A new supercomputer in Wyoming will rank among the world’s fastest and help study phenomena including climate change, severe weather, wildfires and solar flares. Houston-based Hewlett Packard Enterprise won a bid to provide the $35 million to $40 million machine for a supercomputing centre in Cheyenne, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, announced Wednesday. The HPE-Cray EX supercomputer will theoretically be able to perform almost 20 quadrillion calculations per second — 3.5 times faster than the existing machine at the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center.
The new machine’s maximum speed per second will be roughly equivalent to each person on Earth completing a math equation every second for an entire month. That power will enable some of the most sophisticated simulations yet of large-scale natural and human-influenced events.
The supercomputer should rank among the world’s 25 fastest after it’s installed this year and goes into operation in early 2022, according to the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
It “will support basic research in ways that will lead to more detailed and useful predictions of the world around us, thereby helping to make our society more resilient to increasingly costly disasters and contributing to improved human health and well-being,” centre Director Everette Joseph said in a news release.
More than 4,000 people from hundreds of universities and other institutions worldwide have used the supercomputing centre since it opened in 2012.
The facility’s current supercomputer, named Cheyenne, is over three times faster than its predecessor, which was named Yellowstone. A contest among Wyoming schoolchildren will decide the new supercomputer’s name.
Novavax Inc. said Thursday that its COVID-19 vaccine appears 89% effective based on early findings from a British study and that it also seems to work — though not as well — against new mutated versions of the virus circulating in that country and South Africa.
The announcement comes amid worry about whether a variety of vaccines being rolled out around the world will be strong enough to protect against worrisome new variants – and as the world desperately needs new types of shots to boost scarce supplies.
The study of 15,000 people in Britain is still underway. But an interim analysis found 62 participants so far have been diagnosed with COVID-19 – only six of them in the group that got vaccine and the rest who received dummy shots.
The infections occurred at a time when Britain was experiencing a jump in COVID-19 caused by a more contagious variant. A preliminary analysis found over half of the trial participants who became infected had the mutated version. The numbers are very small, but Novavax said they suggest the vaccine is nearly 96% effective against the older coronavirus and nearly 86% effective against the new variant. The findings are based on cases that occurred at least a week after the second dose.
“Both those numbers are dramatic demonstrations of the ability of our vaccine to develop a very potent immune response,” Novavax CEO Stanley Erck said in a call with investors late Thursday.
Scientists have been even more worried about a variant first discovered in South Africa that carries different mutations. Results from a smaller Novavax study in that country suggests the vaccine does work but not nearly as well as it does against the variant from Britain.
The South African study included some volunteers with HIV. Among the HIV-negative volunteers, the vaccine appears 60% effective. Including volunteers with HIV, overall the protection was 49%, the company said. While genetic testing still is underway, so far about 90% of the COVID-19 illnesses found in the South African study appear due to the new mutant.
“These are good results. There is reason to be optimistic” about the 60% effectiveness, said Glenda Gray, head of the South African Medical Research Council. Even against the new variant that now causes more than 90% of new cases in that country, “we’re still seeing vaccine efficacy,” she said.
More concerning is what the study showed about a totally different question — the chances of people getting COVID-19 a second time, said the leader of the South African study, Shabir Madhi of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Tests suggested that nearly a third of study participants had been previously infected, yet rates of new infections in the placebo group were similar.
“Past infection with early variants of the virus in South Africa does not protect” against infection with the new one, he said. “There doesn’t seem to be any protection derived.”
Novavax said it needs some additional data before it can seek British authorization for the vaccine’s use, sometime in the next month or so. A larger study in the U.S. and Mexico has enrolled slightly over half of the needed 30,000 volunteers. Novavax said it’s not clear if the Food and Drug Administration will need data from that study, too, before deciding whether to allow U.S. use.
Meanwhile, it is starting to develop a version of the vaccine that could more specifically target the mutations found in South Africa, in case health authorities eventually decide that updated dosing is needed.
Vaccines against COVID-19 train the body to recognize the new coronavirus, mostly the spike protein that coats it. But the Novavax candidate is made differently than the first shots being used. Called a recombinant protein vaccine, the Maryland company uses genetic engineering to grow harmless copies of the coronavirus spike protein in insect cells. Scientists extract and purify the protein and then mix in an immune-boosting chemical.
A majority of respondents in a survey said they will not use Whatsapp payment features and may discontinue business chat if the app shares information with Facebook and third parties, according to a survey. The survey – conducted around Whatsapp new proposed policy across the country covering over 17,000 respondents – found that five percent users have deleted the app, while 22 percent claimed to have reduced using the mobile messaging platform.
"Whatsapp and Facebook must reconsider this feedback and make changes to their policy if they are serious about Whatsapp Pay becoming a key player in the UPI payments space in India. Currently, Google Pay, Phone Pe and Paytm have a majority of the market share in this segment," the survey by online platform Localcirlces said.
Early this month, WhatsApp informed users of an update in its terms of service and privacy policy regarding how it processes user data and partners with Facebook to offer integrations across the social media giant''s products.
It also stated that users will have to agree to the new terms and policy by 8 February 2021, in order to continue using WhatsApp.
However, the mobile messaging app has deferred the update to May after it received flak over its new privacy policy and terms of service.
Around 92 percent people in the survey said they will not use Whatsapp payment features if the app shares information with Facebook and third parties.
Around 79 percent respondents said that they are not likely to use Whatsapp Business Accounts if the instant messaging app decides to implement the policy in May.
The survey found that while 55 percent of citizens have downloaded alternative apps, 21 percent are actively using it.
"Many users may have already had the Signal and Telegram apps on their phones before the new Whatsapp policy changes were proposed," the report said.
Another survey by market research and analysis firm BM Nxt, 82 percent users expressed displeasure over the new policy of Whatsapp and 72 percent respondents said they were open to switching to other messaging platforms.
FAU-G had been creating a lot of buzz prior to its launch. FAU-G is a locally-developed game that has been made by Bangalore-based nCore games. The game was launched on 26 January and has managed to become a massive hit. It has become the most popular free game on Google Play Store and has managed more than 5 million downloads in a single day. More so, the game has received an average of 4.1 ratings on the Google Play Store.
Game developer nCore Games took to Twitter to announce the news, writing, "#MakeInIndia Wins @GooglePlay FAU-G is now the #1 Free Game. Thank you India! #JaiHind."
#MakeInIndia Wins ❤️ @GooglePlay
FAU-G is now the #1 Free Game. Thank you India! #JaiHindDownload now: https://t.co/4TXd1F7g7J#FAUG #atmanirbharbharat@vishalgondal @akshaykumar @dayanidhimg @BharatKeVeer pic.twitter.com/GUdyI22f5T
— nCORE Games (@nCore_games) January 27, 2021
The announcement of the game was made initially by the Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar via his Twitter handle. The game was expected to launch in October 2020 but managed to make its way in January 2021. For now, the game is available only on the Android platform and there is no news for its availability on iOS.
The parent company nCore Games has stated that FAUG is said to get a 5v5 Team Deathmatch, Battle Royale, and more modes that will be added soon. No news on the update has been announced so far.
FAUG comes with a single-person campaign mode and is based on the feud between Indian and Chinese soldiers, based in Galwan Valley. Unlike its counterpart, the game does not get Battle Royale Game Mode.
The gameplay of FAU-G portrays the life of an Indian Soldier and how the soldiers fight on the border. The gameplay resembles an Indian theme, portraying Galwan Valley.
[hans][hstep]Step 1: To download FAU-G, go to Google play store and type FAU-G in search[/hstep]
[hstep]Step 2: Open FAU-G and click on the install button[/hstep]
[hstep]Step 3: After clicking the install button, wait for the game to download[/hstep]
[hstep]Step 4: Once the download is finished, click on the game app and start playing[/hstep][/hans]
According to an earlier report, the game is 460 MB in size on the Play Store and while it has not yet released for iOS users, it is expected to roll out soon. For now, the game only has "Campaign- Tales of Galwan Valley" mode. It will eventually receive four more modes including "Team DeathMatch" and "Free for all- Every man for himself".
