#air quality app

[mastersoftheair]

Total Film January 2024 Issue 346

[crispywizardtale]

[uwemagain]

Can you kiss me again?

Palm & Nuengdiao | Never Let Me Go EP. 7

[jessamine-rose]

/obey me! vent/

[jcmarchi]

Smart Buildings: The Key to Attracting and Retaining Top Talent in a Hybrid Era

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/smart-buildings-the-key-to-attracting-and-retaining-top-talent-in-a-hybrid-era/

Smart Buildings: The Key to Attracting and Retaining Top Talent in a Hybrid Era

The world of work has been in a state of flux over the past few years. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work became the norm, and as the dust settles, hybrid work models are most common. This shift in norms has been so profound it’s left commercial giants like Canary Wharf Group with 21% vacancy rates as of this year. Despite varying predictions and trends about the future of work, one thing remains clear: the power dynamics between employers and employees have changed dramatically. No longer can businesses compel their workforce to work from the office through sheer authority. Not when they can turn to a competitor company that offers more flexible terms. Instead, they need to offer genuine reasons for employees to willingly come back. This is where smart buildings come into play. Transforming offices into dynamic, receptive and ergonomic spaces is not just about embracing new technology. It’s about creating environments that attract and retain top talent.

Understanding Employee Needs

Employees have become accustomed to the convenience and comfort of working from home. With families and personal lives to juggle, they value the ability to maintain a flexible schedule and avoid the daily commute. Over half of employees say that working from home even makes them more productive. Whether leaders share their views or not, they will need to build a case to bring a happy and productive workforce back to the office. And winning employees back takes more than empty promises or clever sales pitches. Offices need to transform into places employees actually want to be. They need to offer an environment that rivals the home experience in terms of comfort and convenience. Since the majority of employees are looking for ways to drive their productivity, smart buildings can also make that extra bit of difference to keep them happy and engaged.

Comfort, Convenience, Productivity

A recent survey by insightful (cited by Fortune’s Sasha Rogelberg) found that over a third of employers estimate workplace distractions cause up to 25% of work time loss every week. If their estimations are even half accurate, this is a massive problem. Smart buildings reduce workplace distractions by leveraging Internet of Things (IoT) devices, artificial intelligence (AI), and other advanced technologies to create a responsive and adaptive environment, conducive to better output. Offices where lighting, temperature, and air quality are automatically adjusted based on occupancy and individual preferences not only optimise comfort but also enhance productivity by minimising distractions.

For instance, smart sensors can monitor and adjust lighting to reduce eye strain, while climate control systems maintain a comfortable temperature throughout the day. Smart buildings can also provide seamless connectivity and ensure that essential amenities, such as clean bathrooms and functional showers, are always in top condition. They can even tell you exactly where your bike is parked, saving time at the end of a long day. By eliminating these small yet significant inconveniences, businesses can create an office environment that employees look forward to working in and even do a better job.

Spontaneous Interactions

One of the primary arguments for returning to the office is the value of spontaneous interactions and cultural cohesion. In-person interactions foster collaboration, innovation, and a sense of community that is hard to replicate in a virtual setting. None express this view more ardently than in-person hardliner and CEO of Boots, Seb James, who declared the office to be a much more ‘inspiring and fun’ place when everyone is present, during his announcement of the five-day office return. Smart buildings facilitate these spontaneous and collaborative interactions by bringing common areas, meeting rooms and other shared spaces to life, as well as advertising workplace social events on a centralised app for everyone to see and move into their calendars.

Through the use of AI and IoT, these buildings can monitor foot traffic and occupancy levels, ensuring that spaces are used efficiently and that employees can easily find available meeting rooms or collaboration zones. By providing real-time data on space usage, smart buildings can also help managers make informed decisions about office layouts, resource allocation and social preferences, further enhancing the overall work experience.

Health and wellbeing

The health and wellbeing of employees have become paramount concerns, especially in the post-pandemic era, with over 46% of UK employers citing work-life balance, mental health and wellbeing support as a key challenge in retaining skilled workers. Smart buildings can play a crucial role in promoting a healthy work environment. Advanced ventilation systems can monitor and improve air quality, reducing the risk of airborne illnesses. Touchless entry systems and automated cleaning schedules can minimise the spread of germs and ensure a hygienic workspace.

Smart buildings can offer wellness features such as standing desks, fitness centres, and relaxation zones, which can be easily accessed at the tap of a button, encouraging employees to take care of their physical and mental health. By prioritising employee wellbeing, businesses can demonstrate their commitment to a healthy and supportive work environment, making the office a more attractive place to be.

A sustainable workplace matters

Beyond enhancing the work experience, smart buildings also offer significant benefits in terms of sustainability and cost savings. By optimising energy usage through smart lighting and HVAC systems, businesses can reduce their carbon footprint and operational costs. Water usage can be monitored and managed more effectively, contributing to environmental conservation efforts.

These sustainability initiatives not only appeal to environmentally conscious employees but also reflect positively on the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) profile. In an era where top talent often seeks employers with strong ethical values, with environmental activism being a priority value for Gen Z employees, showing a genuine commitment to sustainability can be a powerful differentiator that attracts talent and fosters a sense of pride in the company they work for.

Give your employees a reason to come into work

As businesses navigate the complexities of hybrid work models and changing employee expectations, creating an office environment that attracts and retains top talent becomes imperative. As Claire Williams, Chief People and Operations Officer at Ciphr, recently said, “Creating clear purpose, transparency and good communications, a strong and forward-thinking culture, diversity and social impact – all come down to the time that leaders are willing to put in and spend with their employees.” To spend quality time with your employees, you need them in the office. You might not be able to get them to come in everyday, but you can create an environment where a hybrid week, tilted in favour of the office, becomes preferable to employees. Smart buildings, by enhancing comfort, productivity, convenience, health, and sustainability,  will help you achieve this.

So, as companies contemplate the future of work, they should consider this: attracting and retaining top talent requires a collaborative, productive and comfortable office environment that facilitates a healthy and socially responsive culture. This is made possible by smart buildings.

[isthisjackie]

We had a flash flood warning earlier and now a flood warning and a tornado touched down in the Cleveland area within the last few days and tons and tons of people still don’t have power and won’t have it until maybe this weekend and it is august rn

[techdriveplay]

How Can I Make My Home Office More Productive?

In today’s hybrid work environment, having a productive home office is essential. With a few strategic adjustments, you can create a workspace that enhances your efficiency and focus. Here’s how to make your home office more productive and turn it into a hub of creativity and achievement. Key Stats on Home Office Productivity: Workers with a dedicated home office are 24% more likely to feel…

[getambee]

A Guide on How to Select the Best Air Quality API for Your Specific Needs

Introduction

Air quality is a critical aspect of environmental monitoring, with implications for public health, climate change, and urban planning. As the demand for accurate and real-time air quality data increases, developers often turn to Air Quality APIs to integrate this information into their applications. However, with a plethora of options available, selecting the right API can be a challenging task. In this guide, we will walk through the key factors to consider when choosing an Air Quality API, emphasizing aspects like data sources, coverage, accuracy, and pricing.

Understanding the Importance of Air Quality Data

Before diving into the selection process, it's crucial to recognize the significance of air quality data. Real-time information about pollutants such as particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), and sulfur dioxide (SO2) enables individuals, businesses, and governments to make informed decisions. Whether it's avoiding outdoor activities during high pollution periods or implementing pollution control measures, accurate and up-to-date air quality data is indispensable.

Factors to Consider When Selecting an Air Quality API

1. Data Sources

The foundation of any Air Quality API is its data sources. Understanding where the data comes from is vital for assessing its reliability and relevance to your specific use case. Some APIs aggregate data from government monitoring stations, while others incorporate data from satellite observations or ground-level sensors. Consider the following questions:

Example code for checking data sources in an API

import requests

api_url = "https://example-api.com/info" response = requests.get(api_url)

if response.status_code == 200: data_sources = response.json()["data_sources"] print(f"Data Sources: {', '.join(data_sources)}") else: print(f"Error: {response.status_code}")

2. Coverage

The geographical coverage of an Air Quality API is crucial, especially if your application caters to a global or specific regional audience. Some APIs may have extensive coverage in urban areas but lack data for rural locations. Evaluate the API's coverage map and ensure it aligns with your target regions.

Example code for checking API coverage

import requests

api_url = "https://example-api.com/coverage" response = requests.get(api_url)

if response.status_code == 200: coverage_map = response.json()["coverage_map"] print(f"Coverage Map: {coverage_map}") else: print(f"Error: {response.status_code}")

3. Accuracy and Precision

The accuracy of air quality data is paramount for making informed decisions. Assess the API's methodology for data collection and validation. Look for information on calibration processes, sensor maintenance, and quality control measures. Additionally, consider the precision of the measurements provided by the API.

Example code for checking data accuracy in an API

import requests

api_url = "https://example-api.com/accuracy" response = requests.get(api_url)

if response.status_code == 200: accuracy_info = response.json()["accuracy_info"] print(f"Accuracy Information: {accuracy_info}") else: print(f"Error: {response.status_code}")

4. Historical Data Availability

For trend analysis and historical comparisons, access to historical air quality data is essential. Check if the API provides historical data and the duration for which it is available. Some applications may require long-term data for research or regulatory compliance.

Example code for checking historical data availability

import requests

api_url = "https://example-api.com/historical" response = requests.get(api_url)

if response.status_code == 200: historical_data = response.json()["historical_data"] print(f"Historical Data Availability: {historical_data}") else: print(f"Error: {response.status_code}")

5. Real-time Updates

Timeliness is critical when it comes to air quality information. Ensure that the selected API provides real-time updates. This is particularly important for applications that require immediate response to changes in air quality conditions.

6. Ease of Integration Consider the ease of integration into your application. Look for APIs that provide comprehensive documentation, sample code, and support for popular programming languages. A well-documented API can significantly reduce development time and ensure a smooth integration process.

7. Cost and Pricing Structure

Last but not least, consider the cost and pricing structure of the Air Quality API. Some APIs offer free access with limited features, while others operate on a subscription or pay-as-you-go model. Evaluate your budget constraints and choose an API that aligns with your financial considerations.

Conclusion

Selecting the best Air Quality API for your specific needs involves a careful evaluation of factors like data sources, coverage, accuracy, and pricing. By considering these aspects and using the provided code snippets as a guide, you can make an informed decision that aligns with your application's requirements. Remember that the quality of air quality data directly impacts the effectiveness of your application, so choose wisely for a positive impact on both user experience and environmental awareness.

[that-other-lesbian-ellen]

I love our local air quality forecast person. Like "Personal experience indicates that a smoke odor is present in the Twin Cities" aka "I just went outside and could smell smoke." Also the phrase "local emissions will bump up the concentrations just a skoch"

(Screenshot via the AirNow app. Forecaster from Minnesota. I've checked a couple other states and most places don't have a narrative forecast. I haven't seen an interesting narrative forecast anywhere else.)

[manicpixistonergirl]

i’m so pissed rn do not touch me

[liminalweirdo]

Reminder to check that your weather apps are consistent. Test some out until you can find one that's good.

Two apps including WeatherNetwork and WeatherCAN state that air quality it at very low risk this morning (level 1), but my other two apps (AirVisual and I forget the other one) are both stating that it's moderate (around 4-5).

Test your applications, never trust blindly.

[brownpaperhag]

begging my auntie to let me take a taxi to her place for dinner bc if i have to walk there the heat and smog Will end me

[miss-floral-thief]

Home now we still hav eject over pho but too bad we

Don’t have an exercise bike because I didn’t go on that far/long of a walk lol

[jcmarchi]

AI May Be Just What the Dentist Ordered - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/ai-may-be-just-what-the-dentist-ordered-technology-org/

AI May Be Just What the Dentist Ordered - Technology Org

From climate change to cavities, symposium highlights AI’s impact on oral health care.

Recognizing that artificial intelligence could lead to earlier diagnosis of oral diseases and put more tools in the hands of patients, most dental practices, dental schools, oral health researchers, and policymakers are rapidly positioning themselves to evolve with the dawning AI movement in oral health care.

Virtual reality technology – associative photo. Image credit: stem.T4L via Unsplash, free license

Experts shared these insights and more at the inaugural Global Symposium on AI and Dentistry, held Nov. 3-4 at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM).

“AI promises to transform the way we practice oral health care, pinpoint and treat diseases and conditions, and increase equitable access to care and treatment,” HSDM Dean William Giannobile said at the symposium.

The tangible energy around AI’s growing influence on dentistry prompted HSDM to gather more than 400 leading dental practitioners, researchers, students, AI scientists, ethicists, and policymakers from 30 countries. Attendees joined event workshops, keynotes, and thematic panel discussions both in person and virtually.

A poster session included more than 65 research projects featuring a range of device prototypes, patient-facing smartphone apps, and other technologies under development at the intersection of AI and dentistry. A panel of judges honored several presenters.

Harnessing AI to address barriers in oral health care

For more than 40 years, researchers have been experimenting with ways to apply AI to dentistry, said Florian Hillen, founder and CEO of VideaHealth, a dental imaging startup launched from AI research conducted at Harvard and MIT.

Within the last decade, he said, AI capabilities have finally reached critical mass.

“AI-powered tools are now helping dentists identify dental decay in patients up to five years earlier,” he said. “The tech revolution is happening.”

Beyond opportunities to improve outcomes for individual patients, researchers are seizing AI to help solve population-level health challenges. To do so effectively, academia and industry will have to dissolve boundaries between scientific discipines, said keynote speaker Dimitrias Bertsimas of MIT.

At Harvard, cross-disciplinary teams are leveraging machine learning to identify patients whose social determinants of health put them more directly in the path of climate change-related impacts and a bevy of other risks to oral health.

“Are exposures to wildfires impacting oral health? If they become more frequent, who’s most vulnerable and how do we act on this information?” asked Francesca Dominici, director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

She and a team of researchers are using AI to analyze satellite data, atmospheric chemistry models, and other factors, revealing which communities are most affected by increasingly frequent wildfires, extreme heat waves, and destructive storms.

Reduced air quality from fires and higher temperatures from warming climate can cause mouths to be drier, making people more prone to oral disease and tooth decay. Increased psychological stress from extreme weather events can increase risk for teeth grinding and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders.

What’s more, natural disasters can disrupt access to dental facilities and care, Dominici added.

Augmenting, not replacing, human knowledge

Biomedical researchers are also deploying AI to speed up and optimize experiments, therapeutic discovery, and pre-clinical validation.

“[AI is] generating, acquiring, harmonizing, and refining data, and it can generate hypotheses, as well as simulate experiments and downstream outcomes,” said Marinka Zitnik, assistant professor of biomedical informatics in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School.

It will revolutionize the way therapies are matched individually to patients, she said, and help design entirely new drugs and therapeutics.

A survey of 1,600 biomedical researchers revealed that 25 percent of them feel AI will be essential to their studies within the decade, she added.

Zitnik specializes in building knowledge graph AI models, which help contextualize and capture relationships within diverse sets of biomedical data. Her team has developed a knowledge graph AI model called TxGNN that describes 17,000 diseases using all available clinical and biomedical data. Once trained, it could predict how well any given therapeutic might treat a patient’s unique disease and recommend new uses for FDA-approved medications.

Source: HMS

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[sourcreammachine]

call me regulation-loving Eurotrash but this shit should be fucking illegal

you are driving a thousand kilogram death machine. you need your eyes on the fucking road at all times because lives are at stake. literally, overcomplicated radio displays are known to distract drivers and reduce awareness, and then there’s this bullshit?

you need the absolute minimum information possible. speed, fuel, rpm, engine warnings. not fucking, calendar, weather and world clock.

sttg the longer i look at this image the worse it gets. that’s the NEWS app on the touchscreen there? you want people to look down and read the paper while driving? and literally not one of the widgets on the top screen needs to be there, read your calendar and the weather and the air quality index before you leave the house godsabove. even that map is overcomplicated, no you do not need 3D renders of every building in front of you that you can SEE with your EYES. fuck it you don’t even need a mega-complicated media display, prepare your bloody playlists and podcasts before you hit the road and you can switch between them like an iPod shuffle. and get rid of Chainsmokers - Riptide ffs.