Author: Newsdesk

BOCA RATON, Fla., Nov. 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Jushi Holdings Inc. (“Jushi” or the “Company”) (CSE: JUSH) (OTCMKTS: JUSHF), a vertically integrated, multi-state cannabis operator, announced it will sponsor six events with the Laundry Project, a movement by Current Initiatives, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charitable organization that is committed to educating and mobilizing communities to be “Hope Dealers” through the Laundry Project, Hope For Homes Project and Affordable Christmas initiatives.

As part of Jushi’s sponsorship, the Company has funded Laundry Project events to assist lower-income families in meeting a basic need: washing clothes and linens. The Company has committed to sponsoring six separate events over the next six months with the Laundry Project. The first event will be held on Thursday, November 19th at the South Side Laundromat in Scranton, Pennsylvania. In addition to the financial sponsorship, team members from BEYOND / HELLO Scranton and the Company’s subsidiary Pennsylvania Medical Solutions’ cultivation, manufacturing and processing facility in Scranton, along with the Laundry Project team, will be on site to pay for and assist families with laundry services, entertain children and create a caring space at the laundromat during the event. These events will be conducted with all appropriate COVID-19 related safety precautions in place.

Jim Cacioppo, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and Founder of Jushi
: “In partnership with our friends at the Laundry Project, we hope to turn laundromats into community centers of hope and help families. Clean laundry is not just an on-going financial burden for many families due to low income or being out of work due to the crisis, but is also a contributing factor to health and wellness. As part of our mission, we are committed to bolstering the health and wellness of families in communities we serve like Scranton. As we look for impactful ways to give back, we look forward to continuing to host events like this with the Laundry Project and others in the future.”

“We are eagerly looking forward to expanding our complimentary Laundry Project services to support the residents of Pennsylvania,” said President of Current Initiatives, Jason Sowell.  “We are thankful for partners like Jushi who share the same mission of serving those who are struggling, especially as we continue to navigate the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic.”

For more information, visit https://jushico.com/ and www.laundrybycurrent.org.

About Jushi Holdings Inc.


We are a vertically integrated cannabis company led by an industry leading management team. In the United States, Jushi is focused on building a multi-state portfolio of branded cannabis assets through opportunistic acquisitions, distressed workouts, and competitive applications. Jushi strives to maximize shareholder value while delivering high quality products across all levels of the cannabis ecosystem. For more information please visit www.jushico.com or our social media channels, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Forward-Looking Information and Statements

This press release contains certain “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and may also contain statements that may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current conditions but instead represent only the Company’s beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, involve estimates, projections, plans, goals, forecasts and assumptions that may prove to be inaccurate. As a result, actual results could differ materially from those expressed by such forward-looking statements and such statements should not be relied upon. Generally, such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “plans,” “expects” or “does not expect,” “is expected,” “budget,” “scheduled,” “estimates,” “forecasts,” “intends,” “anticipates” or “does not anticipate,” or “believes,” or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results “may,” “could,” “would,” “might” or “will be taken,” “will continue,” “will occur” or “will be achieved”.

By identifying such information and statements in this manner, the Company is alerting the reader that such information and statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such information and statements. In addition, in connection with the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release, the Company has certain expectations and has made certain assumptions. Key expectations and assumptions made by the Company include, but are not limited to: the continued performance of existing operations in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Nevada, the anticipated opening of additional dispensaries in 2020 and 2021, the expansion and optimization of the grower-processor in Pennsylvania and the facility in Nevada, the opening of new facilities in Ohio and Virginia and two dispensaries in California, which are subject to licensing approval. Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information and statements are the following: the ability of Jushi to successfully achieve business objectives, including with regulatory bodies, employees, suppliers, customers and competitors; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; changes in applicable laws; and compliance with extensive government regulation, as well as other risks and uncertainties which are more fully described in the Company’s Management, Discussion and Analysis for the six months ended June 30, 2020, and other filings with securities and regulatory authorities which are available at www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information or statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected.

The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking information and statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice.

For further information, please contact:

Investor Relations Contact:

Michael Perlman
Executive Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasury
561-453-1308
[email protected]

Media Contact:

Ellen Mellody
MATTIO Communications
570-209-2947
[email protected]

November 18, 2020

• Pathology laboratories around the globe fully digitize tumor tissue samples to maintain the patient diagnostic experience while providing for staff safety
• Digital transformation modernizes cancer care by enabling telehealth and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) while supporting physicians with integrated oncology informatics

Amsterdam, The Netherlands –

Royal Philips
(NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced leading pathology laboratories across North America, Europe, and Asia have implemented full digitization for their histology samples based on the Philips Digital Pathology scanner and imaging-informatics solutions. Digital images are required to unlock the potential of digital pathology. Remote reviewing of pathological cases is essential to prevent delay in critical patient diagnosis and care, particularly during COVID-19.

During the pandemic, many pathologists, oncologists, and radiologists continued their work from home. This created an unprecedented need for home workstations and secure clinical informatics solutions allowing clinicians to read images remotely and enabling real-time virtual collaboration between their multi-disciplinary care teams. Pre-COVID-19, pathology labs that digitized their workflows across different sites reported improved collaboration and an average productivity gain of 21%.

Examples of leading pathology laboratories that recently transformed towards a digital workflow with Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution are:  Mackenzie Health (Canada), Pathology Institute Tel Aviv Sourasky MC (Israel), University Medical Center Groningen (Netherlands), St. Olavs Hospital (Norway), Singapore General Hospital SGH (Singapore), Oxford University Hospitals NHS (UK), and NHS Ayrshire & Arran (UK).

“As healthcare becomes more complex and demanding, digitization has become a key enabler for the hospital to provide better care for our patients and to be more efficient. Digital pathology is an example, and our partnership with companies such as Philips with the clinical and technical know-how is important in helping us achieve our goal,” said Prof. Kenneth Kwek, Chief Executive Officer at Singapore General Hospital SGH.

“COVID-19 has become a catalyst for change – a defining moment for all of us to reimagine healthcare the way it should be,” said Kees Wesdorp, Chief Business Leader, Precision Diagnosis at Philips. ”With a focus on the people at the center of cancer care, we work to innovate workflows, remove barriers of fragmented systems, and bring insights directly to care providers to support excellent cancer care.”

Shared decision-making, pathway selection and treatment

Philips’ solutions for oncology and digital pathology can help transform and enhance the multi-disciplinary workflows, including the oncology tumor board and care pathways process. Critical patient data is integrated for both oncologists, radiologists and pathologists, allowing them to collaborate efficiently, even when working remotely. The Philips platform supports streamlined preparation, enhances review and analysis, and empowers the cancer care team to reach clinical treatment decisions based on disease-specific dashboards, diagnostic images, reports, and structured patient data. Visit Philips Digital Pathology for more information on how Philips is enhancing digital pathology workflows. Visit Philips Live at RSNA 2020 to learn  how Philips integrated workflow solutions connect data, technology and people across the diagnostic enterprise, helping to redefine radiology workflow efficiencies.

For further information, please contact:

Kathy O’Reilly
Philips Global Press Office
Tel.: +1 978-221-8919
E-mail : [email protected]
Twitter: @kathyoreilly

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people’s health and well-being, and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum – from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2019 sales of EUR 19.5 billion and employs approximately 81,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter.

Attachments

• Digital pathology at Singapore General Hospital
• Digital-Award-Hoogeveen

Octonion Releases Expansion Package Dedicated to AI-Based Industrial Condition Monitoring on STMicroelectronics STM32 MCUs

The solution enables industrial-equipment vendors to quickly evaluate Octonion’s embedded AI models, running on-device learning directly on STM32


MCUs

Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland – November 18, 2020 — Octonion SA, a deep tech software company specializing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the Edge for industrial-equipment diagnosis, announced an STM32Cube expansion package optimized for STM32L4+ microcontroller-based industrial-application development boards from STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications.   

Octonion’s new software package supports ST’s efforts to develop Artificial Intelligence-based applications running on STM32 microcontrollers and microprocessors in the fast-growing condition-based-monitoring and predictive-maintenance segments. The Octonion I-CUBE-OCTMI package delivers a self-care system running on STM32 ultra-low power MCUs and powered by Octonion’s Edge AI engine that automatically learns, inspects, and monitors the health of industrial equipment throughout its operating life.

The expansion pack is optimized for the STM32L4+ development boards which include a range of ST’s industrial-grade sensors and connectivity features, starting from the STWIN SensorTile Wireless Industrial Node. It embeds Octonion’s AI engine operating in an unsupervised mode, continuously analyzing data from an accelerometer to handle vibration analysis for condition monitoring and predictive maintenance. The engine does not require any prior knowledge of the equipment or existing dataset. It learns operational modes locally on the microcontroller to fine-tune the embedded Octonion Machine Intelligence algorithm. With all the computation done at the Edge, there are no data sent outside, eliminating possible privacy issues.

The I-CUBE-OCTMI expansion pack gives developers access to two ready-to-use algorithms: Instant Analyser for fast-response equipment-health analysis and Wize Analyzer designed for equipment with frequent operational-mode changes. The expansion pack covers a wide range of industrial machines’ behaviors allowing it to detect spike anomalies and extended dynamic state anomalies on motors of various power classes, including small BLDC, PMSM motors, or huge turbines.

“Developers can customize different parameters to adapt the embedded AI engine for their specific use case, balancing the quality of equipment-state recognition, its computational complexity, and the response speed,” said Andrei Sheleh, CTO of Octonion.

“Octonion Edge AI engine coupled with ST’s STM32 MCUs allows any industrial organization to reduce its maintenance cost and downtime by easing and accelerating implementation of predictive-maintenance solutions with real-time machine-health monitoring on all STM32 build-in systems or on ultra-low power STM32 MCUs,” said Jacky Perdrigeat, EMEA Marketing & Application VP, STMicroelectronics.

The I-CUBE-OCTMI is available under commercial license with free usage for evaluation and non-commercial purposes. For further information and the expansion package download, please visit https://intelligence.octonion.com/st-expansion.

ST’s solutions for embedded AI, including a customer-tailored machine-health monitoring application developed in collaboration with Octonion, will be presented at ST Live Days, during the IoT&5G session on November 19, 2020.

For more information about machine learning on STM32 microcontrollers and application processors contact us at [email protected]

About Octonion
Founded in 2014, Octonion is a deep-tech software company providing an Industrial Machine Intelligence solution that continuously diagnoses and forecasts the machine lifecycle at the Edge. Octonion invested more than five years to research and development in the embedded AI domain, focused on sensor data analysis optimized for low power microcontrollers. Octonion team has deep expertise in unsupervised machine learning, AI model personalization, and industrial equipment behavior forecasting. Octonion has its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, and operations offices in Paris, France (sales & marketing), and Minsk, Belarus (research and development). For more information, please visit: https://octonion.com/

About STMicroelectronics

At ST, we are 46,000 creators and makers of semiconductor technologies mastering the semiconductor supply chain with state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. An independent device manufacturer, we work with our 100,000 customers and thousands of partners to design and build products, solutions, and ecosystems that address their challenges and opportunities, and the need to support a more sustainable world. Our technologies enable smarter mobility, more efficient power and energy management, and the wide-scale deployment of the Internet of Things and 5G technology. Further information can be found at www.st.com.

For Press Information Contact:

Michael Markowitz
Director Technical Media Relations
STMicroelectronics
Tel: +1 7 81 591 0354
Email: [email protected]

Andrei Sheleh
Chief Technical Officer
Octonion
Email: [email protected]

Attachment

• P4309S — Nov 18 2020 — Octonion STM32Cube package for AI condition monitoring_FINAL FOR PUBLICATION

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Nov. 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Alpha Lithium Corporation (TSX.V: ALLI) (OTC: ALLIF) (“Alpha” or the “Company”), sole owner of one of the last large, undeveloped salars in Argentina’s Lithium Triangle, is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement with Beyond Lithium SA to provide in-house expertise regarding processing brine and direct lithium extraction (“DLE”) processes. This is an integral step towards the extraction and processing of brine from Alpha’s 100% owned, 27,500 hectare, Tolillar Salar.

Beyond Lithium consists of an internationally recognized team of chemical process engineers with decades of experience in advising and directing global leaders in the lithium sector. The principals of Beyond Lithium have previously worked extensively on high profile projects including SQM’s Atacama Project in Chile, Orocobre’s Salar de Olaroz Project, and Lithium America’s Salar de Cauchari Project, both in Argentina.

The principals of Beyond Lithium are Adrian Arias and Pedro Torres, and details of their experience can be found here, on the Company’s website. Mr. Torres is a Metallurgical Engineer with over 10 years of hands-on experience in lithium plant design, optimization, and production as a Senior Operations Engineer with SQM in Chile. Mr. Arias is a Chemist whose vast experience in Argentina has taken him from the laboratory to the production line in numerous Argentinian salars, including the neighboring Hombre Muerto salar.

By commencing processing in parallel with the previously announced resource definition drill program (see press release dated November 10, 2020) scheduled to commence shortly, the company intends to significantly shorten the timeline required to make numerous upcoming technical production decisions.

Strategically, Alpha intends to utilize the most technically advanced DLE methods known today to avoid utilizing capital intensive, inefficient, and environmentally costly evaporation ponds. DLE also allows the Company to minimize the use of harmful reagents, avoid massive up-front capital outlays and lowers operating costs compared to traditional production processes. Working with this team of brine chemistry experts allows Alpha to develop a deep understanding of various chemical parameters required to design a comprehensive DLE process to produce lithium hydroxide, lithium carbonate, or other lithium chemicals.

Brad Nichol, Chief Executive of Alpha, commented, “The addition of the professionals at Beyond Lithium to our team will fast-track the potential production decisions at the Tolillar Salar. Based on previous work, our location is substantially large enough to contain a significant lithium resource amenable to DLE technologies, and Beyond Lithium is the premier group to help Alpha unlock that potential. Our team in Argentina, led by David Guerrero, continues to grow and now includes individuals with decades of experience working with the biggest lithium companies in the world. Alpha is well positioned to become one of the next up and coming lithium development companies in South America.”

Further to the Company’s press releases of October 28, 2020 and November 10, 2020, Alpha is currently launching an initial drilling program at its Tolillar Salar project to better understand the quantity and concentration of lithium available for extraction, thereby allowing the Company to assess the economic feasibility of the project prior to undertaking production decisions. Alpha encourages our supporters to continue to monitor our news releases and other continuous disclosure filings – available on the Company’s website and at www.sedar.com in order to learn more about the lithium development and exploration opportunities underway on the increasingly exciting Tolillar Salar.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF ALPHA LITHIUM CORPORATION

“Brad Nichol”

Brad Nichol
President, CEO and Director

For more information:

Alpha Lithium Investor Relations
Tel: +1 844 592 6337
[email protected]

About Alpha Lithium (TSX.V: ALLI) (OTC: ALLIF)

Alpha Lithium is a growing team of industry professionals and experienced stakeholders focused on the development of the Tolillar Salar. Together, we have assembled 100% ownership of what may be one of Argentina’s last undeveloped lithium salars, encompassing 27,500 hectares (67,954 acres), neighboring multi-billion-dollar lithium players in the heart of the renowned “Lithium Triangle”. Other companies in the area exploring for lithium brines or currently in production include Galaxy Lithium, Livent, and POSCO in Salar del Hombre Muerto; Orocobre in Salar Olaroz; Eramine SudAmerica S.A. in Salar de Centenario; and Gangfeng and Lithium Americas in Salar de Cauchari.

For more information visit: https://alphalithium.com/ and follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking information which is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. While these statements reflect management’s current plans, projections and intents, by their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond the control of the Company. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements. The Company’s actual results, programs, production decisions (if any), activities and financial position could differ materially from those expressed in or implied by these forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. 

TEL AVIV, Israel, Nov. 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Alcide, the Kubernetes security leader empowering DevOps and Security teams with end-to-end continuous security guardrails for Kubernetes deployments, today announced that they will be providing Snowflake, creator of the Data Cloud, with cloud-native security for Snowflake Kubernetes deployments. Built on Kubernetes managed services, this Snowflake initiative seeks to disrupt the siloed ways businesses share data or combine external data with their own data by enabling data collaboration via Snowflake Data Marketplace.

“Snowflake started its Kubernetes journey,” Snowflake Senior Manager of Product Security, Jacob Salassi said. “We needed to make sure that we had the right Kubernetes security posture in place, and the ability to continuously monitor it in AWS, GCP and Azure.”

Snowflake needed a solution to consolidate security, visualization, and Ops into a single location and increase efficiency serving all stakeholders. To accomplish this, Snowflake selected the Alcide Security Platform to grant security teams access to Kubernetes environments without disrupting Ops, and to support different cloud policies and configurations for Snowflake’s growing and multiple cloud environments.

Alcide Kubernetes Advisor will be integrated with Snowflake’s security stack to protect their customers’ most sensitive data. Alcide Advisor will monitor Kubernetes clusters and supply visualizations of applications and infrastructure. Alcide kART and kAudit will follow and provide protection of workloads as well as security intelligence for investigation and compliance auditing in runtime.

“Our aim has always been to help Security and DevOps teams work together enabling them with ongoing alerting of insecure changes in their Kubernetes environments or when they are under cyber-attacks,” says Amir Ofek, CEO of Alcide. “We help global companies such as Snowflake increase business velocity and efficiency by increasing security confidence during deployment and runtime in a seamless and undisrupted manner.”

Snowflake has already begun implementing Alcide in their security stack. Alcide’s SaaS Platform enables companies to deploy Alcide’s product rapidly without invasive modifications to their CI/CD pipeline or disruption of DevOps.

About Alcide

Alcide is a Kubernetes security leader empowering DevOps teams to drive seamless security guardrails to their CI/CD pipelines, and security teams to continuously secure and protect their growing Kubernetes deployments. Alcide provides a single Kubernetes-native AI-driven security platform for cross Kubernetes aspects: configuration risks, visibility across clusters, and run-time security events. Combined with policies enforcement, and a behavioral anomaly engine that detects anomalous and malicious network activity, Alcide ensures that the entire Dev. to production pipeline is secured.

Press Contact

Shannon Mullins
Scratch Marketing + Media for Alcide
[email protected]

TORONTO, Nov. 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — North American Financial 15 Split Corp. (The “Company”) declares its regular monthly distribution of $0.04583 for each Preferred share ($0.550 annually). Distributions are payable December 10, 2020 to shareholders on record as at November 30, 2020.

There will not be a distribution paid to the Class A Shares for November 30, 2020 as per the Prospectus which states no regular monthly dividends will be paid on the Class A shares in any month  as long as the net asset value per unit is equal to or less than $15.00.

Since inception Class A shareholders have received a total of $13.89 per share and Preferred shareholders have received a total of $8.54 per share inclusive of this distribution, for a combined total of $22.43.

The Company invests in a high quality portfolio consisting of 15 financial services companies made up of Canadian and U.S. issuers as follows: Bank of Montreal, The Bank of Nova Scotia, Canadian  Imperial Bank  of Commerce, Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, National Bank of Canada, Manulife Financial Corporation, Sun Life Financial, Great-West Lifeco, CI Financial Corp, Bank of America, Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group, JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co.

Distribution Details
Preferred Share (FFN.PR.A)	$0.04583
Ex-Dividend Date:	November 27, 2020
Record Date:	November 30, 2020
Payable Date:	December 10, 2020

Investor Relations: 1-877-478-2372
Local: 416-304-4443
www.financial15.com
[email protected]

TORONTO, Nov. 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Dividend 15 Split Corp. II (“Dividend 15 II”) declares its regular monthly distribution of $0.04792 for each Preferred share. Distributions are payable December 10, 2020 to shareholders on record as at November 30, 2020.

There will not be a distribution paid to the Class A Shares for November 30, 2020 as per the Prospectus which states no regular monthly dividends will be paid on the Class A shares in any month as long as the net asset value per unit is equal to or less than $15.00.

Since inception Class A shareholders have received a total of $13.30 per share and Preferred shareholders have received a total of $7.42 per share inclusive of this distribution, for a combined total of $20.72.

Dividend 15 II invests in a high quality portfolio of leading Canadian dividend-yielding stocks as follows: Bank of Montreal, Bank of Nova Scotia, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, National Bank of Canada, CI Financial Corp., BCE Inc., Manulife Financial, Enbridge, Sun Life Financial, TELUS Corporation, Thomson Reuters Corporation, TransAlta Corporation, TransCanada Corporation.

	Distribution Details
Preferred Share (DF.PR.A)		$0.04792
Ex-Dividend Date:		November 27, 2020
Record Date:		November 30, 2020
Payable Date:		December 10, 2020

Investor Relations: 1-877-478-2372

Local: 416-304-4443

www.dividend15.com

[email protected]

ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BlueToad, a leading content delivery platform, announces a new initiative with the United States Golf Association (USGA) and Golfweek Custom Media to relaunch Golf Journal, an exclusive benefit of the USGA Members Program. The USGA stopped production and distribution of Golf Journal in 2003 after 55 years of circulation, but has revived the magazine as a monthly digital and quarterly print publication.

Looking to relaunch Golf Journal after a 17-year hiatus, the USGA teamed up with Golfweek Custom Media, a USA Today subsidiary and leading custom publisher of programs for the PGA Tour and LPGA. Golfweek Custom Media has been a BlueToad user for more than a decade and recommended BlueToad as the digital content platform for Golf Journal.

“BlueToad creates a responsive, interactive experience through its digital platform and we’ve been a satisfied customer for more than 10 years,” said Mike Hagmann, President of Golfweek Custom Media. “When the USGA approached us, we recommended BlueToad with no hesitation as we have received nothing but positive feedback from our readers. While print is still an important part of the Golf Journal identity, the monthly digital editions provide enhanced value for USGA members that have patiently waited 17 years for the return of the magazine.”

With BlueToad’s LilyPad Pro solution, Golf Journal is a magazine for the modern age. The unique monthly content delivered to USGA’s members includes video, audio interviews, and written content to create a fully responsive and engaging experience.

“We are excited with the relaunch of Golf Journal as an engaging, digital magazine experience,” said Greg Midland, Editorial Director for the USGA. “BlueToad has been a great collaborator. They have a robust and flexible platform that has supported our vision and creative efforts on this project. We were ultimately able to customize the look and feel of the content experience to best represent the USGA and Golf Journal brand.”

“We are seeing how digital can breathe new life into magazines, such as Golf Journal. There are more tools at publishers’ disposal to interact with readers,” said BlueToad CEO, Paul DeHart. “In April, we launched Golf Journal’s first digital edition and the response has been outstanding. The USGA’s members know and trust their content, and now they have an extra layer of interaction through multimedia at the palm of their hands.”

Golf Journal’s digital edition is distributed digitally on a monthly basis with a print version produced quarterly and also made available digitally in a print replica form. For more information on USGA membership and Golf Journal, visit www.usga.org/membership.

For more information on BlueToad, please visit www.bluetoad.com.

About BlueToad

BlueToad was launched in 2007 and provides publishers of all types a content experience platform for creating beautifully responsive digital editions and web content. It is a proud partner of some of the largest printers in the world and trusted to handle the important content of thousands of content creators across the globe. The company’s goal is to make it easy for partners and customers to upload their content for a digital experience that works on all modern phones, tablets, and desktops.

Media Contact:

Alyssa Cohen
Uproar PR for BlueToad
[email protected]

(321) 236-0102 x233

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Rapid Robotics, creator of the first ready-to-work robotic machine operator, today announced $5.5M in seed funding from Greycroft and Bee Partners. With the first affordable robotics solution for executing simple machine operator tasks, Rapid is helping US manufacturers reduce costs and recapture billions of dollars of revenue currently flowing to offshore competitors. Rapid customers are saving an average of $110,000 per year for each robotic machine operator they install, achieving positive ROI in as little as three months.

Rapid’s announcement comes at a time when US companies are struggling to fill more than 600,000 open positions for machine operators, employees who run the machines that perform 80% of all factory tasks, such as injection molding, pad printing, heat stamping, pick-and-place and dozens of other standard tasks required for creating components across almost every manufacturing sector including medical devices, electronics, CPG, automotive and more.

US manufacturers can’t hire machine operators fast enough, and until now they’ve had no viable way to automate the jobs either. Traditional robotics solutions need to be programmed by specialized systems integrators. This makes automation too expensive for most contract manufacturers, who then can’t scale their operations, can’t bid competitively and have had to watch work go to facilities overseas.

Rapid Robotics has the solution: the Rapid Machine Operator, a pretrained robotic machine operator that understands how to perform common machine tasks without programming or systems integration. The Rapid Machine Operator is a complete software and hardware solution that combines proprietary machine vision and deep learning AI with proven robotic hardware to handle most machine operator jobs ‘out of the box.’

The Rapid Machine Operator becomes smarter as it works, sharing its experience through the cloud with the rest of the Rapid Robotics fleet, so that each robotic machine operator becomes more skilled—and more valuable—at no additional expense.

Manufacturers can ‘hire’ a Rapid robot machine operator for just $25,000 per year—or only about 10% the total cost of operation of competing solutions. Rapid Machine Operators can be up and running in less than a day, and can be easily moved between tasks or machines as needed. Employees who previously operated only one machine at a time can now manage numerous Rapid Machine Operators using a simple touchscreen interface, no robotics expertise required.

“We looked at automating machine operator tasks before, but as a custom injection molder, the costs were prohibitive,” said Tammy Barras, president of Westec Plastics. “Rapid’s solution was the first we’d seen that just worked, at a price that made sense for our business. We were pleased with how responsive the Rapid team is and were quickly able to start seeing value.”

This boost in productivity from the Rapid Machine Operator allows manufacturers to take on more projects, outbid foreign competitors and scale their business so they can redeploy human operators to more complex, more profitable and more rewarding jobs.

“Rapid Robotics has developed an ingenious solution to a problem with massive economic consequences,” said Michael Berolzheimer, Bee Partners Founder and Managing Partner. “Within this decade, Rapid’s robotic machine operators will bring the benefits of automation to thousands of US businesses and spark an unprecedented resurgence in onshore manufacturing.”

“Right now, billions of dollars of revenue are flowing offshore due to what I call ‘the automation gap’ for US contract manufacturers,” said Rapid Robotics CEO Jordan Kretchmer. “The need to automate simple tasks is incredibly high, but the ability to do so has been out of reach for a vast majority of manufacturers. The Rapid Machine Operator is the first robotic solution to close that gap, making US manufacturers more competitive and supply chains more resilient.”

Kretchmer and cofounder Ruddick Lawrence come to Rapid Robotics with a deep background in robotics and SaaS technology. Prior to Rapid Robotics, Kretchmer founded Livefyre, a popular SaaS engagement platform acquired by Adobe in 2016. Lawrence led the manufacturing software group for robotics for the da Vinci robot at Intuitive Surgical, the most-used surgical robot in the world.

About
Rapid Robotics

Rapid Robotics is the creator of the first affordable robotic machine operator designed for simple machine tasks. Available for just $25K a year and requiring absolutely no programming, systems integration, specialized hardware or robotics skills, the Rapid Machine Operator enables manufacturers to easily deploy a pretrained cobot in hours, moving it between tasks as needed and seeing ROI in months.

Rapid Robotics’ founding team combines robotics and manufacturing expertise with a SaaS business model to deliver affordable solutions to real-world industry problems. Investors include Greycroft and Bee Partners. The company is based in San Francisco, California.

Media contact

Chris Ulbrich
[email protected]
415 848 9175

TORONTO, Nov. 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — New Commerce Split (The “Company”) declares its regular monthly distribution of $0.02500 per share ($0.30 annually), for Class I Preferred shareholders (YCM.PR.A), and $0.03125 per share ($0.375 annually) for Class II Preferred shareholders (YCM.PR.B). The Class I Preferred share dividends are paid at an annual rate of 6.00% based on the $5 repayment amount. Class II Preferred share dividends are paid at an annual rate of 7.50% based on their $5 repayment amount. Distributions are payable December 10, 2020 to shareholders on record as at November 30, 2020.

The Company invests in common shares of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, a Canadian financial institution.

Distribution Details
Class I Preferred Share (YCM.PR.A)	$0.02500
Class II Preferred Share (YCM.PR.B)	$0.03125
Ex-Dividend Date:	November 27, 2020
Record Date:	November 30, 2020
Payable Date:	December 10, 2020

Investor Relations: 1-877-478-2372
Local: 416-304-4443
www.commercesplit.com
[email protected]