Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Indonesia seeking to capitalise on Chinese tourism surge
 Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-16 00:17:50|Editor: Mu Xuequan

Video Player Close

JAKARTA, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- As influx of Chinese tourists to Indonesia continued to grow in recent years, Indonesia is keen to expand cooperation in tourism with China to facilitate Chinese tourists and create attractive tour packages for them, an Indonesia minister said on Friday.

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya told Xinhua in an exclusive interview that Indonesia had received 1.8 million Chinese tourists as of October and the figure was expected to reach more than 2 million ones in 2017.

"The growth was 45 percent, compared to their arrival figure in the corresponding period last year," the minister said, citing the influx of Chinese tourists to Indonesia during the period.

He added that Chinese tourists contributed the most to Indonesia's foreign tourist figure at present, surpassing Singapore, Malaysia and Australia which used to dominate the figure previously.

He added that his ministry has set target to receive 5 million Chinese tourists, or 25 percent from the 20 million foreign tourists target by 2019.

Indonesia expects to receive 3.5 million Chinese tourists from 17 million foreign tourists targeted for next year, he said.

Conveying Indonesia's efforts to attract more tourists from China, the minister said that his ministry has been actively made promotions to attract more Chinese to spend the Spring Festival holiday in Indonesia.

"We did the promotion related to Chinese's Spring Festival since November," he said.

To achieve the tourism targets and provide more accommodation for Chinese tourists, the minister said Indonesia would provide more Mandarin-speaking guides, to support more direct flights from China to more of Indonesian cities.

"We already asked for assistance from Chinese consulate general office in Denpasar to teach Mandarin language to our guides and sent students to China to learn the language and how to serve Chinese tourists," he added.

The minister also expected Chinese investors to take part in Indonesia's plan to develop more destinations, called 10 New Bali, and integrated sea transportation system which he believed will integrate with China's Belt and Road Initiative.

The initiative "fits with our development of marine tourism. As we are in this field, we give full support for the initiative," the minister said.

The minister planned to build a tour package in observing China's ancient navy commander Zheng He and his voyage throughout Indonesia centuries ago.

"Zheng He is also very famous in Indonesia. We can start by developing tourism package of Zheng He," he said.

According to the minister, Zheng visited 10 cities in Indonesia that spanned from Batam to Bali. Conveying his plan, the tour packages can be accommodated through flights as well as cruise ships that starts from Batam and ends in Bali.

Output: Indonesia is looking to capitalise on a surge in Chinese overseas tourism with plans to tailor new packages for its biggest travel market. Tourism minister Arief Yahya said he expected five million Chinese visitors by 2019 from an estimated two million this year. The minister also said he hoped to attract Chinese travellers to more locations within the archipelago.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
German carmakers targeting Chinese luxury market
 BMW's sales in China rose 12 percent in November to 55,293 vehicles -- a result that positions the automaker to be China's top-selling luxury brand this year.

In the same period, Audi sales rose 6.5 percent to 56,208 units while Mercedes-Benz's brand registrations increased 22 percent to 50,813.

Although Audi outsold its rivals in November, it is still trying to recoup the sales it lost earlier this year when dealers were boycotting the brand.

Audi planned to launch a second distribution channel in China, angering some dealers, who dropped a boycott in May after Audi canceled the controversial plan. Audi sales have been rising since then, but it has yet to catch up to BMW or Mercedes for the year to date.

For the first 11 months, BMW sales are up 15 percent to 542,362 units, while Audi volume is down 2.1 percent to 528,706. Mercedes, formerly China's No. 3 luxury brand, increased its sales 27 percent to 539,728 units.

BMW is taking a number of steps to boost sales. The company is holding talks with Great Wall Motor to form a joint venture to produce cars in China for the Mini brand.

This month, BMW also is launching a car-sharing program that employs a small fleet of electric i3 models in Chengdu. If successful, BMW could expand its car-sharing program to help meet China's tough EV mandates in 2019.

Output: German carmakers are targeting the growing luxury car market in China, with BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz experiencing significant growth. BMW sales rose 12% to 55,293 cars, making it the top-selling luxury brand this year. Audi saw 6.5% percent growth to 56,208 cars and Mercedes-Benz posted a 22% surge to 50,813 sales.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
AI startup achieves 95% accuracy when spotting asphyxia in babies
 A Nigerian startup has developed a machine learning system to detect child birth asphyxia earlier and hopes to save thousands of babies’ lives every year when its technology is deployed.

The founders say the AI solution has achieved over 95% prediction accuracy in trials with nearly 1,400 pre-recorded baby cries. The startup is now raising funds to acquire more data to improve accuracy and obtain clinical approval from health institutions.

Advertisement

The young startup is already garnering international attention and is in the second round for the global IBM Watson AI XPRIZE competition, which has a $5 million prize.

Birth asphyxia is the third highest cause of under-five child deaths and is responsible for almost one million neonatal deaths annually, according to WHO. It has also been linked to 1.1 million intrapartum stillbirths, long-term neurological disability and impairment.

Dr. Victoria Feyikemi a physician at Babcock University Teaching Hospital in Ogun state, southwest Nigeria said the condition could be a manifestation of the immaturity of a baby’s respiratory system. “They often present with slow irregular respiration, reduced activity and reduced heart rate,” she said.

Detecting the condition is a challenge in Nigeria and other parts of Africa where the focus usually shifts to preparation for religious and cultural rites right after a child is born. Feyikemi said medical expertise is needed to positively establish diagnosis using blood gas analysis, administer oxygen support and to treat the underlying cause.

Advertisement

Currently deployed as an embedded model on an Android app, Ubenwa, which means baby’s cry, helps parents and caregivers detect asphyxia earlier, without having to wait on doctors.

Charles Onu, Ubenwa’s founder and principal innovator, explained that the startup’s machine learning system takes an infant’s cry as input, analyses the amplitude and frequency patterns of the cry and provides instant diagnosis of birth asphyxia.

Although the condition is detectable, Onu said few public hospital in the country had the equipment due to its high cost, poor electricity service and an unrealistic routine application for every child.

Ubenwa’s co-founder and engineering lead, Udeogu Innocent, said after being able to achieve a level of success with the model, the startup then deployed its technology to a mobile app for easier mobile diagnosis of birth asphyxia. It builds on techniques that have been developed for speech recognition.

Advertisement

The Ubenwa team is conducting clinical validation exercises in Nigeria at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and in Canada at the McGill University Health Centre.

“We want to do the tests in the hospital, interact directly with the babies, and compare how Ubenwa performs given all the new environmental challenges that would come up. The reason we are able to pursue this real-time validation in the clinical setting is as a result of the success of our earlier work,” Onu said.

The company is yet to figure out a definitive monetization business strategy.

“We are still finalizing a hybrid model. But in the meantime, we are planning to make it free for individuals and paid for organizations such as hospitals, clinics, governments, and others),” Onu said.

Advertisement

*Correction: A previous version of this story said Ubenwa is in the final round of the XPRIZE competition. It has been corrected to show it is in the second round.

Output: Nigerian start-up Ubenwa claims to detect child birth asphyxia with 95% accuracy. Birth asphyxia is behind nearly a million neonatal deaths each year, according to the World Health Organisation. But detecting the condition is a challenge in parts of Africa, where the focus usually shifts to cultural or religious rites after the birth of a child. Ubenwa's Android app uses machine learning and techniques developed for speech recognition to analyse the sound of an infant's cry and provides instant diagnosis. It is currently undergoing clinical validation tests in Nigeria and Canada.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
The Telegraph aims for 10 million registered users
 The Telegraph wants to grow its registered readers to 10 million. The goal is to shift away from valuing mass-reach audience numbers in favor of building a more loyal readership of logged-in users.

The benefits of doing so are clear. Advertisers will always want more detailed first-party audience data to improve campaign targeting, and registered users tend to be more ripe for converting into paying subscribers than flyby readers. That’s why there has been a flurry of registered-user drives at publishers such as The Times of London over the last year.

To get itself to 10 million, the publisher will invest in its newsroom, hiring 39 additional editorial staff. The publisher has identified six areas that it believes will help cultivate registrations and in which it wants to thrive: politics, sports, luxury and lifestyle, business of technology, money and travel.

“A registered reader — as opposed to an anonymous one — is far more valuable to the business than the vast majority of our audience as it stands now,” wrote The Telegraph’s CEO, Nick Hugh, in a letter to staff.

The publisher will also restructure teams internally to place its journalists closer to developers, data scientists, analysts and engineers in the office, though it’s not ready to give specific details. New editorial products like newsletters, events and messaging products will follow next year, though details are scant.

The changes described in Hugh’s message to staff are The Telegraph’s biggest since it dropped its metered paywall model in 2016 in favor of a hybrid model, in which 20 percent of content is behind a paywall and the rest is open-access.

The Telegraph wouldn’t confirm latest subscriber or registered-user numbers, saying only that they’d grown by some 300 percent four months after dropping the metered paywall. Naturally, both will be much lower than the bulk of its audience that consumes content for free, which was 23 million monthly visitors in October, according to comScore.

Monetizing digital ads is tough, particularly display, which Google and Facebook heavily dominate. That continued pressure on publishers’ digital ad revenues is causing many to embrace more reader-revenue models. The New York Times has undergone a total pivot to reader revenue, and the Guardian also generates more money from its paying members and donors than it does from advertising. Now, The Telegraph wants a piece of the action.

“The Telegraph has clearly looked at the success of The Washington Post and New York Times and is trying to follow their example: invest in journalism to attract paying members,” said Joe Evans, media analyst at Enders Analysis. “The [six] verticals they’re concentrating on will form the core proposition to get subscribers through the door; then, they can cross-subsidize by serving those readers profitable sponsored content or affiliate links in the high-value categories the editor name-checks: luxury and lifestyle, technology, money and travel.”

The shift to a product-first quality consumer proposition that motivates logins seems sensible on paper. To entice people to register, and potentially ultimately subscribe, the newspaper will need to do more than ever to stand out against local competitors with equally ambitious propositions.

“The question is whether the paper can really commit to the strategy. Is 39 new editorial roles much compared to the rounds of layoffs the business has undertaken when it was in cost-minimization mode?” said Evans. “Will they be able to stop worrying about day-to-day traffic numbers? The concern for traffic has led many news outlets to concentrate on entertainment, celebrity and overblown opinion pieces, things which get readers onto the site but don’t convert them to loyal, registered or paying readers, and it will remain very tempting to chase those numbers on a piece-by-piece basis.”

There has never been more pressure for publishers to prove their own audience data is unique. Likewise, it’s just as competitive for publishers pitching branded content briefs. Therefore, any major difference in approach to areas like platform partnerships and new device innovation attract agency attention.

“The Telegraph has taken a very different road to the likes of the Guardian, for instance, on its relationship with platforms, and in particular, Apple News, and that helps it stand out,” said Julian Purnell, partnerships and emerging media director at digital media agency Essence. “The fact it’s now gone in early to experiment with the Amazon Echo show is interesting because brands are still unsure of how to tap the smart-speaker space and how to monetize or capture an audience there. The Telegraph could have first-mover advantage there.”

Output: UK newspaper The Telegraph is emulating the New York Times and The Guardian by focusing on driving registered users, setting a target of 10 million, according to a letter from CEO Nick Hugh. He said the paper would hire 39 more editorial staff and focus on six key content areas, including sport, culture and politics. The paper, which switched to a hybrid model for its website in 2016, said registered user numbers grew 300% in the four months after the pivot away from a full paywall, while comscore said The Telegraph drew 23 million monthly visitors in October.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Scientists create floating solar rig to turn water into energy
 Two mesh electrodes are held at a narrow separation distance (L), and generate H2 and O2 gases concurrently. The key innovation is the asymmetric placement of the catalyst on the outward facing surfaces of the mesh, such that the generation of bubbles is constrained to this region. When the gas bubbles detach, their buoyancy causes them to float upward into separate collection chambers.Image credit: Credit: Daniel Esposito/Columbia Engineering

In a single hour, more energy from the sun hits the Earth than all the energy used by humankind in an entire year. Imagine if the sun's energy could be harnessed to power energy needs on Earth, and done in a way that is economical, scalable, and environmentally responsible. Researchers have long seen this as one of the grand challenges of the 21st century.

Daniel Esposito, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Columbia Engineering, has been studying water electrolysis?the splitting of water into oxygen (O2) and hydrogen (H2) fuel?as a way to convert electricity from solar photovoltaics (PVs) into storable hydrogen fuel. Hydrogen is a clean fuel that is currently used to propel rockets in NASA's space program and is widely expected to play an important role in a sustainable energy future. The vast majority of today's hydrogen is produced from natural gas through a process called steam methane reforming that simultaneously releases CO2, but water electrolysis using electricity from solar PV offers a promising route to produce H2 without any associated CO2 emissions.

Esposito's team has now developed a novel photovoltaic-powered electrolysis device that can operate as a stand-alone platform that floats on open water. His floating PV-electrolyzer can be thought of as a "solar fuels rig" that bears some resemblance to deep-sea oil rigs, except that it would produce hydrogen fuel from sunlight and water instead of extracting petroleum from beneath the sea floor. The study, "Floating Membraneless PV-Electrolyzer Based on Buoyancy-Driven Product Separation," was published today by International Journal of Hydrogen Energy.

The researchers' key innovation is the method by which they separate the H2 and O2 gasses produced by water electrolysis. State-of-the-art electrolyzers use expensive membranes to maintain separation of these two gases. The Columbia Engineering device relies instead on a novel electrode configuration that allows the gases to be separated and collected using the buoyancy of bubbles in water. The design enables efficient operation with high product purity and without actively pumping the electrolyte. Based on the concept of buoyancy-induced separation, the simple electrolyzer architecture produces H2 with purity as high as 99 percent.

"The simplicity of our PV-electrolyzer architecture?without a membrane or pumps?makes our design particularly attractive for its application to seawater electrolysis, thanks to its potential for low cost and higher durability compared to current devices that contain membranes," says Esposito, whose Solar Fuels Engineering Laboratory develops solar and electrochemical technologies that convert renewable and abundant solar energy into storable chemical fuels. "We believe that our prototype is the first demonstration of a practical membraneless floating PV-electrolyzer system, and could inspire large-scale 'solar fuels rigs' that could generate large quantities of H2 fuel from abundant sunlight and seawater without taking up any space on land or competing with fresh water for agricultural uses."

Commercial electrolyzer devices rely on a membrane, or divider, to separate the electrodes within the device from which H2 and O2 gas are produced. Most of the research for electrolysis devices has been focused on devices that incorporate a membrane. These membranes and dividers are prone to degradation and failure and require a high purity water source. Seawater contains impurities and microorganisms that can easily destroy these membranes.

"Being able to safely demonstrate a device that can perform electrolysis without a membrane brings us another step closer to making seawater electrolysis possible," says Jack Davis, the paper's first author and a PhD student working with Esposito. "These solar fuels generators are essentially artificial photosynthesis systems, doing the same thing that plants do with photosynthesis, so our device may open up all kinds of opportunities to generate clean, renewable energy."

Crucial to the operation of Esposito's PV-electrolyzer is a novel electrode configuration comprising mesh flow-through electrodes that are coated with a catalyst only on one side. These asymmetric electrodes promote the evolution of gaseous H2 and O2 products on only the outer surfaces of the electrodes where the catalysts have been deposited. When the growing H2 and O2 bubbles become large enough, their buoyancy causes them to detach from the electrode surfaces and float upwards into separate overhead collection chambers.

The team used the Columbia Clean Room to deposit platinum electrocatalyst onto the mesh electrodes and the 3D-printers in the Columbia Makerspace to make many of the reactor components. They also used a high-speed video camera to monitor transport of H2 and O2 bubbles between electrodes, a process known as "crossover." Crossover between electrodes is undesirable because it decreases product purity, leading to safety concerns and the need for downstream separation units that make the process more expensive.

In order to monitor H2 and O2 crossover events, the researchers incorporated windows in all of their electrolysis devices so that they could take high-speed videos of gas bubble evolution from the electrodes while the device was operating. These videos were typically taken at a rate of 500 frames per second (a typical iPhone captures video at a rate of 30 frames per second).

The team is refining their design for more efficient operation in real seawater, which poses additional challenges compared to the more ideal aqueous electrolytes used in their laboratory studies. They also plan to develop modular designs that they can use to build larger, scaled-up systems.

Esposito adds: "There are many possible technological solutions to achieve a sustainable energy future, but nobody knows exactly what specific technology or combination of technologies will be the best to pursue. We are especially excited about the potential of solar fuels technologies because of the tremendous amount of solar energy that is available. Our challenge is to find scalable and economical technologies that convert sunlight into a useful form of energy that can also be stored for times when the sun is not shining."

The study is titled "Floating Membraneless PV-Electrolyzer Based on Buoyancy-Driven Product Separation."

Output: US researchers have developed a "solar rig" - a sea-borne platform that uses sunlight to convert water into hydrogen energy. Experiments at Columbia Engineering achieved the "first demonstration of a practical, membraneless floating photovoltaic-electrolyser system", according to an article in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. The system uses technology that slashes the cost of the process and reduces the amount of CO2 waste. The team believes its system brings the possibility of scalable seawater electrolysis a step closer.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Google aims to mute autoplay videos in new version of Chrome
 Back in September, Google said Chrome 64 would address several user concerns around content that autoplays, most notably, the ability to have autoplay videos go silent by default. Now, if you’re really keen on testing it out, you do so today by downloading the Chrome 64 beta, as spotted by Engadget. The company said the full autoplay video blocking feature, which is part of a broader ad blocking effort in Chrome that’s been in the works for quite some time, would arrive in the consumer version of the browser come January.

The setting to have autoplay content automatically muted is in Chrome 64’s permissions bar. Unfortunately, this isn’t a one-and-done setting — it has to be done for every website you want it applied to — but it will mute sound for any content that is navigated to under the parent domain.

Output: Google has added the ability to automatically mute autoplay videos to its Chrome 64 beta, set to hit consumer browsers next month. The tool, however, has to be activated for every website visited by a user. The mute feature is one of a suite of extras added to the updated operating system, including a better pop-up blocker and a measure to prevent malicious auto-redirects, while Chrome OS users can also access a split-screen option.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
CRISPR Therapeutics to launch first gene-editing clinical trial
 ISTOCK, BUBAONELast Thursday (December 7), CRISPR Therapeutics submitted an application to European regulatory authorities seeking permission to begin clinical trials for CTX001, an investigational CRISPR treatment for patients with sickle cell disease and β thalassemia.

CRISPR Therapeutics, the company cofounded by Emmanuel Charpentier—one of the developers of CRISPR gene editing technology—plans to start a Europe-based Phase 1/2 trial for patients with β thalassemia in 2018. “I think it’s a momentous occasion for us, but also for the field in general,” Samarth Kulkarni, CEO of the company, tells Wired. “Just three years ago we were talking about CRISPR-based treatments as sci-fi fantasy, but here we are.”

The firm also plans to apply for US Food and Drug Administration approval to use the treatment for sickle cell disease early next year.

Patients with sickle cell disease and β thalassemia possess mutations in a gene that produces a subunit of hemoglobin,...

Output: Swiss genetic engineering firm CRISPR Therapeutics has sought permission from European regulators to begin its first-ever clinical trials early next year on CTX001, a gene therapy treatment for beta thalassemia. The company is also set to apply to the US Food and Drug Administration for approval to use it against sickle cell disease. CTX001 stimulates production of foetal haemoglobin, which the body usually cuts off at the age of around six months, and has resulted in an editing efficiency of 80%, with no reported off-target effects.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
CRISPR Therapeutics to launch first gene-editing clinical trial
 In late 2012, French microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier approached a handful of American scientists about starting a company, a Crispr company. They included UC Berkeley’s Jennifer Doudna, George Church at Harvard University, and his former postdoc Feng Zhang of the Broad Institute—the brightest stars in the then-tiny field of Crispr research. Back then barely 100 papers had been published on the little-known guided DNA-cutting system. It certainly hadn’t attracted any money. But Charpentier thought that was about to change, and to simplify the process of intellectual property, she suggested the scientists team up.

It was a noble idea. But it wasn’t to be. Over the next year, as the science got stronger and VCs came sniffing, any hope of unity withered up and washed away, carried on a billion-dollar tide of investment. In the end, Crispr’s leading luminaries formed three companies—Caribou Biosciences, Editas Medicine, and Crispr Therapeutics—to take what they had done in their labs and use it to cure human disease. For nearly five years the “big three’ Crispr biotechs have been promising precise gene therapy solutions to inherited genetic conditions. And now, one of them says it’s ready to test the idea on people.

Last week, Charpentier’s company, Crispr Therapeutics, announced it has asked regulators in Europe for permission to trial a cure for the disease beta thalassemia. The study, testing a genetic tweak to the stem cells that make red blood cells, could begin as soon as next year. The company also plans to file an investigational new drug application with the Food and Drug Administration to treat sickle cell disease in the US within the first few months of 2018. The company, which is co-located in Zug, Switzerland and Cambridge, Massachusetts, said the timing is just a matter of bandwidth, as they file the same data with regulators on two different continents.

Both diseases stem from mutations in a single gene (HBB) that provides instructions for making a protein called beta-globin, a subunit of hemoglobin that binds oxygen and delivers it to tissues throughout the body via red blood cells. One kind of mutation leads to poor production of hemoglobin; another creates abnormal beta-globin structures, causing red blood cells to distort into a crescent or “sickle” shape. Both can cause anemia, repeated infections, and waves of pain. Crispr Therapeutics has developed a way to hit them both with a single treatment.

It works not by targeting HBB, but by boosting expression of a different gene—one that makes fetal hemoglobin. Everyone is born with fetal hemoglobin; it’s how cells transport oxygen between mother and child in the womb. But by six months your body puts the brakes on making fetal hemoglobin and switches over to the adult form. All Crispr Therapeutics’ treatment does is take the brakes off.

From a blood draw, scientists separate out a patient’s hematopoietic stem cells—the ones that make red blood cells. Then, in a petri dish, they zap ‘em with a bit of electricity, allowing the Crispr components to go into the cells and turn on the fetal hemoglobin gene. To make room for the new, edited stem cells, doctors destroy the patient's existing bone marrow cells with radiation or high doses of chemo drugs. Within a week after infusion, the new cells find their way to their home in the bone marrow and start making red blood cells carrying fetal hemoglobin.

Output: Swiss genetic engineering firm CRISPR Therapeutics has sought permission from European regulators to begin its first-ever clinical trials early next year on CTX001, a gene therapy treatment for beta thalassemia. The company is also set to apply to the US Food and Drug Administration for approval to use it against sickle cell disease. CTX001 stimulates production of foetal haemoglobin, which the body usually cuts off at the age of around six months, and has resulted in an editing efficiency of 80%, with no reported off-target effects.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Rule change will ease fossil fuel divestment by UK pension funds
 The government is to allow Britain’s £2tn workplace pension schemes to dump their shares in oil, gas and coal companies more easily, empowering them to take investment decisions to fight climate change.

Until now, pension schemes have been hamstrung by “fiduciary duties” that effectively require schemes to seek the best returns irrespective of the threat of climate change. Many have rebuffed calls by members for fossil fuel divestment, citing legal obligations.

But in what has been hailed as a major victory for campaigners against fossil fuels, the government is to introduce new investment regulations that will allow pension schemes to “mirror members’ ethical concerns” and “address environmental problems”.

The rules are expected to come into force next year after a consultation period and will bring into effect recommendations made in 2014 and earlier this year by the Law Commission.

Guy Opperman, the minister for pensions and financial inclusion, said: “Putting social value at the heart of our pensions system is something that is deeply important to Theresa May’s government. Thanks to these new regulations, savers will finally have the clear opportunity to have their say on where their money is invested and can reflect what is personally important to them, whilst delivering mutual benefits.”

About £87bn a year pours into Britain’s pension schemes, with a significant proportion of it automatically invested into gas and oil companies such as BP and Shell. But a growing body of academic and investment research suggests that reserves of fossil fuels could become “stranded assets” and virtually worthless as countries battle climate change.

“We are committed to making it easier for people to invest in ways that reflect their values and have a positive impact on the issues they care about,” said Tracey Crouch, the minister for sport and civil society.

Once mocked by the conventional asset management industry, divestment from fossil fuels has moved beyond charity and religious groups into the investment mainstream. In November, the managers of the world’s biggest wealth fund, Norway’s sovereign $1tn fund, recommended divesting from existing oil and gas shares – it holds $5.4bn of Shell shares and $3bn in Exxon – as well as ruling out future investments.

Meanwhile, at last week’s One Planet Summit in Paris, the French financial giant Axa said it would speed up its withdrawal from coal businesses and end insurance for controversial US oil pipelines.

ShareAction, which campaigns for responsible investment, said the new UK rules would empower pension savers to use their investments to fight climate change.

Pipes stored for use in the Keystone XL oil pipeline planned for North Dakota. Axa says it will no longer insure controversial US pipelines. Photograph: Terray Sylvester/Reuters

The charity’s chief executive, Catherine Howarth, said: “ShareAction has been campaigning for change in this area for years. The [Department for Work and Pensions’] decision to propose these reforms is a welcome breakthrough.

“We urge pension savers in the UK who care about how their money is invested to let the DWP know they fully support this much-needed change in the law. As powerful investors, it is essential our pension funds focus on long-term risks and opportunities such as those connected with climate change and social inequality.”

But Howarth called on the Financial Conduct Authority to speed up its response to the Law Commission’s proposals, claiming the city regulator “is still sitting on its hands”.

Across the world more than 800 institutions, with total investments valued at $6tn, have committed to divest from fossil fuels.

Local authority pension schemes, which hold £16bn worth of oil and gas company shares in their investment portfolios on behalf of 5.3 million workers in England and Wales, are likely to be the earliest to implement the rules in the UK.

The Environment Agency and Southwark council in London have been among the first major schemes to divest, and as once independently run council schemes begin a pooling process, divestment is likely to spread to more authorities.

Aon, one of the biggest advisers to pension schemes around the world, said the divestment campaign was “real and much higher up the agenda” but said many schemes would want to engage with energy companies to encourage renewable alternatives rather than selling their holdings.

John Belgrove, a senior partner at Aon, said: “In the past, aspects around fiduciary duty and best returns have got in the way of pension trustees [wanting to divest] ... and the subject has been easily kicked into the long grass. These new regulations from the DWP are another step in a series of steps we have seen in this area. But exclusion is still pretty rare. If one looks at the big picture on fossil fuels, the biggest renewable energy developments are coming from the very same firms that extract fossil fuels.”

Output: UK workplace pension schemes worth £2tn ($2.7tn) will be able to divest from coal, oil and gas more easily under new government investment regulations. At present, “fiduciary duties” that require schemes to aim for the best returns have led pension funds to reject calls for climate change to be prioritised in investment decisions. The new regulations, expected to come into force in 2018, will permit funds to “mirror members’ ethical concerns” and “address environmental problems”. Of the £87bn a year that enters the UK’s pension funds, a significant proportion is invested in fossil fuel companies.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Blockchain brought to Chinese food chain by US giants
 Walmart, JD.com, IBM and Tsinghua Univ. to apply technology for food traceability.

BEIJING – Walmart is among four companies collaborating on a standards-based method of collecting data about the origin, authenticity and safety of food in China.

The retailer, along with IBM, JD.com and Tsinghua Univ. National Engineering Laboratory for E-Commerce Technology recently formed the Blockchain Food Safety Alliance. The companies say they will work with food supply chain providers and regulators to develop standards and partnerships necessary to enable a “…broad-based food safety ecosystem.”

Frank Yiannas, vice president, food safety and health, Walmart

“As a global advocate for enhanced food safety, Walmart looks forward to deepening our work with IBM, Tsinghua University, JD and others throughout the food supply chain,” Frank Yiannas, vice president, food safety and health at Walmart, said in a statement. “Through collaboration, standardization, and adoption of new and innovative technologies, we can effectively improve traceability and transparency and help ensure the global food system remains safe for all.”

Walmart implemented two blockchain projects — one in China to track pork, and another in the United States to track mangoes. Recent testing by Walmart showed that blockchain technology reduced the time it took to trace a package of mangoes from the farm to the store from days or weeks to two seconds. Blockchain technology successfully traced food products from suppliers to retail and ultimately to consumers. Farm origination details, batch numbers, factory and processing data, expiration dates and shipping details were digitally connected to food items and entered in the blockchain network at each step of the farm-to-fork process.

Computers in the blockchain, called nodes, contain a copy of a ledger of transactions. At least two nodes must approve a transaction before it is added to the ledger. Blockchain provides users a secure database that is auditable and immutable — transactions can’t be altered.

The initiative will ensure brand owners’ data privacy while helping them integrate online and offline traceability channels for food safety and quality management. Companies that join the alliance will be able to share information using blockchain technology, and plans include them being able to choose the standards-based traceability solution that best suits their needs and legacy systems.

The Blockchain Food Safety Alliance plans to use insights from the collaboration to shed light on how blockchain technology can help improve recalls, verifications and other processes while enhancing consumer confidence in China and around the world.

“Blockchain holds incredible promise in delivering the transparency that is needed to help promote food safety across the whole supply chain. This is a fundamental reason why IBM believes so strongly in the impact this technology will have on business models,” Bridget van Kralingen, senior vice president, IBM Industry Platforms, said in a statement. “By expanding our food safety work with Walmart and Tsinghua Univ. in China and adding new collaborators like JD.com, the technology brings traceability and transparency to a broader network of food supply chain participants.”

Output: US grocery chain Walmart has joined forces with IBM and JD.com and Tsinghua University to create the Blockchain Food Safety Alliance, a consortium using blockchain technology to improve the Chinese food chain. The collaboration aims to collect information about the origin, authenticity and safety of Chinese products to increase standardisation and transparency, and help open up new partnerships. In a recent test in the US, it took Walmart two seconds to trace the journey from farm to shop of a packet of mangoes.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Workforce shortages to hike salaries for cybersecurity talent
 Cyber security wages are set to soar amid a skills shortage

Demand for cyber security roles is set to boom over the next year following several high-profile cyber attacks, prompting a rise in wages, new research from the recruitment sector’s trade body suggests.

Every specialist IT recruitment agency surveyed by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) said they thought demand for cyber security staff would rise over the next year, with 81 per cent predicting a “significant” increase.

However, Kevin Green, the chief executive of the REC, said there are very few people with the skills needed, meaning employers will be competing with each other for the limited talent.

For eight of the past nine months, cyber security roles were reported as hard to fill due to candidate shortages, according to the REC's monthly report. A whopping 81 per cent said the UK workforce was unlikely to meet demand in cyber security over the next 12 months.

This is set to fuel a rise in wages for cyber security staff – 94 per cent of recruiters surveyed predicted rocketing wages over the next year. Just six per cent thought wages would stay the same.

Green said: “Recruiters tell us that employers are making life more difficult for themselves by creating job roles demanding unreasonable amounts of experience, qualifications and skills – so they’re looking for someone that doesn’t even exist.

"Instead, they should think about how to make the most of transferrable skills and create training opportunities which would benefit employees and new applicants."

Green also called on the government to ensure businesses can still access the people they need after Brexit.

"Long term, we need to see better careers guidance in schools about cyber security roles so that we can build a skilled workforce for the future. And right now, we need to maintain access to the best people from around the world to create a secure environment where British businesses can flourish.”

Several high-profile cyber attacks occurred this year, including at Uber, Equifax, the NHS and Westminster.

Output: Research has shown 81% of UK specialist IT recruitment agencies believe there will be a significant increase in demand for skilled cybersecurity personnel – but the same percentage said demand would outstrip supply. The results were part of a survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), which also found 94% of respondents expect cybersecurity wages to skyrocket. Kevin Green, the CEO of REC, urged companies not to make unreasonable demands when seeking qualified staff and to consider people with transferable skills as well. He also called for better careers guidance in schools.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
US to omit climate change from new National Security Strategy
 The Trump administration has dropped climate change from a list of global threats in a new national security strategy the president unveiled on Monday.

Instead, Trump’s NSS paper emphasised the need for the US to regain its economic competitiveness in the world.

That stance represents a sharp change from the Obama administration’s NSS, which placed climate change as one of the main dangers facing the nation and made building international consensus on containing global warming a national security priority.

White House officials said on Sunday that the Trump NSS was the culmination of 11 months of collaboration between all the leading security, foreign policy and economic agencies of government. The exclusion of climate change as a national security threat appears, however, to conflict with views previously expressed by the defense secretary, James Mattis.

“Climate change is not identified as a national security threat but climate and the importance of the environment and environmental stewardship are discussed,” a senior administration official said.

Another official said Trump’s remarks when he announced he was taking the US out of the Paris climate accord “would be the guidepost for the language in the NSS on climate”.

In that speech in June, Trump declared “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris” and alleged the agreement “hamstrings the United States while empowering some of the world’s top polluting countries”.

The Federalist website, which first reported that Trump would drop climate change from the NSS, quoted the draft document as suggesting the Trump administration would actively oppose efforts to reduce the burning of oil, gas and coal for energy.

“US leadership is indispensable to countering an anti-growth energy agenda that is detrimental to US economic and energy security interests,” the website quoted the document as saying.

“Given future global energy demand, much of the developing world will require fossil fuels, as well as other forms of energy, to power their economies and lift their people out of poverty.”

A senior official said on Sunday the main difference between the Trump NSS and its predecessors was a new emphasis on border security and economic issues.

“The economic piece … gets much more attention,” the official said. “The insistence that economic security is national security.”

In unpublished testimony provided to Congress after his confirmation hearings in January, Mattis said the US military had to consider how the thawing Arctic and drought in global flashpoints would pose present and future challenges.

“Climate change is impacting stability in areas of the world where our troops are operating today,” Mattis said in written answers to questions posed after the public hearing by Democratic members of the committee.

Mattis and the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, are reported to have argued against leaving the Paris climate agreement.

Officials said the new NSS was based on Trump’s previous speeches on national security and foreign policy. The president was said to have decided to break with normal practice and launch it with a speech.

“As far as we have been able to determine, no president has ever rolled this out with a speech before,” a senior administration official said.

“The president was briefed on the document all the way along but when it was near completion and when it was shown to him what it looked like, he was very excited and he personally said he wanted to introduce it to the American people and to the world.”

Output: Climate change is to be removed from the list of potential global threats by Donald Trump when he discloses the new US National Security Strategy (NSS) on Monday. The revised strategy will stress the importance of the US regaining global economic competitiveness, marking a departure from the Obama administration’s emphasis on international efforts to combat global warming as a security priority. The new NSS is the result of 11 months of collaborative work between the economic, foreign policy and security government agencies, according to White House officials.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Conveyancing Association calls for estate agents to be licensed
 Post navigation

Conveyancers are calling for the licensing of estate agents, together with a requirement to pass a fit and proper test before they can trade.

However, the housing lawyers have rejected any ban on referral fees.

They are also asking for offers to be made legally binding, with financial penalties should either side withdraw from the transaction.

Trade body the Conveyancing Association has made the proposals in its response to the Government’s ‘call for evidence’ to improve the house buying and selling process.

It is also calling for greater digitalisation, including electronic signatures recognised by the Land Registry.

Additionally, it wants to see search data made available online.

Other suggestions include the establishment of a property log for each individual property in the UK; purchasers to have mortgages approved in principle before they can make an offer; and for sellers to provide much more information up-front.

The CA does not want to see referral fees banned, saying “they often provide transparency and deliver enhanced service levels due to the agreements in place”.

The call for evidence was due to close yesterday.

Output: UK trade body the Conveyancing Association (CA) has called for estate agents to be licensed. It made the proposal in response to the government's call for evidence on improving the process of buying and selling houses, saying agents should have to pass a fit-and-proper test before they can trade. CA also called for greater digitisation and for search data to be made available online. But it rejected the idea of banning referral fees, saying the payments often led to greater transparency and enhanced levels of service.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
First cases of homes bought with bitcoin seen in the UK
 Post navigation

Two homes have been sold using bitcoin currency by a small property firm.

Go Holdings includes an estate agency, Go Move, covering Hertfordshire and a new homes development company, Go Homes.

Director and estate agent Ed Casson believes he is the first in the world to actually sell a home through bitcoin, although some landlords are accepting rent in the currency.

The first bitcoin home to have sold is a four-bed detached home developed by Go Homes in Colchester worth £350,000. The buyer is an investor who made early profits on the cryptocurrency and is now converting the funds into property.

He plans to let out the house to tenants who will pay in bitcoin.

The other property to have sold is also new, a £595,000 four-bed townhouse in Hertfordshire.

Casson said the buyer made profits by bitcoin mining and trading in online games.

He said: “This rewrites the rule book and shows there is another way to sell property. Selling homes for bitcoin will become common in the next five years.”

He said that the Land Registry has, for the first time, agreed to let the buyer have the sale price recorded in bitcoin.

He told EYE: “We have had lots of buyers in bitcoin approach us to spend their ‘currency’ as they still see property as the ultimate investment.”

Casson said that the success of Go Homes in selling bitcoin property will be copied by the estate agency business shortly.

He said: “We are due to roll out a cryptocurrency service in the agency next year as the demand to buy in and sell in bitcoin/ether etc has been so high.

“We trialled this on our own homes that we are currently building which made sense, to get it right. We are investing money next year into smart contracts on blockchain technology to speed the home buying and selling process up. Watch this space.” Meanwhile, yesterday on Twitter Andrew Montlake of mortgage broker Coreco tweeted: “Just had our first bitcoin enquiry!”

Output: The estate agent arm of UK property services company Go Holdings has sold two houses to buyers paying in bitcoin. A £350,000 ($468,000), four-bed property in Colchester and a four-bed townhouse in Hertfordshire worth £595,000 became the first homes to be sold using the digital currency, according to Go Homes. Director Ed Casson said next year the company would launch a cryptocurrency service in its agency due to rising demand and would also be investing in smart contracts on blockchain technology.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
US researchers develop technique for carbon capture
 The electrolysis setup that could allow efficient production of syngas from captured carbon. Credit: Idaho National Laboratory

Carbon capture could help the nation's coal plants reduce greenhouse gas emissions, yet economic challenges are part of the reason the technology isn't widely used today. That could change if power plants could turn captured carbon into a useable product.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory have developed an efficient process for turning captured carbon dioxide into syngas, a mixture of H2 and CO that can be used to make fuels and chemicals. The team has published its results in Green Chemistry, a publication of the Royal Society of Chemistry .

Traditional approaches for reusing the carbon from CO2 involve a reduction step that requires high temperatures and pressures. At lower temperatures, the CO2 doesn't stay dissolved in water long enough to be useful. The process developed at INL addresses this challenge by using specialized liquid materials that make the CO2 more soluble and allow the carbon capture medium to be directly introduced into a cell for electrochemical conversion to syngas.

"For the first time it was demonstrated that syngas can be directly produced from captured CO2 - eliminating the requirement of downstream separations," the researchers wrote in the Green Chemistry paper.

The newly described process uses switchable polarity solvents (SPS), liquid materials that can shift polarity upon being exposed to a chemical agent. This property makes it possible to control what molecules will dissolve in the solvent.

In an electrochemical cell, water oxidation occurs on the anode side, releasing O2 gas and hydrogen ions that then migrate through a membrane to the cathode side. There, the hydrogen ions react with bicarbonate (HCO3-, the form in which CO2 is captured in the SPS), allowing the release of CO2 for electrochemical reduction and formation of syngas. Upon the release of CO2, the SPS switches polarity back to a water-insoluble form, allowing for the recovery and reutilization of the carbon capture media.

Luis Diaz Aldana, principal investigator on the experiment, and Tedd Lister, one of the researchers, conduct electrochemical research at INL. In 2015, while having lunch with colleagues Eric Dufek and Aaron Wilson, they hit on the idea of using switchable polarity solvents to turn CO2 into syngas.

The team received Laboratory Directed Research and Development funds in 2017. As promising as the idea was, in the first experiments, too much hydrogen and not enough syngas was being produced. The results improved when the team introduced a supporting electrolyte to increase the ionic conductivity. Adding potassium sulfate increased electrolyte conductivity by 47 percent, which allowed the efficient production of syngas.

When syngas can be produced from captured CO2 at significant current densities, it boosts the process chances for industrial application. Unlike other processes that require high temperatures and high pressures, the SPS-based process showed best results at 25 degrees C and 40 psi.

INL's team has filed a provisional patent and is discussing the approach with a Boston area company involved in electrochemical technology research and development, Lister said.

"It integrates two areas that have been on parallel tracks: carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and CO2 utilization," said Diaz Aldana. "The problem with CCS has been its economic feasibility. If you can get some extra value out of the CO2 you are capturing, it's a different story."

More information: Luis A. Diaz et al, Electrochemical production of syngas from CO2 captured in switchable polarity solvents, Green Chemistry (2017). DOI: 10.1039/C7GC03069J Journal information: Green Chemistry

Output: Researchers at the US Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory have developed a process that could significantly improve the efficiency of carbon capture techniques. The scientists' new method converts the CO2 into syngas, a combination of H2 and CO that can be used in the manufacture of fuels and chemicals.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
China sets out AI vision in three-year plan
 The national artificial-intelligence ambitions of China have just evolved into a detailed three-year action plan, building on a sweeping scheme announced in July.

On Thursday, the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published a document on how to foster the development of artificial intelligence from 2018 to 2020. But it’s far from simply a summary of technological goals: it’s essentially the top leadership’s vision for a new Chinese economy in the age of AI.

In this new economy, China will be able to mass-produce neural-network processing chips, robots will make accomplishing daily tasks easier for disabled people, and machine learning will help radiologists read x-ray scans. In addition, China hopes AI will make manufacturing more eco-friendly: the goal laid out in the document is to increase the energy efficiency of the manufacturing sector 10 percent by 2020.

To find out more about the nation’s huge machine-learning ambitions, read our recent feature, “China’s AI Awakening.”

Output: China has outlined its three-year plan to foster the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in a bid to build a new economy. The ministry of industry and information technology last week published a document outlining its technological goals up to 2020. In this, China's leadership outlines its hopes for a new AI-driven economy that will be able to boost the energy efficiency of its manufacturing sector by 10%. It also details aims for the future such as mass production of neural-network processing chips and robot support for the disabled.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Koran app aims to reduce Islamophobia with crypto reward scheme
 Imagine an digital platform that could end terrorism.

That’s what 26-year-old Londoner Zeena Qureshi hopes to do with Ananas, a new platform which helps users navigate belief systems using a “living Koran”.

Koran apps with different translations is not a new idea, but Ms Qureshi’s upcoming platform provides additional information on each verse. Users will be able to read what different denominations believe, what research on the text is available and the religious text will be searchable by theme or word.

“It will expand and collapse — you’ll be able to dive in with as much depth as you want and see it from different schools of thought and in different translations,” explains Ananas’s chief executive and co-founder Ms Qureshi, in an interview with the London Evening Standard. “You can even see it from a Sufi or non-Muslim perspective. We’re trying to build a platform that provides context to subjective information.”

Ananas, which is also a charitable foundation, hopes the project will work to reduce Islamophobia and to tackle terrorism in the hopes that the living Koran will reflect the true nature of Islam by providing context.

“Information without context isn’t knowledge,” says Ms Qureshi.

“Extremists have so many people marketing for them online. They target vulnerable, isolated individuals. If these people are looking for answers, they need to come to a place where this information is outlined. Things like Charlottesville are happening because people don’t have the information or understanding. Information feeds empathy”, she added.

The website explains: “Our Living Quran project allows people to dig into the core text of Islam. With the help from knowledgeable individuals, religious communities are empowered to reclaim ownership of their holy text, and society is liberated from a dependence on biased sources and emotional volatility.

“We believe this will lead people to make better informed decisions about their own beliefs, by providing contextualized and authoritative information, that prevents distortion and exploitation of ignorance.”

Ananas uses artificial intelligence (AI) to organise the user data and graphs to explore the relationships between different groups’ beliefs. Users are also able to collect the “Anacoin”, a cryptocurrency that works as a reward when users sponsor a verse, moderate or add information. The Anacoin can be traded and if the value of the currency has increased then half the proceeds go to the charity and half to the user.

“People should be rewarded for the good things they do,” believes Ms Qureshi.

The partially Google-funded platform was the idea of Emad Mostaque, co-chief investment officer at a hedge fund and Ms Qureshi’s brother-in-law. The ambitious project has three full-time staff and a number of advisers and volunteers, all of whom come from diverse religious, cultural and professional backgrounds

The Ananas project is looking to expand to include more belief systems, including political ideologies, in the future.

Output: "Living Koran" app Ananas is seeking to combat terrorism and reduce Islamophobia through its cryptocurrency-enabled rewards platform. Ananas provides readers with additional information on each verse of the Islamic holy book, allowing them to see what different denominations believe. It will also make the religious text searchable by theme or word, and highlight relevant research. Users can also sponsor, moderate or add information to earn anacoins, which can then be traded. CEO Zeena Qureshi said her aim was to provide "context to subjective information", allowing users to explore text with as much depth as they want.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Apple Pay close to Brazil launch
 If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Read our ethics policy

Article Hero Image

Documentation seen by Itau Unibanco customers on Monday suggest Apple is on the verge of launching Apple Pay in Brazil, which was first rumored to gain access to the mobile payments service nearly two years ago.

According to local blog MacMagazine, iOS device users attempting to add ItaÃº's Visa Platinum PersonnalitÃ© card to the Wallet app are met with a terms of service agreement.

Previously, users attempting to register their ItaÃº were met with a message saying the card was not yet supported, a notification that still pops up for cards from other banks. Attempting to add ItaÃº's other card options, including those from MasterCard, triggers similar alerts.

Apple Pay itself is not mentioned in "Conditions of Use of ItaÃºcard in the Apple Wallet application," but the document's existence in relation to Wallet, which manages Apple Pay provisioning, can be taken as circumstantial evidence of an imminent release.

Rumors of an Apple Pay rollout in Brazil first appeared in early 2016 when reports claimed the service would go live through a partnership with MasterCard, a company Apple sometimes works with on smaller regional Apple Pay launches.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, a separate report from iHelp BR claims Apple Pay support will roll out soon. The blog, however, fails to pin a specific timeline on the supposed announcement.

The appearance of ItaÃºcard's documentation in Wallet could be related to Apple's scheduled transition of iTunes pricing from U.S. dollars to the Brazilian real in early 2018.

Currently, customers in Brazil must use an international credit card to purchase items on iTunes, transactions that are subject to the country's IOF tax. It is assumed that iTunes users will be able to add cards from Brazilian banks once the online store switches to reais.

Output: Two years after rumours first circulated that ApplePay would launch in Brazil, it appears the platform will be available imminently, according to blog MacMagazine. It said Itaú Unibanco customers and iOS device users who tried to add their Visa Platinum Personnalité card to the ApplePay app encountered a terms of service agreement, rather than a message saying the app was not supported. ApplePay was recently rolled out in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Ethereum smart contracts to make banks MiFID II compliant
 As MiFID II looms into view, Swiss bank UBS is leading a pilot that will use Ethereum smart contracts to improve the quality of counterparty reference data through anonymous reconciliation.

Barclays, Credit Suisse, KBC, SIX and Thomson Reuters are all onboard for the project, which was kickstarted by UBS in the innovation lab at London's Level39 in a bid to improve data quality as part of the impending implementation of the MiFID II/MiFIR regulation in January.

Under MiFID II, institutions are expected to have an individual Legal Entity Identifier (LEI). The UBS project is aiming to streamline the process of reconciling the reference data which pertains to the LEI for each entity - such as industry classification, identifiers and European Securities and Markets Authority data.

Under the plan, the specific reference data for each Legal Entity is cryptographically concealed at each institution using hashing, with the source data held and remaining within the participating institution.

Only the hashed data is submitted, anonymously, to an Ethereum private blockchain powered by Microsoft Azure. The Ethereum smart contracts then reconcile the data against the consensus and provide each participant, via a user interface, the ability to search and view their own specific data in real-time. Users can then quickly see where the anomalies lie in the data.

Currently, the project is in the pilot phase, with a mock-live environment using 22,000 non-sensitive LEI reference attributes for cash equity issuers. The pilot is set to finish by the end of January, with a further staged rollout "dependent on the findings".

Christophe Tummers, head, data, UBS, says: "Traditionally, a firm such as ours quality checks data against multiple sources but we do not have a quality baseline against peers. Through using blockchain-inspired smart contracts, the reconciliation of data can happen in almost real-time for all participants, anonymously."

Output: UBS is leading a pilot programme that uses Ethereum smart contracts to improve data quality ahead of MiFID II regulation. From January, MiFID II will require all institutions to have their own legal entity identifier (LEI). The UBS project – which is also supported by Credit Suisse, Barclays, Thomson Reuters, SIX and KBC – streamlines the process of reconciling LEI data for an individual bank. This data is then cryptographically held at each participating institution using hashing. It can then be submitted anonymously to an Ethereum private blockchain, where participants can search and view their own data in real-time.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
SalonPay encourages mobile payments at barber shops
 SalonPay Brings Mobile Payments to the Barber’s Chair

December 15, 2017 By: Steven Anderson

It may come as a surprise afterthought to some—it definitely did to me—but salons and similar applications are kind of behind the curve in terms of mobile payments. Still often cash-heavy—sometimes cash-only—operations, beauty salons, barber shops and spas haven’t often made advances in mobile payments and similar systems. That may be about to change with a recently-announced partnership between iSalon Software and Cardstream, news of which was sent our way.

With the new partnership came SalonPay, a complete mobile payments solution geared toward those various service businesses. Considered an industry first, SalonPay actually represents a rebranding of a white-label payment solution—which is in part what white-label solutions were meant for—and offers its users access to not only mobile payments, but also online payments and payments for the in-store point of sale.

Perhaps better yet for the retailer, it also gathers transaction information and allows that data to be used later to make determinations about what services are popular enough to keep and which should be dropped. There’s even secure tokenization in place allowing the transactions to be carried out with comparative safety.

Managing director of iSalon Darren Pick noted “We spent considerable time with our customers to gain a clear view of the payment solution that would best suit their needs. SalonPay is our response. A simple, quick and reliable omnichannel service for collecting credit and debit card payments in-salon, online and via mobile phones.” Pick also noted how valuable customer data is, and how SalonPay would help gather customer data for later analysis, a point that should be especially valuable later.

It’s no secret by now that analytics has a real potential to help businesses succeed. Incorporating analytics capabilities into a mobile payments system is a smart idea in general; mobile payments are convenient for customers, and convert all that data into useful form for later. Want to tell which haircuts are the most popular? Want to prove that no one’s really going for the waxing options? Do you really need a new massage therapist? All of these can be found out readily just by studying the records, and a system like SalonPay makes the records easier to find later.

Mobile payments are great by themselves, but mobile payments combined with analytics is even better.

Output: Lincolnshire-based software firm iSalon has partnered with UK secure card payment services company Cardstream to launch SalonPay, a first-of-its-kind mobile payments solution aimed solely at the largely cash-based beauty and hair industry. As well as facilitating mobile payments, SalonPay also supports in-store and online transactions, while customer data is stored for later analysis to help retailers better target their services.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Scientists convert Greek yoghurt waste into biofuel, animal feed
 Photograph of bio-oil, made of caproic acid and caprylic acid, phase separates out at mildly acidic conditions. Credit: Lars Angenent, University of Tübingen

Consumers across the world enjoy Greek yogurt for its taste, texture, and protein-packed punch. Reaching that perfect formula, however, generates large volumes of food waste in the form of liquid whey. Now researchers in the United States and Germany have found a way to use bacteria to turn the leftover sugars and acids from Greek yogurt into molecules that could be used in biofuels or safe feedstock additives. Their work appears December 13 in the journal Joule.

"To be sustainable, you want to convert waste streams where they are made, and upstate New York is where the cows are, where the dairy farmers are, and where the Greek yogurt craze began in the United States with Chobani and FAGE," says senior author Lars Angenent, an environmental engineer and microbiologist at Cornell University (United States) and the University of Tübingen (Germany). "That's a lot of acid whey that right now has to be driven to faraway locations for land application, but we want to produce valuable chemicals from it instead."

Waste whey from Greek yogurt production is made up mostly of the familiar milk sugar lactose, the fruit sugar building block fructose, and the fermentation product lactic acid. The researchers use bacteria to turn this mixture into an extract containing two more useful compounds: caproic acid (n-hexanoic acid) and caprylic acid (n-octanoic acid). Both of these compounds are "green antimicrobials" that can be fed to livestock in lieu of antibiotics. Or, with energy needs in mind, further processing could stitch the six-, seven-, and eight-carbon backbones of the obtained molecules into the chains of up to 14 needed to qualify as "drop-in" biofuels for jet fuel.

Both options have economic and social allure. "The agricultural market might seem smaller, but it has a very large carbon footprint, and turning acid whey into a feedstock that animals can eat is an important example of the closed cycles that we need in a sustainable society," Angenent says. "The fuel market, of course, operates at a lower price, but its demand is virtually unlimited."

Traditionally, suppressing oxygen while feeding biodegradable waste to microbes results in the production of methane-rich gas through anaerobic digestion. Instead, the researchers strung together two "open-culture" reactors—the first tuned for heat-loving microbes fond of temperatures of 50°C, the second set at a more welcoming 30°C mark. After seeding each reactor with a previously studied microbiome, and opening the setup to the acid whey and its own rich assortment of bacteria (such as common gut microbiota from the Lactobacillus family), caproic acid, caprylic acid, and other minor products could be continually extracted over a period of several months.

The next challenge will be to see what happens when the twin bioreactor system is boosted to pilot plant capacity. "There is much more that can be done to optimize the extraction process and to scale up in an economical way," says Angenent. "We can also learn more about the nature of the microbiomes and the biology involved and start investigating whether this technology can be translated to other waste streams."

More information: Joule, Xu et al.: "Temperature-phased bioconversion of Greek-yogurt waste into medium-chain carboxylic acid oil via lactic acid without external electron donor addition" www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2542-4351(17)30179-4 , DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2017.11.008 Journal information: Joule

Output: Leftover sugars and acids from Greek yoghurt production can be converted into feedstock additives and biofuel, according to scientists. Cornell University and University of Tübingen researchers used bacteria to turn waste whey into "green antimicrobials" caproic acid and caprylic acid. These can be given to livestock instead of antibiotics or, with further processing, can become "drop-in" biofuels for jet fuel, a study in Joule showed.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Robot prints $64,000 house in eight hours
 Building a house by hand can be both time-consuming and expensive. Some homebuilders have chosen to automate part of the construction instead.

A new Ukrainian homebuilding startup called PassivDom uses a 3D printing robot that can print parts for tiny houses. The machine can print the walls, roof, and floor of PassivDom's 410-square-foot model in about eight hours. The windows, doors, plumbing, and electrical systems are then added by a human worker.

When complete, the homes are autonomous and mobile, meaning they don't need to connect to external electrical and plumbing systems. Solar energy is stored in a battery connected to the houses, and water is collected and filtered from humidity in the air (or you can pour water into the system yourself). The houses also feature independent sewage systems.

Since the startup launched in spring 2017, it has received more than 8,000 preorders in the United States for its homes, which start at $64,000. The first 100 ones will be delivered in January 2018.

Check out the homes below.

PassivDom's smallest model measures 410 square feet and ranges from $64,000 to $97,000, designer Maria Sorokina told Business Insider.

Passivdom

The 775-square-foot model ranges from $97,000 to $147,000.

Passivdom

Here's what the house looks like when you walk in the front door. It's a large open space with a small kitchen and floor-to-ceiling windows.

Passivdom

This model doesn't include a separate bedroom, which means residents need a sleeper sofa. A small bathroom is located near the kitchen.

Passivdom

PassivDom can make custom models as well. The premium models come with furniture, a kitchen, a bathroom, engineering systems, an energy supply, a water tank, and a sewage system.

Passivdom

The homes also offer the possibility of living off the grid.

Passivdom

"We should have opportunities to live in nature away from civilization, but have comfortable conditions of a traditional house," Sorokina said. "This technology can allow us to live in the woods, on mountains, or on the shore — far away from people and infrastructure."

Passivdom

To make a PassivDom home, the team maps out the plan for the 3D printer in its factories in Ukraine and California. Layer by layer, the seven-axel robot prints the roof, floor, and 20-centimeter-thick walls, which are made of carbon fibers, polyurethane, resins, basalt fibers, and fiberglass.

Passivdom

Doors, windows, appliances, an alarm system, solar panels, and the septic, electrical, healing, cooling systems are then added.

Depending on the model, the whole process can take under 24 hours. The design and production of larger houses with more specifications and finishes, like the one below, can take up to a month. If a house is pre-made, it can be shipped the next day.

Passivdom

PassivDom is not the only company using 3D printing to build homes. The San Francisco-based housing startup Apis Cor, Dus Architects in Amsterdam, as well as Branch Technology from Chattanooga, Tennessee, say they can construct homes in mere days or weeks.

The startup believes 3D printing is a cheaper, more efficient way to build homes that it can sell at a (relatively) affordable price. "Over 100 million people do not have a roof over their heads," Sorokina said. "It is necessary to build more affordable houses."

Output: Ukraine and California-based start-up PassivDom is speeding up the home construction business with its 3D robot, which can print out the walls, roof and floor of a 410 sq ft building, its smallest model, in eight hours. The company, whose homes range in price from $64,000 to $97,000, said the design and production of its larger models can take up to a month, a fraction of the time a traditional home takes to build, while only windows, doors, plumbing and electrical systems are fitted by a human. PassivDom's first 100 US homes will be delivered in January.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Gene-editing breakthrough could release algae's biofuel potential
 An innovative gene editing technique could allow algae to produce ‘vast’ quantities of renewable fuels, new research claims.

The method, developed by scientists at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, could lead to cheap ways of producing fuels, medicine, and products to be used in the cosmetics, food and plastics industries.

Using CRISPR molecules, which can ‘cut’ DNA, the scientists have been able to add new genes to algae or modify existing ones. Previously, it had proven a challenge to apply CRISPR molecules to algae, but the University of Edinburgh researchers overcame this obstacle by adding ‘CRISPR molecular scissors’ and short pieces of DNA directly to algae cells. This allowed precise modifications to the genetic code to be made.

According to a statement from the University, the new method is more specific and increases efficiency 500-fold compared to previous techniques.

Dr Attila Molnar, of the University of Edinburgh's School of Biological Sciences, who led the study, said: "Our findings mark a key advance in large-scale algal genome engineering. Our technique is applicable to a wide range of species, and could pave the way for the development of designer algae, which has many biotechnology applications."

The technique has been developed to work in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a widely used species of algae. It could be used to increase crop yields, improve disease resistance or enable plants to survive in harsher climates.

The team’s findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Output: Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have developed a gene-editing technique for algae that could pave the way for the production of cheap biofuels, medicines and foods. The team used Crispr molecular scissors to make specific and precise changes to algae DNA samples. Dr Attila Molnar, who led the study, said the breakthrough was a "key advance in large-scale algal genome engineering", and could lead to the production of multi-application designer algae. The team said the new method is 500 times more efficient than previous techniques.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Project looks to ensure subsea pipes don't go for a 'walk'
 Long subsea pipelines, never laid in a perfectly straight line to begin with, tend to move over time. It’s a problem exacerbated by the high-temperature, high-pressure conditions in which pipelines are increasingly required to operate.

Lateral pipeline buckling occurs at locations where effective axial force created by thermal loading, pressure loading and what engineers call the pipeline’s “out-of-straightness” are sufficient to overcome the restraining forces provided by the soil it rests on and the weight and stiffness of the pipe.

If uncontrolled, lateral buckling can create strains and high cyclic loads that may cause serious damage to the flowline. Unplanned “rogue” buckles can also damage structures such as in-line tees.

Each time a line is shut down and restarted, the flowline moves a bit. David Bruton, Crondall Energy

Pipeline walking is a ratcheting in a pipeline’s axial direction due to variations in the operating conditions — periodic shutdowns and restarts, for example.

Article continues below the advert

Over time, the expansion and contraction creates what David Bruton describes as “worm action”, in which the pipeline moves in one direction — most often downhill, if a line is installed on a slope.

Walking may be gradual, says Bruton, director, subsea for offshore consultancy Crondall Energy. But even a few metres of forward movement is enough to cause significant damage to subsea structures such as spools, pipeline end terminations, jumpers and risers.

“Each time a line is shut down and restarted, the flowline moves a bit,” he says. “Over many cycles, you will see quite a lot of movement at each end.”

The issue is most pronounced in deep-water pipelines that generally are not trenched, he adds.

Mitigation

Pipeline designers have several methods at hand to mitigate buckling. The effective force in the system may be reduced, for example, with in-line expansion spools or cooling spools.

But these technologies run up considerable costs. More common are methods to control the effects of buckling by encouraging it at strategic spots along the route.

Pipeline buckling was the focus of a joint industry project, Safebuck, which was launched by Atkins Boreas Consultants and ran from 2002 until 2015.

The JIP, which Bruton and fellow Crondall Energy subsea director Malcolm Carr, both Atkins engineers at the time, headed for 10 years, developed design guidelines for controlling lateral buckling and walking.

The JIP included an array of international operators, service companies and representatives from the US Bureau of Safety & Environmental Enforcement.

Designing for lateral buckling involves a good understanding of pipe-soil interaction (PSI) and the properties of the sand or clay where the pipe is laid. The information helps determine the type of “triggers” engineers may use to control buckling.

“The aim of lateral buckling is to relieve that force in the pipe,” Bruton says. Global buckling — in contrast to local buckling, a deformation of the pipe cross section — may be controlled using triggers such as sleepers, snake lay and buoyancy.

Triggers: Pipeline engineers use three main methods to instigate lateral buckling - snake lay, sleepers and local weight reduction. Photo: Crondall Energy

Sleepers, typically a few joints of large-diameter pipe, may be placed perpendicular to the flowline every few kilometres to create vertical buckles (gravel dump berms are also used to similar effect).

Snake lay describes a method in which the pipeline is laid in a series of gentle curves. The bend radius of the “snake” helps control the propensity for buckling.

A third method involves local weight reduction, either by removing concrete coating at certain intervals or by distributed buoyancy placed over a 60 metre to 200 metre section of the flowline to trigger buckling.

Recent advances in software have helped engineers choose the appropriate type and spacing of triggers, Bruton says.

“We use a probabilistic analysis,” he says. “That way we know approximately how many buckles are going to form, and make sure there are enough to share the load and keep the load in each below design limits. You have to do that to a high level of reliability.”

Under study

Pipeline walking has become an area of intense study in recent years, Bruton says. Last November, the UK’s Industry Technology Facilitator and Crondall Energy teamed up on a new JIP to develop pipeline anchoring and monitoring systems to mitigate pipeline walking risk and cut the cost of pipeline anchoring by half.

“One of the bigger challenges we have now is walking,” he says. “We addressed it to some extent with Safebuck. With the APT (Anchoring Pipeline Technology) JIP, our aim is to try and understand better ways of anchoring pipelines.”

Designing pipelines to allow for walking is notoriously challenging. “The biggest problem we have is the uncertainty in predicting (walking rates),” Bruton says. “The main aim of the JIP is finding ways to work with that uncertainty.”

FULL STOP: Very large suction anchors are often installed at pipeline ends to control walking. Photo: Bladt Industries

Project schedules typically do not allow the luxury of evaluating numerous anchoring systems. Engineers therefore often take a pre-emptive approach, opting for very large pipeline suction anchors to be installed at pipeline ends to control walking — 100-tonne capacity anchors are typical, although Bruton says at least one project installed 350-tonne capacity anchors.

The APT JIP aims to provide operators with “less costly, more elegant design solutions,” he says.

An optimised distributed-anchoring system could cost half as much as a traditional pre-installed pipeline anchoring system, for a savings of $5 million or more on a project that requires several anchors over the length of a pipeline.

Bruton and others involved in the JIP envision a two-pronged approach that involves better monitoring and more strategic anchor placement.

“It’s a slow process in which you can watch it walking and then mitigate only if walking rates are excessive,” he says.

“The aim would be to have a more effective way to monitor pipeline walking and to have an anchor design that can be retrofitted and is quite easy to install.

"Then we could install a number of anchors along the pipeline rather than one big anchor at the end. That is a more efficient way to control walking.”

Bruton notes that there are “several current international projects dealing with the design issues associated with lateral buckling and walking of pipelines".

“These phenomena do interact and that can make the design overly complex,” he says. “Simplifying the design process is a major aim of the APT JIP."

Output: The UK’s Industry Technology Facilitator and offshore consultancy Crondall Energy are partnering on Anchoring Pipeline Technology (APT), a joint industry project aimed at delivering a "less costly, more elegant design solution" to the problem of lateral buckling of undersea pipes, known as "pipe walking". One of several schemes addressing the walking issue, which causes damage to flowlines, APT is an optimised, distributed-anchoring system that could save $5m or more, compared with pre-installed methods, said David Bruton, subsea director for Crondall Energy.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Iconomi adds five digital assets to crypto-fund platform
 ICONOMI, the digital asset management application that makes it easy to invest in or get managed crypto portfolios announced 5 new digital assets which Digital Asset Array (DAA) managers can immediately take advantage of.

The platform launched live to the public in August of this year and has in past months signed up some well-known investments managers to lead some of the DAA portfolios.

The 5 new assets just made available can be seen below:

#1 EOS

The EOS (EOS) token is a temporary token issued to complete the EOS ICO and is not required for use of the EOS platform. EOS is a smart-contract-enabled hosting platform built for open-source projects and is designed to enable vertical and horizontal scaling of decentralized applications.

#2 Everex

Everex (EVX) offers blockchain-based microlending, remittances, and merchant payments to underserved individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises in Asia and internationally. EVX tokens are required for utilizing the Everex platform.

#3 Raiden

The Raiden Network (RDN) is an off-chain scaling solution that enables near-instant, low-fee, scalable payments and works with any ERC20-compatible token. The RDN token is used to pay fees for using the Raiden Network.

#4 Request

The Request Network (REQ) token is required for the operation of Request contracts, especially the extension layers for advanced features. Request is a layer built on Ethereum that disintermediates payment requests.

#5 Tierion

Tierion (TNT) provides a platform for using the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains to verify any data, file, or business process. The TNT token provides an economic incentive to secure the network and serves as a method of settlement between parties to access network resources.

The ICONOMI team says, “we are constantly expanding the selection of digital assets available for DAAs and will continue to publish announcements over the coming weeks.”

The full list of digital assets available on ICONOMI is also available.

Output: Iconomi has added five digital assets to its digital asset array (DAA) portfolio. Iconomi is a digital asset management platform that aims to make it easy for investors to invest in cryptocurrency portfolios. Since its public launch in August, Iconomi has signed up a number of top fund managers to run its portfolios and has now added EOS, Everex, Raiden, Request and Tierion to the list of assets available to DAAs.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Flowrox enters IIoT market with flow control solution
 Flowrox has entered the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) era by bringing to market a new generation of Smart Solutions™ that offer a new way to control, operate and visualise equipment and entire facilities by means of a 3D user interface. The newest innovation is Flowrox Smart Expulse™, a pulsation dampener with a Smart option.

Pulsations can cause distractions, a common issue with several types of positive displacement pumps. Pulsations can result in annoying noise and vibrations in the process pipeline, which can potentially lead to breakages over time. Flowrox offers the ideal solution to this problem: Flowrox Smart Expulse™. This innovation will help you to achieve the dream of any plant operator – fluent processes without any distractions.

Simple and intensive

Flowrox Expulse™ is the simplest and most robust inline pulsation dampener on the market. This solution quiets the banging noise by settling up to 90% of pressure peaks that can eventually lead to pipeline breakage. Moreover, it saves up to 10% in pumping energy by temporarily storing it to the flexible inner hose and filler gas. The flexible construction eases system maintenance, leading to reduced downtime costs.

Additional smart features

The new Smart option enables accurate pressure control regardless of process changes. This prolongs system lifetime also in the most challenging conditions. Flowrox SmartCube can simultaneously control up to five Expulses, and their performance can be monitored using the Flowrox Malibu™platform.

It is also possible to connect other process parameters and indicate values in Malibu™, which is accessible on any device with an Internet browser.

The Flowrox Smart Expulse™ pulsation dampener can be installed on any pulsating pump from any manufacturer on the market. Its flexible construction makes pump maintenance extremely simple, and it does not collect any sediment or particles. The Smart feature additionally contributes to saving extra energy, making it an excellent solution for a wide range of heavy industries.

Output: Finnish flow control solutions provider Flowrox has launched industrial internet of things (IIoT) tool Flowrox Smart Expulse, a robust inline pulsation dampener that can reduce downtime by settling up to 90% of pressure peaks. The system uses a smart 3D interface, allowing operators to see, operate and control equipment, while up to 10% of pumping energy can be saved by using the flexible inner hose and filler gas as temporary storage. In addition, the company's Flowrox SmartCube can continually monitor up to five Expulses, using the Flowrox Malibu platform.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Daimler produces first EV trucks for German delivery firms
 Advertisement

Among the first customers for Daimler's Fuso eCanter light-weight truck was express delivery service DHL, which said it would use its six vehicles to navigate Berlin's innercity traffic.

The keys to eight other eCanter trucks were handed over to German logistics and transport firms DB Schenker, Rhenus and Dachser.

"With the Fuso eCanter our customers now operate not only quietly and without locally emitted CO2, they also save money on operating costs," said Marc Llistosella, head of Daimler Trucks Asia.

"This is the future of urban distribution transport."

With a load-bearing capacity of 4.5 tons, the eCanter is equipped with six batteries and has a range of 100 kilometres, the Mercedes Benz parent company said.

Package-shipping giant UPS has put eCanter trucks on the road in the United States, while in Japan convenience-store chain Seven-Eleven and Yamato Transport will each operate 25 of the trucks, according to Daimler.

Large-scale production of the fully electric, zero-emissions truck is set to begin in 2019.

Daimler's announcement comes as carmakers and tech firms around the world jostle for dominance in the rush to meet a growing demand for clean, quiet delivery trucks as cities grapple with smog and noise pollution.

Tesla last month unveiled an all electric semi-truck that it billed as quicker and more economical than today's diesel-powered trucks.

It can travel 800 kilometres between charges. Production however is not set to start until 2019, with the first deliveries slated for 2020.

Volkswagen, Nikola and Einride are also among the pioneers in developing electric truck prototypes, some equipped with autonomous driving functions and futuristic designs.

Daimler did not disclose the price of its eCanter, but said the vehicle offered "savings up to €1,000 per 10,000 kilometres on operating costs" in comparison with conventional trucks.

Models destined for European and US clients will be produced in Tramagal, Portugal.

Output: German vehicle manufacturer Daimler has begun the European roll-out of its lightweight Fuso eCanter all-electric truck, with delivery firm DHL adding six to its Berlin inner-city fleet. In addition, German logistics and transport firms DB Schenker, Rhenus and Dachser took delivery of eight vehicles between them. Daimler's Fuso eCanter, which has a range of 100 km and can carry 4.5 tonnes, has already been adopted in the US by logistics firm UPS, while Japanese convenience-store chain Seven-Eleven and Yamato Transport will each take 25 trucks.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Switzerland unveils world's steepest funicular railway line
 Swiss engineering and technology have reached new heights with the opening of the world’s steepest funicular rail line.

The €44.6m Schwyz-Stoos funicular (Standseilbahn Schwyz-Stoos in German), which goes into public service on Sunday, has been hailed as a triumph of modern design engineering.

A level-adjusting function will allow the space-age-looking carriages, accessible to all users, to remain horizontal while speeding up the mountain at up to 10 metres a second.

It is due to be opened on Friday by the president of the Swiss federal council, Doris Leuthard, in the Alpine resort of Stoos, 1,300 metres (4,300ft) above sea level in central Switzerland.

The train, two lines of cylindrical carriages, resembling beer barrels, will allow passengers to remain upright at all times, even as they ascend – or descend – the 1,720-metre track, climbing or descending 743 metres along gradients as steep as 110% (47.7º).

It will run from the valley station near Schwyz into the mountain village of Stoos, population 100, about 30 miles (50km) south of Zurich.

Ivan Steiner, a spokesman for the railway, said the funicular replaced an older one that had operated since 1933. “After 14 years of planning and building, everyone is very proud of this train,” he said.

The funicular. Photograph: Urs Flueeler/EPA

The Gondola Project, a website dedicated to cable-propelled transport systems, said the scheme had faced a number of challenges even before work had begun. Then when construction started in July 2013, it faced hold-ups.

“Designers analysed 15 different options before selecting the existing route alignment and technology,” it wrote.

A traditional aerial gondola funicular was ruled out because it would have had to pass through an active shooting range.

“The Stoos funicular is designed with an inclination adjustment system. This means that the four 34-passenger rotating cabins on each train remain horizontally level throughout the journey.”

The Gelmerbahn funicular at Bern was previously the world’s steepest, with a maximum gradient of 106%.

The East Cliff Lift funicular railway in Hastings, built in 1902, is the steepest in England, with a gradient of 78%.

Output: More than four years after construction began, the world's steepest funicular rail line has opened to the public in Switzerland. Dubbed a triumph of modern design engineering, the €44.6m ($52.6m) Standseilbahn Schwyz-Stoos features an inclination adjustment system, enabling the four rotating cabins to remain horizontal even when the train is climbing or descending gradients as steep as 110% (47.7º).


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Bitwise brings passive investing to the cryptocurrency market
 An application for Bitcoin in front of a window of the offices of the bank 'La Maison du Bitcoin' in Paris, France.

For people looking to get in on cryptocurrencies without having to bet on a single one, a new money management firm is trying to make crypto-investing as easy as buying the S&P 500.

Bitwise Asset Management has just started accepting investors into Hold 10, the world's first crypto-index fund, which lets people put money in the 10 largest cryptocurrencies as weighted by the total value of coins outstanding.

The fund was announced in October and is now open to accredited investors. On Tuesday, Bitwise also said it has raised $4 million from some of the best-known investors in financial technology, including Keith Rabois (through Khosla Ventures), David Sacks and Naval Ravikant.

"We and our investors believe that a vehicle like this, or passive index investing as an approach, is a great way for many people to participate in cryptocurrency," Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley told CNBC.

The Hold 10 index is the latest investment vehicle to launch in the cryptocurrency space. Just this week, bitcoin started trading in the futures market, while dozens of actively managed hedge funds have opened this year. Initial coin offerings, which let investors buy and trade cryptocurrencies created by individual companies, have raised over $3.7 billion in 2017, according to CoinDesk.

Output: Bitwise Asset Management has begun accepting investors into an index fund it has developed offering exposure to cryptocurrencies. The firm claims the fund, called Hold 10, is the first index product giving investors access to digital currencies. The fund tracks the top 10 cryptocurrencies and is open to accredited investors. Roughly 60% of its index is tilted towards bitcoin.