Category: Science And Technology

Many of us rely on GPS (Global Positioning System) to estimate travel times, find our way to new places, avoid traffic congestion, keep track of the kids, and generally avoid getting lost.

But it’s not always the most reliable of systems, especially in built-up areas where it’s difficult to get a straight line of sight to and from a satellite.

Now researchers have come up with a new and improved technology that could eventually replace GPS in some scenarios. Called SuperGPS, it’s accurate within 10 centimeters (or 3.9 inches) and doesn’t rely on navigation satellite systems.

The new approach makes use of networks similar to cell networks, but instead of streaming data to our phones the network gets a precise fix on the device.

A combination of radio transmitters and fiber-optic networks form the foundation of the system, with some smart tweaks on top.

“We realized that with a few cutting-edge innovations, the telecommunication network could be transformed into a very accurate alternative positioning system that is independent of GPS,” says physicist Jeroen Koelemeij from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

“We have succeeded and have successfully developed a system that can provide connectivity just like existing mobile and Wi-Fi networks do, as well as accurate positioning and time distribution like GPS.”

In a test site with six radio transmitters, the researchers were able to demonstrate their system in action across an area of 660 square meters (7,104 square feet). The timings of the transmitted radio signals can be measured and interpreted to gauge distance, which then reveals the position of individual devices.

One of the key components of the new network positioing system is a synchronized atomic clock: perfect timing means more precise positioning. Essentially, the fiber optic cables act as connections that keep everything in sync, and accurate to one billionth of a second.

The system also deploys a radio signal bandwidth that’s much larger than normal – although as radio spectrum bandwidth is expensive due to its scarcity, the team used several small bandwidth radio signals combined together to form a larger virtual bandwidth for the network communication.

This additional bandwidth overcomes one of the biggest problems with standard GPS, which is that radio signals get reflected off buildings and can quickly become confused.

“This can make GPS unreliable in urban settings, for instance, which is a problem if we ever want to use automated vehicles,” says electrical engineer Christiaan Tiberius, from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

As well as automated vehicles, the new system could be useful in planning quantum communication networks and next-generation networks for mobile devices, according to the researchers who developed it.

While Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) including GPS certainly have their uses and will continue to do so for a long time to come, experts are continually looking for ways to improve and refine it.

More testing is going to be required to establish this as a genuine alternative to GPS. The proposed network-based system would also take time to set up, in spite of the fact its transmission protocols and hardware are already in use. Current mobile and Wi-Fi masts could be adapted for the job at least, according to the researchers.

“This work provides a glimpse of a future in which telecommunication networks provide not only connectivity but also GNSS-independent timing and positioning services with unprecedented accuracy and reliability,” the researchers state in their published paper.

The research has been published in Nature.

Tanya Lewis: Hi, and welcome to COVID Quickly, a Scientific American podcast series! This is your fast-track update on the COVID pandemic. We bring you up to speed on the science behind the most urgent questions about the virus and the disease. We demystify the research, and help you understand what it really means.

I’m Tanya Lewis, one of Scientific American’s senior health editors. Josh is taking the week off. Today, I’m going to talk about how the antiviral Paxlovid may protect against long COVID, and what we know about the effectiveness of the new booster shots.

—

Lewis: We’ve talked a lot about long COVID on this show—lingering symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, headache, difficulty breathing, etc. But so far, there haven’t been many effective ways of preventing it. Vaccination provides some protection, but the only way to totally reduce the risk is avoiding COVID altogether.

But there’s some promising news: a recent preprint study of COVID patients with at least one risk factor for severe disease found that those who took the antiviral Paxlovid had a 26 percent lower chance of developing long COVID symptoms three months later, compared with the control group.

There were 9,000 patients in the Paxlovid group and about 47,000 in the control group. Those in the Paxlovid group had a lower risk of 10 out of 12 long COVID symptoms. These include an abnormal heart rhythm, ischemic heart disease, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, fatigue, liver disease, muscle pain, diabetes, and cognitive impairment.

And the protective effect was seen in people who were vaccinated, boosted, or unvaccinated.

But Paxlovid had another positive effect: it reduced the risk of death or hospitalization even beyond the acute phase of COVID. Patients were 48 percent less likely to die and 30 percent less likely to be hospitalized.

We know from previous studies, including one by the researcher who led this study, Ziyad Al-Aly at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Healthcare System, that people who’ve had COVID are at an increased risk of heart problems for up to a year after getting COVID—even after a mild case. Paxlovid could reduce that risk.

Of course, the new study results still need to be replicated in other studies and populations. But if Paxlovid is one more tool in our toolbox for fighting long COVID, that’s a good thing.

—

Lewis: There’s some more good news on the vaccine front. 

We’ve been waiting for data on how well the new bivalent booster shots work against Omicron. 

A number of studies have shown the shots work better than the original vaccine against the newer variants of SARS-CoV-2 that are currently circulating.

Both Pfizer and Moderna recently announced that their vaccines produced substantial levels of neutralizing antibodies against the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants. 

Moderna says its vaccine provided some protection against a rapidly gaining variant called BQ.1.1, but the numbers were too small to draw strong conclusions.

We still haven’t seen the actual data, just press releases. 

And showing the vaccines generated strong antibodies is not the same as showing that they protected against actual infection or severe disease. 

But it is a sign that the vaccines are supercharging our immune systems to respond to the virus.

The Pfizer and Moderna results are in line with a number of preprint studies. Suthar et al. at Emory University found the bivalent boosters led to a four-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies against BA.5 vs. the original vaccine, and a 10-fold increase against BQ.1.1. Shi et al. found a three-fold increase against BA.5 but not much of a difference against BQ.1.1.

A handful of other studies found no difference between the new bivalent booster and the original vaccine. But we know the original vaccine still provides good protection against severe disease and death.

All of this suggests that getting the new booster shots is a good idea. Sadly, only a small fraction of Americans have gotten the updated shots. We know that the people dying of COVID now tend to be older folks, especially those who are not up to date on their vaccines.

There’s still time to get your booster—or remind Grandpa to get his—ahead of the holidays, but don’t delay.

—

Lewis: Now you’re up to speed. Thanks for joining us. Our show is produced by Jeff Delviscio and Tulika Bose. Come back in two weeks for the next episode of COVID, Quickly! And check out sciam.com for updated and in-depth COVID news.

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]

It is a connundrum executive teams of numerous organizations who have hit major road bumps in their analytics development journey must surely discuss among themselves or with others: Why do some rollouts fail miserably while others succeed?

The answer to the question, said Kimberly Nevala, strategic advisor and advisory business solution manager with SAS, can be crystalized in six key attributes that companies who make “good use of analytics” adopt and practice.

In a keynote speech yesterday at the second annual Analytics Unleashed event, organized by IT World Canada and sponsored by SAS, Informatica and shinydocs, Nevala detailed six attributes that organizations need to have to not only achieve success, but to adapt to changing times.

Attribute One: Those firms that succeed in using analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), she said, focus on solving a broad spectrum of problems, full stop, end of story. “They are applying analytics and AI to problems that are both big and small. And in fact, the companies that are most mature report that the balance between use cases that you might consider operational, and those that are more strategic – things that are focused on operational efficiencies, versus creating new products or services – is about 50-50.”

The takeaway, she said, is, “companies who do this well no longer think about and plan for their data and analytics strategy to be separate from their business strategy.”

Attribute Two: Successful companies already use a broad spectrum of tools and as a result, are the least inclined to be distracted by the new bright and shiny objects: “They use the most simple, well proven techniques they can to solve any problem. And they do not spend a lot of time going back and re-architecting or redesigning something that already works, just because there’s a new method that could also work,” said Nevala.

“We might not take our old approach to forecasting and replace it with a machine learning model unless I can show a germane business impact and reason for doing it now. Why do I mention that? It’s important because they are not spending a lot of time just retreading existing ground.

“Now they have the headspace to go out and find new analytic problems to solve because they are not trying to make incremental, non-germane improvements in areas that are already doing well.”

Attribute Three: The successful organizations invest incrementally and mindfully in infrastructure, she said. What that means is that the “analytics and data infrastructure strategy is closely tied to their operational and transactional infrastructure strategy. And what this looks like is that companies that, for instance, are early adopters to the cloud, are not running to lift and shift every analytic workflow and all the accompanying data immediately to the cloud.

“They’re being mindful about the analytic workloads that make sense, and would benefit from the capabilities that are available in the cloud. It means that they invest in developing a robust blueprint for modern data pipelines, but they don’t try to move every data stream onto it before people start using it. They prioritize those data streams based on the use cases and actual usage and value in the organization.”

Attribute Four: They are big believers in mandatory AI and analytics training for every staff member. Nevala referenced an Accenture study entitled The Art of AI Maturity: Advancing from Practice to Performance that revealed that only 12 per cent of companies can be described as AI achievers. “On average, these companies are saying they can relate 30 per cent of revenue gains to their AI projects overall. That’s a staggering amount, but what I found really interesting was that 78 per cent of those AI achievers have mandatory training for employees at all levels of their companies.”

Training, she said, is not about teaching people number sense and understanding statistics, but teaching them about “analytic recognition so that people in your organization can actually know and identify the types of questions and the problems they can answer and the problems they can solve with analytics.

“Why is this important? It’s important, because it increases the surface area, if you will, the number of people who can identify problems we can apply analytics to. And because these people are identifying problems they care about, it increases the likelihood that the solution will be adopted.”

Nevala also stressed that simply having the tools in place will not guarantee success. As proof of that, she recalled a quote from the Scottish poet, novelist and literary critic Andrew Lang, who famously once said ‘politicians use statistics like a drunk uses a lamppost – for support rather than illumination.’

“It sounds like a joke; however, there was a recent study and in it, only 22 per cent of the decision makers surveyed said they use the insights and data that are provided to them when they are making decisions.”

Attribute Five: Successful organizations implement a strategy that involves decision intelligence (DI), a discipline that factors in data output from machine learning (ML) and AI advances. “Like so many other things, we have to develop the muscle and the skill in our organization to make good decisions about using information,” said Nevala.

“Frankly, I could probably use this in my day-to-day life as well. But what this means is that we are going to be very deliberate about identifying the decisions that we want to inform or make with analytics. And we are also going to define how we will make the decisions using the information that is provided.

“And then we’re going to monitor the outcomes of those decisions. To be clear, the point of DI is not to eliminate human judgment, the point of it is so that we are clear about how we apply the machine prediction. How will the human use that machine prediction when they are making a decision?”

Attribute Six: The final attribute revolves around a single word – governance. “The standard approach to governance, or thinking about governance, is that it is going to stymie innovation,” she said. “I would argue exactly the opposite, that if done well, particularly now, when we have to be attentive not just to risks, but increasingly to rights, it is the key to unlocking innovation.

“If we do governance right, (it) is about enabling critical thinking, and allowing people to make decisions in the face of uncertainty.”

In the end, said Nevala, analytic tools and platforms should be considered as a means to an end: “Now there is no question that low-code, no-code, and data scientists are very, very important. And they can get a lot more people in your organization developing insights, models, etc.

“But you should be under no illusion that the majority of your employees want to roll their own analytics. They don’t. And they won’t, and nor does their job or their function likely require them to, moving forward. But this doesn’t mean that they’re not interested in doing better with insights and outcomes that a model can give them.”

She observed that, like kids whose parent hides the spinach in their kids’ cheesy lasagna, “they prefer that those insights are delivered to them in the context and in line of their existing business process flows and workflows, not as a separate tool. Organizations that assume that analytics and AI are going to be self-serve for everybody may find that analytics and AI are self-serve and used by nobody.”

Dr Johnny Ryan of the ICCL has written to European commissioner Margrethe Vestager that there exists a ‘regime of data anarchy’ at Meta.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has declared that Facebook-parent Meta is incapable of complying with EU data protection laws.

In a letter to European Commission vice-president Margrethe Vestager, who is responsible for overseeing the recently passed Digital Markets Act (DMA), ICCL’s Dr Johnny Ryan called out Meta for “a data free-for-all” that makes compliance with the DMA ‘impossible’.

Based on thousands of pages of unsealed documents from an ongoing case against Meta in California, the ICCL was able to reveal what it calls a “regime of data anarchy” in which people responsible for data systems are unaware of how other people in the company use their system.

“These latest revelations show data anarchy inside Meta. It does not know where, how or why data is used internally,” Ryan said separately. “Meta cannot comply with the new EU Digital Markets Act and has failed to uphold its GDPR obligations for years. This is a data free-for-all.”

The letter highlights how, in some cases, even the engineers using systems in Meta may not be able to understand what is happening because, according to on Meta engineer, “it is not possible for humans to understand”.

Newly unsealed court documents reveal data anarchy at @Meta.

We’ve just sent the European Commission @vestager +@ThierryBreton @dreynders new material revealing Meta’s internal data systems
+how Meta infringes the new EU Digital Markets Act + GDPRhttps://t.co/ylwouHVU7N

— Johnny Ryan (@johnnyryan) November 17, 2022

Ryan wrote, based on documents from the case, that Meta was unable to respond when ordered to produce information about what 149 different data systems within Meta do and what parts of Meta’s business use them – despite having conducted a year-long investigation of those systems.

He argued that Meta cannot comply with the provisions of the DMA, one of which prohibits Big Tech firms from automatically using data from one part of their business to prop up other parts, because it cannot “distinguish data uses for separate core platform services”.

“Meta’s inability to know and account for how it uses data internally not only makes it impossible to comply with the DMA, but also infringes the GDPR, too,” Ryan went on.

‘Contrary to contestability and fairness’

A senior fellow of the ICCL, Ryan has long been critical of Big Tech in the EU – as well as the Irish Data Protection Commission’s (DPC) handling of GDPR complaints against them.

Ryan told an Oireachtas committee last year that Ireland had become a “bottleneck of GDPR investigation and enforcement” and the Irish DPC has failed to resolve 98pc of cases important enough to be of concern across the EU – a claim disputed by the DPC.

Just last month, Ryan wrote in a letter to the European Ombudsman that the Commission “has produced little to indicate that it has diligently monitored Ireland’s application of the GDPR” at a time when “the fundamental rights of all Europeans hang in the balance”.

In his latest criticism of Meta, Ryan argues that infringements of the GDPR are “contrary to contestability and fairness in the market” and urged the Commission to take certain immediate steps.

“The Commission should obtain from Meta a complete and granular list of each data processing purpose, and all relevant information about its data processing,” he wrote, adding that the latest revelations mean that Meta will meet the test of “systematic non-compliance” in the DMA.

He also urged the Commission to be prepared to impose “structural remedies” on Meta under the DMA – including the possibility of breaking Meta up.

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John J. Ray III, a Chicago-based lawyer and new CEO of now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, has criticized the lack of “appropriate corporate governance” across many FTX Group companies under Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX. 

See related article: FTX debacle has crypto industry pointing finger at regulators in call for clear rules of the road

Fast facts

• “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here,” Ray said in a court filing on Thursday.

• “From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented,” he said.

• Since the departure of Bankman-Fried, new directors have been appointed in the primary companies of the FTX Group as part of a new governance structure, Ray said in his filing. 

• Ray added the FTX Group did not maintain centralized control of its cash, failed to have an accurate list of bank accounts and account signatories and did not maintain appropriate books and records or security controls for its digital assets. 

• “In the Bahamas, I understand that corporate funds of the FTX Group were used to purchase homes and other personal items for employees and advisors. I understand that there does not appear to be documentation for certain of these transactions as loans, and that certain real estate was recorded in the personal name of these employees and advisors on the records of the Bahamas,” he said. 

See related article: Who is exposed to FTX? A running compilation on a rapidly moving target

Diversity training in the workplace is nothing new.

Every office with a Human Resources (HR) department has a list of dos and don’ts. No one really pays attention to them, at least not until an audit or litigation demands it. And for a very long time, organisations could get away with paying lip service towards diversity. 

It wasn’t until the winds of social change turned into a tornado that diversity took centre stage. From what was once a neglected component of HR, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) are now at the core of many forward-thinking businesses.

From hiring to promotion, and branding to onboarding, it has become increasingly trendy for companies to introduce a slew of DEI policies as a response to social unrest and inequalities.

Is DEI the answer to create a successful workplace, or is it nothing more than a veneer of change to make companies look more enlightened and progressive than they really are?

Why DEI matters

While interconnected, diversity, equity, and inclusion are very different concepts. 

Diversity broadly refers to having different representations in the workplace in terms of race, gender, age et cetera. Meanwhile, equity requires firms to ensure that processes are fair and equitable to all individuals. As for inclusion, it is the art of making people feel heard, valued, and supported at work. 

So far, numerous research has shown that having a solid DEI strategy can help companies to outperform their peers and drive sustainable economic growth. 

For a start, implementing DEI policies creates an environment that empowers employees. It creates a safe space for them to speak up and reduces herd mentality in decision-making. 

Companies that bring together people from different backgrounds also encourage the flourishing of innovative and creative ideas. 

Furthermore, with talent a scarce resource, DEI is instrumental in promoting employee retention and engagement. When employees can show up at work as their true, authentic selves, they are more likely to realise their full potential, contribute their best and feel more fulfilled at work. 

Speaking to the Business Times, Mr Sim Gim Guan, executive director of the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) further reiterates why DEI should be taken seriously.

By managing DEI better, employers can strengthen workplace relations, collaboration, and innovation. Building on workplace fairness, employers can develop inclusive workplace policies and practices that will attract and retain the best talent.

– Sim Gim Guan, Executive Director at SNEF

DEI landscape in Singapore

For a country that strives to be the hub of everything, and number one at anything, one would expect companies in Singapore to jump onto the DEI bandwagon. 

And yet, we are lagging dreadfully behind in a US$15 billion industry that promises higher productivity and revenue growth. 

According to a report by human capital firm Kincentric, seven in 10 Singapore-based employers have not introduced DEI policies. This is even though more than half of those surveyed believe in the positive impact of DEI on employee engagement and company culture. 

When probed, a lack of DEI data, managerial ineffectiveness and incompatible work culture are cited as reasons behind the absence of DEI strategies in most businesses. 

The dichotomy here is that while employers are aware they need to do better, many, especially larger firms, are bogged down by institutionalised practices preventing them from making positive changes. 

This is clearly hurting employees. In a poll by consulting firm Kantar, which ranked Singapore as the second-worst place globally for workplace diversity, one in four Singaporeans reported feeling bullied at work and unable to speak up. 

In another survey by Hays Recruitment, 61 per cent of respondents were adamant that their leaders were biased towards promoting people who “think, look or act like them”. 

Ageism has also been flagged as a concern, with one-third of respondents saying age was a factor that could lower their chances of being selected for a job. 

These statistics paint a depressing picture and makes one wonder, are employees in Singapore living under a façade of peace and harmony?

In the long run, a growing population of disenfranchised employees will impede the ability of organisations to attract and retain the necessary talent to drive business growth. 

Hard truths about DEI

The problem with showing even an iota of doubt about DEI is, one immediately gets labelled a racist, or a misogynist, amongst other things. As a result, many businesses now have a set of pledges and affirmations to placate the wokerati. 

They might even hire a diversity manager, or send their staff for diversity training, naively thinking that a few hours of re-education can overturn a lifetime of prejudices. 

What is perhaps the worst thing to promote diversity is a hiring quota. Instead of judging candidates for their skills, there is a directive and insistence that candidates must come from a particular race or gender. 

This myopic manner will certainly backfire because companies might end up with a United Nations of staff but nobody capable enough to do the work. It also makes a mockery out of the DEI process and reduces it into a box-ticking exercise.

While there are initiatives to address DEI at the workplace, they often do not go far or deep enough. 

The OneWorkplace.sg (OWP) programme, for example, focuses on the integration between local and non-local workforce. While laudable, it simplifies the workplace divide and fails to address the chasm between employers and employees, or even employees themselves. 

Meanwhile, the Tripartite Alliance for Fair & Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) has several guidelines, and employers can pledge to be a TAFEP partner. However, they are not legally binding. 

Employees have no way of knowing they are indeed passed over for a job because of their age or sexual orientation. There is also nothing an employee can do if their colleagues constantly speak in their Mother Tongue instead of using the lingua franca. 

At the end of the day, DEI policies are probably not reaching the workspaces that need them the most. Specifically, small-medium enterprises that are less concerned about litigation or brand name. 

In a traditional and somewhat intolerant society, organisations do not really want to change, but they do want to look as if they are.

Featured Image Credit: Zuehlke Singapore

Shoppers Drug Mart is getting ready for Black Friday with a few choice tech deals. However, the store’s deals start on Saturday, November 19th and continue through Sunday, so you can’t capitalize on them just yet.

The best deals include a 65-inch 4K TV starting at $499 and first-generation AirPods Pros being discounted to $279. To sweeten the deal, both items also come with a $100 Shoppers gift card.

Following that, the Xbox Series X is dropping down to $319 and comes with a $25 gift card. The 2nd generation AirPods are priced at $179 and come with a $75 gift card.

Other deals include discounts on Xbox Series X/S controllers ($59) and the new PlayStation DualSense controller ($64).

The “wait, there’s more” moment of this deal hasn’t happened yet, but savvy shoppers in the Red Flag Deals forums are predicting a bonus deal in the PC Optimum app. Ideally, it will net people another 20,000 points or so for spending over $75. That said, we won’t know if this is true until the weekend when the personalized offers are reported to arrive.

Last year on Black Friday, the brand also ran a bonus redemption event that offered nice discounts to people looking to buy items with points as well. It’s unclear if this will return in 2022.

You can view your full local Shoppers flyer here.

Source: Shoppers, Red Flag Deals 

Watching television or films as an online group activity has grown in popularity in recent years.

But every time we use an app, website or streaming platform, information about us is collected.

Now a BBC Research and Development project has created a trial watch party service which gives people control over their personal data.

Using technology developed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, each user of the service is given their own “data pod” with the ability to decide what personal data the services can see, how long they can access it and for what purpose.

BBC Click’s Lara Lewington reports.

The BBC Together+ Data Pod trial launched on Tuesday 25 October. You can find out more about it here.

See more at Click’s website and @BBCClick.