
Artificial intelligence and natural intelligence bring the best result if they operate with ... [+] consideration to the complementary strength of both, and the multidimensional environment of a hybrid context. The disparities in health outcomes seen worldwide are neither new nor unknown. From differences in life expectancy to uneven access to quality healthcare, the so-called “ Health Gap ” is a persistent, troubling manifestation of inequality. People living in low- and middle-income countries are far more likely to die prematurely from preventable and treatable causes than those in wealthier nations. Stark disparities in health outcomes also persist within countries, cutting along socioeconomic, racial, and geographic lines, according to the World Health Organization . In the United States, non-Hispanic Black, American Indian, and Alaska Native people are disproportionately affected by chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, as repeatedly reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Closing these health gaps is both a moral and practical imperative because every human being has a right to a healthy, dignified life; practical because health inequities impose substantial economic and social costs. Health inequities could cost the U.S. economy approximately $320 billion annually and rise to $1 trillion by 2040 if not addressed . These figures underscore the need for systemic solutions that look at the root causes. Beyond quick fixes, it's time to address upstream social, environmental, and economic factors that drive disparities. The Rising Promise Of AI In Healthcare Artificial intelligence has entered the scene as a new tool in the endeavor to remake the health system. Broadly speaking, pattern recognition and personalized care are the two buckets of interest in that context. AI applications can detect diseases – often earlier and more accurately than humans - tailor treatments to individual patients, and support healthcare professionals in managing complex caseloads. Already in 2020, AI models could detect breast cancer in mammograms more accurately than human radiologists in certain conditions . Now, this applies to other types of cancer as well. Preventive interventions can save lives and resources while increasing the quality of life of humans. AI-powered prediction models have been used to identify patients at high risk of complications or chronic conditions such as kidney disease , which otherwise often goes unnoticed until significant damage is done to the body. Beyond clinical settings, AI-driven analyses of large datasets — from hospital records to socioeconomic indicators — can highlight at-risk communities, helping policymakers and health organizations allocate resources more effectively. By pinpointing underserved areas and identifying populations least likely to access preventive services, AI can guide targeted community interventions, mobile clinics, health education programs, and other initiatives to close the health gap. Mystery Drones Over New Jersey And Nearby States: Mayorkas Says ‘We Are On It’—But No Known Foreign Involvement (Updating) Gmail Account Deletion Warning—Act Now To Save Your Email In 2025 Northern Lights Forecast: Aurora Borealis May Be Visible In These 10 States Tonight The 4 T’s Of AI To Bridge The Gap While the potential is immense, AI’s effectiveness in closing the health gap hinges on more than just technological advancement. AI must be deliberately tailored, trained, tested, and targeted to bring out the best in and for people and the planet. This means anchoring AI development and deployment in a holistic understanding of humans, and the environment they evolve in. It also entails the design of ethical frameworks, transdisciplinary collaboration, and 360-degree strategies that systematically bring out the complementarity of AI and NI, including the knowledge, experience, and intuition of humans. Let’s look at the 4 T’s of AI systems that are conducive to bridge the gap: Tailored : AI systems cannot rely on one-size-fits-all models. Health is influenced by an interplay of genetic, behavioral, environmental, and social factors. By incorporating localized data — such as community-specific nutritional habits, local pollution levels, or cultural attitudes toward preventive screenings — AI solutions can become more contextually relevant. This tailoring ensures that interventions resonate with the communities they aim to serve, rather than imposing generic recommendations that fail to gain traction. Trained and Tested for Fairness : AI systems learn patterns from historical data, which may reflect existing biases. The result can be models that inadvertently perpetuate disparities, for example, by underdiagnosing diseases in underrepresented groups or misallocating healthcare resources. Ensuring fairness in AI involves rigorous testing, “debiasing” datasets, and continuous monitoring. Google’s recent AI initiatives in dermatology , for instance, take steps toward inclusivity by training algorithms on images of diverse skin tones to reduce racial biases in detection; based on user feedback the model is refined on an ongoing basis. Targeted for Positive Impact : AI should not merely reflect the status quo; it should help envision and achieve more equitable futures. Consider how AI-driven environmental monitors, integrated with health outcome data, can identify neighborhoods with high pollution and correlate these findings with spikes in asthma or cardiovascular issues. With that knowledge, city planners, healthcare providers, and community leaders can intervene — installing air filters in schools, creating green spaces, or running targeted health education campaigns. AI becomes a proactive tool, prompting systematic, equitable improvements rather than reacting to already-entrenched disparities. 4 Arenas Of AI@NI Complementarity What precedes is impressive – however, this is not an argument for AI replacing NI – natural intelligence. Closing the gap of preventable health inequalities cannot be achieved by advanced algorithms alone. It requires us to integrate the strengths of artificial intelligence with natural intelligence — the knowledge, ethical judgment, empathy, and cultural understanding of human beings — to ensure that solutions are both effective and just. By anchoring AI in localized insight and human expertise, we can align personal health improvements (micro) with community-led action (meso), informed national policies (macro), and globally coordinated strategies (meta), delivering equitable outcomes in every arena of the organically evolving kaleidoscope that we are part of. Let’s look at each arena: micro (individual) : At the individual scale, AI-powered diagnostic tools can identify early markers of chronic disease. Yet it is doctors, nurses, and caregivers who translate these insights into personalized treatment plans, considering each patient’s emotional well-being, cultural background and trust in the healthcare system. For example, while an AI model detects a patient’s elevated risk of diabetes, a physician employs NI to discuss dietary changes that respect the patient’s cultural food practices and financial constraints. meso (community) : In communities, AI can predict environmental health challenges — like poor air quality or a shortage of nutritious food — based on local data. Community health workers and local leaders then use their NI to engage residents and design interventions that resonate with cultural norms. For instance, if AI reveals that a neighborhood’s high asthma rates correlate with traffic pollution, a community-led campaign might seek safer pedestrian routes and partner with local businesses to sponsor air-purifying plants, ensuring solutions feel relevant and genuinely beneficial. macro (national) : At the national scale, AI can analyze vast amounts of health and socioeconomic data to guide resource allocation, highlight underserved regions, or inform policy reforms. Human decision-makers — policy analysts, public health officials, and advocacy groups — bring NI to interpret these findings within political, cultural, and ethical contexts. For example, if AI flags an urgent need for maternal healthcare resources in rural areas, policymakers might mobilize midwife training programs, telehealth services, and targeted subsidies, all grounded in an understanding of local values, labor markets, and population growth trends. meta (global) : Globally, AI supports disease surveillance networks, monitoring outbreaks, vaccine distribution, and health infrastructure. Human experts — global health strategists, international NGOs, and community representatives — may shape these insights into fair response strategies acknowledging power imbalances, language barriers, and historical inequities between countries. When AI identifies emerging infectious diseases in multiple regions, global health authorities, guided by NI, can orchestrate coordinated responses that include culturally sensitive vaccination campaigns, transparent communication, and mutually beneficial resource sharing. AI@NI Initiatives Across Arenas Alignment micro-meso : In rural India, Microsoft tools such as the Child Growth Monitor use AI to pinpoint communities at high risk for malnutrition. Local NGOs and healthcare workers then design culturally acceptable nutritional education programs, ensuring that data-driven insights from AI result in targeted, trust-building interventions on the ground. Partnerships meso-macro : Collaborations like the U.K.’s NHS AI Lab leverage AI to detect early disease markers nationally. Clinical experts and policymakers apply NI to shape training requirements, reimbursement models, and privacy regulations, ensuring that advanced diagnostics benefit all communities, not just a privileged few. Coordination macro-meta : International initiatives, guided by WHO data and AI-driven analytics, identify health infrastructure gaps across continents . Human experts at global organizations powered by “NI” then negotiate equitable access to treatments, ensure ethical data sharing, and reinforce capacity-building strategies, ensuring global health efforts uplift rather than overshadow local priorities. Redrawing The Health Map Picture standing at a crossroads in healthcare’s evolving landscape. One direction leads to a world where health disparities deepen, where the same patterns repeat, and where entire generations remain trapped in cycles of preventable suffering. The other path opens to a new horizon: a future where intelligent machines illuminate hidden pathways to wellness, and human insight adds the warmth, empathy, and ethical compass needed to walk them wisely. In this alternate future, the micro-level victories — one patient inspired to stay active, one family guided toward better nutrition — add to something greater. Communities (meso) learn to solve their own health puzzles through collective wisdom and cutting-edge data. Nations (macro) evolve policies that no longer treat health equity as an afterthought but as the foundation of true prosperity. Beyond borders (meta), leaders and citizens cooperate, drawing upon AI insights and their own imagination to address global challenges in a spirit of shared responsibility. Drawing on the synergy of natural and artificial intelligences, we can do more than close the health gap — we can reimagine the very landscape of well-being. Investing in the complementary potential of a humane human-technology alliance means transforming potential into tangible progress. In this future, every human has a fair chance to survive and thrive.Health and legal experts among 73 academics to sign letter opposing ‘inadequate’ assisted dying bill
LAS VEGAS — Players Era Festival organizers have done what so many other have tried — bet their fortunes in this city that a big payoff is coming. Such bet are usually bad ones, which is why so many massive casino-resorts have been built on Las Vegas Boulevard. But it doesn't mean the organizers are wrong. They're counting on the minimum of $1 million in guaranteed name, image and likeness money that will go to each of the eight teams competing in the neutral-site tournament that begins Tuesday will create a precedent for other such events. EverWonder Studios CEO Ian Orefice, who co-founded Players with former AND1 CEO Seth Berger, compared this event to last year's inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament that played its semifinals and final in Las Vegas by saying it "did really well to reinvigorate the fan base at the beginning of the year." "We're excited that we're able to really change the paradigm in college basketball on the economics," Orefice said. "But for us, it's about the long term. How do we use the momentum that is launching with the 2024 Players Era Festival and be the catalyst not to change one event, but to change college basketball for the future." Orefice and Berger didn't disclose financial details, but said the event will come close to breaking even this year and that revenue is in eight figures. Orefice said the bulk of the revenue will come from relationships with MGM, TNT Sports and Publicis Sport & Entertainment as well as sponsors that will be announced later. Both organizers said they are so bullish on the tournament's prospects that they already are planning ahead. Money made from this year's event, Orefice said, goes right back into the company. "We're really in this for the long haul," Orefice said. "So we're not looking at it on a one-year basis." Rick Giles is president of the Gazelle Group, which also operates several similar events, including the College Basketball Invitational. He was skeptical the financial numbers would work. Giles said in addition to more than $8 million going to the players, there were other expenses such as the guarantees to the teams. He said he didn't know if the tournament would make up the difference with ticket sales, broadcast rights and sponsorship money. The top bowl of the MGM Grand Garden Arena will be curtained off. "The math is highly challenging," Giles said. "Attendance and ticket revenues are not going to come anywhere close to covering that. They haven't announced any sponsors that I'm aware of. So it all sort of rests with their media deal with Turner and how much capital they want to commit to it to get these players paid." David Carter, a University of Southern California adjunct professor who also runs the Sports Business Group consultancy, said even if the Players isn't a financial success this year, the question is whether there will be enough interest to move forward. "If there is bandwidth for another tournament and if the TV or the streaming ratings are going to be there and people are going to want to attend and companies are going to want to sponsor, then, yeah, it's probably going to work," Carter said. "But it may take them time to gain that traction." Both founders said they initially were met with skepticism about putting together such an event, especially from teams they were interested in inviting. Houston was the first school to commit, first offering an oral pledge early in the year and then signing a contract in April. That created momentum for others to join, and including the No. 6 Cougars, half the field is ranked. "We have the relationships to operate a great event," Berger said. "We had to get coaches over those hurdles, and once they knew that we were real, schools got on board really quickly." The founders worked with the NCAA to make sure the tournament abided by that organization's rules, so players must appear at ancillary events in order to receive NIL money. Strict pay for play is not allowed, though there are incentives for performance. The champion, for example, will receive $1.5 million in NIL money. Now the pressure is on to pull off the event and not create the kind of headlines that can dog it for years to come. "I think everybody in the marketplace is watching what's going to happen (this) week and, more importantly, what happens afterwards," Giles said. "Do the players get paid on a timely basis? And if they do, that means that Turner or somebody has paid way more than the market dictates? And the question will be: Can that continue?" CREIGHTON: P oint guard Steven Ashworth likely won’t play in the No. 21 Bluejays’ game against San Diego State in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. Ashworth sprained his right ankle late in a loss to Nebraska on Friday and coach Greg McDermott said afterward he didn’t know how long he would be out. Get local news delivered to your inbox!In its latest edition, business magazine LMD reports that “the sense of optimism sparked by the presidential election in September outcome remains.” “Confidence in corporate circles remains largely unchanged following the presidential election, signalling a modest shift in economic sentiment under the caretaker government at the time of the latest monthly LMD-PEPPERCUBE Business Confidence Index (BCI) survey,” it adds. In the first week of November, when the unique poll was conducted, 41% of survey participants expressed optimism about the economy ‘improving’ over the next 12 months, maintaining the same level as in October, LMD notes. It continues: “Meanwhile, over half the respondents (56%) believe the economy will ‘stay the same,’ marking a 6% uptick. On the other hand, 3% expect the economy to ‘get worse,’ which is a decrease of six percentage points from the preceding month.” According to LMD, however, the shift in sentiment among sales people seen in October has held steady, as their concerns about the economic outlook remain subdued. The latest poll reveals that 46% of executives anticipate an improvement in their sales volumes over the next 12 months, which is consistent with October’s results.” “And 51% expect their sales numbers to ‘stay the same,’ marking a six point rise from 45% in October. Additionally, only 3% foresee their sales volumes to ‘get worse’ – down from nine percent,” the magazine reports. LMD’s publisher, Media Services, says the December edition of the magazine has been released and its digital edition has been shared on WhatsApp and the publisher’s social media platforms. The magazine’s Cover Story features David Sislen – World Bank’s Regional Country Director for Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka – who says: “While I acknowledge the risks ahead, I’m extremely bullish about Sri Lanka’s future.” The full story has been uploaded on LMD’s website (www.LMD.lk).
Global Optical Anti-Sniper Detection System Market: Industry Analysis, Growth Trends, and Forecast (2019-2027)
This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site. ___ Authors: Mark Turin, Associate professor, Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia; and N̓a̓ṇ̓gáinúx̌v - Robyn Humchitt, Digitization, Information & Technology and Archival Manager, Heiltsuk First Nation When it comes to digital access and internet technologies, some languages are still more equal than others. Speakers of majority languages, who type in English or text in Korean, assume their message will be transmitted accurately. But Indigenous language communities don’t share this same confidence. Computers and smartphones don’t come with the ability to type all letters in all languages. The unique characters integral to many Indigenous languages are often mangled as they travel across the ether. However, the inclusion of two capital letters needed to write Haíɫzaqvḷa in a recent update of the Unicode Standard means this Indigenous language can finally be written and read on all digital platforms. Why did it take so long? And what challenges do Indigenous communities face when wanting to type in their languages? Haíɫzaqv: “to act and speak correctly as a human being” Haíɫzaqvḷa is the language of the Heiltsuk (Haíɫzaqv) Nation whose traditional homeland is Bella Bella, British Columbia. The language has had its own orthography — an agreed written form with established spelling conventions — since the 1970s. Working in partnership with native speakers, a Dutch linguist was invited by tribal leadership to document their increasingly endangered language and develop learning resources. The results of this collaborative work included an alphabet chart, storybooks and a dictionary. Before the advent of digital technologies, Indigenous communities used specially modified typewriters to represent their languages in print. Customized typewriters designed to support the Latin, Syllabics and Cherokee scripts allowed users to publish in Indigenous languages like Haíɫzaqvḷa. The digital divide The digital age has created many opportunities and some new challenges. The American Standard Code for Information Interchange, the first computer text encoding standard, introduced in the early 1990s, did not support 44 of the 129 letters in the Haíɫzaqvḷa orthography. Special fonts and keyboards were required to render these characters on early desktop computers. Designers around the world produced countless fonts to support typing in digitally under-resourced languages, each using a unique font-keyboard pairing to encode a specific language. But this system had a major weakness: when files using custom fonts were shared, both the creator and the recipient needed to have the same font installed on their device. And if a recipient wanted to send a reply, they would need a keyboard input system that paired with that same custom font. Without these elements in place, the missing characters would be shown as “tofu,” or worse yet, rendered as a random string of meaningless characters. The Unicode Standard’s goal is to represent all characters required by all of the world’s languages and writing systems in digital form. Unicode now defines 154,998 characters covering 168 scripts and has fast become the chosen standard for digital character encoding. Yet, until version 16.0 of the standard, released in September 2024, two capital letters needed to write Haíɫzaqvḷa remained absent. Encoding Haíɫzaqvḷa Through a partnership between Heiltsuk Revitalization, the University of British Columbia and international type design company, Typotheque, we have been working to ensure that each and every Haíɫzaqvḷa character is consistently represented and accurately reproduced on all digital platforms and devices. Before this community-led collaboration, it was not possible to fully encode Haíɫzaqvḷa in digital text. This meant that community members couldn’t access the full range of characters they needed to input their language digitally. That would be like typing English without having access to capital E or S, and relying on workarounds like Σ for E or ∫ for S. Ensuring accurate character encoding that is predictable on all operating systems is a cornerstone of language justice. Yet the burden is still on communities to petition Unicode to have their scripts included, and the process is exacting. Harder still, a proposal must consider whether other languages that use the same script might be impacted by the proposed additions, and then mitigate and navigate potential conflicts. The stakes are high for changes to the encoding standard: decisions are almost impossible to reverse on account of the need to maintain stability and ensure both backward and forward compatibility. Important projects like the Script Encoding Initiative have for decades been helping communities to prepare technical proposals for the encoding of scripts and characters that are as of yet not supported by Unicode. There is still much work to be done. Language rights and government documents 'Cúagilákv — also known as Jess H̓áust̓i — is a Haíɫzaqv leader, parent, educator and poet from Bella Bella. In 2021, H̓áust̓i approached Canadian government agencies, both provincial and federal, to change Haíɫzaqv identification documents to remove colonial anglicizations and reclaim the correct spelling of their name. H̓áust̓i was informed that the existing backend systems were unable to accommodate the representation of diacritic marks. “The reason why I have an incorrect name is because it was anglicized by Indian agents. I didn’t create the problem, but I’m not getting any help to fix that,” H̓áust̓i told CBC News in 2021. “I feel that it’s important to honour my ancestors and my language by spelling and pronouncing it correctly. I would love for my children to grow up with the correct spelling of their name on their ID.” The ability to fully encode Haíɫzaqvḷa in the Unicode Standard means the language can now be successfully input into any Unicode compliant system. This is a baseline requirement for the elimination of many remaining digital language barriers. Beyond bilingualism Canada is fond of celebrating its commitment to bilingualism. Extensive provisions are in place to support English and French. But the origins of these colonial languages lie in Europe, brought by settlers as they first traded and then colonized; and both have vibrant speech communities in their original homelands and around the globe. In 2019, the Canadian government passed the Indigenous Languages Act designed to support the revitalization, maintaining and strengthening of the languages Indigenous to this land. As Canada works to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, it should also simultaneously realize the slogan of the Unicode Consortium: “everyone in the world should be able to use their own language on phones and computers.” The challenges to achieving universal encoding for historically-marginalized languages are no longer technical; they are bureaucratic and political. In 2009, Canada’s then Commissioner of Official Languages, Graham Fraser, was quoted as saying: “In the same way that race is at the core of ... American experience and class is at the core of British experience, I think that language is at the core of Canadian experience.” Through ensuring linguistic justice for all of its citizens, Canada can exercise global leadership in language policy and planning. This article was co-authored by Bridget Chase, a language technologist and researcher, and Kevin King, a typeface designer at Typotheque. ___ Mark Turin receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. N̓a̓ṇ̓gáinúx̌v - Robyn Humchitt has received funding from the First Peoples' Cultural Council in British Columbia, Canada. ___ This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Disclosure information is available on the original site. Read the original article: https://theconversation.com/why-is-it-so-hard-to-type-in-indigenous-languages-245247 N̓a̓ṇ̓gáinúx̌v - Robyn Humchitt, Digitization, Information & Technology and Archival Manager, Heiltsuk First Nation, The ConversationBhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Police on Friday arrested two persons involved in attacking a car driver at Halalpura Bus Station on Wednesday night. The duo informed police that SUV (Scorpio) with a BJP flag belonged to one Yogesh Rajput. It is worth mentioning that a video went viral on social media in which some persons were seen publicly thrashing a youth in the middle of the road. The assailants even damaged the car of the victim before leaving the spot. Koh-E-Fiza police registered an FIR against unidentified persons on the complaint of the victim Gaurav Raikwar on Thursday. Gaurav informed police that the accused had a scuffle with him at an eatery in Khajuri area over parking of their vehicles. The assailants followed his car in their SUV and intercepted it near Halapura Bus station. Police officials said that two persons were arrested in connection with the incident. They have been identified as Shubham (20) and Munawwar Khan (19) of Gandhi Nagar area. Primary questioning from them revealed that SUV belonged to Yogesh Rajput who was also at the spot, officials added. It came to fore that Yogesh has a case registered against him at Bairagarh police station. Police officials said that efforts were underway to identify and arrest other accused involved in the incident.
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