In the wake of a disaster or crisis, people turn to trusted sources for information.
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Author: Abdul-Qadir
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Study sheds light on new IEEE standard categories, showing power system impact
In 2003, when the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) first drafted standards around distributed energy resources (DERs) connecting with the grid, solar power capacity was less than 1% of its current capacity. The standards document, IEEE 1547-2003, could not anticipate the technical challenges that solar and other DERs would present more than a decade later as a growing share of generation. These challenges were addressed in 2018 through a comprehensive revision of the standard.
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Airlines take no chances with our safety—neither should artificial intelligence
You’d thinking flying in a plane would be more dangerous than driving a car. In reality it’s much safer, partly because the aviation industry is heavily regulated.
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A current map for improving circuit design
A practical method for mapping the flow of a current in devices with complex geometries that could be used to optimize circuit design has been developed at KAUST.
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Why deep networks generalize despite going against statistical intuition
Introductory statistics courses teach us that, when fitting a model to some data, we should have more data than free parameters to avoid the danger of overfitting—fitting noisy data too closely, and thereby failing to fit new data. It is surprising, then, that in modern deep learning the practice is to have orders of magnitude more parameters than data. Despite this, deep networks show good predictive performance, and in fact do better the more parameters they have. Why would that be?
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Satellite design applied to superyacht
Dutch shipbuilder Royal Huisman applied the same concurrent engineering process developed by ESA for space missions to the design of superyacht Sea Eagle II, due to become the world’s largest aluminum sailing yacht when delivered to its owner this spring.
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New virus hits Mideast airlines with $100M loss, group says
Major travel disruptions due to the new coronavirus have already caused the equivalent of a roughly $100 million loss to airlines in the Middle East, which serves as a connection hub for east-west travel, the industry’s main trade association said Monday.
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Lufthansa further slashes flight plan over virus
German airline group Lufthansa said Monday it was extending flight cancellations on Iran and China routes until late April, part of a broader rollback because of the novel coronavirus.
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AT&T launches new online TV service as video customers fall
AT&T is launching a new internet-delivered TV service Monday as it struggles with a shrinking DirecTV satellite business.
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UN releases US$15 million to help vulnerable countries battle the spread of the coronavirus
UN Humanitarian Chief Mark Lowcock today released US$15 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to help fund global efforts to contain the COVID-19 virus.
The announcement came as the World Health Organization (WHO) upgraded the global risk of the coronavirus outbreak to “very high” – its top level of risk assessment. The WHO has said there is still a chance of containing the virus if its chain of transmission is broken.
The sudden increases of cases in Italy, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Korea are deeply concerning. There are now cases linked to Iran in Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait and Oman, along with cases linked to Italy in Algeria, Austria, Croatia, Germany, Spain and Switzerland.
The UN funding has been released to the WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). It will fund essential activities including monitoring the spread of the virus, investigating cases, and the operation of national laboratories.
The WHO has called for US$675 million to fund the fight against coronavirus. There is a window of opportunity to contain the spread of the virus if countries take robust measures to detect cases early, isolate and care for patients, and trace contacts.
Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Mark Lowcock said: “We do not yet see evidence that the virus is spreading freely. As long as that’s the case, we still have a chance of containing it.
“But swift and robust action must be taken to detect cases early, isolate and care for patients, and trace contacts. We must act now to stop this virus from putting more lives at risk.
“This grant from the UN’s Emergency Fund will help countries with fragile health systems boost their detection and response operations. It has the potential to save the lives of millions of vulnerable people.”
This is a critical juncture in the outbreak. The focus is on containing COVID-19 by strengthening surveillance, conducting thorough outbreak investigations to identify contacts and applying appropriate measures to prevent further spread.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said: “The potential spread of the virus to countries with weaker health systems is one of our biggest concerns. These funds will help support these countries get ready for detecting and isolating cases, protecting their health workers, and treating patients with dignity and appropriate care. This will help us save lives and push back the virus”
UNICEF is leading on preventative actions in communities across the affected countries with risk communication, providing hygiene and medical kits to schools and health clinics and monitoring the impact of the outbreak to support continuity of care, education and social services.
“At this pivotal moment, every effort must be made to push back against the outbreak,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “These crucial funds will support our global efforts to bolster weaker health systems and inform children, pregnant women and families about how to protect themselves.”
Since it was launched in 2006, CERF has provided more than $6 billion to over 100 countries and helped hundreds of millions of people.
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