Latest news with #CCSA
Al Bawaba
a day ago
- Business
- Al Bawaba
Huawei and Industry Partners Reach Consensus on Mobile AI Foundation Networks, Driving 5G-A Experience Monetization
At the Mobile AI Summit hosted by Huawei, during Mobile World Congress (MWC) Shanghai 2025, operators, AI ecosystem partners, scholars, and industry partners came together to discuss mobile AI industry trends, and reached two key consensuses on future mobile AI development: enhancing 5G-A uplink experience is critical to mobile AI development; and network-service synergy is essential to mobile AI experience monetization. Those involved also witnessed the inauguration of the GSMA Foundry project: Mobile Network for Thriving AI, signifying that operators are entering experience monetization and are beginning experience-centered network construction for mobile AI Ecosystem Synergy for a Thriving Mobile AI IndustrySpeaking at the summit, Wen Ku, President of China Communications Standards Association (CCSA), highlighted: "The integration of 5G-A and AI is one of the key directions for communications network evolution. Efforts should focus on setting standards, building smart network integration, and fostering collaborative development through ecosystems to pioneer the future of mobile AI."During the summit, industry pioneers from Rokid, MiniMax, and Unitree Robotics discussed how AI service providers can take the lead in terms of differentiated competition, and quickly seize new market opportunities. AI agents are expanding their experiences from touchscreen interactions to multimodal interactions, including voice, video, and spatial computing. Furthermore, AI is achieving higher audio-visual bit rates and model accuracy, and utilizing 5G-A networks to reduce latency during interactions for more efficient service provisioning. This is vital for providing seamless new services, such as those involving real-time interactions and high-quality AI video calling, which require an uplink speed of at least 20 Mbps.A number of speakers, including Zhi-Quan Luo, a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Fellow of IEEE, operator representatives, and representatives from Ookla, also shared their AI practices in network optimization, as well as their strategic planning for comprehensively embracing AI technologies. AI is reshaping both mobile networks and the wider mobile industry. This helps operators achieve digital transformation of their networks, O&M, and provides differentiated services for various industries, thereby supporting their transition from traffic monetization to business monetization. At the summit, the participants reached the consensus that uplink, latency, and stability are the most crucial factors in measuring network capabilities for mobile Powers the Evolution of Foundation Network Monetization from Mobile Broadband (MBB) to Mobile AIAs a leading 5G-A technology provider, Huawei has shared its GigaBand solution portfolio. Through the implementation of air interface resource (AIR) pooling and optimization solver (Optsolver) for AIR orchestration, GigaBand enables smooth 5G-A network evolution to support new AI services. This is helping operators build elastic networks that feature SLA assurance and are adapted to diversified and differentiated services like live streaming, mobile AI assistants, and cloud gaming. For example, the deployment of GigaBand in Hong Kong has enabled multi-band 4G/5G sharing for different service provisioning intents, achieving an up to 2.28-fold increase in 5G throughputs while maintaining stable 4G user experience. This has been a huge boon for operators as they look to build efficient, smart, and low-carbon 5G SA networks. With 5G-A continuing to be upgraded with GigaBand and other innovative technologies, alongside collaborative ecosystem innovation across industries, mobile AI is developing into a new engine propelling the revenue growth of the mobile industry and bringing people a new digital life featuring ubiquitous intelligent services.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Opinion: Stop harassing Canadian drinkers
By David Clement Sen. Patrick Brazeau, who wrestled publicly with the demons of alcohol and emerged recovered and sober, has now set his regulatory sights on the substance he's shaken. His tale of redemption certainly stirs the heart. But he now seeks to impose the lessons he has drawn from his personal experiences on the rest of us. His twin bills, S-202 and S-203, would require cancer warning labels on every bottle of booze and banish alcohol promotion entirely. Not merely misguided, they are a nanny-state sermon dressed up as public health policy. Bill S-202 would require that every can of beer and bottle of Pinot bear warnings about cancer. Echoing the flawed claims of the Canadian Centre for Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA), the senator insists that alcohol is a 'group 1 carcinogen' with 'no safe level' of consumption. This is the kind of linguistic sleight-of-hand that thrives in the neo-prohibitionist mindset, conflating hazard with risk as if the mere possibility of harm were a death sentence. Saying there is 'no safe level' of alcohol is as fatuous as saying there is 'no safe level' of swimming or driving or sex. After all, each has been known to cause injury or death. But existence itself is a gamble and the human condition does not bend, and shouldn't, to absolutist rhetoric. In fact, one of the experts behind this 'no safe level' dogma has since backtracked, admitting on a BBC podcast that the phrase is more alarmist than accurate. The CCSA's own data, which Sen. Brazeau wields like a trump card, reveals the absurdity of his crusade. For a man consuming two drinks a day, the absolute increase in colorectal cancer risk is 0.0028 per cent — three one-thousandths of a per cent. Add up the risks for all cancers cited — liver, esophagus, larynx and so forth — and the total increase for our two-drink male is 0.0099 per cent — one one-hundredths of a per cent. For women, factoring in breast cancer, the figure is 0.0088 per cent. These are not numbers that scream 'public health crisis.' They are statistical whispers, barely audible in a world full of risks. Plastering cancer warnings on alcohol as if it were equivalent to tobacco sows panic where proportion is required. A regular smoker, for example, increases his risk of lung cancer by 2,400 per cent. Equating the two dangers, one a tiny fraction of a per cent and the other thousands of times larger, insults the intelligence of the drinking public and erodes the very credibility of health warnings. If the senator's goal is truly to arm consumers with facts, why not mandate labels proclaiming that for men two drinks a week may lower the risk of ischemic heart disease, which kills more Canadians every year than all the cancers cited by the CCSA combined? Why not cite the peer-reviewed studies — dating back to 1986 and confirmed in at least eight subsequent inquiries — that trace the 'J-curve,' an arc showing that moderate drinkers (one to two drinks daily) enjoy lower mortality rates than teetotallers? Why not also acknowledge the social virtues of a shared pint, and how alcohol, as anthropology and common sense attest, can knit communities together? If truth is the aim, let the labels show benefits as well as costs. But, no, the senator prefers a moralizing monotone that trusts neither citizen nor science. For its part, Bill S-203, would ban all alcohol advertising: print, digital, outdoor, even the fleeting glimpse of a beer logo in a movie or video game. Event sponsorships, point-of-sale displays, all gone. Again the senator draws a false equivalence with tobacco, ignoring the great difference in harm. The deeper question is: by what right does the state presume to shield adults from the promotion of a legal product? Especially one that if consumed in moderation carries very little risk at all. If the aim is to protect children from alcohol's attractions, fine, let's have that debate. But to infantilize adults as if they were incapable of navigating a billboard or a bar display is an affront to liberty itself. William Watson: Do good pipelines make good nations? Opinion: Will Canadians buy the pre-fab housing Ottawa wants to sell them? Sen. Brazeau's bills are a triumph of zeal over reason. They infantilize, exaggerate and disempower. The senator deserves congratulation and admiration for having conquered his own demons, but he has no mandate to exorcise anyone else's. David Clement is North American affairs manager at the Consumer Choice Center. Sign in to access your portfolio
Calgary Herald
22-05-2025
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Parker: Creative agency continues to Strut its stuff after 25 years
Life has its ups and downs, and businesses have certainly suffered through some tough times over the past few years. Yet, the good ones pulled through — and many, including Strut Creative, have prospered. Article content Strut kept its long-standing accounts and has acquired some amazing new local and international clients. Article content Founded by Aaron Salus and Natalie Selinger out of Selinger's spare bedroom, the company is celebrating its 25 th anniversary next month. Article content Article content It grew, and although taking bigger space above Café Beano in Kipling Square — and for many years in the office building at the corner of 17 th Avenue and 2 nd Street S.E. — during the pandemic its staff got used to working remotely. Today, it conducts its business virtually, with half of the staff of 13 in Calgary and the rest in Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, Canmore and the Okanagan. Article content Article content Selinger left to raise a family and Salus has been joined by partner and creative strategist Russ Bugera in achieving Strut's success in its three main areas of brand, campaigns and digital platforms. Article content Among its newer clients, Salus is proud of the work Strut has done in the not-for-profit world for the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA). Strut was charged with communicating the findings of its scientific studies to help people understand the risks of alcohol abuse. It produced a campaign in newspapers, transit and digital to direct people to the CCSA website, resulting in huge numbers responding to its overarching goal of improving the wellness for people experiencing the harms of substance use. Article content Article content 'Drink less — live more' was Strut's advice. Article content CCSA is based in Ottawa, and Salus says it contacted Strut after admiring the good work it has done for Canadian Geographic over the past 16 years. Article content The Calgary company has completed some remarkably good projects for Canadian Geographic, most recently in rebuilding its online magazine experience, including an interactive map and feature photography articles, and a collection of powerful tools facilitating searching through decades of content. It brings it to life in ways not possible in the print issues of the 96-year-old magazine, while increasing reader engagement, subscription, donations and advertising. Article content Other notable campaigns for Canadian Geographic include Live Net Zero, helping Canadians reduce household carbon emissions; sharing the stories of Indigenous peoples with online and app resources for the Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada; and 10,000 Changes, championing Canada's commitment to rethink plastic.
Cision Canada
09-05-2025
- Health
- Cision Canada
Mayors from across Canada gather to identify solutions to local substance use crises
OTTAWA, ON, May 9, 2025 /CNW/ - Mayors and city representatives from across Canada gathered in Lethbridge, Alta., April 14–16, 2025, to review approaches for addressing the substance use crisis in small cities and towns. Thirty regions have now significantly contributed to workshop a playbook that will include the first municipally led, integrated standards for prevention, treatment, harm reduction, recovery, policing services, and policies and strategies. Any Canadian municipality can join the initiative, convened by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addictions (CCSA). "The substance use crisis is not just a big city issue — it's a whole-of-Canada issue that's disproportionally affecting smaller cities and towns," said CCSA's CEO Dr. Alexander Caudarella, a family physician specialized in addiction issues. "We have the expertise in substance use health, but the mayors and municipal representatives here are the real experts on what their communities need. For the first time, we are bringing the two together to build effective and sustainable localized solutions." Elected officials and community leaders came from coast to coast to coast. Senator Sharon Burey, who is known for her work in children's mental health, equity and social justice, delivered the keynote address. "I was proud to host colleagues from across the country in Lethbridge for this important initiative," said Lethbridge Mayor Blaine Hyggen. "We are all facing very similar challenges, and being able to have honest conversations was very constructive. A community's response to a drug crisis is often polarizing, it crosses many jurisdictions and can have very different impacts. I think everyone in attendance looks forward to reviewing the draft playbook CCSA creates, based on this feedback, and seeing how that can be used to support local government leaders moving forward." The Municipal Leaders Table was a continuation of work that started last fall with the Timmins Summit as part of CCSA's Small Cities Initiative. These conversations with municipal leaders will lead to the development of standards, providing communities with a consolidated range of evidence-based options that they can draw from and adapt to their own regions. "We already knew the municipality needs to play more of a role in community health. This event has crystalized my understanding of what is needed for that," said Scott Christian, Mayor of the region of Queens, Nova Scotia. "We need to look at what collective impact we're seeking to have and how elected officials, municipal staff and community leaders fit into that. We also know there is fatigue in our service provider community, from so many meetings but no action. My big action going back to Queens, even before the playbook is available, is to be really intentional to break through that inertia." The playbook will be launched this fall at CCSA's Issues of Substance 2025 conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It will help unlock vital government support, as well as reduce the growing polarization around the crisis. Attendees reviewed a variety of interventions, from health care and education, to bylaws, community safety measures, prevention and workplace programs. They were also asked to develop a table of contents for what they would need to make the playbook resource as practical as possible. Later this spring, Timmins Mayor Michelle Boileau will engage additional mayors from across Canada and brief them on the initiative and playbook during the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' Annual Conference and Trade Show in Ottawa, Ont. Municipalities that are interested in the project or would like to be kept informed on its development can contact CCSA. Over the summer months, CCSA will work to support communities through community engagement, training and education. Open substance use in public spaces, rising numbers of substance use–related hospitalizations and deaths, and a lack of affordable and stable housing are only a few of the challenges small cities face as they attempt to better serve the needs of their communities. About CCSA CCSA was created by Parliament to provide national leadership to address substance use in Canada. A trusted counsel, we provide national guidance to decision makers by harnessing the power of research, curating knowledge and bringing together diverse perspectives. CCSA activities and products are made possible through a financial contribution from Health Canada. The views of CCSA do not necessarily represent the views of Health Canada.
