Align Tech prevails in legal challenge to Invisalign store pilot program

Align Technology (ALGN -1.7%) has won the first round in a legal spat between the company and SDC Financial LLC and SmileDirectClub LLC regarding its Invisalign stores.

The plaintiffs allege that Align’s pilot program breaches non-compete provisions that apply to members of SDC Financial LLC. Remedies requested include the preliminary and permanent enjoinment of all activities related to the pilot program, including the closure of all Invisalign stores and a prohibition on opening new stores, and allowing SDC entities to exercise their right to repurchase all of Align’s SDC Financial LLC membership interests at a price equal to Align’s current capital account balance.

On Friday, June 29, a Tennessee court denied the SDC entities’ request for a temporary injunction preventing Align from opening new stores. The company says it intends to continue the pilot program and will “vigorously defend itself” in arbitration proceedings currently scheduled for December 2018.

https://bit.ly/2u3ZfMm

Thousands without power in Los Angeles after high demand due to heat wave

Thousands of Los Angeles residents were left without power Saturday morning after a heat wave prompted high electricity demand throughout the city.

“Friday’s record-setting heat led to unprecedented peak electricity demand,” according to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). High demand caused power outages throughout city and left 34,500 customers in the dark — without fans or air conditioning.

The department said that figure accounts for about 2.5% of their 1.5 million customers.

Scorching heat has descended upon California and parts of the southwest after a heat wave swept across Canada earlier in the week, killing dozens in the province of Quebec, according to Canadian health officials.

Many areas in California on Friday broke their daily high temperature records, according to CNN meteorologists. Downtown Los Angeles reached a high of 108 degrees, breaking its previous daily record of 94 degrees, which was set in 1992.

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UCLA also broke its previous daily temperature record, where thermometers read 111 degrees.

Since the start of the heat wave on Friday, LADWP has restored power to 14,500 customers, it said in a statement. But LADWP warned customers they should prepare to be without power for 12 to 24 hours, “and possibly even longer due to the high number of small localized outages.”

The peak energy demand level on Friday was 6,256 megawatts, LADWP said, a new record for a day in July, beating out the previous record of 6,165 megawatts, set on July 24, 2006.

LADWP also asked customers to reduce their electricity use throughout Saturday afternoon and into the evening.

“LADWP crews worked throughout the night to restore power and will work around the clock until every affected customer has service restored,” it added.

But according to CNN meteorologists, more daily high temperature records were expected to either be tied or broken on Saturday. Temperatures along the coast could reach up to 100 degrees, while those farther inland could see highs of up to 120 degrees.

More than 15 million people were under excessive heat warnings on Saturday throughout Southern California and Nevada.

The heat is also exacerbating conditions fueling wildfires in California, which have claimed one life and forced hundreds to evacuate from their homes.

https://cnn.it/2N0Fkoj

Predicting vs understanding

I'll be speaking on Tuesday, July 24th at the Traders Expo event in Chicago, and one of the things I'll be covering is how we really know we have an edge in markets.  I'll also share with the group some of the edges I am currently pursuing in my own trading.

In a broad sense, there are two forms of knowing:

*  Predicting - Being able to anticipate future events;

*  Understanding - Being able to explain events.

We can predict without understanding.  We know to anticipate changes in weather without being able to explain the chain of events by which these occur.

We can understand without being able to make specific predictions.  We might understand reasons for a market's behavior without being able to predict when and how the market will move.

This is a bit of a simplification, but a good deal of what we call technical analysis seeks prediction.  A good amount of fundamental analysis seeks understanding.

The vulnerability of much technical analysis is that it finds patterns that appear to be correlated with price changes, but cannot explain the nature of that relationship.  As the video explains, if we look at enough patterns, we can find something that appears to be predictive.  Indeed, with a large enough search space (thanks to powerful computing), we can find things that work in sample and out of sample that still are random!

The principle that makes sense here is that we don't *truly* have an edge unless we can clearly explain why this edge is present.  Prediction without understanding is a frail basis for risking our hard-earned money. 

If we can explain the basis for a predictive relationship, we possess true understanding.  Real conviction and confidence in trading comes from understanding the basis for what you're doing. 

A person with a purpose in life has a "why"--a considered set of reasons for doing what they're doing.  That person is most likely to travel in a coherent direction.  Without a "why", we wander through life.  That's the difference between having a year of experience versus one day of experience repeated 365 times.

So, too, with trading.

Trading psychology is much easier when we have a genuine "why" underlying our actions.  Too many people are pursuing trading because they can't figure out another way to work independently and make enough money to support themselves.  This is understandable, but invariably ends badly.  People setting themselves up as gurus are all too willing to exploit the desire to make a living from trading.  A great question to ask about any idea advanced by a guru is, "Why?"  If you--and they--can't truly explain why an idea works, how do you know you actually have an edge and not just another pattern fit to market data?
https://bit.ly/2MUtX1p

New model for large-scale 3-D facial recognition

Researchers from The University of Western Australia have designed a new system capable of carrying out large-scale 3-D facial recognition that could transform the entire biometrics industry.

The model could be used by any organisation or government agency for more accurate 3-D facial recognition and could lead to widespread applications, and improving security measures while potentially removing the need for personal passwords.

Facial recognition is fast becoming the tool of choice for surveillance, security and IT industries and relies on the ability of computer models to determine whether or not a person is legitimate.

Currently, 2-D facial recognition of photographs is widely used and has seemingly surpassed human accuracy levels however it has several shortcomings that the more advanced 3-D model is able to address.

Unlike 2-D facial recognition software, 3-D models have the potential to address changes in facial texture, expression, poses and scale, yet the data is difficult to gather.

2-D facial data can be obtained simply by searching the internet while 3-D facial data requires physical collection from real subjects thereby limiting its use.

The research team from the UWA Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering created the first-of-its-kind model—called FR3DNet—analysing 3.1 million 3-D scans of more than 100,000 people.

They trained the model to learn the identities of a large dataset of ‘known’ persons and then match a test face to one of those identities.

The 3-D model’s creator, Dr. Syed Zulqarnain Gilani, said the model was a huge step forward in the field of 3-D facial recognition.

“With off-the-shelf 3-D cameras becoming cheap and affordable, the future for pure 3-D face recognition does not seem far away,” Dr. Gilani said.

“Our research shows that recognition performance on 3-D scans is better and more robust. Your 3-D scan could be in any pose, wearing glasses or a face mask, and laughing or just smiling and the deep model can recognise you in an instant.

“We hope that this research will help improve security on devices that use facial recognition to grant access to networks and systems.”

The 3-D Facial Recognition model (FR3DNet) is currently available for research purposes. The paper was published in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

 Explore further: Facial recognition was key in identifying US shooting suspect

https://bit.ly/2Nz6unC

Business booming for plastic giants as change beckons

It’s the worst enemy of environmental campaigners, but people around the world use mountains of plastic every day and business is booming for manufacturers.

Much to the chagrin of activists, an increasingly restrictive regulatory environment appears to have put little dent in the industry’s power so far.

That is changing, however, and plastic giants are starting to adapt.

From 2006 to 2016, global plastic output rose from 245 million to 348 million tonnes, according to the PlasticsEurope trade association. Production rose by 3.9 percent in 2017. In 2016 the growth rate stood at 4.0 percent, and in 2015 at 3.5 percent.

Demand for thermoplastics alone—which includes the most common kinds of plastic, such as PET used in water bottles, polypropylene, polyethylene and PVC—has soared by 4.7 percent yearly from 1990 to 2017.

“Is this going to continue in the coming years? We can assume it will,” said Herve Millet, technical and regulatory affairs manager at PlasticsEurope.

“The reasons why plastic (production is) growing worldwide are not just going to go away all at once,” he added.

The growth of the plastics industry goes hand-in-hand with economic development, Millet said.
The more an economy grows, the more plastic is used in construction, infrastructural development, electrical and electronic industries, and transport.

Single-use plastic packaging—the nemesis of environmental activists—is also in strong demand in developing countries.

China leads the pack

Even in Europe, where anti-plastics campaigning has been especially vigorous, packaging accounts for 40 percent of consumption.

But the world’s leading producer of plastic is China. Today it holds a whopping 29 percent of the market share, up from 15 percent just a decade ago.

European, US and Japanese plastic manufacturers have meanwhile seen their market share shrink.

Where Western producers are doing especially well is in the development of so-called specialty plastics used in the construction, automobile, medical and other industries.

New polymers are also being used in the aviation and space industry, as well as in the creation of specialty athletic footwear.
Pierre Gadrat, who heads the chemicals and materials division of France-based consulting firm Alcimed, said this sector “is just as dynamic, if not more, than before”.

The growth of the plastic industry defies concerted efforts from activists around the world, as well as an increasingly hostile regulatory environment.

Under pressure from campaigners, the European Union, Britain, India and even fast food giants like McDonald’s have all made some headway towards bringing the use of disposable plastic straws to an end.

Plastic bags are also being phased out in countries around the world, while France is set to introduce a ban on plastic plates, cups and cutlery in 2020.

Growing stigma

Emmanuel Guichard of French plastic packaging federation Elipso said the drive to end the use of single-use plastic “does not weigh massively on growth in the sector”.

However, “with all these regulatory measures coming into force, we can’t imagine that they won’t have an impact at some stage”, he added.

As public awareness grows about the terrible harm plastic pollution causes to the world’s oceans and seas, manufacturing giants are starting to worry about their image.
“Plastic as a whole is becoming stigmatised,” Millet of PlasticsEurope said.

In a bid to keep their names clean, plastic industry leaders are recycling more, following the lead of product manufacturers.

“Under regulatory pressure, plastic waste could potentially become… less seen as waste and more as a valuable raw material,” Gadrat said.

Producers of other raw materials such as metals, glass and cardboard have already fully integrated waste into their production cycles.

“This is the future of plastic: a scenario where the industry manages its raw materials and its recycled resources,” said Paris-based waste management company Citeo’s chief scientist Carlos de Los Llanos.

“It will probably take a few years,” he said, adding: “It takes learning how to do it.”

https://bit.ly/2J57HiP

More nurse practitioners now pursue residency programs

The patient at the clinic was in his 40s and had lost both his legs to Type 1 diabetes. He had mental health and substance abuse problems and was taking large amounts of opioids to manage pain. He was assigned to Nichole Mitchell, who in 2014 was a newly minted nurse practitioner in her first week of a one-year postgraduate residency program at the Community Health Center clinic in Middletown, Connecticut.

In a regular clinical appointment, “I would have been given 20 minutes with him, and would have been without the support or knowledge of how to treat pain or Type 1 diabetes,” she said.

But her residency program gives the nurse practitioners extra time to assess patients, allowing her to come up with a plan for the man’s care, she said, with a doctor at her side to whom she could put all her questions.

A few years later, Mitchell is still at that clinic and now mentors nurse practitioner residents. She has developed a specialty in caring for patients with HIV and hepatitis C, as well as transgender healthcare.

The residency program “gives you the space to explore things you’re interested in in family practice,” Mitchell said. “There’s no way I could have gotten that training without the residency.”

Mitchell is part of a growing cadre of nurse practitioners—typically, registered nurses who have completed a master’s degree in nursing—who tack on up to a year of clinical and other training, often in primary care.

Residencies may be at federally qualified health centers, Veterans Affairs medical centers or private practices and hospital systems. Patients run the gamut, but many are low-income and have complicated needs.

Proponents say the programs help prepare new nurse practitioners to deal with the growing number of patients with complex health issues. But detractors say that a standard training program already provides adequate preparation to handle patients with serious healthcare needs. Nurse practitioners who choose not to do a residency, as the vast majority of the 23,000 who graduate each year do not, are well qualified to provide good patient care, they say.

As many communities, especially rural ones, struggle to attract medical providers, it’s increasingly likely that patients will see a nurse practitioner rather than a medical doctor when they need care. In 2016, nurse practitioners made up a quarter of primary care providers in rural areas and 23 percent in non-rural areas, up from 17.6 and 15.9 percent, respectively, in 2008, according to a study in the June issue of Health Affairs.

Depending on the state, they may practice independently of physicians or with varying degrees of oversight. Research has shown that nurse practitioners generally provide care that’s comparable to that of doctors in terms of quality, safety and effectiveness.

But their training differs. Unlike the three-year residency programs that doctors must generally complete after medical school in order to practice medicine, nurse practitioner residency programs, sometimes called fellowships, are completely voluntary. Like medical school residents, though, the nurse practitioner residents work for a fraction of what they would make at a regular job, typically about half to three-quarters of a normal salary.

Advocates say it’s worth it.

“It’s a very difficult transition to go from excellent nurse practitioner training to full scope-of-practice provider,” said Margaret Flinter, a nurse practitioner who is senior vice president and clinical director of Community Health Center, a network of community health centers in Connecticut.

“My experience was that too often, too many junior NPs found it a difficult transition, and we lost people, maybe forever, based on the intensity and readiness for seeing people” at our centers.

Flinter started the first nurse practitioner residency program in 2007. There are now more than 50 postgraduate primary care residency programs nationwide, she said. Mentored clinical training is a key part of the programs, but they typically also include formal lectures and clinical rotations in other specialties.

Not everyone is as gung-ho about the need for nurse practitioner residency programs, though.

“There’s a lot of debate within the community,” said Joyce Knestrick, president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Knestrick practices in Wheeling, West Virginia, a rural area about an hour’s drive from Pittsburgh. She said that there could be a benefit if a nurse practitioner wanted to switch from primary care to work in a cardiology practice, for example. But otherwise she’s not sold on the idea.

A position statement from the Nurse Practitioner Roundtable, a group of professional organizations of which AANP is a member, offered this assessment: “Forty years of patient outcomes and clinical research demonstrates that nurse practitioners consistently provide high quality, competent care. Additional post-graduate preparation is not required or necessary for entry into practice.”

“We already have good outcomes to show that our current educational system has been effective,” Knestrick said. “So I’m not really sure what the benefit is for residencies.”

https://bit.ly/2MVmOxW

340B drug discount overhaul at the top of Congress, Azar’s mind

After months of talk, it appears both Congress and the administration are ready to act on reforming a popular drug discount program.

Ahead of a scheduled July 11 hearing (PDF) on the issue, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce posted 15 bills and discussion drafts regarding the 340B program, which mandates that drug manufacturers provide discounts for outpatient Medicaid drugs for low-income hospitals.

Critics, including Republicans and drug manufacturers, claim eligibility for the program is too broad and that the program has strayed from its intended purpose.

Proposed policy overhauls of the program up for consideration include clarifying the intent of the program, establishing a moratorium on the registration of certain new 340B hospitals and associated sites, and limiting the orphan drug exclusion under the program.

Other discussed changes include mandating the administration to conduct more audits of the program and requiring implementation of previous Government Accountability Office recommendations.

Late last month, the nonpartisan GAO made seven recommendations to the Health Resources and Services Administration on how to prevent duplicate discounts and ensure compliance with outside pharmacies.

In response to the report, Reps. Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said in a statement, “Oversight has not kept pace with program growth—lacking rigorous oversight, meaningful reporting requirements, and reliable data. Now this new report by the nonpartisan GAO shows that oversight is fundamentally lacking when it comes to important compliance issues for contract pharmacies within the program.”

Walden is chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, which requested the report, and Burgess is chairman of the Health subcommittee.

However, advocacy groups in support of the program caution that major changes to the program could make participation more cumbersome for hospitals.

Overhauls of the program might not be far from the White House’s mind, either.

Alex Azar, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, will speak at the 340B Coalition conference in Washington on Monday.

https://bit.ly/2u0J6Hm