Human Behavior

A ‘Servant’ Theory About Aliens Could Have the Show Figured Out – Distractify

A 'Servant' Theory About Aliens Could Have the Show Figured OutAcceptWe allow third parties to collect information which we use for business purposes, for more info read CCPA section in the privacy policy page.AcceptBrowsers may block some cookies by default. Click accept to allow advertising partners to use cookies and serve more relevant ads. Visit our privacy policy page for more information.Source: AppleBy Chrissy Bobic

56 minutes ago

M. Night Shyamalan is known for a few unmistakable movie tropes twist endings, shameless cameos, and aliens. Granted, all of his movies aren't about aliens, but it's not a stretch to consider that the Apple TV+ series he attached himself to will involve otherworldly creatures at some point. And this Servant theory about aliens definitely backs that up.

M. Night has been a big part of the marketing for Servant, so he has had a hand in helping shape the series so far. He didn't write or direct every episode, but the general tone and ongoing mystery is unmistakably reminiscent of some of his other work. Now, one fan on reddit is convinced aliens are the answer on Servant. If that's the case, it could answer some key questions by the time Season 1 ends.

The fans reddit theory points to Leanne, Uncle George, and the new Jericho as shape-shifting aliens. It also says Leanne could be living with Dorothy and Sean as a way to study human behavior. The fan wrote that there are a few different connections between M. Nights movie Signs and Servant. The first is a news station logo that appears both in the movie and TV show. The second involves aliens aversion to water in Signs. Though no one in Servant has shown an aversion yet, the redditor points out that this characteristic of the aliens was a reference to Wizard of Oz.

And, they added, the name Dorothy and the red shoes in Servant may also be a connection to The Wizard of Oz, which in turn, would connect Aliens to Servant. They also wrote that the town of Elmwood, known for UFO sightings, is in Wisconsin, where Leanne is from. And, since aliens are often referred to as "Greys," Leannes last name, Greyson, could be another hint at the truth.

If you look at all of M. Nights work before Servant, you can see he has written about plenty of mysterious topics, including superhuman abilities, aliens, and ghosts. There is never really anything off-limits for M. Night. But Signs might be one of his biggest works to date. And it would make sense for him to call back to one of his biggest movies for inspiration for the TV show. Maybe it won't be as simple as Leanne or Dorothy being aliens, but there could be alien forces at work.

M. Night recently spoke to Collider about his plan for Servant. Unfortunately, he didn't reveal whether they would bust out alien props from Signs, nor did he hint at anything extraterrestrial. He did, however, say he already knows how he wants the series to end and where he wants to take the characters. The journey began at the first episode with threads that lead to where they end up. So, if there are going to be aliens at some point, then they might have even been hinted at from the start.

One thing that might make the Servant alien theory fall apart, however, is the fact that it would be hard to stretch that storyline across several more seasons. M. Night told The Hollywood Reporter he would like to make 60 episodes of Servant over the course of six seasons, which is long for any show. It doesn't mean its impossible for the alien theory to have some serious merit, but it could be tricky.

Servant is now streaming on Apple TV+.

Read the original:
A 'Servant' Theory About Aliens Could Have the Show Figured Out - Distractify

Human Behavior

Forget Big GoalsWhy Tiny Habits Change Everything, According to a Stanford Psychologist – Forbes

Ladder career path for business growth success process concept. Wood block stacking as step stair ... [+] with arrow up. Hand putting wooden cube block on top pyramid

Now that the new year is here, youve probably recommitted to your goals with conviction. Maybe youve vowed that this is the year you get a promotion, get your productivity under control, or finally achieve the work-life balance you have been craving. Whatever your aspirations, one truth remains: change is hard.

No one knows this better than the worlds leading expert in habit formation, BJ Fogg, PhD. Dr. Fogg leads the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University and he has personally coached over 40,000 peopleand influenced countless more, including Instagram founder Mike Krieger and best-selling author Tim Ferriss.

Foggs new book, Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything, cracks the code on how human behavior works with a groundbreaking model that doesnt involve tricks, hacks, or willpower.

Melody Wilding: High-achievers like to set big goals, and a lot of them. Where can this approach go wrong or backfire? Why is tiny better?

BJ Fogg: I think everybody, high-achiever or not, can benefit from learning the tiny habits method and what's behind it. It's really learning the skills of change and in Tiny Habits, I present a systematic way that anybody can use to learn how to bring habits into their lives.

If you are high achieving in one arealike you're really good at taking exams or are very good at making presentations and very creativewe tend to also think that we have gifts when it comes to changing our behavior. That's not necessarily true.

High-achievers are just like everybody else when it comes to motivation: our motivation goes up and down over time. We have to accept that fact and acknowledge that we all face struggle.

High achievers are more susceptible to self-criticism, being hard on themselves, and not being very empathetic. When we don't achieve these lofty goals, we think, I'm talented in other areas and things should come easy to me. In my own life I have thought, BJ, you're good at a lot of things, but that doesn't mean you're necessarily good at changing your behavior. That was a hard lesson.

Wilding: What are some of the most common work or professional related habits you see people trying to develop?

Fogg: Productivity is very high on the list. That's not a habit, but it's an aspiration that people have.

In my lab, we did three studies about how people aspire to change. And it turns out, that while productivity means different things to different people, we identified that phrasing matters. What worked best was when people said they wanted to be more productive in things that mattered to them.

Other people want to look at how to reduce their work stress and how they can avoid letting the stress of the day affect their personal life, which are big and hard to achieve goals because we dont have many role models.

Wilding: Where do you start when it comes to developing new work habits?

Fogg: The first place to start is to get clear on what you really want. So don't think yet about the specific habits, like I'm going to read 60 minutes a day. Think about what you really want, that tiny first step, which is clarifying your aspiration. What is it that you want? Reducing stress at work is different than being more productive. Building your business network is different from making more money. Spend some time and reflection writing down different things that you want. Habits that are related to things we really want are the easiest to form.

Wilding: Why do you say we can never break a habit?

Fogg: The phrase break a habit has been with us for a long, long time. And the reason I'm going after it is because it sets up the wrong expectation of how to actually rid yourself of unwanted behavior.

The way we use the term today implies that you put in a lot of force, in a single moment, and by doing that, you're donethe habit is broken and resolved. That's not the right expectation for most habits.

The alternative that I'm putting forward is untangling a habit, which sets up an entirely different expectation. Number one, you can't do it instantly. Just like undoing a big phone cord or a big string Christmas lights, its a process and cant be done instantly. Number two, you cant start with the hardest tangle first. You start with the easiest one. And third, you will get there. You cant do it at once, but its not impossible.

For those three reasons and more, untangling a habit sets up a much better expectation about the process and helps people do it in the right way rather than thinking, If I just had enough willpower in this one moment, then Id be able to change.

Wilding: I work with many highly sensitive leaders. One of their greatest strengths is thinking deeply, but they can also get caught in analysis-paralysis and perfectionism. Can you talk about the info-action fallacy and how people can get past it?

Fogg: Early in the book, I talk about how information alone does not reliably change people's behavior. There is a fallacy that if we just have the right information, people will change. But people believe what they want to believe. So information that they dont want to believe, they dont and vice versa. And nowadays with so much information out there, you tend to only encounter things that you're looking for, so you're not exposed to what goes against what you're looking for usually.

I encountered this a lot at Stanford where I've been teaching for 20 years. In the Stanford context, I call it the big brain problem. The students are smart people who know how to research and analyze. But guess what? That doesn't mean theyre taking action. In fact, they may be delaying action by thinking and talking and analyzing things from every single angle. Its helpful to give the problem a name and call it out.

Wilding: How do you deal with it?

Fogg: You don't really learn anything until you put something real into the world. Otherwise youre not learning. Learning involves getting out there, making mistakes, and learning what goes wrong and what goes right. It may feel good to sit around and talk about what you want to change, but you only make real progress when you ship and build things.

In my classes, I give students deadlines. For example, X has to be implemented and put into the real world by Monday at noon. Or Ill tell them we have 45 minutes left in class and they cant leave until they pilot a small intervention. Theyll say We cant do that! but I say, Yes, you can. Just get started. All of them make it out of the class on time, and better yet, half of the interventions they created actually show promise several days later.

In the workplace, I train industry innovators to focus on snap testing, which involves going from nothing to rolling out a pilot and getting results within four hours. This isnt a minimum viable product. Were talking a really, really quick test of the psychology. Nine out of ten snap tests will fail. So expect the first one to fail. Setting the expectations low takes the pressure off. But what you find is the odds of success are way better than 10 percent. Once you find the little nugget that works I call it a tiny machine you grow and build it.

Wilding: You give a name to a new emotion shine. Can you explain what that is and how readers can apply it in their work lives, specifically to tackle negative responses like shame, guilt, and self-criticism?

Fogg: This is really the most important part of Tiny Habits. Shine is the name that I gave to that great, positive emotion you feel when you are successful. When you do a behavior and you feel successful, your brain goes, Whoa! What just happened? Im going to do that again. Your brain releases neurochemicals and takes notice when you have that strong positive reaction, which is what wires the habitnot repetition.

In Tiny Habits, I talk about the technique of celebration, which you can also use to wire habits more quickly. I give 100 ways to celebrate in the book. Pick what works for you.

My real mission is to help people, to teach people, and to give people permission to feel shine without pushing it away. Instead, feel it and turn up the volume on it, which also help others around them.

Wilding: Lets say youve been trying to form a new habit, but its not working. How can you troubleshoot?

Fogg: The first thing you start with is looking at the prompt, or did I have something to remind me to do the habit? If you dont, create one. You do that by anchoring it to a routine. For example, after I start the coffee maker, then I get out my to-do list.

If youre actively using a prompt and its not working, look at the next part of the behavior model, which is your ability to do the habit. If the habit is really easy to do and youre still not doing it, then you know you have a motivation problem, where you have a decision to make about whether you want to choose a different habit or not.

Read more:
Forget Big GoalsWhy Tiny Habits Change Everything, According to a Stanford Psychologist - Forbes

Human Behavior

Prince Harry and Meghans decision to ‘escape’ looks like a carefully laid plan – The Guardian

Prince Harry and Meghans surprise decision at least to members of the royal family, now said to be incandescent with rage to split the confines of palace life for North America, most likely Canada, appears to be a more carefully plotted escape than anyone recognized.

The couple trademarked more than 100 items including pencils, socks and bookmarks to their Sussex Royal brand more than six months ago, according to the Daily Mail, in a move that could possibly set them up to pursue lucrative business opportunities in a life in the New World.

With a new website and cushioned for the road to become financially independent by an estimated 34m ($44m) fortune from the Duchess of Sussexs TV earnings and an inheritance from the princes mother, the couple may be free to pursue book deals, TV deals, public speaking, fashion and brand partnerships after the fashion of celebrity empire builders like the Obamas, Gwyneth Paltrow and the Kardashians.

US retail expert Andy Barr told the paper he would expect Prince Harry and Meghans global product empire to generate revenues of around $500m. They are effectively trading on the back of the Royal name which is ironic given they are seemingly trying to escape its clutches, Barr told MailOnline.

Meghan announced last September she was teaming up with fashion designer Misha Nonoo to create a capsule collection of workwear clothes to benefit the UK womens charity Smart Works, which provides clothing and tools to unemployed women.

But fashion is a hard road, and Nonoos business empire is still relatively limited. The problem for the Sussexes, said PR guru Mark Borkowski, is the cost of living in North America, even royalist Toronto, coupled with the cost of security testing, he says, even for the Beckhams requires deep pockets and the couple will have to be highly selective and judicious in their choice of commercial hook-ups.

The foundation theyre setting up has real purpose and they want to be embrace better-world projects so any charity donations or investment has to be clean money, said Borkowski, mindful of the wave of scandals currently plaguing institutional and foundational gifting.

The type of people who want to launder their image through the royals are exactly the kind of people they need to keep away from. They dont have a lot of choice so theyll have to do a lot of commercial deals that might cheapen what theyre trying to do. So its difficult water to navigate.

Theyll be a force to be reckoned with but its a long journey and theres always another circus coming to town, Borkowski added.

Whatever course they choose to follow, he advises, dont look to the Kardashians and Jenners.

They may look to them as a great machine, a multinational corporation exploiting celebrity at every turn, but thats different from acting as a hybrid NGO for good. Theyre going to have to sell more than a few mugs and plates to make this thing real.

If any of their friends can provide a roadmap, it could be George Clooney who set up and sold a tequila brand for $1bn. Or the Obamas, who recently inked a new deal with Instagram as part of a growing media empire.

But what kind of life the couple anticipate is open to question. Canada, lying within the commonwealth, might seem a better option than New York, where the New York Post this morning imagined the couple in a tenement apartment.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are hypocrites abdicate or stay! the paper trumpeted.

For the Sussexes the issue of employment will be simpler for Meghan to solve than for a husband setting out on a first-job search at age 35.

Its not like he can say Im an expert in human behavior, so the best thing he can do first is support his wife and learn from her, says Australian celebrity life coach Patrick Wanis.

Prince Harry, Wanis said, needs to locate his passion. Hes got to have great ideas. He needs to think, where can my passion make a difference? At 35, hes probably environmentally conscious.

But Wanis, who has clients across the US, offered a strict warning:

Dont mix up with plasticity of Los Angeles, and stay away from the trappings, the glitter, glam artificiality and emptiness of celebrity style. I wouldnt be spending my time at this party or that event unless he wants to be a philanthropist and show up to every Met gala opening. The lure of the glamorous celebrity lifestyle is actually quite dangerous.

The prince, he said: Needs to focus on who am I? What excites me? And how can I make a difference? He can open a door but he needs to think which door do I want to open? He has a fantastic chance to create a legacy that no other Royal has had.

But, he adds: Can other people see him beyond his title and his power? He has a clean slate, and he needs to communicate his humanness and his passion.

Excerpt from:
Prince Harry and Meghans decision to 'escape' looks like a carefully laid plan - The Guardian

Human Behavior

Rising Temperatures Will Mean More Fatal Injuries in the US, Says Study – State of the Planet

Drownings, Car Accidents, Assaults Could Go Up

Thousands more people could die from injuries each year as rising temperatures in the United Statesaffect peoples behavior, says a new study. Most of the additional deaths would becaused by transport accidents, drownings, suicidesand assaults; young men would be the main victims, say the authors. The study appears this week in the journal Nature Medicine.

Lead author Robbie Parks, a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia Universitys Earth Institute, said, Our work highlights how deaths [already] rise with warm temperature, and could also worsen by rising temperatures resulting from climate change. Parkscarried out the research with colleagues while working on his PhD. at Imperial College London.

The researchers started by studying the number of fatal injuries each year in everycounty in the mainland United States (Hawaii and Alaska were excluded) between 1980 and 2017. They classed injuriesas unintentional, which includedvehicle accidents, falls and drowning, and intentional, which included assaults and suicides. Data from the National Center for Health Statistics showed that 4.1 million boys and men and 1.8 million girls and women died from injuries during the 38-year period.

A new study says higher temperatures may mean more people killed by accidents and violence. (Image: Amy Wolfe)

The scientists then trackedtemperatures in every month, and, using a statistical model,calculated the number of additional deaths from injuries associated with unusual temperatures. The biggest effects came fromdrowning and transport accidents. The researchers say this was probably because people tend to drive and go swimming more when temperatures are higher; they also tend toconsume more alcohol. There were also rises insuicides and fatal assaults, though not as large. Possibly accounting for the violence, people tend to become more agitated and spend more time outdoors in hot weather, increasing chances of physical confrontations, say the researchers. In terms of suicides, previous research has suggested high temperatures are associated with higher levels of mental distress, especially in young people.

The researchers then useda model to predict thenumber of additional deaths if human-induced climate change were toincrease average temperatures either 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius (2.7 or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). They came up with an additional yearly 1,600 deaths for a 1.5-degree rise, and 2,100 for a 2-degree rise. Mostof the deaths would be among malesbetween the ages of 15 to 34. Slightly offsetting the additional deaths, warmer winter months would be associated with a reduction in deaths from falls among older men and women.

While the study considered only the continental United States, itwould be reasonable to think that similar increases infatal injuries would occur in much of the rest of the world, said Parks, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths.

The studys senior author, Majid Ezzati of the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics at Imperial College, said, These new results show how much climate change can affect young people. We need to respond to this threat with better preparedness in terms of emergency services, social support and health warnings.

The other authors of the study are James Bennett, Helen Tamura-Wicks, Vasilis Kontis and Ralf Toumi, all of Imperial College, and Goodarz Daniel of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The research was funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Wellcome Trust.

Adapted from a press release by Imperial College London.

Visit link:
Rising Temperatures Will Mean More Fatal Injuries in the US, Says Study - State of the Planet

Human Behavior

Bushfires, bots and Twitter trolls: How the #ArsonEmergency hashtag took hold – The Spinoff

As Australia came to terms with the fact that climate change is fuelling its bushfires, deniers began a rearguard action centred around claims that arson, not climate, is to blame. Media analysts Timothy Graham and Tobias Keller look at how bots and troll accounts tried to shift the conversation.

In the first week of 2020, hashtag #ArsonEmergency became the focal point of a new online narrative surrounding the bushfire crisis. The message: the cause is arson, not climate change.

Police and bushfire services (and some journalists) have contradicted this claim.

We studied about 300 Twitter accounts driving the #ArsonEmergency hashtag to identify inauthentic behaviour. We found many accounts using #ArsonEmergency were behaving suspiciously, compared to those using #AustraliaFire and #BushfireAustralia.

Accounts peddling #ArsonEmergency carried out activity similar to what weve witnessed in past disinformation campaigns, such as the coordinated behaviour of Russian trolls during the 2016 US presidential election.

The most effective disinformation campaigns use bot and troll accounts to infiltrate genuine political discussion, and shift it towards a different master narrative.

Bots and trolls have been a thorn in the side of fruitful political debate since Twitters early days. They mimic genuine opinions, akin to what a concerned citizen might display, with a goal of persuading others and gaining attention.

Bots are usually automated (acting without constant human oversight) and perform simple functions, such as retweeting or repeatedly pushing one type of content.

Troll accounts are controlled by humans. They try to stir controversy, hinder healthy debate and simulate fake grassroots movements. They aim to persuade, deceive and cause conflict.

Weve observed both troll and bot accounts spouting disinformation regarding the bushfires on Twitter. We were able to distinguish these accounts as being inauthentic for two reasons.

First, we used sophisticated software tools including tweetbotornot, Botometer, and Bot Sentinel.

There are various definitions for the word bot or troll. Bot Sentinel says:

Propaganda bots are pieces of code that utilize Twitter API to automatically follow, tweet, or retweet other accounts bolstering a political agenda. Propaganda bots are designed to be polarizing and often promote content intended to be deceptive Trollbot is a classification we created to describe human controlled accounts who exhibit troll-like behavior.

Some of these accounts frequently retweet known propaganda and fake news accounts, and they engage in repetitive bot-like activity. Other trollbot accounts target and harass specific Twitter accounts as part of a coordinated harassment campaign. Ideology, political affiliation, religious beliefs, and geographic location are not factors when determining the classification of a Twitter account.

These machine learning tools compared the behaviour of known bots and trolls with the accounts tweeting the hashtags #ArsonEmergency, #AustraliaFire, and #BushfireAustralia. From this, they provided a score for each account suggesting how likely it was to be a bot or troll account.

We also manually analysed the Twitter activity of suspicious accounts and the characteristics of their profiles, to validate the origins of #ArsonEmergency, as well as the potential motivations of the accounts spreading the hashtag.

Unfortunately, we dont know who is behind these accounts, as we can only access trace data such as tweet text and basic account information.

This graph shows how many times #ArsonEmergency was tweeted between December 31 last year and January 8 this year:

On the vertical axis is the number of tweets over time which featured #ArsonEmergency. On January 7, there were 4726 tweets. (author supplied)

Previous bot and troll campaigns have been thought to be the work of foreign interference, such as Russian trolls, or PR firms hired to distract and manipulate voters.

The New York Times has also reported on perceptions that media magnate Rupert Murdoch is influencing Australias bushfire debate.

In late November, some Twitter accounts began using #ArsonEmergency to counter evidence that climate change is linked to the severity of the bushfire crisis.

Below is one of the earliest examples of an attempt to replace #ClimateEmergency with #ArsonEmergency. The accounts tried to get #ArsonEmergency trending to drown out dialogue acknowledging the link between climate change and bushfires.

We suspect the origins of the #ArsonEmergency debacle can be traced back to a few accounts. (Author supplied)

The hashtag was only tweeted a few times in 2019, but gained traction this year in a sustained effort by about 300 accounts.

A much larger portion of bot and troll-like accounts pushed #ArsonEmergency, than they did #AustraliaFire and #BushfireAustralia.

The narrative was then adopted by genuine accounts who furthered its spread.

On multiple occasions, we noticed suspicious accounts countering expert opinions while using the #ArsonEmergency hashtag.

The inauthentic accounts engaged with genuine users in an effort to persuade them. (Author supplied)

Since media coverage has shone light on the disinformation campaign, #ArsonEmergency has gained even more prominence, but in a different light.

Some journalists are acknowledging the role of disinformation bushfire crisis and countering narrative the Australia has an arson emergency. However, the campaign does indicate Australia has a climate denial problem.

Whats clear to us is that Australia has been propelled into the global disinformation battlefield.

Its difficult to debunk disinformation, as it often contains a grain of truth. In many cases, it leverages peoples previously held beliefs and biases.

Humans are particularly vulnerable to disinformation in times of emergency, or when addressing contentious issues like climate change.

Online users, especially journalists, need to stay on their toes. The accounts we come across on social media may not represent genuine citizens and their concerns. A trending hashtag may be trying to mislead the public.

Right now, its more important than ever for us to prioritise factual news from reliable sources and identify and combat disinformation. The Earths future could depend on it.

Timothy Graham is a senior lecturer in digital media, and Tobias R. Keller is a visiting postdoc fellow in digital media, at the Queensland University of Technology

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

Join The Spinoff Members for as little as $1 to help us hire more journalists and do more investigations. Or get a free Toby Morris-designed tea towel when you contribute $80 or more over a year.

The Spinoff Daily gets you all the days' best reading in one handy package, fresh to your inbox Monday-Friday at 5pm.

Original post:
Bushfires, bots and Twitter trolls: How the #ArsonEmergency hashtag took hold - The Spinoff

Human Behavior

ExecVision Launches New Brand & Product Strategy Centered Around Closing the Insights-to-Performance Gap – PRNewswire

ARLINGTON, Va., Jan. 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ExecVision, the only conversation intelligence platform that helps organizations close the Insights-to-Performance Gap, today unveiled a new brand and product strategy and visual identity. After consideration of the organization's strategic direction and analysis of its competitive differentiators, ExecVision's leadership team felt it was important to develop new positioning that more clearly communicated its value proposition in the market.

The new strategy is centered around the concept of the Insights-to-Performance Gap, which is the inability to leverage data and insights to create behavior change that drives quantifiable results. Organizations have a wealth of data available to them, but the vast majority of it, while useful, is too high-level to be used in actually influencing behavior change on the frontlines with reps. Companies need to be focused on the data derived from conversation intelligence technology -- critical insights from customer-facing conversations -- to determine how effective their teams are. Only by understanding the dialogue that is exchanged between reps and their customers and prospects can an organization make the decisions needed and implement the coaching and training that will truly impact performance, which in turn, drive increases in top-line business metrics.

Other technology players in the conversation intelligence and speech analytics categories have solely focused on insights and analytics, leaving them unable to help organizations close the Insights-to-Performance Gap. To go the 'last mile,' ExecVision has taken a holistic approach by facilitating accountability, alignment and targeted coaching within its platform that leverages behavioral science principles proven to drive adult behavior change.

"The Insights-to-Performance Gap is plaguing nearly every organization today. We see companies all the time that don't understand how, given all the data they have at their fingertips, they aren't seeing performance improvement and tangible results," said David Stillman, CEO and Co-Founder of ExecVision. He continued, "ExecVision has developed a robust platform that helps organizations go the 'last mile,' enabling them to create more top performers, cut onboarding and ramp times, reduce attrition rates, decrease cancellations, and increase win rates and revenue."

About ExecVision ExecVision is a conversation intelligence platform built on a simple, almost inarguable premise: Insights mined from customer interactions are exponentially more valuable when you can translate them into performance improvements in your marketing, support, sales, and product teams. We shine where other conversation intelligence software falls short: Improving performance by changing human behaviors. Founded in 2015, our team leverages all the pattern recognition and human intelligence from ExecVision's 15 years of insights-based sales coaching, and applies it to uncovering actionable insights from customer-facing conversations, allowing organizations to make better decisions, coach and develop their team at scale, drive behavior change, and ultimately generate more revenue through performance improvement. Customers like The Madison Square Garden Company, Intuit, TransUnion, Imperial Supplies, and Zuora have seen a 30+% increase in win rates and onboarding cut by at least 30%. To learn more about ExecVision, visit http://www.execvision.io.

SOURCE ExecVision

http://www.execvision.io

Continued here:
ExecVision Launches New Brand & Product Strategy Centered Around Closing the Insights-to-Performance Gap - PRNewswire

Biochemistry

Postdoctoral Fellowship Under A Indo-French Academia-Industry job with VELLORE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY | 192385 – Times Higher Education (THE)

Job Description

Applications are invited for a temporary Post ofPostdoctoral Fellowship under a Indo-French Academia-Industry Collaborative Projectfunded by CEFIPRA, in Centre for Bio Separation Technology, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT).

Title of the Project:

Cost effective strategy for the induction of immune tolerance to therapeutic Factor VIII in haemophilia A

Qualification:

PhD in Biochemistry /Molecular Biology/Genetic Engineering/Biotechnology/ Microbiology/Life Sciences

Desirable (if any):

Experience in molecular cloning, expression and purification of proteins

Stipend:Rs.47,000/ per month + 10% HRASponsoring Agency:CEFIPRADuration:Upto April 2020 (3 months)

Principal Investigator:

Principal Investigator: Dr.Krishnan V (Professor & Director, Centre for BioSeparation Technology)

Coinvestigator: Prof.M.A.Vijyalakshmi (Professor, Centre for BioSeparation Technology)

Send your resume along with relevant documents pertaining to the details of qualifications, scientific accomplishments, experience (if any) and latest passport size photo etc. on or before(20/01/2020)through onlinehttp://careers.vit.ac.in

Salary:Not Disclosed by RecruiterIndustry:Education / Teaching / TrainingFunctional Area:Teaching, Education, Training, CounsellingRole:Trainee

Keyskills

immune toleranceBiochemistry/

Desired Candidate Profile

Please refer to the Job description above

Education-

Doctorate:Ph.D - Microbiology, Bio-Chemistry/Bio-Technology

Company Profile

Vellore Institute of Technology

VIT was established with the aim of providing quality higher education on par with international standards. It persistently seeks and adopts innovative methods to improve the quality of higher education on a consistent basis.The campus has a cosmopolitan atmosphere with students from all corners of the globe. Experienced and learned teachers are strongly encouraged to nurture the students. The global standards set at VIT in the field of teaching and research spur us on in our relentless pursuit of excellence. In fact, it has become a way of life for us. The highly motivated youngsters on the campus are a constant source of pride. Our Memoranda of Understanding with various international universities are our major strength. They provide for an exchange of students and faculty and encourage joint research projects for the mutual benefit of these universities. Many of our students, who pursue their research projects in foreign universities, bring high quality to their work and esteem to India and have done us proud. With steady steps, we continue our march forward. We look forward to meeting you here at VIT.

Excerpt from:
Postdoctoral Fellowship Under A Indo-French Academia-Industry job with VELLORE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY | 192385 - Times Higher Education (THE)

Biochemistry

Achieve Life Sciences, University of Bristol, and Oracle Corporation Announce Study Results Demonstrating Potential for Accelerated Speed of Drug…

SEATTLE and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Achieve Life Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: ACHV), University of Bristol, and Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) today announced the outcome of a study using Oracle's high-performance cloud infrastructure to potentially improve the speed of drug discovery and development of new treatments.

The study, "A General Mechanism for Signal Propagation in the Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Family," wasled by scientists from the University of Bristol and recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. It aimed to evaluate how receptors in the brain respond to nicotine. Researchers utilized new computational simulation methods to conduct 450 individual assessments of the biochemistry associated with the binding of nicotine to a subtype of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, a key mechanism believed to be responsible for the highly-addictive nature of nicotine.

Computations that would otherwise have taken months to complete were achieved in five days using Oracle's high-performance cloud infrastructure. The speed of results represents a breakthrough in computational chemistry and is transformational from a research perspective.

"To understand why nicotine is so addictive, and to develop molecules to help people quit smoking, we need to understand how nicotine affects the nervous system," commented Professor Adrian Mulholland from Bristol's Centre for Computational Chemistry and co-author of the study. "By harnessing the power of cloud computing, we can quickly observe how nicotine exerts its effects at the molecular level. This information can inform future drug development of new treatments for companies like Achieve."

Achieve Life Sciences has partnered with the University of Bristol to formulate molecules and potential treatments to combat addiction and neurological disorders based on their lead smoking cessation compound in development, cytisinicline. Building on this research and previously conducted studies, cloud-based computer simulations can now be utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of potential new treatments more efficiently and help to accelerate the pace of discovery.

About Achieve & Cytisinicline Tobacco use is currently the leading cause of preventable death and is responsible for more than eight million deaths annually worldwide.1 It is estimated that 28.7% of cancer deaths in the U.S. are attributable to cigarette smoking.2 Achieve's focus is to address the global smoking health epidemic through the development and commercialization of cytisinicline.

Cytisinicline is a plant-based alkaloid with a high binding affinity to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. It is believed to aid in smoking cessation by interacting with nicotine receptors in the brain by reducing the severity of nicotine withdrawal symptoms and by reducing the reward and satisfaction associated with smoking.

As an approved, branded product in Central and Eastern Europe for more than two decades, it is estimated that over 20 million people have used cytisinicline to help combat nicotine addiction.

Forward Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the timing and nature of cytisinicline clinical development activities, the potential market size for cytisinicline, the potential benefits of cytisinicline, the ability to discover and develop new uses for cytisinicline and the development and effectiveness of new treatments. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Achieve may not actually achieve its plans or product development goals in a timely manner, if at all, or otherwise carry out its intentions or meet its expectations or projections disclosed in these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements, including, among others, the risk that cytisinicline may not demonstrate the hypothesized or expected benefits; the risk that Achieve may not be able to obtain additional financing to fund the development of cytisinicline; the risk that cytisinicline will not receive regulatory approval or be successfully commercialized; the risk that new developments in the smoking cessation landscape require changes in business strategy or clinical development plans; the risk that Achieve's intellectual property may not be adequately protected; general business and economic conditions; and the other factors described in the risk factors set forth in Achieve's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including Achieve's Annual Reports on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Achieve undertakes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements contained herein or to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date hereof, other than as may be required by applicable law.

Achieve ContactJason Wongjwong@bplifescience.com(415) 375-3340 ext. 4

1World Health Organization. WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2019. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2017 2Annals of Epidemiology, Volume 25, Issue 3, 179 - 182.e1

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/achieve-life-sciences-university-of-bristol-and-oracle-corporation-announce-study-results-demonstrating-potential-for-accelerated-speed-of-drug-discovery-300985427.html

SOURCE Achieve Life Sciences, Inc.

Continue reading here:
Achieve Life Sciences, University of Bristol, and Oracle Corporation Announce Study Results Demonstrating Potential for Accelerated Speed of Drug...

Biochemistry

Alien bombshell: Why ‘it’s possible’ ‘invisible’ aliens are hiding somewhere on Earth – Express.co.uk

Britains first astronaut Helen Sharman recently hit the headlines after announcing impossible-to-spot aliens may already be living among us. Life as we understand it is easy to recognise: living things move, grow, eat, excrete and reproduce.

However, while life might be easy to spot, it is actually notoriously difficult to define and has had scientists and philosophers in debate for millennia.

The intelligent life we are searching for doesnt have to be humanoid

Dr Samantha Rolfe

There are more than 100 definitions of what life is.

An alternative but imperfect approach is describing life as a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution, which works for many cases we want to describe.

Dr Samantha Rolfe, the astrobiology and principal technical officer at Bayfordbury Observatory, believes it is this lack of definition that presents problems when searching for life in space.

READ MORE:NASA unveils stunning photo of ISS transiting Sun

She wrote in The Conversation: Not being able to define life other than well know it when we see it means we are truly limiting ourselves to geocentric, possibly even anthropocentric, ideas of what life looks like.

When we think about aliens, we often picture a humanoid creature.

But the intelligent life we are searching for doesnt have to be humanoid.

Ms Sharman recently courted controversy after announcing aliens exist and theres no two ways about it.

DON'T MISSTESS satellite presents stunning new southern sky mosaic[VIDEO]Life discovered deep underground points to subterranean Galapagos'[INTERVIEW]Shadow land: Alien life can exist in 2D universe'[INTERVIEW]

The pioneering space explorer said: Will they be like you and me, made up of carbon and nitrogen?

Maybe not. Its possible theyre here right now and we simply cant see them.

Dr Rolf added: Such life would exist in a shadow biosphere, meaning this alien life would exhibit different biochemistry.

This alien life would consequently be outside of the realm of comprehension for humans.

Assuming it exists, such a shadow biosphere would probably be microscopic.

The Bayfordbury Observatory expert believes this alien life has not already been found due to the limited ways of studying the microscopic world.

She said: This may mean that there could indeed be many lifeforms we havent yet spotted.

We do now have the ability to sequence the DNA of unculturable strains of microbes, but this can only detect life as we know it that contain DNA.

If we find such a biosphere, however, it is unclear whether we should call it alien.

That depends on whether we mean of extraterrestrial origin or simply unfamiliar.

One popular suggestion for alternative biochemistry is one based on silicon rather than carbon.

Proponents for this position argue approximately 90 percent of the Earth is made up of silicon, iron, magnesium and oxygen, meaning there is plenty of material for building potential life.

Silicon is similar to carbon, it has four electrons available for creating bonds with other atoms.

Silicon is, however, heavier, with 14 protons compared to the six in the carbon nucleus.

While carbon can create strong double and triple bonds to form long chains useful for many functions, such as building cell walls, it is much harder for silicon.

Silicon struggles to create strong bonds, meaning long-chain molecules are far less stable.

In addition, common silicon compounds, such as silicon dioxide are generally solid at terrestrial temperatures and insoluble in water.

When compared to soluble carbon dioxide, carbon is more flexible and provides many more molecular possibilities.

Life on Earth is fundamentally different from the bulk composition of the Earth.

Another argument against a silicon-based shadow biosphere is that too much silicon is locked up in rocks.

The chemical composition of life on Earth has an approximate correlation with the chemical composition of the sun, with 98 percent of atoms in biology consisting of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon.

Therefore, if there were viable silicon lifeforms on this planet, they may have evolved elsewhere.

However, silicon-based life cannot be ruled-out, the researcher revealed.

Dr Rolfeuch wrote: Only a few years ago, scientists at Caltech managed to breed a bacterial protein that created bonds with silicon essentially bringing silicon to life.

So even though silicon is inflexible compared with carbon, it could perhaps find ways to assemble into living organisms, potentially including carbon.

And when it comes to other places in space, such as Saturns moon Titan or planets orbiting other stars, we certainly cant rule out the possibility of silicon-based life.

Go here to read the rest:
Alien bombshell: Why 'it's possible' 'invisible' aliens are hiding somewhere on Earth - Express.co.uk

Cell Biology

The cell culture market is expected to reach USD 29.2 billion by 2024 from USD 16.0 billion in 2019, at a CAGR of 12.7% – Yahoo Finance

during the forecast period. This market is experiencing significant growth due to the growing awareness about the benefits of cell culture-based vaccines, increasing demand for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), funding for cell-based research, growing preference for single-use technologies, growing focus on personalized medicine, and the launch of advanced cell culture products.

New York, Jan. 13, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Cell Culture Market by Product, Application, End User - Global Forecast to 2024" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p03665912/?utm_source=GNW On the other hand, the high cost of cell biology research and the lack of proper infrastructure for cell-based research activities are the major factors restraining the growth of this market.

Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are expected to dominate the market during the forecast period.Based on end user, the cell culture market is segmented into research institutes, pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies, cell banks, and hospitals & diagnostic laboratories.In 2018, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies accounted for the largest share of the cell culture market.

The growing use of single-use technologies, increasing number of regulatory approvals for cell culture-based vaccines, and the presence of a large number of pharmaceutical players in this market are some of the factors driving the cell culture market for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Biopharmaceutical production to witness the highest growth in the cell culture market.

Based on application, the cell culture market is categorized into biopharmaceutical production, stem cell research, diagnostics, drug discovery & development, tissue engineering & regenerative medicine, and other applications.The biopharmaceutical production segment is also expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

The high growth of this segment is attributed to the commercial expansion of major pharmaceutical companies, growing regulatory approvals for the production of cell culture-based vaccines, and increasing demand for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs).

North America to dominate the market during the forecast period.Geographically, the cell culture market is segmented into North America, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World.In 2018, North America accounted for the largest share of the cell culture market.

The growing regulatory approvals for cell culture-based vaccines, technological advancements, growth in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, higher investments in cell-based research, rising incidence of diseases such as cancer, strong government support, and conferences and symposiums that create awareness on the latest trends in cell culture technology are the key factors driving the growth of the cell culture market in North America.

The primary interviews conducted for this report can be categorized as follows: By Company Type - Tier 1: 36%, Tier 2: 45%, and Tier 3: 19% By Designation - C-level: 33%, D-level: 40%, and Others: 27% By Region - North America: 36%, Europe: 28%, Asia Pacific: 19%, Rest of the World: 17%

List of Companies Profiled in the Report Thermo Fisher Scientific (US) Merck KGaA (Germany) GE Healthcare (US) Lonza (Switzerland) Becton, Dickinson and Company (US) Corning Incorporated (US) Eppendorf AG (Germany) HiMedia Laboratories (India) Sartorius AG (Germany) PromoCell GmbH (Germany) Danaher Corporation (US) FUJIFILM Irvine Scientific (US) InvivoGen (US) CellGenix GmbH (Germany) Miltenyi Biotec (Germany)

Research Coverage:This report provides a detailed picture of the global cell culture market.It aims at estimating the size and future growth potential of the market across different segments, such as product, application, end user, and region.

The report also includes an in-depth competitive analysis of the key market players, along with their company profiles, recent developments, and key market strategies.

Key Benefits of Buying the Report:The report will help market leaders/new entrants by providing them with the closest approximations of the revenue numbers for the overall cell culture market and its subsegments.It will also help stakeholders better understand the competitive landscape and gain more insights to better position their business and make suitable go-to-market strategies.

This report will enable stakeholders to understand the pulse of the market and provide them with information on the key market drivers, restraints, and opportunities.Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p03665912/?utm_source=GNW

About ReportlinkerReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.

__________________________

Story continues

Clare: clare@reportlinker.comUS: (339)-368-6001Intl: +1 339-368-6001

Go here to read the rest:
The cell culture market is expected to reach USD 29.2 billion by 2024 from USD 16.0 billion in 2019, at a CAGR of 12.7% - Yahoo Finance