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.......................................x MONITOR ___________________ Rollout 5 Factors That Could Dictate the Success or Failure of the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout
As a viral immunologist who develops immunization strategies to prevent infectious diseases and treat cancers, I would like to highlight outstanding questions about the emergency use of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. These vaccines have raised hopes that the pandemic is nearing an end. Hopefully this is true, but here are some potential sticking points.
Global augmented and virtual reality market is expected to reach $661.40 billion by 2025 A recent analysis of the Future of User Interfaces Shaping New Consumer Experiences, finds that user interface (UI) technologies have moved beyond the concept of simply representing machines to their users to enabling sophisticated and personalized interaction. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated their use in healthcare, manufacturing, education, retail, and banking to simplify interactivity and improve engagement. The global augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) market is expected to reach $661.40 billion by 2025, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 86.3% from 2019 to 2025, driven by contactless commerce. Beyond 2030, AR and VR will merge, allowing users access to the total reality-virtuality continuum. Meanwhile, the global biometrics market revenue is forecast to reach $54.97 billion in 2025, with next-generation identification, palm vein and behavioral biometrics experiencing significant demand. "The need for adoption of new user interface (UI) technologies to alleviate challenges posed by the global pandemic is immediate but constrained by infrastructure issues such as a lack of 5G networks and capable devices," said Murali Krishnan, Visionary Innovation Group Senior Industry Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. "For futuristic UIs to become ubiquitous, security and privacy will be critical. Organizations must prioritize cybersecurity, business continuity plans, and risk assessments. Further, the transition to the fifth generation of wireless technology will be critical to the success of UI devices. Its ability to connect 1 million devices for every square kilometer will make 5G the backbone for UI devices and overall connected ecosystems." According to a new survey, employee confidence may hinge on more stringent disinfection protocols and increased communication about the specific actions and qualifications of those implementing them. With the one-year anniversary of the pandemic lockdown looming, cleanliness and disinfection is a priority in virtually every setting. Although signs of fatigue are growing, also on the rise are employees’ concerns about the safety of their work environment. Despite companies’ expanded cleaning protocols and increasing availability of vaccines, there are indications that there is room to improve employees’ confidence in workplace safety and cleanliness, according to a new survey conducted by Openworks. In fact, the importance of frequent cleaning and disinfecting has actually increased since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the survey, which tracked how employee expectations have shifted from May to December 2020. The survey sought to understand full-time employees’ sentiments around cleaning and disinfection of their workplace – and whether time or the introduction of a vaccine have altered those beliefs. The trend in housing starts was 244,963 units in January 2021, up from 238,747 units in December 2020. This trend measure is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts. "The national trend in housing starts increased in January," said Bob Dugan, CMHC's chief economist. "Both single- and multi-family SAAR starts rebounded strongly in January from declines in December, driving the overall trend higher. Single-family starts were particularly strong in Montréal, reaching their highest level since February 2008." Due to COVID-19, CMHC's monthly Starts and Completions Survey (SCS) for December 2020 was not conducted in the Kelowna CMA, it resumed in January 2021. This press release includes national housing starts totals without Kelowna in order to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic where the SCS survey was conducted in both December 2020 and January 2021. The national trend and month-to-month change in the SAAR level was very similar with and without Kelowna in December and January. We will continue to monitor the situation in each centre and adjust the SCS accordingly. Libro Credit Union invested $348,000 with five local non-profits leading the charge in tackling some of the biggest challenges facing our region: local food accessibility, employment and housing stability. “We have the privilege to partner with local non-profit organizations who share our concern for the good of our communities,” said Liz Arkinstall, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at Libro Credit Union. “Sharing our expertise, resources, and local love is core to our business. We know when our communities succeed, we all succeed.” Research led by Queen’s University Belfast and McGill University has found that viruses, (small microbes that cause diseases such as the common cold, measles, or COVID-19) can ‘hijack’ an existing molecular process in the cell in order to block the body’s antiviral immune response to a viral infection. The results of the study have been published in the journal Molecular Cell. As the current COVID-19 pandemic has proved, viral infection is a significant threat to the health of humans as well as livestock, pets, and plants. Discovery of a potentially druggable process that is hijacked by the virus to facilitate viral infection could have significant health and financial benefits to society. This discovery is a breakthrough in the fields of immunobiology and gene expression, and further research will determine if targeting this cellular mechanism could be used to more effectively treat viral infections.
Newspaper headlines have declared that “Amsterdam ousts London as Europe’s top share trading hub”. This has been seen as another downside of the UK leaving the UK. Amsterdam has become Europe’s most important hub for trading shares with London pushed into second place. For Amsterdam, this was a dramatic shift for a city that in November 2020 was fifth behind Paris, Frankfurt, and Milan. There are many ways of reading this shift. On the one hand, in Brexit terms, it is perhaps surprising that London remains in second place rather than being pushed down the list of European share trading centres. On the other hand, it is perhaps surprising that Amsterdam has surpassed Paris and Frankfurt. This really should have been a story about the emergence of a new European Global Financial Centre that would displace London and compete on equal terms with New York and Shanghai. Patients in Ontario with chronic kidney conditions who require dialysis have a significantly increased likelihood of contracting and dying from COVID-19, new research from Western University and Lawson Health Research Institute has shown. Study author Dr. Peter Blake says the research emphasizes the need to prioritize dialysis patients for vaccination. Published in CMAJ, the study shows that of the more than 12,000 patients undergoing long-term dialysis in Ontario, 187 patients became infected with SARS-CoV-2 between March and August 2020. Of the patients who were infected, 60 per cent needed to be hospitalized and nearly 30 per cent died. That’s almost four times the mortality rate from COVID-19 than the general population. The researchers continued to collect data into the second wave of the pandemic, and report that as of the end of January 2021, a further 424 dialysis patients were diagnosed with COVID-19, equivalent to 4.5 per cent of all dialysis patients in the province, and that 130 have now died. On 11 February 2021, the University of Waterloo, School of Accounting & Finance was awarded the winning title of the 2021 CFA Society Toronto Local Ethics Challenge. This year’s local champions from University of Waterloo include Shubhankar Bhatt, Dhanusha Sathiyaseelan, Parshv Shah, Zhuoran (Johanna) Wu and mentored by their Faculty Advisor Krista Fiolleau Phd, CPA, CA. The team demonstrated their ability to expertly negotiate ethical dilemmas in a real-life investment scenario and presented their case to a panel of seasoned investment professionals. "The CFA Society Toronto Local Ethics Challenge was a fantastic competition to apply concepts learned through courses in school and on the job. The case was challenging and composed of many ethical issues, but through the CFA Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct, we were able to work together to outline problems, provide recommendations and answer questions from the judges. We are all looking forward to moving on to the national round of the competition!” said Shubhankar Bhatt, University of Waterloo, School of Accounting & Finance. International students bring so much to Canada, contributing more than $21 billion annually to our economy and supporting the vitality of our communities. The pandemic has presented myriad challenges for international students, and the Government of Canada has taken action to assist them through this difficult time with a variety of measures, including offering open work permits for former international students who hold or held a post-graduation work permit (PGWP). As part of the Government’s efforts to support international students, the Honourable Marco E. L. Mendicino, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, today announced further measures to ensure that international students won’t miss out on opportunities after they graduate due to the pandemic. With the prospect of many international students continuing online learning from abroad for several more months, temporary changes to the PGWP Program put in place earlier in the pandemic are being extended and expanded. These measures will assist international students by ensuring that studies completed outside Canada will count towards a future PGWP, and by allowing international students to complete their entire program online from abroad and still be eligible for a PGWP. The measures apply to all international students who are enrolled in a PGWP-eligible program, and meet all other PGWP criteria.
Wilfrid Laurier University is set to host a four-week virtual user experience (UX) design challenge that will see university and college students from across Canada tackle problems related to climate change for the chance to win $8,500 in cash prizes. Design for Change will challenge students to develop and design solutions to help transform social behaviour toward greener and more sustainable practices. From March 1 to 27, students can participate in workshops and will have access to mentorship from industry leaders as they work on their design. Students can participate alone, in pairs, or teams of three and no prior UX experience is required. “UX design is all about creating solutions to complex problems and doing so from a human-centred perspective,” said Abby Goodrum, Laurier's User Experience Design program coordinator. “I'm hoping that students taking part in this design challenge will not only come away with new skills but also the ability to create innovative user-centred designs that can have a real impact on the environment and global climate change.” more ... Waterloo Region’s longest running film festival will celebrate its 14th season as a newly formatted at-home virtual experience. The Grand River Film Festival (GRFF) is introducing the virtual festival experience, GRFF@Home, in May 2021 as a continuation of its annual film festival programming. “For GRFF, a virtual festival is a brave new world. But it has become the reality for festivals across the country and around the world, and the options available to us are quite impressive,” says Michael Clarke, Programming Chair. The virtual festival, GRFF@Home, will include an expanded selection of films available for online streaming. Viewers can expect interactive activities, such as live events and Q&As, allowing patrons to enjoy a variety of festival content from the comfort of their home. “Despite the challenges COVID-19 has erected, GRFF sees opportunities for more varied engagements with the film loving community,” says GRFF Chair, Paul Tortolo. more ...
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