Google Hangouts

The free video chat app from Google is a great example of a consumer-grade app. It integrates with Gmail and Google Calendar, making it easier for users to operate.

Up to 10 participants can join the live conference with a plug-in application. And as it doesn’t support dual stream video and content, some users complain that the video is not clear or reliable.

Skype

The app, developed by Microsoft, gives 10 users access to a conference. It’s worth noting that Microsoft is integrated with Skype.

A plug-in application is required. Advanced features are fascinating, but only available for paid subscription.

Zoom

The free video conferencing solution from Zoom provides a service for group video calls with over 100 participants. The Zoom Basic plan allows users to have 40-minute calls with a handful of features like screen sharing, local recording and camera filters.

A plug-in application is necessary. All calls, which are limited to 40 minutes or less, are secured.

Lifesize

Lifesize has been in the video conferencing industry for long. By setting up a free account with Lifesize, you can quickly start a free video call with up to 25 participants. It is web-based and doesn’t require downloads or an application on your devices. Guests can join the live call right from the website by clicking on your personal meeting ID link.

To use the additional features like 300-way calling, Microsoft integrations and 4K video conference room systems requires a paid subscription.

Moving can be daunting – whether it’s to a new city or an entirely new country. The good news? Volunteering can be a great way to settle into a new community, meet people, and learn valuable skills.

Kajal Patil moved to the United States from India in February 2017. Having previously volunteered for two years as an assistant yoga teacher in her home country, Kajal was enthusiastic about volunteering and began looking for volunteer opportunities that match her interests. She was drawn to a volunteer opportunity to review applications on behalf of the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI), which aims to help Latin American and Caribbean business to bring positive changes to their societies and contribute more fully to economic development, prosperity and security in those places.

After connecting with the opportunity and successfully completing the application process, Kajal got to work. Her role involved reviewing 44 in-depth applications from potential candidates across Latin America and the Caribbean for a four-week fellowship in the U.S.. She was responsible for describing the business ideas presented by these candidates, assessing the social impact of their businesses, and determining the strength of candidates to carry out their plans. With almost 4,000 applicants in 2017, volunteers like Kajal were important members of the YLAI team.

Kajal says that this volunteer opportunity super-charged her existing skills, while helping her build new ones such as time management, business analysis, decision-making, planning, and presenting.

She is now looking for her next volunteer opportunity and reflects positively on her experience with YLAI. “A new country brings in a lot of new experiences and volunteering helped me to settle into a new environment,” adds Kajal. “By helping others, I felt needed in society. It promoted my confidence, and other people benefited too. Volunteering is a great opportunity to improve yourself, others, and the whole society.”

Whether you recently moved to a new place or are looking to expand your influence on your current community, find a volunteer opportunity to empower yourself, and others.

Experts from MIT have found means to incorporate (加入) electronic sensors into fabrics, which can help to create shirts or other garments that could be used to monitor vital signs such as temperature and heart rate. The sensor-embedded garments can be customized to fit close to the body of the person wearing them.

“We can have electronic parts or lab-made electronics embedded within the textiles that we wear every day, creating comfortable garments,” says Dagdeviren, an professor at MIT. His group set out to create garments more similar to the clothes we normally wear, using a fabric that has removable electronic sensors in it.

“In our case, the textile is not electrically functional. It’s just a passive element of our garment so that you can wear the devices comfortably during your daily activities,” Dagdeviren says. “Our main goal was to measure the physical activity of the body all from the same body part, without requiring any fixture or any tape.”

The electronic sensors consist of long flexible strips. These channels have small openings that allow the sensors to be exposed to the skin. For this study, the researchers designed a shirt with 30 temperature sensors and an accelerometer(加速度计) that can measure the wearer’s movement, heart rate, and breathing rate. The garment can then transmit this data wirelessly to a smartphone.

This kind of sensing could be useful for personalized telemedicine, allowing doctors to remotely monitor patients. “You don’t need to go to the doctor or do a video call,” Dagdeviren says. “Through this kind of data collection, I think doctors can make better assessments and help their patients in a better way.”

Last summer, several of the researchers spent time at a factory in Shenzhen, China, to experiment with mass-producing the material used for the garments. “From the outside it looks like a normal T-shirt, but from the inside, you can see the electronic parts which are touching your skin,” Dagdeviren says.

Suppose you meet a person for the first time who comes from a distant country but is fluent in your language. Would you adapt the tone of your voice, or the spacing of pauses in your speech? Would you adjust your body language and facial expressions, depending on the background of the person in front of you?

These are just a handful of the shifts in behavior that can contribute to what is known as your “cultural intelligence”, or CQ.” The number one predictor of your success in today’s borderless world is not your IQ, or not even your expertise(专长),” writes social scientist David Livermore in his book The Cultural Intelligence Difference. “It’s your CQ.”

Typically CQ is measured through a series of questions that assess four distinct components. The first is “CQ Drive” — the motivation to learn about other cultures. Then there is “CQ Knowledge”, which is an understanding of some of the general cultural differences you may face. “CQ Strategy” examines how you make sense of those difficult conflicts and learn from them, while “CQ Action” involves your behavioral flexibility — whether you are able to adapt your conduct like a cultural chameleon.

“While understanding a specific culture can be useful, it may not predict at all your ability to engage effectively in a new place,” says Livermore. “In fact, our research finds that individuals who have lived in multiple locations for extended time are more likely to have higher CQ Knowledge than those who have lived multiple decades in one overseas setting.”

Someone with low CQ might have a tendency to judge everyone else’s behavior by his own cultural standards. If he comes from a more sociable environment, for instance, and notices that his Japanese colleagues are very quiet in a meeting, he may assume that they are being unfriendly or bored. A person at the top of the scale, meanwhile, might realize that silence is a sign of respect and that feedback won’t be given unless it is explicitly required. As a result, he’ll make sure to offer suitable opportunities within the meeting for others to provide their opinions.