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Only 0.001% of the Deep Seafloor Visually Observed in Seventy Years, Revealing Gaps and Bias in Ocean Exploration

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SAUNDERSTOWN, R.I., May 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — In a groundbreaking study published today in Science Advances, researchers from Ocean Discovery League reveal that only a minuscule fraction of the deep seafloor has been imaged. Despite covering 66% of Earth’s surface, the deep ocean remains largely unexplored. The study, “How Little We’ve Seen: A Visual Coverage Estimate of the Deep Seafloor,” is the first to document that, in decades of deep-sea exploration, humans have observed less than 0.001% of the deep seafloor. This total area is roughly the size of Rhode Island or one-tenth the size of Belgium.

In a groundbreaking study, researchers reveal that only a minuscule fraction of the deep seafloor has been imaged.

The deep ocean, defined as being deeper than 200 meters, sustains diverse ecosystems and provides essential services, including oxygen production, climate regulation, and crucial pharmaceutical discoveries, and plays a critical role in maintaining the health of our planet. Yet, despite its importance, research into this immense ecosystem is severely limited, with visual surveys primarily focused on just a few regions and countries. Visual imaging is one of the most critical methods to study the deep seafloor and is one of the three key pillars of ocean exploration, alongside mapping and sampling.

“As we face accelerated threats to the deep ocean—from climate change to potential mining and resource exploitation—this limited exploration of such a vast region becomes a critical problem for both science and policy,” said Dr. Katy Croff Bell, President of Ocean Discovery League, National Geographic Explorer, and lead author of the study. “We need a much better understanding of the deep ocean’s ecosystems and processes to make informed decisions about resource management and conservation.”

Using data from approximately 44,000 deep-sea dives with observations conducted since 1958, across the waters of 120 different countries, the study is the most comprehensive global estimate of deep-sea benthic observations to date and highlights the disparity in global exploration efforts. Given that not all dive records are public, the researchers assert that even if these estimates are off by a full order of magnitude, less than one-hundredth of 1% of the seafloor would have any visual records.

Remarkably, a majority of the visual observations have occurred within 200 nautical miles of just three countries: the United States, Japan, and New Zealand. Due to the high cost of ocean exploration, a mere handful of nations dominate deep-sea exploration, with five countries— the United States, Japan, New Zealand, France, and Germany—responsible for 97% of all deep-sea submergence observations. This bias in geographic coverage and operator representation has led the oceanographic community to base much of its characterization of the deep ocean ecosystem on this incredibly small and unrepresentative sample.

These findings underscore the urgent need for a more comprehensive and global effort to explore the deep ocean, ensuring that scientific research and conservation efforts accurately reflect the true extent of the seafloor. As noted in the study, if the scientific community were to make all assumptions about terrestrial ecosystems from observations of only 0.001% of that total area, they would be basing their assessments of all land-based life on Earth on an area roughly the size of Houston, Texas.

“There is so much of our ocean that remains a mystery,” says Dr. Ian Miller, Chief Science and Innovation Officer at the National Geographic Society, which contributed funding for this work. “Deep-sea exploration led by scientists and local communities is crucial to better understanding the planet’s largest ecosystem. Dr. Bell’s goals to equip global coastal communities with cutting-edge research and technology will ensure a more representative analysis of the deep sea. If we have a better understanding of our ocean, we are better able to conserve and protect it.”

To address these challenges, the researchers call for expanding exploration efforts and utilizing advancements in smaller, more affordable deep-sea tools to increase access to the deep ocean.

Funding for this study was provided in part by the National Geographic Society and Rolex Perpetual Planet Expeditions program, Lyda Hill Philanthropies, and the Cabot Family Charitable Trust.

Link: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adp8602

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SOURCE Ocean Discovery League

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CLARION SAFETY SYSTEMS IMPLEMENTS ISO 7010 SYMBOL UPDATE FOR NO ACCESS FOR UNAUTHORIZED PERSONS

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April 23, 2026

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Clarion Safety Systems has implemented a sweeping change to designs containing the No Access symbol as reflected by the recent ISO 7010 standards updates

MILFORD, Pa., April 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Clarion Safety Systems, a leading manufacturer of safety labels, signs, and tags, has updated its safety communication offerings to include the newly registered ISO 7010 symbol for No Access for Unauthorized Persons. This update ensures that facility owners and equipment manufacturers have access to the most current, science based designs for restricting access to hazardous areas.

The refined symbol design has been updated to reflect the official ISO 7010 symbol reference number P080 to align with the latest International Organization for Standardization registration. The primary modification involves the placement of the red prohibition slash, which now overlaps the human figure rather than being positioned below it. This design shift is the result of rigorous comprehension testing conducted by ISO technical committees. The testing confirmed that placing the slash over the figure improves the speed and accuracy of a viewer’s recognition, which is critical for preventing unauthorized entry and reducing workplace accidents.

“Maintaining alignment with the latest ANSI and ISO standards is a fundamental part of our mission to help our customers communicate safety information effectively,” says Angela Lambert, the Chair of ANSI Z535.1 and Director of Standards Compliance at Clarion Safety Systems, “Our active leadership within the standards community allows us to implement these research based refinements as soon as they are ratified. This ensures our clients are using the most intuitive visual language available to protect their personnel and decrease liability exposure.”

Clarion Safety team members are deeply involved in the development of these standards, holding positions within the ANSI Z535 Committee, the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to ISO/TC 145, and the U.S. TAG to ISO/TC 283. This expertise is built into the updated No Access symbol collection, which is available in a variety of durable materials engineered for industrial environments.

The updated symbols are produced in a variety of formats for labels and signs, using long lasting materials rated for ultraviolet light, water, and chemical resistance. To support a seamless transition for its customers, Clarion Safety is offering complimentary consults for those interested in learning more about the changes and updated product libraries across the site.

These updated designs are essential for meeting the requirements of ISO 3864-2 and are encouraged under the ANSI Z535.4 standards. By adopting the current ISO 7010 registered symbols, organizations can improve hazard recognition among a multilingual workforce and maintain compliance with global safety expectations.

To learn more about other ISO and ANSI updates or to request a consultation regarding your safety labeling program, visit the Clarion Safety online Resource Center.

Contact Clarion Safety to learn more about the company’s industry experts and opportunities for collaboration on media and educational projects.

ABOUT CLARION SAFETY SYSTEMS
Clarion Safety Systems, LLC, is the leading designer and manufacturer of visual safety solutions that help customers in more than 180 industries worldwide to make their products and premises safer. Clarion Safety offers a full range of standard and custom products including machinery safety labels, environmental and facility safety signs, pipe and valve identification markings, lockout/tagout products, and safety-grade photoluminescent egress path-marking escape systems. The company also provides custom-printed industrial nameplates, labels, and metal identification solutions through its affiliated business, McLoone Metal Graphics, as well as turnkey machine safety and compliance solutions through  its affiliated businesses, Machine Safety Specialists and Arrow Industrial Solutions. Founded in 1990, Clarion Safety continues to play a leading role in the development and writing of international and national standards for safety signs, labels, and markings. It is headquartered at 190 Old Milford Road in Milford, PA, 18337, and online at http://www.clarionsafety.com.

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SOURCE Clarion Safety Systems

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Palantir and AIP Specialist Firm, Vanyar, Launches

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April 23, 2026

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Founded by enterprise technology leaders, Vanyar addresses a persistent gap between adopting platforms like Palantir and delivering measurable operational impact.

SYDNEY, April 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Vanyar launches today as a specialist firm focussed on Palantir Foundry and AIP. Its launch comes at a critical time in the market when enterprise AI transformation programmes are becoming slower, more complex and increasingly difficult to deliver. These initiatives, which often involve platforms like Palantir, continue to fall short for many companies wanting to get ahead.

Founded by seasoned enterprise technology experts, Vanyar provides top-tier advisory, build, AI agent development, and 24/7 platform support services to organisations across APAC and the Middle East, with their sights set on future global expansion. Led by a team of experts with decades of enterprise experience and deep Palantir expertise, the company offers a compelling value proposition for modern companies.

With the accelerated adoption of AI and rising demand for data-led insights, Vanyar’s timely launch meets demand for Palantir expertise head-on. Global system integrators are racing to build Palantir practices, investing in onboarding thousands of certified professionals. Yet, while the Palantir ecosystem is growing fast, very few specialist partners are focused on enabling organisations outside of government and defence to unlock value from the platform quickly and efficiently.

Uriah Jacobs, Co-Founder and CEO of Vanyar, said of the launch, “Over many years of building enterprise technology businesses, the same fundamental problem keeps emerging. Organisations know platforms like Palantir are powerful, but they struggle to successfully implement these initiatives and deliver real-world, tangible outcomes.

The large consultancies are expensive and slow. Palantir’s own services team is focused on their biggest accounts. There is a clear gap for a specialist firm that moves fast, keeps teams small, and delivers measurable results in mere weeks. That’s why Vanyar exists.”

Vanyar’s services span the full Palantir lifecycle: advisory and strategy to assess platform fit, Foundry ontology design and data pipeline engineering, AI agent development on AIP, 24/7 platform operations, and hands-on training bootcamps. The firm’s engagement model is designed for speed, with a typical path from discovery to delivery production in just weeks.

“The technology behind Palantir is extraordinary, but it takes real enterprise experience to make it work inside a large organisation,” said Rahul Garg, Co-Founder of Vanyar.

“We have built and scaled high velocity tech-services businesses before. We know what great service delivery looks like. Every person at Vanyar is here because they can ship production solutions, not because they look good on a bench sheet.”

Both founders bring proven track records of building and scaling specialist consulting businesses in the enterprise technology sector. Uriah Jacobs was the founding Managing Director APAC of Thirdera, which became the world’s largest pure-play ServiceNow consultancy and was acquired by Cognizant in 2024. He previously held senior roles at Cloud Sherpas (acquired by Accenture, 2015) and Accenture.

Rahul Garg co-founded CloudGo, a ServiceNow Elite Partner that was acquired by RGP in 2023 and is Singapore’s first ServiceNow Certified Master Architect. Together, the founders have a vision to solve complex problems with simple, data-led solutions.

About Vanyar: Vanyar is a Palantir Foundry and AIP specialist that helps organisations turn fragmented data into answers they can act on. Founded in 2025 and operating from Singapore, Australia, and the UAE, Vanyar provides advisory, build, AI agent development, platform operations, and training services. Visit vanyar.com.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/palantir-and-aip-specialist-firm-vanyar-launches-302751235.html

SOURCE Vanyar

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Wondershare Demonstrates AI-Powered Document Workflows with PDFelement at Microsoft AI Tour Hong Kong

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1 hour ago

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April 23, 2026

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HONG KONG, April 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Wondershare, a global leader in digital productivity and creativity software, showcased its latest AI-powered solutions at the Microsoft AI Tour Hong Kong, highlighting how its flagship product, Wondershare PDFelement, integrates with Microsoft technologies to enable smarter, more secure, and more efficient document workflows for enterprises.

As Microsoft’s flagship global AI event, the Microsoft AI Tour brings together partners and industry leaders to explore how AI is transforming business operations. At the Hong Kong stop, Wondershare demonstrated its deep collaboration with Microsoft across key solution areas, showcasing how its product ecosystem aligns with Microsoft technologies to deliver integrated, end-to-end AI workflows.

At the center of the showcase was Wondershare PDFelement, an AI-powered, all-in-one PDF solution designed to streamline document-centric processes in enterprise environments. Through deep integration with the Microsoft ecosystem, PDFelement enables seamless interoperability with widely used applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, allowing users to convert PDFs into fully editable formats while preserving original layout and structure. With built-in Office plugins, users can also generate standardized PDFs directly within Microsoft applications. PDFelement further supports deployment in Microsoft Azure environments, enabling Single Sign-On (SSO) for streamlined access management, while maintaining compatibility with Microsoft Rights Management Services (RMS) to securely manage protected documents.

Beyond its ecosystem integration, PDFelement also introduces a suite of AI-powered capabilities to enhance productivity across document workflows. Smart Redact enables automatic detection and masking of over 70 types of sensitive data to support compliance requirements, while Professional AI Translation delivers accurate, industry-specific language output for cross-border collaboration. The Admin Console provides enterprise-grade centralized access and permission control, allowing IT teams to manage AI, cloud, and eSign features with real-time visibility into license usage. At the event, attendees can also experience a range of enhanced AI features, including AI Summarize, Chat with PDF, AI Translate, AI Detect and Rewrite, as well as AI Proofread, Voice, Explain, Grammar Check, and Mind Map Generation.

In addition to PDFelement, Wondershare also showcased how its broader product portfolio integrates with Microsoft technologies. EdrawMax offers full compatibility with Microsoft Visio through bidirectional .vsdx import and export, along with Office add-ins, OLE embedding, and data-driven diagram generation from Excel, while also featuring AI-powered capabilities such as the Edraw Agent, natural language-driven diagram generation, and text-to-diagram conversion across platforms. EdrawMind enables one-click conversion of mind maps into PowerPoint and supports intelligent analysis of Office documents to generate structured knowledge frameworks, alongside AI features including webpage summarization, node-based note generation, and AI-powered search. Filmora is optimized for the Windows AI PC ecosystem, leveraging on-device NPU acceleration for AI-powered video processing, supporting Windows on Arm, and enabling natural language interaction with RAG-based asset matching, while also incorporating AI Extend, AI Portrait, and Smart Cutout. Reelmate provides an AI-powered, agent-driven platform covering the full content production pipeline from generation to post-production for creating premium comic series.

Through live demonstrations, attendees were able to experience how Wondershare’s AI-powered solutions can be applied across real-world enterprise scenarios, from document processing and knowledge management to visual communication and content creation. The showcase attracted strong interest from professionals across industries such as finance, education, information technology, and telecommunications, particularly around capabilities related to document security, automation, and cross-language collaboration.

Wondershare’s participation in the Microsoft AI Tour Hong Kong highlights its continued commitment to advancing practical AI adoption through deep ecosystem integration. By combining AI capabilities with seamless compatibility across Microsoft technologies, Wondershare is helping enterprises build more secure, connected, and efficient workflows for the future.

About Wondershare:

Wondershare is a globally recognized software company founded in 2003, known for its innovative solutions in creativity and productivity. Driven by the mission “Creativity Simplified”, Wondershare offers a range of tools, including PDFelement for document management; EdrawMax, EdrawMind for diagraming, Filmora and SelfyzAI for video editing. With over 2 billion cumulative active users across all products and a presence in over 200 countries and regions, Wondershare empowers the next generation of creators with intuitive software and trendy creative resources, continually expanding the possibilities of creativity worldwide.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/wondershare-demonstrates-ai-powered-document-workflows-with-pdfelement-at-microsoft-ai-tour-hong-kong-302751206.html

SOURCE Wondershare Technology

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