Monthly Archives: April 2021

While plastic demand continues to rise around the world, the problems caused by plastic waste are becoming more and more apparent driving stronger calls than ever for society to shift to a recycling-based economy. Yet to make practical use of recycled raw materials, those involved need to be able to ensure traceability, such as by being able to specify the materials in use.Considering that the world produces381 million tonnes of plastic waste yearly, a statistic that is expected to double by 2034 if nothing changes, promoting circular economic models, is becoming more urgent.

With the resource circulation platform being planned by Mitsui Chemicals and IBM Japan, the aim is to ensure traceability throughout the resource life cycle, from raw materials like monomers and polymers through to the manufacturing, sales and use of products. This aim applies also to the recycling process thereafter, in which used products are recovered, dismantled, shredded and sorted into raw materials that can be reused to manufacture new products. Additionally, the platform is intended to visualize matters such as the manufacturing processes for recycled raw materials, examination methods, physical properties and quality-related data, thereby facilitating the smooth flow of goods.

Utilizing blockchain technology for this traceability system will aid in making supply chains more transparent. It will also allow various stakeholders to guarantee the neutrality and fairness of operations, make it possible to optimize business transactions and inspections, and help those involved go paperless.

Mitsui Chemicals sees climate change and plastic waste as important issues that need to be focused on, said SAMBE Masao, Executive Officer in charge of Mitsui Chemicals Digital Transformation Division. If we want to solve these issues as a society, we can no longer stick to a one-way economy in which we simply consume resources and dispose of them. Instead, well need to work on building a circular economy that recovers, recycles and reuses its resources.

Here at Mitsui Chemicals, we plan to leverage the wealth of expertise and skill weve built up through our work with monomers and polymers, as well as the eco-friendly technologies and expertise were currently working on, including for recycling. By combining this all with digital transformation technologies, most notably blockchain technology, we will go about building a resource circulation platform that acts as a materials traceability system, helping in turn to bring about a circular economy.

For this project, IBM Japan will take the wide-ranging expertise and skill it has built up in assisting various companies in their digital transformation endeavors and utilize these to verify the setup of new blockchain-based digital platform. Capitalizing on blockchain technology will allow companies to guarantee neutrality and fairness here, as well as ensure an advanced level of security. Further, with cloud technology to offer speedy setup and flexibility, the use of AI, as well as the construction of a hybrid cloud that can link up with its existing systems will be considered. The products set to be used for all this are the IBM Blockchain Platform, as well as IBM Cloud, a public cloud service that serves as the foundation for this platform.

Upon building the resource circulation platform for plastic material traceability, Mitsui Chemicals and IBM Japan will work together toward demonstration testing.

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Mitsui Chemicals and IBM Japan to explore the use of blockchain to recycle plastics resources - Waste Management World

ByDarci Henderson, Secretary,Tabor 100; Co-Founder,Alltrus

Small business owners, many of whom have taken a devastating blow this past year, will be the engine that drives our economic recovery once the vaccination rate picks up and things begin kicking back into gear again. To nurture a more robust and resilient small business community, collaboration at all levels of government and the economy will be essential.

Policymakers, larger technology industry stakeholders, and community leaders must come together to broaden access to the tools available to small business owners today. This should encompass greater familiarity with digital advertising platforms, online payment processing capability through services such as Square, and third-party delivery options that are becoming increasingly digitized like USPS, FedEx, or UPS.

As a Tukwila-based small business owner working with my business partner and co-founder Denise Ransom, and Secretary of Tabor 100, the regional chamber association that serves as a resource for minority-owned businesses, Ive seen first-hand the obstacles our community has faced on every step of our countrys response to the pandemic.

Ive seen our business owners face challenges in accessing emergency assistance loans provided by the government while trying to pivot into an economy refocused on e-commerce. Sadly, minority-and-women-owned small businesses too often found themselves a day late or a dollar short on accessing resources needed to persist after COVID-19 turned our whole world upside down. To remedy this imbalance, greater collaboration is needed between organizations like Tabor 100, the government, and local industry leaders who are well-versed in the digital tools that provide access to online market share.

Like most businesses across Washington State, digital tools have been very important to my own pivots in response to the pandemic. But as we know, not all small business owners have familiarity with the online market landscape. The digital tools and services available to small business owners today can be game-changing often the difference between survival and closure. A robust outreach and education effort will be needed to further close the divide.

A swift and equitable recovery will also require a recognition of the disproportionate challenges faced by minority-and-women-owned small businesses. Countless studies show that Black and Brown business owners faced considerable barriers to accessing emergency relief through the Small Business Administrations Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was meant encourage small business owners to keep workers on their payroll through the pandemic. I had difficulty accessing the PPP funds personally, and saw others across the Tabor 100 community struggle to get connected to emergency resources when we needed them most. These challenges underscore the need for a more deliberate approach to government relief, to supplement greater access to free and affordable digital platforms.

Zooming out, Washington State remains a leader nationally on economic opportunity stimulated by e-commerce, as was confirmed by arecent study from the Progressive Policy Institute. Ensuring that every small business owner can participate equitably to get the most value from these platforms will be essential to our collective journey to recovery.

If theres some good that can come from COVID-19, perhaps its the opportunity to create an economy that is more locally-focused, accessible to communities with fewer resources, and compassionate towards small business owners who have been left behind during the pandemic.

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Meeting The Needs Of Black-Owned Small Businesses In The Digital Economy - Seattle Medium

Resource Fair (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)

With the announcement Friday of a $155 million investment in small businesses, including $5.5 million for workforce development programming, Mayor Bill de Blasio staked a foothold along a critical frontier in New York City's pandemic recovery: preparing workers for the changing economy.

The city's economy was devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the unemployment rate jumping fivefold to a high of over 20% last June. In-person jobs have contracted significantly, especially in hospitality, nightlife, retail, and transportation, many of which were already in decline. At the same time, health and technology sectors have emerged from the pandemic ready for a boom. Nearly half a million city residents are unemployed and seeking new ventures in the molten industrial landscape.

Much is uncertain about what the post-pandemic economy will look like. Tourism and restaurants are already starting to return but it is unclear how quickly those industries will grow and to what level.

The conditions are ripe for public and private sectors to retool the workforce and leverage the vast human capital of the five boroughs. Economists and workforce development organizations say that, while de Blasio has taken some steps in his executive budget, released Monday, this mayoral administration -- and the next, due in January -- need to do much more to strike while the iron is hot.

"We need ways to get people back to work, to stabilize businesses more, and to retrain those workers whose jobs they won't be returning to for good paying jobs that they have a prospect of getting in the next couple of years," said New School economist James Parrott in an interview last month. "That should be obligatory for the city."

New York City's labor force has suffered greater than the states or nations, with an 11.7% unemployment rate in March, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, compared with 8.5% for New York State and 6% nationwide. Experts say the city's recovery could be slowed because of the decline in face-to-face business, such as tourism and nightlife, which makes up a significant portion of New York's economy. The pandemic has been particularly hard for young job-seekers. The number of young people -- ages 16 to 24 -- who are both out of school and unemployed likely doubled during the pandemic, from one in eight pre-pandemic to nearly one in four, according to a report from the city's Disconnected Youth Task Force.

Workforce development organizations say the city needs to invest more in training models and "upskilling" in addition to infrastructure that supports jobs, like child- and health-care, internet access, and financial services. For example, programs aimed at teaching digital literacy tools that have become increasingly essential. Another example is bridge programming, like high school equivalency and English tutoring, that includes work on basic skills needed to enter the training programs that can advance careers or launch workers in burgeoning sectors like green jobs, tech, and care.

"Its critical that we recognize workers as our cornerstone for prosperity and growth for communities across the city, said Jose Ortiz, Jr., CEO of New York City Employment and Training Coalition (NYCETC), an association of workforce development organizations.

"Our leaders must fundamentally shift and align systems, investments, and decision-making processes that fuel our economy toward a talent-driven economic development model," he said in an interview. Such a model would be based on creating high-quality jobs, which offer better pay and upward mobility, but for many New Yorkers will require training and connections -- the latter, which can be facilitated by apprenticeship and network-building programs.

Ortiz said local hiring and skill-building programs should be part of any economic development project. The city could allocate 10% of funding for such initiatives on building community-based hiring pipelines, he suggested, which could include local recruitment and job training, and agreements with private developers.

In March, de Blasio proposed state lawmakers pass legislation to allow the city to require contractors to hire from low-income communities and NYCHA developments and mandate apprenticeships in building and construction. The proposal was supported in a letter to legislators by 133 organizations.

Another suggestion from Ortiz, is to create a workforce development committee within the City Council to strengthen oversight over jobs programs.

With the scale of unemployment and the potential recovery, NYCETC believes lawmakers need to better connect and streamline education, job training, and hiring systems.

NYCETC is working to influence the next mayor and City Council. The group is also partnering with the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development and Regional Plan Association on an effort called "NYC Inclusive Growth Initiative" to develop an agenda that combines job creation, affordable housing retention and expansion, and reducing structural inequities in the economy.

On Wednesday evening, NYCETC will be hosting a forum, "Role of Workers in a Resilient & Inclusive Recovery," with several leading candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor in the June primary. The forum will be about the part workforce development will play in New York's recovery and how candidates plan to create high-quality jobs. Several Democratic mayoral candidates have released workforce development planks in their policy platforms.

Kathryn Garcia, a former city sanitation commissioner, among other government roles, has proposed the city partner with CUNY and trade schools to recruit employees directly from college. Comptroller Scott Stringer has said he wants to create a workforce development program at CUNY and expand access by making community colleges tuition-free. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams wants more incentives for employers who hire a majority city-based employees. Platforms of both former federal housing secretary Shaun Donovan and former nonprofit executive Dianne Morales include job training for climate resiliency projects. Maya Wiley, former counsel to the mayor, wants to open more jobs training sites in underserved areas and partner with community-based organizations to operate them.

According to a recent report from NYCETC and The New School's Center for New York City Affairs, unemployment in the city has not been experienced equally. In the second half of 2020, the report showed, unemployment for men of color was about twice that of white men, 18% to 9%.

The New Yorkers most impacted by pandemic-induced unemployment are also those most at risk of losing work to automation, disproportionately Hispanic, male, and young. According to a recent study from Center for an Urban Future, "[a]mong occupations that are the most highly automatable using technology that exists today, 76 percent of jobs are held by Black, Hispanic, and Asian New Yorkers, even though they make up just 57 percent of the citys total workforce."

"While we continue to evaluate the pandemics impact on jobs in the city, we already know we need to respond to the crisis through a lens of equity so we can rebuild a more inclusive economy," Ortiz said.

Since the onset of the pandemic, much of the de Blasio administration's workforce development effort has been undertaken by the Mayor's Office of Workforce Development, the Department of Small Business Services (SBS), and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC). Projects have focused on skill-building in growing industries and salves like rapid employment efforts that will not necessarily lead to long-term jobs or job mobility.

Small businesses account for two-thirds of private sector jobs, according to EDC, making them central to any labor recovery endeavor. The new $155 million allocation for small businesses, included in the mayor's executive budget for upcoming fiscal year 2022, which starts July 1 of this year, contains over $100 million in grants, loans, and other assistance and $5.5 million in job training and apprenticeships. Last October, EDC set up a Small Business Resource Center in partnership with the Peterson Foundation and Partnership for New York City.

"Small businesses knit New York City together and they were hit hard last year, even as Wall Street made record profits. But help is on the way," de Blasio said in a statement Friday. "These investments will keep New York City the most vibrant city in the world and help build a recovery for all of us."

Part of the small business allocation is a $1.5 million investment in HireNYC, a construction jobs recruitment and training program for development projects using city funds.

In the first year of the pandemic, close to 80,000 individuals went to Workforce1 career centers run by SBS, according to a spokesperson. Roughly 14,700 were connected to jobs, just over half of the more than 26,000 hires or promotions connected in pre-pandemic fiscal year 2020, according to the citys data. The 18 centers have been operating virtually since last spring, allowing services to continue. But many job-seekers, especially from underserved communities, continue to face technological barriers to accessing online services.

SBS and EDC have been making efforts to expand training in high-growth sectors like life sciences, cybersecurity, and care services. EDC has continued to push its LifeSci NYC Internship, which has received 1,700 applicants since it launched in 2018 and has a 40% hiring rate upon completion. This month, EDC launched a cybersecurity training program with Fullstack Academy for 28 low-income New Yorkers. SBS rolled out a new temporary training program for home health aides to meet a growing demand at the height of the pandemic, in a sector likely to have opportunities in the future.

"The pandemic has created a new economy, putting sectors like healthcare and technology at the forefront of our recovery," said SBS Commissioner Jonnel Doris, in a statement. "In addition to helping nearly 80,000 jobseekers through our Workforce1 Centers, SBS is continuing to fulfill the goals of the City's Career Pathways initiative by making sure our job training programs meet the needs of the City's high-growth sectors," he said, referring to de Blasio's marquee workforce development plan, developed in his first year as mayor in 2014. Career Pathways was lauded by the workforce development community when first announced but has been criticized for severe underfunding and limited implementation.

"That's why were investing $6 million in our most precious resource the workers who keep the City growing and our businesses running," Doris said.

New York City is uniquely positioned as a leader in diverse industries and talent. Over the past year, weve seen the adverse effects the pandemic has had on our workforce," said an EDC spokesperson, in a statement to Gotham Gazette. "Thats why were still committed to building an inclusive economy so that all New Yorkers have access to the good-paying jobs that arise from new economic opportunities. Our continued investments in growing industries will aid the recovery for New Yorkers of all backgrounds, especially among underserved communities.

The mayor's executive budget also includes a $234 million plan to hire 10,000 New Yorkers to $15-per-hour positions as part of the City Cleanup Corp, a "New Deal-style" sanitation and beautification program that will run through the end of the year.

"The goal here is hire as many people as possible, as quickly as possible for employment in 2021 and only 2021, and then as we get to later in the year, we'll assess what makes sense to do going forward," de Blasio told reporters when he announced the City Cleanup Corp earlier this month.

Last week, the mayor announced a partnership with the Ali Forney Center to enroll up to 90 LGBTQ young adults who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless in a jobs program with basic credentialing like high school equivalency, advance job skills training, mental health support, and career opportunities.

According to the mayor's office, the city added 100,000 jobs to the workforce between December and March and administration officials expect 400,000 thousand more to come on by the end of 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, that would put New York at 4.5 million jobs, about 200,000 short of pre-pandemic levels.

"The unfortunate issue with the city's strategy with regards to some of these initiatives is that they are aligned to individuals who for the most part are ready to reenter or enter the workforce; they are not necessarily aligned to individuals that require significant wrap-around services," said Ortiz, referring to the estimated hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who need additional support to combat things like food, housing, and transportation insecurity in order to successfully enter the job market -- needs traditionally covered by human services providers, which have also been hit hard by the pandemic.

"Many of the [workforce development] programs, unfortunately, that [the city is] are partnering with, while quality programs, tend to be for-profit organizations, making it cost prohibitive for the individuals we tend to serve who are coming from the most marginalized communities in the city," Ortiz said. According to the NYCETC-New School report, 96% of workforce development provider organizations saw a reduction in revenue this fiscal year compared to last, due largely to drops in city and state contracting, or in private funding.

"The city's inability to partner with these organizations and provide them the funding that's required for them to successfully train individuals is a major shortfall in their strategy," Ortiz said.

See original here:

What is New York City Doing to Prepare Its Workforce for the Post-Pandemic Economy? - Gotham Gazette

By Mary Page Bailey | April 26, 2021

Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Tokyo) and IBM Japan, Ltd. (Tokyo) announced plans to start working together on a resource circulation platform that utilizes blockchain technology. The aim through this is to ensure the traceability of materials a hurdle to clear on the way to achieving a circular economy.

While plastic demand continues to rise around the world, the problems caused by plastic waste are becoming more and more apparent driving stronger calls than ever for society to shift to a recycling-based economy. Yet to make practical use of recycled raw materials, those involved need to be able to ensure traceability, such as by being able to specify the materials in use.

Mitsui and IBM are collaborating on a blockchain scheme to advance the circularity of plastic materials and feedstocks

(Source: Mitsui Chemicals)

With the resource circulation platform being planned by Mitsui Chemicals and IBM Japan, the aim is to ensure traceability throughout the resource life cycle, from raw materials like monomers and polymers through to the manufacturing, sales and use of products. This aim applies also to the recycling process thereafter, in which used products are recovered, dismantled, shredded and sorted into raw materials that can be reused to manufacture new products. Additionally, the platform is intended to visualize matters such as the manufacturing processes for recycled raw materials, examination methods, physical properties and quality-related data, thereby facilitating the smooth flow of goods.

Utilizing blockchain technology for this traceability system will aid in making supply chains more transparent. It will also allow various stakeholders to guarantee the neutrality and fairness of operations, make it possible to optimize business transactions and inspections, and help those involved go paperless.

Mitsui Chemicals sees climate change and plastic waste as important issues that need to be focused on, said SAMBE Masao, Executive Officer in charge of Mitsui Chemicals Digital Transformation Division. If we want to solve these issues as a society, we can no longer stick to a one-way economy in which we simply consume resources and dispose of them. Instead, well need to work on building a circular economy that recovers, recycles and reuses its resources.

Here at Mitsui Chemicals, we plan to leverage the wealth of expertise and skill weve built up through our work with monomers and polymers, as well as the eco-friendly technologies and expertise were currently working on, including for recycling. By combining this all with digital transformation technologies, most notably blockchain technology, we will go about building a resource circulation platform that acts as a materials traceability system, helping in turn to bring about a circular economy.

For this project, IBM Japan will take the wide-ranging expertise and skill it has built up in assisting various companies in their digital transformation endeavors and utilize these to verify the setup of new blockchain-based digital platform. Capitalizing on blockchain technology will allow companies to guarantee neutrality and fairness here, as well as ensure an advanced level of security. Further, with cloud technology to offer speedy setup and flexibility, the use of AI, as well as the construction of a hybrid cloud that can link up with its existing systems will be considered. The products set to be used for all this are the IBM Blockchain Platform, as well as IBM Cloud, a public cloud service that serves as the foundation for this platform.

Upon building the resource circulation platform for plastic material traceability, Mitsui Chemicals and IBM Japan will work together toward demonstration testing.

See the article here:

Mitsui Chemicals and IBM working on blockchain-based platform for plastics circularity - ChemEngOnline

Take a look around you. Chances are you see items made from wood. Your desk, parts of the building youre in, maybe a fruit bowl. Wood is so commonplace we take it for granted. But it also has some surprising uses and crops up in everyday items you might not know contained wood products. Here are some examples.

The typical supercar buyer might have titanium, carbon fibre and kevlar on the checklist. Wood? Not likely, unless it forms the expensive trim around the dashboard.

The Nano Cellulose Vehicle is a prototype supercar made from wood products.

Image: Japanese Ministry of Environment

But now theres a supercar made from cellulose nanofiber a wood-derived material that is stronger than steel. It was commissioned by the Japanese government as part of a project to explore cutting emissions in car manufacturing. It weighs 50% less than traditional supercars.

While modern-day chewing gum relies on synthetic sap substitutes, it was traditionally made from chicle a milky latex from the sapodilla tree. Ancient civilizations such as the Aztecs enjoyed chewing it.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineers used xylem tissue from sapwood to create filters that can purify water. Prototypes tested in India showed that xylem filters could potentially be used to filter bacteria and viruses from contaminated drinking water.

The carnauba wax found in many car wax brands comes from the leaves of the Copernicia prunifera, a palm tree that grows exclusively in Brazil. Its harvested by drying and beating the leaves.

Timber skyscrapers can be built faster, more cheaply and with less of an environmental impact than traditional concrete and steel structures.

The Brock Commons Tower in Vancouver has a smaller carbon footprint than a comparable traditional building

Image: University of British Columbia

Construction of Vancouvers 18-story Brock Commons tower offset an estimated 2,432 tonnes of carbon. It houses students in what is currently the tallest timber building in the world.

Environmentally friendly ink based on cellulose nanocrystals has been created by scientists at Swiss materials science lab Empa. The technology could be used for the 3D printing of implants and other biomedical applications, they say.

Willow bark has been used in traditional medicine to relieve pain and treat fevers for thousands of years. But it wasnt until the 1800s that the active ingredient salicin was discovered, which would later form the basis of aspirin.

Eco-friendly domestic sponges are often made from wood-derived cellulose. However, scientists have also used balsa wood to create an oil-absorbing sponge that absorbs up to 41 times its weight. It could prove invaluable in cleaning up oil spills.

Why the world needs to protect trees

Wood will be a key material in creating a circular bioeconomy a conceptual framework that relies on natural capital to manage food, land and industrial systems. The aim is to achieve sustainable wellbeing in harmony with nature.

The World Economic Forum has created a series of initiatives to promote circularity.

1. Scale360 Playbook was designed to build lasting ecosystems for the circular economy and help solutions scale.

Scale360 Playbook Journey

Image: Scale360 Playbook

Its unique hub-based approach - launched this September - is designed to prioritize circular innovation while fostering communities that allow innovators from around the world to share ideas and solutions. Emerging innovators from around the world can connect and work together ideas and solutions through the UpLink, the Forum's open innovation platform.

Discover how the Scale360 Playbook can drive circular innovation in your community.

2. A new Circular Cars Initiative (CCI) embodies an ambition for a more circular automotive industry. It represents a coalition of more than 60 automakers, suppliers, research institutions, NGOs and international organizations committed to realizing this near-term ambition.

CCI has recently released a new series of circularity roadmaps, developed in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), McKinsey & Co. and Accenture Strategy. These reports explain the specifics of this new circular transition.

Connect to Learn More

3. The World Economic Forums Accelerating Digital Traceability for Sustainable Production initiative brings together manufacturers, suppliers, consumers and regulators to jointly establish solutions and provide a supporting ecosystem to increase supply chain visibility and accelerate sustainability and circularity across manufacturing and production sectors.

Connect to Learn More

However, the UNs Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that, despite a slowing of the rate of deforestation in the last decade, some 10 million hectares of forest cover is still lost each year through conversion to agriculture and other land uses.

Responsible forestry and land management will be vital in managing this invaluable, renewable resource.

And while wooden, eco-friendly supercars are likely to remain a novelty, they show the potential for creating new products from ancient materials that could lead us into a more sustainable future.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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These items have all been derived from wood - World Economic Forum

The decision to pause and then restart the Johnson & Johnson vaccine underscores how hard it is even for experts to gauge health risks. Its been still harder for everyday people, most of whom have no medical background and little experience analyzing risks and benefits.

People have experienced confusion about mask-wearing, physical distancing, travel, remote work, financial assistance measures and more. Now people are weighing uncertainty about vaccines. Further, some members of historically marginalized groups are skeptical of vaccine safety, as retired NFL star Marshawn Lynch detailed in a recent interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden.

We are informatics and regulation researchers who study intersections among information, policy and human behavior. We have recently studied the intensive risk work individuals are doing amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research, which is scheduled to be published next month, provides insight into how people in the U.S. perceive pandemic-related risks and how they draw on information to assess and manage them.

To understand peoples perceptions of risk, we conducted interviews that allowed people to explain their beliefs and experiences in detail. We recruited this sample using nationwide group email lists and social media. Based on an initial short intake form, we selected participants to create a sample that was diverse in terms of age, geographic location and self-reported difficulties that people were facing during the pandemic. We conducted interviews with 40 people, and we paid them for their time.

These interviews revealed that people conceive of COVID-19 risks as more diverse and complex than popular narratives about managing health versus the economy suggest.

Though illness and economic risks were dominant concerns of our interviewees, people also spoke about risks from secondary illness, threats to social and behavioral well-being and the erosion of key institutions.

Risk of COVID-19 illness included apprehension about the prospect of being unwell, suffering with a severe disease and dying. Participants worried about becoming severely sick with COVID-19, but they differed in their perceptions of who was more likely to become gravely ill. There was general agreement that elderly people and people who had underlying medical conditions were at higher risk.

Wanting to know which groups were especially at risk was very important for many people we interviewed. They talked about dangers of illness for society, everyone, elderly people, and people in a certain socioeconomic group. They also discussed risks to themselves or their close social contacts, such as references to my dad who is elderly and sick and my son-in-law who is a deputy sheriff and encounters homeless people with COVID symptoms.

Participants associated secondary illness risks with health care resource shortages. Many described the increased likelihood of death from other serious conditions if the health care system became overrun with COVID-19 patients. They understood that an overstretched system would not be able to provide normal levels of care and that it also meant that patients would be more likely to suffer or die.

They described multiple interrelated threats to social and behavioral well-being. Social and behavioral risks included things like anxiety, depression, stress, damaged relationships and career setbacks. Mental illness, for example, emerged as a potential risk from widespread and personal social isolation, which could lead to loneliness and depression.

Interviewees understood estrangement in personal relationships as a risk for themselves and others. A grandmother who used to take care of her grandchild two days a week thought her personal relationship with her young granddaughter could fray through the lack of in-person contact during the pandemic. Other participants felt there was a risk in terms of delays in life trajectories for example, careers derailed or set back years and developmental delays among children whose schooling was canceled or altered.

Economic risks spanned concerns about job and income loss, recession and the inability to find work. As with illness risks, participants framed economic risk both broadly in terms of society and specifically in relation to certain populations they perceived as being at-risk, such as recent graduates, millennials, business owners and poor people.

Many participants characterized the wider economic implications as potentially disastrous, explaining the risks as similar to or greater than the virus itself. Some even described an economic threat that could dwarf the Great Depression of the 1930s or the global financial crisis of 2007-2008. They also mentioned specific threats, such as business closures, sweeping losses to retirement income and declines in home values.

Another identified risk was crumbling institutions. Participants saw the pandemic as a threat to public health, the health care system, educational systems, the arts, the federal government and business. They believed that if these systems fell apart there would be long-term ramifications. As a 22-year-old resident of Arizona said, I was more worried about the societal changes than the actual virus, if that makes sense.

Many interviewees reflected on institutional failures. For example, one participant, interviewed in 2020, explained how the pandemic had led to a crisis of leadership for the country, with states left to fend for themselves to manage the effects of COVID-19 without adequate federal support. Others felt that institutions being at risk meant core rights and privileges that Americans typically enjoyed such as privacy were also at risk.

[The Conversations science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories. Weekly on Wednesdays.]

Our participants reported that most of the information about COVID-19 risks available to them addressed only COVID-19 illness and not other types of risks associated with the pandemic, and often contained conflicting recommendations. As a result, our participants said they received little helpful information about how to manage the multiple forms of risk they were perceiving.

According to our research, not having information to validate these other perceived risks had a spillover effect: It fueled a sense that authorities were not addressing urgent threats. Advice on managing COVID-19 illness that fails to acknowledge other risks contributes to a loss of trust and, in turn, may undermine compliance with guidelines.

Studies show that people perceive messaging about COVID-19 to be fragmented and conflicted. This is dangerous, because past studies show that exposure to health massages that are conflicting leads to decreased trust in authoritative sources of information. Our findings led us to the same conclusion. They made clear that the issue is even broader, because people are receiving inadequate information about multiple pandemic risks, not just COVID-19 illness.

In addition, our participants said that authoritative sources of risk information tend to be too general. People said that they often turned to individuals in their social networks to help them obtain relevant information and better understand risk for example, a cousin who is a nurse working on the front lines.

We found that these informal communications with experts are important but often overlooked. Acknowledging the informal work that these experts do and developing strategies to support this labor could inform individuals risk management. It could also alleviate anxiety during this uncertain time.

For example, clinicians receive information updates from local, state and national health agencies and the organizations where they practice. Clinicians often translate this information for their social contacts through informal communications. Alongside clinical updates, they could receive information sheets describing COVID-19 risks and risk management strategies that they could distribute via social media and other channels to their networks. Picture an easily understandable breakdown of the risks and benefits of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that clinicians could share broadly with the click of a button to group chats and social media accounts.

Read more:

People have had a hard time weighing pandemic risks because they haven't gotten information they needed when they needed it - The Conversation US

Late last year, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., as part of an American initiative to the supply chain for critical national economic and national security items to the United States for development and manufacturing, announced that it would build a $12 billion advanced microchip factory in Phoenix.Its adecision that makes it likely the companys entire supply chain will follow, also moving to Greater Phoenix.

Last month, Korean-based Samsung announced, for the same reason, that two Phoenix sites were among four national finalists for a $17 billion chip factory to produce advanced logic devices and would likely result in their entire supply chain of approximately 100 companies following along, too.

And just a couple of weeks ago, Chandler-based American computer chip giant Intel announced that it will spend $20 billion to build two additional factories in Arizona, the largest private-sector investment in the states history.

These announcements, while independent of one another, are in fact related, both to the U.S. decision to concentrate critical development and manufacturing here in America and to the reawakening that the United States is, in fact, the best place for advanced manufacturing on the planet.

The talent at Arizona State Universitys Fulton Schools of Engineering, the largest engineering college in the country, along with yeomans work from local economic development leaders, are two of the reasons why Phoenix is so attractive to these companies and so well positioned to take advantage of what is happening. This story is part of a larger opportunity for the state to multiply and expand advanced manufacturing in the future and to accelerate investment from the national and international high-tech sector, which is rapidly expanding around computational technology, information technology and all of the engineered systems that make these technologies work.

The United States is refocusing on an industry it allowed to go global, bringing back engineering and manufacturing jobs as it does so and also lay the foundation through expanded research activities for development beyond the present micro-electronics technology base to a future micro-electronics technology base which will carry us forward well into the 21stcentury.

In the 20thcentury, America was a global leader insemiconductor manufacturing with several U.S.-based companies owning and operating research and development laboratories, which are essential to the operation of micro-electronics, and factories to service both domestic and global markets. Over the years, international companies and foreign governments with strategic interests expanded the industry particularly to Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and China.

What didnt shift was the importance of semiconductors, particularly the advanced semiconductors of the 2020s and beyond, to Americas national economy, future technological advancement and our national success both in terms of safety and defense. While America still leads the world in chip design, research and development, and technology, today, it accounts for only 12% of global semiconductor manufacturing capacity, according to data from the Semiconductor Industry Association.

So, it was in a welcome display of congressional bi-partisan leadership that action was taken in December of 2020, passing the Chips for America Act (Creating Helpful Incentives for Producing Semiconductors). This act of Congress initiated the transformation back to American dominance in semiconductor research, development and manufacturing. One of the concerns that had been percolating for some time was driven home through lessons learnedduringthe Covid pandemic relying heavily on globally distributed manufacturing entities carries significant risks, not only related to national security, but also to supply chain and economic development.

Today, as evidenced by the activity we see right here in Greater Phoenix over the past several months, the American semiconductor manufacturing industry and our global allies are reinvesting in a development and manufacturing foundation in Arizona. And the competition domestically to attract the semiconductor leaders including their expanding investments and supply chains is fierce and is significant to our region.

Kyle Squires

What this means for Arizona is that opportunity is knocking. We need to be ready to step forward and seize it. We are in better position to be successful than ever in our past, but there are investments we must make to be prepared. The New Economy Initiative proposed by the Arizona Board of Regents seeks to capitalize on what is happening in the rapid evolution of the American technology-based economy and its significant expansion here in Greater Phoenix and Arizona and position our state to not only seize the current opportunity in semiconductors but in other key technologies that will define future industry and the prosperity of both of our region and our nation.

Specifically, ABORs proposal calls for an investment in Arizona State Universitys Fulton Schools of Engineering tocontinue its current trajectory as a catalyst for a highly skilled workforce, new company creation, and to continue to drive research and technology development of the creative solutions that are critically needed by the semiconductor industry. The public investment of $46 million forfiscalyear 2022 would provide multipliers and sustaining support for the investments being brought here by the private sector. And most importantly, in the longer term, this investment will lay the foundation for emergence beyond present manufacturing technologies to all future manufacturing opportunities.

If metropolitan Phoenix is to continue on its journey to become a global leader in knowledgebased businesses, advanced engineering, advanced manufacturing and leading-edge technology, a position that will strengthen the Arizona economy across the board and throughout the state, it is important that we continue to invest in educating the workers that these advanced technology companies will need and in developing partnerships that drive continued growth, continued research and development, expansion, and ultimately future innovation and future industries. Arizona State University is the states best resource for doing exactly that and its an assignment we gladly accept.

Its no accident that TSMC, Intel and Samsung are all here as their most significant home base for manufacturing and advanced technology development. Its no longer about the climate or affordable housing in Arizona. State leaders have positioned us well by creating welcoming public policy. Industry leaders see ASU, with the largestengineering school in the country, as a resource for talent, research and partnerships a meaningful incentive for business to come here, invest here, and grow here.

Public investment in ASU will result in tangible and impactful outcomes and is part of a far-reaching goal to increase Arizonas competitiveness in the New Economy; a revolution that will be dominated by agile companies where automation and data-enabled decision-making power future industries. The FY 2022 budget request will mean investment in workforce development, expansion of the ASU engineering faculty, labs and technology to educate new learners, and for Science and Technology Centers that will bring companies, researchers and students together driving an increase in the numbers of inventions, patents, and affiliate startup companies and fueling economic expansion for the entire region.

Ultimately, this funding will accelerate the positioning that we are already well on our way to being, that is, Greater Phoenix and Arizona as one of the leading global engineering and innovation centers in the world.

Such progress will enhance the entire Arizona economy, converting us from a state that depends on the cycles of hospitality, tourism, construction and growth to an economy with multiple foundations, including one for 21stcentury expansion built around science and technology, a sector that is now and will continue to drive expansion and opportunity for everyone.

Kyle Squiresis dean of ASUs Fulton Schools of Engineering.

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Something very positive is happening in Greater Phoenix - Arizona Capitol Times