivery across integrated voice, video and data application solutions by providing unique and critical performance information. Nectar provides monitoring and diagnostics for millions of enterprise endpoints to over 2,100 enterprises in over 86 countriesincluding some of the largest global banking, search engine, service provider, healthcare and manufacturing organizations in the world.

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Nectar Adds World Wide Technology to Roster of Gold Partners - Business Wire

How Technology Will Support the Future of Restaurants – QSR magazine

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The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the restaurant industry isnt short-term. Even as we begin to see the primary stages of restaurant reopenings and diners returning, things are going to look different for quite some time, for both restaurants and diners alike.

Restaurants operate on margins thinner than any other industry. Since they were forced to close, they had no choice but to adapt quickly from on-premise revenue streams to a shifted focus to online ordering for takeout and delivery, in order to survive. Restaurants also needed to get creative to keep revenue flowing. They began offering to-go meal kits, doing virtual cooking classes and selling digital gift cards and branded merchandise. One of our customers, Roccos Tacos, a quick service restaurant, signed up for our online ordering service to offer curbside pickup.

These new revenue streams have proven successful for many, but a growing eagerness remains among restaurants to move forward in the reopening process. Diners and restaurant employees are craving a return to the dining experience we all know and love, while also ensuring that everyone remains safe.

To help restaurant owners navigate this period beyond government guidelines, we conducted a survey to gain insight about what diners expect from restaurants. We found that 88 percent of diners expect restaurant staff to be required to wear masks and gloves within the first month of reopening. Further, we found that the largest concern of diners post-COVID-19 will be the cleanliness of tables and prepared food. This is essential information for restaurants to consider as they think through what reopening looks like for their business.

More than ever, technology that empowers direct communication with diners is essential for restaurants and that starts with their websites. As shown by the data, diners indicate that a restaurants website is the No. 1 source to find the most up-to-date information. As the restaurants digital storefront, their website acts as the online destination that most accurately reflects the hospitality experience they aim to deliver and provides a direct, central touchpoint between them and their guests.

In addition to effective communication, technology providers need to ensure that restaurants have the products and tools necessary to effortlessly deliver a true hospitality experience that is safe for both diners and staff. At BentoBox, were developing new products such as branded digital menus that are optimized for mobile viewing and the ability for restaurants to accept dine-in orders placed at the table, in order to support safe, contactless dining for restaurants.

Whether its managing their website, accepting online orders, or running digital marketing campaigns, restaurants are relying on multiple technology platforms now more than ever. Restaurant owners opened restaurants to serve guests and create lasting experiences - not to become technology experts. It is now the responsibility of technology providers to work together seamlessly so that restaurant operations never become overly complicated. The key is to make the restaurant operator's life easier while anticipating the customers needs and creating a safe and healthy hospitality experience for all.

As restaurants reopen, its imperative that we continue to track safety closely to ensure that staff and guests are not at risk. This will undoubtedly result in a restaurant experience that is different from the one we know and love. It may feel unnatural in these first few months, and it might not work for everyone, but its important for restaurants to adapt to their customers evolving needs.

What is undeniable is that diners want to feel safe and enjoy their dining out experiences. At BentoBox, we asked ourselves, How can we help restaurants deliver something that resembles their vision of hospitality in this new world? Were finding that the answer lies at the cross section of new technology aimed at making restaurant operations as effortless as possible and a willingness to adapt and embrace the fact that the restaurant experience may be fundamentally changed for years to come.

Krystle Mobayeni is the cofounder and CEO ofBentoBox, a hospitality platform that empowers restaurants with revenue-driving websites and online ordering.

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Apple Releases Safari Technology Preview 110 With Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements – MacRumors

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Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced four years ago in March 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.

Safari Technology Preview release 110 includes bug fixes and performance improvements for WebRTC, Web Authentication, Web Animations, Web API, Media, CSS, Layout, Rendering, Accessibility, JavaScript, Storage Access API, Text Manipulation, Security, and Web Inspector.

The current Safari Technology Preview release is the built on the new Safari 14 update included in macOS Big Sur with support for Safari Web Extensions imported from other browsers, tab previews, password breach notifications, web authentication with Touch ID, and more.

The new Safari Technology Preview update is available for macOS Catalina and macOS Big Sur, the newest version of the Mac operating system that's set to be released this fall.

The Safari Technology Preview update is available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences to anyone who has downloaded the browser. Full release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website.

Apple's aim with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.

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How NBA is using technology to help with health and safety protocols inside Orlando bubble – USA TODAY

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SportsPulse: Only two days into his time in the NBA bubble, Mark Media is realizing just how far the league is willing to go in order to ensure safety for not only the players and coaches, but the media as well. USA TODAY

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. Once the alarm goes off and they remove the crud from their eyes, most people here will instinctively grab their phone.

Checking an email or logging onto social media won't be the only reasons. With the NBA planning to resumeits season at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex on July 30, the league has required players, coaches, staff members and reporters to use various devices that will keep the league informed on if anyone might be infected with the coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19.

What we really wanted to do was empower everyone to do it themselves every morning so we can integrate that, said Tom Ryan, the NBAs Associate Vice President of Basketball Strategy. So if there is a flag, we will know it right away.

They login to the NBAs MyHealth app that they downloaded on their phone shortly after arriving. They complete a symptom questionnaire detailing any ailments, including cough, breathing issues, fever, body aches, headache, sore throat, loss of taste or smell, diarrhea, nausea or vomiting, fatigue, congestion or runny nose. They hold Kinsa, a Bluetooth-enabled smart thermometer, under their tongue for about eight seconds. Once the device beeps, they log their temperature into the app. They insert one of their fingers into Masimo, a pulse oximeter that measures oxygen levels. Then they report those numbers in the app, too.

Dr. John DiFiori, the NBAs Director of Sports Medicine, stressed that testing is really the foundation, as well as social distancing, face coverings and hand washing. Yet, the devices provide an added purpose.

There is value in these tools with perhaps informing how we might approach the next month or the next two months and next season, said DiFiori, who is also Chief of Primary Sports Medicine and attending physician at New York Citys Hospital for Special Surgery.

The NBA understands it cannot have a perfect shooting percentage. That never happens in basketball, and it never happens in life, either.

The NBA reported that 25 of 351 players, and 10 of 884 staff members tested positive for COVID-19 when they first began testing between June 23-29. The league announced Monday that two out of 322 players tested positive during quarantine when teams arrived in Florida last week, and those players have returned to their respective home markets.

This week, Houstons Russell Westbrook and Sacramentos Harrison Barnes announced they tested positive for COVID-19 before their teams left for Orlando. Also this week, Sacramentos Richaun Holmes and Houstons Bruno Caboclowere subject to 10-day quarantines after leaving the Disney campus.

Still, DiFiori said that the teams and players have done a fantastic job in adapting to the unusual environment to ensure the low number of infections. Meanwhile, those in NBA circles have praised the league both for its extensive, 113-page health and safety protocols, as well as the devices everyone has to use daily to ensure health officials have accurate data.

Its the NBA. They always do a great job, Sacramento coach Luke Walton said. They explore every option. With this, they know theres going to be risk. Theyre trying their best and doing their best to keep everybody safe.

"I think if you ask people in the bubble how they feel, my guess is that most of them feel like theres not a safer place than were at as far as Covid is concerned. And I think some of the technology theyre using is great.

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A sign marks the entrance to ESPN's Wide World of Sports Complex, where the NBA is planning to resume its season July 30.(Photo: The Associated Press)

The NBA has used the technology by partnering with Fusion Sport, which has usually worked with professional sports teams, colleges, military branches and private companies to compile and analyze data involving human performance and business trends.

Fusion Sporthas recently worked with organizations, including the NBA, to help analyze the data regarding every employees wellness, symptoms and test results.

So when each player, coach, staff member and reporter fills out their symptom questionnaire, temperature and oxygen levels, they are not just logging the information so they can learn about their health status. The NBA and health officials will quickly learn, too.

Those are all getting fed to that Fusion Sport database and software, Ryan said. What weve done is written a big algorithm that takes in all of those inputs for every individual on campus for every given moment.

That input also includes the daily COVID-19 test results, which have a turnaround time between 12 to 15 hours. BioReference Laboratories emails negative results and calls with positive results. In either case, that data is stored in the NBAs MyHealth app.

The app displays seven boxes, including symptoms, temperature, oxygen levels and COVID-19 test results. If all the boxes are green, the person may leave their room so long as they maintain social distancing requirements and wear a face covering. If any box is red, the person has to stay in their room and a physician follows up.

To safeguard from people leaving their room with any red boxes, the NBA has requiredeveryone wear Disney Magic Bands. Disney World has used this waterproof device to allow customers to check into their hotel room and enter the theme parks easily.

The same convenience applies to everyone for the NBAs resumed season. As Los Angeles Lakers coach Frank Vogel quipped, you never forget your room key if youre wearing it. The Magic Band fits on a persons wrist similar to a watch. The Mickey Mouse icon on the band will open doors.

Ryan conceded that convenience became a big point of discussion with how the NBA and Disney oversaw this setup. But the Magic Band provides a bigger service than convenience. People use it as a point of entry for various security checkpoints around the campus, including to team buses, practice facilities and COVID-19 testing sites around the four hotels.

Once someone checks into a location, health officials are given alerts so they can look up the persons profile. If the Magic Band display shows green, that person can proceed through the checkpoint. If it turns a different color, a medical investigation begins. The reasons could include a person forgetting to fill out the symptom self-assessment, leaving a room despite nursing symptoms or breaking quarantine.

Despite that technology, though, the NBA and Disney are not using these devices to contact trace or access a persons location that are not part of the designated checkpoints.

The Magic Band isnt holding any of your health data. That is not on the band at all, Ryan said. The band is a unique identifier that says a person is at this location at this time. Theres no memory on a Magic Band.

Leading up to the NBA resumed season, Ryan said the NBA players union talked out concerns about protecting players privacy. A handful of players shared their suspicions on social media. During Zoom calls this week, players changed their sentiments.

The NBA continues to be the leader in everything, Houston guard Austin Rivers said. Its been really impressive. Im not going to lie. I had a lot of questions going into the bubble. But theyve done a great job.

Follow USA TODAY NBA writer Mark Medina on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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Woven on-skin interfaces could allow clothing to communicate with smart technology – Newswise

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Newswise ITHACA, N.Y. What if your clothing expressed your personality or culture and could communicate with your cellphone or smart home?

New research led byCindy (Hsin-Liu) Kao, assistant professor of Design + Environmental Analysis (DEA) and director of CornellsHybrid Body Lab, pairs centuries-old craft techniques with cutting-edge technology to advance the research, design and fabrication of on-skin interfaces.

The research was presented at the Association of Computing Machinery Designing Interactive Systems Conference, held virtually July 8-10. The paper,Weaving a Second Skin: Exploring Opportunities for Crafting On-Skin Interfaces Through Weaving,earned honorable mention for best paper, as well as thebest demo awardat the conference.

Our paper introduces this new design space that offers any engineer, designer or maker a way to create on-skin interfaces through weaving, Kao said. I think the community is really excited at the possibility of bridging this craft that has so much legacy and artistic quality with these new wearable devices.

Advances in wearable technology have largely been made by engineers in advanced labs, Kao said, with scant focus on aesthetics, cultural relevance or individual expressiveness. They are most often fabricated with specialized clean-room processes or digital technologies such as laser-cutting and 3D printing and tend to look like circuitry what Kao called a nerd aesthetic.

In 2018, Kao visited aweaving workshopin Kyoto, Japan, that has been in operation for 1,000 years and is now in its 16th generation of weavers.

I was stunned by the skill and the craft involved, she said. I started thinking about the craft of different cultures and how we could bring that craft and expressiveness to these on-skin interfaces.

Kao invited textile artists fromLuna Fiber Studioin Trumansburg, New York, into the lab to weave their own on-skin interfaces using the WovenSkinfabrication process developed by Kao and the undergraduate and graduate students from DEA, fiber science and apparel design (FSAD) and mechanical engineering who work in her lab.

The weavers chose the interface functions and which patterns to create. One weaver, for example, wanted a touch sensor worn over the heart that would send a text message to a loved one when she touched it. Using a weave pattern she selected for aesthetics and for material functionality, she wove conductive wires that were connected to a circuit, which controlled a Bluetooth unit.

The collaboration, an example of a research-through-design approach that creates prototypes to investigate a design, yielded unique, functional interfaces, as well as insights into what craftspeople can teach experts in STEM about designing with textiles.

We quickly saw the importance of working by hand, Kao said. In computer science and engineering theres this fascination with automating everything, but it was an important part of the process for these weavers to feel the texture and improvise with how it would work. Thats hard to distill from an engineering perspective, but is really valuable for figuring out how to integrate these technologies with textiles.

Including craftspeople in the research was so successful that Kao decided for her next project she would work with a textile artist from the start. She teamed up with Melissa Conroy, senior lecturer in FSAD and an expert knitter, and they brainstormed turning the inherent stretchability of knit textiles into self-stiffening protective gear for high-impact activities and braces for injury recovery.

Lets say you had surgery on your lower hip and youre sitting in a certain posture that might hurt you; this skin layer could stiffen and provide feedback, Kao explained.

Kao and Conroy recently received a grant from the Center for Craft to develop these knitted interfaces. They will be purchasing hand-knitting machines to continue their research at home during social isolation, just as Kaos students in the Hybrid Body Lab have brought home looms to continue their experiments with weaving. She said the ability to work on these interfaces at home highlights another benefit of craft over specialized clean-room processes, which require labs that are currently shut down.

Right now, were creating fabrication processes. The next step is creating toolkits that are more scaffolded so that an elementary school student could quickly prototype an interactive temporary tattoo by sticking a couple of modules together, Kao said.

My long-term goal is to think about how we can democratize on-skin interfaces, so that anyone can make them and decide what they look like, she said, rather than a few people in Silicon Valley or in advanced labs deciding our future. Engaging craftspeople is the first step of that.

Students Ruojia Sun 20 (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering), visiting researcher Ryosuke Onose (D+EA), Margaret Dunne 20 (FSAD), Andrea Ling 20 (D+EA) and Amanda Denham 17 (FSAD) co-authored the WovenSkin research paper.

The project is supported in part by a Presidents Council of Cornell Women Affinito-Stewart Grant.

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The technology your business needs for the ‘new normal’ – SME Magazine

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Guest post by Duncan Ward

After months of remote working for many businesses, workforces are now returning to the office and flexible work policies are being put in place, allowing staff members to work from wherever they feel most comfortable.

However, regardless of what the new normal looks like for your business, it has become apparent that outdated communications technology simply isnt good enough.

Businesses of all sizes, in all industries, need communications solutions that work consistently from anywhere, with changes in workplace often happening at short notice.

Its crucial that businesses are able to stay connected both internally and externally, with the basics such as making and taking calls and transferring between departments and additional capabilities like call recording and call reporting, performing seamlessly. Plus, its now essential for businesses to be set up at home, on the road, and in the office in a matter of minutes.

With a large number of communications solutions on the market perfectly suited for the new normal, we have looked at the top three communications solutions that we recommend for your business.

Now is the time for all businesses to seriously consider a cloud phone system. Offering plug and play handsets, cloud phone systems have the added benefit that, as theyre hosted in the cloud, theyre accessible from anywhere.

Offering a futureproof setup, cloud phone systems require no additional hardware or cabling, meaning the handsets can be plugged in anywhere there is a WiFi connection. Staff will then be able to make, take and transfer calls as though they were sat at their desk. In addition, staff can easily access the presence function enabling them to let their colleagues know when theyre available and when theyre not. This function is essential to ensure that callers arent left on hold while being transferred to the correct department.

Furthermore, cloud phone systems are built to easily integrate with your CRM systems, so that your data is available on your computer, your desk phone and your business mobile. Its important to remember that while cloud phone systems are futureproof, the traditional features arent lost. Managers are able to fully utilise call reporting and call recording, ensuring that theyre aware of all calls coming in and going out. This can help with dispute resolution, training and managing staff working hours.

Video conferencing is here to stay and its not just for catch ups between teams, anymore. Its predicted that video conferencing will become the expected and preferred method of communication between businesses and customers, as we move into this next phase of working.

While internal communication remains essential, with teams working from different locations, its important not to forget the many benefits that video conferencing offers for external communications also. While phone calls and emails are still widely used, video conferencing is much more engaging, as not only can the customer see you face to face, but youre also able to share your screen and use instant messenger as well.

One of the main factors in video conferencing being such a big part of the new normal is the fact that it can be used from anywhere. Staff can attend a video conference from their desk, their home or even while travelling, as they can be accessed on desk phones, laptops or mobiles.

While plug and play handsets keep your staff covered pretty much anywhere, business mobiles are still a great option for team members working remotely and on the road. Plus, business mobiles can be twinned with your phone system, which essentially turns your business mobiles into an extension of your business phone system.

As a result, business mobiles ensure that no calls are missed. For example, should a member of staff be on a call yet need to leave their home, they can simply switch device and carry on their call using their business mobile, meaning much less disruption for your callers. Plus, when your team are out and about, theyll still be able to access and update the presence function to ensure that they are taking calls when theyre able to, resulting in no missed calls and no missed sales.

Duncan is CEO of Network Telecom. For more: enquiries@networktelecom.co.uk

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