Author: geekytech

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Business Finance Financial Market Technology U.S

Kroger and Albertsons Zero in on Store Divestitures Amid Deal Review

The Kroger Co. and Albertsons Companies Inc are still on track to divest 250 to 300 stores as part of their effort to dispel antitrust issues regarding their proposed merger plan.

The stores slated for sale are valued at USD 1B or above, and are located all across different regions of the US—such as Chicago, Phoenix, Southern California, and the Pacific Northwest—reported Reuters, citing unnamed sources.

Kroger-Albertsons Cos. Merger Deal

In a move to reshape the U.S. supermarket landscape, Kroger and Albertsons Cos.—The US’s two biggest grocery store chains—announced plans to join forces in mid-October.

The retailers hope that this merger, if approved by regulators, would help create a corporate behemoth generating around $200 billion in sales per year.

Combined, Kroger and Albertsons Cos. would operate around 5,000 stores across the country.

Reasons Behind the Divestiture

The retailers have decided to prepare for the store divestiture as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reassessing Kroger’s proposed USD $24.6B investment in Albertsons Cos. 

Since the retailers declared the merger strategy, there has been a flurry of movements from American consumer advocates and lawmakers against it. 

They are pressuring the FTC to hit the brakes on the deal, or at least hold it for some time, over concerns that this merger, if executed, could cause significant hikes in grocery prices amid the current spiralling inflation rates.

While declaring their merger, the retailers stated that the plan was to sell around 100 to 375 stores to win regulatory approval faster. However, Kroger mentioned that up to 650 stores could be divested.

As per the agreement, if the deal falls apart over antitrust issues, Kroger would be required to pay Albertsons Cos. $600M as a breakup fee to walk away from the contract.

The retailers are trying to sound out long-sought buyers for their stores and address the antitrust issue of FTC over their merging. 

Both Kroger and Albertsons Cos. expect these stores to be spun off into a subsidiary dubbed SpinCo by Albertsons Cos. or directly acquired by competitor supermarkets trying to extend their footprint in the USA. 

FTC to Monitor the Financial Viability of the Stores Divested

FTC will closely monitor any sale of the stores coming from this divestment, reported Reuters, citing antitrust experts at FTC. 

The current FTC chair Lina Khan marked the failed AlbertsonsCos./Safeway settlement behind FTC’s scepticism about the Kroger-Albertsons deal. 

The result: The agency is strictly scrutinising the potential impact of the Kroger–Albertsons merger deal.

Navigating Divestiture Challenges to Success

Brian Concklin, an antitrust expert and partner at global law firm Clifford Chance has advised Kroger and Albertsons Cos. to ensure that the stores they have decided to divest can act as formidable players in the industry. Thus the retailers can keep the FTC from blocking their merger deal.

“The Albertsons-Safeway deal will loom large over how these assets are viewed and how the FTC evaluates whether these divestiture packages being offered are viable,” commented Brian Concklin.

As a complex process, divestiture requires a coordinated effort to be successful.

For any dynamic enterprise looking to maximise the transaction value while divesting its business, investing in a consulting service like Fission Consulting is a sensible decision.

Such a high-end service streamlines the process while significantly reducing business disruptions.

Wrapping up

Kroger and Albertsons Cos. hope their plan to spin off the stores as part of the merger deal will help overcome challenges while paving the way to get FTC approval. 

“We believe we have a clear path to achieve regulatory approval with divestitures,” said Gary Millerchip, Chief Financial Officer at Kroger in a Bloomberg news.

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Computers & Software Technology

Why Data Strategy and Management Is the Most Important Step Toward Automation With AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been in the news a lot recently. ChatGPT, the chatbot, has become part of many conversations. 

And, it might seem like a gimmick—AI that has been “fed” data to see how it responds. However, real-time AI has many more uses than just answering questions.

One of the uses that you might have heard about is self-driving cars. The AI is programmed to monitor the road and propel the vehicle safely. To do so, it takes in information from sensors that monitor the road, speed limit, location, and more. 

It, then, uses this information to make split-second decisions to navigate the car through the traffic.

Similarly, AI can be used to improve safety and operational efficiency in airports, detect fraud in online banking transactions, provide patients with better care in hospitals and much more. 

According to this article about Unlocking the Power of AI With a Real-Time Data Strategy on CIO.com, AI can do all that and more.

However, to do so, ”data ecosystems need to excel at handling fast-moving streams of events, operational data, and machine learning models to leverage insights and automate decision-making.”

The Importance of Real-Time Data

In order for AI to make real-time decisions, it needs real-time data. Using the example of AI in self-driving vehicles again, the computer has to constantly get a flow of information for it to make decisions.

A person needs to have all the evidence before they can make an informed decision. AI is no different. 

Like a person, AI needs some input to determine the output.

Unlike a person, however, AI can handle vast quantities of input in a second and still be able to process it quickly. That, in turn, means that AI can be used to detect fraudulent transactions, make product recommendations, and optimise just-in-time business processes in real-time.

Automation Is the Driving Force

Businesses are looking to leverage AI and enable automation. We are living in a world where data capturing is the easy part. Our phones are gathering information about us and our lives. We can have medical information tracked through wearables. Every online interaction we have is providing someone with some information about us.

Data gathering is not the problem here.

The problem is ensuring data quality so that AI can make better real-time decisions—because high-quality data can help Machine Learning (ML) models deliver better outcomes.

So, if we wanted to accelerate automation, we’d need to look at data management and strategy differently.

In order to be more data-driven, you would need to develop a holistic vision for your business. Information cannot be siloed within various ecosystems. It needs to be integrated so it can be analysed. Only then will it be able to help you make a change.

Instead of trying to fit new methodologies into your legacy software applications, you need to invest in “data and model governance, discovery, observability, and profiling.”

Powering Functional ML Models With Data

So, what’s a machine learning model?

An ML model is a software program within which the AI goes through relevant datasets to identify patterns. It will then use this information to train itself to make decisions. 

Once the model is trained, it can be deployed to determine the best course of action based on data input.

As you can see, since the model uses pre-existing data to teach itself, it’s important that the ML processes and data are integrated to get the most out of them.

And, ML models use data for everything—from building to training to deploying. You could say that data is the fuel required to power ML models. The two need to be aligned for you to get the maximum benefit from either of them.

Managing Data Strategy and Storage For AI Consumption

For AI to make real-time decisions, it needs the parallel support of ML process flow and data flow. Real-time AI needs the following from its data ecosystem:

  • A real-time data ingestion platform
  • A real-time operational data store
  • The ingestion platform and data store working together to reduce the data complexity
  • Change Data Capture (CDC) that returns high-velocity events back into the data stream or analytics platforms
  • An enterprise data ecosystem that optimises data flow in both directions

In order for AI to make real-time decisions quickly and accurately, you need ML models that exchange data at high speeds. It’s difficult to build such an ecosystem within your organisation, so a cloud-native approach might be best for you.

Cloud-native is great for scaling your operations, is reliable, and helps portability across deployments.

Of course, you would need a data strategy that would help you optimise your data and how you use it. Fortunately, experts like Agile Solutions should be able to help you prioritise and plan a data strategy that meets your business’s objectives.

A strong strategy would be able to help you automate your processes with the help of AI.

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Energy & Environment Technology Transportation & Logistics Travel World

Emirates Operates Milestone Demonstration Flight Powered by 100% SAF

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Emirates Airlines—a subsidiary of The Emirates Group—has successfully tested its first demo flight in which one of the Boeing 777-300ER’s two engines was powered by 100% drop-in sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF.

The aim was to examine the safety and reliability of the synthetically derived SAF when used as a jet fuel at a higher percentage.

Piloted by Captain Khalid Nasser Akram and Captain Fali Vajifdar, this was the first-ever demo flight in the MENA region that was supplied with 100% sustainable fuel. 

Currently, SAF can be mixed at up to 50% with traditional jet fuel for flying aircraft.

The flight departed from Dubai International Airport at around 11:39 pm on January 30 and was flown for more than one hour over Dubai’s coastline.

The test was part of the Emirate’s effort to help hit the Net Zero target by 2050, as the aviation industry is casting about for cleaner fuel solutions like SAF, reported GLOBETRENDER™.

SAF Can Curb Carbon Emission

SAF—a biofuel derived from renewable biomass and waste products—holds the potential to deliver the efficiency of petroleum-based conventional aircraft fuel but with only a fraction of its carbon footprint.

Case in point: Based on the method and feedstock used for production, SAF can curb greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by up to 80% over the fuel lifecycle, offering the aviation industry solid footing for significantly decoupling GHG emissions from flights.

Since 2011, over 4,50,000 commercial flights have been taken to the skies using SAF globally. 

Even though SAF has capabilities to significantly limit carbon emissions in aviation, global SAF production accounts for only 0.03% of total fuel use (based on pre-pandemic reports).

World leaders are working relentlessly to devise thought-out strategies for scaling up new processes and facilitating the production of commercially usable SAF.

As a result, the production of drop-in SAF has more than tripled in 2022, compared to 2021, according to IATA.

To date, the approved bio-jet fuel production routes include co-processing, hydro-processed esters and fatty acids (HEFA), hydro-deoxygenated synthetic aromatic kerosene (HDO-SAK), Fischer-Tropsch synthetic paraffinic kerosene (FT-SPK), and more.

However, with the increasing bio-content in aviation fuels exacerbating microbial contamination, controlling its effects has become a major concern.

That said, leveraging kits like FUELSTAT® for periodic testing of SAF and blended SAF is critical. Thus contamination can be detected at the earliest stages and before severe safety/operational disruptions occur.

More Insights into Emirates Flight Using Biofuel

Emirates partnered with Boeing, GE Aerospace, Neste, Honeywell, and Virent to produce and buy a SAF blend closely identical to the efficacy and properties of traditional aircraft fuel.

“At each blend ratio, various chemical and physical fuel property measurements were carried out,” explained an Emirates spokesperson. “After multiple lab tests and rigorous trials, [we] arrived at a blending ratio that mirrored the qualities of jet fuel.“

A total of 18T of drop-in SAF blend, made up of 50% HDO-SAK and 50% HEFA-SPK, was used for the test flight. This 100% SAF powered one General Electric GE90 engine of the aircraft, whereas; the other GE90 was supplied with petroleum-based jet fuel.

Emirates hopes the data and success of the flight will act as a step-change in facilitating the future adoption and acceptance of 100% SAF blend as a cleaner alternative to conventional fuel—well over the present limit of 50% drop-in SAF blend.

“This flight is a milestone moment for Emirates and a positive step for our industry as we work collectively to address one of our biggest challenges – reducing our carbon footprint. It has been a long journey to finally see this demonstration 100% SAF flight take off,” said Adel Al Redha, chief operating officer at Emirates Airlines. 

Al Redha goes on to explain, “Such initiatives are critical contributors to industry knowledge on SAF and provide data to demonstrate the use of higher blends of SAF for future regulatory approvals. We hope that landmark demonstration flights like this one will help open the door to scale up the SAF supply chain and make it more available and accessible across geographies, and most importantly, affordable for broader industry adoption in the future.”

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Computers & Software Professional Services Technology U.S

Microsoft Is Predicted to Equip Excel with AI

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Microsoft Excel is poised to get a deep AI boost, however, this software giant isn’t going to tap into ChatGPT or OpenAI.

According to a new paper, in order to equip Excel with artificial intelligence, the in-house research team at Microsoft is working on bringing out an assistive AI system called FLAME, reported TechRadar.  

Calling it a “T5-based model,” the authors stated that FLAME has the capabilities to make the automation on the Excel app more efficient. 

An AI specially designed for Excel-specific tasks, FLAME ensures competitive performance and is more precise than other multipurpose AIs.

Purpose of FLAME

Written by eight of Microsoft’s in-house software developers, the paper highlights Excel as a popular spreadsheet platform that enables users to efficiently organise, format, and calculate data. 

With FLAME, Microsoft is committed to helping users with spreadsheet formulas providing autocomplete suggestions. 

Even better, FLAME can be leveraged to fix buggy and malformed formulas in the future Excel spreadsheet environment when plugged into the software.

“We curate a training dataset using sketch deduplication, introduce an Excel-specific formula tokenizer for our model, and use domain-specific versions of masked span prediction and noisy auto-encoding as pre-training objectives, ” explained the authors. “We evaluate FLAME on formula repair, formula auto-completion, and a novel task called syntax reconstruction.”

The new AI assistant—being a smaller model with 60M parameters and two orders of magnitude less training data—can outshine other larger language models—such as CodeT5 (220M), codex-Cushman (12B) and Codex-Da Vinci (175B).

The result: FLAME is anticipated to be more efficacious and cost-efficient to train or deploy compared with other AI tools.

However, when FLAME will be released or whether it will be free-of-cost for mass use is yet to be revealed.

Microsoft Excel Charts

Even while Microsoft experts contemplate giving Excel an AI boost, the built-in Excel charts are still overwhelming to deal with.

One of the best ways to make large datasets easily discernible is to recapitulate them in visual form. 

Excel’s built-in charts are the go-to option for many when it comes to explaining trends efficiently; deriving actionable insights from massive troves of data; evaluating key values effortlessly, and much more. 

However, for some types of Excel charts, the built-in formatting functionalities are limited, which makes it difficult to create professional-looking PowerPoint presentations. For example, with Excel waterfall charts, users cannot reference cells for titling, change the format (e.g. colour) of the connector lines, etc. 

Again, some charts are not natively available in Excel, requiring users to take the manual approach.

For professionals frequently required to create great-looking PowerPoint presentations with stunning charts, leveraging a high-end add-in like think-cell is a sensible decision. With fewer clicks and less formatting, PowerPoint add-ins streamline the process while significantly saving working hours. 

Microsoft Is Making Incredible Strides with AI

In a move to amplify its offerings in Azure OpenAI service, the software giant has extended its multi-year, multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI this year. 

Even though Microsoft refused to comment on the deal’s specifics, an investment of around $10 billion is anticipated, with Microsoft getting a 75% of OpenAI’s returns until it recoups the investment. After recouping, Microsoft would hold a 49 % stake in OpenAI.

On top of that, Microsoft has recently demonstrated its plans to integrate the AI engine behind ChatGPT into its Edge web browser and Bing search engine. With Bing’s AI reboot, the company expects to shake up the search business, taking on the search engine giant Google. 

Wrapping Up

Microsoft expects FLAME to boost the process of creating and maintaining Excel formulas, especially for users who need to deal with large spreadsheets with tons of formulas.

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Computers & Software Professional Services Technology

Atlassian’s New Jira Products Will Align Business and Engineering Teams

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The leading provider of productivity software, Atlassian Corporation Plc, has recently unveiled its three new Jira platform advancements—Jira Product Discovery, Jira Work Management, and new Jira workflow templates.

With this new and advanced Jira tools suite, the company is committed to accelerating and supporting each stage of the software development lifecycle—from ideation and delivery to facilitating operations.

The announcement was made by the Australian tech giant during its very first Agile and DevOps event—Unleash—held in Berlin on February 8.

Key Atlassian Product Announcements

Let’s go through the new Jira advancements that’ll help world-class businesses build products faster and more effectively.

Jira Product Discovery

Jira Product Discovery is a dynamic, collaborative, and data-driven solution that aims to democratise product discovery.

With Jira Product Discovery, Atlassian is committed to helping product managers collect, prioritise, and organise product inputs and feedback and make data-driven decisions efficiently. 

Developed by the Point A team, the tool is now available in Beta and will hopefully be available in early 2023.

With this new tool, product managers can connect their entire workflow effortlessly and bring technical and business teams at the same table before the developers start coding. 

No more tabs and spreadsheets to prioritise, deliver and collaborate with teams on product ideas. Business teams—from marketing to sales—can collaborate on a single project, create and manage insights, and prioritise ideas with voting to transform them into active deliverables.

Jira Work Management

In a move to empower organisations with cross-departmental collaboration, Atlassian has made Jira Work Management natively available with all commensurate Jira software licence tiers until March 2024.

The tool is specially developed to facilitate status tracking of all activities regarded as Work. Work can include document creation, handling approval processes, running projects, executing daily repetitive tasks, and more.

It means that organisations no longer have to break the bank by investing in a high-end project management tool. Jira Work Management makes collaboration effortless, allowing business teams to accomplish work faster.

With features such as a kanban-like Boards view, Calendar view, Timeline view, smart links, and sub-tasks, this collaborative system allows teams to manage projects and processes with ease—no matter the complexity.

Atlassian marks Jira Work Management as the most customisable platform that lets an organisation standardise the way it operates, leveraging global configuration workflows, settings, permissions, and rich APIs. 

Jira Workflow & Toolchain Templates

Atlassian has also announced the release of 23 templates that span panning teams, categories and departments, and categories. Carefully curated by experts, these new templates come with automation rules, permissions, workflows, and third-party integration by default.

Even better, these pre-made templates are available natively and for free with the Jira tools suite—Jira Product Discover, Jira Work Management, Jira Software, and Jira Service Management.

Wrapping Up

By leveraging Atlassian products, teams can bolster their productivity while driving business agility. However, for a business using the Atlassian stack for its agility, collaboration, and project management, investing in a managed service provider is a sensible decision. 

With a high-quality Atlassian managed service provider like Automation Consultants, teams can keep their Atlassian solutions performing at their best while slashing the total cost of ownership and minimising the risk of downtime. 

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Financial Market Living Professional Services Real Estate U.K

London’s Luxury Residential Market Booms Defying UK’s Home Sales Slowdown

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Even though the UK is now seeing the steepest slump in property prices since the 2008 financial crisis, London’s luxury residences are managing to defy Britain’s housing market downturn, reported The Business Times.

Fifteen homes in Central London valued at £5 million or higher were registered as sold in the fourth quarter of 2022—which is 63% higher than the pre-pandemic average, according to researcher LonRes. “It’s not surprising, therefore, that it tempted would-be sellers to put their homes onto the market,” said Anthony Payne, managing director at LonRes.

UK Housing Market Poised for Disruption

The UK’s housing market is facing a ‘perfect’ storm as it tries to eke out growth while coping with the surging cost of living, hiking mortgage and inflation rates, and the risk of recession. 

The result: rapid cooling in property demand and sales activities leading to a selloff in the UK’s housing market.

Let’s look at how much the British housing market and buyer demand have been impacted by current economic setbacks:

  • British home prices slid in December 2022 by the most in 13 years and are predicted to slip by a whopping 20% in 2023 if the UK’s base rate continues to hike, according to The Guardian.
  • The Bank of England has been raising the base since the beginning of 2022 as part of its effort to return inflation to its 2% target level. The bank rate has gone up to an annual rate of 4.0% in February 2023—a jump of 0.5% from 3.5% in December 2022. 
  • On the other hand, surveyors registered a net balance of -47% for new buyer inquiries in January 2023, plunging from -40% in December 2022.

In such a circumstance, analysts have unanimously agreed that the UK’s property market is facing more turbulence this year.

Wealthy Buyers Are Snapping Up London’s Luxury Property

Despite the present economic upset throughout Britain, luxury sales in London are skyrocketing, outshining the UK’s housing market. 

But why?

First off, even though the interest rate and mortgage rate have hit an all-time high this year, millionaires and elites are less likely to get affected by the impacts of the increase, as they’re less dependent on borrowing. 

Secondly, Britain’s pound continues to tumble sharply against the US dollar, dropping a full cent to around $1.20.

Part of the weakness of the pound sterling is the increase in power of the US dollar which is attracting more international investors and wealthy buyers to flock to London’s priciest homes.

Case in point: In the first half of 2022, overseas buyers purchased 48% of the total luxury home purchases in Prime London—a jump from 13% from 2021.

That said, the demand for luxury property management services offered by agencies like The London Management Company is getting a push, with ultra-high-net-worth buyers investing in upscale properties in Central London.

Offering bespoke services—from maintenance to upkeep and housekeeping—a class-leading agency ensures a client’s luxury property is well-managed, squeaky clean, and always ready for their arrival.

However, in the final quarter of last year, home sale activities decreased in Greater London due to climbing mortgage rates, soaring inflation, and high base rates.

“The final quarter of the year saw a change of direction,” stated the managing director at LonRes. “We’ll be keeping a close eye on how the market unfolds in the months ahead.”

Wrapping Up

Outperforming Britain’s housing market, London’s luxury houses are seeing substantial growth this year.

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Health & Medicine Pharmaceuticals & Biotech Science Technology U.S

Underrepresentation & Overconsumption: Analysing the Diversity Gaps in Clinical Trials

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Randomised clinical trials (RCTs) have long been considered the bedrock for evidence-based treatment (EBT). Thus they should be designed to be pragmatic and accumulate data representing the larger population for the disease profile. However, the research output is jeopardised severely by the limited enrollment of social, racial, and ethnic minority groups.

The FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) has reported that only 5% of patients partaking in clinical trials are Black, less than 2% are Asian, and as for Latinos, the percentage is as low as 1%.

This disparity is threatening, as it causes trials to show variance in effectiveness. 

Releasing a draft guidance, the FDA has placed emphasis on enhancing diversity in industry-sponsored clinical trials (iCTs), reported Clinical Leader. 

The agency urges investors and sponsors to devise and present a Race and Ethnicity Diversity Plan early in the trial process as per the framework delineated in the guideline.

Why Does Diversity in Clinical Trials Matter

Even though racial and ethnic populations in the United States have a disproportionate burden for specific ailments, they are most often underrepresented in biomedical studies, said the FDA.

With “underrepresented racial and ethnic populations,” the FDA indicates ethnic groups like “Black or African American, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous and Native American, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders, and other persons of colour.”

Considering the response and exposure of over 20% of drugs vary with racial differences, the FDA marks race and ethnic minority inclusion in iCT as a pressing need.

According to a study, white Americans are predicted to become a minority by 2045. The white demographic decline in the USA makes clinical trial diversification critical to confirm that newly developed drugs are safe and effective for whoever may use them across the country. 

“The U.S. population has become increasingly diverse, and ensuring meaningful representation of racial and ethnic minorities in clinical trials for regulated medical products is fundamental to public health,” said FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, M.D. “Going forward, achieving greater diversity will be a key focus throughout the FDA to facilitate the development of better treatments and better ways to fight diseases that often disproportionately impact diverse communities.”

Barriers to Improving Patient Participation Diversity in Clinical Trials

According to the FDA, the scepticism of the trial process stemming from several historical events deter ethnic minorities from participating in iCTs.

Other factors include limited access to healthcare for ethnic minorities, socioeconomic conditions, insufficient patient recruitment and retention efforts, time and monetary restraints, etc.

The result: gaps in clinical trial diversity that affects the trial success rate.

How to Fill the Diversity Gaps

What can help bridge the diversity gaps in iCT and accelerate effective products to market?

Decentralised Clinical Trial (DCT) Platforms 

The COVID-19 outbreak has made sponsors realise the significance of DCTs in filling the diversity gaps in healthcare research and accelerating the long-overdue changes in trial design.

Let’s see how:

  • DCTs and hybrid study models allow trial teams to expand their participant pools. 
  • DCT platforms such as ObvioHealth that include ePRO and eConsent enable patients to contribute to clinical trials from the comfort of their homes.
  • By helping overcome barriers to participant recruitment, DCTs and hybrid models have encouraged a much higher enrollment rate.

The result: augmented trial outcomes that represent real-world patient populations.

Ethnically Diverse Workforce

According to research, the lack of workforce diversity in the USA has been highlighted as a leading factor impeding the inclusion of diverse populations and causing disparities in oncology trial results.

The good news? Studies found that 74% of Black and 81% of Latinx people are willing to volunteer for clinical trials if their physicians advise. With that said, engaging the workforce in clinical trials from underrepresented groups can help build trust with at-risk participants. 

On top of that, the NHS recognised workforce diversity as the key factor to bring clinical trials closer to underserved folks. 

Patient Expense Reimbursement

The FDA recognised patient expense reimbursement as an effective way to enhance clinical trial diversity. However, the lack of a consistent approach among CROs and regulators makes the process slow and ineffective. 

Wrapping Up

The FDA sheds light on the significance of global efforts in increasing patient diversity. DCT can be a step change in helping sponsors improve the enrollment of participants from underrepresented racial and ethnic populations in clinical trials. 

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Financial Market Lifestyle Real Estate U.K U.S

Dubai Remains One of the Most ‘Affordable’ Luxury Home Destinations in the World

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According to the Financial Express, Dubai continues to remain one of the world’s most ‘affordable’ luxury residential markets, with most prime residences transacting for an average $870/sq. ft. USD.

The ‘affordable’ price per square foot in most prime residential neighbourhoods—combined with Dubai’s safety, excellent climate, and unrivalled sun-sea-sand lifestyle—is helping the city cement its iconic status in the luxury property market, thus fuelling the demand.

How Dubai Is Considered an ‘Affordable’ Luxury Home Destination

According to the Dubai Residential Market Review Winter 2022-23, a report published by Knight Frank, the majority of submarkets in Dubai exhibit a house-price-to-income ratio of less than six times yearly income. 

Whereas, as a rule of thumb, a house is considered affordable when its price is around six times the gross income of a household.

The quarterly report, which analyses Dubai’s real estate market and sheds light on key trends and forecasts, also published average house prices vs. average annual income by neighbourhood to help readers understand how accessible the mainstream residential market is.

Based on this report and other factors, the Financial Express has determined that the majority of Dubai real estate is relatively affordable.

The only outliers are three exclusive areas—Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Hills, and Jumeirah Bay Island—with house prices costing more than 20 times the average yearly income.

What’s Driving Demand for Dubai’s Luxury Homes?

Dubai’s luxury home sale boom continues as millionaires flock to the Emirates in search of second addresses in the city’s most exclusive enclaves. 

“The meteoric rise of Dubai’s multi-million-dollar homes market over the course of the last two years has been phenomenal. The performance at the top of the market clearly demonstrates the arrival of Dubai as a luxury hub to rival long-established markets elsewhere, with no sign to suggest a slowdown in the seemingly relentless demand from global ultra-high-net-worth-individuals zeroing in on the emirate in search of second homes,” explained Faisal Durrani, Partner, the Head of Middle East Research at Knight Frank.

A study by Henley & Partners predicted that 2023 would see a massive influx of elites and millionaires settling down in the Emirates, with more and more countries now easing travel and quarantine restrictions. 

Case in point: The number of millionaires migrating to the UAE in 2022 was over 4000, which was more than the number of millionaires settling down in the UK, the USA, Australia, Switzerland, etc.

The result: 219 sales of homes worth over $10 million were recorded in 2022, compared to 93 in 2021—a jump of a staggering 135%.

High-net-worth individuals and the richest international buyers are vying for luxury properties in the three neighbourhoods of Dubai, despite the soaring prices. 

However, the demand for properties has slumped in other cities.

Despite a surge of 49.4% in property price in 2022, Palm Jumeirah remains Dubai’s star performer, making record-high sales of villas and luxury apartments.

Palm’s world-class amenities, private beach access, glittering waterfront views, and tranquil settings has made it top the ultra-high-net-worth customers’ list.

Luxury Interior Design in Dubai

With contemporary designs dominating the Dubai luxury market now, high-end interior design studios are introducing new design styles and ideas to transform exclusive spaces into exquisite residences.

Bringing out the best of both worlds—interior design and architecture—a class-leading interior design studio like Accouter aims to embody the true spirit of design excellence.

Wrapping up

Despite all the challenges posed by global inflation and the shortage of new supply compared to demand, Dubai’s luxury residential market remains affordable and buoyant, showing no signs of slowing down.

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Energy & Environment Government & Politics Technology U.S

US Energy Department to Invest as Much as $74M in Enhanced Geothermal Systems

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As part of its efforts to ensure carbon emission-free electricity generation, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently declared it would provide up to $74 million for up to seven EGS-based pilot projects.

The aim is to ramp up the development of the geothermal industry by continuously testing the scalability and efficacy of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). 

DOE hopes these pilot projects will help trap the Earth’s nearly inexhaustible heat resources in different geologic settings.

A lion’s share of this $74 million investment will come from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) that helps facilitate the use of breakthrough technologies and advanced techniques.

DOE’s Fourth Energy Earthshot

In a move to slash the cost of geothermal power by 90% to $45 per MWh by 2035, DOE launched the new Enhanced Geothermal Shot™. 

The Enhanced Geothermal Shot™ is part of DOE’s Energy EarthShots Initiative, which was launched in September 2022.

This $74M is the first funding opportunity announced as part of DOE’s effort to produce clean, safer energy since the launching of the Enhanced Geothermal Shot™ last year.

Enhanced Geothermal Systems

The EGS—human-made geothermal reservoirs—are built to inject high-flow water/fluid into naturally hot (~150°C) and impermeable deep rocks through an injection borehole and extract heat by forming or re-opening a subsurface fracture network. 

The high-temperature dry rock (HDR) area acts as a heat exchanger in an EGS reservoir. 

In an EGS system, the reservoir’s natural permeability is boosted by stimulating fracture formation and ensuring a constant water flow. 

The result: increased size and connectivity of water pathways that allow water to circulate through the fractures of the deep rocks

This constant flow of fluid, when in contact with the subsurface rock areas, gets heated up, backs to the surface through the production barehole, and finally is extracted for electricity generation.

The concept behind the EGS system is to enhance the economics of geothermal resources without adequate water and/or permeability.

EGS aims to tap a continuum of geothermal resources—ranging from dry rocks to traditional hydrothermal resources.

After deployment, EGS functions just as naturally occurring hydrothermal systems.

When it comes to ensuring the safe deployment of EGS reservoirs while also maximising its operational efficiency, leveraging a high-end geothermal monitoring tool is a sensible decision. 

A solution like the one offered by Silixa can effectively facilitate the long-term monitoring of geothermal reservoirs and help operators comply with regulations.

EGS’s Potential to Increase Electricity Production

Geothermal power plants currently generate 3.7 GW of electricity in the US, accounting for around 0.4% of the net.

However, with EGS deployed, geothermal energy which is inaccessible using conventional technologies, can be tapped to generate as much as 90 GW of electricity by 2050.

“Advances in enhanced geothermal systems will help introduce geothermal energy in regions where, until recently, the use of this renewable power source was thought to be impossible,” said United States Secretary of Energy, Jennifer M. Granholm, in a statement last Wednesday. “These pilot demonstrations will help us realise the enormous potential of the heat beneath our feet to deliver clean, renewable energy to millions of Americans.”

Marking geothermal as an enormous source of renewable energy, the secretary of energy anticipates that around 45% of U.S. houses can be powered by the Earth’s heat at some point.

Wrapping Up

DOE hopes these BIL-funded EGS pilot demonstration projects would act as a step-change in meeting the booming demand for electricity while also helping hit President Biden’s goals of attaining deep decarbonisation in electricity generation by 2035.

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Business Computers & Software Employment Technology U.S

High-Value Excel Skills Employers Frequently Look For

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Possessing work-level proficiency in Microsoft Excel is critical, with more than 82% of middle-skill jobs now being “digitally intensive.”

If you are presently flowing into the job marketplace, you will find most employers seek candidates with expertise in Microsoft Excel, and you should have the chops to stand out from the pack.

That said, honing your Excel skills is a no-brainer if you want to land a freakin’ job—faster. 

A recent article published in Fitwirr discusses the top Excel skills that can help you stay ahead of the competition, taking your career to new heights.

Basic Excel Skills

Getting the hang of high-level Excel skills is always a plus. 

But please understand that Excel is a data manipulative solution with a swarm of functionalities that you may require a lifetime (a long time, if not a lifetime) to master. However, grasping the basics can help you get a head start.

1. Cell Formatting

Excel deals with data, graphs, charts, and numbers. Because Excel applies the same formatting for all cells by default, it gets difficult to decipher the information conveyed by the displayed data. 

Don’t let massive troves of data inundate you. Master cell formatting skills and cut out repetitive tasks to better demonstrate your knack to your employer. 

Auto adjustment of cell size, conditional formatting, adding multiple rows and columns at a time, etc., are a few of the cell formatting capabilities in Excel that can help.

2. Basic Excel Functions

Getting the hang of basic Excel functions is the key to simplifying complex calculations, especially when you are sorting and analyzing a massive volume of data. 

For an entry-level job, ensure you have a great command of the basic Excel functions like IF, COUNTIF, SUM, SUMIFS, TRIM, etc.

3. Excel Shortcuts

To know how to use Excel keyboard shortcuts efficiently is a must-have skill if you don’t want to spend hours preparing a single report. Get your work done faster and amaze your employer with these super-handy shortcuts. 

Mid-Level to Advanced Excel Skills 

If you are applying for a position that may require you to deal with massive troves of complex datasets, make sure you know the inside out of advanced Excel functionalities. 

4. Data Validation

Data validation is an indispensable aspect of any data handling task—whether you’re accumulating information, interpreting data to facilitate decision-making, or presenting data to stakeholders. Unless you enter accurate and specific types of data into cells, your results will be erroneous. 

Thankfully, Excel can confine data entry to specific cells by applying data validation upon input. With data validation, Excel prompts you to enter only valid data when a cell is selected and shows an “error” when invalid data is entered. 

5. Charts and Graphs

One of the best ways to make datasets easily discernible is to turn them into interactive visuals. On top of that, getting the hang of Excel charts is a must if you are hired for a position that requires you to present data to stakeholders using PowerPoint presentations. 

Excel’s built-in charts and graphs are great at helping you recapitulate a large dataset in visual form; efficiently compare multiple data sets; better explain trends; estimate key values at a glance, and more. But the built-in charts in Excel come with limited functionalities that make it really difficult to build professional-looking presentations. 

On top of that, some charts are not natively available in Excel. For example, the Marimekko chart, frequently used by professionals to efficiently visualize categorical data over a pair of variables, is not supported even in the latest version of Excel. It means that you’d have to take the manual approach, which requires too many clicks and includes fewer formatting capabilities. 

If you need to make professional-looking PowerPoint presentations with stunning charts while significantly saving your working hours, using an add-in is a sensible decision. A high-end PowerPoint add-in like think-cell, for example, can seamlessly integrate your Excel charts into PowerPoint slides and help you add the “wow” factor to your presentations.

6. Data Protection

Because Excel files usually contain mission-critical business information, knowing how to keep them out of the reach of cybercriminals is critical. 

With that said, unprotected Excel files can be exploited by hackers looking to exfiltrate and expose sensitive data. With Excel, now, you have the power to limit access to your workbook. You can lock your Excel file with a password, grant reading-only access or even protect your workbook without a password so you don’t inadvertently delete any formulas.

Wrapping up

With the world quickly moving to data-driven business and processes, the demand for Excel experts is on the rise. Master the featured Excel skills above to impress your potential employer.