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Time Business News
4 days ago
- Business
- Time Business News
Unlock Data Insights with SQL Server BI Modeling
Data is indeed driving decisions today, and, as a consequence, greater importance is placed on Business Intelligence (BI) to transform the raw data into actionable insights. Data modeling lies at the heart of this transformation since it guarantees data definition, storage, and access. Among many technologies, SQL Server BI Modeling stands above as a strong and scalable mechanism to build data models underpinning business intelligence activities. Data Warehousing SQL Server is very strong in data warehousing (that is, before data obtained from multitudinous sources is amalgamated and deposited for analysis); BI modeling actually begins with designing a warehouse schema that supports analytical processing. ETL Processes (Extract, Transform, Load) Systems can interpret SSIS tools differently so data can be unearthed, transformed into a common format, and loaded into the data warehouse. The model must be able to deal with this, scaling and doing so with precision. Dimensional Modeling A dimensional model (star and snowflake schemas) one tries to understand a complex data model in understandable dimensions (time, geography, product, etc.) and facts (sales, revenue, etc.). These models facilitate high-speed analysis and form the basis of the BI architecture. Tabular and Multidimensional Models SQL Server Analysis Services provides developers the choice to create either tabular or multidimensional models. Tabular models are more flexible and intuitive and use DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) as their language. On the other hand, multidimensional models use MDX (Multidimensional Expressions) to carry out complex calculations for analytical purposes. Reporting and Visualization Once the data is well-modeled, it is consumed by different tools such as Power BI, Excel, or SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) to develop dashboards, reports, and visualization, the utility of which in representing the information and whether they do it correctly directly depends on BI modeling quality. Higher Data Quality: The well-designed model checks for consistency in the data and enforces the accuracy and completeness of data throughout the system. The well-designed model checks for consistency in the data and enforces the accuracy and completeness of data throughout the system. Performance Enhancement: The model is optimized, thereby reducing the response time of queries for better analysis and user experience. The model is optimized, thereby reducing the response time of queries for better analysis and user experience. Scalability: SQL Server BI solutions support scaling with increasing data volumes as required by any enterprise. scaling with increasing data volumes as required by any enterprise. Security and Compliance: Implementing SQL Server provides security through built-in mechanisms that ensure compliance with data governance standards. SQLDBM is a cloud-native database modeling tool used to facilitate SQL Server BI model design and management. Here are all the reasons it is a favorite: Visual Modeling Interface: SQLDBM allows the teams to create, explore, and modify models visually to improve collaboration and shared understanding across departments. SQLDBM allows the teams to create, explore, and modify models visually to improve collaboration and shared understanding across departments. Reverse and Forward Engineering: You could generate models quickly from an existing database or produce SQL scripts to implement schema changes and speed up the development cycles. You could generate models quickly from an existing database or produce SQL scripts to implement schema changes and speed up the development cycles. Version Control and Change Tracking: Easily manage multiple versions of your data model and track changes over time to ensure accountability and auditability. Easily manage multiple versions of your data model and track changes over time to ensure accountability and auditability. Collaboration Features: It facilitates collaboration, from allowing the business analyst to work alongside the data engineers and developers simultaneously on BI models. Incorporating SQLDBM into your SQL Server BI Modeling workflow will speed up the development process and lend clarity and integrity to your models. Understand Business Requirements: Involve stakeholders from the beginning so that data models can be aligned to business objectives. Normalize Where Needed, Denormalize for Performance: Normalize in staging; denormalize when reporting for performance. Use Readable Naming Conventions: This improves both the readability and maintenance of the model. Document Your Models: Document always so as to ease onboarding and auditing processes. Iterate and Refine: Consider BI cleaning as an ever-evolving process on which you review and improve your models depending on inputs and changes in business requirements. SQL Server BI Model is much more than a technological exercise; it is an application solution that enables greater organizational acquisition of smarter faster decisions. With on board, this process gets faster, more collaborative, and scalable, supporting businesses to model confidently. Investing in strong modeling practices, in a sense, would be like that first consideration on bringing integration to the greatest potential of one's data, regardless of whether it entails modernizing data infrastructure or building BI from scratch. TIME BUSINESS NEWS
Axios
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Mayor Cherelle Parker polls favorably despite public safety concerns
Swayed by declines in gun violence and faith in the Parker administration, 59% of Philadelphians say the city is headed in the right direction, per a Pew Charitable Trusts poll released Wednesday. Why it matters: That positive outlook is a change-up from recent years — a 23% improvement from 2022. The big picture: Mayor Cherelle Parker's approval rating was 63% entering her second year in office — one of the highest achieved by an incumbent mayor since 2009, per the report. Almost half of the nearly 2,300 residents polled between January and March rated her handling of public safety as "good" or "excellent," per the survey. About a third believe Parker can deliver on her pledge to make the city greener and cleaner. Yes, but: Fewer are hopeful that her administration can tackle more entrenched issues, such as the opioid crisis in Kensington. 36% of people polled believe her actions addressing the city's drug issues will make "no real difference." Zoom in: That bubbling optimism wasn't shared by North Philly and the River Wards residents, where nearly half of those polled from both areas believe the city is on the wrong track. State of play: Despite a stark reduction in homicides last year, 61% of residents still cited public safety as their top concern this year. It's a drop from 70% in 2022, a year after violent crime hit a record high. More than half of Philadelphians reported hearing gunshots in their neighborhood, down from 65% in 2022. Poverty and homelessness were the city's No. 2 issue, followed by affordable housing and cost of living. By the numbers: Fewer than half of Philadelphians view gun violence as getting worse, a steep drop from 85% in 2022. But only 38% believed homicides had dropped over the last year, and young people between 18 and 29 years old were most likely to think the number of homicides had increased. The fine print: SSRS, an independent research company in Glen Mills, conducted the poll for Pew with a margin of error of ±2.7%. Between the lines: More than half of Philadelphians say they felt "completely" or "pretty" safe in their neighborhoods, compared with 44% in 2022. Philly's Asian residents felt the least safe of all groups, which Pew said was notable because it was the first time the group's sample size was big enough to analyze their responses.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Dating apps might be messing with your mental health
Jenny O'Hara initially signed on to a dating app to bump up her confidence. Fresh out of a 20-year marriage, the Neptune Township, New Jersey, resident didn't believe a man would ever find her attractive again. A friend suggested she try dating online, so she created a profile on Facebook. 'I was looking for people to tell me: 'You're okay. Even though you just got divorced, you're still marketable,'' she said, adding that she did get attention from men online. 'And that made me feel better - not for a long time, but it made me feel better for a little bit of time.' Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. But when some men asked her for racy photos, she retreated. 'You would never say something like that to somebody if you were sitting at a bar with them,' she said. O'Hara is among the some 95.6 million people 18 and over who have used dating websites or apps, according to the research firm SSRS. And she's not alone in seeing her mood shift downward the longer she was online. 'My experience with patients who are on dating apps is it leads to fatigue, that people just get exhausted,' said Paul Hokemeyer, a licensed marriage and family therapist based in Telluride, Colorado. 'It takes up a lot of energy. It takes up a lot of time. It takes up a lot of emotions. And there's a huge potential for rejection.' - - - Addictive behavior In 2022, 3 in 10 U.S. adults said they had used a dating site or app, with some 9 percent reporting having used one in the past year, according to surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center. According to SSRS, Tinder is the nation's most popular dating app. (Pew reports that some 14 percent of all U.S. adults say they've used it.) While Tinder was also the most popular among those 18 to 49, Match was the preferred app among those ages 50 and older, SSRS found. But popularity doesn't equate with only positive experiences, and some experts say online dating can generate mental health hazards. For one, users can become addicted to apps and to the dopamine rush they get when someone they're interested in responds to them, Hokemeyer said. Objectification also happens, as people are focused more on veneer than substance, he added. 'They're reduced to transactions, and for patients who suffer from mental health disorders, which is basically everyone I see, the deeper their level of depression, the deeper their level of anxiety, the deeper their level of engagement with these apps seem to be,' he said. There's also a kind of doomscrolling that goes on with dating apps, not unlike the way people scroll news headlines on their phone, wading through bad news. 'People are constantly looking for validation and a dopamine and serotonin rush that doesn't happen, and if it does happen, it's fleeting and makes them want to go back for more,' he said. 'It doesn't enhance their well-being, like being present in their lives, looking for elevation from within, connecting to human beings in real time.' - - - Pros and cons Online dating can make people feel unattractive or unworthy, particularly when apps involve swiping or expressing mutual attraction to contact someone, said Racine Henry, a licensed marriage and family therapist who sees clients virtually in New York, New Jersey and North Carolina. The apps can be particularly negative for young people, who do not yet have the emotional development to put such rejection in context, she said. 'Apps like that can really make people feel ugly and unwanted,' Henry said. 'I do feel that self-esteem, self-confidence, even self-identity, need to be at healthy levels prior to engaging on those apps and that people should not put too much stock into what a person who's assessing you from a few pictures and a few lines on a screen may think or feel about you.' That said, there are upsides to these apps. They can benefit people who are introverted, have certain phobias, or perhaps have experienced dating or sexual traumas that have made them reluctant to meet people in real-life settings, such as bars, she said. 'Apps are a good way for them to meet people in a safe environment and take their time with getting to know them and be able to control more of this person's access to them,' Henry said. The key is finding someone with common goals. If two people start talking and one is looking for love while the other simply wants a sexual interaction, not only might that result in a negative experience for both of them, but it could also affect one party's safety. Each person should clearly articulate what they're looking for, she said. It's all about expectations, said Nicole Karwashan, a licensed marriage and family therapist in White Plains, New York, who met her now-fiancé online. 'When somebody goes on to a dating app with this expectation of seeking external validation or finding the love of their life, I absolutely think it could perpetuate symptoms of depression,' she said. Karwashan said she hasn't seen dating apps cause depression, but she has seen dating app usage set off her clients' eating disorders, as they try to curate their profiles so they look or present in a certain way. 'It's definitely gotten pretty bad with some of my clients,' she said. 'That's when we say: 'Okay, what's the intention? Why are we giving this app and these random people this much power?'' The problem, as with all social media, is the compulsive nature of them, she said. Karwashan has clients whose app usage is so chronic that notifications on their phones will go off during their sessions, and they'll say, 'That's one of my Tinder matches,' or, 'That's some guy I met on Bumble.' 'I actually encourage breaks from social media, just to avoid that kind of addictive tendency that it can bring,' she said. Hokemeyer said he works with his patients to get them off dating apps because he wants them to better tolerate short-term discomfort in a relationship to obtain long-term gain, and to learn resiliency - and dating apps, because of their transactional nature, don't allow for that in the way real-time relationships do. - - - 'Burned Haystack' After O'Hara lost faith in her initial experience, she changed her profile and began following something called the 'Burned Haystack' dating method, which was conceived by Jennie Young, a writer and associate dean at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay. The haystack theory is that people are more likely to find partners if they specify what they want in their profiles and refrain from dating - and perhaps go so far as to block - anyone who doesn't fit the criteria. Young launched a Facebook group, the Burned Haystack Dating Method, and it has more than 198,000 members. O'Hara said she wanted someone who was a Democrat, had a job, liked cultural events in New York City and didn't live with their ex-wife, an issue that arose a surprising number of times. Her wish list was so specific, no one responded for days at a time. But that's part of the process, she said. Finding the right person takes time. In her case, it took about a month. O'Hara and her boyfriend have now been dating for a year and a half. 'I was asking for what I want instead of just being like, 'I'll be happy with what comes my way,'' she said. Even O'Hara, who's happily in a relationship, said she occasionally misses the 'Missing you' texts she would get from men she met online. But she said she realizes now that wasn't healthy for her or for them. That is, the men online were not just on there to make her feel better about herself, nor was she on there to satisfy their needs. 'I think that's one of the interesting things about these dating apps,' she said. 'People go on them just looking at these pictures and profiles, not realizing that there are real people on the other side.' - - - 5 things to keep in mind - Limit time on dating apps - only check apps or sites once a day. - Decide what's important to you in a partner and ask for it. - Seek someone with common goals (e.g., make sure you're both looking for the same thing, like a relationship leading to marriage, not just sex). - Don't seek validation through a dating app. - If you're prone to depression, be aware of how online dating is affecting your mental state. Related Content To save rhinos, conservationists are removing their horns Donald Trump and the art of the Oval Office confrontation Some advice from LGBTQ elders as WorldPride kicks off amid fears
Egypt Independent
03-06-2025
- Business
- Egypt Independent
Young people are skeptical of the American Dream
A version of this story appeared in CNN's What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. CNN — There are some striking divides in a new CNN poll, but they aren't necessarily the partisan kind Americans have come to expect: The divides are more gray than red versus blue. The first has to do with the American Dream, which a growing number of Americans feel is out of reach. Most, 54 percent, still agreed with the idea that 'people who want to get ahead can make it if they're willing to work hard,' in the new poll, conducted by SSRS. What's noteworthy is that when CNN asked the same question back in 2016, more than two-thirds of respondents, 67 percent, agreed with that optimistic idea. Looking at the new poll's results by age, younger Americans are less bullish that they can 'make it.' About half, 51 percent, of those under 45, felt that 'Hard work and determination are no guarantee of success for most people,' compared with 41 percent of those 45 and older. There's likely some partisanship behind those numbers, since younger Americans tend to be more liberal, despite the inroads that President Donald Trump and Republicans have made with young people. But the age divide exists, to a more modest extent, even within the Democratic Party. More than two-thirds of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents under 45 say that hard work and determination are no guarantee of success. A smaller portion, 62 percent of older Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents feel that way. Read the full report by CNN's Ariel Edwards-Levy. A second question in the poll asks whether the government should do more or whether it is trying to do too many things already. A majority, 58 percent, say the government should do more to solve the country's problems, up from just 51 percent when CNN asked the question nearly two years ago. More young people, 63 percent of those under 45, said they want more from the government, compared with 54 percent of those 45 and older. The government arguably does more for older people: It helps to provide health care in the form of Medicare and retirement benefits in the form of Social Security for a large portion of older Americans. At the same time, the ballooning national debt means those programs' future is on an unsustainable path for younger Americans. Asked about which party they feel represents their views on the economy, three-quarters of people over 45 picked either Democrats (32 percent) or Republicans (42 percent), leaving just about a quarter of older Americans who said neither party represented them on the economy. A larger portion of people under 45, 38 percent, said they did not feel represented by either party on the economy. Another CNN story published Monday might help explain some of the malaise felt by younger Americans. This is from CNN's report on the 'No hire, no fire' economy by Matt Egan: … Even as the overall labor market looks relatively healthy, economists say this is the worst market for new college graduates since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Recent grads are finding that it takes considerable time to get hired, leaving them unemployed and saddled with student debt for a frustratingly long time. For the first time since record-keeping on the topic began in 1980, the unemployment rate for recent graduates (those 22 to 27 years old with a bachelor's degree or higher) is consistently higher than the national unemployment rate, according to Oxford Economics. The unemployment rate for people between 20 and 24 is twice the national average, and there is evidence that companies are adjusting how they make entry-level hires as they adopt AI advancements. All of that could point to a distinct lack of optimism among younger Americans.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Alert to stay out water at three Midlands rivers as 30C mini heatwave approaches
Members of the public have been urged to stay out of the water at three Midlands rivers as temperatures are set to get hotter. Surfers Against Sewage, one of the UK's leading marine conservation charities, has warned people against entering rivers at three sites in Shropshire. These are the River Severn at Ironbridge, the River Severn at Shrewsbury and the River Teme at Ludlow. READ MORE: 37 counties in England set to sizzle in mini heatwave as temperatures reach 31C Get breaking news on BirminghamLive WhatsApp, click the link to join For each of these three locations, Surfers Against Sewage has stated that "bathing is not advised" due to poor annual classification. The charity provides real-time information about water quality at 600 locations across the UK through its Safer Seas & Rivers Service (SSRS), warning whether the water is safe to enter or not. At the Ironbridge location, SSRS states the bathing water is located around 450m upstream of the Iron Bridge, while in Shrewsbury the bathing water is located on a stretch of the river close to the centre of the town. In Ludlow, the bathing area stretches from the Linney boating pontoon around 200m downstream to the Ludlow Mill Brach. It comes as temperatures are set to enter the mid to high 20s later this month. Weather maps from WX Charts show the mercury rising to 30C in Kent, east of London, while Shropshire could experience temperatures of 23C on the same day, on Wednesday, June 18. In its long range weather forecast from June 17 to July 1, the Met Office said: "Changeable weather is most likely across the UK with a mixture of Atlantic weather systems moving in from the west interspersed with dry and sunny periods, perhaps with a bias towards longer dry spells early in the period. "Temperatures are most likely to be near or slightly above normal, perhaps with some hot spells at times especially across the south."
