Daily Archives: March 9, 2021

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. and SALT LAKE CITY, March 09, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VERB Technology Company, Inc. (Nasdaq: VERB) ("VERB" or the "Company"), a rapidly emerging market leader in business-focused interactive video sales and marketing tools, including livestream ecommerce, CRM, and content management applications, today announced that CEO Rory J. Cutaia is presenting and will be available to meet with investors and analysts on a one-on-one basis at the 33rd Annual Virtual ROTH Conference to be held on March 15-17, 2021.

Mr. Cutaias presentation highlights the Companys unique interactive video technology and software-as-a-service sales enablement solutions, including its livestream ecommerce application verbLIVE, shifts in global shopping trends and consumer behavior for which the Companys products are well-positioned, and recent strategic initiatives. His presentation can be viewed by clicking on this link.

The conference will feature presentations from public and private companies across a variety of industry sectors. During previous events, ROTH has hosted close to 550 participating companies and attracted more than 5,000 attendees, including institutional investors, analysts, family offices and high-net-worth investors.

To learn more and submit a registration request, please visit https://ibn.fm/ROTH2021Registration

About VERBVERB Technology Company, Inc. (Nasdaq: VERB) is rapidly emerging as the market leader in business-focused interactive video sales and marketing tools, including livestream ecommerce, CRM, and content management applications. With offices in California and Utah, USA, VERB provides next-generation software applications to sales-based organizations in more than 60 countries and 48 languages. TheCompanys proprietary, patented, and patent-pending technology platform producesreal-time, measurable results,with customers reporting greater than 600% increases in conversion rates.VERBs software-as-a-service (SaaS) products are cloud-based, accessible on all mobile and desktop devices, and are available by subscription for individual and enterprise users. TheCompanys technology is also integrated into popular ERP, CRM, and marketing platforms.For more information, please visit http://www.verb.tech.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements about the closing of the offering of common stock. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. If any of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if any of our assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include risks associated with: the COVID-19 pandemic and related public health measures on our business, customers, markets and the worldwide economy; our plans to attract new customers, retain existing customers and increase our annual revenue; the development and delivery of new products, including verbLIVE; our plans and expectations regarding software-as-a-service offerings; our ability to execute on, integrate, and realize the benefits of any acquisitions; fluctuations in our quarterly results of operations and other operating measures; increasing competition; general economic, market and business conditions; and the risks described in the filings that we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from time to time, including the risks described under the headings Risk Factors and Management Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, which was filed with the SEC on May 14, 2020, as amended by Amendment No. 1 on Form 10-K/A to our Annual Report on Form 10-K, which was filed with the SEC on June 4, 2020, and which should be read in conjunction with our financial results and forward-looking statements contained therein, and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2020, which was filed with the SEC on November 16, 2020, which should be read in conjunction with our financial results and forward-looking statements contained therein. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof, and we do not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements provided to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made, except as required by law.

Investor Relations Contact: 888.504.9929 investors@verb.tech

Media Contact: 855.250.2300, ext.107 info@verb.tech

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VERB Technology to Present and Meet with Investors on a One-on-One Basis at 33rd Annual Virtual ROTH Conference on March 15-17, 2021 - GlobeNewswire

Maximizing the denim industrys use of textile waste in garments is the goal of Denim Deal, the Dutch-based multi-stakeholder initiative to navigate the challenges of circular textiles. The group is overcoming one supply chain challengetraceabilityby partnering with Aware, a tracer and blockchain technology by Dutch company The Movement that can distinguish false material from genuinely sustainable fabric with a simple scan.

Awares tracer particles, which are added to the fiber pre-production, make it possible to prove that the original recycled feedstock was used in the final product, meaning companies can accurately measure their environmental impact targets and prevent greenwashing.

The technology creates a digital twin version that is registered into a secure blockchain to be completely fraud-free. By adding tracers, every garment receives a unique fingerprint, and this can be read with an easy-to-use scanner for authentication.

Aware is the first in the world to make recycled cotton traceablea crucial tool as many brands begin to shift out of the current linear sourcing model. Denim Deal signatories such as Dutch brand Kings of Indigo and Turkish denim mill Calik Denim use the technology. Calik recently partnered with the company to trace its recycled cotton and recycled polyester.

We are extremely proud to participate in the Denim Deal as we are equally aware of the positive impact of using recycled fabrics to reduce the consequences to the environment, said James Veenhof, founder of House of Denim and Denim Deal co-founder.

Denim brands are increasingly turning to post-consumer recycled cotton (PCR) as a means to reduce the industrys impact on water. About 8,000 liters of water is used per pair of jeans alone when using conventional cotton, Denim Deal reports. Using 20 percent PCR, however, can save up to 750 liters of water per pair of jeans.

Under the Denim Deal, a three-year initiativeformally established last year by a network of 30 public and private organizations, signatories commit to working as quickly as possible towards a standard of using at least five percent recycled textile in all denim garments.As a first step, three million pairs of jeans are now being made by well-known denim brands, such as KOI, Scotch & Soda and Mud Jeans, and 20 percent of which are made of recycled cotton.

We are extremely proud to participate in the Denim Deal as we are equally aware of the positive impact of using recycled fabrics to reduce the consequences to the environment, Veenhof said.

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Dutch Denim Initiative Partners with Aware for Blockchain Technology - Sourcing Journal

SOUTHLAKE, Texas, March 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hawaiian Nail Bar At Southlake is proud to announce our recent investment in the Clorox Total 360 System, an electrostatic sprayer, to provide more comprehensive surface disinfection coverage to help our customers control the spread of germs on hard, non-porous surfaces that can cause illness.

At Hawaiian Nail Bar At Southlake, we are committed to doing everything we can to help enhance the safety and well-being of our customers all year round. With the Clorox Total 360 System, we have enhanced our infection control offerings and protocols to help control the spread of germs on hard, non-porous surfaces that can cause illness including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

"Our goal at Hawaiian Nail Bar At Southlake is to help maintain a safer and healthier environment for our customers by offering one of the most effective infection control protocols available," said Huy Ton, Owner of Hawaiian Nail Bar At Southlake. "The Clorox Total 360 System saves us a tremendous amount of time and allows us to cover high-touch and hard-to-reach surfaces in the salon."

The Clorox Total 360 System works by charging and atomizing the Clorox disinfecting or sanitizing solution, delivering a powerful flow of charged droplets that are attracted to surfaces with a force stronger than gravity. This allows the disinfecting or sanitizing product to reach and uniformly coat surfaces, including areas where conventional trigger sprays may easily miss.

Hawaiian Nail Bar At Southlake currently uses the Clorox Total 360 Systemto treat a wide variety of hard, non-porous surfaces* including salon chairs and tables, nail polish bottles, and other high-touch surfaces like door knobs.

"The Clorox Total 360 System enables us to provide our local community with greater peace of mind when visiting our salon," added Ton. "We are proud to serve our community with this top technology and help provide them with an extra layer of protection against the spread of germs."

The Clorox Total 360 Disinfectant Cleaner1 used with the Clorox Total 360 System has been approved by the EPA to kill SARS-CoV-2 on hard, non-porous surfaces.

To learn more about the Clorox Total 360 System, please visit http://www.CloroxTotal360.com.

*Consult the EPA approved master label for full list of approved use sites and surfaces.

Hawaiian Nail Bar At Southlake is a family and veteran-owned business. We have been serving the Southlake-Grapevine communities for more than 6 years now. We are the only salon in the area that 'open til midnight' on Fridays and Saturdays!

SOURCE Hawaiian Nail Bar At Southlake

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Hawaiian Nail Bar Invests in Electrostatic Technology to Help Safeguard Salon Environment from Illness-Causing Germs - PRNewswire

NEEDHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, resiliency has become a business priority. But traditional approaches struggle to integrate business resiliency with the digital environment in which companies increasingly operate. A new report from International Data Corporation (IDC) presents a digital resiliency framework that shows CEOs, CIOs, and other business leaders how technology can support the entire organization through the different stages of any business crisis. The Digital Resiliency Framework was introduced today at the 56th annual IDC Directions conference, which this year focuses on delivering digital resiliency in a changed world.

"Perhaps the most worrying takeaway from the recent pandemic concerns our lack of preparedness as nations, industries, and companies to deal with similar systemic crises, which are inevitable in our increasingly digital and interconnected world," said Sandra Ng, group vice president for Research at IDC. "Old approaches have proved to be wanting. Nonetheless, organizations must not only respond fast to threats but also learn to opportunistically rise above them. Our new digital world calls out for a new technology-enabled approach to deal with future crises digital resiliency."

IDC believes that digital resiliency the ability for an organization to rapidly adapt to business disruptions by leveraging digital capabilities to not only restore business operations but also capitalize on the changed conditions must be a key objective in every organization's digital transformation (DX) efforts. Digital resiliency is also a central tenet of the future enterprise, IDC's vision for the end state of DX.

IDC's digital resiliency framework includes three phases describing the timeline of enterprise responses to a crisis across a set of six organizational dimensions that are all enabled with a shared technology/digital architecture. Resiliency must be achieved within each of these organizational dimensions, which are interdependent; a weakness in the digital resiliency of one dimension will likely impact other dimensions. Digital resiliency across all these organizational dimensions must be underpinned by an open, integrated, and holistic technology architecture. IDC calls this the DX platform and defines it as a combination of an intelligent core of data analytics, automation and decision support, a wide variety of intelligent applications, and intelligent services, such as governance, DevOps, and orchestration.

For each dimension, IDC has highlighted the enterprise use cases (funded projects) that improve digital resiliency. These use cases can then be mapped to the digital technologies, data, and analytics that support them as well as the business priorities and plans that promote them. This framework enables CXOs to map the business priorities in one or more organizational dimensions to specific use cases that would achieve those goals. Armed with a prioritized use case agenda, CIOs can then propose the relevant investments in the underlying technologies and tools that support those use cases and promote digital resiliency overall.

Using this framework, IDC is conducting survey research on the adoption of various digital resiliency use cases in different enterprises. To the extent that these use cases are present or not provides a measure of digital resiliency for that dimension and, when aggregated, across the entire enterprise. These dimensional measures are then correlated with enterprise-wide self-assessments of digital resiliency to determine which dimensions, and which use cases within a dimension, enterprises should prioritize to become more resilient.

"In any crisis, the response to urgent business requirements must be fast and targeted for maximal impact. Enabling these conversations between CEOs, CIOs, and the broader C-suite with an established framework, in advance, before the next crisis, can make the difference between business failure and a successful future," said Rebecca Segal, group vice president, Worldwide Services at IDC. "We suggest CIOs leverage the IDC digital resiliency framework to prioritize use cases across organizational dimensions and infer the technology requirements and initiatives that best support these priorities."

Understanding the Digital Resiliency Framework is critical not just for organizations working to improve their resiliency, but for their technology partners as well. Recognizing the challenges organizations are looking to solve and demonstrating how technology solutions can help overcome these obstacles will be critical to becoming a trusted digital resiliency partner. IDC's Custom Solutions team can show technology vendors how to better plan, demonstrate, and implement solutions with enterprise organizations that have digital resiliency needs. Learn more at http://www.idc.com/custom-solutions.

The IDC report, A Digital Resiliency Framework for the Future Enterprise (Doc #US47483421), presents a framework to help CEOs, CIOs, and other business leaders to work together to bring digital acceleration and digital resiliency to the forefront of business strategy, enabling a stronger, more successful, and a more resilient organization to emerge in the years ahead. The framework details the three phases of response to a crisis across six organizational dimensions and identifies use cases and technologies that can support the enterprise through each phase and dimension. Used in conjunction with the resiliency scorecard, the framework is designed to guide organizational planning and investment.

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading tech media, data and marketing services company. To learn more about IDC, please visit http://www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter at @IDC and LinkedIn. Subscribe to the IDC Blog for industry news and insights: http://bit.ly/IDCBlog_Subscribe.

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IDC's Digital Resiliency Framework Provides Business Leaders with a Guide to Technology Investments and Organizational Changes to Meet the Next Crisis...

NEW YORK, March 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Color Star Technology Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ: CSCW) (hereinafter referred to as "Color Star" or the "Company"), today announced the establishment of a long-term strategic partnership with Guangxi, China-based Yinmiao Culture Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yinmiao"),a Chinese piano-education institution. The two companies agreed to work together in the areas of piano competition, art festivalcoordination, online and offline training, as well asartificial intelligence (AI) piano hardware research and development (R&D), production and sales, thereby contributing to the concept of a "diversified entertainment and sharing economy."

Yinmiao is a professional firm that focuseson piano-related industries, specializing in piano sales, piano training and education, piano competition operations, and cultural communication. In terms ofscale, Yinmiao's BOYA Piano Festival has become the "Piano Olympiad", boasting the most influential piano instructors and highest number of participants, and is the largest concentration of Chinese pianofestivalintellectual property (IP). In addition, Yinmiao's offline flagship piano training institutions can be found in many domestic first-tier and second-tier cities, and is expected to expand to 100 stores in 2021. Meanwhile, Yinmiao will continue to expand off-speculation training, dual-teacher classroom, and one-on-one training in its online education business, and has accelerated its R&D investment and production and sales of AI smart pianos, in order to enhance its core competitiveness.

Given the aforementioned business advantages, Color Star and Yinmiao plan to jointly develop the urban market. By combining Color Star APP's online celebrity tutors, online broadcasts, and cultural and creative platforms with Yinmiao's business through membership exchange and interaction, the partnership may greatly benefit both companies'online presence. In the offline arena, Color Star has abundant professional experience in planning and organizing live shows and may help introduce and promote Chinese art festival IPs globally. For Color Star, the partnership with Yinmiao is also a perfect opportunity for development of augmented reality (AR), where the technology can be applied to piano lessons and sales in the early stage, so users may experience a more comprehensive learning modality. With the implementation of AR technology to "Piano Olympiads", these festivals can overcome the limitations of locality and allow piano lovers around the world to participate.

As a technology company that emphasizes "cultural sharing" at its core, Color Star recently begun preparations for its NASDAQ Dubai listing and the application of AR technology, which should give the Company more potential for development while also attracting additional investorattention. Meanwhile, the partnership between Color Star and Yinmiao is based on mutual benefit and is expected to help both companies reach new heights. The CEO of Color Star, Mr. Luke Lu, commented: "The partner we choose to cooperate with is usually the best in the sector, and weintegrate our partners in the development of the cultural sharing space. In the global market, different cultures attract different people, and diversified culture is even more attractive." As the world's largest consumer market, China has always been one of the key markets in which Color Star strives to expand. As such, we believe that diversified cross-industry partnerships will greatly enhance the Chinese user base of Color Star APP. In the future, Color Star will look for more partnerships in the high-technology and professional technology sectors. At the same time, the Company welcomes potential firms andinstitutions from around the world to get in touch, with the hope of finding and expanding mutual collaborations for business, entertainment, and educational benefit."

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements that are other than statements of historical facts. When the Company uses words such as "may," "will," "intend," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "project," "estimate" or similar expressions that do not relate solely to historical matters, it is making forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantee of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations discussed in the forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, the following: the Company's goals and strategies; the Company's future business development; product and service demand and acceptance; changes in technology; economic conditions; the growth of the educational and training services market inChinaand other countries where CSCW conducts its business; reputation and brand; the impact of competition and pricing; government regulations; fluctuations in general economic and business conditions and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing and other risks contained in reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For these reasons, among others, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements in this press release. Additional factors are discussed in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available for review atwww.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forwardlooking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof unless required by applicable laws, regulations or rules.

SOURCE Color Star Technology Co., Ltd.

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Color Star Technology Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ: CSCW) Announces Strategic Partnership with Yinmiao Culture, Supporting the Concept of a "Diversified...

Palantir (NYSE: PLTR) has been a name both loved and hated, bought and shorted, talked about and forgotten. The real question for investors here is, what will my returns look like one, five, or 10 years from now?

For the past month, profit-taking and shorting were the right move. It would be easy to say, with the NASDAQ 100 8% off its highs and PLTR over 40%, that maybe this stock is broken.

In the short term, I would agree. An overflow of new money, Reddit hype, and Cathie Wood buys have resulted in a highflyer becoming a bag holders nightmare. Even at recent lows of $21, Palantir was still up over 100% from its direct listing at the end of September.

That being said, I still believe Palantir is a long-term buy-and-hold.

From controversy over how the company generates revenue to flat-out conspiracies, it is easy to get lost in the noise and forget what it is youre even investing in with this company.

See also:How to Buy Palantir Technologies (PLTR) Stock

With a mission to fight terrorism and protect our nation, Palantir has been adopted by the highest levels of our government and military. But the secret sauce with Palantir is not their government contracts, though they help. It is the time and energy put into creating this software on the governments dime, while the whole time intending to become something more.

This is where the technology that has the potential to turn Palantir into an extremely profitable tech company comes in. The platforms offered by Palantir are Gotham and Foundry, while Apollo continuously delivers the software that powers the two.

Simply put, Foundry can take traditional data management, integration, and mining and turn it into an internal simulation to create the best possible outcome for a companys success. Now, youre probably thinking this sounds like something you may have seen in a sci-fi show like Westworld. In a much more realistic way, that is exactly what it is.

The flaw in traditional data management tactics is they are targeted to individual departments of a business. When there is any single change in one department, it affects the outflows and inflows of other departments. What Foundry can do for businesses is integrate the data from all departments, as one entity, while still adjusting for any change in one single department and make the required changes to the affected departments.

This is how the data management of Foundry can change the course of any business and help set the best possible path to success. The what-ifs of every business can be simulated in a way like never before, with actual analytics and results of an expansion that might have cost millions. Palantir essentially creates a digital twin of a business model and grows it alongside the actual business while using everything it learns to improve both.

Theres also something worth noting from the companys last earnings report. Though Palantir was not profitable on an earnings basis, many missed that they offered $1.2 billion in stock compensation to their employees. Typically, this is something we would see with a startup. The fact that we are seeing actions like this from a company that has been around for almost 17 years is a strong indicator that they know what they have is impactful.

With Foundry, businesses will be able to protect, innovate, and change themselves in ways never imagined, capitalizing on a market that has never been explored, with an addressable market that cannot be measured.

Investing in Palantir is investing in the visions of Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, and many others involved in the journey to change the way we look at automation.

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2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Palantir's Technology Is More Disruptive Than Anybody Realizes - Benzinga

BOSTON, March 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Valo Health LLC (Valo), a technology company transforming the drug discovery and development process and seeking to accelerate the creation of life-changing drugs, today announced the final closing of its Series B at $300 million, including a $110 million investment from Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT). This brings the overall funding of Valo to over $450 million.

With this investment Valo will continue to scale its Opal Computational PlatformTM, the first-of-its-kind fully integrated end-to-end platform that combines machine learning-driven computational capabilities and patient data to develop first-in-class and best-in-class therapeutic programs across major disease areas.

"We see Valo's strategy and approach to transforming drug discovery and development as highly disruptive to the industry. Their machine learning and data-centric technology solutions will bring significant value to patients and healthcare practitioners looking for more efficient and enhanced treatment options," said Chase Koch, President of Koch Disruptive Technologies. "The medtech and healthcare markets are currently undergoing dramatic change and accelerated transformation, and our investment in Valo is a testament not only to our belief in their mission but to the importance of this industry in general."

"We are reimagining the process of discovering and developing life-changing drugs in potentially half the time, at half the cost, and with fewer failures, and we are proud that KDT recognizes our paradigm-changing work," said David Berry, Valo founder and CEO. "This investment and their partnership will help us further scale and accelerate our goals and the Opal platform."

The proceeds from the Series B will support the continued discovery and development of therapeutic programs, further build-out the Opal Computational PlatformTM, working capital, and other general purposes. Using Opal, Valo scientists have been able to identify previously unsuspected associations between genetic markers and disease, which identify the specific changes in gene activity with an initial focus on oncology, neurodegenerative, and cardiovascular diseases.

David Berry will discuss Valo's approach and provide insights into several preclinical programs and the Opal platform at the Barclays Global Healthcare Conference at 8 a.m. EST on March 9, 2021. Following the event, a replay of the Barclays webcast will be available on theValo LinkedIn page.

About ValoValo Health, LLC (Valo) is a technology company that is using human-centric data and machine learning computation to transform the drug discovery and development process. As a digitally native company, Valo is the first to fully integrate human-centric data across the entire drug development lifecycle into a single unified architecture, thereby accelerating the discovery and development of life-changing drugs while simultaneously reducing the cost, time, and failure rate. The company's Opal Computational PlatformTM, a fully integrated, computational, end-to-end drug development platform, offers a unique approach to therapeutic development that enables Valo to advance a robust pipeline of candidates across cardiovascular disease, oncology, and neurodegeneration. Founded byFlagship Pioneering and headquartered in Boston, MA, Valo has offices in Lexington, MA, San Francisco, CA, Princeton, NJ, and in Branford, CT. To learn more, visitwww.valohealth.com.

About Koch Disruptive TechnologiesKoch Disruptive Technologies (KDT) is a unique investment firm, focused on empowering founders to create a could-be world. KDT provides a flexible, multi-stage investment approach which includes both traditional venture and growth stages. We work with principled entrepreneurs who are building transformative companies, disrupting the status quo, and creating new platforms. KDT is a subsidiary of Koch Industries, one of the largest privately held companies in the world with $110 billion in revenue and operating in more than 70 countries. KDT helps its partners unlock their full potential by bringing Koch's capabilities and network to them, structuring unique capital solutions, and embracing a long-term, mutual benefit mindset. For more information, visitwww.kochdisrupt.com.

Contacts:

Media Contact:Jennifer Hanley[emailprotected]

Investors:Graeme Bell[emailprotected]

SOURCE Valo Health, LLC

https://www.valohealth.com/

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Valo Health Receives $110 Million In Funding From Koch Disruptive Technologies To Close Series B - PRNewswire

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Fall prevention and mitigation of patient injury if a fall does occur is a critical part of a hospitalized patients plan of care. Having a comprehensive strategy in place to prevent in-hospital falls has grown challenging in recent years. Patients are getting older and sicker, the nursing workforce is aging, and of course, hospitals and caregivers are wrestling with the enormous pressures and limitations created by the pandemic. To work around these obstacles, the healthcare industry must become more aggressive in its approach to fall prevention and improving patient outcomes.

Patient falls continue to be a common adverse event reported in hospitals. Every year, between 700,000 and 1 million people fall while being treated in the hospital. It is also estimated that up to 11,000 U.S. patients die annually due to injuries sustained from a fall during hospitalization.

Not only is the cost of these falls to the healthcare system enormous$20 billion annuallybut the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is no longer reimbursing providers for treating patient injuries resulting from falls in a hospital.

For patients, the long-term effects of falls can be debilitating. Caregivers are also equally impacted. From a personal perspective, during my time working at the bedside on a MedSurg unit, I have personally experienced two patients falling during my watch. It is something I will never forget from an emotional perspective, and how draining it was on both the individual and team morale on the unit. My current clinical work today is in the hope that no other nurses or patients have to endure another patient fall.

Today, the criticality of patients is increasing. Nurses are seeing sicker patients than ever before. Patients are also living longer, with those 65 years and older representing nearly 40 percent of hospitalized adults. Nurse-to-patient ratios have also gotten out of balance, which can lead to fatigue, burn-out, and mistakes. In my experience, on any given night, a Med/Surg nurse could have up to eight patients at one time in his or her care. When you couple this with the fact that the nursing workforce is aging, a potential shortage could also pose big problems. The onset of COVID-19 has also presented its set of challenges.

For nurses, the restrictions that caring for a patient in the COVID bubble has placed on themfrom donning and taking off PPE to the limited interaction they can have with patientsis something very new and hard to navigate. These protocols can leave patients susceptible to falls. Additionally, there are concerning reports that many COVID patients experience delirium, which also elevates the risk level for falls.

There are a number of ways hospitals can address these challenges to help improve patient outcomes.

One of the most important is improving bed technologyincluding standardization and interoperability. One study showed that 79% percent of falls were unassisted. In addition, 85% of falls occurred in the patients room. The problem is many hospitals today use multiple generations of beds, all with varying degrees of technology and options. This makes training on beds much more challenging. Hospitals should consider standardizing their beds to one specific kind, as this helps support a nurses interaction with the bed becoming a hardwired process and promotes easier decision-making. Thankfully, technology has arrived to help achieve these ends.

Stryker, for example, just came out with a new bed, the first of its kind, that can connect wirelessly to any nurse call system and can be used for all acuity levels. Called ProCuity, this intelligent hospital bed not only helps alert nurses if a patient is out of position or has left the bed, it also eliminates difficult tasks like ensuring a nurse call cable is properly plugged in. By streamlining usability, training, and maintenance, technological advancements like this help hospitals make their beds work better for patients and staff.

Another important fall prevention strategy is data analysis. Numbers dont lie and so one of the best ways to ensure a hospitals fall prevention strategy is on track is to routinely monitor and analyze data around fall rates. By determining the cause and type of falls that occur, hospital administrators have a 360-degree view of the issue and can take forward-thinking action to prevent reoccurrence.

Communication is also paramount. When a fall occurs, all appropriate stakeholders in charge of a patients care should conduct post-fall huddles to assess all the factors that contributed to the accident and plan an appropriate mitigation strategy. Effective after-action review may also improve team performance by 20-25%. Likewise, nurses should communicate with their patientswhat I call teach-back education. By asking open-ended questions about their well-being and state, nurses can help identify potential fall risk problems beyond just finding a shaky grab bar in the bathroom.

When it comes to fall prevention, there is no one size-fits-all-plan. But as the pandemic and other healthcare challenges have shown us, we can no longer be reactive in our planning. With better technology, more data, and increased education and communication, we can more quickly reach our desired outcomesimproving the safety of our patients and caregivers.

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Vigilance and Up-to-Date Bed Technology Can Help Reduce In-Hospital Patient Falls - DailyNurse

A Chinese government-linked hacking campaign revealed by Microsoft this week has ramped up rapidly. At least four other distinct hacking groups are now attacking critical flaws in Microsofts email software in a cyber campaign the US government describes as widespread domestic and international exploitation with potential impact on hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide.

Beginning in January 2021, Chinese hackers known as Hafnium began exploiting vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange servers. But since the company publicly revealed the campaign on Tuesday, four more groups have joined in, and the original Chinese hackers have dropped the pretense of stealth and increased the number of attacks theyre carrying out. The growing list of victims includes tens of thousands of US businesses and government offices targeted by the new groups.

There are at least five different clusters of activity that appear to be exploiting the vulnerabilities, says Katie Nickels, who leads an intelligence team at the cybersecurity firm Red Canary that is investigating the hacks. When tracking cyberthreats, intelligence analysts group clusters of hacking activity by the specific techniques, tactics, procedures, machines, people, and other characteristics they observe. Its a way to track the hacking threats they face.

Hafnium is a sophisticated Chinese hacking group that has long run cyber-espionage campaigns against the United States, according to Microsoft. They are an apex predatorexactly the sort that is always followed closely by opportunistic and smart scavengers.

Activity quickly kicked into higher gear once Microsoft made its announcement on Tuesday. But exactly who these hacking groups are, what they want, and how theyre accessing these servers remain unclear. Its possible that the original Hafnium group sold or shared their exploit code or that other hackers reverse-engineered the exploits based on the fixes that Microsoft released, Nickels explains.

The challenge is that this is all so murky and there is so much overlap, Nickels says. What weve seen is that from when Microsoft published about Hafnium, its expanded beyond just Hafnium. Weve seen activity that looks different from tactics, techniques, and procedures from what they reported on.

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Four new hacking groups have joined an ongoing offensive against Microsofts email servers - MIT Technology Review

UPDATED ON MAR 09, 2021 01:45 PM IST

A day before INS Karanj attack submarine is inducted into Indian Navy, the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) conducted the final development test of Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) in Mumbai on Monday night, a major step that will make Indian submarines more lethal. AIP allows a submarine to be submerged for longer periods under water and makes the sub-surface platform more deadly by making it quieter than a nuclear submarine.

The Indian Navy now plans to retrofit all its Kalvari class non-nuclear attack with AIP during their first upgrade, expected around 2023. The 1615 tonne Kalvari class submarine is being built by Mazagon Dockyards Limited in collaboration with French Naval Group and is based on Scorpene design. INS Karanj, third of the class, is expected to be commissioned tomorrow.

The development of AIP technology is a major boost for the Atma Nirbhar Bharat campaign since only the US, France, China, UK and Russia have this key technology. The DRDOs AIP technology is based on a Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell and the last two Kalvari class submarines will be powered by it. The AIP design was tested on land in Mumbai on Monday night, the last of a series of tests.

The AIP or marine propulsion technology allows non-nuclear submarines to operate without access to atmospheric oxygen (through snorkel or surfacing) and augments the diesel-electric propulsion system of attack submarines. This means that the AIP fitted submarine does not have to surface for charging its batteries and remains underwater for long periods. The AIP is retrofitted into existing submarine hulls by adding an additional hull section. The AIP equipped submarines are identified as SSP while classic diesel attack submarines carry the SSK classification.

While the nuclear submarine generates noise due to the ships reactor constantly pumping coolant to maintain temperatures of the engine, the AIP-equipped submarine maintains a lethal silence. The new technology will add to lethality of Indian submarines, which also take advantage of internal refraction in equatorial waters due to differences in temperatures on the surface and within the ocean.

The DRDOs AIP technology has also got a pat in the back from the French, who were in touch with the Indians in the context of Kalvari class manufacturing. Despite urgent requests, the French have decided not to upgrade the Pakistani Agosta 90 B submarines with AIP technology, forcing Islamabad to either go to China or Turkey.

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DRDO develops AIP technology, Indian subs to be more silent and lethal - Hindustan Times