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Human Behavior

IMPERIUM GROUP INTRODUCES DAVID SCHLOSS AND HIS NEW MARKETING TACTICS THAT UTILIZES HUMAN BEHAVIOR – GlobeNewswire

Los Angeles, CA, June 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As time progresses society is seeing different ways to do just about everything. A largely affected industry is marketing. There are so many traditional marketing tactics that simply do not work as well and instead of a clever billboard social media is being utilized. David Schloss is the founder of Covert ROI, a well-established advertising agency. David does not follow the many outdated marketing tactics that have not been adapted to modern technology, he utilizes each and every tool to maximize impressions and audience reach. Coming from being in his mid-twenties with no money in his bank account, David has now had 10 years in this field. Instead of seeing his clients as just a customer like many other agencies, David wants his clients to succeed and create their six or seven-figure income. Services can include setting up Facebook or Instagram ads or completely reconstructing a company's marketing tactics.

After combing through a company's current marketing tactics, David implements new marketing tactics that utilize human behavior to create an attraction to the company or product. One could choose to allow the agency to set them up with different Facebook and Instagram ads or even hire complete social media management teams. David offers lots of other useful services like training or keynote speaking and even case studies that work to get to the core of what is keeping a company from succeeding. David has made it his mission to provide the best services possible in order to maximize his clients profits. His website, https://davidmschloss.com/ , showcases his many success stories. Satisfied clients range from small business owners to high profile CEOS and best selling authors. His website also showcases the many established companies like The Huffington Post, Forbes or Entrepreneur who have written about his very inspiring story.

Technology has progressed so quickly and changed marketing forever. Instead of looking into the sky for fun and quirky billboards we are looking at our screens and David has found the best way to utilize all this new technology. His blog is full of helpful tips and tricks as well as detailed discussions that would help anybody with their marketing tactics. These articles come with helpful recommendations on how much to spend on marketing depending on the season and gives you statistics that reinforce the recommendations. Everything about the website is impressive and if the free blogs are not enough for you there are plenty of different paid services for everyone. The different articles about David provide insight on how he was able to create such a large business and even tell his inspirational story of going from flat broke to creating his successful agency. David Schloss is very persistent and reflects it through his work and all the amazing services that set his company apart. By dissecting his clients companies and using all the different human psychological ploys as well as the tools that are on all the different forms of social media and his genuine dedication to helping companies succeed, he has created a true marketing experience

Contact:

Shazir Mucklai

Imperium Group

shazir@imperium-pr.com

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IMPERIUM GROUP INTRODUCES DAVID SCHLOSS AND HIS NEW MARKETING TACTICS THAT UTILIZES HUMAN BEHAVIOR - GlobeNewswire

Human Behavior

Fighting against the rising tide of misinformation – KING5.com

The "Infodemic" is confusing facts and fiction, stoking unrest, and putting lives at risk. Where is it coming from and how do we stop it? #newdaynw

SEATTLE Along with COVID-19, an upcoming Presidential Election, and nationwide protests, the World Health Organization declared we are also facing an Infodemic" - A huge wave of misinformation making it hard to discern facts from fiction. Where is it coming from and how do we stop it?

Dr. Kate Starbird is an Associate Professor of Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington & Co-founder of the UW Center for an Informed Public. Shes spent more than a decade researching human behavior and how information flows during crisis events. Her research centers on how people use social media or information-communication technologies to seek out and make sense of what's happening during crisis events and man-made disasters.

We talked with Dr. Starbird about misinformation and its spread, why it spikes during crisis events, and what we can do to fight it. Follow @katestarbird on Twitter for ongoing research and updates.

>>Twitter Thread from @katestarbird on on taking care around misinformation/disinformation in regards to protests

>>Use the SIFT Technique, pioneered by Mike Caulfied: Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, and Trace claims, quotes, and media to the original coverage.

>> Learn to understand how bad actors influence both sides of a conflict in order to create chaos: The Surprising Nuance Behind the Russian Troll Strategy

Segment Producer Dawn Boughton. Watch New Day Northwest 11 AM weekdays on KING 5and streaming live on KING5.com. Contact New Day.

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Fighting against the rising tide of misinformation - KING5.com

Human Behavior

Do Unto Others – Thrive Global

Do unto othersas you would have themdo untoyou.Known as the golden rule. I think that we can all agree that, in principle, this sounds good to us. It makes perfect sense. Its interpretation is for all of us to love one another. To be kind. To forgive.

This, of course is predicated on the idea that you, in fact, love yourself. It would hold little meaning if you didnt give yourself the same respect. It may not even occur to you to reciprocate the gesture if you werent in a good place.

In actuality, its when you dont feel good about yourself that you tend to want to throw stones. It goes something like this; Youre not pleased with yourself for whatever reason you see someone else (or others) doing well and flourishing you think;Why them, not me?Youre not where you want to be, so you project onto others. Now, Im not saying that this is what you do. Im saying that this tends to happen. Human behavior is our fickle friend. You may not be able to stop yourself from feeling compelled to compare your life to others. Realistically we know that this kind of thinking sabotages our efforts.

Not only would you be a lot happier, imagine if you really embraced and practiced this idea of doing unto others. In fact, why wouldnt you want love, justice, integrity and equity for all people?

It would no longer be random acts of kindness. It would mean to love others at all times. Prejudice and racism would vanish (I have a dream Martin Luther King Jr.) your fellow human would be treated as, guess what? A human being.

Dont get me started with the current state of affairs in our world. We have a long way to go before the human race is one big global community. In fact, it wont happen in my lifetime. Differences of opinion are skewed. Reality is out of whack.

One way to proceed, particularly during worrisome and fearful times, (although it shouldnt make a difference) is to be even more aware of our actions, and how we treat ourselves and others.

Times have shifted. A new reality has given way. Were being told a lot of things. Our life circumstances have changed. Have tightened. Government is playing a more prevalent role in our lives by telling us what we need to be doing. This does not sit well. Especially whendo unto others isnt really part of the conversation. Its one-sided.

Protesting is inevitable when there is inequality, unlawful acts, human rights violations, and ones dignity being compromised. This is a far cry fromdo unto others and more like aneye for an eye.And yet, weve swung so far over, that we need some kind of consideration. Consideration of others.

We have a responsibility. Each and every one of us. It must start with us. If you lead with love and kindness, guess what, the world will start to be a more loving and kinder place. Intolerant to anything else.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto youis a smart place to start.

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Do Unto Others - Thrive Global

Human Behavior

Cameras reveal possible uptick in urban wildlife – University of Georgia

In late March, as communities began to issue shelter-in-place orders, it seemed animals came out of hiding.

Across the globe, reports began to surface of wildlife taking to the newly deserted streets. Even in Georgia, people reported foxes in shrubbery, yips of coyotes or, in one case at the University of Georgia, deer walking across campus. But were animals relishing in fewer humans around, or were we just noticing them more?

As it happens, data collected for a study on wildlife behavior around metro Atlanta may provide some insight. Wildlife cameras set up by researchers at the University of Georgias Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources and biologists from Georgias Department of Natural Resources point to a possible uptick in daytime wildlife sightings that may correspond with stay-at-home orders.

While the researchers didnt set out to record animal movements during a global pandemic, their 30 wildlife cameras set up from February through April did just that.

Wed been starting to monitor and look at behavior of wildlife in urban Atlanta to better understand how they behave, which is often very different than rural animals. If we can better understand the behaviors of both people and wildlife, we can better guide management and education efforts in the urban landscape, said Michel Kohl, an assistant professor of wildlife management and wildlife Extension specialist for Warnell.

All of a sudden, this pandemic happens, and we see this massive switch in human behavior that, across the globe, has led to anecdotal evidence that wildlife are responding quite quickly, he said. Now, we have this data that we can dig into and see, maybe, if we saw something similar as Georgia shut down and then started to pick back up.

Although Kohl and Benjamin Carr, a fourth-year Warnell student assisting with data collection and video analysis, have only begun looking into the data, it appears that wildlife responded. At the beginning of the study, around mid-February, cameras were recording a daytime wildlife sighting about every other day. But by late March, as more people began to limit nonessential trips, they were capturing more and more videos during the day.

How this directly relates to the COVID-19 shutdown is still not clear, but its something Kohl and his team will dig into in the coming months.

Our hope is to pair this information with direct measures of human use across the landscape to see how in tune wildlife are with their society, says Kohl. Data from cellphones and other measures of human social distancing can help answer these questions, and additional data might be available from wildlife cameras set up in other parts of the country.

Fourth-year University of Georgia student Benjamin Carr sets posts into the ground as part of a research project to understand more about how coyotes adapt to urban environments. (Submitted photo)

The metro Atlanta cameras were part of a study on coyote behavior in urban environments. With assistance from organizations such as Fernbank Museum of Natural History and the Quality Deer Management Association, cameras were placed in urban and rural areas stretching from DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties all the way to Elberton in Northeast Georgia. When an animal walked in front of one, it would record a 30-second video of wildlife behavior as evidence. Half of the cameras were set up with an object meant to be unknown to coyotesfour small posts set into the ground, surrounded by rope and baited for coyotes.

The study, supported in part by the USDAs National Wildlife Research Center, is part of an international project, spanning sites in Canada, the United States and Mexico, that aims to understand more about how urban coyotes navigate their world and adapt to urban landscapes. Typically, coyotes would approach the unknown object with apprehension and even fear, said Kohl. But urban coyotes can be seen on daytime camera footage nonchalantly trotting right by, barely noticing it.

This information is important for wildlife managers such as Kaitlin Goode, program manager for Georgia DNRs new Urban Wildlife Program. The program provides assistance and education to nine metro Atlanta counties, with the goal of resolving conflicts with wildlife, preventing conflicts before they start and promoting better wildlife habitat and conservation in backyards.

The majority of wildlife conflicts can be resolved by removing food sources and understanding why wildlife do what they do, Goode said. Collaborating on research to understand how wildlife behave in an urban environment helps us provide residents with the best advice for resolving conflict.

She adds, too, that the Urban Wildlife team, which regularly receives calls about human-wildlife interactions, didnt notice an increase in conflict reports during this time period. And Kohl notes that in spring, animals are also on the move which could also explain the uptick in camera videos.

Thats because the camera data represents daytime wildlife sightings from all the research teams cameras and doesnt yet account for sites where there may be large numbers of certain animals. This is squirrels, deer, coyotes, turkeys and whatever else we find, Kohl said. Regardless, the relationship between stay-at-home orders and wildlife sightings suggests an intriguing trend that they plan to continue investigating.

Whether or not animals were more active during stay-at-home orders, Kohl and Goode agree that its an opportunity to better understand wildlife populations in urban areas. Its important, said Kohl, to consider the entire population of a species, not just individual animals.

People think about deer in their backyard, but thats just one data point on an urban landscape, and its one animal in a larger population, said Kohl. When we assemble data about what all animals are doing across the entire urban landscape, we can better understand wildlife populations and their behavior. This means we can more efficiently manage and conserve wildlife, which in turn improves the quality of life for both humans and the wildlife.

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Cameras reveal possible uptick in urban wildlife - University of Georgia

Human Behavior

Coronavirus and the Flu: A Looming Double Threat – Scientific American

Uncertainty about the future seems to be the one sure thing in the coronavirus pandemic. No one knows if COVID-19 will persist at its current pace or if recent increased interactions among people will spawn an onslaught of smaller outbreaks or a larger second wave. But a few things are clear: The virus that causes the disease is likely to continue circulating through the population until there is a vaccine. And flu season is only a few months away.

The overlap of COVID-19 and influenza has epidemiologists and some policy makers concerned. The U.S. may soon face two epidemics at the same time, they worry, and this combination could precipitate a crisis unlike any other. The worst-case scenario is both [the coronavirus and the flu] are spreading fast and causing severe disease, complicating diagnoses and presenting a double burden on the health care system, says Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at Harvard University. A few states are planning for extra capacity in hospitals to deal with both illnesses.

Yet another, more favorable future also might be possible as these viruses cross paths, Lipsitch and other infectious disease forecasters say. The behavioral changes people have already adopted to flatten the curve of COVID-19such as social distancing, hand washing, and mask wearingcould lessen the impact of the flu.

It is hard to predict, says Sarah Cobey, an epidemiologist at the University of Chicago. Not only is it unknown whether the coronavirus will ebb and flow as seasons change, but what's really hard is that I dont have a good forecast for human behavior and policy decisions that are going to be made over the next couple of months, she says.

Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at Columbia University, says if SARS-CoV-2 follows seasonal patterns like some other coronaviruses and influenza viruses do, it could subside in the summer. But that could come back to haunt us, he adds. We might get complacent; we might not be prepared. Four flu virus pandemics over the past 100 yearsH1N1 in 1918, H2N2 in 1957, H3N2 in 1968 and H1N1 in 2009had a deadly second wave around the fall and early winter. COVID-19 could do the same. The concern that we might have a double whammy of flu and coronavirus is legitimate, Shaman says.

[Both indoor and outdoor factors influence how viruses wax and wane with the seasons.]

Every year, influenza sickens millions of people in the U.S. In particularly bad years, flu surges overwhelm hospitals and health care systems. During the 20172018 flu season, local news outlets reported that hospitals across the country flew in nurses from other states, erected tents in parking lots and sent incoming ambulances to other facilities because of the overload of patients. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between 46,000 and 95,000 Americans died from the illness that season.

Though the new coronavirus and influenza viruses can cause some of the same symptomssuch as fever, cough and fatiguethese similarities are mostly superficial. The pathogens use different receptors on cells to gain access to our bodies. As a result, SARS-CoV-2 could enter one way, while a flu virus slips in another. A study of about 1,200 patients, conducted in northern California and published in JAMA in April, found that one in five people who were diagnosed with COVID-19 were coinfected with another respiratory virus. The risk of such coinfections is typically low, says Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong, but it gets higher when two viruses are circulating heavily in the same region. Its possible you could get infected with both at the exact same timeif you're having a really bad day, he says.

Cowling and some other epidemiologists think the way viruses interact and interfere with each other could reduce the impact of any coronavirus-influenza collision, however. They have tracked epidemics for decades and have found that outbreaks of respiratory viruses usually do not reach their peaks during the same time period. Though no one knows exactly why, a study published last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA hypothesized that temporary bursts of immunity to different viruses on the cellular level could shift the course of future epidemics. For example, an outbreak of a rhinoviruswhich causes a common coldappears to have delayed the arrival of the 2009 influenza pandemic in Europe. And that effect, in turn, likely postponed epidemics of another disease: respiratory syncytial virus.

Right now COVID-19 has a huge fraction of the population susceptible to it, Cobey says. Assuming that were not incredibly diligent about stopping transmission, its going to continue burning through populations, leaving this wake of immunity that might be slightly effective against other viruses. She admits this idea sits on the speculative side of hypotheses. And the theoretical immunity would not be strong enough for, say, someone who has recovered from a coronavirus to shrug off the flu, or vice versa. But on a population level, it could mean that other viruses might not spread as quickly as normal, so their epidemic peaks could be delayed.

Another reason why the collision might not be dramatic has less to do with virology and more to do with human behavior: both COVID-19 and the flu are transmitted, for the most part, by respiratory droplets, so the same prevention strategies used to reduce the spread of the former will also work for the latter.

[How does the coronavirus spread through the air? Scientists explain what they know about transmission.]

In a study in the Lancetin April,Cowling showed that the public health measures introduced in Hong Kong to contain the coronavirussuch as border restrictions, quarantine and isolation, social distancing, mask wearing and hand washingled to a rapid decline in flu activity. In the U.S., new flu cases plummeted a few weeks after COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. The 20192020 flu season, once headed to be among the worst in decades, ended six weeks early.

But as states in the U.S. ease restrictions on activity and travel, peoples behaviors could change in ways that ease virus transmission, so a double threat is still possible. And it is not clear what, if any, federal response is being mounted to prepare for it. In April Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, told the Washington Post that were going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time. After President Donald Trump claimed that Redfield was misquoted, the director walked his statement back, saying he did not mean the current crisis would be worse, just more difficult and potentially complicated. (The CDC did not respond to Scientific Americans requests for further comment.)

In late May a group of Democratic senators sent a letter to the White House asking it to prepare for the worst overlap scenario. We urge you to begin planning for and activating the resources of the federal government now, they wrote, to increase capacity, supplies, and vaccinations to prevent public health and medical systems from being overwhelmed by simultaneous peaks of both of these deadly infectious diseases in the fall.

On the state level, some are updating hospital surge plans and expanding infectious disease surveillance programs to include both the flu and COVID-19. North Carolinas state health director Elizabeth Tilson, who co-chairs the states coronavirus task force, has been working with health systems to develop plans for increasing their surge capacity by converting unused facilities, procuring extra beds or hiring extra staff. Thankfully, we havent had to pull the trigger on any of our emergency med surge plans. But we have all those plans in place, whether it be COVID-19 or COVID-19 and flu, she says.

Cobey has been trying to convince the government of her home state of Illinois to set up a sentinel surveillance plan that could alert officials to coming surges of COVID-19 and flu cases. But she says her suggestions have received little traction. Such surveillance systems already exist in other states, including North Carolina and Michigan. The CDC also tracks both illnesses on the national level and releases a weekly surveillance report on the viruses that cause them.

Tilson points out that whatever happens, there is one basic step people can take that may alter the trajectory of either epidemic. Look, we dont have a vaccine for COVID-19, she says. We do have a vaccine for flu. Get the vaccine.

Read more about the coronavirus outbreak from Scientific American here. And read coverage from our international network of magazines here.

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Coronavirus and the Flu: A Looming Double Threat - Scientific American

Human Behavior

Mother Nature as a Geopolitical Force – American Council on Science and Health

This article was originally published at Geopolitical Futures. The original is here.

History is biased, and not just because the victors tend to write it. The study of history is largely the study of humankind specifically, the geopolitical events that have shaped human actions (and vice versa) over millennia. Its true that to learn from the past, we must study ourselves. But what if were missing a large part of the story? What if Mother Nature plays just as large a role in shaping the course of human events as mankind? After all, any force that compels specific actions by nation-states is necessarily geopolitical.

It has long been understood that geography imposes substantial imperatives and constraints on nations. Russia, for example, will always be obsessed with securing warm water ports and access to the Mediterranean via the Black Sea because accidents of geography placed the country adjacent to potential adversaries on one side and the Arctic Ocean on another, making it essentially landlocked.

But geography is just one piece of the puzzle, one that fails to account for the vagaries of natural disaster. To understand just how potent a force Mother Nature can be in geopolitics, we must expand our understanding beyond basic geography to include transitory disasters. But this raises questions that are difficult to answer. How can a geopolitical model such as ours, designed to forecast the predictable behavior of nation-states, incorporate unpredictable forces? Is there some threshold that a natural event must cross in order to be considered geopolitically relevant? Is there a way to determine if a natural event plays a determinative role in shaping events or simply accelerates a preexisting trend? Are certain nation-states, cities or societies particularly vulnerable to natural disaster?

Throughout history, Mother Nature has radically altered the course of events, far beyond simply causing structural and economic damage and personal hardship. Indeed, natural forces have helped topple governments and destroy empires. For example, in 1755, Lisbon was slammed by an enormous earthquake and tsunami and then engulfed in an ensuing fire. According to science writer Robin Andrews, the country immediately lost roughly one-third to one-half of its gross domestic product, and the European balance of power shifted decisively away from Portugal to Britain and France. But was this event truly determinative? Perhaps not. Britain and France were already powerful, and Portugals empire was sunsetting.

Adding a layer of complexity, Mother Nature doesnt always have to act locally to change geopolitics. Rather, its impact can have effects on locations far from the natural events origin. In 1815, Mount Tambora in Indonesia erupted, spewing so much ash into the atmosphere that it has been blamed for the bizarre climate of 1816, which became known as the year without a summer. Crops failed all across the Northern Hemisphere, and famine and disease were rampant. It is widely believed that the unusually gloomy year helped inspire, at least in part, the invention of the bicycle and Mary Shelleys novel Frankenstein, the former being a new form of transportation and the latter leaving a lasting imprint on our culture. Once again, Mother Natures impact is evident but not fully clear. Surely, somebody somewhere would have invented a bicycle at some point. And Frankenstein was a story about the immoral and irresponsible use of technology, a story that could just as easily be written today.

Fast forward nearly 200 years, and another cataclysmic event in the Asian Pacific served as a catalyst for major geopolitical events. In 2011, an underwater earthquake triggered a massive tsunami, inundating Japan and causing a meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility. On the other side of the planet, Germany responded by phasing out its nuclear power plants, which in turn increased that nations reliance on Russian natural gas. About 22 percent of Germanys energy needs are met by natural gas, and about 50 to 75 percent of it comes from Russia. This, in turn, has deepened divisions within the European Union, particularly angering some members of the Central and Eastern bloc that believe reliance on Russian natural gas poses a national security threat. But to what extent can we really blame Mother Nature for the EUs problems? Europeans are quite capable of creating controversy all by themselves.

Geological catastrophes arent the only trick Mother Nature can use to influence geopolitics. Biology provides fertile ground for meddling in international affairs. In his book Twelve Diseases That Changed Our World, professor Irwin Sherman explains how genetic and infectious diseases radically altered the course of history. Consider Queen Victoria, a carrier of hemophilia, a disease that causes uncontrollable bleeding due to inadequate clotting. The disease can be so severe that a tiny cut or bruise becomes a life-threatening wound. While she did not suffer from the disease herself, she passed on a bad gene to her children and grandchildren. Victorias granddaughter, Alexandra, married into the Romanovs, becoming the wife of Czar Nicholas II and the empress of Russia. Her son, Alexis, suffered from hemophilia. Sherman argues that, after Nicholas II was forced to abdicate, Alexis illness prevented him from becoming a constitutional monarch. The resulting chaos opened the door to the Bolshevik Revolution. Obviously, Queen Victorias genetics didnt cause Bolshevism, but perhaps they provided the opportunity for the Bolsheviks to seize power.

The diseases that have had the greatest impact on history, of course, were infectious rather than genetic. Sherman goes on to describe how potato blight, cholera, smallpox and myriad other diseases triggered chains of events whose consequences are still apparent today. For example, the fungal pathogen that destroyed potatoes and caused starvation in Ireland drove a massive immigration of Irishmen to America, forever changing its political landscape. The devastation of Native Americans by smallpox and other diseases facilitated the exploits of the Spanish conquistadors and aided colonization by the British. Some infectious diseases came with a silver lining. Though it is responsible for the deaths of untold millions of people, the death wrought by cholera helped inspire the establishment of global public health institutions, which have played a leading role in preventing or even eradicating infectious disease. Here, Mother Nature arguably has played a much larger determinative role.

What can we learn by applying this new way of thinking to the current coronavirus pandemic? Like a lightning bolt, Mother Nature is powerful and unpredictable. Yes, we know lightning occurs during storms, but we cant predict when and where it will strike. Likewise, microbiologists and epidemiologists have long worried about an infectious disease pandemic, but few if any thought it would be a coronavirus in the year 2020. A report from the University of Minnesotas Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy makes that clear:

When severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) the virus that causes COVID-19 first emerged in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, even the most experienced international public health experts did not anticipate that it would rapidly spread to create the worst global public health crisis in over 100 years. By January 2020, a few public health officials began sounding the alarm, but it wasnt until March 11, 2020, that the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic.

By then, we now know, it was too late. The virus was everywhere. In the flash of an eye, Mother Nature commandeered the global agenda, ruthlessly and inconsiderately upsetting the lives of billions, indiscriminately wrecking democracies and dictatorships alike. She reminded us that she is still active and even mercurial in geopolitics. Our airplanes have conquered the skies, but Icelands volcanoes can keep them on the ground. Our doctors can save lives, but a new virus can end them. In retrospect, it is often clear to discern a chain of causal events linking nature to major geopolitical events such as an undersea earthquake leading to friction in the EU. But such revelations only occur in hindsight. Thats why forecasting Mother Nature has been left to soothsayers and the local weathermen. Perhaps its time for geopolitical analysts to give it a try.

2020 Geopolitical Futures. Republished with permission.

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Mother Nature as a Geopolitical Force - American Council on Science and Health

Human Behavior

RPA: Deploying the Potentials of Automation for Business Efficacy – Analytics Insight

Robotic Process Automation or RPA is one of the top technologies in todays market, and slow-growth to hypergrowth organizations are adopting automation in their day-to-day tasks its value is increasing at a great pace. RPA technology allows a software robot to mimic human behavior. It can navigate enterprise software like ERP systems, FSM software, or service management tools using the applications user interfaces just like a human would. However, a robot is able to work much faster, and more efficiently without ever slowing down.

Counting on its benefits for corporate environment, recent industry research on accounting and finance professionals found that in reality, RPA software has huge potential to eliminate the most time-consuming and repetitive manual processes that make up an accountants day-to-day work. Robotic Process Automation can improve efficiencies to deliver more accurate intelligence data and also provide real-time access to financial data with reporting and analytic capabilities.

As the amount of financial data keeps on increasing because of the Big Data boom, this technology can help finance professionals to start adding real value from a strategic viewpoint and start contributing more towards the bottom-line of their company.

RPA automates actions, inputs, behaviors, etc., in the user interface. It is ideal for integration projects that require human manipulation of user interface elements and involve heterogeneous systems. RPA technologies exploit standard APIs, so integrators wont have to tinker with existing applications, workflows, processes, or system architecture. In this way, RPA can help reduce the amount of work (along with much of the risk) necessary to integrate heterogeneous applications and systems. This is one of the biggest factors driving the cost-effectiveness of RPA implementations.

RPA is not a panacea. Some tasks, even if tedious or repetitive, will require manual human oversight and control. As always, careful analysis of in-process workflows enables you to determine the best overall candidates for robotic automation.

In general, the following are good places to start with RPA:

Rote and repetitive tasks. Pointing-and-clicking a mouse. Copying-and-pasting text.

Testing and validation. Some visual interfaces require substantial time and effort to test prior to deployment. RPA can radically accelerate this process, improve testing, and reduce costs.

Redundant tasks. Basic tasks that multiple users tend to perform in parallel in an organization.

Manual tasks with limited variability and few exceptions. Tasks that are consistent, repeatable, and/or highly predictable are excellent candidates for robotic automation.

Human-orchestrated integrations. A user manually copies data from one visual interface and pastes it into another, or a user manually imports the output of one program into another.

Any tedious or time-consuming task that looks like it might be a good candidate for automation. Automating the task should free one or more humans to do more productive work.

Though automation software is expected to replace up to 140 million full-time employees worldwide by 2025, many high-quality jobs will be created for those who maintain and improve RPA software.

When software robots do replace people in the enterprise, C-level executives need to be responsible for ensuring that business outcomes are achieved and new governance policies are met.

Robotic process automation technology also requires that the CTO/CIO take more of a leadership role and assume accountability for the business outcomes and the risks of deploying RPA tools.

Additionally, the COO, CIO and chief human resources officer, as well as the relevant C-level executive who owns the process being automated, should all work toward ensuring the availability of an enterprise-grade, secure platform for controlling and operating bots across systems.

When RPA first arose as a category, it evolved from macros that automated simple tasks into programmable bots based on a set of human-defined process rules.

These bots helped improve efficiency in isolated situations, but organizations soon struggled on two fronts. First, discovering and defining processes for the bots to automateat scalehas been a challenge for RPA from the start. Second, the management of the bots themselves and the process-defined rule-sets that direct their actions have become a big bugbear.

This is what has led to the growth in RPA platforms, which can help on both fronts. RPA tools help automate the discovery of the processes and provide tools for line-of-business users to more easily build automations based on their process needs, often based on pre-built bot libraries. Additionally, platforms define rules that govern and orchestrate the way bots run.

RPA vendors are trying to flex the limits of process definition by developing machine learning capabilities to automatically discover and learn processes. Increasingly, vendors are building in the ability to record and analyze user actions and then use machine learning to automatically define process rules and reduce the number of manual steps.

However, the heavy lifting still typically falls on business stakeholders and the automation team to get things rolling.

Usually, however, RPA projects require the aid of consultants and integrators, which is why analysts project a threefold increase in spending on RPA software through 2022.

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RPA: Deploying the Potentials of Automation for Business Efficacy - Analytics Insight

Human Behavior

Pandemic is showing us we need safe and ethical AI more than ever | TheHill – The Hill

Machine-learning models are trained on human behavior and excel at highlighting predictable or normal behaviors and patterns. However, the sudden onset of a global pandemic caused a massive change in human behavior that by some accounts has caused automation to go into a tailspin, exposing fragilities in integrated systems we have come to rely upon.

The realization of the scale and scope of these vulnerabilities which affect operations ranging from inventory management to global supply chain logistics comes at a time when we need artificial intelligence (AI) more than ever. For example, AI technologies are enabling contact tracing applications that may help mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. And amidst widespread testing shortages, hospitals have started to use AI technologies to help diagnose COVID-19 patients.

Still, the expansion of AI in healthcare could at the same time lead to profound threats to privacy and civil liberties, among other concerns. Even when AI systems are relatively accurate, their implementation in complex social contexts can cause unintentional and unexpected problems, for example resulting in over-testing, which is inconvenient for patients and burdensome for resource-strapped healthcare facilities. The challenges associated with developing and implementing AI technologies responsibly calls for the adoption of a suite of practices, mechanisms, and policies from the outset.

A new report from the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity provides a timely overview of some of the approaches currently being used to roll out AI technologies responsibly. These range from monitoring and documentation techniques to standards and organizational structures that can be utilized at different stages of the AI development pipeline. The report includes three case studies that can serve as a guide for other AI stakeholders whether companies, research labs, or national governments facing decisions about how to facilitate responsible AI innovation during uncertain times.

The first case study explores Microsofts AI, Ethics and Effects in Engineering and Research (AETHER) Committee and highlights what it takes to integrate AI principles into a major technology company. It is well known that Googles attempt to establish an AI ethics board dissolved within a week, however the AETHER Committee originally launched in 2018 has comparatively flown under the radar despite some notable successes. AETHER established a mechanism within Microsoft that facilitates structured review of controversial AI use-cases, providing a pathway for executives and employees to flag concerns, develop recommendations, and create new company-wide policies.

For example, AETHERs deliberations helped inform Microsofts decision to reject a request from a California sheriffs department to install facial recognition technology in officers cars and body cameras. In another example, AETHERs Bias and Fairness working group helped develop an AI ethics checklist for engineers to use throughout the product development process. Other AETHER working groups have developed tools to help AI developers conduct threat-modeling and improve the explainability of black-box systems. An internal phone line called Ask AETHER enables any employee to flag an issue for consideration by the Committee.

The second case study explored in the CLTC report delves into OpenAIs experiment with the staged release of its AI language model, GPT-2, which can generate paragraphs of synthetic text on any topic. Rather than release the full model all at once, the research lab used a staged release, publishing progressively larger models over a nine-month period and using the time in between stages to explore potential societal and policy implications.

OpenAIs decision to release GPT-2 in stages was controversial in a field known for openness, but the company argued that slowing down the release of such a powerful, omni-use technology would help identify potential dangers in advance. The research labs decision jump-started a larger conversation about best practices and responsible publication norms, and other companies have since opted for more cautious and thoughtful release strategies.

Finally, the third case study discusses the role of the new OECD AI Policy Observatory, formally launched in February 2020 to serve as a platform to share and shape public policies for responsible, trustworthy and beneficial AI. In May 2019, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) achieved the notable feat of adopting the first intergovernmental standard on AI with the support of over 40 countries. Subsequent endorsements by the G20 and other partner countries have expanded the scope of the OECD AI Principles to much of the world. Launched this year, the Observatory is working to anchor the principles in evidence-based policy analysis and implementation recommendations while facilitating meaningful international coordination on the development and use of AI.

Together, the three case studies shine a light on what AI stakeholders are doing to move beyond declarations of AI principles to real-world, structural change. They demonstrate actions that depart from the status quo by altering business practices, research norms, and policy frameworks. At a time of global economic upheaval, such deliberate efforts could not be more critical.

Demand for AI technologies whether for pandemic response and recovery or countless other uses is unlikely to diminish, but open dialogue about how to use AI safely and ethically will help us avoid the trap of adopting technological solutions that cause more problems than they solve.

Jessica Cussins Newman is a research fellow at the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, where she focuses on digital governance and the security implications of artificial intelligence. She is also an AI policy specialist with the Future of Life Institute and a research adviser with The Future Society. She has previously studied at Harvard University's Belfer Center,and has held research positions with Harvard's Program on Science, Technology & Society, the Institute for the Future, and the Center for Genetics and Society. She holds degrees from the Harvard Kennedy School and University of California, Berkeley. Follow her on Twitter@JessicaH_Newman.

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Pandemic is showing us we need safe and ethical AI more than ever | TheHill - The Hill

Human Behavior

How Is COVID-19 Different From Other Respiratory Diseases? – Yahoo News

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In March 2020, Google searches for phrases like cant taste food or why cant I smell spiked around the world, particularly in areas where COVID-19 hit hardest. Still, many of us have experienced a temporary change in the flavor of our food with a common cold or the flu (influenza). So, is COVID-19 the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus somehow special in the way it affects smell and taste?

We are researchers who study the relationships between human behavior and the sensations people experience from chemicals in daily life. Upon learning that COVID-19 might differentially affect taste and smell, we thought our expertise might be relevant, so we got to work.

The flavor of food is more than just taste

When people taste food, they are experiencing input from three different sensory systems that are knitted together to form a singular unified sensation. Strictly speaking, taste describes the five qualities we sense on the tongue, including sweet, salty, bitter, sour and savory/umami. Savory, also known as umami, refers to the meatiness of broth, cheese, fish sauce, or a sundried tomato.

Other sensations from food occur via our sense of smell, even though we experience them in the mouth. Volatile chemicals are released when we chew. These chemicals travel through the back of the throat to reach smell receptors found at the top of the nasal cavity, right behind the point where your eyeglasses rest on your nose.

The third sensory system involved in food flavor involves touch and temperature nerves that can also be activated by chemicals. This is known as chemesthesis. In the mouth, these sensations include the burn of chili peppers, the cooling of mouthwash or mints, the tingle of carbonation, or the vibrating buzz of Sichuan peppers. Together, these three chemosensory systems taste, smell and chemesthesis work to define our perceptual experiences from food.

Common viral infections attack the nose more than the mouth

Story continues

Loss of smell is common with many viruses, including rhinoviruses, influenza, parainfluenza and coronaviruses, and it is normally attributed to nasal inflammation that restricts airflow.

If your nose is blocked, it is not surprising you are not able to smell much. Typically, the other two systems taste and oral chemesthesis are not affected, as a blocked nose does not alter our ability to taste sugar as sweet or feel the burn from a chili pepper. With time, most patients recover their senses of smell, but occasionally some do not. Causes vary, but in some individuals, inflammation from a viral illness appears to permanently damage key structures located around the smell receptors.

SARS-CoV-2 isnt like those other viruses

Since early spring 2020, firsthand reports have indicated that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, might affect the mouth and nose more severely than the common cold or the flu. Not only were the reports of loss more frequent, but they also differed from what is normally seen.

One British surgeon with COVID-19 posted a video to Twitter showing that he had lost the ability to feel the burn of chilies. Others, like Penn State undergraduate Caela Camazine, reported losing their sense of smell and taste completely without any nasal congestion.

Based on the spike in Google searches, and these atypical accounts of chemosensory loss, more than 600 researchers, clinicians and patient advocates from 60 countries formed the Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research.

The Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research launched a global survey in 32 different languages to better understand what COVID-19 patients are experiencing. Initial results from our survey support the idea that COVID-19 related losses are not limited to smell, as many patients also report disruption of taste and chemesthesis.

Our understanding of how the SARS-CoV-2 virus can affect multiple sensory systems is still quite limited, but is advancing daily. Initial work suggests that smell disturbances in COVID-19 patients are caused by the disruption of cells that support olfactory neurons. In our noses, we have nerve cells called olfactory sensory neurons, which are covered with odor receptors tuned for certain volatile chemicals. When a chemical binds an odor receptor, the olfactory sensory neuron fires a signal to the brain which we perceive as a smell. Notably, it does not appear that the virus targets olfactory sensory neurons directly.

Instead, the virus seems to target specialized supporting cells that cradle the olfactory sensory neurons. These support cells are covered with a different receptor, the ACE2 receptor, which acts as an entry point for the virus. In contrast, the way SARS-CoV-2 might directly affect taste and chemesthesis remains unknown.

Will COVID-19 patients recover their sensory perception?

We just dont know yet whether COVID-19 patients will recover their sense of smell, taste and chemesthesis. Many patients have reported recovering completely within two or three weeks, while others report their sensory loss lasts for many weeks. To connect with other individuals who are experiencing smell and taste loss related to COVID-19, consider reaching out to organizations advocating on behalf of those who suffer from smell and taste loss, such as AbScent and FifthSense.

Because more data are needed, we are asking for your help in our research. If you know anyone who is (or recently has been) coughing and sniffling, invite them to complete the Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research survey, which takes about 10 minutes.

We want anyone who has had any upper respiratory illness (COVID-19 or not) recently so we can compare individuals with COVID-19 to individuals with the flu or the common cold. By volunteering for our study, or by spreading the word on this research study, you can contribute to better understand how COVID-19 is special in its ability to affect smell, taste and chemesthesis.

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John E Hayes, Associate Professor of Food Science, Pennsylvania State University and Valentina Parma, Research Assistant Professor, Temple University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Image: Reuters

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How Is COVID-19 Different From Other Respiratory Diseases? - Yahoo News

Human Behavior

What you need to know about coronavirus on Thursday, June 4 – KTEN

By Ivana Kottasov, CNN

George Floyd had coronavirus before he was killed while in police custody last week in Minneapolis.

Floyd tested positive for the virus after his death. The autopsy report released yesterday says the disease played no role in his death and was likely a sign of a previous infection.

As a black man, Floyd had a higher chance of contracting Covid-19. Official data shows that while black people make up 13% of the general US population, they account for 23% of the country's novel coronavirus deaths. This inequality has been seen elsewhere in the world: people from ethnic minority communities in the UK, for example, are up to 50% more likely to die of the virus than white people.

That Floyd survived the virus but died after a police officer had his knee on the unarmed 46-year-old's neck for more than 8 minutes displays the deep racial inequality in America in 2020.

Several high-profile doctors' groups have said this week that racism is a public health issue and called for police brutality to stop. Numerous studies have shown that experiences of racism or discrimination raise the risk of emotional and physical health problems, including cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure, both of which are a serious risk factor in Covid-19 patients.

This pandemic has amplified existing inequalities. People of color are more likely to work on the frontlines and live in densely populated areas, they have worse access to healthcare and more underlying health conditions. And now, protesting these injustices amid the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak, they are again at risk.

Q: Is hand sanitizer as effective as soap and water in killing coronavirus?

A: Yes as long as you use the right kind of sanitizer correctly.

Hand sanitizers "need to have at least 60% alcohol in them," said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventative medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

Make sure to rub it all over your hands, between your fingers and on the back of your hands.

It's always better to thoroughly wash your hands, if you're able to. "Alcohol is pretty effective at killing germs, but it doesn't wash away stuff," said Dr. John Williams, a virologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Send your questions here. Are you a health care worker fighting Covid-19? Message us on WhatsApp about the challenges you're facing: +1 347-322-0415.

Sweden admits flaws in its strategy

The architect of Sweden's coronavirus response has defended the country's controversial decision not to go into lockdown, while admitting "improvements" could be made with the benefit of hindsight.

As the coronavirus pandemic swept across the world and governments scrambled to enact emergency lockdown measures, Sweden kept most schools, restaurants, salons and bars open. It asked people to refrain from making long journeys, placing an emphasis on personal responsibility. But three months later, Sweden's Covid-19 death toll stands at 4,542, much higher than in other nordic countries.

Why strict lockdowns might be better for the economy

Sweden's approach was hailed by those concerned about the impact of the lockdown on the economy. However, a new study suggests that strict lockdowns might be better for economies than longer, more moderate closures. Shorter but stricter lockdowns don't hit businesses as hard, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Nature Human Behavior. Businesses can weather a short, extreme shutdown but run out of supplies and reserves as time goes on.

What's new on the vaccine front

As the science community works at a breakneck speed to develop an effective vaccine, many are stressing that the race to find one needs to be one against the virus and not a competition between countries and companies. The Virtual Global Vaccine Summit hosted by the UK today will likely stress that message, with Bill Gates and Boris Johnson as keynote speakers.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has selected five companies that are the most likely to produce a Covid-19 vaccine, according to a White House coronavirus task force source. And the Covid-19 vaccine being developed by Oxford University in partnership with AstraZeneca pharmaceutical will now be tested in Brazil.

More questions around Trump's drug of choice

A new study -- the first of its kind -- shows hydroxychloroquine doesn't work to prevent coronavirus infection. President Donald Trump said he took the drug last month, shortly after he found out that his personal valet had been diagnosed with the coronavirus.

Previous studies have shown hydroxychloroquine doesn't help patients with Covid-19 and trials of the drug have been suspended after a large study suggested the drug might actually harm patients. That study, published in a renowned medical journal The Lancet has since been questioned and the World Health Organization said yesterday it was safe to restart the trials.

Fauci weighs the pros and cons of reopening schools

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the US National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he believes it's a "bit of a reach" to keep schools closed in the fall because of coronavirus safety concerns for children.

Fauci said children tend to have milder symptoms -- or even no symptoms -- when they are infected with Covid-19. What's not yet clear, however, is whether children get infected as frequently as adults and whether they pass the infection on to others as easily. Fauci said ultimately, the decision to reopen schools needs to be predicated on the level of infection in each community.

Concerns for Haiti

The World Health Organization said yesterday it was "very concerned" about coronavirus in Haiti "because of its unique circumstances, unique fragility and the fact that the disease is accelerating in a highly vulnerable population." Haiti has reported at least 2,507 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and at least 48 deaths, according to the latest report by the Haitian Ministry of Health from June 1.

The Covid-19 crisis is spiralling out of control in much of Latin America. Brazil and Mexico both registered a record number of coronavirus-related deaths yesterday.

How to make good decisions when you're paralyzed by the stress

"It's crazy times, with protests and a pandemic and things at every level appearing untrustworthy," said biochemist Bita Moghaddam, who chairs the behavioral neuroscience department in the school of medicine at Oregon Health and Science University.

Moghaddam, who studies how anxiety affects the brain, said it's no wonder our stressed, overworked brains can't spit out a decision. We have become victims of "analysis paralysis."

So here are some tips on how to give your brain a break from its constant risk calculations.

TODAY'S PODCAST

"I just encourage people to bring their own chairs. While it's nice to stand up and chat, we find people start to move closer and closer the more comfortable they feel. And if you've got a chair, you don't drift."

-- CNN contributor and immunologist Erin Bromage

As the weather heats up, many of us are contemplating how to safely go out into the world and enjoy the summer. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta talks to CNN contributor and immunologist Erin Bromage about what to consider before doing anything from hosting a cookout to going for a hike. Listen Now.

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What you need to know about coronavirus on Thursday, June 4 - KTEN