text:
Mailroom Inventory (New)
Black Friday Weekend Sales Lead to 26% Increase in Global Package Scans
Esther Wilamowsky
US online sales on Black Friday weekend (from Thanksgiving Thursday through Cyber Monday) were projected to top a staggering $29 billion this year compared to $23.4 billion last year, according to Adobe Analytics. Once the actual numbers were revealed, Cyber Monday alone reached a staggering $9.4B in e-commerce sales, making it the first $9B+ day in e-commerce history. All of this online spending translates into a lot of packages shipped and received and the effect was felt strongly in mailrooms powered by the PackageX Mailroom App.
The number of inbound packages received by PackageX powered mailrooms increased by 26% from 145,488 to 182,488, across our global customer base, in the two weeks after Thanksgiving as compared to the two weeks before. In the US alone, daily scans, a single scan equivalent to an inbound package, went up 20% from 60,378 to 72,170. Deliveries through the United States Postal Service (USPS) increased by 45% in the same period.
We put together an infographic highlighting some of the holiday season trends across our client network, from University mailrooms, corporate office buildings to residential spaces – take a look at the stats broken down by location and top carriers.
Do these figures pique your interest? With PackageX's intuitive, user-friendly dashboard, our clients have access to their specific data on an extremely granular level. This data is invaluable as it aids the improvement of work-flow operations such as scheduling shifts (for additional help) and planning mailroom procedures. If you're interested in learning more about how to efficiently manage your mailroom or inbound packages or how to access your mailroom data via PackageX Mailroom dashboard, reach out to our sales team (alex.urchenko@packagex.app) or schedule a demo.
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The NCWIT Summit is the world's largest annual convening of change leaders focused on significantly improving diversity and inclusion in computing. Educators, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and social scientists (both men and women) from across industries and disciplines participate in this one-of-a-kind opportunity.
NCWIT is the trusted source for research-based strategies that facilitate reform in computing classes and technical organizations; the Summit sets the stage for NCWIT member representatives, notable field experts, and renowned guests to present and learn about leading-edge practices, to network and form partnerships, and to provide encouragement and inspiration for one another.
We are especially appreciative of our 2019 NCWIT Summit Community Reception Sponsor Amazon.
We would like to give a huge thanks to our 2019 NCWIT Summit Media Partner Facebook.
We are also incredibly grateful for 2019 NCWIT Summit Sponsors Anchor Point Foundation, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Chevron, FedEx, PNC, and Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets.
And, we appreciate Catalyte and Ernst & Young for their additional support.
Sponsorship opportunities for the 2019 NCWIT Summit are available. Please view more information online (PDF), or email summit@ncwit.org.
Looking for the 2018 NCWIT Summit site? You can view it here.
After studying physics at MIT and earning her BS (62) and MSEE (63) at Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science, Lynn joined IBM Research in Yorktown Heights, NY. While working on IBM's Advanced Computing Systems project she made foundational contributions to computer architecture. Sadly, IBM fired Lynn as she underwent gender transition in 1968.
Dr. DiAngelo is Affiliate Associate Professor of Education at the University of Washington. Her area of research is in Whiteness Studies and Critical Discourse Analysis. She is a two-time winner of the Student's Choice Award for Educator of the Year at the University of Washington's School of Social Work. She has numerous publications and books.
Brenda J. Allen is the Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion and Professor of Communication at the University of Colorado Denver and the Anschutz Medical Campus. During her 25+ years in the University of Colorado system, Professor Allen has developed a track record for scholarship, teaching, service, mentorship, and training related to organizational communication, power dynamics, and social identity, with an emphasis on higher education. Dr.
Dr. Maureen Biggers, Co-founder and Executive Director, of the Indiana University Center of Excellence for Women & Technology where she helped launch the Male Advocates and Allies for Equity initiative. She has been active in broadening participation in computing initiatives for more than 15 years.
Enobong Hannah Branch is the Associate Chancellor for Equity & Inclusion and the Chief Diversity Officer for UMass-Amherst as well as an Associate Professor of Sociology. She provides strategic leadership for campus diversity efforts to promote an institutional culture at UMass Amherst that values and supports diversity, equity, and inclusion. Dr. Branch's research focuses on race and gender, work and occupations, and diversity in science.
Jaime Casap is the Chief Education Evangelist at Google. Jaime evangelizes the power and potential of technology as an enabling and supporting tool in pursuit of promoting inquiry-based learning models. Jaime collaborates with school systems, educational organizations, and leaders focused on building innovation into our education policies and practices.
Nicole T. Castro, MA, (she/her) is a community-scholar and biracial woman of color. Working with couples and families, community groups and corporations, Nicole guides difficult conversations, teaching lifelong skills to align intention and impact. She reenvisions consulting and workshop spaces for exploring direct, kind communication that leads to greater self-awareness and interpersonal harmony.
Dr. Leigh Ann DeLyser has spent her career building the K-12 computer science (CS) field. As a managing partner of CSforALL (csforall.org), she oversees programs and strategic planning and supervises research to build support for high quality CS education at all levels.
Sarah T. Dunton is the Director of Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance, a National Science Foundation Broadening Participation in Computing Alliance. Sarah holds a degree in Women's Studies and a M.Ed. in Teacher & Curriculum Studies with a concentration in Learning, Media & Technology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Mary Fairchild brings 15 years of experience in the technology industry, working for companies like Microsoft, aQuantive and now recently F5 Networks, where she led data driven and evidence based practices. She consults with companies looking to build their diversity strategy, utilizing academic research, statistical analysis, and program evaluation techniques. In her current role as Transformation Manager, Mary works across the organization to build the workplace and the workforce of tomorrow.
Jocelyn Garibay is a Program Director at Code2040. At Code2040 Jocelyn has worked across 70 tech companies delivering trainings and consulting around navigating bias, sitting in productive and hard conversations about race, and managing with a racial equity lens.
Dr. Mark Guzdial is a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the College of Engineering and a Professor of Information in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. His books on Media Computation teach programming through creating and manipulating digital media. Media Computation has had a significant impact on retention at adopting institutions. He was the original developer of "Swiki," the first wiki designed for educational use.
Sneha Veeragoudar Harrell, Ph.D., is a Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) whose research fosters transformative computer-based learning experiences for youth under-represented in STEM disciplines. Her research seeks to catalyze youth excitement about computing as a means of empowerment, problem solving, and self-expression. She currently serves as the learning sciences expert on an NSF funded project investigating relations between virtual and physical world social identities in computer science learning.
Maya Israel, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Technology in the School of Teaching and Learning at the University of Florida. She is also the research director at the Creative Technology Research Lab (CTRL; http://ctrl.education.illinois.edu). Dr.
Dr. Tom James is a Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington. His research focuses on the role of sensory systems in decision making and more recently has used alcohol addiction as a model system for understanding problems with decision making. His research has been recognized by the Organization for Human Brain Mapping. In 2014, his mentorship of women was recognized by the Indiana University Center of Excellence for Women in Technology. He is currently heading up the Male Allies and Advocates for Gender Equity program at Indiana University.
Elyse Janish holds her Master's degree in Communication from Syracuse University and will be completing her doctorate in Communication from the University of Colorado Boulder in July 2019. She studies digital culture as a communicative phenomenon, focusing on how issues of power and identity play out in digital communities such as online gaming, Twitter, and more. She has several publications in academic journals and edited volumes, and also works to connect scholars with developers in the game design industry to bridge the academic/industry divide.
Deborah Keyek-Franssen, Ph.D. is a creative educator and thought leader with over two decades of professional experience in information technology and higher education. She began her career at the University of Colorado in 1998, where she served in a variety of positions, including director of academic technology, oversaw strategy for the use, implementation, and evaluation of educational technologies, and managed a team of consultants and technologists.
Dr. Luis A. Leyva is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education in the Peabody College of Education & Human Development at Vanderbilt University. Leyva uses intersectionality, a theoretical perspective and methodological approach from Black feminist thought, to examine how members of historically marginalized groups, including women, students of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community, construct their identities while navigating institutional and interactional contexts of mathematics education as aspiring majors in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
Dr. Kyla McMullen is currently a tenure-track faculty member at the University of Florida's Computer & Information Sciences & Engineering Department. Dr. McMullen has a personal commitment to encouraging women and minorities to pursue careers in computing and other STEM fields. She is the creator of "Beautiful, Black, and Brainy" and "Brilliant is the New Black," which showcase hundreds of exceptional young African Americans who excel in STEM fields and don't fit the typical "scientist" stereotype.
Vicki Mealer-Burke has been recently appointed as Qualcomm's first Chief Diversity Officer. In this role as Vice President & CDO, Vicki brings nearly 20 years of business and operational leadership experience at Qualcomm which uniquely position her to drive the vision, leadership and oversight of inclusion and diversity initiatives across the company.
Dr. Anne Ottenbreit-Leftwich is an Associate Professor of Instructional Systems Technology within the School of Education and an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at Indiana University – Bloomington. Dr. Leftwich's expertise lies in the areas of the design of curriculum resources, the use of technology to support pre-service teacher training, and development/implementation of professional development for teachers and teacher educators. Dr. Leftwich has experience working on large-scale funded projects, including projects supported by the U.S.
Joshua E. Perry (J.D., M.T.S.) is Glaubinger Chair for Undergraduate Leadership and Associate Professor of Business Law and Ethics at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business in Bloomington. He also serves as Faculty Chair of the Undergraduate Program and serves approximately 8000 undergraduate students.
Bobby Schnabel is a Professor of Computer Science at University of Colorado Boulder, External Chair of Computer Science, College of Engineering Faculty Director for Entrepreneurship, and Campus Faculty Director for Computing. He was CEO of ACM from 2015-17, Dean of the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University from 2007-15, and on the computer science faculty at University of Colorado Boulder from 1977-2007.
Lisa is currently leading AT&T's Technology Development Program, which serves as the feeder pool for the organization's future leaders. She is also responsible for AT&T's Technology and Operations Skills Transformation program, including the technology platforms that are enabling the transformation across the company. Prior to her current role, Lisa held a variety of different field and staff roles across various lines of business. Lisa joined AT&T in 1997 as a participant in the Leadership Development Program.
Kimberly E. Vorrath graduated in 1988 with a degree in computer science from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. She is currently the Vice President of OS Programs at Apple. Kim leads the teams responsible for program and project management, power, performance, stability and quality for iOS, OS X and watch OS releases. Kim joined Apple 28 years ago as a college intern and was hired full time upon graduation in 1988. She has since held a number of different roles within Apple, including being one of the first members of the iPhone software team.
Dr. Jeremy A. Magruder Waisome is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Computer & Information Sciences & Engineering Department at the University of Florida (UF) and Project Manager of the National Science Foundation Broadening Participation in Computing Alliance: The Institute for African-American Mentoring in Computing Sciences (iAAMCS). She works in the Human Experience Research Lab under the supervision of Dr. Juan E. Gilbert, where she conducts research on broadening participation in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and computing (STEM+C).
Ilia K. Walsh, M.S.Ed., M.B.A. is the Director of Training and Education at The Asperger/Autism Network (AANE) and has been with AANE since 2012 where she also worked as the Director of Adult Services. She is the parent of two young adults attending college. One of which was diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum at 9 years old. Ilia started her career in IT Training in the Investment Banking industry where she worked for over 10 years and then became a public school educator for another 8 years.
Dr. Telle Whitney served as President and CEO of ABI from 2002-2017. Dr. Whitney has 20 years experience in the semiconductor and telecommunicatins industries. She has held senior technical management positions with Malleable Technologies (now PMC-Sierra) and Actel Corporation, and is a Co-founder of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference.
Lucy Sanders is CEO and Co-founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT).
Lucy has an extensive industry background, having worked in R&D and executive (VP) positions at AT&T Bell Labs, Lucent Bell Labs, and Avaya Labs for over 20 years, where she specialized in systems-level software and solutions (multimedia communication, and customer relationship management). Lucy was awarded the Bell Labs Fellow Award, the highest technical accomplishment bestowed at the company, and she has six patents in the communications technology area.


Got extra egg yolks from another recipe? You're in luck! Here are 17 scrumptious leftover egg yolk recipes. Whether you have 1 egg yolk you need to use or 10, this delicious roundup has something for you.
Welcome to our quarterly roundup! Since we haven't done recipe roundups in a while, I've decided to create 2 for you this week. This first one is a collection of recipes and ways to use leftover egg yolks.
We've all been there, right? A recipe only needs egg whites. What do we do with the egg yolks? The answer is: a lot!
Armed with just 1 egg yolk, you can make Small Batch Strawberry White Chocolate Scones.
Or the dill mayonnaise for this delicious Lemon Dill Shrimp Salad.
There are lots of possibilities if you need to use up those 2 egg yolks. You can make Healthy Eggnog Smoothie – perfect for the holidays!
Or Cacao Nib Muffins with a Dark Chocolate Glaze (always say yes to chocolate!).
How about this adorable Blueberry Brioche? Makes for a lovely start to the day.
Want something savoury for breakfast instead? With 2 egg yolks you can make the chipotle hollandaise for this Easy Chipotle Eggs Benedict.
If you're looking to make traditional hollandaise, here's a Simple 2 Minute Hollandaise Sauce that requires 3 egg yolks.
With 3 egg yolks, you can also make yummy Homemade Mexican Chocolate Pudding. Tastes way better than those you can find at the store!
You can also make this Creamy Smoked Salmon Pasta perfect for brunch, lunch or any time of the day!
Carbonara is another way to use leftover egg yolks. David Rossi's Carbonara Recipe (Copycat) needs 4.
And for dessert, you can make Bruleed Chai-Spiced Pots de Creme. That's a delicious meal right there!
5 egg yolks are all you need to make luscious Irish Cream Crème Brûlée.
Love lemon? Here's a recipe for delicious, oh-so-lemony Quick and Easy Homemade Lemon Curd.
6 egg yolks are a lot of egg yolks and we don't ever want them to go to waste! You can make Prophetenkuchen – German Prophet Cake.
Or make someone's day by baking this bright and cheerful Yellow Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Ganache Frosting.
If you find yourself with 10 egg yolks, fear not. You can make this Smooth & Creamy Leche Flan Recipe (Filipino Crème Caramel).
Add 1 more yolk and you can make this beautiful Rose Curd and White Peach Tart.
So you see, whatever amount of egg yolks you have leftover, there are lots of delicious ways to use them. Hope you found inspiration here. Let's not waste those gorgeous, yellow egg yolks ever again!
What's your favourite way to use those leftover egg yolks? I'd love to hear from you in the comments section below.
Check back in on Wednesday – it's going to be a collection of recipes using leftover egg whites!
Such a great roundup – I am drooling over those chipotle eggs benedict! Thanks for including my smoked salmon pasta in this awesome list!
Hi Norma Jean, it is a little challenging to find a recipe that needs exactly 8 egg yolks. What you can do is double a recipe that uses 4? Or weigh the egg yolks…you might find some recipes that go by weight. Here's a great reference: https://www.eggs.ca/eggs101/view/4/all-about-the-egg Hope it helps!
All these recipes look delicious but I have to give that Lemon Curd a try as soon as possible.
These all look delicious especially that muffin with the glaze! Who would have thought you could make all these things with a left over egg yolk? Awesome.
Those all look so delicious! Thank you for including my eggnog smoothie!
Such a timely post! I actually have 10 yolks sitting in my fridge – leftovers from making swiss meringue buttercream! Been thinking of how to use it aside from the leche flan. Enjoy your vacation!!
Hi Trish! Thanks we came back just before thanksgiving 🙂 Hope you had a lovely one!
Oh, you have some excellent recipe choices here and now my mouth is watering! I love everything blueberry, so my favorite (if I could even choose one) would be the blueberry brioche!
All of those things look amazing. I didn't realize you could do so much with just some good yolks. I really like that dill mayonnaise in that shrimp salad.
You little clever cloggs, this egg yolk recipes are simply divine and a great way on to not waste anything.
As a fitness athlete, I only consume egg white and this is so amazing that we can use these leftover egg yolks in so many other recipes, all recipes look delicious, I'm surely gonna try these recipes.
Very useful! Particularly because I don't like waste so it's great to have ideas on what to use or get rid of.
Oh wow! Lots of great recipes to try for the next few weeks. I will be busy in the kitchen. I really love the Small Batch Strawberry White Chocolate Scones. They look amazing.
That's something really interesting..So many ways to use the egg yolk , wow! Loved that smoothie specially, my son would love having it for sure.
Very handy post! I always have leftover yolks after baking a pavlova and I never want to have to throw them out. Thanks!
What a great idea for a post! I often have egg yolks left over from baking and never know what to do with them!
These are great recipes! My hubby loves creme brulee so I'm going to try making the Irish Cream Crème Brûlée. It look like an easy recipe to follow. Love all the photos!
So many delicious options! I wouldn't mind making some delicious Mexican chocolate pudding sometime!
What a great list of ways to use up egg yolks. I usually cook mine to give to my dogs as a little treat.
I've saved this because I never know what to do with leftover egg yolks! Whenever I make custard and use a ton of egg yolks, I make spicy scrambled egg whites, but whenever I make anything that requires egg whites I just throw away the yolks and it feels like such a waste!
Top of the list is always leche flan! I had 12 egg yolks to ùse up last week and I made yema cake which needed 12 egg yolks for the icing. Carbonara is also there, as well as ice cream.
I don't bake enough to ever have left-over yolks. But this is a great list of ideas for those who do!
We always have leftover egg yolks from making desserts. These are really great ideas. Thanks for sharing!
I had no idea there were so manyt hings you could do with leftover egg yolks! What ag reat roundup of recipes!
I would make the creamy salmon pasta and the blueberry brioche from this list! I dont often bake so dont know any recipes of my own for using up egg yolks.


Back in 2008 I bought the Apple iPhone 2. I enjoyed it for a few years, until the Samsung Galaxy Note 1 came out in 2011 with its bigger screen, and I enjoyed that more. So I switched over to it in 2012 and quickly fell in love with its camera and image quality. So I sold my DSLR and just focused on enjoying what the phone could do for me.
When the iPhone 6 Plus came out, I laughed, because I remember all the Apple fanboys – and Steve Jobs – saying that Apple would NEVER have a phone with a large screen. Only stupid people used such phones, they exclaimed with much laughter. But, since most of the people in the world are stupid AND buy iPhones, Apple had to eventually cater to market demand and bring out the large screen too. I was interested in what the iPhone might be able to do for me, but the Samsung Galaxy Note still had better quality screens, cameras and images, and that's what I was mostly interested in, so I stayed with the Note.
But when the iPhone 7 Plus was introduced with a lot of great features in iOS 10 and a dual camera setup to simulate some DSLR photography, I was wondering if the quality of camera and photos would finally exceed Samsung's newest Note 7. My research showed that the photos would be better, and so I made the decision to swap.
I haven't been disappointed. Here's a sample of one of the photos I took with the iPhone, only a day after I got it.
But about the apps… It took a little getting used to some of the different methods of using apps. Unlike Android apps that have easily accessible settings in the apps themselves, you have to go hunting for app settings in the Apple Settings. And while many Android apps were originally Apple apps that were ported over to Android and therefore run better on an iPhone, there were a few Android apps that I enjoyed using which were ported over to Apple, and they just don't run as well… Swype for Android was awesome! Swype for iOS not so much. Where Android allows you to place your text cursor wherever you place your finger, Apple doesn't. It'll be flawed when placing your cursor within a paragraph, and only place itself at the beginning or end of a word that you've pressed your finger on. You can fine tune where the cursor goes by pressing and using a magnifying glass to move the cursor to any other point within a word or the paragraph, but it's very fiddly compared to Android.
Speaking of writing, I only just tried to write this blog post with WordPress for iOS last night. After I spent half an hour writing it out, I then tried publishing it, only to discover that there were some issues between the app and self-hosted WordPress sites, which you don't get any warning about until after you get the issue. Which prevented me from saving or publishing what I'd written. Something about incompatible XML feeds between the blog and the app. The solution was to use a default WordPress theme on the blog. Not acceptable. So I deleted the app. A little disappointed about that, considering the WordPress for Android app works perfectly regardless of blog theme.
But those are my only complaints so far. Minor compared to the rest of the value that the phone gives me, which is mainly focused on what it can do for me with the camera.
I wonder if I can use the iPhone as part of a photography business….


text:
Sherritt adds Nsure as part of WebSphere portal project
Sarah Lysecki
Published: March 22nd, 2005
SALT LAKE CITY — A Canadian diversified resource company is in the process of rolling out a Novell Inc. identity management product as part of a portal project to improve security and manageability of its network.
Toronto-based Sherritt International Corp., which is involved in the production of thermal coal, nickel, cobalt, oil and electricity, will launch the first phase of an IBM WebSphere portal later this week. At this stage, it will serve as an internal portal for the company's four business units.
These include the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, Nickel production facilities in Saskatchewan as well as oil and gas and power facilities in Calgary. The portal will eventually be extended to redesign the company's Web site.
As part of the project, Sherritt is implementing Novell Nsure identity management software across the organization to integrate employee identities. It is also using Novell eDirectory to set up and manage a company user directory.
"We're trying to capitalize in single sign-on," said Sherritt CIO Brad Holub. "We have users in multiple sources. (Nsure) is one of the first tools that can manage that effectively."
Through the internal portal, Sherritt employees will have access to human resources information, operational metrics on the production side of the business, reporting and monitoring and document sharing capabilities. The portal may also eventually be integrated with office e-mail, said Holub.
Identity management is one of the predominant themes at this year's BrainShare conference, which attracted approximately 6,000 attendees from 50 countries. On Monday, Novell announced two new integrated application and identity platforms based on industry standards and open source — Application Services Foundation (ASF) and Identity Services Foundation (ISF).
At the conference's opening keynote, company chairman and CEO Jack Messman said the completion of Novell's acquisition of Suse Linux last year has allowed it to focus on two key areas: Linux and identity.
Despite the fact that Novell boasts over 10 million desktops worldwide are running on Linux, only two per cent of Canadian businesses are currently running the Linux OS on their desktops, according to IDC Canada.
"Fifty-eight per cent of those companies have less than 10 per cent of Linux deployed on their desktops," said Dave Senf, program manager at IDC Canada.
Security remains the single most important issue for chief information officers, said Messman.
"Businesses are struggling to manage the what, how and who of information delivery," he said. "People believe identity is about people and passwords. Identity-driven computing is Novell's strategy to enable organizations to drive greater leverage from all of their IT assets."
Recent cases of security breaches in the U.S. such as ChoicePoint and, more recently, Lexis-Nexis, highlight the need for companies to have identities for everything across their organization, Messman said in an interview with ITBusiness.ca Monday.
"That's what it's all about," Messman said in reference to the above cases. "Just because a person has access doesn't mean that (he or she) can see certain data. (He or she) has to have the right credentials."
Messman added Novell doesn't view Microsoft as a competitor in this space yet, as its identity management solution lacks a directory, which he said is a key part of Novell's strategy.
Sherritt is also looking to migrate off its Windows NT environment to a combination of Novell and Linux platforms. The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board — with which Sherritt partnered in 2001 to form Luscar Energy Partnership to acquire coal producer Luscar Ltd. — is a long-time Novell customer and recently upgraded to NetWare 6.5.
Holub is currently working on a project proposal to implement the recently released Novell Open Enterprise Server (OES) across the organization later this year. OES provides users a suite of services including application, file and storage and management based on both NetWare and Suse Linux platforms.
Because of the nature of Sherritt's business, which grows by acquiring companies, Holub said it's important for the company's IT infrastructure to remain flexible and adaptable.
"With open standards you're not locked into a single vendor," said Holub. "With Microsoft Active Directory, we were feeling like we were getting painted into a corner."
In putting together the proposal for this project, which Holub expects to present to management by early next quarter, he expects a few initial hurdles in getting it approved. These include assuring management that there will be the necessary vendor support and that Novell and Linux can deliver a reliable infrastructure.
"ID management is easy to get approval on," said Holub. "We have to convince senior management that the support will be there."
Novell sets sights on 'hardening' Linux for the data centre
Spam by the numbers

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Unhappy ex-spouses hoping to get their divorce settlements reviewed following a landmark judgement last month are being urged to check their facts first.
It was predicted that the Supreme Court rulings in the cases of Alison Sharland and Varsha Gohil would open the floodgates to thousands of couples wanting to revisit agreements made under a financial consent order, where one party had deliberately concealed their true financial worth during divorce proceedings.
In both cases - Sharland v Sharland and Gohil v Gohil - the Supreme Court gave the former wives the right to re-open their divorce settlements on the grounds of fraud, which the two women claimed had led them to accept far lower financial settlements than they otherwise would have done.
Critical to proving misrepresentation will be showing that the ex-spouse lied or deliberately distorted their position when they made the original financial disclosure. This statement will have set out what each declared to be a full and accurate list of their assets and liabilities at that point, and will be the basis for seeing whether either party has tried to make themselves appear less well off. It won't be enough for an unhappy ex-spouse to point to an improved financial position without evidence.
In terms of procedure, both judgements strongly suggest that applications to reopen divorce settlements on grounds of fraud should be made to the family court, which has power to set aside its own financial orders - and not by appeal, or by commencing a new action.
"The message from the Sharland and Gohil judgements is the fundamental principle that 'fraud unravels all', but before anyone rushes to take their former spouse back to court, they need to be sure as to whether they have just a grumbling dissatisfaction or legitimate grounds.
An example could be where the value of property or a company has increased significantly. In many cases, it can be very hard to pinpoint whether this was due to deliberate misrepresentation or is simply the result of an unexpectedly good performance on the part of the asset. Demonstrating fraudulent intent will be clearer cut if someone denied owning a particular asset at the time, or had received an inheritance which they didn't declare.
Whether or not Mrs Sharland and Mrs Gohil reach a different financial settlement is difficult to predict, but what is clear is that in cases of fraud such as this, an agreed financial settlement will be set aside. Full financial disclosure is a duty to the Court and the message to anyone currently facing divorce is to recognise that you must be open and honest. You otherwise risk having the case reopened in future and if that were to happen, you would be the one bearing the costs."


text:
\section{The Bureau's Re-identification Attack}
\label{sec:bureau}

The Bureau's re-identification attack, as well as our non-attack, combine \emph{prior knowledge} with \emph{released data} to infer the race and ethnicity of a \emph{target} individual (the census respondent). Table~\ref{tab:overview} summarizes both attacks.

The re-identification attack works as follows (Figure~\ref{fig:census}):
\begin{enumerate}
    \item Derive a set of constraints from the swap-protected release (per block).
    \item Use a constraint solver to reconstruct the original data per block. The resulting reconstructed records are pseudonymous (not linked to an identified person).
    \item Link the reconstructed records to externally-derived prior knowledge data on attributes shared by the reconstructed data and the prior knowledge data. This serves to identify the persons in the reconstructed data.
    \item Infer the unknown attributes from the so-identified reconstructed data.
\end{enumerate}

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.85\linewidth]{census}
\caption{Bureau's re-identification attack.}
\label{fig:census}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

A good overview of the re-identification attack and its results can be found in Abowd~\cite{fair-lines-lawsuit}. A general description of the constraint solver approach can be found in Garfinkel et al.~\cite{garfinkel2018understanding}. We refer the interested reader to these documents, and do not summarize them here.

In the attack demonstrated by the Bureau, the reconstructed data consisted of attributes \emph{block, age, sex, race, and ethnicity}. Blocks are geographical areas ranging from zero persons to several thousand persons. There are 6M blocks in the USA. There are two ethnicity values, \emph{Hispanic} and \emph{Not Hispanic}. There are 63 race values. The values are built from six basic categories (\emph{white, black, asian, native, island, and other}), either individually or in combinations (mixed race). The majority of race values, however, are white, black, or asain. In total there are 126 race/ethnicity combinations.

The Bureau ran the attack twice using two different sources of prior knowledge. One source consists of commercially-available data, and can therefore be run by anybody. The accuracy of the commercial data is questionable, leading to some uncertainty as to whether any lack of attack effectiveness is due to errors in reconstruction or errors in the prior knowledge. The second source consists of the Bureau's own internal data, and is therefore a perfect match. This represents the worst-case scenario. For the purpose of comparing our non-attack with the Bureau's re-identification attack, we focus only on these worst-case results. This second internal source is referred to as CEF (Census Edited File) in Abowd\cite{fair-lines-lawsuit}.

A reconstructed record is correct when its name, address, age (within one year), sex, race, and ethnicity match with a record in the Bureau's internal data.

Abowd\cite{fair-lines-lawsuit} provides measures of \emph{precision} and \emph{recall}.  Precision is defined as the percentage of correct records to linked records, and we use this definition as well (i.e. in Table~\ref{tab:overview} and Figure~\ref{fig:precision_per_bin}). Abowd's recall is defined as the percentage of correct reconstructed records to all prior knowledge records. This definition doesn't make sense to us because the attacker does not know whether a reconstructed record is correct or not, and therefore has no basis on whether to make a prediction or not. We therefore use a different measure of recall: the fraction of linked records to total prior knowledge records. This definition is used in Table~\ref{tab:overview}.

There are 279,179,329 prior knowledge records (Abowd's Table 2, column \emph{``Records with PIK, Block, Sex, and Age''}, row \emph{``CEF''}). Abowd's Table 6 gives the number of linked records (column \emph{``Putative Re-identifications (Source: CEF)''}) and the number of correct records (column \emph{``Confirmed Re-identifications (Source CEF)''}) for each binned block size as well as for all blocks taken together. Abowd's Table 6 provides the precision measures. The recall measures can be computed by dividing the putative re-identifications by the total prior knowledge records.

Three of the precision and recall values are given in (this paper's) Table~\ref{tab:overview}. One is for all blocks, and the other two are for the block sizes with the highest precision.

\subsection*{Abstract}

\input{abstract}

\input{intro}

\input{bureau}

\input{inference}

\input{conclusions}

\bibliographystyle{abbrv}

\section{Discussion and Conclusion}
\label{sec:conclude}

In this paper, we show that the TopDown Algorithm (TDA) used by the US Census Bureau for the 2020 census in no way prevents attackers from inferring race and ethnicity with high accuracy for a substantial portion of census respondents. Nor should it: the purpose of the data is to allow this kind of inference so long as doing so does not violate individual privacy.

It is important to point out that the Bureau doesn't use inference as its measure of privacy. In Abowd\cite{fair-lines-lawsuit}, two measures of privacy are given, neither of which is inference.

The first measure is simply the fraction of correctly reconstructed records. Referring to Figure~\ref{fig:census}, this would be the fraction of reconstructed records that match the original census records on block, age, sex, race, and ethnicity.

The first seven pages of Abowd\cite{fair-lines-lawsuit} pertain to the reconstruction measure. These seven pages conclude with:

\begin{quote}
\emph{Consequently, the new technology-enabled possibility of accurately reconstructing HDF microdata from the published tabular summaries and the fact that those reconstructed data do not meet the disclosure avoidance standards established at the time for microdata products derived from the HDF demonstrate that the swapping methodology as implemented for the 2010 Census no longer meets the acceptable disclosure risk standards established when that swapping mechanism was selected for the 2010 Census.}
\end{quote}

In other words, the mere ability to reconstruct with some level of success (see Abowd's Table 1), \emph{whether or not the reconstructed records can be matched to named persons}, is the \emph{only} criteria required by the Bureau.

Nevertheless, the Bureau recognizes the importance of being able to link reconstructed records with named persons, and so the subsequent 12 pages of Abowd\cite{fair-lines-lawsuit} focus on the second measure, that of re-identification. This measures the fraction of reconstructed records that can be successfully linked to prior knowledge of named persons. Referring again to Figure~\ref{fig:census}, this is the box labeled ``Link on age, sex, block/address''.

Strictly speaking, this re-identification measures the ability to identify name, address, age, sex, race, and ethnicity with some level of success. Abowd\cite{fair-lines-lawsuit} reports that the Bureau finds that this also fails its criteria for privacy:

\begin{quote}
\emph{The Data Stewardship Executive Policy Committee (DSEP) determined that the simulated attack success rates in Table 6 were unacceptable for the 2020 Census. Decennial census data protected by the 2010 disclosure avoidance software is no longer safe to release.}
\end{quote}

Although Abowd\cite{fair-lines-lawsuit} never uses the word `infer', given that re-identification requires prior knowledge of name, age, sex, and address, it seems perfectly reasonable to describe the re-identification as inferring race and ethnicity from name, age, sex, and address. The Bureau is implicitly saying that this is not acceptable. On the other hand, they are saying that it is ok to infer race and ethnicity from address, because they very intentionally release data designed to do this.

\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=0.6\linewidth]{cartoon}
\end{center}

There are perhaps three possible responses to this apparent contradiction:

\begin{enumerate}
    \item Re-identification using prior knowledge and inference using the same or less prior knowledge are different and can't be compared.
    \item It is not this specific re-identification per se that is a problem, but the fact that re-identification can happen in general.
    \item The re-identification doesn't really matter, since in any event the reconstruction alone failed the privacy criteria.
\end{enumerate}

The first seems non-sensical.

Regarding the second, it would be helpful if the Bureau identified cases of re-identification that revealed substantially more information than what the data release is supposed to reveal (the privacy baseline).

Regarding the third, Ruggles et al.~\cite{ruggles2021role} provide evidence that even the Bureau's reconstruction reveals nothing more than the privacy baseline. In their demonstration, Ruggles et al. used the following statistical information as their baseline (taken from the 2010 census):

\begin{enumerate}
\item The national distributions of ages, sexes, and block sizes.
\item The fact that 78\% of individuals on average have the majority race/ethnicity of their block.
\end{enumerate}

Armed with only this knowledge, Ruggles et al. built 10000 synthetic blocks by randomly assigning block size according to the national distribution, and then randomly assigning individuals to the blocks with age and sex following the national distributions. They then mimicked reconstruction of the synthetic blocks by fresh random assignments age and sex following the national distributions. Finally, they assumed that on average the race and ethnicity would be correct 78\% of the time.

The result is that on average 41\% of records matched on all five attributes (block, age, sex, race, and ethnicity), compared to 45\% for the Bureau's attack (using commercially obtained name, age, sex, and address).

We suspect that the Ruggles random reconstruction could perform substantially better by taking per-block rather than national age and sex distributions into account.

In conclusion, we believe that the Bureau has not adequately demonstrated a meaningful privacy threat against the 2010 swapping method. The threat may exist, but has not been demonstrated. We also believe that the criteria used by the Bureau to measure privacy is flawed in that it does not take baseline privacy into account. This is demonstrated both by this paper and by Ruggles et al.~\cite{ruggles2021role}.
\section{Our Simple Inference Non-attack}
\label{sec:inference}

Our inference mechanism (non-attack) requires only the street address of the target individual as prior knowledge. The information needed to link street address to census block is public information\footnote{For instance \href{https://geocoding.geo.census.gov}{https://geocoding.geo.census.gov}}.

To infer a person's race and ethnicity, we simply look up the \emph{majority} race and ethnicity for the person's census block, and infer that this is the race/ethnicity of the person. The majority race/ethnicity for a given block is that with the highest count of all 126 race/ethnicity values.

We define \emph{precision} as the majority race/ethnicity count divided by the block count. This is simply the statistical probability that any given person in a block indeed has the majority race/ethnicity.

To measure precision, we use the 2010 swap-protected release as the ground truth. This is not a perfect ground truth, but we believe that it is close enough for our purpose, which is merely to show that the Bureau's re-identification attack and our simple inference non-attack are in the same ballpark.

In the 2010 swap-protected release, the block count is an exact count (not noisy, see paragraph 37 of Abowd\cite{fair-lines-lawsuit}). Because of swapping, race/ethnicity counts may not be exact, but we assume that the majority race/ethnicity count is almost always exact. This is because swapping generally occurs with households that are unique, i.e. those with rarer race/ethnicities. Our non-attack depends only on the count of the majority race/ethnicity, which is less prone to distortion from swapping. Note that the exact parameters for swapping are not published~\cite{census2019legacy} so we are not certain of this assumption.

The block-level 2010 swap-protected and TDA-protected releases were compiled into a single table\footnote{\href{https://www.nhgis.org/privacy-protected-2010-census-demonstration-data}{https://www.nhgis.org/privacy-protected-2010-census-demonstration-data}, Vintage 2021-06-08.} by IPUM NHGIS (National Historical Geographic Information System). The block-level data is available as per-state tables, so we merged the tables for all states plus DC and Puerto Rico for our measure. We measured only voting-age (over 18 years) counts to better compare with the Bureau's attack, which also uses voting age data (paragraph 5 from Abowd\cite{fair-lines-lawsuit}).

Our procedure for measuring per-block precision goes as follows:

\begin{enumerate}
\item Find the block's majority race/ethnicity $MR_{TDA}$ from the TDA-protected data (the race/ethnicity with the highest count).
\item Set the majority count $MC_{GT}$ as the count for race/ethnicity $MR_{TDA}$ from the swap-protected data (ground truth).
\item If $MC_{GT} < 5$, set precision as zero (see Section~\ref{sec:threshold}).
\item Otherwise, set the block count $BC_{GT}$ as that of the swap-protected data (ground truth).
\item Set precision as $MC_{GT}/BC_{GT}$.
\end{enumerate}

In most cases, the TDA-protected data and the swap-protected data have the same majority race/ethnicity ($MR_{TDA} = MR_{SWAP}$). In this case, there is no precision penalty incurred by the noise from TDA. The majority race/ethnicity is different in blocks where the majority race/ethnicity and the second race/ethnicity have similar counts. In these cases, the noise from TDA can be enough to promote the second race/ethnicity to the majority. The precision penalty in these cases, however, is relatively small since the counts are not very different.

For example, suppose that the ground-truth count for the majority race/ethnicity for a block with 100 persons is 51, and for the second race/ethnicity is 49. However, the noise from TDA causes the second race/ethnicity to be the majority. In this case, the precision for TDA will be 49\% instead of the correct 51\% --- the precision penalty paid for the noise is relatively small.

The \emph{recall} for a given precision is measured as the fraction of records with the given precision or better for blocks where there are at least 5 persons with the majority race/ethnicity. Table~\ref{tab:overview} gives several illustrative precision/recall values.

Figure~\ref{fig:precision_cdf} is a CDF showing the precision of all records for our non-attack executed on both the TDA-protected and swap-protected releases. A precision of zero is conservatively assigned when the associated block has fewer than 5 persons with the majority race. The precision of the non-attack on the swap-protected data is virtually identical to that of the TDA-protected data. In other words, the TDA protection does not affect the ability to (statistically) infer peoples' race and ethnicity. Nor should it: the purpose of the census data is to make just this kind of inference.

Also shown in Figure~\ref{fig:precision_cdf} are the precision measures taken from Abowd\cite{fair-lines-lawsuit}. Each point represents a different range of block sizes. Prior-knowledge records without a match among the reconstructed records are assigned a precision of zero. From Figure~\ref{fig:precision_cdf} we see that simple inference is substantially more effective than the Bureau's re-identification.

The race/ethnicity of a substantial fraction of the population (11\%) can be inferred with virtually 100\% precision. This is for the simple reason that many blocks have only a single race/ethnicity. Again, the purpose of the census data is to be able to make these inferences.

Note that this result is supported by Kenny et al.~\cite{kenny2021use}, which also predicts individual race and ethnicity, but additionally uses analysis of names to help predict race and ethnicity. Kenny et al. found that TDA (using versions with more noise than the final version we tested) did not degrade the quality of these predictions.

Figure~\ref{fig:precision_per_bin} shows the non-attack precision per block size group (1-9 persons, 10-49 persons etc.). This figure shows that the noise of TDA substantially distorts the data for the smallest blocks (9 or fewer persons), but not for blocks larger than that. We assume that the near-perfect precision measure for the swap-protected data for the smallest blocks is because small blocks tend to be very homogeneous, and because swapping removes what little non-homogeneity remains. Note in particular that the relative distortion due to swapping is greater for small blocks. As such, the near-perfect precision measure for small blocks for swap-protected data does not accurately reflect reality. In other words, it would not be correct to conclude from this figure that swapping fails to protect privacy for small blocks.

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{precision_per_bin}
\caption{Non-attack precision by block size for TDA-protected and swap-protected releases.}
\label{fig:precision_per_bin}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

Figure~\ref{fig:error_per_bin} shows the absolute error between swap-protected and TDA-protected counts. Most of the comparisons are for the majority race/ethnicity. When the two releases have different majority race/ethnicity, the comparison uses the majority race of the TDA-protected data. The error is relatively small, less than plus or minus 10 in most cases. The standard deviation in error for the smallest blocks is 2.8, and 4.0 for the largest blocks. This supports the observation that most of the loss of precision occurs for the smallest blocks. We don't know enough about TDA or swapping to understand why the median error is greater than zero, or why the range of error increases with larger blocks.

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{error_per_bin}
\caption{Absolute error in count introduced by TDA noise between swap-protected and TDA-protected data for the same race/ethnicity in each block. Measured as TDA-count minus swap-count.}
\label{fig:error_per_bin}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\subsection{Effect of majority race/ethnicity threshold}
\label{sec:threshold}

In our non-attack, we ignore blocks where the majority race/ethnicity has fewer than 5 persons. The idea here is that a group of 5 persons is a reasonable privacy threshold. In other words, revealing that there are at least 5 persons with a given race and ethnicity does not unduly compromise the privacy of those 5 persons since they are not race/ethnicity uniques. The measures given in Table~\ref{tab:overview} and Figure~\ref{fig:precision_cdf} use this threshold.

The choice of 5 is our own, and others may feel that a larger threshold is required, or that a smaller threshold is adequate. We therefore give the cumulative distribution of precision for several different thresholds in Figure~\ref{fig:thresholds}. Note that even with a threshold of 20, a substantial fraction of inferences have 100\% precision.

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{precision_cdf_by_maj_count}
\caption{CDF of precision for our non-attack for different thresholds for the number of persons with the majority race/ethnicity. Blocks with fewer than the threshold number of persons are conservatively assigned a precision of zero. For comparison, the precision for the Bureau's re-identification attack on the prior swap mechanism is also shown.}
\label{fig:thresholds}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

\section{Introduction}
\label{sec:intro}

The US Census Bureau releases privacy-protected statistics from the decennial census. In past decades, this data was protected using aggregation and swapping: occasionally exchanging an individual response from one geographic area, or block, with that in another block.

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{precision_thresh5_cdf}
\caption{CDF of precision for our simple inference ``non-attack'' run on the US Census Bureau's new disclosure protection mechanism (TDA) as well as the Bureau's prior mechanism (Swap). For comparison, the precision for the Bureau's re-identification attack on the prior swap mechanism is also shown. Points to the lower-right mean a more effective ``attack''.}
\label{fig:precision_cdf}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

In 2019, the US Census Bureau reported on a new re-identification attack, developed by the Bureau, against these traditional \emph{swap-protected} data releases~\cite{abowd-2019-staring}. The attack was demonstrated on the 2010 release. The Bureau considered the attack serious enough that they developed a new privacy protection method. Called the Top-Down Algorithm (TDA), the new method uses aggregation and noise addition: perturbing counts with random noise from a normal distribution~\cite{census-disclosure-avoidance}. The 2020 census release is \emph{TDA-protected}.

The Bureau also prepared a TDA-protected release of the 2010 census so that stakeholders could evaluate data quality\footnote{
\href{https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/decade/2020/planning-management/process/disclosure-avoidance/2020-das-development.html}{https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/decade/2020/planning-management/process/disclosure-avoidance/2020-das-development.html}
}.

The specific re-identification attack demonstrated by the Bureau has two parts. First they reconstruct the original data from the swap-protected data. The reconstructed attributes are block, age, sex, race, and ethnicity (Hispanic or not). Next they link externally-derived data (address, age, and sex) with the reconstructed data to infer race and ethnicity of the re-identified respondents.  The re-identification attack achieved 75\% precision (75\% of race/ethnicity inferences were correct assuming correct prior knowledge).

This paper demonstrates that race/ethnicity inferences with \emph{better precision and recall} can be made against the 2010 \emph{TDA-protected release} using \emph{less prior knowledge} (only address instead of address, age, and sex). Our demonstration yields better than 95\% precision for 23\% of respondents, and virtually 100\% precision for 11\% of respondents (see Table~\ref{tab:overview}).

\begin{table*}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{r|ll}
  \toprule
    & Bureau's re-identification attack & Our simple inference non-attack \\
  \midrule
  Released data  & 2010 swap-protected release & 2010 TDA-protected release \\
  Prior knowledge & Address, age, sex & Address \\
  Inferred information & Race and ethnicity & Race and ethnicity \\
  Linking attributes & Address/block, age, sex & Address/block \\
  Mechanism & Constraint-solver reconstruction & Simple table lookup \\
  Ground truth & Census' internal raw data & 2010 swap-protected release \\
  \midrule
  Precision/Recall (block size) & P=75\%, R=85\% (all) & P=75\%, R=98\% \\
     & P=92\%, R=17\%  (10-49) & P$>$=95\%, R=23\% \\
     & P=97\%, R=1.5\% (1-9) & P=100\%, R=11\% \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabular}
  \caption{Summary of the Bureau's attack and our simple inference non-attack. The reported precision and recall for the re-identification attack are for all blocks, blocks with between 10 and 49 respondents, and blocks with between 1 and 9 respondents respectively. The reported precision and recall for the non-attack are limited to blocks where the majority race has at least 5 persons.
  }
  \label{tab:overview}
\end{table*}

Our demonstration operates by merely predicting that the race/ethnicity of any given respondent is that of the majority race for the corresponding block\footnote{An idea borrowed from Ruggles et al.~\cite{ruggles2021role}.}. In this sense, our demonstration is not an attack at all. Rather, it simply utilizes the statistical inferences that census data is supposed to enable. As such, we refer to our demonstration as a simple inference \emph{non-attack}

It is important to note that this does \textbf{NOT} mean that TDA is not private. Rather, it means that the Bureau's criteria for measuring privacy leads to an \emph{incorrect interpretation} of the privacy implications of their re-identification attack. The Bureau's interpretation is overly pessimistic, and should not be used to as evidence that the 2010 census needs stronger protections.

One way to understand the Bureau's mistake is with the following analogy. Suppose we wanted to measure deaths due to COVID in 2021. One approach might be to simply count all deaths in 2021 and attribute them to COVID. This is obviously nonsense, since most people will have died for other reasons. A better approach would be to compute the expected number of deaths in 2021 by looking at prior years, and assume that the deaths \emph{in excess of this baseline} in 2021 are due to COVID.

The Bureau failed to take into account any kind of \emph{privacy baseline}, specifically the intentional and legitimate release of statistical information about groups of individuals. Our non-attack demonstrates this by showing that the inference of race and ethnicity on the TDA-protected release exceeds that of their own attack.

Section~\ref{sec:bureau} describes the Bureau's re-identification attack in more detail. Section~\ref{sec:inference} describes our non-attack. Section~\ref{sec:conclude} explores the reasons why the Bureau's privacy criteria lead to misinterpretation of the re-identification attack.

The code and data for our non-attack may be found at~\href{https://gitlab.mpi-sws.org/francis/census-misinterpretation}{https://gitlab.mpi-sws.org/francis/census-misinterpretation}.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
Complex certification and guaranteed safe product: Nizhnekamskneftekhim preparing for antiseptic production
An experimental batch of Nizhnekamskneftekhim's disinfectants is being tested at the Research Institute of Disinfection
Photo: photo courtesy of Nizhnekamskneftekhim PJSC
The city-forming enterprise Nizhnekamskneftekhim has released a trial batch of the important in the conditions of the pandemic antimicrobial disinfectant. The products that meet the recommendations of the world health organization were developed by the staff of the scientific and technological centre in the shortest possible time.
Killing disease-causing microbes
Hand sanitizer, or sanitizer, is a type of disinfectant. It is used most often by doctors to prevent the transmission of pathogens, as well as to comply with basic rules of hand hygiene in places where the washbasin and soap are not available. A few drops of this product is enough to kill pathogenic microbes on the skin of the hands.
The scientific and technological centre of Nizhnekamskneftekhim together with the production department of the company developed a recipe for antiseptic manufacturing. According to the head of the production department of the enterprise, Pyotr Tokarev, the employees first studied a large volume of scientific and medical documentation.
According to the head of the production department of the enterprise, Peter Tokarev, employees first studied a large volume of scientific and medical documentation
"Life makes its own adjustments to everything, including the production programme. It is not the first time Nizhnekamskneftekhim has faced situations when it needs to rebuild itself on the move. The company's management set the task to develop a technology for developing its own disinfectant, which is so popular and necessary today, as soon as possible. The formulations of antiseptics recommended by the World Health Organization have been selected," said Pyotr Tokarev.
As a result, the antibacterial action of the antiseptic of Nizhnekamskneftekhim meets all the requirements of the WHO. "The specialists of our centre have developed three recipes. To date, we are working with documentation. In the near future, I think our product will see the light," said Rinat Gilmullin, the director of Nizhnekamskneftekhim's Reasearch and Development Centre.
Nizhnekamskneftekhim's antiseptic meets all the requirements of the WHO
The trial batch has already proved its effectiveness
Nizhnekamskneftekhim will start the industrial production of antiseptics after it obtains all the permits. The trial batch of products was produced on the basis of the experimental industrial shop, on the line for the production of hydrocarbons and their compounds. Equipment for the production of their own antiseptic did not have to be purchased, it was just enough to make adjustments to the existing one.
"It was a team work, so we have managed to develop the product in a short time. All the equipment was practically available, only one pump was added. And this accelerated the process. Let's hope that the full production of the industrial batch will start very quickly," said Svetlana Ipkeeva, design engineer at Nizhnekamskneftekhim.
The trial batch of products was produced on the basis of the experimental industrial shop, on the line for the production of hydrocarbons and their compounds
Mass production will be carried out at the propylene glycol plant. "We separated one node in order to organize the mixing of components. Propylene glycol itself is not hazardous. It is used as a food additive in many products," said the head of the research laboratory of Nizhnekamskneftekhim's research and development centre Rafael Sharifullin.
According to the company's specialists, the unit is environmentally safe and fully meets all requirements. The trial batch has already proved its effectiveness. It is important that the antiseptics produced by Nizhnekamskneftekhim are harmless to the skin and disinfect hands without prior contact with water and soap.
Without simplifying the problem
All products must be subject to control. Including antiseptics. In order to confirm that the sanitizer is a disinfectant, it must pass state registration with the Federal Agency of Rospotrebnadzor in Moscow.
Although there is a practice when companies do not complicate their task, they register their products for disinfection as perfumes and cosmetics. It is quick and easy, and the examination is carried out in Tatarstan. But the cosmetic product is not an antiseptic, it does not give 100% guarantee of protection from infectious agents.
"Such products can be offered as a cleaning agent, but not as an antiseptic or disinfectant. Without reliable results of disinfection tests — this is nothing more than misleading the consumer," said Olga Shuvalova, the head of the department of standardization and normative reference information of Nizhnekamskneftekhim.
Nizhnekamskneftekhim relies on the safety and effectiveness of its new product. Therefore, despite the fact that certification is a long and complex process, it is necessary to issue quite a large number of documents, but the result is worth it — the company will get a guaranteed safe product for its employees and third-party consumers.
To start producing antiseptics, petrochemists have developed technical specifications and a safety data sheet. For the legitimate release of disinfectants, it is necessary to prove that the antiseptic produced by Nizhnekamskneftekhim PJSC, it is a safe and effective disinfectant. To do this, a sample of the product has been sent for testing to Rospotrebnadzor Research Institute of disinfection in Moscow. This is where medical devices are tested. Having received the positive examination, the company will start industrial production of disinfectants for the disinfection of surfaces of premises and vehicles, as well as for the disinfection of hands.
By Lilia Yegorova. Photo courtesy of Nizhnekamskneftekhim PJSC
Industry 30 January, 09:00 Roman Panasenko: 'The development of metallurgy and own production is a question of Russia's survival' Where companies from the real sector of the economy can find investments for development and expansion today
Sports 09:00 Football pitch to be renewed again at Ak Bars Arena in Kazan
Industry 30 January, 09:00 'On the verge of tears': TAIF-NK veterans on excursion to the enterprise Former employees of the oil refinery looked the factory over, local treatment facilities and the Heavy Residue High Conversion Facility
Industry 25 January, 09:00 Kazan Gunpowder Plant to increase production capacity of nitrates and gunpowders
Society 30 January, 09:00 Highest official of Tatarstan to be called 'Head — Rais' in 2023
Sports 19 January, 09:00 Tatarstan to build 14 sports facilities worth half a billion rubles
Economy 31 January, 09:00 Galina Akhmerova: 'It is in companies' interests to start working with the youth right now' Why 8 billion people on the planet is not enough and how the labour market in Russia gets younger, the expert explains
Industry 31 January, 09:00 Per-capita milk and meat production in Tatarstan exceeds consumption rate almost by third
Economy 09:00 Number of work permits for foreigners in Tatarstan falls 3-fold
Analytics 19 January, 09:00 'Becoming outsiders': Russian esports comes under sanctions Titled players are leaving the country, but the government expects to grow new stars from students
Industry 31 January, 09:00 TAIF-NK winter diesel fuel good even for the Arctic Maximum filterability temperature is up to -46°C: what characteristics TAIF-NK winter diesel fuel has
Economy 31 January, 09:00 Suspension of activities in the US, Sabantuys in Asia — how Tatarstan's representative offices to work in 2023 From Japan to the Czech Republic: the republic will continue to develop international relations in trade and economic sectors
Industry 27 January, 09:00 Maxim Novikov: 'TAIF-NK ended 2022 with a gain' TAIF Combi Cracking in action, truly high oil refining, search for new partners and outlets: what the last year is remembered for and what plans TAIF-NK makes for 2023
Economy 31 January, 09:00 Tatarstan starts the year with zero salary arrears realnoevremya.ru/Maxim Platonov (archive)
Society 24 January, 09:00 Migration to and from Tatarstan: people from which regions inhabit the republic
Sports 20 January, 09:00 'Against the wind': foreign athletes who stayed in Russia despite the circumstances Foreigners of Kazan clubs who didn't fear the absence of European championships and criticism at home
Society 25 January, 09:00 Rustam Minnikhanov urges Prosecutor's office of Tatarstan to 'act decisively' when identifying fakes about special operation
Society 20 January, 09:00 'Marat, you do a very right, noble and useful thing!' The president of Russia has instructed to scale the Tatarstan citizen's project on rehabilitation of disabled people to the whole country
Society 23 January, 09:00 'Delivery got complicated': a logistic problem as explanation for deficit of medicines Changeable shortage: antibiotics have appeared in Tatarstan but hormonal drugs and medicines for patients with cancers have disappeared
Industry 25 January, 09:00 Gasification estimated at 35k: regulator proposes to reduce the price of contractors' services They want to introduce a "Gazprom" tariff for commercial gas producers working under the programme of gasification of houses


text:
Is bitcoin currency 'worse than tulip bulbs?'
Sarah Mozdren
VIRTUAL MONEY — Standing as the most independent
form of currency, investors take risky measures as they claim
bitcoin to be the next profitable opportunity. (LifeWire)
If you've recently heard much about the business world, the term "bitcoin" may have come across your radar one time or another. As of Monday, bitcoin reached its all-time high value of $11,773.83, according to CoinDesk. Former Fortress hedge fund manager, Michael Novogratz, predicted on CNBC's "Fast Money" it could easily reach up to $40,000 by the end of 2018 while also being "the biggest bubble of our lifetimes."
Across the globe, bitcoin has become the most popular virtual currency that allows people to buy goods and services and exchange money without involving the government, banks or other third parties. Also known as a cryptocoin or generally cryptocurrency, it was simply created by intensive mathematical algorithms and monitored by millions of computer users called "miners." While there is nothing tangible to collect, this form of digital currency, composed of numerous lines of computer code, holds monetary value.
Serving a questionable origin, it was initially used by hackers so they could purchase illegal drugs online. However, it has become popular among current speculative investors.
Bitcoins are of high interest because they serve similarly to measures like stocks. Recoded on CoinDesk, their value fluctuates significantly. While its price can start at $11,000 in the beginning of the day, it can quickly dip down to $9,800 later in the day.
Additionally, bitcoins attract other groups of individuals, such as libertarians, tech enthusiasts and even criminals since transactions can be made anonymously. Up to a certain extent, transactions and accounts can be traced, but the account owners are anonymous. But in the future, when bitcoins are converted to regular currency, investigators may be able to track down the owners.
There are two general reasons why bitcoin is appealing to individuals. People can use it as currency or an investment to store value. While some businesses have transitioned to accept the bitcoin trend, such as Overstock, its popularity is still nothing compared to cash and cards. Other major companies, such as Amazon or Wal-Mart, will likely never accept bitcoins for payments especially considering regulation barriers.
The digital currency is ultimately a matter of debate. Some high-profile banking executives disagree upon it as JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has called it a "fraud" and being "worse than tulip bulbs." Billionaire Mark Cuban has also expressed his remarks, as he told Vanity Fair that it is acceptable to invest as much as 10% of savings in high risk investments (such as bitcoin). Cuban essentially proclaimed that individuals should perceive it like they have already lost their money. It is no different than throwing "the Hail Mary." Tony Robbins, a well-known business strategist, told CNBC's "Fast Money" that investing in bitcoin is "like going to Vegas." Individuals should only bet on what they can afford to lose. It's a profit to win, but if not, at least only the discretionary funds were lost.
On the other hand, other big names on Wall Street have engaged in the bitcoin trading. Embracing the virtual currency include individuals such as co- founder of Fundstrat, Tom Lee and value investor Bill Miller, who is running a fund with about a third of its assets in bitcoin.
The security of bitcoin is also a skeptical issue as it merely relies on a trust system. The network is structured by tech-savvy users (miners) who keep the technique honest by contributing their computing power and IT skills into a blockchain, a global running tally of every bitcoin transaction. This blockchain prevents disrupters from spending the same bitcoin twice and miners are rewarded for their efforts with additional bitcoin. As long as miners act as internal control within the blockchain, counterfeit bitcoins should not be an issue.
An advantage to bitcoin is that it can be stored offline on a personal hardware, also known as cold storage. This protects against theft of the digital currency, acting as a personal "safe." Conversely, known as hot storage, the currency can be stored on the internet where there is a high risk of it being stolen. A major issue with the bitcoin is its "virtualness" such that if the hardware that stores an individual's bitcoins is damaged, the currency is simply gone forever. Up to $30 billion in bitcoins were estimated to have been lost or misplaced by miners and investors.
A controversial implication with bitcoin is its lack of government enforcement. By transferring the power of monetary value from central federal banks to the general public, a decentralization results in bitcoin accounts that cannot be monitored by government officials, so this encourages behavior in the black market.
Overall, as bitcoins bypass government control, central bank access and monetary banking systems, they appear as a threat to high-end government officials in charge of regulation. Bitcoins are changing the value of the physical dollar as they are designed to put the control of personal wealth back into the hands of individuals. As packages of complex data with virtual value, bitcoins are their own independent currency. With this in mind, bitcoin tractions are irreversible. Conventional payment methods (such as credit card charges or personal checks) do have the benefit of being insured, reversed by the bank or having the freedom to cancel a transaction. With bitcoins, once a trade is made, the result is finalized with no form of records.
Tagged: bitcoin, blockchain, CNBC, CoinDesk, currency, internet, Issue 131:12, stocks, virtual money
About Sarah Mozdren
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text:
Undergraduate Majors & Minors (A-Z)
A Top
Accounting, B.S.
Accounting Minor
Accounting Information Systems, B. S.
Actuarial Science, B.S.
Application Development Minor
B Top
Biochemistry, B.S.
Biology, B.S.
Biology, B.S. with a Biomedical Science Concentration
Biology, B.S. with a Biotechnology Concentration
Biology, B.S. with a Medical Laboratory Science Concentration
Biology, B.S. with a Sustainability and Environmental Stewardship Concentration
Biology, B.S. with an Applied Microbiology Concentration
Business Administration, B.S.
Business Administration Minor
C Top
Chemistry, B.S.
Communication, B.A.
Communication and English Dual Major, B.A.
Communication Sciences and Disorders, B.S.
Communication Minor
Community Paramedic Certificate
Computational Science Minor
Creative Writing Minor
Criminal Justice/Criminology, B.A.
Criminal Justice/Criminology Minor
Cyber Security, B.S.
Cyber Security Minor
D Top
Data Science, B.S.
Data Science Minor
Design Minor
Digital Media, B.F.A.
Digital Photography Minor for B.F.A. or B.A. Design Students
E Top
Elementary Education (Grades 1-6), B.A.
Elementary Education (Grades 1-6) &Early Childhood Education (Grades PreK-3), Double Major B.A.
Elementary Education (Grades 1-6), B.A. with Bridge to M.A. in Gifted Education
Elementary Education (Grades 1-6), B.A. with Bridge to M.A. in Special Reading
Engineering (Dual Degree)
English, B.A.
Exercise Science, B.S.
Exercise Science Minor
F Top
Finance Minor
Financial Services, B.S.
Forensic Psychology/Criminal Justice, B.A.
Forensic Science, B.S. with a Biology Concentration
Forensic Science, B.S. with a Chemistry Concentration
G Top
General Studies, B.A. with a Concentration in Healthcare
Graphic Design, B.F.A.
Graphic Design Minor
Graphic Design Minor for Design & Visual Art Majors
H Top
Health Science, B.S.
Healthcare Management, B.S.
History, B.A.
Human Resources Management Minor
Humanities Minor
I Top
Industrial and Organizational Psychology Minor
Interactive Design, B.F.A.
Interactive Design, B.F.A. with a Game Design Concentration
Interior Design, B.F.A.
International Business, B.S.
International Studies, B.A.
International Studies Minor
L Top
Liberal Studies, B.A.
M Top
Management & Leadership, B.S.
Management Information Systems , B.S.
Management Information Systems Minor
Marketing, B.S.
Marketing Minor
Mathematical Science, B.S.
Mathematical Science Minor
Medical Laboratory Science, B.S.
Middle School Education English/Language Arts Education (Grades 5-9) and English, Double Major, B.A.
Middle School Mathematics Education (Grades 5-9), B.A.
Middle School Science Education (Grades 5-9), B.A.
Middle School Social Science Education (Grades 5-9), B.A.
Music Therapy, B.S.
N Top
Nursing: BSN
RN-BSN Nursing - Adult and Online Education
O Top
Organizational Leadership, B.A.
P Top
Photo Media Minor
Photography & Digital Art, B.F.A.
Physics Minor
Psychology, B.A.
Psychology/Sociology Dual Major, B.A.
R Top
Rawlings Sport Business Management, B.S.
Rehabilitation Services Minor
S Top
Sales Professional Certificate
Science, B.S.
Science Minor
Secondary/High School Biology Education (Grades 9-12), B.A.
Secondary/High School Chemistry Education -(Grades 9-12), B.A.
Secondary/High School English Education (Grades 9-12) and English, Double Major, B.A.
Secondary/High School Mathematics Education (Grades 9-12) and Mathematics, Double Major
Secondary/High School Social Science Education (Grades 9-12), B.A.
Senior Living Management, B.S.
Sociology, B.A.
Spanish Minor
Studio Art Minor
Studio Art Minor for BFA Design Students
Sustainability and Environmental Stewardship Minor
W Top
Women's and Gender Studies Minor
Writing Minor
Academic Programs & Courses
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Myrtle E. and Earl E. Walker College of Health Professions
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Understanding your audience
By Tig Tillinghast
People managing Java projects require an acute awareness of end users' needs. I don't mean requirements and specs, but needs, such as the priorities users have that they're going to use to judge your product.
Even engineers have to sell their product, at least internally. The "end user" could be the person stuck using your code, or it could be a liberal arts graduate who happens to be the supervisor of the relevant business group in your company.
While the spec may tell you scalability and efficiency are top priorities, you have to use your own intuition to divine the real priorities, such as:
Develop code that gets the product development people "off my back" quickly.
Develop code in such a way as to let me suggest this is "clever" and probably "proprietary."
Make sure it doesn't push me down a "technological dead-end" for the future.
Having marketed developer products for some years, I find most companies and agencies conform to a few profiles—groups of people who share similar priorities. These are worth examining for the Java coder or manager.
The IT Head
The person in charge of a company's technology strategy will frequently exhibit more skepticism and conservatism than someone who actually uses new technologies. Heads of IT departments live with the headaches and costs of cool, new things that were just a little "too cool" and a little "too new."
Marketers harp on reliability when talking to this audience. We use images you might see in banking ads, and testimonials from bigwigs at big companies.
There was a brief respite in this strategy in the last year-and-a-half. A lot of IT heads got caught a little behind the Web trend, and had to do some quick catching up.
Managers of programmers, engineers, system architects, and the like have several conflicting influences:
They tend to be held responsible for keeping to an existing grand scheme, making major new technology introductions dangerous.
The programmers that managers need to keep happy often push managers to use more "state-of-the-art" methods, even if it breaks the neatness of the grand scheme.
The average programmer manager harbors a bit of "programmer" in their soul. This makes them apt to want to employ new things, particularly those that will make the process appear more efficient.
The Coder
The coder is the most complex of these technical characters. Coders often need to feel a certain degree of cleverness. The satisfaction of well-written code comes not from the most consistent documentation and code comments, but from a creative process.
Often, products sold to the Java market can provide programmers with media they can use to hack together brilliant, sometimes non-intuitive solutions.
Marketers who tell coders they don't need to think quite as hard when they use their products are missing the message. Coders don't want these products to do their jobs; they want them to do the annoying bits, freeing their creative sides.
The perfect product for a coder is positioned as a humble tool that allows the coder's creativity to flourish. It gives the credit to the programmer.
Likewise, internal tool developers need to downplay their own role in product development, giving credit to the user. This breeds end-user satisfaction.
Figuring Out Your Own Customer
There are many different ways to slice audiences. You might find it appropriate to break down internal customers into different departments, or into those who serve different market segments. Use discretion.
By thinking in terms of customer needs and their likely priorities, you can reduce a great deal of friction and increase perceived satisfaction. Often, this doesn't require Java coders to change what they do; it merely requires them to position their efforts in a customized manner.


In the present work, second law analysis has been used for a steady-state cross flow microchannel heat exchanger (MCHX). This type of heat exchangers has been known for its higher heat transfer coefficient and higher area per volume ratio. Therefore, broad range studies are being carried out to optimize its performance and minimize its inefficiencies. In the current study, entropy generation and exergy loss have been employed to investigate a multiport serpentine slab MCHX with ethylene glycol-water and air as the working fluids. Conservation of energy and the increase in entropy principles were used to create a mathematical model that uses different parameters such as heat capacity rate ratio, fluids inlet temperatures, effectiveness and pressure drop for obtaining entropy generation. Results were found on the basis of the behaviour of the dimensionless entropy generation number with the key parameters. A good agreement between the predicted and the measured results was found.
Al-Obaidi, Serena, "Second Law Analysis of a Multiport Serpentine Microchannel Heat Exchanger" (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 170.


text:
import Ember from 'ember';

export default Ember.Controller.extend({
    queryParams: ['p'],

    p: null,

    currentPhoto: function() {

    	if (this.get('p')) {
    		return this.store.find('photo', this.get('p'));
    	} else {
    		return { filePath: '' };
    	}

    }.property('p')

});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub