Daily Archives: April 15, 2017

New York Times

Tech Roundup: New Zealand Looks Globally to Build Up Its Technology Industry New York Times With so much turmoil happening around the world, at least one country appears to be building up its technology ambitions by capitalizing on those concerns. New Zealand has been running a municipal program to draw in developers globally, including from ...

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Tech Roundup: New Zealand Looks Globally to Build Up Its Technology Industry - New York Times

The recent introduction of smart technology into farming practices provides a new way for farmers to manage natural resources and hence, the economic profitability of the farm. Smart farming practices based on data collection willprove to be beneficial for water conservation and soil longevity.

State of the art smart farming solutions and new Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are enabling many American growers to take a more sustainable approach to the monitoring of livestock, crops, and soil conditions. These technologies are transforming rural America by increasing the quality, quantity, and cost-effectiveness of agricultural production while concurrently addressing key environmental issues for small rural agribusinesses.

I anticipate that the forthcoming 5G technologies will lead to a broader adoption of precision agriculture and field monitoring systems. Precision agriculture is the practice of collecting and processing data in real-time through sensors on equipment used to assist farmers in planting, fertilizing, and harvesting their crops. Pictures of the fields and livestock, data on soil fertility and crop conditions can be transmitted back to the data collection site using satellites and drones. Farmers can leverage this data to make crop rotation and maintenance decisions, for example, that will lead to the reduced use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Farmers rely on precision agriculture for one reasonit is perfectly precise. Interruptions or slow network connections could have negative consequences on crop yield and quality of the final product, which can ultimately impact a farmers livelihood. 5G networks will better support these technologies, increasing the precision in precision agriculture, and ensuring that these high-tech tools deliver on their full potential. The deployment of 5G networks will make precision agricultureitssustainability enhancements, largely used thus far for larger-scale farming, much more accessible to the smaller-scale farmer.

These new innovations are the future of the agriculture world as we know it. And we are hopeful that agriculture can bridge the gap between the acceptances of these new innovations in technology and the power that they could have for our members in their daily lives. Its further development and the insights the new technology delivers will not only improve productivity and profits, it will allow National Grange members to work smarter and not harder.

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How technology is going to shape farming of the future - The Hill (blog)

Labor MP Jim Chalmers and former NBN chief executive Mike Quigley warn that economic gains from automation will not share themselves naturally. Photograph: Nic Delves-Broughton/PA

The Labor MP Jim Chalmers was at a town hall meeting in Eagleby, Queensland this week when an older couple approached him.

They were part of a crowd that turned up to see Bill Shortens Bill Bus, Labors resurrected campaign bus from last years election, on its way from Queensland to New South Wales as part of a two-week tour.

Eagleby had been devastated by recent flooding, a painful hit for a suburb that only five years ago had twice the rate of unemployment than the state average.

Chalmers said the couple wanted to talk about the kids not their own necessarily, just young people.

In a suburb where, according to the 2011 census, close to 50% of the workforce comprised labourers, tradesmen, technicians, machinery operators and drivers, where were the jobs going to come from when everything was getting automated?

Its quite an endearing thing, Chalmers told Guardian Australia afterwards. Theres a real intergenerational concern for what young people going into the workforce now wont have access to that people had access to in years gone by.

You see it in housing as well, which is why this housing debates so turbo-charged at the moment.

He told them he was putting the finishing touches on a book about the problem.

Chalmers has teamed up with Mike Quigley, the former chief executive of NBN Co, to write a book about technological change, the labour force, and inequality, called Changing Jobs: The Fair Go in the New Machine Age.

He said they got the idea when Quigley delivered a talk on the topic to an informal group of academics, politicians and business people, of which Chalmers is part.

They believe technological change can make inequality even worse in Australia if it is left unattended. It can skew power relations for ordinary people at work, and have consequences for wages and employment conditions.

They say theres no such thing as technological trickle-down, because economic gains from artificial intelligence, automation, machine learning and robotics will not share themselves naturally.

So what can be done about it?

They posit three broad ways in which Australians can react in the face of the coming technological revolution.

People can be part of the let-it-rip crowd, that cheers on technological change without regard for wealth concentration or transitional impacts on the public.

This group wrongly believes, as prime minister [Malcolm] Turnbull does, that these are exciting times, whatever the consequences for those disrupted, they argue.

Another option is for Australians to try to resist technological change or hold it back. This is about as likely as offices rediscovering a preference for the fax machine.

There is also a third way people can try to shape the technology, correct market failures, rethink industrial relations, re-stitch the social safety net, and care about the distribution of economic power.

This path is the one we recommend for Australia in the pages that follow, Chalmers and Quigley say in the books prcis.

We can attack the worst consequences of technological change without denying ourselves the broader benefits of that change.

Chalmers says one of the surprising things about writing the book has been the level of interest from retirees who had a job for life and worry that their children or grandchildren wont.

One regular correspondent in particular, called Jill, has been urging him to write it.

Quigley says that during his 40-year career in telecommunications (in Australia, the US and Europe), he has seen how technology can powerfully improve peoples lives.

But the trends we have seen in recent years with rising inequality and employment insecurity are cause for concern, he says.

I am hoping that in writing this book with Jim, we can make some small contribution to the debate that will lead to businesses, governments and Australian citizens working together to ensure that technology can improve the lives of all Australians in the decades ahead.

We can expect policy recommendations from the pair. They believe schools, the industrial relations regime, and the social security system will have to change dramatically as the rules of the economy are rewritten by machines.

The book, published by Random House, will be available in September.

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'Exciting times'? Changes in technology can boost inequality, authors say - The Guardian

New York Times

New Tools Needed to Track Technology's Impact on Jobs, Panel Says New York Times America needs new tools for the timely measurement and monitoring of technology, jobs and skills to cope with the advance of artificial intelligence and automation, an expert panel composed mainly of economists and computer scientists said in a new report. and more »

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New Tools Needed to Track Technology's Impact on Jobs, Panel Says - New York Times

KARACHI: On a scorching Saturday morning, Muhammad Arsalan took his four-year-old son, Arsalan, to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. Covered in warm clothes, the boy continued to shiver and had a high body temperature.

The father told the medical staff that his son has severe body pain and weakness. The patient was taken to the out-patient department of Dr Kamran Ahmed, general physician, where his blood samples were taken and sent to a lab.

Within a couple of minutes, the boys blood test report showed that he has dengue.

Diagnosing dengue fever is quite difficult as its symptoms are similar to those of other diseases. However, the latest technology in the hospital makes it easier to detect such diseases.

Arsalan, who works as a computer operator at a garment factory in Korangi, said, this is the first time in my life I have got the result so early. He said that he has never seen the device used by hospitals medical staff before.

Previously, it would take at least two days to diagnose patients with a particular disease. It was a tough time as you cant do anything but wait for the result. On the other hand, the doctors also couldnt start proper treatment as well.

Explaining the technology, Dr Kamran said that its a rapid test kit. The technology, which has been developed by Finnish health care company ISTOC, turns a persons smart phone into a virtual clinic.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who is the representative of ISTOC in Pakistan, said that the technology can diagnose malaria, dengue, HIV, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. Separate devices are used for the diagnosis of each disease, he added.

The disease is diagnosed in three steps. First the blood sample is taken, which is then kept on the specific device. Lastly, the doctors take a picture of the particular devices IDR (infectious diseases reader). Our mobile application will then send the results in minutes, he added.

ISTOC technology is also available in other countries such as Bangladesh, Africa, Brazil, Nigeria and different parts of the Europe.

Abbasi Shaheed Hospital is the only hospital in the country which is using this technology.

Initially, we are collaborating with ISTOC for diagnosing dengue, malaria and hepatitis to find out how effective the device is, said Senior Director Health Service of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, Dr Muhammad Ali Abbasi, adding that the device is claimed to be 99.95 per cent accurate.

As many as 1,500 samples have been checked from the ISTOC devices and the results were also checked against the PCR and Elisa kit. So far, all the diagnoses have been correct, he added.

We are planning to introduce this technology in other hospitals as well but primarily it's to get the best result when we are facing any epidemic, remarked Deputy Mayor of Karachi Arshad Vohra.

Another task it to make patients aware of this device, said Vohra, adding that due to low literacy rate majority of patients dont let medical staff take their blood samples and instead only ask for medicines.

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New technology allows fast detection of dengue at Karachis Abbasi Shaheed Hospital - Geo News, Pakistan

New technology is transforming fertility treatments for would-be parents in North Texas.

Couples undergoing invitro fertilization are able see their embyros develop almost in real time.

The technology, called EmbryoScope is being used at the Frisco Institute for Reproductive Medicine, and is some of the latest in IVF technology.

It's a specialized incubator for embryos designed to reduce risks from exposure to impurities in the air and to identify the best embryos for transfer by their cell-division patterns.

A camera and microscope are equipped inside the incubator, taking pictures every two to three minutes for a time-lapse video of the embryos.

Traditional incubators required doctors to remove the embryos and take snapshots every 24 hours."We are putting the microscope in the incubator, use a computer to control and take a picture every two to three minutes," said Dr. Marius Meintjes, scientific director at Frisco Institute for Reproductive Medicine.

Chris and Candace Storey have watched 10-month-old Conner's life blossom from the moment the cells that would become Conner developed during the invitro fertilization process.

""You could see him moving. You could see the cells. You could see everything of him and it was amazing," said Candace.

The couple struggled to have children so they went to Dr. Meintjes, who, with the EmbryoScope, can see potential problems in almost real time to weed out the embryos that wouldn't be viable.

"It's not as easy to tell which embryo is the best, but it's fairly easy to tell which embryos are not good," said Dr. Meintjes. "By using this technology, we can now select between the embroys and find the one with the largest or biggest implantation potential and give them the best chance to a healthy baby."

Fertility scientists are always trying to improve IVF success rates, and the EmbryoScope is one of the latest advances in that area, says the clinic's website.

The technology also gives parents peace of mind.

"It was very miraculous to be able to see and know that we could keep track and make sure he was viable and healthy enough for a good pregnancy," said The Storeys, who look forward to adding to their family in the future.

"Maybe in a few years! Give us a few years! We are banked up in the egg department so we are good," they said.

EmbryoScope services cost about $500 in addition to regular IVF costs.

Published at 6:09 PM CDT on Apr 14, 2017 | Updated at 8:44 AM CDT on Apr 15, 2017

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Technology Increases Success Rates For Fertility Treatment - NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth