September 2021 – Page 76 – Djibouti News Gazette

September 1, 2021

Seegene Receives CE-IVD Mark for Use of Combo Swab, a Self-Collection Device with Four COVID-19 Diagnostic Tests

SEOUL, South Korea, Sept. 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Seegene Inc. (KQ 096530), South Korea’s leading molecular diagnostics company, announced on August 20 that it has obtained CE marking for the use of Combo Swab, a self-collection device with four diagnostic assays.

Combo Swab is a user-friendly swab designed for efficient specimen collection at scale in which patients can easily collect specimen from their nasal and oral cavity under the supervision of a healthcare professional. With the CE-IVD mark, the Combo Swab can be now used with Seegene’s four COVID-19 diagnostic assays including ‘Allplex™ SARS-CoV-2 Assay,’ ‘Allplex™ SARS-CoV-2 Master Assay,’ ‘Allplex™ SARS-CoV-2 Variants I Assay’ and ‘Allplex™ SARS-CoV-2/FluA/FluB/RSV Assay.’ Seegene’s multiplex assays have been widely acknowledged across the world with its capability to detect multiple targets in a single channel. The availability of Combo Swab with the company’s diagnostic assays is expected to dramatically improve testing efficiency by facilitating continued testing for a large group of people in much reduced time.

The Combo Swab offers multiple benefits while reducing various inconveniences that nasopharyngeal swabs have. In comparison to the nasopharyngeal swab that needs to insert deeply patient’s nasopharynx until resistance is encountered, individuals can collect their own specimen by simply swabbing their mouth and nose without causing any discomfort. Due to its simplicity, it does not require healthcare professionals to take care of each patient, which in turn, allows efficient testing for a large group of people. While Combo Swabs can drastically improve the testing environment for mass testing, it also reduces the risk of accidental exposure to the virus for clinicians as they can maintain distance during the testing procedure. In July 2020, the company had applied for a patent on technology that detects SARS-CoV-2 virus through specimens collected from mouth and nose. Seegene said this new testing option will not only expand access to COVID-19 testing, but also minimize the workload for healthcare workers, resolving clinician shortage issues in many countries around the world.

Clinical data shows Combo Swabs have accuracy of over 96%, the same accuracy as the results from nasopharyngeal swabs. Countries like the US, UK, and Singapore have already adopted self-collecting devices such as oral and nasal swabs to scale up testing. Most self-administered testing, however, obtains samples from one’s mouth or nose, while Seegene’s Combo Swab collects specimens from both mouth and nose, therefore, the results obtained using Combo Swabs show higher accuracy over other self-collecting devices.

“With the rapid spread of the Delta variant, surveillance testing is the key to curb the further spread of COVID-19. Under such circumstances, Combo Swabs will facilitate efficient mass testing with its high accuracy,” said Min-Cheol Lee, Seegene’s Chief Technology Officer. “Seegene owns unique multiplex technologies which obtained over fifty original patents of detecting multiple virus genes in a single test. The combination of Combo Swabs and Seegene’s high multiplex technologies will certainly be the optimized solution to scale up the COVID-19 testing and be an essential tool for societies to reopen,” he added.

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1357790/Seegene_logo_Logo.jpg

September 1, 2021

Kava Swap Lists on AscendEX

Singapore, Aug. 31, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — AscendEX, a global digital asset trading platform with a comprehensive product suite, is thrilled to announce the listing of the Kava Swap token (SWP) under the pair USDT/SWP on September 1st at 1 p.m. UTC.

Kava is focused on democratizing financial services and making them openly accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Kava Chain is a decentralized, permissionless, censorship-resistant blockchain built with the Cosmos SDK. This means it operates much like other Cosmos ecosystem blockchains, and is designed to be interoperable with other chains.

Kava.io is the first cross-chain Decentralized Finance (DeFi) hub providing applications and services to the world’s largest cryptocurrencies. Kava’s platform operates as a decentralized bank for digital assets connecting users with products like stablecoins, loans, and interest-bearing accounts so that they can do more and earn more with their digital assets. For example, sers can deposit their digital assets and use them as collateral to borrow Kava’s crypto-backed stablecoin, USDX. The native swap token (SWP), launching Monday Aug. 30, allows users to swap and engage with multiple assets across different chains.

Kava Swap is a cross-chain liquidity hub for all DeFi apps and financial services. Its purpose is to enable the aggregation of capital where it can then be deployed seamlessly across different blockchain ecosystems, DeFi apps, and financial services. At its core, Kava Swap is a cross-chain Autonomous Market Making (AMM) Protocol that leverages the Kava platform’s DeFi infrastructure, cross-chain bridges, and security. Kava Swap delivers users a seamless way to swap between assets of different blockchains and deploy their capital into market-making pools where they can earn handsome returns.

The Kava Protocol is the set of rules and behaviors built into the Kava Chain that enables advanced DeFi functionality like permissionless borrowing and lending. Like most Cosmos ecosystem blockchains, the automated transaction behaviors known as “Smart Contracts” are hardcoded into the protocol. They are referred to as “modules” in the Cosmos Ecosystem. The Kava App uses a special kind of module called a CDP. Hard Protocol is an application that runs on Kava Chain. It does not have its own blockchain. It builds upon the Kava Protocol and adds new functionality, expanding the Kava Ecosystem to include an autonomous money market protocol.

The HARD token is a unique token on the Kava Chain. It is given as a reward for supplying and borrowing on the Hard app. KAVA, the native token of the KAVA protocol, is used as a Proof of Stake (POS) staking asset, which ensures the finality and safety of loans on the protocol and also acts as the ‘lender of last resort’ in certain situations. The Kava Chain is secured by its native token KAVA and it is used across the full chain as a transport and a store of value. It is given as a reward for minting USDX on the Kava app. USDX is a stable coin loosely pegged to the US Dollar. It is minted when a Kava CDP is opened. KAVA, SWP, and HARD are all governance tokens, meaning holders can vote on the rules and proposed new features of the protocols.

About AscendEX

AscendEX is a global cryptocurrency financial platform with a comprehensive product suite including spot, margin, and futures trading, wallet services, and staking support for over 150 blockchain projects such as bitcoin, ether, and ripple. Launched in 2018, AscendEX services over 1 million retail and institutional clients globally with a highly liquid trading platform and secure custody solutions. AscendEX has emerged as a leading platform by ROI on its “initial exchange offerings” by supporting some of the industry’s most innovative projects from the DeFi ecosystem such as Thorchain, xDai Stake, and Serum. AscendEX users receive exclusive access to token airdrops and the ability to purchase tokens at the earliest possible stage. To learn more about how AscendEX is leveraging best practices from both Wall Street and the cryptocurrency ecosystem to bring the best altcoins to its users, please visit www.AscendEX.com.

For more information and updates, please visit:

Website: https://ascendex.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AscendEX_Global

Telegram: https://t.me/AscendEXEnglish

Medium: https://medium.com/ascendex

About Kava Swap

Kava Labs is focused on democratizing financial services and making them openly accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Kava is the first cross-chain Decentralized Finance (DeFi) hub providing applications and services to the world’s largest cryptocurrencies. Kava’s platform operates as a decentralized bank for digital assets connecting users with products like stablecoins, loans, and interest-bearing accounts so that they can do more and earn more with their digital assets.

For more information and updates, please visit:

Website: https://www.kava.io/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kava_Swap

Telegram: https://t.me/KavaSwap

Medium: https://medium.com/kava-labs

Marketing Department
AscendEX
marketing@ascendex.com

September 1, 2021

VoltDB lance la réplication croisée de centres de données sans perte Active(N)

Une capacité brevetée permet à la plate-forme de données VoltDB de répliquer les données dans plus de trois centres de données à la fois tout en atténuant les conflits de données

BEDFORD, Massachussets, 31 août 2021/PRNewswire/ — En réponse directe aux besoins de ses principaux clients, travaillant avec certains des plus grands opérateurs télécoms du marché, VoltDB, la principale plate-forme de données de niveau entreprise construite pour permettre une prise de décision rapide en matière de données, a annoncé aujourd’hui l’introduction de sa réplication croisée de centres de données (XDCR) Active(N)^tm Loseless. Active(N) Lossless XDCR donnera aux opérateurs de télécommunications et aux entreprises qui cherchent à mettre en place des cas d’utilisation de la 5G un avantage considérable en augmentant la résilience de leurs réseaux contre les pannes et les risques de sécurité, ainsi qu’en ajoutant une protection supplémentaire contre la perte de données.

Active(N) Lossless XDCR réplique les données en temps réel dans quatre centres de données ou plus à la fois, ce qui permet d’obtenir une disponibilité « cinq neuf » (c’est-à-dire 99,999 %), qui devient rapidement indispensable à l’ère de la 5G.

« Nous venons d’élever la barre en matière de cohérence, de résilience et d’évolutivité des données », déclare Dheeraj Remella, directeur des produits chez VoltDB. « Nous pouvons maintenant offrir un niveau de réplication de centre de données qu’aucune autre plate-forme de données ne peut offrir, et cela permet vraiment aux entreprises d’avoir une disponibilité et une résilience infaillibles intégrées à leur architecture afin qu’elles puissent augmenter considérablement leur succès dans la monétisation de la 5G. »

La promesse de latence ultra-faible de la 5G crée de nouveaux cas d’utilisation qui obligent les données à être à la fois immédiatement disponibles et cohérentes, quelle que soit la localisation de l’utilisateur. Ce nouveau paradigme conduit inévitablement à des conflits de données. La solution XDCR unique de VoltDB offrira aux opérateurs de télécommunications et aux entreprises la possibilité unique de résoudre les conflits à la fois au niveau de l’application et de la base de données, afin de maintenir la résilience et la cohérence des données, même à des latences inférieures à 10 millisecondes et quel que soit l’endroit où les données sont stockées, dans un seul ou plusieurs centres de données

« N’importe qui peut effectuer des transactions rapidement », a déclaré Remella. « Nous donnons à nos clients les moyens de les faire rapidement tout en observant puis en corrigeant les inévitables conflits qui surviennent lorsque le même enregistrement est modifié dans plusieurs centres de données en même temps. Cela place les opérateurs de télécommunications et les entreprises qui utilisent VoltDB dans une position unique pour fournir une protection sans précédent contre les défaillances des centres de données et les cyber-attaques, tout en fournissant un accès aux données incroyablement rapide pour leurs applications distribuées dans le monde entier, y compris les applications critiques. »

Avec Active(N) Lossless XDCR, VoltDB enrichit sa plate-forme de données de niveau entreprise avec une fonctionnalité sans précédent pour aider les clients à se différencier dans la feuille de route vers l’automatisation et la transformation numérique et à construire des réseaux robustes qui permettent un déploiement et une monétisation plus rapides des cas d’utilisation de la 5G.

Pour plus d’informations sur VoltDB, rendez-vous sur le site www.voltdb.com/why-voltdb/activen-xdcr/ .

À propos de VoltDB
VoltDB permet aux applications d’entreprise d’ingérer, de traiter et d’agir sur les données en quelques millisecondes pour exploiter de nouvelles sources de revenus et prévenir les pertes de revenus. Possédant d’importants clients dans les télécommunications, la finance, les jeux et bien d’autres secteurs verticaux, la plate-forme de données VoltDB est idéalement positionnée pour être la technologie de référence de toute entreprise cherchant à tirer pleinement parti de la 5G, de l’IoT et de tout ce qui suivra.

Logo : https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1334383/VoltDB_Logo.jpg

September 1, 2021

Rwandan President Removes Justice Minister Amid ‘Hotel Rwanda’ Hero Trial

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has removed the justice minister but made him ambassador to Britain amid international scrutiny over the trial of Paul Rusesabagina, the hotelier credited with saving many lives during the 1994 genocide.

A government statement issued on Tuesday gave no reason for the dismissal of Johnston Busingye, who had served as justice minister and attorney general since 2013.

Busingye was appointed Rwanda’s ambassador to Britain, the statement said.

Kagame did not immediately name a new justice minister. Requests for comment to government spokespeople and the presidency office were not answered.

Rusesabagina was hailed as hero after he used his connections as the manager of a Kigali hotel to save ethnic Tutsis from slaughter during the genocide. He was portrayed in the 2004 Hollywood film “Hotel Rwanda.”

Now he is accused of nine terrorism-related charges, including forming and funding an armed rebel group. Before his arrest, Rusesabagina, who was living in the United States, was a vocal critic of the Kagame government.

Prosecutors have requested a life sentence for Rusesabagina, whose family says he is in poor health and being mistreated in prison. The court is scheduled to issue its verdict on Sept. 20.

In an interview with Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel in February, then Minister Busingye said the government had paid for the flight that brought Rusesabagina to Rwanda last year, which Rusesabagina’s family said resulted in his kidnapping.

Rusesabagina’s trial has drawn attention to Kagame, whom rights groups say has used authoritarian tactics to crush political opposition and extend his rule.

The government’s arrest of Rusesabagina amounted to an enforced disappearance, a serious violation of international law, New York-based Human Rights Watch said at the time.

Kagame became head of state in 2000 after he and his rebel forces halted the genocide in 1994 after 100 days of bloodletting and around 800,000 deaths of ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. He won landslide victories in subsequent elections, the most recent in 2017, when he won nearly 99% of the vote. He changed the constitution in 2015, enabling him to rule legally until 2034.

Source: Voice of America

September 1, 2021

Thousands of Zimbabwean Teachers Strike Over COVID-19 Concerns

Zimbabwe resumed in-classroom teaching this week, but thousands of teachers are protesting salaries that are below the poverty level and a lack of personal protective equipment against COVID-19.

Zimbabwe’s Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union says it will only call off the strike when the government addresses the concerns.

“And there is negligence on the part of the authorit(ies) to make sure that there is enough safety to guarantee our teachers and learners from the pandemic,” said Robson Chere, secretary general of the teachers union. “They should have been providing adequate water supply, enough PPEs. Arcturus Primary School, which is down here, hasn’t even water. It’s messy. It’s a disaster. We are sitting on a time bomb for both learners and teachers.”

Authorities did not allow VOA into Arcturus Primary School, which is about 40 kilometers east of Harare.

Some students around Harare have been going to school since Monday to try to learn among themselves, as there are no teachers.

The teachers union warns that classrooms may turn into COVID-19 superspreaders. But Taungana Ndoro, director of communications and advocacy at Zimbabwe’s Education Ministry, says the government has been working to ensure classrooms are safe.

“We have been putting in new infrastructure to ensure that we decongest the existing infrastructure to ensure that there is social and physical distancing for the prevention and management of COVID-19,” Ndoro said.

“We have also made sure that our schools have adequate supplies of sanitizers and water. So, it is looking good. We have got single-seated desks now, instead of two- or three-seated desks. This is to encourage social distancing. We do not have bunk beds anymore in our boarding schools. We have got single beds and spacing of at least one-and-half to two meters. So, it is encouraging.”

UNICEF Zimbabwe has been helping students and the government during the COVID-19 lockdown.

“The two-key approaches were, one: How we can support the loss of learning as a result of school closure. The second one was: How to keep the school safe and ready for children to return to school,” said Niki Abrishamian, UNICEF Zimbabwe’s education manager. “We managed to produce more than 1,600 radio lessons as part of alternative learning approaches. We had to look at how to take learning to the children, especially when they were at home and did not have access to schooling.”

Zimbabwe’s teachers hope such organizations can assist the government and supply the resources they require — adequate PPEs against COVID-19 and salaries that allow them to live above the poverty line.

Zimbabwe currently has 124,773 confirmed coronavirus infections and 4,419 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the global outbreak.

Source: Voice of America