Sludge seeps into a company in seemingly innocuous ways. It’s the complex approvals process that requires multiple layers of sign-off, even for minor decisions. It’s the email chains, nine deep with a dozen people on cc. It’s a micromanager who hovers over their team, and excessively customized tech solutions that are difficult to maintain and lack interoperability with other systems. It’s the meetings.

   
The hidden costs of inefficiencies (strategybusiness)
   

   
In response to the growing popularity of VPNs, numerous ISPs and governments are now seeking to track or block VPN traffic in order to maintain visibility and control over the traffic within their jurisdictions.In this paper, we explore the implications of DPI for VPN detection and blocking by studying the fingerprintability of OpenVPN (the most popular protocol for commercial VPN services) from the perspective of an adversarial ISP.

   
The censorship from tracking to blocking (acm)

   

   
As we continue to move through a period of continuous disruption and ongoing change, companies will need to move beyond traditional benchmarks, processes and ways of working to maintain a competitive advantage and capitalize on new opportunities. As part of this transformation, companies and C-suite leaders urgently need to implement and scale far more advanced capabilities across their supply chain networks and operations.

   
New value with advanced supply chain capabilities (accenture)

   

   
According to the report The Netherlands has reached a $96bn ecosystem value between H2 2021 and 2023 — well above the global average of $29.4bn. When it comes to all of Europe, London remains the leader with an ecosystem value of $621.5bn in 2023. This GSER report also ranks London, in a tie with New York City, as the world’s second top hub, only behind Silicon Valley.

   
Report 2024 (startupgenome)

   

   
Achieving Net Zero Emissions in the Agrifood System offers the first comprehensive global strategic framework to mitigate the agrifood system’s contributions to climate change, detailing affordable and readily available measures that can cut nearly a third of the world’s planet heating emissions while ensuring global food security.

   
Achieving net zero emissions in the agrifood system(worldbank)

   

   
The Coxsackie B virus has been in the crosshairs of researchers for a very long time, in particular because it is often found in young children at risk due to family history. The researchers demonstrated in vitro that this virus was capable of directly and specifically killing the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas (the beta cells of the islets of Langerhans).

   
Direct pancreatic β cell killing induced by Coxsackievirus infection (science advances)

   

   
While the role and significance of upcoming elections this year varies across countries, for many markets the results of the elections promise to have a significant impact on the issues that matter most to Gen Zs and millennials around the world, and respondents’ outlook for the social and political situations in their countries reflects that ambiguity.

   
With a purpose of transforming the world (deloitte)

   

   
Three years ago,we laid out challenges and opportunities in the development of the market for electric vehicles. But our latest survey of more than 1,000 executives in 30 countries and territories, shows that the industry is becoming more sober about market prospects. Having committed more than half a trillion dollars to the EV transition, the industry is asking when companies will see a return on the investment.

   
24 th Annual Global Automotive (kpmg)

   

   
Decades of poor water management, exploding populations, and rising temperatures have degraded the region’s land and sapped its limited water supplies. The region’s famous waterways are disappearing before our very eyes. Once-roaring rivers have been reduced to trickles that can easily be crossed on foot.

   
Water and the future of the Middle East (csis)

   

   
For the third edition of our Trade Survey, we asked over 3,000 companies in China, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the UK and the US about their outlook for global trade in the year ahead. This year, 82% of the companies surveyed said they expected business turnover generated through exports to increase.

   
Trade Global Survey 2024 (allianze)

   

   
MIT and Harvard have engineered a gene-delivery vehicle that uses a human protein to efficiently cross the blood-brain barrier and deliver a disease-relevant gene to the brain in mice expressing the human protein. Because the vehicle binds to a well-studied protein in the blood-brain barrier, the scientists say it has a good chance at working in patients.

   
Human brain gene therapy (broadinstitute)

   

   
This report provides important insights to the novice and CDR enthusiast-alike, who want to understand where CDR stands today and what challenges need to be addressed to scale the industry. The authors of The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal Edition 2 report represent a diverse mix of perspectives with expertise spanning climate science, engineering, economics, and policy.

   
A global, independent scientific assessment (squarespace)

   

   
European pension markets are undergoing reform and shifting from defined benefit to defined contribution schemes. This potentially has both positive and negative impacts on Emerging Market and Developing Economies (EMDEs) allocation. There is a critical role for governments, MDBs and the DFIs that they own to help these institutions allocate more assets to EMDEs.

   
Trillions or billions? (odi)

   

  Monitoring infrastructure with SAR

   
As infrastructure ages, it becomes more susceptible to failure, which can cause safety and mobility concerns for drivers and pedestrians, and economic woes for taxpayers. High-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite data can detect infrastructure issues early on, which can help prevent further damage to roads in the same way that annual checkups can help prevent more complex health issues in humans.

   
Infrastructure issue detection by satellite (journals.sagepub)

   

   
Mallinckrodt wasn’t the first drug manufacturer forced by litigation into legal discovery, but unlike Purdue it didn’t fight tooth and nail to keep its documents out of the public eye.6 The Washington Post, which had an exclusive first look at the Mallinckrodt files in 2022, revealed that the company “cultivated a reliable stable of hundreds of doctors it could count on to write a steady stream of prescriptions for pain pills.”

   
Medical attitudes toward pain medicine (BMJ)

   

   
Winemaking is an industry associated with tradition and terroir.1 Now, climate change is transforming the face of global wine production, causing declines in some regions and presenting opportunities in others – the UK among them. However, the UK, a relative newcomer to winemaking in the modern era, faces challenges in adapting to climate change too.

   
Risk and opportunity in the wine sector (lse.ac)

   

   
Age, parity and germline mutations, known to modulate the risk of developing breast cancer, affected the homeostatic cellular state of the breast in different ways. We found that immune cells from BRCA1 or BRCA2 carriers had a distinct gene expression signature indicative of potential immune exhaustion, which was validated by immunohistochemistry.

   
The homeostatic cellular shifts (nature genetics)

   

   
B2C companies accumulate more money from a product than the brands they buy from. In B2C marketing, 3 out of 4 marketers believe their campaigns are successful. It is estimated that 79% of marketers use content marketing to generate leads. Regardless of their relevance, their content marketing strategies still differ from their regular sales techniques.

   
Trends 2024 (techreport)

   

   
Nothing lives forever, but compared to other cells in the body, hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are remarkably long-lived. HSCs are blood-forming cells—they give rise to rapidly dividing progenitor cells, which in turn generate hundreds of billions of cells to fulfill the daily demand of oxygen-delivering red blood cells, disease-fighting white blood cells and clot-forming platelets.

   
HSC longevity (phys)

   

   
We still need access to physical, real-world data to train robots. That data is relatively scarce and tends to require a lot more time, effort, and expensive equipment to collect. That scarcity is one of the main things currently holding progress in robotics back. As a result, leading companies and labs are in fierce competition to find new and better ways to gather the data they need.

   
The robot race (technologyreview)

   

  Lituania: "a reverse brain drain country"

   
In 2022, over 20,000 Lithuanians returned to their country of birth from abroad. A high quality of life coupled with a booming entrepreneurial ecosystem and a collaborative mentality has contributed to what investors are calling a “reverse brain drain.” Many of their minds reemerge in the country’s startup scene.

   
A hidden gem of Europe’s startup ecosystem (thenextweb)

   

   
China’s distant-water fleet (DWF) is by far the world’s largest, both in terms of the number of fishing vessels it has and the volume of fish caught, operating across the world’s major fishing grounds. Increasingly, this fleet has been associated with a range of illegal, unsustainable and abusive behaviours towards marine ecosystems and crew alike.

   
The great socio ecological costs (ejfondation)

   

   
Our analysis of GenAI’s potential projected value suggests that if the technology were applied to current operating models, software companies could realize an uplift in profit margin of about 20 percentage points. Even for sectors with substantially small- er projected gains, such as transport and logistics, the potential of a 1 percent- age point increase in profits is certainly worth exploring.

   
Setting the flywheel in motion (pwc)

   

   
Using life on Earth as our guide, we look beyond green landscapes to expand our ability to detect signs of surface life on other worlds. While oxygenic photosynthesis gives rise to modern green landscapes, bacteriochlorophyll-based anoxygenic phototrophs can also colour their habitats and could dominate a much wider range of environments on Earth-like exoplanets.

   

Purple is the new green (mnras)

   

   
WBCSD and ERM undertook a dialogue to discover what is holding companies back and the practical steps that can be taken to drive immediate, decisive action aligned with long-term sustainability ambition and market success. This involved a series of frank, in-depth interviews and active engagements with over 130 global business executives and sustainability experts.

   
Catching the wave (wbcsd)

   

   
Within the technology industry category, which encompasses technology occupations and supporting business occupations, growth has varied. Since 2018, the IT services and custom software services category powered job growth, accounting for 50% of job gains. Software [product] accounted for 29% of the job gains in the same time period.

   
The tech workforce across multiple vectors (comptia)

   

   
Wooden tools rarely survive in the Paleolithic record limiting our understanding of Pleistocene hunter-gather lifeways. With 187 wooden artifacts, Schöningen 13 II-4 provides the largest assemblage worldwide introduced here for the first time in full. Wooden tools include at least 10 spears and seven throwing sticks used in hunting next to 35 newly recognized pointed and rounded split woods likely used in domestic activities.

   
Insights into Pleistocene woodworking techniques (pnas)

   

   
This study analyzes the most important global trends in the field of green technologies. The aim is to identify those countries that have the best technological basis for developing, for example, more efficient photovoltaic cells, better fuel cells, new battery recycling methods or market-ready carbon capture and storage systems. A particular focus was placed on Germany’s position in the most important green technology fields.

   
How fit for the future are we? (bertelsmann-stiftung)

   

   
Even with the same savings behavior, no generation can match the wealth accumulation enjoyed by the Baby Boomers. We calculate that their savings sum up to just under 614% of disposable income, with an average nominal return of 6.1% per year. The big losers are the Millennials – shortly after they began to accumulate wealth, crisis followed crisis, resulting in an annual return of just 3.1%.

   
The best is yet to come (allianz-trade)

   

  State of the global climate 2023

   
The publication provides a summary on the state of the climate indicators in 2023 with sections on key climate indicators, extreme events and impacts. Heatwaves, floods, droughts, fires and tropical cyclones represent all extreme events that hamper development. The number of people experiencing food insecurity more than doubled, from 149 to 333 million between 2019 and 2023, in 78 countries monitored by the World Food Program.

   
State of emergency (wmo)

   

   
The Report contains a Special Feature on the tax wedge on second earners in OECD countries. This chapter sheds light on how tax policy may affect the incentives facing women when they decide whether and how much to work, in a context of persistent gender-related inequalities in labour outcomes, particularly as concerns the labour force participation of women.

   
Taxing Wages report

   

   
A recent study suggested that the ability to bioluminesce has evolved more than 100 times independently (i.e. greater than 100 origins) across the tree of life. However, detailed natural history focused on the evolution of bioluminescence is limited to just a few groups of animals where robust phylogenies are available (e.g. beetles, ostracods and fish).

   
Evolution of bioluminescence in Anthozoa (royalsocietypublishing)

   

   
A central question for regenerative neuroscience is whether synthetic neural circuits, such as those built from two species, can function in an intact brain. Here, we apply blastocyst complementation to selectively build and test interspecies neural circuits. Despite approximately 10–20 million years of evolution, and prominent species differences in brain size, rat pluripotent stem cells injected into mouse blastocysts develop and persist throughout the mouse brain.

   
Sensory function from chimeric mouse (cell)

   

   
Other recognised risk factors for meningioma are being female, intracranial exposure to ionising radiation, neurofibromatosis type 22, and, as shown only recently, prolonged use (≥one year) to high doses of three potent progestogens: cyproterone acetate, chlormadinone acetate, and nomegestrol acetate.

   
The risk of intracranial meningioma (bmj)

   

   
Since ISO 9001’s inception, the revisions have alternated between major changes and minor ones. Again, this wasn’t based on directives; it’s just how things happened. The design specification for each revision takes into account multiple factors, including things like market feedback. This essentially drives how extensive the changes will be.

   
How its work ? (qualitydigest)

   

   
The International Seabed Authority (ISA), the UN-backed regulator, is preparing to consider the world’s first commercial deep-sea mining application as soon as July, despite many member states warning it is too soon for extraction to leap from land into water. Facing that deadline, companies and countries have been racing to influence what comes next.

   
2040 fourfold increase in demand (ft)

   

   
Some viruses are rarely transmitted orally or sexually despite their presence in saliva, breast milk, or semen. We previously identified that extracellular vesicles (EVs) in semen and saliva inhibit Zika virus infection. However, the antiviral spectrum and underlying mechanism remained unclear. Here we applied lipidomics and flow cytometry to show that these EVs expose phosphatidylserine (PS).

   
The apoptotic mimicry infection inhibition (nature microbiology)

   

   
such as Allianz, Haier, Microsoft, and Nucor are transforming their industries with a new organizational approach that seeks to be open, fluid, and adaptable; unleashes the collective energy, passion, and capabilities of its people; reimagines strategy; and focuses on delivering greater value to all stakeholders. This new model focuses on a powerful aspiration: creating sustainable, inclusive growth.

   
7 tips (cio)

   

   
Poganik and colleagues2 recently provided compelling evidence that physiological stressors, including pregnancy, are associated with an acceleration of biological aging, as indexed by measures from DNA methylation (DNAm)-based epigenetic clocks. In mice, the authors reported evidence for pregnancy-associated biological aging, with a partial reversal of this effect after the cessation of pregnancy.

   
Prognosticating effect (cell-metabolism)

   

   
The number of elite AI scholars with Chinese origins had multiplied by 10 in the previous decade, but relatively few of them stayed in China for their work. The majority moved to the US. MIT report published an updated analysis, showing how the makeup of global AI talent has changed since—during a critical period when the industry has shifted significantly and become the hottest technology sector.

   
What has changed since 2019 (technologyreview)

   

   
As buying patterns change and more consumers start to rethink their shopping habits, we are seeing massive growth in the direct-to-consumer (D2C) marketplace. From digitally native offerings through to traditional manufacturers, many businesses are now exploring how they can take advantage of new D2C models and approaches. Given the data, it seems D2C will soon be capturing a greater share of consumer wallets.

   
The rise of D2C (kpmg)

   

   
EVs remain in a relative sweet spot despite major headwinds. We forecast the sale of new EV passenger cars to exceed 18mn (+32.8% y/y) in 2024, with Europe leading the way (+41.2%). On the production side, we anticipate a decline in gross and EBIT margins to 18.7% (-28pps) and 5.2% (-164pps), and an accelerated consolidation. The expected uptick in the R&D and CapEx-to-sales ratios shows that automakers are likely to diversify their investments and stay agile.

   
Steering through turbulence (allianz-trade)

   

   
The health care offerings of many retailers—whether on their own or in partnership with health systems—are mostly limited to routine, one-off services such as taking a strep throat culture, treating an ear infection, or administering a shingles vaccine. Retailers have emphasized convenient care. But now they must shift to comprehensive care.

   
Improving costs, services delivery (hbr)

   

   
Between now and 2050, the cumulative emissions from cement will exceed those of all cars on the road today. Unlike road transport however, where deployment of electric vehicles has increased significantly in recent years, there are not yet any mature and cost-competitive solutions for cement decarbonization. Several options are currently under development yet.

   
Within the global climate goals (rhg)

   

   
Gross domestic product (GDP) is an indicator of the value added in the production of goods and services. Depending on the greenhouse gas intensity, these contribute to greenhouse gas emissions to varying degrees. Over time, GDP has become significantly decoupled from the development of greenhouse gas emissions. Nevertheless, GDP and the associated use of fossil energies represent a greenhouse gas driver, especially in the manufacturing sector.

   
Framework data (umweltbundesamt)

   

   
Scott Rogers, senior vice president at Udemy, said his company’s online learning platform has seen an explosion of enrollments in genAI courses. This year, Udemy had more than three million genAI-related course enrollments, higher than any other curriculum. Up to 30% of working hours in the US can be automated by 2030 with employees across various professional fields.

   
What employers are seeking in new hires (computerworld)

   

   
This report and accompanying technical annex analyse the impact of climate framework laws in three countries, Germany, Ireland and New Zealand, based on evidence from 73 expert interviews and desk research. The report covers impacts on: climate governance; political debate; climate policies; citizens and stakeholders; and society and climate.

   
Lessons from Germany, Ireland & New Zealand (lse.ac)

   

   
Our industry will need to reduce the use of non-renewable resources during production and ensure the materials we make can be recycled. We will have to accelerate the recycling of waste to make new chemicals, capture and use CO2/CO as feedstock for our processes and use waste biomass to advance bio-based chemistry.

   
EU' Transition Pathway (cefic)

   

   
This report examines the amount and type of radioactive contamination in Greenland, Spain, and RMI; and how conditions have changed at these sites, and the extent to which the environment and inhabitants have been affected by these changed conditions. Gov Aaccoutability Office reviewed key literature on the contamination and interviewed U.S. and foreign government officials.

   
Future management of contamination (gao)

   

   
On November 30th 2023, the International Standard Organization (ISO) published a new stand- ard on “carbon neutrality”1 of organizations and products (ISO 2023). Some experts regard the new standard as a huge progress providing clarity to a complex issue, while others see them as a mere tool for green-washing.

   
How to improve the new ISO on carbon (umweltbundesamt)

   

   
In a recent study, researchers from the Complexity Science Hub and MedUni Vienna are analysing the entire health trajectory of almost nine million people in Austria for the first time. They identify critical points at which disease progression drifts apart significantly - with serious consequences for the lives of patients and for the healthcare system.

   
New model (nature)

   

   
“Harnessing AI-Powered Machine Vision for Industrial Success" webinar brings together industry leaders to discuss how those two tools open up many possibilities for industrial companies to maximize their competitiveness, from improving quality control to enhancing safety and optimizing production processes.

   
All Roads lead to one vision (qualitydigest)

   

   
Despite the pressures brought on by the cost of living crisis, British families today have less consumer debt relative to their incomes than at any point since records began in 1999. The pandemic is the main reason for this: in cash terms, aggregate outstanding consumer debt fell by £26 billion between December 2019 and March 2021.

   
The financial impacts of low savings (resolutionfoundation)

   

   
The new study builds on an earlier effort by the researchers to explore the origins of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which revealed that enterococci arose from an ancestral microorganism that dates back 450 million years, when animals first began crawling onto land. Since then, these bacteria have evolved to be able to survive in harsh conditions, including hospitals despite frequent disinfection.

   
Understanding the origins of a major hospital pathogen (broadinstitute)

   

   
Every time you use your voice to generate a message on a Samsung Galaxy mobile phone or activate a Google Home device, you’re using tools Chanwoo Kim helped develop. The former executive vice president of Samsung Research’s Global AI Centers specializes in end-to-end speech recognition, end-to-end text-to-speech tools, and language modeling.

   
Chanwoo Kim tools (ieee)

   

   
GitHub released data on its copilot’s impact, with 88% of surveyed developers stating improved productivity, 74% focusing on more satisfying work, and over 87% saying they complete tasks faster. In one benchmark, GitHub asked developers to write an HTTP server in JavaScript; the developers using copilot completed the task over twice as fast compared to those not using copilot.

   
What’s hype and where to drive results (cio)

   

   
While scientists have previously 3D bioprinted thin layers of skin, Ozbolat and his team are the first to intraoperatively print a full, living system of multiple skin layers, including the bottom-most layer or hypodermis. Intraoperatively refers to the ability to print the tissue during surgery, meaning the approach may be used to more immediately and seamlessly repair damaged skin,

   
Intraoperative bioprinting (sciencedirect)

   

   
40% of consumers say they are cutting back on sugar and more than half say excess sugar consumption is their number one concern when shopping for food and drink. When manufacturers respond to consumer demand for reduced or zero sugar products, they often turn to alternative sweeteners. Common examples include aspartame, saccharin, sucralose and stevia.

   
How should industry respond? (foodnavigator)

   

   
At around 40 meters, breathing the gas mixture we call air—78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% trace gases—causes inert gas narcosis, or the “martini effect,” named for the incapacitating state it induces. A little deeper and oxygen becomes toxic. For years, the US and British navies had been using helium to dilute the oxygen and nitrogen in a diver’s tank as a means of counteracting both these problems, but few outsiders knew about it.

   
What above 200 meters’ depth about? (technologyreview)

   

   
The exploration–refinement hypothesis posits that learning shapes the ontogeny of migration in long-lived species, resulting in greater exploratory behavior early in life followed by more rapid and direct movement during later life. We test the exploration–refinement hypothesis by examining how white storks (Ciconia ciconia) balance energy, time, and information as they develop and refine migratory behavior during the first years of life.

   
Learning by doing (pnas)

   

   
While there is a framework already in place to guide pharmaceutical companies around the implementation and use of cloud technologies, for example the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering’s (ISPE’s) Good Automated Manufacturing Practice (GAMP) guides, the industry’s hesitance to invest into new systems and its “late adopter” approach.

   
Behind the industry’s reluctance (pharmtech)

   

   
The ocean is a massive carbon sink, having absorbed around 30% of the carbon dioxide we’ve pumped into the atmosphere. Marine life is already paying a terrible price for the resulting changes in ocean chemistry though. Carbon dioxide reacts with seawater forming carbonic acid, which in turn dissociates into bicarbonate and hydrogen ions.

   
Start-ups taking on climate change (chemistryworld)

   

   
The dual-modal tactile e-skin offers multi-functional tactile sensing and programmable haptic feedback, underpinned by a layered structure comprised of flexible magnetic films, soft silicone, a Hall sensor and actuator array, and a microcontroller unit. The e-skin captures the magnetic field changes caused by subtle deformations through Hall sensors, employing deep learning for accurate tactile perception.

   
Enabling bidirectional Human-Robot interaction (arxiv)
   

   
The particularity of mitochondria is that they have their own DNA, independent of that of our cells. It is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA. Previous studies have shown that 50% of human cancers are characterized by mutations in mtDNA. A majority of them are located more specifically in a protein structure, “complex I”, involved in the production of ATP by the mitochondria.

   
Checkpoint blockade response in melanoma (nature-cancer)
   

   
Global warming increases available sensible and latent heat energy, increasing the thermodynamic potential wind intensity of tropical cyclones (TCs). Supported by theory, observations, and modeling, this causes a shift in mean TC intensity, which tends to manifest most clearly at the greatest intensities.

   
Inadequacy of an open-ended Saffir–Simpson scale (pnas)

   

   
From 31 January 2023, all initial clinical trial applications in the European Union (EU) must be submitted via the Clinical Trials Information System (CTIS). CTIS is now the single-entry point for sponsors and regulators of clinical trials for the submission and assessment of clinical trial data.

   
Use of Clinical Trials Information System becomes mandatory (ema)

   

   
In this report we reveal the crucial puzzle piece we’ve been missing: how people view the world and their role in it, and what this means for how they relate to sustainability. By capturing this dynamic with six Life-centric Archetypes, we show how organizations can help people live more sustainably to reinvent consumption and themselves for the better.

   
Around a shared understanding (accenture)

   

   
The analysis is based on Allianz proprietary risk ratings model that is updated every quarter with the latest economic developments and Allianz Trade’s proprietary data on global insolvencies and the business environment. The Country Risk Atlas is designed to help businesses and investors make informed decisions by identifying potential risks and opportunities around the world.

   
Non-payment risk assesment (allianz)

   

   
“No one can teach you how to lead; you need to be willing and able to learn how to lead. Mostly we learn from our experiences and facing adversity. Stepping outside of the spaces where we feel safe — is a powerful teacher.” Here are what Hill says are the top eight most important qualities for successful leadership — along with ideas on how to cultivate them.

   
What it takes to be a great leader? (hbr)

   

   
The conclusion to be drawn from our panorama – that Europe should develop a greater capacity for action and self-assertion externally – is so obvious that it is hard for political players to ignore. So there is no lack of insight: “Europe must learn the language of power” – this is one of the phrases that tend to be used in this context.

   
International reports (kas)

   

   
Corporations have been increasingly deploying artificial intelligence (AI) in supply chains for demand planning and procurement, while exploring its use in other areas, such as standardizing processes and optimizing last-mile delivery. Even in the relatively nascent area of sustainability tracking and measurement, AI adoption is as high as 62%, according to an EY study.

   
Across the end-to-end (ey)

   

We unpack the proposed IRS guidance, building on our previous research and assessing the implications for emissions and clean hydrogen scale-up. The US needs to get experience building and installing electrolyzers for clean hydrogen at an unprecedented scale today to establish a domestic industry, drive down costs, and expand availability.

   
Unpacking treasury’s proposed 45V Tax Credit Guidance (rhg)

   

   
Proposals for technology policy reform have taken the form of fixed laws of infinite duration, which run the risk of unintended consequences. But lawmakers could take a more curious, experimental approach. This alternative approach to policymaking—which we call “regulatory curiosity”—would enable lawmakers to test different regulatory approaches for fixed periods of time and to gather data that will help them understand the costs and benefits of those different models.

   
4 model bills for tech policy trials (brookings)

   

   
The report covers a wide range of topics pertinent to AI, from international governance efforts to semiconductor export controls, with the aim of giving readers a comprehensive understanding of the key developments in 2023 and how they inform critical policy debates in 2024. The 10 policy questions that the report presents for 2024 will be featured in the Wadhwani Center’s research in the coming year.

   
Top takeaways (csis)

   

   
Neurons can have direct effects on cancers, or they can act indirectly, by damping down the immune system so that it can’t fight tumours as effectively. A 2022 discovery hints at one such mechanism: a chemical called calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), which is released by sensory nerves, can quell the activity of certain immune cells, making them ill-prepared to ward off cancer.

   
Unpicking the relationship between cancer and neurons (nature)

   

   
Construction materials have long been deemed “hard to abate” when it comes to reducing carbon emissions associated with their creation and use. Modern-day cement and steel, the cornerstones of the built environment since the 19th century, are carbon intensive in terms of the raw materials and fuel required to produce them. Cement and steel production generate 2.3 billion and 2.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.

   
Framework for procuring green materials (pwc)

   

   
Since ancient times, plants’ ability to orient their eyeless bodies toward the nearest, brightest source of light — known today as phototropism — has fascinated scholars and generated countless scientific and philosophical debates. And over the past 150 years, botanists have successfully unraveled many of the key molecular pathways that underpin how plants sense light and act on that information.

   
How plants can sense shining light direction? (quantamagazine)

   

   
Since generative AI went mainstream a year ago, it has inspired an equal measure of hype and fear. Boosters of tools such as ChatGPT and DALL-E predict that they will transform our economy, while skeptics worry about their potential to produce inaccurate or harmful results and ultimately replace workers. But until recently, no one had tested what really happens when companies unleash generative AI at scale in real workplaces.

   
Working paper from NBER (nber)

   

   
The Joint Application Development methodology is a software development approach that aims to bring stakeholders, developers, and users together in joint sessions. These joint sessions are workshops where project requirements and design are defined. We take a look at the JAD methodology in great detail, exploring its advantages and disadvantages, best practices, and the role it plays in software creation.

   
JAD tools & software (developer)

   

   
Using natural language processing, Infinity AI Copilot is designed to enable admins to create and update policies, provide guided incident investigations, and apply controls and rules through a text-based chat interface in the style of ChatGPT. By extending across the Infinity platform, the organization is looking to address one of the weaknesses of single-point tools — a lack of integration and ultimately a restricted view of threat intelligence and insights to address the latest vulnerabilities.

   
Check Point’s new generative AI tool (csoonline)

   

   
Every year, the reporters and editors at MIT Technology Review survey the tech landscape and pick 10 technologies that we think have the greatest potential to change our lives in the years ahead. We consider advances in every field, from biotechnology and artificial intelligence to computing, robotics, and climate tech. This is the 23rd year we’ve published this list. Here’s what didn’t make the cut.

   
10 Breakthrough (technologyreview)

   

  New platform of nanoplastics detection

   
Plastic pollution has been a rising global concern, with increasing plastic consumption every year. Microplastic contaminations have been identified to prevalently from almost everywhere in the environments and even human biological samples. The possibility of nanoplastics crossing biological barriers and entering the biological systems, raising public concern on its potential toxicity.

   
SRS Microscopy (pnas)

   

  Main trends in Blockchain in2024

   
We are at the point of some exciting developments that are set to revolutionize the blockchain landscape, that will be driven by a number of key trends that are shaping the technology’s future. The world will continue to witness the maturation and integration of blockchain, and it will influence diverse sectors.

   
Is bBlockchain as fix for AI issue? (treasuryxl)

   

   
Researchers showed that some compounds could kill methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) grown in a lab dish and in two mouse models of MRSA infection. A key innovation of the new study is that the researchers were also able to figure out what kinds of information the deep-learning model was using to make its antibiotic potency predictions.

   
Using AI (mit)

   

   
The ICH Q5A(R2) draft Guideline on Viral Safety Evaluation of Biotechnology Products reached Step 2 of the ICH process on 29 September 2022. This R2 revision retains key principles of the original Guideline and provides additional recommendations on the established and complementary approaches to control the potential viral contamination of biotechnology products.

   
The draft guideline (ema)

   

   
Tide gauge measurements and satellite radar altimetry data show that the global mean sea level (GMSL) over the past two centuries is rising at faster rates with respect to the last millennia due to global warming . Changes in global mean sea level (GMSL) are due to the joint effect of thermosteric, barystatic, glacio-hydro-isostatic and land-hydrology components.

   
The northern Mediterranean coasts (iop)

   

   
The combined impact of decarbonization, decentralization, and digitization means organizations that once functioned mainly as energy consumers can now play the dual role of producer–consumer. These energy “prosumers” might still purchase electricity from the grid—only now, they can also produce their own electricity, store it, and sell it.

   
How companies can thrive in the energy transition? (pwc)

   

   
We are readying for another demanding year, anticipating that artificial intelligence, economic uncertainty, business demands, and expectations for ever-increasing levels of speed will all be in play for 2024. remain both undaunted by that list and expectant about what they can achieve. They’re articulating ambitions and formulating objectives, turning those would-be challenges into opportunities.

   
Continuous nature of change (cio)

   

   
Conventional intensified food production systems’ reliance on major inputs of synthetic agrochemicals, such as fertilizers and pesticides, have boosted food production significantly since the ‘Green Revolution’, but these systems have also emitted great amounts of greenhouse gases (GHG) and caused environmental degradation.

   
How to increase ecosystem productivity? (nature)

   

  Risks in climate solutions

   
Trillions of dollars in public and private investment are required for the transition to a sustainable economy. However, there is also a risk that this finance is channelled towards private pockets, high-emitting activities operating under the guise of ‘green’ initiatives, or criminal activity. The misuse and diversion of financial flows encompasses: bribery, money laundering, tax fraud, misappropriation of funds.

   
Corruption and integrity (ise)

   

   
A range of government regulations aimed at achieving zero-carbon emissions are driving this migration. These greenhouse emissions regulations will progressively come into effect in the coming decades, culminating, for example, in the European Union’s aim to reduce 95 percent of 1990 level greenhouse emissions by 2050.

   
Decarbonizing Chemical Industry (iee)

   

   
IT professionals report a mainly rosy outlook. A third of them say they are very optimistic about their career paths, their company’s trajectory and the broader technology industry, while 4 in 10 take a slightly more tempered view and report being fairly optimistic about all three. Another 19% have mixed feelings, while just 7% acknowledge more negative concerns about the upcoming year’s prospects.

   
Trends to watch (comptiacdn)

   

   
The 2023 report outlines relevant ongoing initiatives and work that are closely related but that are, for example, coordinated by Commission services outside the public health policy area. By showing these interlinkages, the report takes stock of EU efforts in the area of stronger health security, empha- sising the importance of taking a ‘One Health’ approach6.

   
Report 2023 (ec.europa)

   

   
According to a Gartner survey of 1,400 executive leaders in the third quarter of 2023, 45% reported that their organization is piloting or experimenting with generative AI, and another 10% said they’ve already gone live with solutions. When we asked the same questions in March and April 2023, 70% of organizations were purely investigating generative AI and only 4% had gone live.

   
Five forces in sight (hbr)

   

   
Shifts to Agile, DevSecOps, and cloud engineering have all become mainstream in recent years because they enhance speed, quality, and cross-functional collaboratio.Leaders agree that a good developer experience results in better end-user and customer experiences, increasingly shifting focus from measuring speed and quantity to providing the proper tools, platforms, and feedback mechanisms and ultimately creating a culture that works for developers.

   
Empowering the engineering experience (deloitte)

   

   
Scenarios are not forecasts, but ‘if-then’ statements that help to understand the consequences of certain policy measures or assumptions. Thus, there is a variety of storylines - even for scenarios that share the same climate objectives. Three different models are used in these scenarios, and nuclear energy is used to very different extents by these three models.

   
Global scenarios (umweltbundesamt)

   

   
Thanks to softening demand and positive base effects on energy and food, disinflation is gaining traction. We anticipate that central banks will pivot earlier than expected by economic forecasters (i.e. summer 2024) but later than market expectations as it takes time to cool down a hot labor market. Indeed, services inflation and wage growth continue to fuel inflationary pressures, especially in the US.

   
Looking back, looking forward (allianz-trade)

   

   
As the world grapples with the urgency of addressing climate-related challenges, the availability, access and adequacy of adaptation finance support have taken centre stage. This paper delves deep into this crucial topic, shedding light on its significance and highlighting the pressing need for a more comprehensive understanding of the problem at hand.

   
In developing Countries (odi)

   

   
The State of Food and Agriculture 2023 looks into the true cost of food for sustainable agrifood systems. The report introduces the concept of hidden environmental, health and social costs and benefits of agrifood systems and proposes an approach – true cost accounting (TCA) – to assess them.

   
The hidden environmental, health and social costs (fao)

   

   
DeepMind has just shown that its GraphCast model now passes the best “classic” medium-term global weather forecast model. And this at the cost of a ridiculous calculation time: barely a minute on a single processor compared to hours of supercomputer time for canonical methods.

   
IA weather prediction (science)

   

   
Its approach to building user interfaces promotes a utility-first CSS framework that allows you to easily style your websites without the need to write custom CSS code. This open-source GitHub favourite provides a set of pre-built utility classes that you can apply directly in your HTML code to achieve different styles and layouts within any design.

   

Is it worth trying in 2024? (thenextweb)

   

   
The multicellular robots, ranging in size from the width of a human hair to the point of a sharpened pencil, were made to self-assemble and shown to have a remarkable healing effect on other cells. The discovery is a starting point for the researchers’ vision to use patient-derived biobots as new therapeutic tools for regeneration, healing, and treatment of disease.

   
Biological robots from human cells (innovations-report)

   

   
Disruption has hit businesses hard in the last few years. Unforeseen fluctuations in demand at the height of the pandemic, geopolitical unrest driving up wages, material costs and energy prices, climate emergencies, and technology innovations have revealed dangerously low levels of resiliency within engineering, supply, production and operations.

   
In pursuit of durable resilience (accenture)

   

   
The combined impact of decarbonization, decentralization, and digitization means organizations that once functioned mainly as energy consumers can now play the dual role of producer–consumer. These energy “prosumers” might still purchase electricity from the grid—only now, they can also produce their own electricity, store it, and sell it. And they can use data and technology to modulate their energy demand.

   
How companies can thrive in the energy transition (pwc)

   

   
Emissions from OECD countries and China—today’s highest emitters—are very likely to decline significantly through mid-century, thanks in part to decades of policy and investments that have brought down the costs of renewable electricity and electric vehicle batteries, positioning these technologies to scale rapidly in the years ahead.

   
Projections of energy, emissions and global temperature rise (rgh)

   

   
The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) has established another milestone in 3D Earth mapping with the 'TanDEM-X 30-metre DEM Change Map', which provides a global overview of changes to Earth's surface. Change maps are relevant for everything from glacial retreat to agricultural development, volcanic activity and urban planning.

   
New TanDEM-X global dataset (dlr)

   

   
Revenues from the auctioning of allowances accrue to Member States and to the EU through two key funds – the Innovation Fund and the Modernisation Fund. In addition, in the near future revenues from auctions and the forthcoming carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) will also contribute to EU Own Resources.

   
Method and effects (europarl)

   

   

The aim of this report is to compare different methodologies used in lists or databases of environmental unit costs. These will Used, among other things, for cost-benefit analyzes and environmental or sustainability reporting. The analysis is based on a core set of lists and databases that emerged from an investigation by the Federal Environment Agency.

   
A methodological comparative analysis (umweltbundesamt)

   

   
Generative AI can be thought of as a machine-learning model that is trained to create new data, rather than making a prediction about a specific dataset. A generative AI system is one that learns to generate more objects that look like the data it was trained on. Despite the hype that came with the release of ChatGPT and its counterparts, the technology itself isn’t new.

   
The increase in complexity (qualitydigest)

   

   
The value of fairly paid work and decent conditions has only risen in importance through the pandemic and subsequent cost-of-living crisis. By identifying and supporting impact entrepreneurs with a vision for better work, the Workertech Partnership aims – over the longer term - to improve work for millions of workers, as well as shifting the behaviour of large employers, regulators and other institutions towards a better system of work in the UK.

   
Impact & learning report (resolutionfoundation)

   

   
Urgent and far-reaching action to transform food systems is needed to reach the Paris Agreement target. Where national governments are falling short, this report shows how cities and regional governments are pioneering policies on food and climate change through dozens of inspiring examples of effective action on-the-ground.

   
Action on climate change through food (ipes-food)

   

   
Different healthy individuals’ microbiome compositions, even in the same population, often differ drama- tically, contrary to the notion that a vital trait should be highly conserved. Moreover, gnotobiotic individuals exhibit highly deleterious phenotypes, supporting the view that the microbiome is paramount to host fitness.

   
Within computational framework (nature)

   

   
The cornerstone of a successful DevOps practice is automation; this is why automating security within workflows (DevSecOps) makes so much sense. DevSecOps is lacing each step of the DevOps process and practice with security. By adding security to the most important outputs into each step of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) they will be secured when deployed and attestable for compliance.

   
Top 6 DevOps best practices (veracode)

   

   
New trial results, however, suggest that scientists are finally making some headway with next-generation CAR T therapies. Last week, BioNTech presented preliminary results from a clinical study of one called BNT211 at the European Society for Medical Oncology conference in Madrid. Researchers are working on ways to make CAR T more potent, more precise, and safer.

   
How to take aim at solid tumors ? (technologyreview)

   

   
All offshore financial institutions claim that the era of bank secrecy is over, but are they truthfully cooperating with foreign tax authorities? Policymakers claim that “the race-to-the-bottom over corporate tax rates is over” and that multinationals will soon pay everywhere at least 15% in tax, but are we sure that companies are not finding new ways to keep tax rates closer to 0?

   
Report 2024 (taxobservatory)

   

   
More than 75% of methane emissions from oil and gas operations and half of emissions from coal today can be abated with existing technology, often at low cost. The oil and gas sector has the greatest share of ready-to-implement and cost-effective technical opportunities to reduce methane emissions.

   
Benefits assessment for the climate & the health (iea)

   

   
Study based on a double survey of 3,226 risk and insurance experts in fifty countries, on the one hand, and 19,000 people representative of the population of fifteen large countries, on the other hand, certainly still classifies climate change at the top of the reasons for concern, ahead of cybersecurity risks and geopolitical instability.

   
Axa' survey (axa)

   

   
Economic growth in the Euro Area, a region that is comparable with the US, has been deeply disappointing: the region has been falling behind the US since the 1980s, lowering the EU’s overall economic performance rates as a result.1 There are many structural explanations behind the lagging rates of growth.

   
Warning call (ecipe)

   

   
The harmony between people, tech and business is showing tensions, and society is in flux. Five trends explore the decline of customer obsession, the influence of generative AI, the stagnation of creativity, the balance of tech benefits and burden, and people’s new life goals.Opportunity abounds for business and brands in the coming twelve months and beyond.

   
Accenture

   

   
there are glimmers of hope. Climate tech’s share of private market equity and grant investment rose to 11.4% in Q3 2023 and is tracking at an annual rate of 10% for the year to date, extending a decade-long upward trajectory. First-time funders continue to join deals in large numbers.

   
How to reverse the fall in climate tech investment ? (pwc)

   

   
After carrying out a series of new experiments and simulations, and reexamining some of the results from various groups that claimed to have exceeded the thermal limit, a team of researchers at MIT has reached a startling conclusion: Under certain conditions, at the interface where water meets air, light can directly bring about evaporation without the need for heat.

   
Water evaporation without heat (mit)

   

   
High inequality has been seen as one of the great social challenges for years – but nothing has been done about it. Stagnation – even if it stops a previous downward trend – is not improvement. Cementing a distribution situation that is perceived as unjust is a creeping social poison. And the challenge is not getting any smaller.

   
Global financial assets (allianz-trade)

   

  What America wants from China ?

   
Preserving a functioning global system that includes China will not be simple or straightforward. Washington has grown increasingly ambivalent in recent years about upholding the existing system, which it played an outsize role in designing. It cannot credibly keep China inside the tent if it is uncomfortable being there, as well.

   
How to keep Beijing entangled in the world order ? (foreignaffairs)

   

  How To de-risk climate investments ?

   
The paper is to highlight the potential reduction in cost of capital as a result of risk mitigation through a well structured and sized credit guarantee facility. This paper outlines three different approaches by which a Global Credit Guarantee Fund (GCGF) could be sized via different proportions of funded capital and callable capital.

   
Emerging markets & developing economies (climatepolicyinitiative)

   

   
Eating whole grains as part of a healthy diet may help to reduce the risk of many common diseases. This article explores common questions about whole grains, shedding light on their nutritional value, types, and how they contribute to a healthy lifestyle. You will also find easy tips on how to identify whole grain products and increase your everyday consumption.

   
Facts for healthy choice (eufic)

   

   
More than one in three OECD countries recorded entry flows not seen in at least 15 years, while several countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom, broke absolute records. The immigration of temporary workers, particularly seasonal workers, has also seen a sharp increase. Over 2 million new applications were lodged in OECD countries in 2022, the highest number recorded so far.

   
Special situations & specific needs (oecd)

   

   
This report makes a case for empowering chief human resources officers (CHROs) to be “High-Res” growth executives who can drive reinvention beyond the HR function to create top-line growth and non-financial impact. It builds on our findings from 2020 that show leaving employees “Net Better Off” is a powerful catalyst for success in tomorrow’s markets.

   
Expanding access to highly skilled talent (accenture)

   

   
To track Beijing’s reform efforts, China Pathfinder compares China’s economic system to those of market economies. Using six components of the market model—financial system development, market competition, modern innovation system, trade openness, direct investment opennes s, and portfolio investment openness—we establish a quantitative framework for understanding China’s progress or regression on reform

   
Running out of road (chinapathfinder)

   

  Inflammatory origin of AMD

   
Due to commonalities in pathophysiology, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) represents a uniquely accessible model to investigate therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, leading us to examine whether pathways of disease progression are shared across neurodegenerative conditions. Here we use single-nucleus RNA sequencing to pro?le lesions from 11 postmortem human retinas with age-related macular degeneration.

   
Single-cell analysis & Machine learning pipelines (nature communication)

   

  Policing carbon markets

   
Carbon markets have emerged in recent decades as one of the most important tools for curbing industrial greenhouse gas emissions, but they present a number of novel enforcement challenges when compared with more conventional pollution regulations. These challenges include new regulators with narrow authority, lack of legal precedent, and more.

   
Key points for decision-makers (lse.ac)

   

   
Machine learning researchers have embraced this lesson. GPT-3.5, the large language model that powers the ChatGPT interface, has nearly 200 billion parameters, and it was trained on a data set comprising hundreds of billions of words. (OpenAI hasn’t released the corresponding figures for its successor, GPT-4.) Training such large models typically requires at least 1,000 specialized processors called GPUs running in parallel for weeks at a time.

   
How neural networks learn to simulate writing? (quantamagazine)

   

   
Many organizations refuse to be blown off-track. In this year’s edition of our global tech report, technology professionals are resolute. Some leading organizations are already generating profit from their investments in emerging technologies — and are coping well with priorities such as the environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda.

   
Kpmg

   

  EU survey on mental health

   
In the context of this survey, mental health is understood as being a state of well-being that enables people to cope with the various challenges and stresses of life, realise their own abilities, learn and work productively, and contribute to their community. Mental health is an integral and essential component of health and is more than just the absence of mental disorders or disabilities.

   
Mental health report (europa)

   

  Biotechnology Report 2023

   
Biotech commercial leaders (companies with at least US$500 million in annual revenue), along with their big pharma counterparts, are in dire need of addressing innovation deficits and in search of new revenues to offset the massive wave of pending patent expirations. On the other end of the spectrum, emerging biotechs face a capital-constrained operating environment.

   
Beyond Borders (ey)

   

   
As they maintain their long-standing focus on cost cutting, optimisation and automation, companies can seek out pockets of growth. These include internet of things (IOT) solutions; private 5G networks for business customers; fixed wireless home broadband for households; and, in some markets, the provision of digital infrastructure, data, content and platform services.

   
Growth in the face of rising demands (pwc)

   

   
Not all foods have addictive potential. The YFAS asks people to report on intake of foods with high levels of refined carbohydrates or added fats, such as sweets and salty snacks.14 These types of foods are most strongly implicated in the behavioural indicators of addiction, such as excessive intake, loss of control over consumption, intense cravings, and continued use despite negative consequences.

   
Social, clinical, and policy implications (bmj)

   

   
Global trade dropped to its lowest level in the last two years amid the ongoing destocking process in the manufacturing sector and we only project a timid exit from recession from -0.6% in 2023 to +3.3% in 2024. Overall, the US will see a mere +1.1% GDP growth in 2024, the slowest rate since 2009, followed by +1.7% in 2025.

   
Between a micro rock & a macro hard place (allianz-trade)

   

   
TheUS administration’s National Security Strategy identifies China as “the only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it.” Given this assumption, does China’s continued economic growth present an intolerable risk to America’s national security?

   
US security strategy (brookings)

   

   
Earthworms are critical soil ecosystem engineers that support plant growth in numerous ways; however, their contribution to global agricultural production has not been quantified. We estimate the impacts of earthworms on global production of key crops by analyzing maps of earthworm abundance, soil properties, and crop yields together with earthworm-yield responses from the literature.

   
Significant contribution (nature communication)

   

   
The sensitivity of UK firms’ employment growth to their productivity – i.e. how quickly productive firms scale up – fell by 30% after the financial crisis. Instead, the pace of reallocation has slowed, with firms growing and shrinking less in response to shocks than they used to: the rate at which jobs were reallocated from shrinking to growing firms fell by one-fifth after 2008 – 7.5 million missing reallocated jobs.

   
Ready for change (resolutionfoundation)

   

  Key to coastal water restoration

   
Globally, the United Nations estimates that “the number of dead zones worldwide – areas of water that lack enough oxygen to support marine life – has increased from around 400 in 2008 to around 700 in 2019.” The process of eutrophication of estuaries and coasts through the discharge of fertilizer and wastewater generates a growth of CO2 which asphyxiates organisms and ecosystems.

   
Oyster fight (technologyreview)

   

   
Honeybees are the most widespread managed pollinators of our food crops, and a crucial part of their well-being is a suitable diet. Yet, we do not know how they choose flowers to collect nectar or pollen from. Here we studied forty-three honeybee colonies in six apiaries over a summer, identifying the floral origins of honey and hive-stored pollen samples by DNA-metabarcoding.

   
DNA metabarcoding study (nature)

   

   
Today, deforestation is considered the second source of CO2 emissions after the use of fossil fuels”, insists Ghislain Vieilledent. Despite the commitments of the Paris agreement signed in 2015, deforestation has not significantly decreased on a global scale. Our work shows that dry tropical forests are certainly the most affected, but those that are humid will not be spared.

   
Above 29°c trees can't catch co2 (science advance)

   

   
Similar to the Full Self-Driving (FSD) features that Tesla is beta testing in North America, China's NOA (Navigation on Autopilot) systems are an increasingly capable version of driver-assistance systems that can autonomously stop, steer, and change lanes in complicated urban traffic. This is different from fully autonomous driving, since human drivers are still required to hold the steering wheel and be ready to take over.

   
Navigation on Autopilot (NOA) (technologyreview)

   

   
Over the past decade, the world has invested an average of US$300 billion per year. According to the IEA, annual investments will need to rise to the range of US$560 billion to US$780 billion in the 2030s. Money alone doesn’t solve the problem, as challenges to grid expansion also include long permitting periods, technical complexities, and shortages of skilled labour and materials—which can help increase costs.

   
Bridging the gaps (pwc)

   

   
The expected business disruption from gen AI is significant, and respondents predict meaningful changes to their workforces. They anticipate workforce cuts in certain areas and large reskilling efforts to address shifting talent needs. Yet while the use of gen AI might spur the adoption of other AI tools, we see few meaningful increases in organizations’ adoption of these technologies.

   
Generative AI’s breakout year (mckinsey)          AI index (standford)

   

   
Japan’s long-held emphasis on a multifaceted and multilayered approach to Asia policy continues to be a constructive way to address the new regional and international challenges that have emerged. The transnational challenges that have become particularly prominent in recent years have acutely demonstrated the need for an unprecedented level of international cooperation.

   
Asia’s future at a crossroads (risingpowersinitiative)

   

   
The US economy stepped up the pace in Q2 2023, with GDP growing above-trend at +2.4% annualized, driven by soaring business investment. The Eurozone's economic outlook is increasingly challenging, with indications of continued weak performance. July's PMIs confirm a further slowdown in the second half of the year.

   
Growth defying gravity (allianz-trade)

   

  China’s emergence

   
China has emerged as an economic superpower that rivals the United States in many ways, although the total economic power of modern democracies—most of which are strategic partners of the United States—vastly exceeds the size of the Chinese economy, trade efforts, and efforts in technology and research and development.

   
As a superpower (csis)

   

   
This summer we’ve had a glimpse of what climate change will mean for global temperatures. July was the hottest month ever recorded, bringing extreme heatwaves across the northern hemisphere, temperatures exceeding 50oC in the US and in China, and extensive wildfires in Mediterranean countries.

   
UK' overheating (resolutionfoundation)
   

   
Low-carbon and resilient agrifood systems are vital to ensure the food security of a growing human population and global economic development. This report presents the first comprehensive analysis of climate finance flowing to these systems globally, with the aim of better informing decision-makers in this space.

   
Climate resilience and low-carbon future (climatepolicyinitiative)

   

   
To protect the data on high-performance SSDs, most server OEMs use traditional RAID controllers, which were originally designed for hard disk drives. When traditional RAID is deployed with modern SSDs, it behaves in a way that massively reduces SSD performance and endurance, while requiring additional SSD drives for redundancy, reducing available capacity.

   
A smarter way based application (infoworld)

   

   
While decarbonization is about preventing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to curb the impact of climate change, adaptation means adjusting to the physical effects of climate change, like the extreme weather we’re already experiencing. Those effects can be chronic and happen slowly or acute.

   
How to protect and grow your business (pwc)

   

  Top AI code assistants for developers

   
AI coding tools can save developers a ton of time when it comes to software development by taking the wheel and writing, reviewing, and debugging code by simply receiving some human-delivered prompts. This guide will discuss the following top AI code assistants for developers in terms of their features.

   
Pros, cons & pricing (developer)

   

  Data-first digital twins

   
Head of Digital Technology at Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace – explained how the company pivoted its approach to MRO (maintenance and repair operation) in order to maximise TOW (Time-on-wing) of its engines, and how implementing innovative digital twin technology is aiding the company in this endeavour.

   
The introduction of total care (engineerlive)

   

   
The power of giant agribusiness firms was already a matter of concern over a century ago. Attempts have been made to rein them in through anti-trust policies, lobbying registers, and even a UN Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations. But these efforts were ultimately inadequate, and the power of leading agri-food corporations to set the agenda has only grown.

   

Who's tipping the scales? (ipes)

   

   
As planned, by 11 launches and on-orbit missions, China has completed the assembly and started the official operation of the space station. With the completion and operation of the Tiangong space station, China will become the third country able to build and operate space stations independently after the Soviet Union and the United States.

   
Design and application prospect (phy)

   

   
As workplaces shift to offer more perks in the form of “company culture,” it can be easy to dismiss words like “values” and “mission statement” as irrelevant to a generation that touts company lunches, casual Fridays, and vending machines for the intended audience. But that’s not the case. In fact, company values like integrity, providing quality services or a quality product, and making sure a job gets done are all intrinsically tied to quality.

   
Five successful companies that follow their values to success (qualitydigest)

   

   
Project scope is the clear and exact definition of the work and tasks required to successfully complete a project – in our case, an application, app, or website. This scope includes the project’s objectives, deliverables, constraints, resources, boundaries, and key stakeholders. Additionally, the scope will set the parameters of the project and identify what does and does not need to be included.

   
Tools & Stakeholders (developer)

   

  Medecine: Reflection paper on AI

   
EMA is seeking stakeholder feedback on the draft reflection paper on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the medicinal product lifecycle via an open consultation concerning human and veterinary medicines. This consultation aims to initiate the dialogue with all groups of stakeholders in this fast evolving field. During the consultation a workshop will be organised by EMA on 20-21 November 2023 on AI in the context of medicines.

   
Scheduled workshop (ema)

   

   
A potent anti-cancer therapy has been created using Nobel prize-winning "click chemistry," where molecules click together like LEGO bricks, in a new study by UCL and Stanford University researchers. The research team created an anti-cancer therapy with three components: one targeting the cancer cell, another recruiting a white blood cell called a T cell to attack the cancer cell, and a third knocking out part of the cancer cell's defenses.

   
Anti-cancer therapy (nature chemistry)

   

  Defining alt-proteins

   
The term “alternative protein” can apply to various protein sources ranging from plant-based protein, to cultivated meat grown from cell cultures, and even to insects. Plant-based protein sources in particular—like tofu, tempeh, or seitan—have histories dating back millennia. However, these products, which aren’t made to provide the experience of meat, are fundamentally different than contemporary alt-proteins.

   
The future appetite (csis)

   

   
Exposure to heat poses a major threat to high-risk populations in Europe and worldwide by substantially contributing to increased morbidity and mortality9,10. Heat waves are the extreme weather events with the highest impact in terms of attributable counts of death11. Heat-related mortality has been a major concern for the past two decades in Europe, especially after the 71,449 excess deaths registered during the months of June, July, August and September of 2003.

   
Climate change and the summer of 2022 (nature medecine)

   

   
The researchers found that capping energy demand from those at the top, even while helping those at the bottom, makes both targets easier to reach. The yearly cuts needed fell to 8.8% for the bigger carbon budget and to 22% for the smaller one. Studies have shown the global rich which includes middle-class people in rich countries – play a disproportionate role in heating the planet.

   
Study in emission target for EU (nature energy)

   

   
Dinosaurs and mammals have coexisted for the last 230 million years. Although they undoubtedly interacted in many ways, direct fossil evidence for their interaction is rare. Here we report a new fossil find from the Lujiatun Member of the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of China, showing a gobiconodontid mammal and psittacosaurid dinosaur locked in mortal combat.

   
In mortal combat (scientific report)

   

   
The survey findings enable us to better understand the intersection of mental health and work—shining a light on work-specific factors and burnout, as well as the support people receive from employers. In line with the 2022 findings, stigma around mental health clearly remains. While there is a general recognition that employers are improving their support, many employees are still not using the resources offered in their workplaces.

   
GenZ mental-health ? (deloitte)

   

   
Companies face intense pressure to act on sustainability issues, and many are committing to ambitious environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives. So, why is so little being achieved on environmental issues? Call it the gap between intentions and reality. Building a better business for a net-zero world often requires tough trade-offs.

   
How to find out the right balance? (strategybusiness)

   

   
The yield forecasts for almost all crops considered were revised downward. At EU level, the yield forecast for most crops remains at or slightly above the mediocre 5-year average. The main reason for the worsened yield expectations are the distinctly drier-than-usual conditions that occurred for more than one month in large parts of western, central and northern Europe, as well as in eastern Romania.

   
Jrc report (publications.jrc.ec)

   

   
Using large-sample surveys combined with aggregate demographic and election data, we find that national-level differences across racial groups explain 60% of the variation in district-level voting patterns, whereas geography explains 30%. Black voters consistently choose Democratic candidates across districts, whereas Hispanic and white voters’ preferences vary considerably across geography.

   
First study of racial voting patterns (cambridge)

   

  Water pipeline monitoring

   
Using fibre optic sensors to monitor water networks against wastage: the international journal Sensors published the results of an experiment carried out at Politecnico di Milano aimed at optimising the water network. Researchers from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering pioneered the use of distributed fibre optic sensing (DFOS) based on Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) technology for monitoring water pipeline networks over long distances.

   
Distributed fiber optic sensors (mdpi)

   

   
The French Autorité identifies market failures likely to be addressed by the regulations under discussion such as the European (« Data Act ») or the French Governement’s draft law to secure and regulate the digital space. Competition authorities will have to monitor that established players do not hinder the development of smaller or new players based on these technologies.

   
Market analysis (autoritedelaconcurrence)

   

   
We are observing a once in a generation “shift right” of applied AI, fueled by the emergent capabilities and open source/API availability of Foundation Models. A wide range of AI tasks that used to take 5 years and a research team to accomplish in 2013, now just require API docs and a spare afternoon in 2023.

   
There are no end of challenges (latent.space)

   

   
While Europe is clearly doing a good job at producing world-leading companies, its biggest strength lies in emerging sectors like fintech, quantum computing, and climate tech, says the report. It already accounts for around a third of global funding in these key emerging industries, while the continent is home to half of the world’s top science clusters focused on these sectors.

   
Unlocking a continent's innovation potential (dealroom)

   

  Reducing software security risk

   
From nearly two decades of securing software, we know that fixing flaws, not just finding them, is what makes a profound impact on security posture. However, fixing flaws is one of the greatest challenges teams face when it comes to application security...until now. Veracode Fix marks a major leap forward in software security.

   
Veracode' mesurability tool (vearcode)

   

   
Biotech’s deep capabilities around innovation and the importance of its product offerings mean the industry still maintains a favorable mid- to long-term outlook. Companies that focus on the fundamentals will be poised to lead the next phase of expansion once the impact of the recessionary environment and tighter monetary policies subsides.

   
Beyond borders (ey)

   

   
To achieve this, expert groups of academics and industry leaders were curated for each of the 10 technologies listed in the 2023 report. They were then asked to predict the future impact of their respective technology, rating the projected influence on a scale from 1 to 10, should these technologies achieve widespread adoption in the next 3-5 years.

   
Wef report (weforum)

   

   
This report reviews key global developments in climate change litigation, with a focus on the period June 2022 to May 2023, drawing primarily on the Climate Change Litigation databases maintained by the Sabin Centre for Climate Change Law. Overall, more than 2,341 cases have been captured in the Sabin Center’s climate litigation databases.

   
Global trend (lse.ac)

   

   
Our research shows that only 8% of companies are adopting a strategy of total enterprise reinvention. These are the Reinventors, and we believe every company must aspire to be one. Among that backdrop, our Technology Vision provides insights to enable leaders and their organizations to act now to embrace technology and use the foundations of a new reality as a path towards reinvention.

   
When Atoms meet Bits (accenture)

   

   
Emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) and least developed countries (LDCs), in particular, have seen significant gaps in both mitigation and adaptation. Further, in a majority of developing countries, public finances are strained, inflation is high, and debt is mounting due to the pandemic and volatile geopolitical conditions.

   
Between the global South and the global North (climatepolicyinitiative)

   

   
Considering ecosystem services when managing railway assets on existing lines and considering environmental assets in conjunction with other asset management plans is of growing importance for UIC and its members. Investors and railway infrastructure managers must consider their environmental footprint, including biodiversity, in their construction and maintenance projects.

   
Guidelines (uic)

   

  Global Entertainment & Media Outlook

   
The slowdown, caused in large measure by sluggish consumer spending, is pushing companies to reset expectations, refocus inward and seek ways to recharge growth. They’re doing so by tapping into the many geographical and sectoral hotspots that offer opportunities and by harnessing emerging technology—in particular, by exploring the power of generative AI as an engine of productivity for the creative process.

   
Perspectives (pwc)

   

   
While the Economic and Monetary Union has helped increase convergence across countries over the last two decades, the momentum has significantly slowed. In fact, regional disparities are on the rise. In addition, the uneven recovery from the crises is set to increase the income gap as projected growth remains broadly the same across most member countries with still large differences in GDP per capita.

   
Two steps forward, one step back (allianz-trade)

   

   
The CBAM will be introduced on the 1 October 2023 according to Regulation (EU) 2023/9561. The aim is to address the risk of carbon leakage if differences in levels of ambition worldwide persist as the EU accelerates its reduction targets. The purpose of the CBAM is to therefore ensure the same carbon price will be paid for the GHG emissions associated with certain imported goods as in the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS).

   
EU' rules (umweltbundesamt)

   

  The $100 billion bet

   
Syracuse is about to become an economic test of whether, over the next several decades, the aggressive government policies—and the massive corporate investments they spur—can both boost the country’s manufacturing prowess and revitalize regions like upstate New York. It all begins with an astonishingly expensive and complex kind of factory called a chip fab.

   
For a new semiconductor manufacturing hub (technologyreview)

   

  Transforming European Defense

   
This report outlines a critical role for the European Union to play in coordinating and integrating European defense efforts. To realize a transformation of European defense requires not just more spending but deeper European defense cooperation, coordination, and integration. The European Union can play a critical role in this effort by leveraging its fiscal potential to spur cooperation and integration.

   
A new focus on integration (csis)

   

   
While foreign-born applicants who want to work in the US face red tape and long delays, new “talent visas” in the U.K., Australia, Canada and elsewhere are luring away people who have some of the world’s most in-demand skills. Around 80 % of people studying computer science and electrical engineering at the graduate level are international students, the National Foundation for American Policy reports.

   
In high-demand fields (hechingerreport)

   

  European economic security strategy

   
New geopolitical and technological realities requires EU to adapt their approach, preserving the vast majority of Europe’s highly valuable economic links to the world while ensuring that the new risks they face, which are narrow but critical, are effectively tackled. Some advanced economies have already adopted dedicated strategies and are now implementing them.

   
A significant shift in the bloc’s approach (circabc.europa)

   

  How "Copilot" could improve your productivity?

   
Since March, Microsoft have been testing Copilot with 20 enterprise customers, learning alongside companies like Goodyear, General Motors, The Walsh Group, and Avanade. Their overwhelming feedback is that Copilot has the potential to revolutionize work. They point to how it is a game changer for meetings and can jump-start creativity.

   
Github adds Copilot software for programmers (microsoft)

   

  What is a holobiont?

   
Understanding ourselves as holobionts not only has implications for our health, but also for the environment. Human beings tend to conserve species or ecosystems separately, without worrying about maintaining the relationships and cycles that sustain organisms as a whole. But a forest or desert cannot survive without the links that its macro and micro inhabitants weave.

   
Our bond with microorganisms (elpais)

   

  Enceladus: Sodium phosphates presence

   
More recent modelling of mineral solubilities in Enceladus’s ocean indicates that phosphate could be relatively abundant17. Here we present Cassini’s Cosmic Dust Analyzer mass spectra of ice grains emitted by Enceladus that show the presence of sodium phosphates. Our observational results, together with laboratory analogue experiments, suggest that phosphorus is readily available in Enceladus’s ocean.

   
Several lines of evidence (nature cosmos)

   

  EU' climate-related extremes

   
Analysing trends in economic losses is difficult, partly because of high variability from year to year. Some statistical analysis has revealed, however, that economic losses increase over time. As severe weather- and climate-related extreme events are expected to intensify further, it seems unlikely that the associated economic losses will reduce by 2030.

   
Economic losses (eea)

   

  Toward free movement in Africa

   
Analysing georeferenced Afrobarometer survey data from 44,807 respondents in 32 countries, I find that respondents who live in closer proximity to an international land border are more likely to support free movement than those living farther away. As African governments move toward visa-free movement throughout the continent, public support for such policies may vary significantly depending upon geographic location.

   
Border proximity and attitudes (afrobarometer)

   

  AR comes to surgery

   
Augmented Reality (AR), which overlays holographic images onto physical reality, isn’t new, but its use in surgery is just getting started. Kareem Zaki, a Thrive general partner, noted that software advances that deliver the precision needed for surgery are relatively new. And securing FDA regulatory clearances and research publications to support the technology takes time.

   
AR in health care (webflow)

   

  Biochar application

   
Biochar application and conservation tillage are common agricultural strategies for enhancing the organic carbon (OC) content in the soil-biochar mixture and crop yields (Zhang et al. 2020), which have multiple environmental and economic benefits for agricultural systems (Marris 2006; Page et al. 2020).

   
Long-term organic carbon (OC) sequestration in soil (springer)

   

  What is a high performer?

   
High-performing employees recognised by someone who goes above and beyond to achieve their goals and complete their tasks or assignments at work. This type of person takes initiative and focuses on improving their workplace habits and behaviors so that the company or team benefits from their actions.

   
Tips on how to become one (indeed)

   

  Taurine, a semiessential micronutrient

   
Aging is associated with systemic changes in the concentrations of molecules such as metabolites. However, whether such changes are merely the consequence of aging or whether these molecules are drivers of aging remains largely unexplored. If these were blood-based drivers of aging, then restoring their concentration or functions to “youthful” levels could serve as an antiaging intervention.

   
As a driver of aging (science)

   

  Unravelling the genetic architecture

   
As sequencing costs gradually drop, an increasing number of study designs involve whole genome sequencing (WGS) approaches. Large sequencing projects have been undertaken in the general population that can be used as reference panels for genotype imputation in association studies, such as the Haplotype Reference Consortium (HRC1) project.

   
Through whole genome sequencing (nature)

   

  miRNA signature of endometriosis

   
To face the challenge of diagnosing endometriosis, an accurate, reliable, and noninvasive test is required. Previous studies have highlighted the limited diagnostic value of clinical examinations and questionnaires as well as the low accuracy of imaging examinations for the detection of endometriosis, especially the superficial peritoneal phenotype.

   
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) & AI diagnosis (nejm)

   

  HPC data centers on energy consumption

   
More than half of respondents were motivated by the idea of wanting to do more with less: Expand computing capabilities with lower power. As the number of AI/ML/HPDA workloads performed on HPC systems continues to increase, the drive to expand computing capabilities comes up against the required energy costs. 33% say they encounter prohibitive energy costs, pointing to a more acute issue.

   
Strategic Importance (top500)

   

  World energy investment

   
The report provides a global benchmark for tracking capital flows in the energy sector and examines how investors are assessing risks and opportunities across all areas of fuel and electricity supply, critical minerals, efficiency, research and development and energy finance.

   
2023 IEA report

   

  Auto-indus: Chinese challenge to EU

   
Having recognized the potential of electric vehicles 15 years ago, China has since invested vast resources in building a competitive electric vehicle ecosystem. As a result, it now leads the global EV landscape, selling over double the number of BEVs in 2022 compared to Europe and the US combined, while also holding a competitive edge in nearly all aspects of the BEV value chain.

   
What can policymakers do? (allianz)

   

  Building better batteries

   br> Some promising battery concepts have been stuck at the research phase for half a century, but they may not languish in labs for much longer. Sparked by the nascent multi-sector electrification boom, an intense effort is now underway to bring high-performance battery technologies into real world use. One hotspot area of research is on batteries suited to grid scale electrical energy storage. Another driver is the demand for electric cars.

   
The next generation of battery (chemistryworld)

   

  COVID-19 in Europe

   
Impacts of COVID-19 are likely to continue in the coming years if more efforts are not made to decrease the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 and mitigate its impact on public health. Options are readily available to reduce the burden of SARS-CoV-2 and other endemic respiratory pathogens. We thus question the current high level of political and societal complacency towards COVID-19 in Europe.

   
No time for complacency (thelancet)

   

   
Here, we analyze the 1972 largest global lakes using three decades of satellite observations, climate data, and hydrologic models, finding statistically significant storage declines for 53% of these water bodies over the period 1992–2020. The net volume loss in natural lakes is largely attributable to climate warming, increasing evaporative demand, and human water consumption.

   
Satellite monitoring revelation (science)

   

   
Changing PA from lower to higher levels might be associated with a higher pain tolerance than an equally large change going from higher to lower PA. This might indicate that it is not only the total PA amount that matters but also the direction of change. These results might suggest increasing PA levels as a possible non-pharmacological pathway towards reducing or preventing chronic pain.

   
Longitudinal relationships (plos one)

   

  Data compression drives the internet

   
With more than 9 billion gigabytes of information traveling the internet every day, researchers are constantly looking for new ways to compress data into smaller packages. Cutting-edge techniques focus on lossy approaches, which achieve compression by intentionally “losing” information from a transmission. Google, for instance, recently unveiled a lossy strategy.

   
How It Works?? (quantamagazine)

   

  Deep sea habitats with mining activities

   
We present The Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) Checklist, a biodiversity inventory of benthic metazoa vital to future assessments of environmental impacts. An estimated 92% of species identified from the CCZ are new to science. This is likely to be an overestimate owing to synonyms in the data but is supported by analysis of recent taxonomic studies suggesting that 88% of species sampled in the region are undescribed.

   
Metazoan species live (current biology)

   

   
Challenges in high-resolution human imaging, such as subtle motion and the presence of bone or gas, have limited such acquisition. These issues can be addressed with a large transducer aperture and fast acquisition and processing. Programmable, ultrafast ultrasound scanners with a high channel count provide an unprecedented opportunity to optimize volumetric acquisition.

   
High-resolution 3D mapping of tissue compartments (science)

   

  A metaverse that works

   
Real business value in the metaverse is already emerging, with companies making investments, staking claims, and introducing products. Creating digital twins for factories, designing virtual bank branches, expanding the reach of marquee cultural events—these are just a few of the ways work is getting done in the metaverse.

   
Finding real-world value in virtual reality (pwc)

   

   
The Arctic sea routes in the future cannot be ruled out, however, and this does hold potential for conflict in that the legal status of the Northwest and Northeast Passages in particular is disputed. The divisions here run along rather unusual lines: while Canada and Russia take the view that the routes along their respective land masses pass through waters inside their territory, the US, the EU and China regard the passages as international sea routes.

   
Between conflict & coopertaion (kas)

   

   
Whether working remotely in an entirely different country or an office setting amongst a team, database developers can leverage the features of collaboration tools to stay on the same page, increase efficiency, share ideas, provide feedback, and more. This guide features some of the best collaboration tools for database developers so you can enjoy similar benefits.

   
Best collaboration tools (developer)

   

  German' twisted fusion machine

   
Proxima Fusion raised €‎7mn in funding to build a device known as a stellarator, a little-known fusion reactor that could hold the key to unlocking the potential of atom-fusing power within our lifetime. While the initial funding round was small, it is noteworthy because the startup is the first spinout from Germany’s esteemed Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics.

   
Scientific breakthroughs (thenextweb)

   

  Artificial intelligence regulation

   
General-purpose artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, such as ChatGPT, are quickly transforming the way AI systems are built and deployed. While these technologies are expected to bring huge benefits in the coming years, spurring innovation in many sectors, their disruptive nature raises policy questions around privacy and intellectual property rights, liability and accountability.

   
EU regulation (europarl)      AI in depth  (europarl) 

   

  ISO' Net Zero Guidelines

   
To support global climate action, ISO offers the Net Zero Guidelines for free download and online browsing. Launched at COP27, the Net Zero Guidelines tackle a major road block for a world where greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to the minimum and balanced by removals: the fragmented net zero governance landscape. Competing approaches and concepts for "Net Zero" sow confusion.

   
Global basis for harmonizing, understanding, & planning (iso)

   

  Tackling the gobal skills shortage

   
The Covid-19 pandemic provided an opportune moment for those looking to start their own business, pursue a hobby on a professional level or try their hand at something new, which came to be known as the Great Resignation. While the pandemic acted as a catalyst for change for millions of workers, it also fed directly into the global skills shortage.

   
A multi-pronged approach (qualitydigest)

   

   
Using the most recent and largest empirical dataset ever assembled for Europe to investigate the effect of anthropogenic pressures, we highlighted the predominant detrimental impact of agriculture intensification on avian biodiversity at a continental scale over climate change, urbanization, and forest cover changes.

   
Farmland practices (pnas)

   

  Navigating economic change

   
The authors explore how cities can reverse long-term economic underperformance and move towards a new trajectory, looking at seven cities across five countries that have faced severe economic shocks but managed to break away from the resulting cycles of decline and transition to a more successful development path.

   
Lessons from successful ‘turnaround’ cities for the UK (resolutionfoundation)

   

  Cefic REACH action plan

   
The REACH regulation is a crucial EU legislation that gives companies that manufacture or import chemicals into the EU the mandate to register them with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). The registration process includes submitting a dossier that outlines the chemical's properties, hazards, and risks associated with its use.

   
2022 results (cefic)

   

   
The British government's newly published strategy document states that focusing on R&D, design and intellectual property (IP), plus compound semiconductors, is "targeted and value for money" and will secure advantages for the UK in nascent technologies such as AI, high-performance computing, and quantum.

   
Semiconductor strategy (publishing.service)

   

   
Microsoft Teams is one of the most widely used collaborative tools on the market. While Microsoft Teams can keep you and your colleagues on the same page, it is not the only collaborative tool of its kind. In this collaboration software guide, we will discuss the following Microsoft Teams alternatives and include details on their features, pros, cons, and pricing.

   
The user-friendly tools (developer)

   

  EU' International communications

   
27% of all EU residents make use of international communications within the EU at least several times a month. 9% of EU residents make even daily use of calls or messages, either through the telecommunications network (phone calls or text messages) or via the internet (video calls, internet messaging).

   
Survey (europa)

   

  The roots of inflammation & metastasis cancer

   
Researchers from the Institut Curie, CNRS and Inserm have succeeded in identifying a signaling pathway involving copper and leading to the expression of inflammatory genes in macrophages, cells which are present in all tissues and which play a major role in the innate immune response.

   
Openness to a new therapy (nature)

   

  Dietary change in Germany

   
The current food system is environmentally unsustainable. Globally, food production is responsible for a quarter to a third of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and therefore a major driver of climate change. Agriculture occupies more than a third of the Earth’s land surface and has led to reductions in forest cover and loss of biodiversity.

   
Towards healthy & sustainable diets (umweltbundesamt)

   

  The Zoonomia Project

   
In the new studies, the researchers identified regions of the genomes, sometimes just single letters of DNA, that are most conserved, or unchanged, across mammalian species and millions of years of evolution — regions that are likely biologically important. As well as genetic variants that are more likely to play causal roles in rare and common human diseases.

   
What makes the human genome unique? (broadinstitute)

   

   
Results suggest that there is promising evidence indicating that physical activity can be beneficial for patients with substance use disorders. We conclude, too, that future researchers should better describe their interventions," the authors write. "We also maintain that it is important to consider including participants with mental comorbidities and to monitor physical activity adherence during the intervention and mention it in the results.

   
Promising evidence (plos)

   

  Tunisia: The struggle continues

   
Findings of the latest Afrobarometer survey in Tunisia reveal that an overwhelming majority say the country is heading in the wrong direction, with management of the economy seen as the most pressing issue. Negative assessments of the economy have increased sharply, and fewer than half think things will get better in the near future.

   
View of economic crisis (afrobarometer)

   

   
Biological invasions are a growing component of global environmental change . A subset of alien species — those that are invasive — have emerged as a major driver of biodiversity loss and generate massive and rising economic costs. Investments in the management of invasions have been vastly underfunded and delayed, causing trillion-dollar impacts that could have been avoided.

   
Invasive alien species (abec)

   

  The French & retirement

   
In a context of inflation and financial restrictions for households, many (52%) fear a possible deterioration in their income. These reasons related to health and finances come far ahead of the fear of losing one's job or having more difficulty accessing training and updating one's skills. Part of the fiftieth more exposed to occupational hazards have already quit their jobs, because disability, illness or for a job change.

   
Credoc survey

   

   
The new proposed emissions standards for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles for model year (MY) 2027 and beyond would significantly reduce climate and other harmful air pollution, unlocking significant benefits for public health, especially in communities that have borne the greatest burden of poor air quality.

   
Strongest-ever pollution standards (epa)

   

   
For the public, generative AI might help people structure their information and views into public comments that have a better chance of influencing agency decisions. While agencies usually permit commenters to send in whatever text they want, more sophisticated comments tend to follow a professional format that contains substantive and sometimes highly technical information.

   
Generative AI Tech., impacts, & conflicts issues (brookings)

   

   
There is extensive evidence that sensory association learning, and the consequent power of a cue to control behavior varies considerably across individuals and is associated with risk for weight gain. Modern processed foods are therefore potent reinforcers and, as with drugs of abuse, animal models have shown that their frequent consumption rewires brain circuits, even in offspring born to mothers consuming a high-fat diet (HFD) during lactation.

   
Sweet & fatty snack modulates reward processing in humans (cell)

   

   
Businesses will need to take into account new groups of stakeholders who have different expectations around what builds trust, and who consume information in entirely different ways. When it comes to these new measures for earning trust, family businesses will need to do a much better job of both showing and telling.

   
New priorities to secure their legacy (pwc)

   

   
While the financial sector has not reached full-blown crisis mode, further bank failures and capital market disruptions cannot be ruled out as policymakers struggle to restore investor confidence. In Europe, more energy-supply constraints, for instance as a result of colder weather towards the end of the year, could require gas rationing, which would push 2023 GDP growth into negative territory.

   
Spring economic Outlook (allianz)

   

   
The exploitation of energy resources in the Eastern Mediterranean will be one of the greatest political, diplomatic and economic challenges for Europe in the medium term. In an ever-changing environment, Greece, a pillar of political and economic stability, can make a significant contribution to meeting the energy needs of the entire region and Europe.

   
A Region Arises as Europe's supplier! (kas)

   

   
Brexit poses unique challenges for EU policymakers as the most important financial centre in Europe is now outside its regulatory framework. The study requested by ECON committee looks at expected medium- to long-term divergence between EU and UK regulation and at options for future cooperation. A few financial sector segments will depend on the broader EU-UK political relationship.

   
Implications for the EU (europarl.europa)

   

  For a Safe and Sustainable Life Cycle

   
Various sectors can benefit from the use of advanced materials, but they can also face challenges. The UBA position paper describes the area of tension between the promising use and possible challenges for environmental and health protection and other sustainability dimensions, illustrates this with various examples and derives corner stones for a safe and sustainable life cycle of advanced materials.

   
Advanced materials (umweltbundesamt)

   

   
Science and technologies are continuously developing and new or emerging processes are being successfully introduced into the industries. In order to reflect such changes and their consequences for BAT, this document will be periodically reviewed and, if necessary, updated accordingly.

   
Best Available Techniques (jrc)

   

   
Producing high-quality products is crucial for any business. But designing quality into the product from the start is the only significant way a business can improve its product margins. When you use detection methods and find a nonconformance, you’ve already invested in that nonconforming product and are either faced with scrapping the part and your investment or investing more in rework to reclaim some of that investment.

   
Five key strategies (qualitydigest)

   

   
In Europe, some 2.8 million social enterprises employ around 13.6 million people. The share of the social economy in paid employment varies between 0.6% and 9.9% across the EU Member States.1 The European Commission promotes social – and inclusive – entrepreneurship because of its important role in job creation, work integration and inclusive and sustainable growth.

   
Eurobarometer (europa)

   

   
The software development lifecycle defines the stages, flow, steps, and activities used to develop software. Further, the SDLC is a framework programmers can follow to ensure that the software they create is high quality, meets the requirements of the end-user, and is delivered on time and within budget.

   
Overview of the SDLC (developer)
   

   
The big tech companies are seeking a share of the market, which is estimated to be worth more than $8 trillion, with $3.8 trillion of it in the US, according to CB Insights. The healthcare market is projected to have an average annual growth rate of almost 4% by 2024. In 2021, Apple, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta collectively invested over $3.1 billion in the healthcare industry.

   
Big Tech (hackernoon)

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High risk of bias in many studies and substantial heterogeneity suggest caution in interpreting results. Nonetheless, most symptom change estimates for general mental health, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms were close to zero and not statistically significant, and significant changes were of minimal to small magnitudes.

   
Before and during the covid-19 pandemic (bmj)

   

   
AI serves a variety of purposes in safety evaluations during drug development. Use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the monitoring and reporting of drug safety data is a tool companies can utilize to assist them in this process. AI assists companies by automating information capture, yielding quick output, limiting errors, and helps to understand and classify clinical documentation.

   
From development to post-marketing product use (pharmtech)

   

   
If you use Google, Instagram, Wikipedia, or YouTube, you're going to start noticing changes to content moderation, transparency, and safety features on those sites over the next six months. Why? It’s down to some major tech legislation that was passed in the EU last year but hasn’t received enough attention (IMO), especially in the US.

   
The internet is about to get a lot safer (technologyreview)

   

   
Workplace safety policies along with various technologies can be effective tools for preventing injuries and increasing employee productivity. Overlooking or underutilizing these resources can leave you vulnerable to serious problems and legal consequences. Engaging the whole company, including upper management and every single employee, in using these resources is the only way to truly achieve facility safety.

   
Safety management system (qualitydigest)

   

   
The case studies suggest that attitudes and official positions are evolving. There is a new understanding that an integrated climate-and-development program can simultaneously speed up development and lower GHG emissions if implemented at scale. Investment and innovations in adaptation, resilience, nature, and emissions mitigation can be in each country’s national self-interest.

   
With developing countries (brookings)

   

   
This study is an update of the 2021 study on digital technologies as a means of repression and social control prepared at the request of the European Parliament’s DG EXPO. In terms of scope, the update focuses on any situation related to the use of Pegasus-type spyware that has a foreign element.

   
The EU’s external relations (europarl.europa)

   

   
96% of surveyed consumers intend to adopt some type of cost-saving behaviour over the next six months. Still, eager to resume their pre-covid habits, they’re returning to stores and travelling again. Empowered by technology, they’re seeking and demanding seamless in-store and online experiences that better suit their lifestyles—and pocketbooks.

   
In a world of disruptions (pwc)

   

   
While the foundations of the audit profession–independence, objectivity and professional skepticism–are unchanged, audit teams are harnessing the digital audit to get a fuller picture of the data, using full populations of the data to understand key business processes and identify risks in real-time.

   
With the help of data & tech. (ey)

   

   
The five Ds–that will determine the course of inflation over the longer term: decarbonization, demographics, digitalization, deglobalization and debt. The net effect of the factors will be inflationary, with significant variation across countries. The supply of labor is declining, which increases the wage pressure (demographics).

   
The “five Ds” (allianz-trade)

   

   
Europe's pharmaceutical industry is both an innovative, economically important sector and an essential part of services of general interest in geo-economically tense times. In 2020 , the European1 pharmaceutical industry exported goods worth around 510 billion euros, imported goods in Value of 347 billion euros and counted over 835,000 employees.

   
From resilience to competitiveness (kas)

   

   
The forest sector contributes to high emissions worldwide through the loss of historically built-up carbon stocks, mainly from deforestation and forest degradation. This report examines how, and under which circumstances, different forms of results-based financing are suitable for reducing emissions and enhancing removals in the forest sector in the context of different countries and mitigation measures.

   
Potential mechanism with “results-based payments” (umweltbundesamt)

   

   
In this issue of strategy+business, we’ll sketch out that new game, starting with a close-up view of three of the peskiest “moles” that are popping up: cyber risk, supply chain risk, and climate risk. We’ll note where things are going wrong, how they can go better, and how the presence of trust helps ensure positive business outcomes.

   
How to challenge the existing mindsets (strategy+business)

   

   
People-centred security is defined in this report as the security and safety of women, men, boys and girls across all socioeconomic and cultural groups. This concept has three dimensions: personal security, community-related security and political security. Security and justice sector reform centred on people’s security is context specific, politically aware, culturally sensitive and needs based.

   
People-centred approach to security sector (dcaf)

   

   
When researchers gather in London next week for the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing, they will discuss the latest advances in deploying techniques such as CRISPR–Cas9 to treat genetic diseases, and will look ahead to the possible approval of the first genome-editing therapy later this year.

   
Advances in genome-editing technologies (nature)

   

   
Food prices have come down from Spring 2022 peaks, debt servicing costs are projected to rise further this year and next, and the worst impacts are surely still to come. About 60% of low-income countries, and 30% of middle-income countries, are now considered at high risk of (or already in) debt distress.

   
Breaking the cycle of hunger & debt (ipes-food)

   

   
The UK’s decade of weak productivity growth is clearly important for understanding it’s relative economic decline, but how important is it in the story of household income gaps? For some, productivity growth is all that matters for typical household incomes. But others have argued that this is no longer the case and that incomes and productivity have ‘decoupled’.

   
Decomposing and understanding differences (resolutionfoundation)

   

  Business: as game changers

   
There is a broad sense that business, in its pursuit of profits and the usual modes of operation, has created and exacerbated many of the crises. But that reflects a view of both the potential and the purpose of modern business that has long been out of style. Whether it was the mechanization of agriculture solving the problem of scarcity, the advent of electricity providing immense benefits to people’s quality of life, or the computer revolution enabling much greater connectivity.

   
Source of great progress and solutions (strategy-business)

   

   
Robotic process automation (RPA) is an application of technology, governed by business logic and structured inputs, aimed at automating business processes. Using RPA tools, a company can configure software, or a “robot,” to capture and interpret applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses, and communicating with other digital systems.

   
Streamlining business workflows (cio)

   

   
While the external environment is precarious and may remain that way for some time given the evolving geopolitical tensions, domestic policy actions do matter, and Africa's policymakers are not helpless. The time to act is now, in order to regain lost ground and move towards prosperous economies and resilient, inclusive societies.

   
2023 Top priorities for the continent (brookings)

   

   
We use an ancestry-aware approximate Bayesian computation framework to estimate the nature, strength, and time of onset of selection acting on 2,879 ancient and modern European genomes from the last 10,000 years. our analyses suggest that the risk of inflammatory disorders has increased in post-Neolithic Europeans, possibly because of antagonistic pleiotropy following genetic adaptation to pathogens.

   
Resistance to infection (cell)

   

   
During the drafting of the Waste Shipment Regulation, imprecise legal terms were used, which initially made standardized implementation difficult. In order to define these imprecise terms more clearly, it was necessary to develop a technical basis for interpretation. The main sectors in which plastic waste is generated are packaging, construction, vehicles and agriculture. Electrical/electronic and medical also offer potential volume.

   
The new entries for plastic waste (umweltbundesamt)

   

   
The study for the PECH reviews China’s marine fisheries and aquaculture and its trade of fishery products. It recommends, among other things, to develop an appropriate strategy to respond to China’s increasing domination of the global fishmeal supply, and calls for more transparency on Chinese fishing activities.

   
Role and impact (europarl)

   

   
This year is already forecast to be hotter than 2022, which global datasets rank as the fifth or sixth hottest year on record. But El Niño occurs during the northern hemisphere winter and its heating effect takes months to be felt, meaning 2024 is much more likely to set a new record.

   
The extreme weather (severe-weather)

   

   
While there is a consensus around a mild recession view, we shouldn’t forget that the profound COVID-19 shock to the global economy and the rapid fiscally stimulated recovery have left a trail of imbalances that will lead to more persistent macroeconomic volatility. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that economic activity is rarely linear.

   
Transforming uncertainty into opportunity (ey)

   

   
A team of researchers used molecular analysis to identify several basic ingredients used in mummification, according to a new paper published in the journal Nature.This work is the first instance of the analysis of named materials used in mummification from the different contexts of an embalming workshop and a burial chamber. it provides an important step forward in our understanding of ancient Egyptian embalming materials and methods.

   
New insights (nature)

   

   
The entire history of IT has been a steady evolution of the same three enduring eternities: interaction, information, and computation. The future of IT will continue to march along these same three tracks toward specific, convergent endgames: simplici- ty, intelligence, and abundance. Three additional categories—the business of technology, cyber and trust, and core modernization—acknowledge the reality that business drives technology.

   
Insights (deloitte)

   

  2023 Annual CEO survey

   
CEO faces daunting near-term challenges, starting with the global economy, which nearly 75% believe will see declining growth during the year ahead. This year’s survey summary organised into nine tough questions—which naturally fall into three groups—about what it takes to operate in our dual-imperative world: The race for the future, Today’s tensions, A balanced agenda.

   
Winning today’s race while running tomorrow’s (pwc)

   

  Best available techniques

   
The BREF on Textiles Industry covers the pretreatment operations such as washing, bleaching, mercerisation or dyeing of textile fibres or textiles where the treatment capacity exceeds 10 tonnes per day, as specified in Point 6.2. of Annex I to Directive 2010/75/EU. This BREF also concerns independently operated treatment of waste water that are not covered by Directive 91/271/EEC.

   
Textiles Industry (jrc)

   

   
Geopolitical tensions have seen nations turn inward and become skeptical about cooperation and interdependence. When it comes to the supply chain, this caution is fair, as if tensions escalate, essential materials may be inaccessible, or major trade routes could be shut down. Therefore, governments and industry leaders are exploring domestic self-sufficiency in material supply and manufacturing.

   
Shaking up 2023 (kpmg)

   

  Perceptions of inequality and fairness

   
The direct economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic do not seem to be the major cause of the decrease in fairness perceptions. Potential drivers include uncertainties about the future, perceived inequality of opportunity, and discontent with measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

   
what has changed over the past 5 years? (Eurobarometer)

   

   
In parallel to the evolution of compendial and regulatory approaches addressing new quality paradigms for analytical procedure validation (discussed in Part I of this article), fundamentals of the quality by design (QbD) concept have been incorporated into the new International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) Q14 and ICH Q2(R2), which were recently released for public consultation.

   
Guidelines evolutions in ICH Q14 and Q2(R2) (pharmtech)

   

   
The European Union has an unusual IT strategy. While the US prioritizes the development of global tech giants, the EU focuses on becoming the sector’s leading regulator. To gauge the details, TNW asked IT experts across the bloc what they predict from the EU’s policies in 2023. All expect significant changes in legislation, with certain technologies particularly prominent in their forecasts.

   
What to expect in 2023 ? (thenextweb)

   

   
In spite of an economy that’s worrisome for most CEOs and last year’s major flops (remember NFTs?), innovative hardware announcements will continue to make a splash on the showroom floor. From cohesive developments in the smart home category to peculiar designs for electric vehicles, here’s what you can expect.

   
The main themes of the exhibition (wired)

   

   
CPM can be used to create both static and dynamic schedules, and is particularly well suited for software projects with complex interdependencies. While CPM has been traditionally used for large construction projects, it has since been adapted for use in other industries such as manufacturing, software development, and event planning.

   
How does CPA work? (developer)

   

   
Generosity is at the core of cooperation—putting the needs of others first develops trust and bonds. Consequently, designing an ecosystem based on generosity, with flexible boundaries that promote dynamic networks between participants, can potentially work as a “generosity machine.”

   
Generosity-based collaboration (strategy-business)

   

   
Is it possible to teach everyone in the country how to code by the time they graduate high school? Perhaps, with concerted, consistent effort, but that alone is not enough to maintain a tech career. The needs of many employers can shift dramatically, which naturally can create gaps between classroom-based career expectations and real-world demand.

   
The limited supply of talent (informationweek)

   

   
Experimental studies have shown that chronic infections, even in healthy individuals, can lead to increased dopamine and testosterone production. These hormone changes can cause increased aggression and risk-taking behaviour such as increased hyperactive movement, failure to avoid olfactory predator cues (i.e., seeking out instead of avoiding felid urine), and decreased neophobia.

   
The effects of toxoplasmosis in host behavior (nature)

  

   
The International Telecommunication Union (2021) report on connectivity notes that despite increased access to mobile broadband networks, the least developed countries (LDCs) may actually be falling further behind in Internet usage. Likely reasons include the cost of services and devices as well as a lack of awareness of the Internet and requisite digital skills.

   
Who is connected & who is not ? (afrobarometer)

   

   
Most of the chips that go into consumer products and data centers, among other commercial applications, are produced in Asia. Moving that manufacturing to the US would be likely to push up costs and make chips less commercially competitive, even with government subsidies. In April 2022, TSMC founder Morris Chang said that chip manufacturing costs in the US are 50% higher than in Taiwan.

   
The great “reshoring” push (technologyreview)

   

   
Under the Reference Scenario, and from the perspective of climate change and energy security, the rate at which the world’s energy intensity per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) will decline is faster than in the past. However, as the macroeconomy expands beyond the rate of decline, global energy consumption in 2050 will increase by 1.3 times from 2020 to 17 649 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe).

   
Energy, Environment and Economy (ieej)

   

   
Opinions on the EU response to current energy challenges, including opinions on specific EU measures taken in this respect, as well as support for EU measures aimed at securing energy supply and mitigating rising energy prices. Citizens’ willingness to cut down on their energy consumption via a range of different actions.

   
Survey (eurobarometer)

   

   
This paper looks beyond mitigation and adaptation, offering a range of examples where loss and damage to cultural heritage is successfully being averted and minimised. While heritage management predates climate change, it can offer important lessons for cultural heritage threatened by climate change impacts.

   
Measuring the value of loss (odi)

   

   
It’s a paradoxical time as we look ahead to 2023, one in which companies are at once ready to forge ahead with new investments and innovations yet must do so with a dose of caution attributable to the uncertainty of the business landscape. This dilemma is reflected in general attitudes about the year ahead. For the most part, channel firms remain positive about their own company’s outlook for 2023.

   
Trends to watch (comptiacdn)

   

  The social costs of pesticide

   
This study aims to provide an assessment of social costs of pesticides in France in the prospect of an integration to the public budget spending, helping public authorities to identify financial flows of public funding with an impact perspective, within a methodological framework based on the social norms at the core of the public system.

   
The hidden costs in France (frontiersin)

   

   
Through its competence for research and technological development, the EU is supporting the academic communities' commitment to ensuring the highest standards on integrity, in full compliance with the principle of academic freedom enshrined in Article 13 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

   
Handling knowledge as a public good (europarl.europa)

   

   
Representatives from governments worldwide, meeting at the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) outside Paris on 18 November, voted to introduce four new prefixes to the International System of Units (SI) with immediate effect. The prefixes ronna and quetta represent 1027 and 1030, and ronto and quecto signify 10−27 and 10−30.

   
Extreme numbers get new names (nature)

   

   
The underlying drivers of surging inflation vary by geography and industry, but overall the vast majority of respondents are seeing major or extreme input price increases across all measures, from labor to raw materials. It is critical that CEOs pull what levers they can to mitigate these input pressures, recognizing that some may be out of their control or are secondary effects from other industries.

   
How to remain resolute on investment (ey)

   

   
This issue of strategy+business looks at three daunting climate challenges. First among those challenges are the floods, wildfires, droughts, and other natural calamities . The second challenge is equally urgent: decarbonization—starting with how to measure the carbon embedded in global supply chains. Third about investment opportunities that addres the looming green infrastructure crisis.

   
The unexpected opportunities (pwc)

   

   
Italy has faced a series of economic crises in the past 50 years, many of them shared by the United Kingdom. Before digging into the root of Italy’s growth problems. Many factors are to blame: poor economic incentives, a large share of small and unproductive firms, a lack of domestic market competition, and policy capture. Some of Italy’s traps may become future challenges for the UK economy.

   
UK against a backdrop of low productivity & high inequality (resolutionfoundation)

   

  Microbium & Brain’s social development

   
In recent decades, scientists have come to understand that the gut and the brain have powerful mutual influences. Certain types of intestinal ulcers, for example, have been linked to worsening symptoms in people with Parkinson’s disease. And clinicians have long known that gastrointestinal disorders are more common in people who also have neurodevelopmental disorders, such as ADHD and autism spectrum disorder.

   
Experiment (quantamagazine)

   

   
The results of the present review demonstrate and confirm that excessive atmospheric nitrogen deposition negatively affects species assemblages, and thus poses a serious risk to biodiversity. In many cases, it has already caused a decline. The scientific evidence available for the various existing dose-response relationships between nitrogen deposition and the risks for ecosystems and habitat quality of European ecosystems is summarised in Chapters 3 to 9 of this report.

   
Protection of N-sensitive natural and semi-natural ecosystems (umweltbundesamt)

   

   
While stimulus packages were designed to protect socio-economically vulnerable groups, studies show that fewer than two in 10 citizens and businesses benefited from government COVID-19 aid in 2020. In spite of governments’ pledge to be transparent in the use of funds, the relief programs were plagued by corruption, fraud, and lack of transparency.

   
The unfair distribution (afrobarometer)

   

   
Europeans’ knowledge about antibiotics leaves room for improvement. Only close to three in ten Europeans correctly answer the four questions used to measure respondents’ knowledge. Significant variations are noted between Member States, ranging from just over half of citizens in Finland who are able to do so, to less than one in ten (8%) in Romania.

   
Eurobarometer (europa)

   

   
Cell and gene therapies need to be made cheaper. Much cheaper. With price tags in the millions, they will never be able to deliver on their promise of personalized cures at scale. More automated manufacturing offers one of the most significant ways to cut costs. The sector has been moving hospital lab manufacture towards more standardised and repeatable processes in dedicated facilities, but there’s still a long improvement path to travel.

   
Through automation process (reutersevents)

   

   
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology has been used for years, often to improve oil well production rates, but rising carbon prices in places like Europe have raised hope that it could become a standalone business case in the future.Some experts say CCS technology, which typically acts as a filter on smokestacks, is key to achieving the goal of a net carbon-free economy by 2050.

   
Annuel report (globalccsinstitute)

   

   
A recent survey from research firm Gartner found talent is the top challenge facing CFOs heading into 2023, with accurate forecasting and cost management following close behind. Given this and heading into 2023, CFOs need to focus on several key areas, including where the business risks and opportunities lie.

   
With changing economy & market conditions (informationweek)

   

   
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an unprecedented rise in mortality that translated into life expectancy losses around the world, with only a few exceptions. We estimate life expectancy changes in 29 countries since 2020 (including most of Europe, the United States and Chile), attribute them to mortality changes by age group and compare them with historic life expectancy shocks.

   
Analysis (natures)

   

  What is ESG?

   
ESG scores are determined by third-party firms that have their own methodologies to identify a company’s ESG rating. Currently, this isn’t a process that is streamlined across the board, and different companies have their own way of determining a company’s ESG rating. ESG scores and ratings are important because they give an overall picture of the company’s performance in these three areas.

   
Environmental, social, & governance commitment (cio)

   

   
Delivering the European Green Deal is a key priority of the European Commission. The Commission adopted a series of policy proposals to deliver on the European Green Deal, notably the socalled ‘Fit for 55’ package3 . The package of legislative proposals will make the EU's climate, energy, land use, transport and taxation policies fit to deliver on the EU climate targets.

   
Report (europa)

   

   
It is well-documented that mosquitoes are more strongly attracted to some humans than others, but the underlying mechanisms for this phenomenon remain unclear. The most widely accepted explanation for these differences is that variation in skin odors produced by different humans, related in part to their unique skin microbiota, governs their attractiveness to mosquitoes.

   
Mosquito attraction behavior (cell)

   

   
In order to understand Europe’s position in the global quantum computing market we need to roll the clock back a couple years. Investors and entrepreneurs began flocking to quantum during the COVID-19 tech boom and, despite the expected post-pandemic drop off, analysts are predicting a massive increase in market size over the next 5-15 years.

   
A massive growth (thenextweb)

   

   
To reach the climate neutrality envisaged in the Green Deal by 2050, reducing agricultural GHG emissions is not enough, and efforts to implement large scale carbon sequestration in European agricultural soils will be necessary. The renewed CAP includes improvements in environmental conditionality and foresees eco-schemes and agri-environmental measures that can help achieve this goal.

   
Carbon cycle & Agricultural practices (europarl)

   

   
The increasing amount of healthcare data that are becoming available to support regulatory decision making for medicines. While clinical trials remain the fundamental method of establishing the safety and effectiveness of medicines during the pre-authorisation phase, they do not fully reflect the real world, resulting in gaps between regulatory dossiers and subsequent clinical evidence needed by downstream stakeholders including HTAs, payers and ultimately clinicians and patients.

   
Framework for medicines regulation (ema)

   

   
After trade tensions that materialized under the Trump administration, the major crises of the past few years – the global Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine – have intensified doubts about the future of globalization, and increased scrutiny on supply-chain exposures. However, globalization is not dead yet. While intentions to reshore, friendshore or decouple from geopolitically nonaligned countries

   
Can the US & EU really "friendshore" away from China? (allianz-trade)

   

   
The Special Eurobarometer on Food safety covered the population of the respective nationalities of the European Union Member States, resident in each of the 27 Member States and aged 15 years and over, with a total of 26,509 respondents. A technical note concerning the interviews conducted by the member institutes of the Kantar network is annexed to this report. It also specifies the confidence intervals.

   
Survey report (efsa)

   

  Psychological effects on biological age

   
The theory specifies how psychological factors such as emotions can affect aging. However, while human psychology is known to go through certain changes throughout the life span, few studies have attempted to describe these changes in the terms of biogerontology (using aging clocks) or determine their effect on physical health.

   
Contribution assessment (aging-us)

   

   
The world around us is changing and the pace of change is faster than ever before. The future has begun and those who do not want to get left behind must ensure their ability to look ahead. That is why ISO has developed a Standardization Foresight Framework; to help us look more systematically at the long-term and to encourage discussion and exchange within the ISO system about future opportunities for International Standardization.

   
How these trends link to ISO’s work (iso)

   

  Starlink constellation vs GPS

   
For the past two years, team at UT Austin’s Radionavigation Lab has been reverse-engineering signals sent from thousands of Starlink internet satellites in low Earth orbit to ground-based receivers. this team has cracked the problem, and they believes that regular beacon signals from the constellation, designed to help receivers connect with the satellites, could form the basis of a useful navigation system.

   
Could Starlink fill that role? (technologyreview)

   

   
North African economies are characterized by a significant share of informal activity and employment. About two-thirds of workers in North Africa operate without any formal arrangement and social protection, and about 30 percent of GDP is estimated to be produced by informal workers and firms.

   
Informality & Development (imf)

   

   
Trade, development, and foreign policy instruments can contribute to the abolition of modern slavery practices in non-EU countries. The study analyses empirical evidence about the impact of the tools at our disposal. Case studies on Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, Mexico, Philippines, Sudan and Thailand trace their use.

   
External policy tools (europarl)

   

   
35% of channel firms said that they will only work with vendors that offer a seamless partner experience, while the majority (57%) hews close to that high mandate, deeming solid PX important enough that they will accept only slight deficiencies in it even from a vendor partner they are generating revenue from.

   
Managing the Px lifecycle (comptiacdn)

   

   
The Chinese private sector push into Africa is not evenly distributed: 12 countries account for two-thirds of total investment on the continent. They include Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Angola, the Republic of Congo, Zambia, Ghana, Algeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The data suggests Chinese companies also focus on African countries as a sales destination that broadens their reach.

   
Gauging the future (thediplomat)

   

   
Virtually all wind turbines, which produce more than 5 percent of the world’s electricity, are controlled as if they were individual, freestanding units. In fact, the vast majority are part of larger wind farm installations involving hundreds of turbines whose wakes can affect each other. The energy output of such wind farm installations can be increased by modeling the wind flow of the entire collection of turbines.

   
Modeling the wind flow (qualitydigest)

   

   
Citizens’ perceptions of the European Union and Parliament are influenced by what they see, hear and read in various media. This Flash Eurobarometer is designed to present a picture of EU citizens’ media use and media habits, looking at both traditional media and online media. This survey was conducted by Ipsos online panels and their partner network.

   
Eurobarometer (europa)

   

   
A large increase in energy bills this winter was always going to be difficult to bear, but the explosion that we are now on course for will be totally unmanageable for millions of households. The increase in the scale of the problem will require a different, not just a bigger, policy response. This paper examines what that should be.

   
With soaring energy prices (resolutionfoundation)

   

   
Of the 2.4 billion tons of solid waste generated globally each year, approximately 26% is burned residentially and 15% is burned at dump sites. (1) Regulations surrounding the handling, transport, storage, and disposal of solid waste vary across the globe, from landfill and recycling to incidental or intentional combustion.

   
Atmospheric fine particulate matter at urban and rural sites (acs)

   

   
Raman spectroscopy is quickly gaining traction as an efficient, reliable, and economical alternative that can produce accurate, real-time results. Since its discovery in the 1920s, Raman spectroscopy has revolutionised process analysis with its non-destructive mode of operation and capability to measure sample composition.

   
Measuring LNG composition & concentration (engineerlive)
   

   
There is an urgent need to develop sustainable alternatives to mitigate the anthropogenic CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Electrochemical reduction of CO2 into value-added chemicals and fuels helps with the urgently needed intermittent storage of renewable electricity and opens broader avenues for closed carbon-cycle processes.

   
An attractive approach to reduce carbon emissions (cell)

   

   
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is rising faster than expected. Worldwide, more than one million people die of AMR each year, most of them in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Resistant infections can rapidly spread without appropriate access to essential antibiotics and antifungals. Yet, the issue of responsi- bly providing access for people living in resource-poor settings has been largely overlooked.

   
How can pharma take action? (accesstomedicinefoundation)

   

   
Many aspects of life have gone digital, and wallets are no exception. Today, many Americans use the internet and smartphones to transfer money to friends, family and businesses. And while users praise these platforms for making paying for things easier, they also express concerns about security and privacy.

   
Users’ information at stake (pewresearch)

   

   
Climate change, resource scarcity, loss of biodiversity, waste, pollution — all of these pressing global challenges have risen to attention in the past few decades as our world economy has grown and expanded. A circular economy, as opposed to the take-make-waste linear model, can help address these and other challenges.

   
Throughout the value chain (gsb.stanford)

   

   
To the mandatory nutrition labelling, we may also see the use of additional forms of presentation of the nutritional information in the front of package, called “front-of-pack” (FOP) nutrition labelling. These aim to help consumers to see at a glance the essential nutrition information when pur­chasing foods.

   
Food labels (eufic)

   

   
Several years ago, we shifted our focus to working with groups rather than individual substances in an effort to accelerate regulatory risk management for substances of concern. With this approach now maturing, we have seen a significant increase in substances being assessed in 2021 – 30 % more than the previous year.

   
ECHA annual report (europa)

   

   
Here we carried out a systematic search for empirical examples about the impacts of ten climatic hazards sensitive to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on each known human pathogenic disease. We found that 58% (that is, 218 out of 375) of infectious diseases confronted by humanity worldwide have been at some point aggravated by climatic hazards; 16% were at times diminished.

   
The full extent of this risk analysed (nature)

   

   
ISO 20022 is the new global language for payments messaging, helping make the quality of data, richer, structured and more meaningful. The payments industry continues to change rapidly and is certainly something that is discussed by most heads of treasury and trade. There is a constant need to adopt global standards within the financial community, and ISO 20022 is one standard that’s taking the lead.

   
Related to trade, treasury & payments (tradefinanceglobal)

   

   
The overarching aim of the report is to explore how AI can improve patient outcomes by detecting real-time adverse events (AEs) more efficiently and effectively; and how it can be applied to interoperable health data, generated within PSPs to improve the remote monitoring of patients and deliver safer, more personalised and precise treatment options promptly.

   
Advanced digital technology (deloitte)

   

   
The aim of the Gate Fees 2021/22 report is to increase price transparency and, by improving the flow of information, improve efficiency in the waste management market. A lack of market information may reduce a local authority’s ability to make informed decisions on waste management options.

   
Report (wrap)

   

   
The newly released Census Bureau estimates allow us to examine these shifts via specific race-ethnic and age groups. Unlike the 2020 census data, these estimates permit analyses of annual population change. This report focuses on annual changes from July 2016 to July 2017 through July 2020 to July 2021.

   
Losses and shift in population (brookings)

   

   
As the effects of the pandemic dissipate, long-term growth is projected to take-off between Asia, Eastern Europe, and East Africa. China is expected to be the fastest growing economy per capita, even if the projection finds growth to be slowing from what the country achieved over the past decade. he fastest-growing economies to 2030.

   
The fastest-growing economies to 2030 (cid.harvard)

   

   
Despite the flurry of interpretable machine learning (IML) methodological development over the past several years, a stark disconnect characterizes the current overall approach. IML researchers develop methods that typically optimize for diverse but narrow technical objectives, yet their claimed use cases for consumers remain broad and often underspecified.

   
Moving from mythos to diagnostics (acm)

   

   
The educational dimension of the study focuses on questions related to teaching and learning, while the operational one concentrates on the administrative and managerial sides of the system. The study pinpoints the key challenges that the system currently faces and provides tailored recommendations on how to overcome them.

   
Challenges and perspectives (europarl.europa)

   

   
Businesses that make innovative changes amidst upheavals and downturns actually gain momentum and outperform competitors upon recovery. What sets apart thriving pharma businesses is their willingness to spot the market shifts as they begin to crest, pivot to align with them, and then swim through deep waters to ultimately catch and ride the wave.

   
Trends (qualitydigest)

   

   
The Inquiry’s subject matter is the nature, scale, and context for the economic change facing the UK during the 2020s. Its goal is not just to describe the change that Covid-19, Brexit, the Net Zero transition and technology will bring, but to help the country and its policy makers better understand and navigate it against a backdrop of low productivity and high inequality.

   
The shifting balance of employer & worker power (resolutionfoundation)

   

   
Microsoft is concerned enough about ransomware that it built an easy-to-configure anti-ransomware tool directly into Windows 10 and Windows 11. Called controlled folder access, it protects you by letting only safe and fully vetted applications access your files.y default, the feature is not turned on, you’ll have to tell it to get to work.

   
How to keep it at bay? (computerworld)

   

   
There are many software development methodologies out there that you can use to help your team become more Agile and deliver better quality products; one of the most popular frameworks is Scrum. However, there are other methods you could also consider including Kanban, Lean, and Extreme Programming (XP).

   
Scrum vs Kanban vs Lean vs XP (developer)

   

   
Renewables are increasingly becoming the default source of least cost, new power generation. When this is combined with the impact of the fossil fuel crisis and net-zero emissions ambitions, capacity additions are expected to continue to rise in the years ahead. Between 2000 and 2021, renewable power generation capacity worldwide increased just over four-fold, from 754 GW to 3 064 GW.

   
Costs in 2021 (irena)

   

   
This workshop focussed on the non-regulated areas of EFSA’s work, chemical contaminants and biological hazards in food, plant health and animal health and welfare, and was attended by a total of 76participants, of whom 28were from DG SANTEand 22were risk managers from EU Member Stateinstitutions.

   
Implications for risk management & communication (efsa)

   

   
Artificial light at night (ALAN), an increasing anthropogenic driver, is widespread and shows rapid expansion with potential adverse impact on the terrestrial ecosystem. However, whether and to what extent does ALAN affect plant phenology, a critical factor influencing the timing of terrestrial ecosystem processes, remains unexplored due to limited ALAN observation.

   
An underappreciated effect on phenology (academic.oup)

   

   
The first full-color images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have been released. Webb is the largest and most powerful telescope ever launched into space — a promising successor to the famous Hubble Telescope. Even with our humble, earthbound eyes, we can still observe the difference in image quality and details the telescopes produce.

   
Their images side-by-side (thenextweb)

   

   
While the top 10% of households in Britain were richer than those in many other European countries, middle-income British households were 9% poorer than their counterparts in France, while the poorest fifth of households in Britain were more than 20% poorer than their French and German equivalents.

   
Income growth and inequalities (resolutionfoundation)

   

   
Our survey of over 1,600 C-suite executives and data-science leaders from the world’s largest organizations found that nearly 75% of companies have integrated AI into their business strategies and reworked their cloud plans to achieve AI success. And companies are putting those plans into practice: Nearly a third (30%) of all AI pilot initiatives are subsequently scaled to deliver wide-ranging outcomes.

   
AI maturity: whay it matters (accenture)

   

   
The EU Rule of Law Report, published in 2020, 2021 and next in July 2022, demonstrates that the nature and scope of corruption varies between countries, and the effectiveness of anti-corruption policies is quite different across the Union. The EU Rule of Law Report serves as the basis for dialogue with national authorities and parliaments while also informing broader debates across Europe.

   
From political parties & businesses practices (ec.europa)

   

   
Our research has uncovered a novel type of entrepreneurial support organization that we call a pacemaker organization, or pacer, which offers an alternative for emerging-market entrepreneurs. Pacers serve entrepreneurs for the long run, from one year to a lifetime. Like pacers who help world-class marathon runners win races, pacemaker organizations help entrepreneurs achieve their goals in the marathon of scaling up an enterprise.

   
Building long-term value (ssir)

   

   
Public trust is the bedrock of democracy and sound public governance. This series provides insights on what drives people to trust governments and public institutions. Based on a unique framework on the Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions and an innovative population survey (OECD Trust Survey), the reports in this series are designed to provide sound evidence on citizens’ assessment of public institutions to help governments build and strengthen public trust.

   
Across five drivers of trust (oecd)

   

   
Consistently eating healthy is hard. The average person makes more than 200 decisions related to food each day, and these decisions are shaped by financial, educational, geographic, social and emotional factors. For many, the current setup of the food ecosystem makes developing and sticking with healthy food habits feel unattainable and exhausting, which has contributed to a rise in nutrition-related illnesses.

   
Earning consumer trust (ey)

   

   
A research group led by scientists at the University of São Paulo (USP) in São Carlos, Brazil, has identified a number of bioactive compounds in a marine sponge collected on Fernando de Noronha, an archipelago about 400 km off the coast of Brazil’s Northeast region. “This marine sponge had been studied previously by groups outside Brazil, mainly in the 1990s. We used next-generation techniques to analyze substances from its secondary metabolism.

   
Bioactive compounds discovery (innovations-report)

   

   
High levels of public debt service and insufficient fiscal and monetary space have already constrained the crisis responses of most low and middle-income economies. While advanced countries were able to implement extremely expansionary fiscal and monetary policies in response to the pandemic crisis, few countries in the Global South had this option.

   
How to tackle both? (brookings)

   

  OECD Test Guidelines for Chemicals

   
The report describes the considerations, essential steps and organisational aspects of the development of the OECD Test Guideline for the determination of particle size and particle size distributions of nanomaterials. It gives furthermore insights into the selection, preparation and pre-validation of test materials used in an interlaboratory comparison.

   
Particle size & Distribution of nanomaterials (umweltbundesamt)

   

  Booklets on cybersecurity institutions

   
Cybersecurity is one of the first policy areas to challenge traditional governance structures and policymaking … across an unprecedented range of traditional government departments, from defence and foreign affairs to education and finance. These booklets provide tangible frameworks and insights for public and private sector stakeholders who lead key institutions.

   
Insights for public & private sector stakeholders (dcaf)

   

   
The technology giant developed a shredder-like machine, dubbed “Taz,” that recovers rare earth magnets from audio modules. “While rare earth magnets are typically lost in these conventional shredders, Taz is designed to keep these valuable materials intact to improve our overall recovery rate,” according to the company’s 2022 Environmental Progress Report, which was released this week.

   
The breadth of the environmental solutions (apple)

   

   
This increase in the frequency of contaminated fruits and vegetables sold to consumers goes hand in hand with an increase in theintensityofpesticidesusedinmixtures. While 6,4% of fruits were found to be contaminated with at least two of these most toxic pesticides in 2011, this figure has risen to 10,2% in 2019.

   
The most toxic pesticides found on fruits (pan-eu)

   

   
As this year’s survey results indicate, the sustained workplace changes they’ve been asking for—including higher compensation, more flexibility, better work/life balance, increased learning and development opportunities, better mental health and wellness support, and a greater commitment from businesses to make a positive societal impact—are also the strategies that will help employers attract and retain talent.

   
Striving for balance, advocating for change (deloitte)

   

  EU market reform & price stability

   
The European Union’s flagship climate policy instrument, the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), needs more monitoring and transparency in order to prevent “speculation about speculation” and restore political confidence in the market, analysts have said.

   
Special report (euractiv)

   

   
Since the concept of nanotechnology was introduced in the 1970s, it has made its mark in many everyday products, including electronics, fabrics, food, water- and air-treatment processes, cosmetics, and drugs. Given these successes across different fields, many medical researchers were eager to use nanotechnology to diagnose and treat disease.

   
The next big thing (qualitydigest)

   

  Migration for climate action

   
Human mobility can help provide the labour flexibility and skills urgently required for green transitions, to address climate change and other environmental crises. Evidence across four case studies shows how opportunities and challenges can differ according to the nature of migration, the country context and sectoral green transition needs.

   
How labour mobility can help the green transition ? (cdn.od)

   

   
The upshot for the C-suite? As companies take on ambitious business and societal goals, leaders must remember that employees can be a force multiplier or a detractor. In fact, PwC research has found that the workforce is the number one risk to growth—and also the principal means by which companies can execute growth-driven strategies.

   
How people think about work today ? (pwc)

   

   
The results of these surveys feed into the EU Justice Scoreboard, which provides data on the efficiency, quality, and independence of national justice systems – essential parameters of effective justice systems..Effective justice systems are vital for implementing EU law and upholding the rule of law and the values upon which the EU is founded.

   
Companies perception for their independence (ec.europa)

   

  Monkeypox multi-country outbreak

   
Based on ECDC’s epidemiological assessment, the likelihood of MPX spreading in persons having multiple sexual partners in the EU/EEA is considered high. Although most cases in current outbreaks have presented with mild disease symptoms, monkeypox virus (MPXV) may cause severe disease in certain population groups (young children, pregnant women, immunosuppressed persons).

   
Rapid risk assessment (ecdc)

   

   
The mathematical community is especially keen on meritocracy and on avoiding the stigma associated with measures such as quotas. But assessing merit is itself not an exact science, says Jess Wade, a materials scientist at Imperial College London who is known for running science-outreach projects aimed at improving diversity.

   
A man’s world ? (nature)

   

  What digital transformation means

   
What if the freshest insight on how to talk about 21st century transformations isn’t found in a snappy TEDx Talk or an MBA program but in the works of a philosopher born almost 2,500 years ago? Aristotle, for one, had a lot to say about knowledge that is not only relatable but useful for companies undergoing great change.

   
A philosopher's guide to messy transformations (strategy-business)

   

   
With much higher stakes as for microelectronic chips: How can engineers confirm that what’s inside has truly met the intent of the designers? How can a semiconductor design company tell whether its intellectual property was stolen? Much more worrisome, how can anyone be sure a kill switch or some other hardware trojan hasn’t been secretly inserted?

   
The ptychographic X-ray laminography (spectrum.ieee)

   

   
Quantum computing technology offers a new approach to finding approximate solutions to problems with exponential scaling. We formulate a simplistic, yet effective, model of RNA folding that can easily be mapped to quantum computers and we show that currently available quantum computing hardware is competitive with classical methods.

   
RNA structure determination (plos)

   

   

Wave breaking is what puts air into the ocean,” says study author Themis Sapsis, an associate professor of mechanical and ocean engineering and an affiliate of the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society at MIT. “It may sound like a detail, but if you multiply its effect over the area of the entire ocean, wave breaking starts becoming fundamentally important to climate prediction.”

   
AI to capture the complexity of breaking waves (mit)

   

   
We cannot stop the climate crisis today, biodiversity loss tomorrow, and land degradation the day after. We need to tackle all these issues together. Land restoration is integral to joint efforts under the Rio Conventions and other international agreements that are essential to make meaningful progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

   
The UN convention to combat desertification (reliefweb)

   

   
Regulation 1141/2014 gave them EU legal status, created the Authority for European Political Parties and Political Foundations (APPF), and reformed the funding system. The latter regulation was amended further in 2018 – in relation to registration and funding criteria – and in 2019 – regarding protection rules for breaches of personal data.

   
Towards a revision of the Regulation (europarl.europa)

   

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