Global Health and Fitness Apps Market Growth (Status and Outlook) 2020-2025 published by MarketandResearch.biz describes market introduction, product scope, market overview, and meticulous analysis of the market in the forecasted period from 2020 to 2025. The report covers the essential aspects of the global Health and Fitness Apps market such as historical and anticipated market data, market size (value and volume), share (value and volume), demand-supply analysis, value chain analysis, and market opportunities. The report explains business plans and approaches, consumption, recent changes done by competitors, as well as potential investment breaks. The research study attempts to help readers with a thorough analysis of recent trends, as well as the competitive landscape of the global market during the forecast period from 2020 to 2025.

The global market report offers information concerned with the leading manufacturers and suppliers engaged in this market. The report focuses on their pricing analysis, gross revenue, product portfolio, sales & distribution channels, profit margins, and financial standing. It examines the market in terms of topography, technology, and consumers. The market dynamics are revealed in several geographic segments. Research analysts have studied and analyzed the report based on key segments that cover the market share, revenues, growth rate along with the other factors that uplift the growth rate in the global Health and Fitness Apps market.

NOTE: Our analysts monitoring the situation across the globe explains that the market will generate remunerative prospects for producers post COVID-19 crisis. The report aims to provide an additional illustration of the latest scenario, economic slowdown, and COVID-19 impact on the overall industry.

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Competitive Landscape:

The report will facilitate the current or coming back companies throughout this market. The outstanding players of the market are studied with a full analysis of their company outline, product portfolio, production, and manufacturing capability, technological and product developments, and revenue estimations. The global Health and Fitness Apps market is highly consolidated due to the presence of a large number of companies across this industry. Then the report discusses the current market standing of these companies, their past performances, demand and supply graphs, sales network, distribution channels.

Leading companies reviewed in the market report are: Nexercise, Aaptiv, Asana Rebel, ClassPass, Nike, Keelo, Fitbod, Keep, 8fit,

In market segmentation by types, the report covers: Yoga, Running, Instrument Exercises, Other

In market segmentation by applications, the report covers the following uses: Men, Women,

Following regions are highlighted in this report: Americas (United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil), APAC (China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, India, Australia), Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia), Middle East & Africa (Egypt, South Africa, Israel, Turkey, GCC Countries)

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Global Health and Fitness Apps Market 2020 Trends, Industry Growth and Business Statistics, Forecasts 2025 - The Courier

Two years ago, Jeffrey Scott left a 25-year career in financial services to open a gym on Minneapolis' North Side, where he went to high school.

Now, after a second state-ordered shutdown of fitness centers to fight coronavirus, Scott's gym is facing grim prospects. "It's once again devolving to the point where I honestly don't know whether we'll survive it," he said.

With Minnesota's 800 gyms closed at least through next week and Gov. Tim Walz expected on Monday to say whether they will stay closed into January many other fitness club owners and operators fear long-term damage.

When the coronavirus arrived this spring, Walz ordered businesses that draw large groups of people, like restaurants and fitness centers, to close from mid-March through early June. As virus cases surged last month, Walz on Nov. 18 ordered another closure for at least four weeks.

The Minnesota Department of Health's contact tracers in September began asking Minnesotans who tested positive for COVID-19 about their use of fitness centers. That research identified 48 outbreaks of coronavirus involving 734 gym members and three employees. The most cases, 80, were tied to a fitness center at the University of Minnesota, one of six college campus gyms with an outbreak.

While the numbers are small compared with the 242,000 Minnesotans who tested positive through Nov. 18, state health officials say they set a high bar for pegging a gym's involvement in spread of the virus. They believe the virus spreads through fitness centers at a greater rate than data captures.

"The longer you are near someone in a smaller space and if you're doing things that make you breathe harder, the chance of infections go up," Walz said on Dec. 1 as he acknowledged the inconsistency of closing health clubs while big retailers and liquor stores are open.

With executives from Minnesota-based chains Life Time, Anytime and Snap Fitness leading the way, the state's fitness executives and owners have waged a campaign to pressure Walz to let them reopen. They offered to adopt more stringent safety measures, including reducing occupancy to 10 from 25% and requiring people to wear masks as they work out.

They dispute the Health Department's view of the data and portrayal of the risks people face in gyms. And they note they're in the business of helping people fight obesity, diabetes and other risk factors for severe cases of COVID-19.

"There is gross negligence in the decisionmaking process," said Bahram Akradi, founder and chief executive of Chanhassen-based Life Time, which has 152 clubs nationwide and 23 in Minnesota. The firm filed a data practices request with the state about the spread or transmission of COVID-19 at fitness centers.

"We're in the health business," said Chuck Runyon, chief executive of Self-Esteem Brands, which operates Anytime Fitness. "This isn't just 'come work out and let's charge money.' We all have to take health seriously as club owners. We're taking COVID seriously."

John and Kelsey Schultz believe they've been responsible gym owners. They sold 13 pieces of equipment to make it easier to social distance at their Anytime Fitness gyms in Sartell and Sauk Rapids. They hired someone specifically to clean those two facilities and their yoga business in Sartell, called KPower Yoga.

Since reopening, three people have called the gym to say they'd tested positive for COVID. Because the clubs now require registration for classes, Kelsey Schultz said she could easily notify everyone in the class to get tested, even identifying those standing next to the infected member.

"In every case we quarantined them from the gym until they got tested and could wait some time out. None of those led to additional positive cases," she said. "You can say there's three cases, but it didn't come from the gym."

Brandon Reiter, owner of Plainview Wellness Center in Plainview, kept it open after the Nov. 18 closure order, which he called "a massive overreach that will harm a lot of small businesses." Attorney General Keith Ellison sued Reiter and, last week, a judge ruled in the state's favor.

"I respect the judge's decision, although I don't agree with it," Reiter said. "I knew it was going to be an uphill battle."

There's scant data about how the coronavirus spreads in gyms. Studies from the British journal Nature and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that working out at gyms may be less risky than other activities, though researchers in both studies acknowledged limitations.

The International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA), a trade group, sponsored a study that found a "virus-to-visit" ratio of 0.002% out of 49.4 million gym visits between June and August. Some experts questioned the research, but the figures have been cited often by Minnesota's fitness leaders and the IHRSA, which stands by them.

"We understand that the risk of contracting COVID-19 is not and can never be zero for any business," IHRSA spokesperson Sami Smith said in an e-mail. "Overall, health and fitness clubs are not hot spots."

Minnesota health officials identified outbreaks at 10 Life Time locations, with two clubs tied to separate outbreaks. The clubs were linked to 198 confirmed coronavirus cases.

Life Time's corporate figures show an infection rate of less than 1% among 3.17 million visits to its Minnesota gyms since reopening. Mitigation efforts such as sophisticated air purification systems and massive cleaning protocols are working, Akradi said.

Akradi said his larger concern is the beating the industry has suffered at the hands of public officials who give the impression that clubs aren't safe.

In a video posted on Life Time clubs' social media pages and elsewhere, Akradi said the latest closings were "massively damaging" and leading to "consumer confusion."

"Health clubs are not the problem," he said in the video. "They are the solution to maintaining public health."

But even with Life Time operating at 25% capacity, the company is losing money, Akradi said in an interview. The company permanently laid off 300 people this summer.

"This is not about making money," he said. "Anybody who thinks I'm some business guy worrying about the financial damage and not making money, that's just so wrong. I have committed myself and this company to the health and well-being of our entire community."

Congress and the Legislature are debating whether to provide special financial relief to health clubs. A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress in early October would provide $30 billion in grants to club owners, capped at 10% of losses of the 2019 revenue, or $10 million.

For Scott, owner of the small gym in north Minneapolis, access to financial support will be key. This summer he considered selling off his equipment at ME & I Fitness and throwing in the towel.

As he built the business, Scott developed classes for seniors, worked with student-athletes and offered a diabetes prevention program. He lacks the deep pockets of corporate gyms and didn't apply for a federal forgivable loan because his seven personal trainers are independent contractors. He raised $2,000 on a GoFundMe page.

As lawmakers develop grants and loans to help small businesses, Scott fears a one-size-fits-all approach.

"They're making unilateral decisions and treating every business the same," said Scott, who has joined a coalition of small-gym operators called SWEAT Minnesota. "We're not all the same size."

Scott's elderly mother lives with him, so he understands measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus and mitigate risks to his business and loved ones. It frustrates him to see people out shopping or gathering in large groups, not wearing masks or not seeming to take the risk seriously.

"Change won't happen until the unaffected care," he said.

Staff writers Jessie Van Berkel and Jim Walsh contributed to this report.

Link:
Minnesota's fitness industry pushes state officials to let them reopen gyms - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Keeping up with your health and fitness goals is about to get a lot easier, thanks to the Samsung Galaxy Fit tracker.(Photo: debela, Getty Images / Best Buy)

Recommendations are independently chosen by Revieweds editors. Purchases you make through our links may earn us a commission.

If you're looking forward to making2021 the year you finally crush all your wellness goals of working out regularlyand practicinggood sleep hygiene but want to avoid gyms and personal trainers because of COVID-19, you're in luck: Right now, you can snag the next best thing to a personal health coacha top-rated fitness tracker from Samsungon sale for a fraction of the price you'd normally have to spend.

Get expert shopping advice delivered to your phone.Sign up fortext message alertsfrom the deal-hunting nerds at Reviewed.

For a limited time at Best Buy, you can purchase the waterproofSamsung Galaxy Fit fitness tracker with heart rateon sale for a super low price. Originally $99.99, this top-rated device drops as low as $39.99 in white, so you'll save up to 60%.

Weconsider this 4.1-staritem to be one of the best fitness trackers money can buy. Our reviewer found that this was a perfectly fine-albeit-basicunit for Android users with theability to keep track of daily activity levels, heat rate, sleep habits and more. While our tester liked the simplicity of this model, they did speculate that its lack of "smart" features (such as the ability to receive and reply to text messages) might make it less appealing to some tech lovers or folks who have used other, more feature-rich alternatives, such as theFitbit Charge 4 (on sale for $118.95)our pick for the overall best fitness tracker on the market.

Choosing the right fitness tracker can be tricky, but in testing the best, we found the Samsung Galaxy Fit to be a solid entry-level option for Samsung users.(Photo: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser)

It's worth nothing that iPhone users may run into some issues with this model, however. Because the Galaxy Fitrequires two apps for Apple users (Galaxy Wearable to syncthe device to the correct smartphone andSamsung Health for streamliningall thatactivity data), it posed some serious setbacks that some of our product reviewers opted to forgo additional testing on.

Need help finding products?Sign up for ourweekly newsletter.Its free and you can unsubscribe at any time.

That being said, close to 800 Best Buy reviewersdig this stylish selection, with one shopper raving,"This sleek and simple fitness tracker was exactly what I was looking for. ... As you would expect, the setup and syncing are seamless with a Galaxy. It is also extremely lightweight and comfortable, [and]sometimes I forget I am wearing it, to be honest. The battery life is also phenomenal compared with other wearables I've used in the past."

Whether you're shopping for yourself or trying to find the perfect last-minute gift for a loved one who likes running(or other types of intensive workouts), the Samsung Galaxy Fit tracker could be a wonderful way to get the new year off to a terrific start.

The product experts atReviewedhave all your shopping needs covered. Follow Reviewed onFacebook,Twitter, andInstagram for the latest deals, reviews, and more.

Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.

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The Samsung Galaxy Fit is among the best fitness trackers we've triedand less than $50 - USA TODAY

The 2020 Kansas football season will conclude much like it began, with head coach Les Miles yet again heading into a game week accompanied by some uncertainty regarding the teams starting quarterback.

Junior Miles Kendrick handled the job exclusively in KUs 16-13 defeat at Texas Tech on Saturday, but Miles wouldnt say Monday during his weekly video press conference whether he plans to stick with Kendrick again.

I think well look at this week of practice and competition and see how it goes, Miles said, taking a similar stance to what he said about the QB decision ahead of the trip to Lubbock, Texas. He was very good last week (at practices). Well have to see if he continues that pace.

Kendrick didnt start for the Jayhawks (0-9 overall, 0-8 Big 12) against TCU on Nov. 28, but thats when Miles and the staff turned to the veteran instead of true freshman Jalon Daniels. The Jayhawks already trailed by 32 points late in the second quarter when Kendrick subbed in before halftime and needed just four passes to lead a touchdown drive.

Since that series, Daniels, who against TCU made his sixth start of the season, hasnt taken an in-game snap for the offense.

At Texas Tech, Kendrick finished 17-for-29 passing, for 102 yards, without a touchdown or an interception. Kendrick told reporters during his postgame interview on Saturday he learned during practices leading up to the game that he would start.

I tried my best to perform for my football team, Kendrick said.

KU opened the season with senior Thomas MacVittie starting, but even then he split time against Coastal Carolina with Kendrick. MacVittie suffered a shoulder injury in the second half of that loss.

In KUs following game, the Big 12 opener at Baylor, Daniels made his first career start as a 17-year-old (he turned 18 in late October), and Daniels retained the job before getting hurt in a home loss to Oklahoma State.

Kendrick picked up his first career start at West Virginia with Daniels unable to play. Then Daniels returned to the No. 1 spot for KUs trip to Kansas State and appeared to be the QB who would handle the job the rest of the way, starting four games in a row before Kendrick supplanted him for the game at Tech.

Similar to last week, it seems either could be considered the No. 1 QB by Saturday, when the Jayhawks are scheduled to play host to No. 23 Texas (6-3, 5-3) at 2:30 p.m. (ESPNU).

On the season, Daniels has completed 50% of his 152 passes, for 718 yards, with one touchdown and four interceptions.

Kendrick has connected on 60.8% of his 120 throws, for 647 yards, and has six of KUs seven passing touchdowns on the year, along with five of the teams 10 interceptions. (MacVittie had a tipped ball picked off in the opener.)

After missing a game for the first time in his two seasons with KU football, senior receiver Andrew Parchment wont be back for the Jayhawks finale versus Texas.

Parchment, according to Miles, was unable to play at Texas Tech due to a sickness. KUs coach said Monday the wideout will not be with us this week, either.

Parchment caught 24 passes for 197 yards and two touchdowns while appearing in eight games for the struggling KU offense this season.

Previously, Miles has said he hopes to bring Parchment and senior receiver Stephon Robinson Jr. back for next season, with the NCAA giving athletes a blanket waiver for an extra year of eligibility due to the pandemic.

It isnt abundantly clear at this time whether Parchment would be interested in returning.

Although freshman center Garrett Jones wasnt able to play for KU at Tech, Miles said the young offensive lineman is expected to be back handling the snaps this week.

Taiwan Berryhill, who had to be carried off the field on a stretcher after colliding with teammate Kenny Logan Jr. on a tackle at Texas Tech, also is expected to play versus Texas, according to Miles.

He basically got a stinger, the coach said of what happened to the freshman linebacker. A very, very significant stinger.

Miles also thinks sophomore safety Logan will be able to return for the defense later in the week, as we get closer to the playing date.

After missing KUs trip to Texas Tech due to a positive COVID-19 test, defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot isnt having any real issues with his symptoms, Miles reported on Monday.

Miles said Eliot is doing fine and has continued to work with the KU staff virtually, over video calls. The head coach said Eliot should be back at the facility by Thursday or Friday.

Safeties coach Jordan Peterson filled in for Eliot as defensive coordinator in KUs narrow loss at Tech.

According to 247 Sports, KU freshman Clinton Anokwuru has put his name in the transfer portal.

Listed as a defensive lineman on the roster, at 6-foot-3 and 224 pounds, Anokwuru was a three-star signee in KUs 2020 recruiting class.

Anokwuru, from Richmond, Texas, hasnt appeared in any games for KU.

Originally posted here:

Notebook: Miles says 'practice and competition' will determine whether Kendrick starts again - KUsports

The Arizona Cardinals have earned their playoff spot back. Minutes after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took down the Minnesota Vikings, the final whistle blew in the Meadowlands as Arizona took down the New York Giants, 26-7. At 7-6, the Cardinals now lead Minnesota by one game in the wild-card chase with three weeks remaining.

Arizona's defense on Sunday was stellar, special teams provided a boost and the offense found a rhythm at times that it hasnt seen for three weeks.

"I felt it yesterday at the hotel," quarterback Kyler Murray said. "The vibe was different, more free, everybody just relaxing and having fun, not putting any pressure on anybody. And today we came out and played."

Pros

Defense (Haasons Show)

Across the board, the defense had perhaps its best performance of the season by far on Sunday. It allowed single-digit points for the first time by setting the edge and getting to quarterback Daniel Jones, with great coverage and forcing turnovers.

The Cardinals finished with eight sacks (the same number as last year against New York), five tackles for loss, five pass deflections and three forced fumbles. They got started early, as former Giant Markus Golden stripped Jones on the Giants' opening drive.

"I thought Marcus set the tone, which is kind of poetic to come back here and get that strip-sack," head coach Kliff Kingsbury said. "Overall, a great plan by (defensive coordinator Vance Joseph)."

Outside linebacker Haason Reddick made team history with his career day.

He finished with five sacks, setting a franchise record, with six quarterback hits and three forced fumbles. Reddick now has 10 sacks this season after having 7.5 over his first three years combined.

"I cried at the end of the game, filled with joy," Reddick said.

He out-did Chandler Jones, who had four sacks against the Giants last year to fall a half-sack short of the team record.

"The look in his eyes this week, rushing all week, I knew he was going to have a big one," Golden said.

Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph talked during the week about stopping the Giants on third downs, and Arizona held them to 3-for-12. They also contained New York to just 159 net yards, a season low.

Everyone essentially made an impactful play. The Giants hardly threw in cornerback Patrick Petersons direction all game, but he deflected a pass early on. Dre Kirkpatrick stepped up with solid coverage and had a couple pass breakups. Linebacker Dennis Gardeck had two sacks at MetLife Stadium earlier in the season against the Jets and he picked up two more in the same building Sunday.

Linebacker Devon Kennard had a tackle for loss, cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. knocked a deep ball away and linebacker Jordan Hicks led the team with eight tackles.

"Everybody got it going today," Golden said.

Offensive rhythm

The Cardinals scoring 26 points isnt near the top of their season outputs and they certainly left some points on the field.

But, there were spurts where the offense looked like the one that scored at least 30 points in five straight games earlier this year.

They utilized an up-tempo, calling roll-outs, the protection for quarterback Kyler Murray improved and he was able to find some running lanes. Plus, he hit 24 of 35 throws, which opened up the game for the rushing attack.

Arizona gained 159 yards on the ground, 80 from Kenyan Drake and 47 from Murray, the teams highest output since Nov. 15.

"We had a good week of practice," Murray said. "We adjusted to the plan, what they were doing. I had a lot more running lanes, they were dropping eight at a time, dropping in coverage a lot."

Murray and receiver DeAndre Hopkins connected nine times for 136 yards.

"For the most part, we were efficient, ran the ball," Kingsbury said. "I thought Kyler made plays with his feet. D-Hop obviously had his deal.

"We still know there's a lot of room for improvement."

The offense scored only two touchdowns and left the rest for field goals, but they found the rhythm that had been lacking in several stretches against one of the better defenses on their schedule.

Special teams

For the second consecutive week, the special-teams coverage unit forced a fumble that led to a Cardinals touchdown, this time on a kickoff. Kylie Fitts inadvertently stuck his leg up and kicked the ball away from returner Dion Lewis, and Trent Sherfield recovered.

Kicker Mike Nugent filled in for Zane Gonzalez, who was announced to be out with a back injury Saturday. Nugent made all four of his field-goal tries. None were more than 37 yards, but he did his job.

Punter Andy Lee helped the Cardinals win the field-position battle, pinning the Giants within the 10-yard line on three of four kicks.

As for returns, Christian Kirk set up multiple scores, averaging 12.8 yards per return.

Lee, Kirk and turnovers helped the Cardinals' average starting position be on their 47-yard line while New York's was on their 18.

Cons

Missed red-zone chances

While the defense got off to a hot start with Goldens strip-sack, the offense took a while to break into the end zone. Golden returned the fumble to the 9-yard line, but after reaching the 1-yard line, the Cardinals were stifled on third and fourth down resulting in no points.

After the Giants punted on the next drive, Kirk had a 24-yard return to the New York 38. The Cardinals could only muster a field goal after getting back to the red zone. This essentially happened again two drives later, as a Cardinals drive stalled at the 19-yard line.

"We started slow," Murray said. "We had possessions where we moved the ball, flipped field position, but we didn't end up scoring. There was still a lot out there."

The Cardinals finished 2-for-7 on scoring touchdowns in the red zone after entering the game with the best touchdown percentage in the NFL.

Consistent running with Drake

While Murray was able to find space ahead of him, Drake did not often. He finished with 80 yards on 23 carries, but 18 of his rushes went for three yards or fewer. Part of the reason the Cardinals did not get in the end zone sooner was that they could not find a hole with their lead running back.

Drake also fumbled twice on one possession, although both were recovered by the offense.

Jordan Phillips

Phillips was activated from reserve/injured on Saturday in time for Sunday's game. He had missed four games, which was a big loss for the defensive front.

Five plays into his return, he went down with a hamstring injury again.

"I've got to get in there and talk through that but I know we have got some guys banged up and so we have to address that," Kingsbury said.

The Cardinals next chance to hold onto their playoff spot is a week from Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles in Glendale.

View post:

Three Positive and Negative Takeaways from Cardinals Win Over Giants - Sports Illustrated

HUMBLE Landon Love has envisioned one of his kicks leading his team to a championship game.

On Friday night, thats exactly what happened.

Loves 18-yard field goal with no time left on the clock punched the Lindale Eagles to their first ticket to the state championship game in program history with a 31-28 win over Austin LBJ at George Turner Stadium.

This has been my dream since I cant tell you how long, as a little boy, just to grow up and kick the game-winning field goal to go to state, Love said.

Our goal all week was to dominate the kicking game, Lindale head coach Chris Cochran said. On August 3rd, the first day of fall camp, we worked on special teams. We knew it would be the difference in ball games. We didnt know it would be in the state semis!

Hes been clutch for us in kickoffs, our kickoff team has so much confidence because of the kicker. We are going to play special teams very, very well and we have to dominate the kicking game and I am so proud of Landon, what an awesome moment for him.

Down 28-7 at halftime, Lindales offense was unable to get anything going, and the LBJ offense was coming up with big play after big play. The Jaguars had 370 yards in the first half 277 on the ground and Lindales only score came on a 69-yard kickoff return by Airik Williams.

Even early in the second half, Lindale couldnt generate offense against LBJ. The Jaguars forced a quick three-and-out and Lindale had to punt. After rain poured down during halftime, the Jaguars were unable to field the punt cleanly, and the ball rolled into the end zone. Lindales Evan Alford was able to recover the ball just before it rolled through the back of the end zone for an Eagle touchdown to cut the score to 28-14.

LBJ came back with a 74-yard run by Phazzon Washington to get deep into Lindale territory, but the Lindale defense answered the call and stopped the Jaguars on fourth down.

Lindale got into LBJ territory before losing its third fumble of the night. However, the Eagles forced the Jaguars to fumble the ball right back, and Keiston Ross recovered for Lindale.

With 42 seconds left in the third quarter, Lindale got its first offensive touchdown of the game as Jordan Jenkins broke free for a 60-yard run to cut the score to 28-21.

With the ball at its own 37 and 6:09 remaining, Lindale needed just four plays to find the end zone as Jenkins closed the drive with runs of 40 and 16 yards to tie the score at 28 with 4:40 to play.

The Jaguars went for it on fourth down in their own territory, and Colton Widemon got the stop. Lindale also turned it over on downs with 1:56 to play, but it was at the LBJ 26.

LBJ went for it on fourth down on its own end of the field once again, and again Widemon made the stop to give the Eagles the ball at the LBJ 35 with 50 seconds to play.

After two rushing attempts by Sam Peterson and a completion from Peterson to Daniel Franke, Jenkins took it 18 yards to the LBJ 8 with 19 seconds on the clock.

Lindale gave it to Jenkins one more time, and he carried the ball to the 2-yard line before a Lindale timeout with 12 seconds to play.

The Eagles lined up for a field goal that was blocked by LBJ, and Clemson commit Andrew Mukuba returned it to the end zone with no time remaining. The Jaguars were offsides, though, allowing Lindale to attempt another kick. After two more offsides penalties on the Jaguars, Love was finally able to get the kick off and nailed the 18-yarder for the win despite taking a hard hit from the defense.

My goal is just to knock it through like I do in practice, Love said. I remember getting to the ball and either No. 2 or No. 1 smoked me. Im on the ground, and I just heard everybody cheering, so I assumed it went in. We got it done, and now were going to Jerrys World.

The win sends Lindale (13-2) to the Class 4A Division I championship against perennial power Argyle at 7 p.m. Dec. 18 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

After rushing for 78 yards on 10 carries in the first half, the Baylor-bound Jenkins carried the ball 18 times in the second half for 200 yards and two touchdowns. Jenkins finished with 278 yards on 28 attempts for Lindale, which had 298 yards of offense.

Offensively, we started staying on our blocks better and as you know, it just takes a little crease for Jordan and he had that little crease, Cochran said. Hes our guy, hes our leader. Him and Jaymond, when they take over, the rest of the guys respond.

LBJ (9-3) compiled 530 yards 416 on the ground. Daqwon Donaldson finished with 218 yards on 27 carries, including a 79-yard touchdown run in the first half. Washington had 115 yards on eight carries. Sedrick Alexander finished with 81 yards and three touchdowns all 1-yarders in the first half.

Widemon, Jaymond Jackson, Corey Sanders, Williams, Christian King and others helped the Lindale defense shut out the Jaguars in the second half.

I just pretty much told the team that were going to finish and not give up, Jackson said. Were going to play our game of football, and thats what we did and why we got the job done. We are some fighters.

We made a few adjustments here and there, we had to get Airik Williams where they were running the ball and he knew he had to play better, Cochran said. To be honest with you, I took the captains out back and challenged them. I knew our leaders were going to lead. And I knew they were going to show up when they had to show up, they did it last week, they did it previous weeks. They handled it like I knew they would because they are champions and they are warriors.

Lindale 31, Austin LBJ 28

LBJ Sedrick Alexander 1 run (Kick failed), 9:51

LBJ Alexander 1 run (Daqwon Donaldson run), 11:27

LBJ Donaldson 79 run (Alexander run), 3:44

LIN Airik Williams 69 kickoff return (Landon Love kick), 3:33

LBJ Alexander 1 run (Pass failed), :04

LIN Evan Alford fumble recovery in end zone (Love kick), 10:19

LIN Jordan Jenkins 60 run (Love kick), :31

LIN Jenkins 16 run (Love kick), 4:40

Rushes-Yards 66-416 3 7-279

Comp.-Att-Int. 8-20-0 5-15-0

Penalties-Yards 19-136 2-10

RUSHING LBJ, Daqwon Donaldson 27-218, Phazzon Washington 8-115, Sedrick Alexander 18-81, Andrew Mukuba 2-19, Danny Davis 2-1, Oscar Gordon 9-(-18). Lindale, Jordan Jenkins 28-278, Sam Peterson 8-1, Jacob Seekford 1-0.

PASSING LBJ, Oscar Gordon 8-20-0 114. Lindale, Sam Peterson 5-15-0 19.

RECEIVING LBJ, Latrell McCutchin 3-14, Danny Davis 2-27, Daqwon Donaldson 1-33, Sedrick Alexander 1-30, Andrew Mukuba 1-10. Lindale, Jordan Jenkins 3-10, Daniel Franke 1-9, Jacob Seekford 1-0.

See the rest here:

All Love in Lindale: Eagles headed to first state championship game with game-winning field goal - Tyler Morning Telegraph

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Solving what biologists call the protein-folding problem is a big deal. Proteins are the workhorses of cells and are present in all living organisms. They are made up of long chains of amino acids and are vital for the structure of cells and communication between them as well as regulating all of the chemistry in the body.

This week, the Google-owned artificial intelligence company DeepMind demonstrated a deep-learning program called AlphaFold2, which experts are calling a breakthrough toward solving the grand challenge of protein folding.

Proteins are long chains of amino acids linked together like beads on a string. But for a protein to do its job in the cell, it must fold a process of twisting and bending that transforms the molecule into a complex three-dimensional structure that can interact with its target in the cell. If the folding is disrupted, then the protein wont form the correct shape and it wont be able to perform its job inside the body. This can lead to disease as is the case in a common disease like Alzheimers, and rare ones like cystic fibrosis.

Deep learning is a computational technique that uses the often hidden information contained in vast datasets to solve questions of interest. Its been used widely in fields such as games, speech and voice recognition, autonomous cars, science and medicine.

I believe that tools like AlphaFold2 will help scientists to design new types of proteins, ones that may, for example, help break down plastics and fight future viral pandemics and disease.

I am a computational chemist and author of the book The State of Science. My students and I study the structure and properties of fluorescent proteins using protein-folding computer programs based on classical physics.

After decades of study by thousands of research groups, these protein-folding prediction programs are very good at calculating structural changes that occur when we make small alterations to known molecules.

But they havent adequately managed to predict how proteins fold from scratch. Before deep learning came along, the protein-folding problem seemed impossibly hard, and it seemed poised to frustrate computational chemists for many decades to come.

The sequence of the amino acids which is encoded in DNA defines the proteins 3D shape. The shape determines its function. If the structure of the protein changes, it is unable to perform its function. Correctly predicting protein folds based on the amino acid sequence could revolutionize drug design, and explain the causes of new and old diseases.

All proteins with the same sequence of amino acid building blocks fold into the same three-dimensional form, which optimizes the interactions between the amino acids. They do this within milliseconds, although they have an astronomical number of possible configurations available to them about 10 to the power of 300. This massive number is what makes it hard to predict how a protein folds even when scientists know the full sequence of amino acids that go into making it. Previously predicting the structure of protein from the amino acid sequence was impossible. Protein structures were experimentally determined, a time-consuming and expensive endeavor.

Once researchers can better predict how proteins fold, theyll be able to better understand how cells function and how misfolded proteins cause disease. Better protein prediction tools will also help us design drugs that can target a particular topological region of a protein where chemical reactions take place.

Also read: Diabetics sugar can rise based on how much they think theyre having, Harvard study finds

The success of DeepMinds protein-folding prediction program, called AlphaFold, is not unexpected. Other deep-learning programs written by DeepMind have demolished the worlds best chess, Go and poker players.

In 2016 Stockfish-8, an open-source chess engine, was the worlds computer chess champion. It evaluated 70 million chess positions per second and had centuries of accumulated human chess strategies and decades of computer experience to draw upon. It played efficiently and brutally, mercilessly beating all its human challengers without an ounce of finesse. Enter deep learning.

On Dec. 7, 2017, Googles deep-learning chess program AlphaZero thrashed Stockfish-8. The chess engines played 100 games, with AlphaZero winning 28 and tying 72. It didnt lose a single game. AlphaZero did only 80,000 calculations per second, as opposed to Stockfish-8s 70 million calculations, and it took just four hours to learn chess from scratch by playing against itself a few million times and optimizing its neural networks as it learned from its experience.

AlphaZero didnt learn anything from humans or chess games played by humans. It taught itself and, in the process, derived strategies never seen before. In a commentary in Science magazine, former world chess champion Garry Kasparov wrote that by learning from playing itself, AlphaZero developed strategies that reflect the truth of chess rather than reflecting the priorities and prejudices of the programmers. Its the embodiment of the clich work smarter, not harder.

Every two years, the worlds top computational chemists test the abilities of their programs to predict the folding of proteins and compete in the Critical Assessment of Structure Prediction (CASP) competition.

In the competition, teams are given the linear sequence of amino acids for about 100 proteins for which the 3D shape is known but hasnt yet been published; they then have to compute how these sequences would fold. In 2018 AlphaFold, the deep-learning rookie at the competition, beat all the traditional programs but barely.

Two years later, on Monday, it was announced that Alphafold2 had won the 2020 competition by a healthy margin. It whipped its competitors, and its predictions were comparable to the existing experimental results determined through gold standard techniques like X-ray diffraction crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy. Soon I expect AlphaFold2 and its progeny will be the methods of choice to determine protein structures before resorting to experimental techniques that require painstaking, laborious work on expensive instrumentation.

One of the reasons for AlphaFold2s success is that it could use the Protein Database, which has over 170,000 experimentally determined 3D structures, to train itself to calculate the correctly folded structures of proteins.

The potential impact of AlphaFold can be appreciated if one compares the number of all published protein structures approximately 170,000 with the 180 million DNA and protein sequences deposited in the Universal Protein Database. AlphaFold will help us sort through treasure troves of DNA sequences hunting for new proteins with unique structures and functions.

As with the chess and Go programs AlphaZero and AlphaGo we dont exactly know what the AlphaFold2 algorithm is doing and why it uses certain correlations, but we do know that it works.

Besides helping us predict the structures of important proteins, understanding AlphaFolds thinking will also help us gain new insights into the mechanism of protein folding.

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One of the most common fears expressed about AI is that it will lead to large-scale unemployment. AlphaFold still has a significant way to go before it can consistently and successfully predict protein folding.

However, once it has matured and the program can simulate protein folding, computational chemists will be integrally involved in improving the programs, trying to understand the underlying correlations used, and applying the program to solve important problems such as the protein misfolding associated with many diseases such as Alzheimers, Parkinsons, cystic fibrosis and Huntingtons disease.

AlphaFold and its offspring will certainly change the way computational chemists work, but it wont make them redundant. Other areas wont be as fortunate. In the past robots were able to replace humans doing manual labor; with AI, our cognitive skills are also being challenged.

Marc Zimmer, Professor of Chemistry, Connecticut College

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Also read: Egg sales have skyrocketed during Covid pandemic and other eggy facts

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Most AI systems excel in generating specific responses to a particular problem. Today, AI can outperform humans in various fields. For AI to do any task it is presented with; it needs to generalize, learn, and understand new situations as they occur without supplementary guidance. However, as humans can recognize chess and Poker both as games in the broadest sense, teaching a single AI to play both is challenging.

Perfect-Information games versus Imperfect-Information games

AI systems are relatively successful at mastering perfect-information games like chess, where nothing is hidden to either player. Each player can see the entire board and all possible moves in all instances. With bots like AlphaZero, AI can even combine reinforcement learning with search (RL+Search) to teach themselves to master these games from scratch.

Unlike perfect-information games and single-agent settings, imperfect-information games have a critical challenge that an actions value may depend on their chosen probability. Therefore, the team states that it is also crucial to include the probability that different sequences of actions occurred and not just the sequences of actions alone.

ReBel

Facebook has recently introduced Recursive Belief-based Learning (ReBeL). It is a general RL+Search algorithm that works in all two-player zero-sum games, including imperfect-information games. ReBeL grows on the RL+Search algorithms that have proved successful in perfect-information games. However, unlike past AIs, ReBeL makes decisions by factoring in the probability distribution of different views each player might have about the games current state, which is called a public belief state (PBS). For example, ReBeL can assess the chances that its poker opponent thinks it has.

Former RL+Search algorithms break down in imperfect-information games like Poker, where not complete information is known (for example, players keep their cards secret in Poker). These algorithms give a fixed value to each action regardless of whether the action is chosen. For instance, in chess, a right step is good irrespective of whether it is chosen frequently or rarely. But in games like Poker, the more a player bluffs, its value goes down as opponents can alter their strategy to call more of those bluffs. Thus Pluribus poker bot is trained on an approach that uses search during actual gameplay and not before.

ReBeL can treat imperfect-information games similar to perfect-information games by accounting for the views of each player. Facebook has developed a modified RL+Search algorithm that ReBeL can leverage to work with the higher-dimensional state and action range of imperfect-information games.

Experiments show that ReBeL is efficient in large-scale two-player zero-sum imperfect-information games such as Liars Dice and Poker. ReBeL achieves superhuman performance by even defeating a top human professional in the benchmark game of heads-up no-limit Texas Hold em.

Several works have occurred before to achieve the same. However, ReBeL executes it using considerably less expert domain knowledge than any previous poker AI. This is a crucial step to building a generalized AI that can solve complex real-world problems involving hidden information like negotiations, fraud detection, cybersecurity, etc.

Limitations:

ReBeL is the first AI to empower RL+Search in imperfect-information games. However, there are some limitations to its current implementation, as listed below:

Nevertheless, ReBeL achieves low exploitability in benchmark games and is a significant start toward creating more general AI algorithms. To promote further research, Facebook has open-sourced the implementation of ReBeL for Liars Dice.

GitHub: (For ReBeL for Liars Dice) https://github.com/facebookresearch/rebel?

Source: https://ai.facebook.com/blog/rebel-a-general-game-playing-ai-bot-that-excels-at-poker-and-more

Related Paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2007.13544.pdf

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Facebook AI Introduces 'ReBeL': An Algorithm That Generalizes The Paradigm Of Self-Play Reinforcement Learning And Search To Imperfect-Information...

December 10, 2020 01:20 ET | Source: Balboa Press

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NEW YORK, Dec. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rich Mollura explores how the relentless force of kundalini energy has helped him cope with grief, navigate life and contemplate the mysteries of the world in his new book, Autobiography of a New York City Salesman: My Parallel Life of Transformation through Conscious Evolution and Kundalini Energy (published by Balboa Press AU).

Featuring a theme of individual and collective conscious evolution, the book offers its reader an opportunity to appreciate the supreme intelligence of creation, life and spiritual evolution by delving into personal and universal experiences. Mollura documents and gives examples of his personal experience with kundalini energy to make each insight clear and applicable to other peoples personal evolutions.

Combining wisdom from Lao Tsu, to Buddha, to Jesus and connecting them to modern spiritual beings like Wayne Dyer and Eckhart Tolle, Mollura also explains how they are relevant to daily work, families, and the challenges everyone faces. The author addresses specifically how he and his family worked through diseases in his son to the grieving of the loss of parents while connecting to powerful ideas and ancient wisdom.

Hoping to inspire and encourage ones own journey of inner revolution and evolution, Mollura wants each of his readers to come away from reading his book with A transformed vision of their own evolution which they find exciting and fun.

Autobiography of a New York City Salesman is available for purchase on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-York-City-Salesman-Transformation/dp/1982231742.

Autobiography of a New York City Salesman

By Rich Mollura

Hardcover | 6 x 9 in | 194 pages | ISBN 9781982231767

Softcover | 6 x 9 in | 194 pages | ISBN 9781982231743

E-Book | 194 pages | ISBN 9781982231750

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Born in 1961, Rich Mollura lives on Long Island and has worked as a salesman for a Fortune 500 company in New York City for just under 40 years. He has a wife and two children. Mollura graduated out of Fordham University and has numerous sales accolades that helped him become one of the most successful and effective sales people for a company that will be 100 next year.

Balboa Press, a division of Hay House, Inc. a leading provider in publishing products that specialize in self-help and the mind, body, and spirit genres. Through an alliance with the worldwide self-publishing leader Author Solutions, LLC, authors benefit from the leadership of Hay House Publishing and the speed-to-market advantages of the self-publishing model. For more information, visit balboapress.com. To start publishing your book with Balboa Press, call 844-682-1282 today.

Bloomington, Indiana, UNITED STATES

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Learn deep esoteric and profound ideas relevant to your daily life and work with new book - GlobeNewswire

Luisana Hernandez engages in what she describes as conscious flow to create visual, literary and musical art.

Who: I am art in motion, not easily defined, surviving, mostly thriving, in the face of radical change and adversity. I learned to sing before I could speak. I learned to walk before I could crawl. My approach to artistic expression is much like my approach to life: mostly unconventional and sometimes backward.

My name is Luisana Lu Hernandez and I am 37 years old. I am a self-taught visual, literary and musical artist, as well as a community activist, living in Everett. I have been an artist in some capacity for as long as I can remember, and a dedicated activist for the last year. I work for Snohomish Countys Communities of Color Coalition and am a member of the Creative District Formation Group for the city of Everett.

What: I see each creative medium as a therapeutic and transformative tool that allows me to process the deeper nature of my experiences. In that sense, regardless of the medium, my subject matter is often personal. I regularly engage in conscious flow as an active meditation, so my visual art often appears cellular in nature. When it comes to artistic expression, I prefer the beauty of organic evolution to a highly structured, predetermined endstate.

Mixed media is one of my favorite outlets as a visual artist. It has the least amount of constraints, and satiates my need for adding textures and dimensions. I favor earth tones, but do not limit myself to specific color palettes when creating.

I also write poetry, prose, fiction, non-fiction and creative non-fiction. As for my music, I am an acoustic singer-songwriter with folk roots that favors simple melodies with heavy-handed lyrics. I have become more political with my musical sentiments as of late, and hope that others hear within them a call for social justice and political reform.

Where: I have a small studio in my garage where I work. I have played shows and displayed art in Everett, Snohomish, Seattle and Bellingham. You can see some of my work on Instagram and Facebook, though I am still learning to utilize and navigate those platforms effectively. Simultaneously, I am in the process of building a website that should launch early next year.

COVID-19 tanked the entertainment industry and turned that economic sector into a temporary dead zone. A lot of venues have either gone under or are on the brink of the fall. Most of the artist communities I engage with have shifted gears toward a heavy online presence with limited opportunities for private showings. Private sales and patrons have been my means to keep creating art during these times.

When: Now more than ever, we must support and uplift the BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ and disabled artists in our communities. This year, many of the marginalized surrendered the tools of their trade for protest signs and rallies, in support of the massive push for social and political justice and equity. It is an important time to be an artist. We are the heralds of these movements, communicating the truth of what we see, unapologetically. Our voices are necessary, and we must remember as a community that our silence regarding the atrocities and traumas experienced by BIPOC communities is itself, an act of cultural erasure. Our creatives are drivers of social change, and we are desperately needed at the forefront.

Why: We are born creating and will die creating; this is the way. Life is a temporary, albeit eternal cycle. The gift is the lived experience. So often we create to capture and encapsulate, yet we can hold onto nothing, as everything is in a state of constant change. The end of one creation will birth the beginning of another, and even our death will create an absence felt by many. In that sense, I see no beginning or end.

The creative process allows me to accept transformation and the nature of truth, however unpalatable I find it. It allows me to build upon and appreciate my experiences, while not feeling defined or limited by them. It provides me the tools I need to pick up the pieces of what I perceive within and outside of myself as broken or torn and begin the mend by breathing life into something new. Whether I begin with remnants and rubble or nothing at all, what I create reflects this.

How: I make a lot of alcohol ink from dried up and discarded markers, and often use it to prime my larger pieces. Oversized coffee filters have become a staple for me and catch the excess ink. Once they dry crisp and saturated with color, I use them in other pieces. Most of the visual art I create has upcycled and recycled components, which helps with the cost of creating. You can often find me deconstructing unwanted costume jewelry for its shiny bobbles. Whether I am writing, painting or gluing, I love working in layers that add texture and depth. I do not direct the art that I create, so much as I surrender my hands to its inherent nature. Simply put, I function as a conduit.

Favorite piece: Unlike conscious flow, crafting a song can be grueling. Sometimes the amount of emotional labor required to produce something meaningful is exhausting. Perhaps that is why I am particularly attached to words. Here is an excerpt from a song I wrote called I Will Never Run For Office:

An eye for an eye would leave us all blind / Theres a cost for every favor / It costs to be born and death it costs / More than the grief that it brings /Were all fightin for a piece of a pie / That is stuffed with our guts and our busted-up wings / Some will kneel on the neck of another / Taking their time left to savor / The privilege and power of color / That deals in the lives of the people we wager

Sara Bruestle, Herald writer

Artist extras

Coming up: Lu Hernandez will sing and play guitar live on Facebook to celebrate her 38th birthday at 7 p.m. Jan. 29. Go to http://www.facebook.com/swimmingthefeels to watch the show. Donate to Hernandez via her PayPal tip jar.

More mixed-media art: See more of Hernandezs work on Instagram @swimmingthefeels.

An artist on exhibit

This story is part of an occasional series in which local artists share the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How on their creative careers plus the story behind their favorite original artwork. Do you know an artist worthy of a feature in the Panorama section? Email features@heraldnet.com.

Luisana Lu Hernandez works on a large canvas piece titled Madre Mia in her Everett studio. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Lu Hernandez makes her own alcohol ink from discarded marking pens for works such as this untitled mixed-media piece on canvas. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Lu Hernandez works in her studio, in the garage of her Everett home. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Lu Hernandez created these four small mixed-media pieces with acrylic and alcohol ink. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

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This Everett artist makes a statement in multiple mediums - The Daily Herald