Area studies

US Consumer Technology Sales Expected to Resume Growth in 2024, Reports Circana

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Initial results indicate that 2023 dollar sales will end 10% below the prior year, marking the second year of revenue contraction.

Key Points: 
  • Initial results indicate that 2023 dollar sales will end 10% below the prior year, marking the second year of revenue contraction.
  • “Upgrade cycles for pandemic-driven purchases will ramp up in late 2024 for key large-dollar categories like computers, creating growth opportunity.”
    The computer category will account for almost half of the $1.7 billion consumer technology industry growth expected in 2024.
  • “New products can help to reignite demand and give consumers fresh reasons to spend on consumer technology products.
  • This year, innovations in computing, virtual reality and home automation will contribute to the industry’s recovery,” said Ben Arnold, executive director and consumer technology industry analyst for Circana .

GMA Consulting and University of Nevada, Las Vegas' Black Fire Innovation Announce Additional Details Around Joint Entrepreneur Boot Camp

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, January 10, 2024

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- GMA Consulting ("GMA"), a leading gaming, entertainment, sports, and hospitality research and consulting firm, and UNLV's Black Fire Innovation ("Black Fire") have now announced additional details on their interactive and immersive boot camp initiative, designed to empower aspiring entrepreneurs by guiding them through a comprehensive start-up process and shedding light on the challenges that often hinder the transformation of innovative ideas into successful businesses. 

Key Points: 
  • Both programs are representative of the enduring partnership between GMA and Black Fire, underscoring both parties' dedication to promoting innovation and entrepreneurship.
  • The exclusive, in-person multi-day boot camp is free of charge and begins February 28, 2024, at the UNLV Incubator at Hughes Center.
  • It will be structured as an interactive workshop, providing participants with hands-on experience and practical insights into the dynamic world of entrepreneurship.
  • Details on the program, including a short application for a chance to participate, can be found at the following link: http://tinyurl.com/ynw753w7 .

IDTechEx Explores Advanced Semiconductor Packaging Technologies: 2.5D and 3D Insights

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Four critical parameters shape advanced semiconductor packaging : power, performance, area, and cost:

Key Points: 
  • Four critical parameters shape advanced semiconductor packaging : power, performance, area, and cost:
    Power: Enhancing power efficiency through innovative packaging technologies.
  • Cost: Continuously reducing packaging costs by employing alternative, more affordable materials or enhancing manufacturing equipment efficiency
    2.5D and 3D packaging technology:
    The 2.5D and 3D packaging technologies encompass various packaging techniques.
  • Key aspects of this report:
    Exploring Technology Trends and Manufacturers in Advanced Semiconductor Packaging:
    Explore advanced semiconductor packaging evolution, addressing transistor IC challenges.
  • This webinar will reveal insights into 2.5D and 3D advanced semiconductor packaging technologies and the content include:
    2.5D advanced semiconductor packaging technologies: current status, existing barriers, future development trend, target markets, player analysis
    3D advanced semiconductor packaging technologies: current status, existing barriers, future development trend, target markets, player analysis
    Click here to find out more and register your place on one of our three sessions.

IDTechEx Explores Advanced Semiconductor Packaging Technologies: 2.5D and 3D Insights

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Four critical parameters shape advanced semiconductor packaging : power, performance, area, and cost:

Key Points: 
  • Four critical parameters shape advanced semiconductor packaging : power, performance, area, and cost:
    Power: Enhancing power efficiency through innovative packaging technologies.
  • Cost: Continuously reducing packaging costs by employing alternative, more affordable materials or enhancing manufacturing equipment efficiency
    2.5D and 3D packaging technology:
    The 2.5D and 3D packaging technologies encompass various packaging techniques.
  • Key aspects of this report:
    Exploring Technology Trends and Manufacturers in Advanced Semiconductor Packaging:
    Explore advanced semiconductor packaging evolution, addressing transistor IC challenges.
  • This webinar will reveal insights into 2.5D and 3D advanced semiconductor packaging technologies and the content include:
    2.5D advanced semiconductor packaging technologies: current status, existing barriers, future development trend, target markets, player analysis
    3D advanced semiconductor packaging technologies: current status, existing barriers, future development trend, target markets, player analysis
    Click here to find out more and register your place on one of our three sessions.

Creating a welcoming and supportive environment helps immigrants better integrate

Retrieved on: 
Sunday, January 7, 2024

This year, the federal government has set a target of welcoming 485,000 new permanent residents.

Key Points: 
  • This year, the federal government has set a target of welcoming 485,000 new permanent residents.
  • While many of those people come to Canada with hopes of establishing new and better lives, integrating and finding one’s way around a new country can often be challenging.
  • A core idea in cross-cultural psychology is that immigrants who integrate more successfully in their new society end up with better mental well-being.

What comes first?


Since the 1970s, cross-cultural psychology research has tried to understand which migrants do well, which ones struggle and why? The answer to these questions is crucial. Poor psychological health can be devastating for people, but it is also extremely costly for societies — an estimated 2.5 trillion dollars cost to the world economy per year.

  • Many studies have shown that participants who score high on biculturalism questionnaires also score high on emotional well-being questionnaires.
  • What comes first, integration or emotional well-being?
  • The answer even has political relevance as immigration and integration are polarizing topics and increasingly central to election platforms.
  • In short, an alternative “mental resources hypothesis,” where greater emotional well-being is a resource leading to integration, is as plausible as the widely touted integration hypothesis.

Our study

  • To properly shed light on the issue, we need longitudinal studies, where we ask integration and well-being questions repeatedly over time.
  • We recruited international students who had just arrived in Montréal and followed them during their first year in the country.
  • Because their arrival is synchronized with the academic year, which allowed us to enlist their participation in our study at the very beginning of their integration journey.


We asked them questions about their integration and their emotional well-being four times throughout the academic year. We used well-validated self-report questionnaires. Participants rated how much they agreed with statements such as, “It is important for me to develop Canadian cultural practices” or “I felt depressed.” We then tested whether integration at a given time lead to later emotional well-being, or vice versa.

What we found

  • We found that immigrants who arrived with greater emotional well-being reported greater integration later on compared to those with lower emotional well-being.
  • There was no evidence for the reverse direction: that integration leads to later emotional well-being.
  • For organizations working with immigrants, this means considering and providing psychological support in addition to practical skills-, work- and housing-related resources.


Marina M. Doucerain does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Koneksa Announces New Multi-Domain Model for Functional Status Assessment Enabled by Digital Health Technologies

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, January 4, 2024

The paper, titled: “A Proposed Multi-Domain Digital Model for Capturing Functional Status and Health-Related Quality of Life in Oncology,” highlights the importance of collecting continuous 24/7 functional status measures digitally to enable better clinical decisions and outcomes assessment.

Key Points: 
  • The paper, titled: “A Proposed Multi-Domain Digital Model for Capturing Functional Status and Health-Related Quality of Life in Oncology,” highlights the importance of collecting continuous 24/7 functional status measures digitally to enable better clinical decisions and outcomes assessment.
  • However, the assessment of patients' functional status – encompassing physical, cognitive, and behavioral functioning – holds increasing significance in influencing clinical decisions and understanding treatment outcomes.
  • Koneksa's innovative digital model aims to address limitations in existing functional status assessments by leveraging digital health technologies (DHTs) for both objective and self-reported outcomes.

  • Continuous real-time digital monitoring of functional status can assess the health and well-being of patients in other diseases, such as in orthopedics.

Plans for Electric Vehicle Battery Charging Facilities in Southeast Asia with Groundbreaking Battery Checking Service

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, November 9, 2023

Santa New Energy is an important strategic investment of Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL), the world's leading battery provider and the largest maker of electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

Key Points: 
  • Santa New Energy is an important strategic investment of Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL), the world's leading battery provider and the largest maker of electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
  • The planned battery charging and checking centre will be equipped with battery online detection technology pioneered by Santa New Energy to provide complete and comprehensive battery checking in a single charge process without the need to dismantle the vehicle or change the vehicle strategy.
  • This collaboration promises a more reliable and friendly EV charging infrastructure that can simultaneously check the battery health while providing a charge to the vehicle.
  • More detailed information on the locations of the battery checking facility will be announced at later dates.

Canada’s First Bidirectional EV Charging Hub Launches in British Columbia

Retrieved on: 
Friday, December 15, 2023

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 15, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Coast to Coast Experiences (CTCE), determined to electrify its fleet in North America, introduced Canada’s first Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) pilot project for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, demonstrating the very first bidirectional electric vehicle (EV) charging hub in British Columbia.

Key Points: 
  • Pilot Project with BC Hydro, Lion Electric, BorgWarner, Powertech Labs and Fermata Energy demonstrates Technical Feasibility as a Proof of Concept to Make Vehicle-to-Grid a Reality in British Columbia and Globally
    VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 15, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Coast to Coast Experiences (CTCE), determined to electrify its fleet in North America, introduced Canada’s first Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) pilot project for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, demonstrating the very first bidirectional electric vehicle (EV) charging hub in British Columbia.
  • The pilot is designed to test the technical feasibility of bidirectional charging and mobile grid infrastructure, opening up the opportunity to monetize electric fleets.
  • The initiative lays the groundwork for future deployable V2G charging hubs in Canada and North America.
  • “This pilot sets the groundwork for CTCE to partner with utilities in all the markets we operate in around North America.

5 New Authorized Dealers Signed by AITX’s Subsidiary Robotic Assistance Devices

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, December 14, 2023

Detroit, Michigan, Dec. 14, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions, Inc., (the “Company”) ( OTCPK:AITX ), a global leader in AI-driven security and productivity solutions for enterprise clients along with its wholly owned subsidiary, Robotic Assistance Devices, Inc. (RAD), today announced the signing of 5 new authorized dealers.

Key Points: 
  • Detroit, Michigan, Dec. 14, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions, Inc., (the “Company”) ( OTCPK:AITX ), a global leader in AI-driven security and productivity solutions for enterprise clients along with its wholly owned subsidiary, Robotic Assistance Devices, Inc. (RAD), today announced the signing of 5 new authorized dealers.
  • IT Installs , located in Sarasota, Florida provides nationwide installation services for all types of IT and security services equipment.
  • When it comes to demonstrating RAD solutions to clients and prospects, RAD authorized dealers must obtain a demonstration unit.
  • AITX, through its subsidiary, Robotic Assistance Devices , Inc. (RAD), is redefining the $25 billion (US) security and guarding services industry through its broad lineup of innovative, AI-driven Solutions-as-a-Service business model.

CORRECTED PRESS RELEASE FROM THE DECEMBER 12, 2023 PRESS RELEASE DISTRIBUTED TO THE PUBLIC IN THE MORNING OF DECEMBER 12, 2023.

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Detroit, Michigan, Dec. 12, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions, Inc., (the “Company”) (OTCPK:AITX), a global leader in AI-driven security and productivity solutions along with its wholly owned subsidiary, Robotic Assistance Devices, Inc. (RAD), today announced their Q3 FY 2024 order intake results. These results indicate significant growth in device orders and Recurring Monthly Revenue (RMR) compared to the same period last year. These results also underscore the Company’s continued progress in the AI-powered, security solutions market.

Key Points: 
  • These results indicate significant growth in device orders and Recurring Monthly Revenue (RMR) compared to the same period last year.
  • These results also underscore the Company’s continued progress in the AI-powered, security solutions market.
  • For the quarter ended November 30, 2023, RAD booked 144 devices on order, a 435% increase over the number of devices ordered in Q3 of FY2023 (33 units).
  • RAD expects to continue to attract new business as it converts its existing sales opportunities into deployed clients generating a recurring revenue stream.