Where businesses are fighting to survive, agility is the name of the game, says Mignon Reynecke.

To history buffs, the Covid-19 pandemic must seem eerily familiar, says Noah Smith.

A team of social media analysts at an SA business school is tracking misinformation, disinformation, distortion and lies online.

Argentina is a case study in what happens when an economy already on its knees implements an aggressive lockdown, says Mac Margolis.

Source: www.npr.org - Thursday, May 07, 2020
The version published in China Daily omitted a reference to the illness originating in China and spreading to the rest of the world. The piece was published in full on the authors' websites. (Image credit: Jason Lee/Reuters)

Alireza Mansouri and Fattaneh Taghiyareh: Human interactions and opinion exchanges lead to social opinion dynamics, which is well described by opinion formation models. In these models, a random parameter is usually considered as the system noise, indicating the individual's inexplicable opinion changes. This noise could be an indicator of any other influential factors, such as public media, affects, and emotions. We study phase transitions, changes from one social phase to another, for various noise levels in a discrete opinion formation model based on the social impact theory with a scale-free random network as its interaction network topology. We also generate another similar model using the concept of social power based on the agents' node degrees in the interaction network as an estimation for their persuasiveness and supportiveness strengths and compare both models from phase transition viewpoint. We show by agent-based simulation and analytical considerations how opinion phases, including majority and non-majority, are formed in terms of the initial population of agents in opinion groups and noise levels. Two factors affect the system phase in equilibrium when the noise level increases: breaking up more segregated groups and dominance of stochastic behavior of the agents on their deterministic behavior. In the high enough noise levels, the system reaches a non-majority phase in equilibrium, regardless of the initial combination of opinion groups. In relatively low noise levels, the original model and the model whose agents' strengths are proportional to their centrality have different behaviors. The presence of a few high-connected influential leaders in the latter model consequences a different behavior in reaching equilibrium phase and different thresholds of noise levels for phase transitions.

The Trump administration has assured lawmakers and the American corporate sector that the public would get an opportunity to respond to its proposal of revoking work authorisation to H-4 spouse visas after they raised their concerns over the move, which will impact thousands of Indians. H-4 visas are issued to the spouses of H-1B foreign […]

Hello Experts, I want a legal opinion. I was having a conversation with my friend and he told me that in certain situation clear title of property can be transferred from one person to another without Registry and without paying any stamp duty. eg. Partnership firms property. If a Plot is owned by a partnership firm with some partners. If the plot is brought by reconstituting the partnership firm by getting our names added in the partnership firm and retiring the existing partners in the partnership firm. By this process--- PLOT CAN BE BROUGHT BY NOTARISED PARTNERSHIP DEED ONLY NO REGISTY IN SUB REGISTRAR NEEDED NO STAMP DUTY HAS TO BE PAID TO GOVERNMENT . CLEAR TITLE WILL BE TRANFFERED BY THIS PROCESS I Don't what law says, BUT IS IT REALLY TRUE??????

Utilities and renewable-energy advocates have long had a complicated relationship. Yet the prospect of PG&E Corp. tipping into bankruptcy by the end of January has sent shivers through the solar-and-wind sector.

When Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, it cut short nearly 3,000 lives, displaced thousands of families, and subjected the commonwealth to the longest energy blackout in U.S. history. This tragedy invited a new vision for Puerto Rico’s battered electric grid, and I hoped that a central tenet of the rebuilding effort would be an aggressive move toward safe, abundant and resilient clean energy.

Utilities and renewable-energy advocates have long had a complicated relationship. Yet the prospect of PG&E Corp. tipping into bankruptcy by the end of January has sent shivers through the solar-and-wind sector.

Opponents of the U.S. congressional Democrats’ Green New Deal point to Germany as an example of a country where similar policies have backfired. They should take a closer look; the U.S. could do well to imitate Europe’s largest economy.

When Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, it cut short nearly 3,000 lives, displaced thousands of families, and subjected the commonwealth to the longest energy blackout in U.S. history. This tragedy invited a new vision for Puerto Rico’s battered electric grid, and I hoped that a central tenet of the rebuilding effort would be an aggressive move toward safe, abundant and resilient clean energy.

It is too soon to deliver a verdict on the Swedish 'non-lockdown'. However, should Stockholm succeed in containing the virus without bringing its economy to a standstill, Sweden will enter the looming economic recession in a much better shape.

The app would need to be paired with more than 100,000 daily tests in order to have effect. And far more than 60 percent of the population will need to use the app in order for it to be effective.

Support services for victims and witnesses, the police and other relevant authorities are stretched to the limits because of staff shortages, travel restrictions or other demands related to Covid-19.

Russia wants more respect for its role in defeating the Nazis in World War 2, its EU ambassador, Vladimir Chizhov, says in an op-ed.

Updated AIFMD Q&As The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published an updated version of its Q&A paper on the application of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD). This publication was released on...

As the three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) publish a new joint opinion on money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) risks affecting the EU financial sector, Zia Ullah and Ruth Paley take a look at the key risks, noting ...

In this briefing from our procurement group, Paul James examines the Advocate General’s opinion regarding the treatment of foreign tenderers. Introduction In accordance with the EC Treaty principles, all potential tenderers in the market mus...

In this briefing from our procurement group, Paul James examines the Advocate General’s opinion regarding the treatment of foreign tenderers. Introduction In accordance with the EC Treaty principles, all potential tenderers in the market mus...

This week, an Advocate General gave a landmark opinion that the VAT exemption for the management of certain special investment funds can apply to property management, as well as to other fund management services. The opinion represents a completely ...

By Marcus Noland HONOLULU (August 23, 2019)—For three generations, the United States championed a rules-based multilateral trading system. That stance was overturned by the election of an avowed protectionist, Donald Trump, as president. It would be understandable for Asians to wonder if this shift amounts to a permanent change in U.S. trade policy, and if so, how to proceed. Trump’s presidential campaign was notable in that it emphasized two issues—immigration and trade—that had seldom been in the forefront of U.S. presidential campaigns. But public opinion polls revealed that these issues were of growing importance to a sizeable number of voters whose preferences mirrored Trump’s protectionist positions.

This is a summary only. Click the title for the full article, or visit www.EastWestCenter.org/Research-Wire for more.

“Not a Dirty Word”: ESMA revisits the impact of its Opinion on delegation for UK managers if there is a “hard” Brexit In the wake of the draft Agreement on the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, a speech by Steven Maijoor, th...

The ocean is our planet’s largest life-support system. It stabilizes climate; stores carbon; produces oxygen; nurtures biodiversity; directly supports human well-being through food, mineral, and energy resources; and provides cultural and recreational services. The value of the ocean economy speaks to its importance: The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development...

A public disagreement between a trusted games journalist and the GTA community is showing Rockstar just how eager people are for a GTA 6 announcement

Newly released FBI documents suggest a federal judge in Washington was swayed by apparent misrepresentations from a top prosecutor when he issued a memorandum opinion in December 2019 -- a ruling that marked one of the lowest points in former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn's effort to withdraw a guilty plea on a charge of lying to investigators.

The version published in China Daily omitted a reference to the illness originating in China and spreading to the rest of the world. The piece was published in full on the authors' websites.

Rio Ferdinand believes both relentless criticism and a desire for trophies may eventually drive Paul Pogba away from Manchester United.

Two former Inslee campaign staffers have a message for Joe Biden: To unite the Democratic party, prioritize climate policies.

May 8 would have been his 26th birthday.

Michael Quinn – Dean, College of Science and Engineering, Seattle University “This new algorithm will need a lot of pictures of people. What if we use a morgue so we don’t have to worry about consent?” Although this is a fictitious example, modern-day tech workers often face similar questions. Why? Because the rise of artificial intelligence based on machine learning has created a new class of sociotechnical challenges. Now is the time for industry and universities to acknowledge these…

Facial recognition surveillance, powered by artificial intelligence, is being used — or misused — in cities worldwide.

While featuring all sides of an issue is a hallmark of good journalism, many in the scientific community feel that the media should do a better job of separating facts from opinions.

Bristol Myers Squibb and Acceleron Pharma’s Reblozyl (luspatercept) has secured a positivr opinion from the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) for use in the treatment of transfusion-dependent anaemia in two adult patient populations.

On January 3, 2014, the Director of National Intelligence declassified and disclosed publically that the U.S. government had filed an application with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court seeking renewal of the authority to collect telephony metadata in bulk, and that, the FISC renewed that authority. The Office of the Director National Intelligence also announced that the Administration was undertaking a declassification review of the FISC's January 3 primary order. On February 12, 2014, and following a declassification review by the Executive Branch, the FISC released in redacted form the previously classified January 3 primary order it had issued in Docket Number BR 14-01, along with a number of other documents.

The drug helped some coronavirus patients recover faster. But it's hardly everything we'd wished for.

If you factor in a potential undercount of furloughed workers, nearly 1 in 5 working Americans may be in line for unemployment benefits.

Artificial intelligence is not the first technology to concern consumers. Over time, many innovations have frightened users and led to calls for major regulation or restrictions. Inventions such as the telegraph, television, and robots have generated everything from skepticism to outright fear. As AI technology advances, how should we evaluate AI? What measures should be…

A study has found that kids exposed to climate change science at school use it to convince their parents of the issue's urgency.

Keeping up with all the recent twists and turns in the oil market is difficult. Here's where things stand as what could be a pivotal week gets underway.