Category Archives: Sharing economy

24 November 2023
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AI, Business, Sharing economy

• eFood: A recipe for success in online food retailing

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Food is one of the basic human needs, therefore, in my opinion, it will always be a relevant and interesting topic for discussions. It used to take people a long time to get food and cook it, but now we can find grocery stores anywhere – even in the subway for the busiest of people. With the advent of technology, many people strive to live easily , saving more time for personal life or hobbies. In fact, technology is really helping us with that, and online food retailing is just one of the many examples. Anyway, why is online grocery shopping so successful and popular today? There are many reasons that we can analyze deeply.

First of all, it is convenient for many people, especially for those who work every day and generally do not have enough time to buy groceries. As I mentioned earlier, technology in the form of various applications and convenient platforms also plays a huge role in this process. Today, many stores encourage people to use their apps by implementing loyalty programs, such as various sales or free products for your points. Secondly, one of the main reason is a strong marketing and branding strategy. In this way, we can definitely attract and encourage new customers to buy from our store, especially when we develop and use different social platforms and pay for advertising to people who have a large target audience in a certain region for our shops. Furthermore, customization and personalization are key components of successful eFood platforms. With the help of artificial intelligence, platforms easily and  quickly can analyze customer preferences and behavior, providing personalized recommendations and promotions.From these many people can also obtain offers, which will be very attractive because of huge choice that they can get, choosing and buying food online. On the other hand, I have friends for whom shopping is a kind of entertainment. They just go to look at new food products and nothing more. In this case, large offline stores with products will always win, especially if they sell not only food, but also books, household goods or stationery (such as Carrefour in Poland) .

Conclusion : Although online food retailing is in demand by many people , I am not a fan of this way of buying food. In my own life, I have faced situations where the products that I buy have been delivered to me of poor quality or even expired. The main downside for me when buying groceries online will always be the quality of food.In fact, we can deal with this problem if we check different online stores or simply ask our acquaintances who have their own experience in that field and are always ready to help us. In any case, from my point of view, it’s nice to use from time to time various delivery services or apps to buy delicious meals for special occasions or when  there really isn’t enough time at all, but not on a regular basis . In addition, you always need to keep in mind that not everything that is beautiful in advertising or on the Internet is the same in reality in our fast-paced life.

 
 Sources : 

1)https://extension.usu.edu/news_sections/home_family_and_food/pros-cons-online-grocery-shopping

2)https://www.orckestra.com/en/blog/2016/06/15/Top-5-eCommerce-Success-Factors-that-Food-Retailers-should-Steal-from-Discounters

3)https://chat.openai.com (info about reasons such as marketing strategy and also personalisation and customisation)

4)https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/gr/pdf/2023/04/gr-the-future%20of-retail-a%20deep-dive-into-grocery%20-retail-in%20-greece.pdf

5)https://www.dlg.org/en/food/topics/dlg-expert-reports/nutrition/dlg-expert-knowledge-12020-1 (picture)

19 November 2023
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AI, Apps, Bez kategorii, Devices, Games, Open Source, Programming languages, Security, Sharing economy, Software

MACHINE LEARNING AND IT’S BLISS ON NETFLIX

Reading Time: 4 minutes

INTRODUCTION:

As the world’s leading Internet television network with over 160 million members in over 190 countries, our members enjoy hundreds of millions of hours of content per day, including original series, documentaries and feature films. Of course, all our all-time favourites are right on our hands, and that is where machine learning has taken it’s berth on the podium. This is where we will dive into Machine Learning.

MONEY HEIST(2017)

Machine learning impacts many exciting areas throughout our company. Historically, personalization has been the most well-known area, where machine learning powers our recommendation algorithms. We’re also using machine learning to help shape our catalogue of movies and TV shows by learning characteristics that make content successful. Machine Learning also enables us by giving the freedom to optimize video and audio encoding, adaptive bitrate selection, and our in-house Content Delivery Network.

I believe that using machine learning as a whole can open up a lot of perspectives in our lives, where we need to push forward the state-of-the-art. This means coming up with new ideas and testing them out, be it new models and algorithms or improvements to existing ones.

Operating a large-scale recommendation system is a complex undertaking: it requires high availability and throughput, involves many services and teams, and the environment of the recommender system changes every second. In this we will introduce RecSysOps a set of best practices and lessons that we learned while operating large-scale recommendation systems at Netflix. These practices helped us to keep our system healthy:

 1) reducing our firefighting time, 2) focusing on innovations and 3) building trust with our stakeholders.

RecSysOps has four key components: issue detection, issue prediction, issue diagnosis and issue resolution.

Within the four components of RecSysOps, issue detection is the most critical one because it triggers the rest of steps. Lacking a good issue detection setup is like driving a car with your eyes closed.

ALL YOUR FAVOURITE MOVIES AND TV SHOWS RIGHT HERE!

The very first step is to incorporate all the known best practices from related disciplines, as creating recommendation systems includes procedures like software engineering and machine learning, this includes all DevOps and MLOps practices such as unit testing, integration testing, continuous integration, checks on data volume and checks on model metrics.

The second step is to monitor the system end-to-end from your perspective. In a large-scale recommendation system there are many teams that often are involved and from the perspective of an ML team we have both upstream teams (who provide data) and downstream teams (who consume the model).

The third step for getting a comprehensive coverage is to understand your stakeholders’ concerns. The best way to increase the coverage of the issue detection component. In the context of our recommender systems, they have two major perspectives: our members and items.

Detecting production issues quickly is great but it is even better if we can predict those issues and fix them before they are in production. For example, proper cold-starting of an item (e.g. a new movie, show, or game) is important at Netflix because each item only launches once, just like Zara, after the demand is gone then a new product launches.

Once an issue is identified with either one of detection or prediction models, next phase is to find the root cause. The first step in this process is to reproduce the issue in isolation. The next step after reproducing the issue is to figure out if the issue is related to inputs of the ML model or the model itself. Once the root cause of an issue is identified, the next step is to fix the issue. This part is similar to typical software engineering: we can have a short-term hotfix or a long-term solution. Beyond fixing the issue another phase of issue resolution is improving RecSysOps itself. Finally, it is important to make RecSysOps as frictionless as possible. This makes the operations smooth and the system more reliable.

NETFLIX: A BLESSING IN DISGUISE

To conclude In this blog post I introduced RecSysOps with a set of best practices and lessons that we’ve learned at Netflix. I think these patterns are useful to consider for anyone operating a real-world recommendation system to keep it performing well and improve it over time. Overall, putting these aspects together has helped us significantly reduce issues, increased trust with our stakeholders, and allowed us to focus on innovation.

BY: SHANNUL H. MAWLONG

Sources: https://netflixtechblog.medium.com/recsysops-best-practices-for-operating-a-large-scale-recommender-system-95bbe195a841

https://research.netflix.com/research-area/machine-learning

References:

[1] Eric Breck, Shanqing Cai, Eric Nielsen, Michael Salib, and D. Sculley. 2017. The ML Test Score: A Rubric for ML Production Readiness and Technical Debt Reduction. In Proceedings of IEEE Big Data.Google Scholar

[2] Scott M Lundberg and Su-In Lee. 2017. A Unified Approach to Interpreting Model Predictions. In Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 30, I. Guyon, U. V. Luxburg, S. Bengio, H. Wallach, R. Fergus, S. Vishwanathan, and R. Garnett(Eds.). Curran Associates, Inc., 4765–4774.

7 November 2023
1 Comment
Devices, Sharing economy, Software

Underwater Robotics

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) are two types of underwater robotic systems that play an increasingly significant role in ocean exploration, scientific research, and various industrial operations. Although both systems are designed to operate underwater, they differ in terms of how they are controlled and the tasks they are capable of performing. Collectively, both AUVs and ROVs are categorized as Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs).

Two autonomous underwater vehicles resting on land
Project Wilton Iver AUVs, courtesy of our partner, SeeByte



An AUV is an autonomous underwater vehicle that often (but not always) operates independently of direct human control. It is equipped with various sensors, instruments, and navigation systems that allow it to perform a range of tasks, including mapping the ocean floor, collecting environmental data, and conducting scientific surveys at sea. Ideally, AUVs are programmed to perform specific missions and have the ability to make decisions based on real-time data, making them a great candidate for conducting long-term, repetitive missions. However, due to the lack of remote off-grid power solutions, big-data transmissions, and edge-compute capabilities, the current generation of AUVs still have a limited operational reach and require interventions of human operators.

A remotely operated vehicle inspecting underwater structures
Subsea 7’s AIV performing a mid-water riser inspection using sonar, courtesy of our partner, SeeByte



Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), on the other hand, are underwater robots that are often controlled by a human operator. Like their AUV counterparts, ROVs are also equipped with cameras, lights, and various sensors that allow them to perform tasks (such as inspections, maintenance, and repair on underwater structures and vessels). ROVs can also be equipped with sampling tools and other scientific instruments, making them useful for conducting research missions. ROVs play a very prominent role in deep-sea scientific missions for studying benthic ecosystems, such as during the EV Nautilus cruises. (More on this later in another post.)
The main advantage of ROVs is that they allow for direct human control, which can be especially useful in situations where real-time decision-making is required. This makes ROVs ideal for missions that require a high degree of precision and control, such as the inspection of underwater pipelines, the repair of underwater communication cables, or the removal of debris from shipwrecks. Additionally, ROVs can be equipped with manipulator arms and other tools, making them capable of performing tasks that are (currently) not possible with AUVs.

Despite the differences between AUVs and ROVs, both systems play an important role in a variety of industries. In the oil and gas industry, for example, both types of underwater robots are used for exploration and production, as well as for monitoring and maintenance of underwater pipelines and platforms. In scientific research, both AUVs and ROVs are used for oceanographic surveys, as well as for monitoring ocean ecosystems and the effects of climate change.

As the blue tech industry continues to advance, it is likely that UUVs will play an even greater role in ocean exploration, scientific research, and industrial operations in the years to come, making them a pivotal component of the rapidly growing blue economy.

As for me the article is a clear and concise explanation of the differences between AUVs and ROVs, two types of underwater robotic systems that are widely used in the blue economy. It provides a brief overview of the main features, advantages, and disadvantages of each system, as well as some examples of how they are used in various industries and applications. The article also uses relevant images and links to illustrate the concepts and provide more information for the interested readers.

However, the article could also be improved in some ways. For instance, it could provide more details on the current challenges and limitations of AUVs and ROVs, such as the technical, operational, and regulatory issues that affect their performance and deployment. It could also discuss some of the emerging trends and innovations in the field of underwater robotics, such as the development of hybrid systems that combine the features of both AUVs and ROVs, or the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance the autonomy and capabilities of UUVs. It could also address some of the ethical and social implications of using UUVs in the ocean, such as the potential impacts on the marine environment and biodiversity, or the legal and moral responsibilities of the operators and users of UUVs.

Overall, the article is a good introduction to the topic of underwater robotics, but it could also go deeper and more critical in its analysis and discussion.

Resources: Underwater Robotics. Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, AUVs, ROVs | Ocean Motion Tech Blog (medium.com)

Images:
https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*97hjk-NauNJkmtIHqlBAUQ.jpeg
https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*FnMPVGUqgsx4xqOndGssIA.jpeg

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31 October 2023
1 Comment
Business, Sharing economy

The Evolution of Cryptocurrency: Impact on Traditional Financial Systems and Global Economy

Reading Time: 2 minutes
The Impact of Crypto Currencies on Developing Countries | by Philipp Sandner | Medium

In recent years, the rise of cryptocurrency has disrupted the conventional financial landscape, redefining the way we perceive and engage with money. As digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others continue to gain momentum, their impact on traditional financial systems and the global economy is a subject of significant discussion and debate.

Understanding the Impact on Traditional Financial Systems

Advantages:

  1. Decentralization: Cryptocurrencies operate on decentralized networks, reducing reliance on traditional financial intermediaries like banks and governments. This offers greater financial inclusivity and autonomy for individuals worldwide.
  2. Efficiency and Speed: Transactions with cryptocurrencies often occur faster and with lower fees compared to traditional banking systems, fostering quicker cross-border transfers and enhanced transactional efficiency.
  3. Security and Transparency: The underlying blockchain technology offers a transparent and secure ledger, decreasing the likelihood of fraud and ensuring the immutability of transactions

Challenges:

  1. Regulatory Uncertainty: The lack of standardized regulations across different jurisdictions poses challenges for wider adoption and can lead to market volatility and uncertainty.
  2. Volatility: Cryptocurrencies are known for their price volatility, which can deter some individuals and institutional investors from embracing them fully.

Impact on the Global Economy

Advantages:

  1. Financial Inclusion: Cryptocurrencies have the potential to provide financial services to the unbanked population globally, granting access to banking, loans, and investments.
  2. Innovation and Technological Advancements: The development of blockchain technology supporting cryptocurrencies fosters innovation in various industries, offering new solutions and business models.
  3. International Transactions: Cryptocurrencies facilitate cross-border transactions with reduced costs and time, potentially reshaping the international trade and remittance landscape.

Challenges:

  1. Environmental Concerns: The energy-intensive mining process for certain cryptocurrencies raises concerns about their environmental impact.
  2. Adoption Barriers: Limited understanding, technological barriers, and trust issues hinder the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Conclusion

Cryptocurrency’s impact on traditional financial systems and the global economy is a complex and ongoing process. While it presents several advantages such as decentralization, enhanced security, and potential global financial inclusion, challenges surrounding regulation, volatility, and adoption hurdles persist.

The evolution of cryptocurrencies will likely continue to shape the financial landscape, demanding collaborative efforts between regulators, businesses, and innovators to harness their potential while addressing inherent challenges.

For more in-depth understanding, it’s essential to stay informed and updated as this transformative journey unfolds.

References:

  1. Nakamoto, S. (2008). Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.
  2. Swan, M. (2015). Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy.
  3. Androulaki, E., et al. (2018). Hyperledger Fabric: A Distributed Operating System for Permissioned Blockchains.

Prompt used:

Discuss the Impact of Cryptocurrency on Traditional Financial Systems and Global Economy. Analyze the Advantages and Challenges Presented

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14 October 2023
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Sharing economy

Impact of war in Ukraine on Global Economy

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Russian invasion in Ukraine

For those, who don’t know, on 24th of February 2022 Russia fully invaded Ukraine, causing a worldwide shock. So far, a conflict is really sophisticated, and even so Ukraine makes some progress, there are many victims, lots of people fled the country and the damage is enormous.

Impact on World Economy

Before Russia invaded Ukraine, projections estimated global economic growth in 2022 would be around 5 percent. The war in Ukraine was a “massive and historic energy shock” to the markets, according to a November 2022 report by the OECD. The “shock” of the war was one of the main factors that had slowed economic growth in 2022 to just 3.1 percent, and why the OECD projected it to slow to 2.2 percent in 2023. The war, the report found, has had the greatest impact on Europe’s economy, where growth in 2023 is projected to be just 0.3 percent.

A massive investment in Ukraine

In September 2022, the World Bank estimated that the cost of rebuilding Ukraine would be about $349 billion, a number that is larger than Ukraine’s pre-invasion GDP and three-times greater than all the military, humanitarian, and financial assistance commitments to Ukraine since the start of the war, and is certainly much higher now.

Ukraine demands reparations, which seem unlikely to occur; instead, Russia appears to be preparing for a longer and larger-scale conflict. As of June 2022, the allies had seized $30 billion in assets owned by the Russian elite and frozen $300 billion owned by the Russian central bank. It may be possible to transfer some of this to Ukraine, but the law on doing so needs to be explored, and the amounts involved would remain short of what is or will be necessary. Whether Ukraine and its Western allies will ever be able to compel Russia to pay reparations will depend on the outcome of the war.

The United States has so far given the most—$47.9 billion—to Ukraine, but nearly all of it has been given in military and humanitarian aid, while EU countries have provided the largest amount of financial assistance. As a percentage of a giving nation’s GDP, between January and November 2022, the United States devoted 0.23 percent; Estonia and Latvia each devoted roughly one percent; Poland provided 0.5 percent.

Personal opinion

At first, many experts were scared of the impact of war on world economy, because Russia was one of the biggest exporters of fossil fuels worldwide. There are still some experts, who are inclined to think this way, but I strongly disagree with them, as for today we have 14th October 2023, and so far almost all countries stopped their connections with Russia, legal at least. Today’s world successfully looks for alternative ways to avoid working with Russia. Of course, I understand that inflation all around the world, especially in Ukraine, is tremendous and will be even higher, but we will manage it out and for that our most important task should be to help Ukraine win this war. The world shouldn’t stop helping Ukraine, despite all difficulties and after Ukraine’s victory, I’m sure that in future perspective Ukraine will return everything and the connection between Ukraine and the world will be unbreakable. For now, the main goal is to make everything, as it should be.

Sources

  1. https://www.rand.org/blog/2023/03/consequences-of-the-war-in-ukraine-the-economic-fallout.html
  2. Image: https://lloydslist.com/LL1140349/Impact-of-war-on-G7-likely-to-be-minimal-compared-with-economic-hit-facing-Russia
22 January 2023
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Sharing economy, Software

The Environmental Impact of Computational Science

Reading Time: 3 minutes
Source: Kingston Technology https://www.kingston.com/pl/blog/servers-and-data-centers/4-things-data-centers-can-learn-from-hpc

Computational science has revolutionized the way we understand and interact with the world around us. From simulating weather patterns to modeling the behavior of subatomic particles, computational methods have enabled scientists to make breakthroughs that would have been impossible just a few decades ago. However, as our reliance on computational methods has grown, so too has the carbon footprint of this field.

According to a recent study published in the journal Nature Climate Change, the carbon footprint of computational science is much larger than previously thought. The study estimates that the energy consumption of high-performance computing (HPC) centers, which are used to run large-scale simulations and analyses, is equivalent to that of a small country. In fact, the study estimates that the carbon footprint of HPC centers is larger than that of the entire aviation industry.

The reason for this large carbon footprint is the enormous amount of energy required to power and cool the thousands of computer processors and storage devices that make up HPC centers. These machines use a tremendous amount of electricity to run, and even more to cool, which generates significant amounts of greenhouse gases.

The study’s authors also point out that the carbon footprint of computational science is likely to grow in the future as the demand for HPC services increases. This is due in part to the growing amount of data that scientists need to process and analyze, as well as the increasing complexity of simulations and models.

Loïc Lannelongue, the author of the study was curious about the environmental impact of his own research. Together with Jason Grealey from the University of Melbourne, they decided to look further into ways of calculating the carbon footprint of HPC centers. They expected to find an already established carbon footprint calculator online. Which to their surprise, they did not. It lead them to believe that the environmental impact of HPC centers is a phenomon that many scholars aren’t aware of or are not taking into consideration when utilizing HPC centers for their work.

Source: Texas Advanced Computing Center https://cen.acs.org/physical-chemistry/computational-chemistry/Computational-scientists-look-lessons-learned/99/i28

Inspired to fill this gap in the scientific community, Lannelongue created Green Algorithms. A website that encourages other researchers to be mindful of the carbon footprint of computational science by imparting knowledge on how to reduce your impact while also providing a high performance computing carbon footprint calculator for anyone to access. Lannelongue doesn’t hope to stop researchers from using HPC centers, but instead to be more mindful of their impact. For which the calculator is a perfect tool for.

While the carbon footprint of computational science may seem daunting, on the green algorithms website Lannelongue provides steps that can be taken to reduce it. One approach is to make HPC centers more energy efficient by using more efficient processors and storage devices, as well as by using more efficient cooling systems. Additionally, scientists can also reduce their carbon footprint by using cloud-based HPC services, which allow them to access large amounts of computing power without the need to build and maintain their own HPC centers.

Another approach is to use distributed computing methods, which allow scientists to tap into the computing power of thousands of individual computers, rather than relying on a single HPC center. This can significantly reduce the energy consumption and carbon footprint of computational science.

In conclusion, computational science plays a vital role in advancing our understanding of the world around us, but it also has a significant carbon footprint. It is important for scientists, policymakers, and other stakeholders to be aware of this footprint and to take steps to reduce it. By making HPC centers more energy efficient, using cloud-based HPC services, and using distributed computing methods, we can continue to make breakthroughs in science while also reducing our impact on the environment.

Bibliography:

Brierley, Craig. “Big data’s hidden cost: The carbon footprint of computational science.” TechXplore. Published January 20, 2023. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-01-big-hidden-carbon-footprint-science.html

Green Algorithms. “Carbon Footprint Calculator”. Green Algorithms Accessed January 22, 2023. https://www.green-algorithms.org/

Lannelongue, Loïc. “Carbon footprint, the (not so) hidden cost of high performance computing.” BCS. Published October 14, 2021. https://www.bcs.org/articles-opinion-and-research/carbon-footprint-the-not-so-hidden-cost-of-high-performance-computing/

11 January 2023
1 Comment
Sharing economy

Is home swapping better than standard platforms from home-sharing industry?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Home swapping was first introduced by a company named “Love Home Swap” founded in 2011, it has already around 0.5 milion members all around the globe in around 150 countries. Love Home Swap is a home exchange platform that allows to swap accommodations between users for vacation. To a certain extent it is similar to other home-sharing platforms such as Airbnb or Booking.com, however, you don’t rent homes but swap them with other members. I first heard about this option couple of months ago and I was surprised, so I wanted to seek further information about this topic and that’s what `I’ll do in this blog.

Let’s start with explaining the details of how it actually works. First you’ll need to sign up and you will get 2 weeks of free trial. After that period if you like it, you can pick from 3 different subscription plans: Lite (9€/month), Standard (11€/month), Platinum (13€/month). Then you can create a listing for your home and search for homes that you would like to stay in. Once you make a match with an other member of this platform, you can arrange the agreement for the swap. This includes choosing dates of the exchange, regulations, eventual surcharge and other details. When all of that is done you can book flights and enjoy your vacation.

First positive aspect of such solution is the cost saving. Instead of renting an apartment, home or other accommodations you can just swap places with other members. This method can save you hundreds and thousands of dollars on your holidays.

Furthermore, it has other benefits like, for instance, you can often find a place that is more spacious and comfortable than a traditional hotel room. Additionally, because users are staying in someone else’s home, they can get a more authentic and local travel experience, as well as the opportunity to live like a local in another city or country. A lot of people while traveling want to get to know the culture of the country in this way you can experience it to the fullest.

On the other hand, Love Home Swap does not have as many members as other platforms from home-sharing industry. This can make it more difficult for users to find a home exchange that fits their specific needs and preferences. Also it requires a subscription fee, on the contrary to other platforms.

Another negative aspect is the difficulty of coordinating of dates for the swap or the lack of protection and instant support from the platform. Airbnb, for example, have a host guarantee and host protection insurance. Thus, this means that if something is broken during the stay, Love Home Swap will not provide financial protection and everything depends on you and what do you agree in the swap arrangement. This can be a big risk because you don’t know people that you let to stay at your home.

In conclusion, Love Home Swap is a home exchange platform that offers many benefits such as cost savings and flexibility. However, there are also downsides to using the platform, such as it may not have as many members as some of the other home exchange platforms, coordinating dates with other members can become difficult and it also requires a subscription fee. Additionally, it does not offer the same level of protection and support as other home-sharing platforms, so members should be more aware of their own insurance.

In my opinion, it’s a great solution for cheap vacations, however, you need to be comfortable with letting “strangers” live in your home. It certainly bring risk of typical renting damage but it has less assurance than other platforms in this case. That is a big disadvantage for me and I will maybe consider such an option in the future but now I will stick to standard house-sharing platforms.

Thank you for you’re attention, feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.

Sources:

https://www.lovehomeswap.com

https://www.businessinsider.com/what-its-like-to-swap-homes-with-love-home-swap-2015-5?IR=T

https://www.youtube.com/@Lovehomeswap

Is home swapping the future of vacations?
23 December 2022
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Business, Devices, Sharing economy

Drone Transplant Delivery in Mass Just Around The Corner

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Source: Getty Images

Drones have revolutionized the way we think about transportation and delivery systems. These unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have the ability to fly over traffic and other obstacles, making them an efficient and cost-effective option for delivering goods. In recent years, drones have even been used to deliver life-saving transplants to patients in need.

One of the main advantages of using drones to deliver transplants is the speed at which they can travel. In emergency situations, every minute counts and traditional modes of transportation can be slowed down by traffic and other delays. Drones, on the other hand, can bypass these obstacles and reach their destination quickly and efficiently.

Another advantage of using drones to deliver transplants is their ability to reach remote or hard-to-access locations. Many transplant recipients live in rural areas or areas that are difficult to reach by car or ambulance. Drones can fly over these obstacles and deliver the transplant to the patient in a timely manner.

Source: University of Maryland Medical School

There are also cost benefits to using drones to deliver transplants. Traditional methods of transportation, such as ambulances and helicopters, can be expensive and may not always be available. Drones, on the other hand, can be deployed quickly and at a lower cost.

Despite the many benefits of using drones to deliver transplants, there are also some challenges that need to be addressed. One of the main challenges is ensuring the safety of the transplant during the delivery process. Transplants are often fragile and can be damaged during transit. To address this issue, some companies are developing specialized drones with temperature-controlled compartments and other features to ensure that the transplant stays safe and viable during the delivery process.

When it comes to that matter, a recent proof-of-concept flight organized by a team of researchers from Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, Techna, University Health Network and Unither Bioelectronics has displayed the feasibility of overcoming these challenges.

Source: Unither Bioelectronics, Bromont QC

The flight was taken by a Chinese made M600 Pro drone, a commercial device of a price of only 600$. The team exchanged some parts for ones that provide improved connectivity. While also attaching external apparatus like a parachute, lights, GPS trackers, cameras and a recovery system. Lastly they connected the transplant secure box on the bottom of the drone.

Then, after testing the drone 400 times they considered it ready for the real test. The drone was tasked with delivering a donated lung from Toronto Western Hospital to Toronto General Hospital. The two kilometer flight was a success and the organ was implanted into the patient in need.

However, there’s more challenges this innovation still faces. One of them are regulatory hurdles. While many countries have regulations in place for drones, there are still some legal and regulatory issues that need to be addressed before drones can be widely used to deliver transplants. For example, some countries have strict rules about drones flying over certain areas or at certain altitudes, which can make it difficult to use drones for transplant delivery.

Despite these challenges, the use of drones to deliver transplants is a promising area of research and development. In the future, it is likely that drones will play a larger role in the delivery of transplants and other medical supplies. As technology continues to advance and regulatory issues are addressed, we may see drones becoming a more common sight in our skies, delivering life-saving transplants to patients in need.

Bibliography:

Yirka, Bob. “Proof-of-concept drone flight delivers transplant lung to patient in Toronto.” Tech Xplore. Published December 22, 2022. https://techxplore.com/news/2022-12-proof-of-concept-drone-flight-transplant-lung.html

Sage, T. Andrew et al. “Testing the delivery of human organ transportation with drones in the real world.” Science Robotics. Published December 21, 2022. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.adf5798#tab-contributors

Freeman, David. “A drone just flew a kidney to a transplant patient for the first time ever. It won’t be the last.” NBC News. Published May 3, 2019. https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/drone-just-flew-kidney-transplant-patient-first-time-ever-it-ncna1001396

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10 December 2022
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Apps, Bez kategorii, Business, Devices, Sharing economy

E-Scooter rental business from a former unicorn to the date of withdrawal

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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Lime_Logos-wiki-01.svg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bird_(company)_logo.svg

The E-scooter rental business

There are two e-Scooter rental marketplaces in the US for example Bird, which adapted Xiaomi’s e-Scooter, and Lime, which developed and produced an e-Scooter by itself, all of which are very convenient to use. It just download the application from the QR Code on the e-Scooter, complete the registration and start using it immediately. When you reach your destination, you can park right away. And then there will be people who want to use it to rent it to ride on their own.

The service fee is not as expensive as you think. Starting with a pocket-friendly price of $1, the next minute is 15 cents by credit card payment method. It costs about $3-5 per ride, which is cheaper than an Uber ride, moreover it gets an eco-friendly look. Bird is the founder of this startup, bringing e-scooters into San-Francisco. On the corner of the street Which in the beginning received such a good response that investors flocked to invest quickly Become the fastest growing unicorn in history and the e-Scooter was seen everywhere and expanded to other major cities in the United States such as New York, Los Angeles, Detroit , etc.

Why do people not like E-scooter business in the US?

The e-Scooter makes the cityscape look less beautiful than before. Because wherever you look, you will see only the e-Scooter fell down. In addition, some users refuse to park it well, but leave it on the ground, causing clutter to the sidewalk and cluttering others.

In addition, when it rains, the wet road e-Scooter crashes, the more it looks unusable and unattractive. Causing some people to be dissatisfied with the e-Scooter, kicking each other to fall, the more they fall, the more frustrated they become, and people they kick scooter going around in a circle.

When e-Scooters Make Cities look bad As a result, some people complained to the city for zoning. Make parking spots for more orderliness. Can’t park anywhere like at first sight.

Scooters were promoted under the veil of eco-friendly transportation. Their true origin is more insidious, and even dangerous. – Photo by Reddit
https://dailytargum.imgix.net/images/619bda44-ae7f-4526-9a82-0aa673dc2e7d.jpg?ar=16:9&auto=compress&crop=faces&fit=crop&fm=webp&width=1200

Is it a E-scooter fault or human behavior?

In addition to zoning, The city is trying to regulate e-scooters by limiting the number of e-scooters, with every registered e-scooter being offered for rent incurring an operating fee to help improve the visibility of the city.

When renting an e-Scooter isn’t as convenient as it used to be Combined with the anger that was already the original capital Causing many people to destroy the e-Scooter, including setting fire or throwing it into the river Becomes more polluting to the environment because the e-Scooter is considered an electronic device. with harmful substances in it, both the circuit board and the electric battery

In addition to the issue of destroying the e-Scooter that is the property of the company. Also followed by cases of physical abuse arising from e-Scooter as well, such as riding to hurt other people. and ride away despite not having a feud or having known each other before

From the many ensuing problems of renting e-Scooter, including city planning and property destruction and therefore, there is a current of criticism that all this happened is the fault of Is it more “e-Scooter rental company” or “Habit of people”?

Is it have any chance for this business?

Of course, running a business requires a profit. For example, the Bird e-Scooter from Xiaomi costs around $500, and it will require at least five rentals a day for five to six months to return on their e-Scooter.

Usually, these products should last around 1-2 years but according to the numbers that Bird has done, research has come out indicating that Average usage is about 3.5 times/day, which is slightly below target. May have to extend the expected payback period to 7-8 months instead but the lifespan of the e-Scooter is short, only 28 days, perhaps not due to negligent.

And another important reason is that e-Scooter is stolen and modified to become your own. For all these reasons, the service life that should be at least 1 year, but Xiaomi’s guarantee is only 28 days left.

Recently, e-scooter rental startup Bird announced it was “withdrawing its service in many cities”, with it canceling in three European countries: Germany, Sweden and Norway, as well as several cities in the US, Europe and the Middle East. So is it a problem of human habit or e-scooter comment down below.

Resource:

https://dailytargum.com/article/2020/09/ballaro-scooter-deal-sold-out-new-brunswick-again

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/30/tech/scooter-management/index.html

https://www.statista.com/outlook/mmo/shared-mobility/shared-rides/e-scooter-sharing/worldwide#revenue

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_(transportation_company)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_(transportation_company)

Tagged , ,
8 December 2022
3 Comments
Apps, Business, Sharing economy, Software

Tesco Tinder – new service for reducing food waste

Reading Time: 2 minutes

According to world studies, about 30% of food is lost and thrown into the garbage during the production of food and after its purchase.  The world throws away 1.3 billion tons of food every year, and if there were no losses and spoilage of food products, it could feed 1.26 billion hungry people every year. The problem also has indirect consequences associated with climate change and environmental pollution, since the production of discarded food consumes resources: water and land.

That is why the question arises, how to stop such an empty and senseless release of resources in food sector?

The answer is that it is necessary to increase the number of recyclable software and use modern recycling technologies.  In the last decade, the circular economy has begun to move forward as a more appropriate economic model for reducing emissions. It is followed by ways of reusing food suitable for human consumption, reusing food as animal feed, processing the material into high value-added products, processing nutrients and restoring energy.

Many companies are already implementing technologies to minimize food waste, become more sustainable.

For instance, supermarket chain Tesco introduced online platform Tesco Exchange, which is also often called Tesco Tinder. The app is designed to help suppliers share excess products in order to reduce waste and production costs. The exchange was developed by the consulting firm Anthesis.

With the help of this app suppliers can advertise products, submit requests, and set alerts when needed products become available. Interestingly, the fields of application extend not only to food, but also to packaging. I think this is a big step towards a circularity in food sector. Overproduction and inadequate disposal, which humanity faces everywhere, are global environmental problems.

Sarah Bradbury, Chief Quality Officer at Tesco, says, “Waste for one supplier can be a valuable commodity for another.”  This statement is extremely meaningful to me.  From my perspective, exactly this way, people can share with each other and receive mutual benefits.  I believe this is the approach that humanity really lacks at present.

To conclude, I believe that in conditions of present time, with all the pressing environmental and climate problems, the food sector is simply obliged to move towards a more circular economy.  On the example of Tesco chain of stores, we see how with the help of advanced technologies and software we are able to use the resources in a more sensible way.

‘Tesco Tinder’ surplus marketplace will help suppliers slash costs and reduce waste

https://thisiszone.medium.com/friday-five-tesco-tinder-is-bringing-suppliers-together-in-a-waste-tackling-lovefest-1d42d04510a0

https://www.greenbiz.com/sites/default/files/2022-12/tesco-food-waste-app-shutterstock-logo.png

Food waste management; Problems & Solution – Technology Times

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