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The Club PUBlication 07/29/2019

7/29/2019

4th Industrial Revolution will inevitably cause major shifts
By Isaac Cheifetz PACE OF CHANGE

JULY 26, 2019 — 2:10PM

Robotically controlled pods in Staten Island are delivered to workstations where Amazon associates fulfill orders.

A new term is being used to describe the current state of our manufacturing economy — Industry 4.0. In other words, the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

What were the previous industrial revolutions and how does this one differ?

Industrial Revolution 1.0: Beginning in England around the American Revolution, masses of people moved from farming to factories, with steam engines providing manufacturing power and distribution through railroads and steamboats. The telegraph revolutionized long distance communication.

Industrial Revolution 2.0: Beginning in the late 19th century, a series of technological innovations spurred the development of mass production and the expansion of the giant metropolis — oil, steel, electricity, telephone, radio, automobile and airplane.

Industrial Revolution 2.5: The past century saw a "soft" but critical revolution — lean production. Adding statistical process control and continuous improvement to mass production led to incredible increases in manufacturing and services efficiency, and remains the foundation of our economy.

Industrial Revolution 3.0: The advent of mainframe computing in the 1960s; personal computers, or PCs, in the 1980s; and the internet in the 1990s led to a digital overlay of process automation that changed how corporations manage and exchange information. For that matter, it created the concept of "information."

Industry 4.0: Now to the current day. As described in "The 4th Industrial Revolution," a 2017 book by Klaus Schwab, executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, Industry 4.0 has data and analytics at its core. It includes digitally integrating and automating corporate and industry processes, leveraging cyber-physical systems (mechanisms controlled by algorithms), the Internet of Things, cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI). The goal is the entire economy functioning as a single "smart factory," anticipating customer needs and adjusting inputs and outputs to fulfill them, with most decisions being made by algorithms based on data — yours and mine.

Like the previous revolutions, Industry 4.0 will cause much disruption and greatly reduce the cost of consumer goods. Unlike the previous ones, it will not create masses of new jobs.

How disruptive will this be?

In the words of Bernard Marr, an AI industry analyst: "Historically, industrial revolutions have always begun with greater inequality followed by periods of political and institutional change. The industrial revolution that began at the beginning of the 19th century originally led to a huge polarization of wealth and power, before being followed by nearly 100 years of change, including the spread of democracy, trade unions, progressive taxation and the development of social safety nets. It seems a safe bet to say, then, that our current political, business and social structures may not be ready or capable of absorbing all the changes a fourth industrial revolution would bring, and that major changes to the very structure of our society may be inevitable."
The changes that Marr alludes to will likely transcend current political categories of left and right, in the same way that liberal and conservative mean very different things than they did 200 ago.

Isaac Cheifetz is an executive recruiter and strategic résumé consultant based in the Twin Cities. His website is www.catalytic1.com.

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The Club PUBlication 7/22/2019

7/22/2019

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Checking your texts, and your blood sugar

Some systems can also send notes and alerts to doctors.
By Joshua Brockman New York Times
JULY 16, 2019 — 10:52PM

Dr. Daniel Frisch, a cardiac electrophysiologist, showed Kathleen Carroll how to use an EKG app at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.

A new batch of apps and pocket-size medical devices that work with a smartphone or smartwatch are changing travel for people with serious medical conditions.

The devices allow travelers with heart conditions, diabetes and epilepsy to discreetly check up on themselves in airport terminals or train or bus stations, sending information and alerts to doctors and caregivers.

In effect, they are helping to create a virtual support and safety net.

A device is helping cardiac patients like Nicholas LiVolsi, 40, a graphic designer who noticed several years ago that his heart kept beating irregularly after flights.

His cardiac electrophysiologist, Dr. Daniel Frisch, recommended a monitoring measure beyond the standard electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG), which requires lying on an exam table and having electrodes stuck to his chest, arms and legs to obtain a dozen views of the heart. The device, KardiaMobile, developed by AliveCor using artificial intelligence and approved by the Food and Drug Administration, is a personal EKG monitor that looks like a pack of gum and has two sensors.

‘Peace of mind’

The KardiaMobile app records a medical-grade EKG in 30 seconds after a person places their fingers on the sensors.

Patients place the $99 device close to their smartphone, rest their forearms on a flat surface and put two fingers of each hand on electrodes. It records a medical-grade EKG in 30 seconds, telling users whether they are in normal rhythm or atrial fibrillation, and stores the results as a PDF on the smartphone. It also allows users to add a note for their doctor. The results can be uploaded to the doctor by subscribing to a plan.

“You could use it anywhere,” LiVolsi said. “I always carry it with me when I’m away just in case I need it. It’s easy to use and puts all of my EKG readings on the cloud so Dr. Frisch can review them when needed.”

The device, he said, “gives me peace of mind.”

Frisch said it’s “very useful for me to see what a person’s heart rhythm is at the time of symptoms, or for people that have vague symptoms, to figure out what their heart is doing. … Feedback is part of the deal with wearables, and it’s a new paradigm that we have to embrace.”

The Apple Watch Series 4 has FDA clearance for both its irregular heart rhythm alert and its ECG, which operates with an electrical heart sensor. Users take an ECG by placing a finger on the digital crown for 30 seconds. Electrodes in the crown and in the back crystal work in concert. Afterward, a user can add symptoms and generate a PDF. But there’s no option to automatically send the result to a doctor.

Frisch said the quality of recordings from the Kardia and the latest Apple Watch were very similar and provide a single view of the heart that is “an approximation” of the standard EKG. But Kardia is coming out the KardiaMobile 6L, which Frisch said would allow doctors to view the same heart rhythm from six angles.

Diabetics, too, have new devices that can help them monitor their blood sugar. “The most painful part of diabetes is the finger stick,” said Kathleen Weaver, 59, of Dallas, a dog owner and handler. She said she used to have to test her blood up to 10 times a day. Now she wears a Dexcom G6 continuous glucose monitor, which doesn’t require drawing blood.

‘Siri, what’s my blood sugar?’

Its sensor remains attached to the skin on her abdomen for up to 10 days, and she also uses an insulin pump. The Dexcom transmits glucose readings every five minutes, and connects wirelessly to a reader device or via an app to her smartphone and smartwatch and sends her alarms when her blood sugar goes high or low.

Since her medical devices are hidden beneath her clothing, Weaver said, she can be discreet when she wants to know her number. “I can say, ‘Hey, Siri, what’s my blood sugar?’ ”

Her endocrinologist can see the data stored in the cloud to determine how much insulin she should have throughout the day. Her insulin pump has to be programmed manually. When traveling, Weaver said, she uses an app to message her doctor.

Wearable devices like the Apple Watch contain motion sensors (including an accelerometer and gyroscope) and have GPS capabilities that can provide a person’s coordinates to emergency responders.

Mary Kate O’Donnell, 29, who has epilepsy, said she worried she would have a seizure on a plane. “No matter how frequently I fly, I have this intense fear of trusting two complete strangers with my safety and simply hoping for the best, which can then cause a seizure during the flight,” she said.

O’Donnell, who lives in Manchester, Conn., has been using EpiWatch, an Apple Watch app developed by Johns Hopkins Medicine as part of a study to help patients detect and track their seizures, missed medications and other triggers. When a seizure is imminent, patients participate in responsiveness tests and then complete brief surveys afterward. Seizures are logged as they occur so doctors can review them later. And participants can set the app to automatically contact a designated caregiver when they initially report a seizure or if they fail to respond to an alert from the seizure detector.

O’Donnell said that when she felt the onset of an aura, which can be an unusual feeling or movement that might be a harbinger of a seizure, she checked her heart rate on the Apple Watch. The higher her rate, the closer she is to having a seizure.

“When I feel my wrist buzz, I know I need to find somewhere to lay down and someone I can tell that will understand,” O’Donnell said. “If not, the app will text my emergency contact for me. That is my solace.”

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The Club PUBlication 07/15/2019

7/15/2019

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Asking the right questions
Sometimes the answers you receive are determined by what and how you ask.
By Harvey Mackay

JULY 5, 2019 — 9:52PM

A monk was strolling through the garden at a Zen monastery, listening to music. He stopped near another monk, who motioned for him to remove his earbuds.

“What are you doing?” the second monk said.

“I’m listening to music and meditating,” answered the first.

“Do you have permission from the master to do this?” the second monk asked.

“But of course,” replied the first monk.

“I find it hard to believe the master would allow you to do such a thing,” the second monk said. “I was denied this very privilege just yesterday.”

“How did you raise the question with the master?” the first monk asked.

“I approached him and asked, ‘When I am meditating on my walks through the garden, is it OK to listen to music?’ The Zen master told me, ‘Absolutely not.’ ”

“That’s odd,” the first monk replied. “I approached the master and said, ‘I’m listening to music while I’m walking in the garden. Is it OK for me to meditate?’ He replied, ‘Certainly.’ ”

Sometimes the answers you receive are determined by the questions you ask.

Scientists and detectives know how to ask questions that produce results. They also know that sometimes the answers they get lead to additional questions. It’s the only way to discern the answers that they need, not just the answers they expected to find.
Managers can learn a lot about asking the right kinds of questions to reach a solid conclusion. The subtle difference here is that the questions need to be framed so that they don’t come across as threatening or demeaning.

Employees also need to have the freedom to ask questions of their managers that clarify the purpose of a project or establish the best way to proceed.

Honest communication is the first step in asking and answering questions. There are three types of questions that will facilitate clear and open lines of communication.
Repetitive questions — sometimes you have to keep asking the same question to find the answer you need. Here’s an example:

“When can I expect your report/response?”
“Next week.”
“When next week?”
“Probably Thursday.”
Each question will get you closer to a definite answer.

“What else?” questions elicit additional information by exploring surrounding issues and specific concerns. “What conclusions does your report reach? What else did you find out? What else concerned you? What more could we do to handle that problem?” Asking “Why?” forces you and the other person to look at the underlying issues. “What caused the report to be late? Why couldn’t you get the information you needed? Why did you have trouble confirming your conclusions? What could we have done to help you?”

On the flip side, learning how to answer questions completes the circle.

Give every inquiry your best reply once you are sure you understand the question. Again, clear communication is critical. Make sure you understand precisely what you are being asked so that you can best answer the question. Don’t be intimidated when a higher-up who has less knowledge of the topic at hand asks you to explain further. Take it as a compliment and share what you know. Answer succinctly and provide relevant information.

Leave out details that do not relate to the question at hand, unless you are asked for additional thoughts. Be careful not to be arrogant. Complicated language and technical terms are fine if your audience understands them. Before you get too fancy, consider how your answer will help the questioner.

Finally, don’t be afraid to admit that you don’t know the answer. But offer to do further research to find the information requested.

A manager overheard a salesperson tell a customer, “Gee, we haven’t had any for a long time. I don’t think we’re supposed to get any more until the end of the month.” The customer said thanks and headed toward the door.

The manager was horrified and caught up with the customer, telling him, “Come back next week. If we don’t have it by then we can make a special order for you.” The customer looked puzzled and walked out the door. The salesperson was embarrassed.
The manager railed at the salesperson, “How many times have I told you not to let a customer go without an invitation to come back? Now, what exactly was he asking about?”

“Rain,” the salesperson replied.

Mackay’s Moral: Be careful what you ask for — if you want the right answer.

Harvey Mackay is a Minneapolis businessman. Contact him at 612-378-6202 or e-mail harvey@mackay.com.

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The Club PUBlication 07/08/2019

7/8/2019

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Penn researchers invent strong adhesive you can turn on and off again
Reversible superglue, strong enough to hold 160 pound person, is based on snail slime.
By Sebastian Echeverri Philadelphia Inquirer

JULY 4, 2019 — 10:48PM

Snails can anchor by using a structure called an epiphragm.

Superglue is incredibly useful — right until you end up attached to your craft project. But an adhesive invented by University of Pennsylvania scientists is just as strong as standard superglue, and far more forgiving. The adhesive, based on snail slime, can be unattached and reattached over and over without losing its strength, and may save manufacturers from costly mistakes.

Humanity has been searching for the best way to stick two things together for a very long time. As early as 200,000 years ago, humans were making sticky tar by carefully burning birch bark in a time-intensive process. Nearly 4,000 years ago, Egyptians were boiling animal parts to make the first liquid glues. Rubber-based glues were invented in 1830, with modern superglue hitting store shelves in 1958. But all of these adhesives come with a frustrating trade-off: They can be strong and permanent, like superglue, or reusable but not very sticky, like Post-its.

Now, a team led by Shu Yang, professor of material science and engineering at Penn, has managed to combine the best properties of both.

Yang shared her findings in a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Just two stamp-size pieces of her adhesive were enough to hold the weight of a 160-pound person, the study said.

Named PHEMA, after its composition (polyhydroxyethylmethacrylate), it is so effective that at first, Yang had trouble measuring its strength. “I thought it was very strong, but I didn’t know how strong,” she said. “It took my student over a year to measure it.”
In the end, the team had to design straps made out of Kevlar to pull the adhesive apart.

But what makes it stand out is that its stickiness can be turned off and on again. The adhesive holds tight when dry, but add some water and within a few minutes, it detaches, ready to be reused.

“To be able to let go — that’s a big deal,” said Andrew Smith, professor of biology at Ithaca College in New York, who has developed a medical glue based on slug slime, and was not involved in the study. “We have very good glue for certain things. The challenges [include] when you need something that’s reversible.”

The new adhesive’s abilities comes from the fact that it isn’t a liquid, like glue, but a hydrogel, such as those found in Jell-O or soft contact lenses. When squishy and wet, the adhesive is able to fit into the microscopic grooves that are on all surfaces. Drying locks the product against these grooves, attaching it to the surface.

While the idea of a reversible superglue is new to humans, snails have been making something similar for millions of years. “Some snails anchor themselves to a tree with [a structure called] their epiphragm. It can be attached so hard that you can’t pull it off with your hand — you need to get a chisel.” said Gary Rosenberg, curator of mollusks at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. Once it rains, the snails detach and continue crawling around.

The next innovation may already be out there in nature. Snails, slugs, mussels, geckos, octopuses, and even cockroaches are being studied for the way they can stick to things. “There’s a lot of animals that produce glues with lots of unusual properties,” Smith said. “You’re getting adhesives designed for all sorts of situations, with lots of variation that can inspire us.”

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The Club PUBlication 07/01/2019

7/1/2019

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Amazon Prime Day goes to two: July 15-16
Target, Best Buy and even eBay are expected to swarm in on rival’s deals with their own sales.
By JOHN EWOLDT jewoldt@startribune.com

RICH PEDRONCELLI • Associated Press Amazon has expanded Prime Day in 2019 to two days, July 15 and 16, with a promised 1 million deals. Last year, the event was extended to 36 hours.

Many retailers announce Black Friday sales in July, or any other spring and summer month, but the only one that’s really giving Black Friday a run for the billions spent on that day is Amazon Prime Day.

Last year, Black Friday sales totaled about $717 billion, compared with the $4 billion Amazon alone has in sales on Prime Day.

In 2019, Amazon has expanded the event over two days, July 15 and 16, with a promised 1 million deals. Last year, the event was extended to 36 hours after its site crashed.

Mark those days on your calendar, because Amazon will not be alone with deals this year.

Consumers can expect a competitive blitz with retailers such as Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Kohl’s and Macy’s promising deals of their own minus the membership fee required by Amazon. Target is promising more discounts on a larger number of items. RetailMeNot expects more than 250 retailers to participate.

Even eBay is getting involved this year, calling its July 15 event a “Crash Sale,” a dig at Amazon’s website malfunction during last year’s sale. EBay will give 50% discounts on brands such as LG, Apple, Samsung and KitchenAid on July 15. It will also run sales July 1 through 7 on items such as stand mixers, cookware, robotic vacuums, camping gear and outdoor toys.

Three weeks before Amazon Prime Day, Amazon has released one early-bird deal.

The Toshiba HD 43-inch Fire TV Smart Edition is being advertised for $180 (regularly $300), available in limited quantities through Sunday. Best Buy is the exclusive third-party seller on that TV. Find it by logging into your Amazon Prime account and go to amazon.com/primeday .

Members can look for savings on Amazon’s products, Whole Foods items, new product launches and entertainment options.

Not a prime member yet? Start a free 30-day trial at Amazon.com/primeday .

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