Smart Choice 3rd Edition
Latrina Cobbett
The goal of the Smart Choices Pogram is to provide a simple front-of-the-package icon system to direct consumers to smarter food choices, which will eventually lead to more balanced diet. The Smart Choices Program was developed by a coalition of scientists and nutrition educators, experts with experience with dietary guidelines, public health organizations, and food manufacturers in response to consumer confusion over multiple front-of-the-package systems based on different criteria.
Dietary fat directly impacts blood cholesterol levels, and therefore impacts cardiovascular health. Since heart disease remains the largest >cause of death in the United States2, we feel that Smart Choice items should be, above all, heart-healthy. While there is no clear consensus regarding the exact amount of recommended dietary fat, some aspects of dietary fats are well-documented; these form the basis of our criteria regarding fats, detailed below.
The over consumption of calories from liquid beverages is a contributing factor in obesity and chronic disease in the United States. The Department of Nutrition and Food Services at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center has developed the following criteria
This is an example of companies behaving quite intelligently, and legally, to maximize their profits and increase consumer satisfaction. If a major food product manufacturer declined to buy into the program, they would have to have a heck of a good reason to avoid being accused of mismanagement.
Am I old or what. Smart choice? What is smart about drinking diet what-ever filled with chemicals? Or sugar water? Exactly why do we see people constantly walking/riding around with bottles of these drinks. We actually can survive without having to be drinking constantly. Think about it, do we sleep with a bottle?
Aspartame, the artificial sweetener used around the world, causes cancer in lab rats, and should be banned for human consumption, says Samuel S. Epstein, MD, professor emeritus of environmental and occupational medicine at the Chicago School of Public Health, University of Illinois, and chair of the Cancer Prevention Coalition.
No, diet Pepsi is not a better choice than regular. Terrible as regular soda is, I would venture to say that diet soda is a worse choice.
Greenguy (#8), you may not be a representative sample, but you are far from the only person to suffer severe side effects from artificial sweeteners.
And no, studies have shown that diet soda does not help people lose weight at all.
My wife had an HSA account (managed by Alight smart choice) with her employer in 2022 and quit in July 2022.
I can see from the Account details via Alight mobile app that our contributions were $2900 for 2022 and distributions were $1160 for 2022 (this was accumulated by payments made with HSA savings debit card). However Alight does not have a 1099SA issued for me for 2022 on their website. It only has 1099-SA for previous years but none for 2022.
1) Shouldn't have a 1099-SA issued since I had distributions for 2022 from my HSA savings account?
2) Contacting the right person in Alight smart choice has been next to impossible, I have been trying for the past few days. Even though I do not have 1099-SA, can I just the report distribution amount I am seeing in the app and have it included when I file taxes? (take the other details on payer name/fed id number etc from 2021 1099-SA and report the distribution amount from 2022)
If you didn't report it and the company also never reported it, nothing would happen. This is not the best approach because you have a responsibility to file your tax return as accurately as you can.
We wish to thank our readers for their support during 2023, we hope this continues and grows in 2024. During the year we have tried to offer a variety of subjects to our readers and have introduced the Podcast feature into CTN, I encourage you to take a look and provide your feedback. We are always on the lookout for contributions, feel free to contact us if you wish to propose or send us a contribution. The editorial board wishes everyone a wonderful holiday season and a healthy and rewarding new year.
To end 2023 and start 2024, we share an article where the authors discuss why Open RAN might find a home in smart cities. In reading recent press releases and general communications news, we can see an increased number of announcements about Open RAN based private/enterprise networks. Smart cities have always been a shiny example of where automation and IoT technologies can help improve the way in which we live, and things are managed in a city, so is Open RAN the right choice for Smart Cities?
The need for making our cities smarter is evolving [NEOM]. In the quest for improving the livability, efficiency and sustainability of cities, all sorts of systems are being rolled out, adding new pieces of equipment, cameras, sensors, and infrastructure to the mix. In a country such as Saudi Arabia, where 85% of the population lives in a city [SUSC], the evolution and transformation towards smart city paradigms may therefore prove unnecessarily costly. However, it is straightforward to recognize that there is one truly ubiquitous and scalable system, which is underutilized, i.e. mobile networks!
For instance, why are cameras the dominant technology for crowd management [CAMC]? On the other hand, why is new Bluetooth and Wi-Fi gear typically needed for footfall analytics [WBLE]? Similarly, why are we so dependent on using mobile app data to obtain commute behavioral analytics [MAPP]? At the same time, why do we not yet have an accurate system in place for estimating greenhouse gas emissions, for example from transportation, in a city [GHGC]? Given the obvious ability of mobile networks to furnish this data, why is it not happening at scale? In fact, why is the mobile infrastructure being primarily used only for connectivity [CONN]?.
By the end of 2021, we were able to develop artificial intelligence (AI) models that ingest RAN data and produce all sorts of mobility analytics like the ones mentioned above [LUCA]. At a later stage, we even started experimenting with AI models that can distinguish between a sidewalk bot and a drone and estimate the speed and altitude of the latter. Our initial AI models were validated in the lab and in controlled field experiments, giving us confidence to test them on an actual 5G network. We began running proof-of-concept (PoC) experiments (Figure 1) in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia in early 2022 [EAST].
Multiple live O-RAN trials have been conducted in our region to explore the supply chain landscape, use cases, and value proposition of the technology [GCCO]. stc and other regional mobile network operators took to the field in a collaborative effort aimed at ensuring effective cross-migration of industry knowledge and expertise within the region. While the outcomes were largely promising, the trial also reaffirmed the conviction that further evolution of the hardware and software is required to address use cases that may not necessarily relate to pure connectivity and content services.
On the flip side of the coin, open-loop value creation involves extracting data from various layers, levels, and touchpoints within the RAN stack. The data is run in previously-ratified AI models to generate analytics work streams. We can package the associated outputs into business intelligence (BI) and decision intelligence (DI) insights used in a number of market verticals. This presents the telco with opportunities to unlock new value, and address a wide range of smart and cognitive city applications at scale.
In a very recent and insightful article, industry veterans point out a potential shortfall in Open RAN systems that could result in stifling innovation in the Open RAN domain [ODSL]. This is related to the limited coverage and breadth of KPMs (RAN data) available today in commercial Open RAN systems. In a recent study we commissioned from Kelley Business School on the addressable market opportunity that can be captured by open-loop is estimated near USD 10B [KLLY]. Given the massive opportunity that Open RAN offers under the closed-loop paradigm, this article is in essence calling for expedited improvement to RIC interfaces, namely: O1, E2, and the recently introduced Y1.
Statements and opinions given in a work published by the IEEE or the IEEE Communications Society are the expressions of the author(s). Responsibility for the content of published articles rests upon the authors(s), not IEEE nor the IEEE Communications Society.
To make better decisions, start by defining the right problems and specifying your objectives. Next, create imaginative alternatives and consider the consequences for each course of action. You should also grapple with your tradeoffs because the objectives and consequences frequently conflict with one another. Then, clarify your uncertainties so you can think through your risk tolerance. If you're making a big life decision, consider linked decisions that could influence your choices in other areas and in the future. Finally, learn about psychological traps to avoid falling prey to these decision-making errors.
Our decisions shape our lives. Made consciously or unconsciously, with good or bad consequences, they represent the fundamental tool we use in facing the opportunities, the challenges, and the uncertainties of life.
Work on the right decision problem. The way you frame your decision at the outset can make all the difference. To choose well, you need to state your decision problems carefully, acknowledging their complexity and avoiding unwarranted assumptions and option-limiting prejudices.
Specify your objectives. Your decision should get you where you want to go. A decision is a means to an end. Ask yourself what you most want to accomplish and which of your interests, values, concerns, fears, and aspirations are most relevant to achieving your goal. Thinking through your objectives will give direction to your decision making.
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