Raj Chetty awarded Infosys Prize in social sciences
Read Full Story The Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) this month awarded the winners of the Infosys Prize 2020 for their outstanding contributions to science and research in a virtual awards ceremony. The prize is awarded for stellar contributions in six fields: engineering and computer science, humanities, life sciences, mathematical sciences, physical sciences, and social sciences. William A. Ackman Professor of Public Economics Raj Chetty was awarded the prize in social sciences for his pioneering research in identifying barriers to economic opportunity, and for developing solutions that help people escape poverty towards improved life outcomes. His research and ability to discern patterns in large data have the potential to induce major shifts in the discipline of economics. The winners were handpicked from 257 nominations by six jury members comprising renowned scholars and professors from around the world. The Infosys Prize has a history of awarding exceptional talent, some of whom have also earned prestigious international honors like the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, the Fields Medal and the Padma Shri. By recognizing these researchers and celebrating their achievements in the applied and theoretical domains, the Infosys Prize aims to create role models who will encourage young minds to explore science and research as career options.“The trustees of the Infosys Science Foundation dream of an India where the poorest children can have reasonable access to nutrition, education, healthcare and shelter, and have confidence in a better future,” said Infosys founder and ISF president and board of trustees member Narayana Murthy. “For that, we need well thought out and impactful ideas that are speedily executed without corruption. Developed countries have succeeded mainly by improving their higher education and research systems. The Infosys Prize contributes to this mission in India by honoring the best scientists and researchers, whose work has the potential to improve our world.” To learn more about the laureates and their work, visit the Infosys Science Foundation website.
It was the Saturday night before Halloween when senior Kevin Hottinger, a Sorin resident assistant on duty, heard the screams.He raced up to the third floor of the dorm, where he found the cause of the commotion — a bat. After grabbing the designated “bat net” in his rector’s office, he captured the animal and put it in the dorm’s work out room until Sue Beth Laskowski, a Rose Pest Solutions technician, could come. Observer File Photo Sorin Hall, pictured, is one of many residence halls at Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s that have encountered run-ins with bats inhabiting dorm rooms and other living areas.“When pest control finally did come, it was the lovely Sue Beth, our close friend, and coincidentally, she was coming from a Halloween party,” Hottinger said. “Of course, she was dressed as a bat.”Between Aug. 14 and Oct. 30, Notre Dame received 11 reports of bats in residence halls, including Badin and Sorin, Kim Kolk, assistant director of space planning and logistics, said in an email.Sorin residents also keep an unofficial count of bats in their dorm, and totaled 21 bats between Aug. 17 and Oct. 30, sophomore Ben Walter said.“It’s kind of become a part of the Sorin tradition, I guess,” he said. “At the Keenan Revue last year, they had a guy dress up as Batman and he was like ‘I’m from Sorin’ so we just kind of take it as a Sorin trait, like the one thing people from other dorms know about Sorin since we’re so small, just like ‘Oh they have bats.’”Howard Hall residents have also found bats in their dorms in past years. When she was a freshman, Howard resident and current junior Hannah Dutler encountered a bat while preparing for a dance.“I was sitting on the ground doing my makeup and my friend was behind me doing my hair so there was two of us in the room and all of the sudden we saw this thing come at us in the mirror,” she said. “People started screaming. I thought it was a bird and it hit the mirror and went on the ground. He was crawling on the ground and I was like ‘What is that?’ It was bat, so we were both screaming and ran out of the room and locked it in the room.”Saint Mary’s also has incidences of bats in their residence halls. Seniors Annie Clare and Sarah Wehby had a bat in their room in Le Mans Hall during the first week of classes. After waking up at 5 a.m., Clare said she felt a presence on her head. “I touched my head, and [the bat] started like flying in my hair,” Clare said. “So I freaked out … I don’t know what I thought it was, because I just felt its wings. And then I started to take it out and it started screaming.”Eventually, Clare was able to detach the bat from her hair and it flew into her window between the glass and the screen. Clare and Wehby alerted the front desk attendant, and security was able to capture the bat before releasing it later.“One of the biggest issues was after they caught the bat, they let it go,” Wehby said. “And everyone was like, you’re supposed to keep it and test it for rabies because if it didn’t have rabies, we didn’t need the shot. But they just let the bat go.”The administration released the bat from Clare and Wehby’s room rather than testing it because they were not aware it had come into contact with the students, Saint Mary’s vice president of student affairs Karen Johnson said. “The student that came and said the bat that had been on her, we did not capture that bat because we did not know until the bat had been taken out that it had [been on her],” Johnson said. “But from now on if a student says they have been touched by a bat we will try to capture that bat.”Saint Mary’s director of security Dave Gariepy said while the incident in Clare and Wehby’s room occurred before Saint Mary’s had bat protocol, in the future the school will capture bats for rabies testing to ensure students’ well-being. “If it’s a situation in which it would be in a student’s room and the student is sleeping and so we wouldn’t really know if there was close contact, then we would want to capture the bat, send it to the health department for testing to see if it’s rabid — which it’s very rare that they are,” Gariepy said. Saint Mary’s bat protocol was adopted this fall, Gariepy said. Johnson said it came from existing Notre Dame protocol.“We’ve never had a student who felt like the bat had been on them, so we just took Notre Dame’s protocol,” Johnson said. “They sent it to me and we did what they do.”Notre Dame’s bat protocol involves contacting Rose Pest Solutions, a pest management vendor, “to immediately capture the bat for release or testing” when one is found in a building on campus, Kolk said.“When this happens, Rose Pest also analyzes the residence hall or building and reports any visible potential cause for bats, which is addressed by the University’s Facilities staff or the building manager,” she said.Kolk said the University also takes several steps to decrease the number of bats in dorms. These efforts include “building bat houses around campus in an effort to keep bats in bat houses and out of halls/academic buildings,” tightening screens and fan filters and running vents in buildings to keep bats out of them, “installing door sweeps, metal cages, and other mechanisms on halls to deter bat entry” and instructing students to keep doors and windows shut to prevent bat entry.Last April, Walter wrote a Letter to the Editor in The Observer, addressing the bat issue in Sorin. He said he feels the University’s response to the issue has improved drastically since then.“At the beginning of this year, there was a huge group of people out there for probably four days,” he said. “They had this thermal drone trying to detect holes in the building, they flew around. So they really kicked it into gear at the beginning of this year to try to get [the bats] all kicked out. They went into everybody’s room and sealed their windows and made sure their screens were good so I really felt like they did a lot to combat it this year.”Johnson also said Saint Mary’s looked to biology professor Laura Kloepper for advice, due to her extensive research of bats. Kloepper’s focus is in echolocation. “I’m trying to understand how bats are using this special sense they have, which echolocation is a sense that when they use sound, they make a picture of their environment,” Kloepper said. “So they send a really loud sound out into the environment, it comes back as an echo to the bat, and that’s how they can make a picture.”The majority of the incidents of bats in living spaces is due to the bats being startled or finding difficulty with getting out where they came in. Bats can go into spaces as small as a dime, Kloepper said. “As long as we’ve had buildings as humans, bats have been finding their way in there,” Kloepper said. “Most of the time it doesn’t cause a problem whatsoever, they tuck up in the attic, and we don’t even know they’re there. But what happens is when they take up residence in the summer, and then students start to come back into the dorm, and they’re moving around and making all these sounds, and that wakes up the bats and the bats get confused.” Gariepy said Saint Mary’s security has not received a call reporting a bat in a residence hall since Sept. 5. “The buildings are just old, and they’re large, and bats really can just find easy access to buildings when they’re such big buildings,” Gariepy said. “Usually, it’s the beginning of the season when we would start getting a little bit of cold weather, where we’ll get some of them entering the building.”The majority of bats reported on campus are not in students’ rooms, Gariepy and Johnson emphasized, but rather in the hallways. Rabies is “100 percent fatal,” Kloepper said, so if there is a possibility of contact, preventative measures must be taken. However, testing the bat for rabies requires killing the bat, so the ideal course of action is to avoid contact. “If any individual has had an encounter with a bat, it’s recommended that the bat try to be caught to bring [it] in for testing,” Kloepper said. “Unfortunately, it means that the bat has to be sacrificed or killed for the test because you have to kill the bat to do the test.”While the risk of contracting rabies is small, Kolk said, if a person touches a bat, or wakes up to one in their room, Notre Dame encourages students to visit University Health Services or a physician.“Only a very small percentage of bats carry rabies; however, if a person is bitten by a bat with rabies, once the symptoms begin to manifest, it is too late to treat the disease and it is nearly 100 percent fatal,” she said. “As such, we strongly recommend students who may have had potential exposure to seek proactive treatment, but we cannot require them to do so.”Students need only worry if they came in contact with a bat, Kloepper said. Otherwise, they do not pose any risk. “As long as you’re not touching it, and you’re not interacting with that bat in any way, having it just flying around the dorm, it’s no reason to be concerned,” Kloepper said. “It’s natural that we kind of panic if we see something flying in our house. The best thing to do is be as calm as possible, separate yourself from the bat and then call security.”Tags: bats, pest control, rabies, Rose Pest Solutions, Sorin Hall
Backyard gardeners with limited space may want to try gardening in raised beds.“Many gardeners choose raised-bed container gardens because they are easier to access and there’s less soil compaction,” said David Berle, a horticulturist with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Raised beds, or “giant flower pots” as he calls them, are ideal for gardeners who have a “tough, urban site” where the soil conditions are not ideal, Berle said.“They are perfect for school gardens because they can go where there isn’t any soil. In theory you could put a box on top of asphalt. And, the kids can’t trample the plants,” Berle said.Raised beds are ideal for gardeners with physical ailments, like back or knee issues, and wheelchair users who garden. A raised bed built for accessibility by the disabled should be at least 36 inches away from another raised bed and should be raised to a height of at least 24 inches so a wheelchair can be rolled underneath the garden, Berle said.When building a wheelchair-accessible raised garden, the surface must be firm and stable. Do not build on a slope. Berle recommends consulting a horticulture therapy organization for more detailed information. When constructing any raised bed, Berle recommends not building the bed wider than arm’s reach from either side — 24-36 inches. “Three or 4 feet wide is a good overall width, depending on the gardener’s size,” he said.Along with the advantages of a raised bed garden come several disadvantages. The soil dries out quicker, which causes the plants to require water more often. Raised bed gardens are also much harder to till.“It’s hard to use a tiller (plow) in a box. You have to lift it up and put it in there and then it’s hard to operate. So it’s going to be a little bit harder to mix the soil in a raised-bed garden,” he said. Soil has to be added to a raised-bed garden, and that costs money. “A garden that’s 4 feet wide and 8 feet long will need 5 cubic yards of soil, which has to come from somewhere,” he said. “If you buy bulk topsoil, you’ll likely get soil that was scrapped away from a poor site. If you’re not careful, you could buy the same soil you didn’t want to plant in to begin with.” Topsoil purchased in bags is usually a mix of bark compost and sand, not real topsoil at all, he said. Plain soil, amended with a little compost, is the best choice for raised beds. If local soil is not available, a mix of potting soil and compost is the best material with which to fill a raised bed.The cost of building and filling a raised bed is a big disadvantage over just gardening in the ground. Raised-bed gardens can be ordered as prefabricated or preassembled kits or built from a wide variety of materials. To save money, Berle recommends building with less costly materials.“A raised bed can be made of pallets lined with landscape fabric. It won’t be as attractive as others, but it will work,” he said.Raised beds can be built from metal objects, like old cattle troughs. “Just drill holes in the bottom and you are done,” he said. “Or a garden can be made from baby pools and plastic barrels cut in half,” he said. Cement blocks can be used, but they are not cheap. The average cost is $1.50 to $2 each. “And, if the ground’s not level, you are going to spend a lot of time scrapping the earth,” Berle said. Recycled concrete pieces can be used to build a wall around a raised bed, just remember that concrete contains calcium and will likely affect the soil’s pH.Avoid rubber tires. “I would be concerned about chemicals in the tire getting into the soil,” Berle said.Before building a wooden raised bed, read these tips from Berle and UGA Extension:Use at least 2-inch-thick lumber. One-inch-thick lumber isn’t sturdy enough.Keep in mind that lumber is sold in 8-, 10-, and 12-foot lengths. Plan the garden size so as not to waste lumber. Southern untreated pine is inexpensive, but it will only last a few years. And railroad ties and telephone poles are known to release creosote into the soil. “Gardeners following USDA Organic growing guidelines cannot use common treated wood to build a raised bed. Telephone poles and railroad ties are also off the list for organic standards,” he said. “Remember, whatever is in the wood can leach into your soil.”For more on raised-bed gardening, search the subject on the UGA Extension publications website at extension.uga.edu/publications/.
Many businesses are formed to solve problems for others, but one engineering student’s prize-winning idea spurred from a challenge he faced in his own kombucha business.Nick Robertson, this year’s University of Georgia Food, Agribusiness and Entrepreneurial Initiative (FABricate) winner, started Rare Combinations to develop an efficient, affordable alcohol percentage detector for beverage producers. The senior biochemical engineering major will receive a $10,000 investment toward his business from the contest. This was the first year that the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences opened the competition to all students at UGA, which increased the number of entries. This is the fourth year of the FABricate competition, which promotes innovation across four categories: food products; agricultural technology; food-related or service business; or environmental-related products or businesses.Seven teams made pitches via web conference in a preliminary round April 6, and three teams were invited back to give their pitch to industry judges at the finale, held via web conference on April 15.A brewing business ideaAlready an entrepreneur with his own business brewing kombucha, Robertson realized the need for affordable testing while producing the fermented beverage, which by law must stay below .5% alcohol content.Using information he learned in classes and 3D printing experience he gained in the lab, Robertson got to work on a prototype.“The only two ways to test for alcohol content accurately were either a $20,000 piece of lab equipment or about $500 a month in lab testing that takes two to three days to get results back,” Robertson wrote in his application to the contest.“After this need was identified, and then reinforced since starting the UGA I-Corps Program, an alcohol detector was invented and patented that is only $1,000, gives readings in 30 seconds — compared to the two to three days for lab testing — and is also very easy to use.”Although originally invented for kombucha, Robertson quickly understood that other kinds of brewers faced the same issue and he hopes to market his product to beer brewers as well. He’s sold 20 devices to date.Robertson said the prize money will help grow and expand his company by increasing production and marketing capability and gaining CE certification, a stamp of approval for electronic devices. The device currently is for sale at rarecombinations.com.Fostering innovation Current agribusiness student Jake Matthews and recent alumnus Bayly Thompson (BSA ’19) pitched a product that they hope to launch called Simply Fats, a pork lard used for cooking and baking. The idea came from a class project and leverages Thompson’s experience as a full-time, third-generation farmer on a pasture-raised pig farm.Another food product, Oh Ghee, is a startup idea from Abhideep Budda, Yaovi Avoudikpon and Walker Bryan, who are first-year pre-business students. The natural spiced ghee, a clarified butter, is intended as a butter substitute aimed toward lactose-intolerant consumers.“I think FABricate encourages and rewards the creativity, critical thinking and boldness required to be entrepreneurial,” said Doug Bailey, CAES assistant dean for academic affairs. “We need to nurture these traits in our students and give them the chance to succeed and to fail; to consider taking calculated risks. This is part of the educational process that universities should be offering.”The contest is sponsored by a gift to CAES from Keith and Pam Kelly, owners of Farmview Market in Madison, Georgia.This year’s judges were Keith Kelly (BSA ’80), Caroline Hofland (BS ’83, MS ’86), CEO of CBH International; and Marc van Iersel, Vincent J. Dooley professor in horticulture, who advised inaugural FABricate winner Jesse Lafian (BSA ’17) with his irrigation sensor business Reservoir in 2017.Subsequent contest winners — VTasteCakes and Herb Girls —remain in business and cite their participation in FABricate as a major contributor to the launch of their businesses.To learn more about the FABricate contest visit caes.uga.edu/students/experiential-learning/fabricate.
—– The cause of the fire is under investigation. Spencer Fire, Lockwood Fire and the Tioga Center Fire Departments assisted with the incident. 12 News has a crew on the way to the scene. SPENCER (WBNG) — Fire officials say a fire on Hagadorn Hill Road resulted in a family losing their garage. SPENCER (WBNG) — Emergency crews are responding to a garage fire at 19 Hagadorn Hill Rd. in Spencer Friday afternoon. 3:08 P.M. UPDATE: As of 1:25 p.m, dispatchers are unable to comment on any other details. According to Halsey Valley Fire Chief Thomas Cole, the garage was “fully engulfed” in flames by the time crews arrived to the residence. The house at the address, he says, was mostly untouched by the fire and is okay. Cole says people were inside the home when the fire broke out but no injuries were reported. This is a developing story. Stay with 12 News for updates.
Julie Bosman reported from Chicago, Lucy Tompkins from Bismarck, N.D., and Sabrina Tavernise from Washington. Reporting was contributed by Mike Baker in Seattle, Tim Arango in Los Angeles, Sarah Mervosh in Cleveland, Frances Robles in Miami, Stacy M. Brown in Harrisburg, Pa. and Kathleen Gray in Lansing, Mich. “I feel liberated,” said Linda Gomez, 37, an activist who has worked to promote rights for convicted felons and who herself was formerly incarcerated. She added, “Today is the people’s day.”Ms. Gomez, like others there, said voting out President Trump would not be enough to achieve the changes voters were seeking.- Advertisement – – Advertisement – He said some of his friends on social media were popping bottles of Champagne while others were saying, “Fight this, fight this.” He read a tweet from Mr. Trump in which the president claimed to have won the election, and said it made him think wistfully about how John McCain had accepted defeat in 2008.“I believe in decorum,” said Mr. Hanna, who added that he was considering changing his registration to independent. “I believe in handling wins and handling losses with grace.”Across the street, four sheriff’s deputies sat in an unmarked black S.U.V., keeping an eye out.- Advertisement – “We have to make sure things are implemented,” she said. “We have to hold Biden accountable.”Sitting outside the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Christian Hanna, 31, stopped his afternoon bike ride to take in the election news after he noticed his phone, balanced on the handlebars of his bike, “blowing up” with the updates.Mr. Hanna is a registered Republican who said he disagreed with the divisive tone of Mr. Trump’s speeches and also disagreed with parts of Mr. Biden’s record. He said he voted for a third-party candidate, Jo Jorgensen.- Advertisement –
This Decision extends the application of the Appendix to the amendments to the Collective Agreement on Catering, concluded on 25 February 2019 and published in the Official Gazette No. 28/2019, to all employers and workers in the Republic of Croatia in the provision of accommodation and food preparation and serving, Section I, Sections 55 and 56 of the National Classification of Activities 2007 – NKD 2007. (Official Gazette 58/2007). The Ministry of Labor and Pension System has made a Decision on extending the application of the Annex and on amendments to the Collective Agreement on Hospitality. The decision was published in the Official Gazette No. 45/2019 and shall enter into force and apply from 01. June 2019. More attached. So for simple jobs, such as maid, luggage, and other similar jobs, the employer is obliged to pay a gross salary in the amount of HRK 3.750,00, for less demanding jobs such as the duties of an assistant waiter, assistant cook, assistant receptionist, assistant pastry chef and other similar jobs, the employer is obliged to pay a gross salary in the amount of HRK 4.100,00, and for demanding jobs such as the jobs of waiters, cooks, pastry chefs, receptionists and other similar jobs, the employer is obliged to pay a gross salary in the amount of HRK 4.950,00.
Side dish: NN / Appendix I on amendments to the Collective Agreement on Hospitality concluded on 27 March 2018 This decision extends the Addendum to the Collective Agreement on Hospitality and the agreed increase in the minimum gross wage of 5% for basic catering occupations to all employers and workers in the activities of providing accommodation and preparing and serving food. 
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More from news02:37Purchasers snap up every residence in the $40 million Siarn Palm Beach North11 hours ago02:37International architect Desmond Brooks selling luxury beach villa1 day ago59 Pacific Ave, Miami.Mr Fitzgerald said a local buyer bought the property.“He bought it basically for the car park which is interesting,” he said.“They also love the fact that all of the bedrooms have their own ensuites as they’ve got teenage kids that can have their own bathrooms.”Vendors Kim and husband Michael Lunt, an interior designer and builder duo, created the modern oasis after knocking down the old house.Designed by Michael Tomlinson from MS Designs, the home was completed in 2015. 59 Pacific Ave, Miami. 59 Pacific Ave, Miami. 59 Pacific Ave, Miami sold for $1.38 million.A MIAMI house has sold for $1.38 million in a transaction described by the agent as “smashing all records”.Ray White Broadbeach agent Troy Fitzgerald, who negotiated the sale of 59 Pacific Ave, said it was a suburb record for the western side of the Gold Coast Highway.“It just proves the value is there in Miami and it’s only just getting started,” he said.“I think that particular little pocket will see quite a few sales popping up.”The four-bedroom, four-bathroom home features an airconditioned gym and seven carport basement sprawling 150 sq m. 59 Pacific Ave, Miami.
Nautilus Minerals common shares will be delisted from Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) effective at the close of market on April 3, 2019.The Toronto-based underwater mineral exploration company was unsuccessful to appeal the initial decision by TSX to delist its shares.Nautilus’ common shares will continue to be suspended from trading on TSX until the company is delisted.To remind, Nautilus was granted creditor protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (“CCAA”) by the Supreme Court of British Columbia.The Court approved a sale and investment solicitation plan (SIPS) and appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers to oversee the implementation of the SISP.As previously reported, the company is evaluating a range of alternatives to recapitalize Nautilus so that the reality of its seafloor mining projects can be achieved.The options could include the sale of Nautilus’ polymetallic nodule business unit and its seafloor massive sulfide business unit.Nautilus said it is not bankrupt and remains in possession and control of its business, while continuing to receive support in the form of loans from the lender.