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Owens & Minor Named Winner of the GHXcellence Award – Distributor of the Year – for Achievements in Supply Chain Performance

April 6, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

RICHMOND, Va.–(Business Wire)–
Owens & Minor, Inc. (NYSE:OMI), a FORTUNE 500 company and a leading distributor
of medical and surgical supplies to the acute-care market and a healthcare
supply-chain management company, today announced that it has been named
Distributor of the Year in theGHXcellence Awards for achievements in improving
supply chain performance. The Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX) honored
Owens & Minor and other winners at the 10th Annual GHX Supply Chain Summit in
Orlando, March 29-31, 2010 – the largest event in healthcare that focuses on the
entire supply chain and brings participants together to address common issues.

“We are honored to receive the 2010 Distributor of the Year award from GHX, as
it recognizes our long-term commitment to using and fully integrating technology
into all the ways that we serve our customers,” said Craig R. Smith, president &
chief executive officer of Owens & Minor. “Exceptional customer service is our
goal, and we find that GHX`s connectivity and data management capabilities help
us reach that objective.”

According to GHX, the theme of this year`s awards was “Your Challenge. Your
Chance. Your Legacy.” The awards are granted to those organizations that best
met specific criteria during the 2009 calendar year, including:

* Increased use of e-commerce solutions throughout the healthcare supply chain
* The number of trading partners with whom they conducted e-commerce
* The percentage of orders transacted electronically
* The percentage of invoices transacted electronically
* Reduction in order and invoice discrepancies and errors

In winning the award, Owens & Minor was cited for having the largest number of
hospital connections to GHX, the fastest arrival times for purchase orders of
all suppliers, and the largest growth with GHX in purchase orders, lines and
dollars.

“Supply chain automation continues to grow across healthcare industry as
providers and suppliers look for ways to reduce costs during this period of
economic uncertainty,” said GHX CEO Bruce Johnson. “This year`s GHXcellence
Awards honor those organizations that have truly embraced e-commerce, making it
an integral part of their overall cultures, to effect business process change
and drive savings.”

About Owens & Minor, Inc., (NYSE: OMI) a FORTUNE 500 company headquartered in
Richmond, Virginia, is a leading distributor of national name-brand medical and
surgical supplies and a healthcare supply-chain management company. Owens &
Minor is also a member of the Russell 2000® Index, which measures the
performance of the small-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe, as well as the
S&P MidCap 400, which includes companies with a market capitalization of $750
million to $3.3 billion that meet certain financial standards. With a diverse
product and service offering and distribution centers throughout the United
States, the company serves hospitals, integrated healthcare systems, alternate
care locations, group purchasing organizations, and the federal government.
Owens & Minor provides technology and consulting programs that improve inventory
management and streamline logistics across the entire medical supply chain–from
origin of product to patient bedside. For news releases, or for more information
about Owens & Minor, visit the company Web site at www.owens-minor.com.

About GHX:As the business hub for healthcare, Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC
(GHX) enables healthcare providers and suppliers in North America and Europe to
reduce costs and improve margins by automating processes, reducing operating
expenses and increasing knowledge-based decision making. Products and services
include trading partner connectivity, order and contract management and
validation, data synchronization, sales force automation and business
intelligence. Equity owners of GHX are Abbott Exchange, Inc.; AmerisourceBergen
Corp.; Baxter Healthcare Corp.; B. Braun Medical Inc.; BD; Boston Scientific
Corp.; Cardinal Health, Inc.; Covidien; C.R. Bard, Inc.; Thermo Fisher
Scientific Inc.; GE Healthcare; HCA; Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc.;
McKesson Corp.; Medtronic USA, Inc.; Owens & Minor; Premier, Inc.; Siemens;
University HealthSystem Consortium; and VHA Inc. For more information, visit
www.ghx.com.

Owens & Minor, Inc.
Trudi Allcott, Director, Investor & Media Relations, 804-723-7555
truitt.allcott@owens-minor.com
or
GHX
Kara Della Vecchia, 508-314-3127
kara@kdvcommunications.com

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Bruce Johnson, challenge, e-commerce, Healthcare, synchronization

MJ’s mother wins will ruling

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, September 19 (ANI): Michael Jackson’s mother Katherine can challenge the administrators of the singer’s estate without any threat to her 40 per cent stake, a judge has ruled.

The 79-year-old’s legal team said that she wants to have more say over the manner in which the 400 million dollar estate is handled.

According to the ruling, the King of Pop’s mum will not breach a ‘no contest’ clause in the family trust if she sets up a challenge before the executors over Jackson’s will, reports the Sun.

Katherine is the legal guardian of the star’s children, Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and seven-year-old Prince Michael II, after his sudden death on June 25.

She will receive more than 1 million dollars a year from his estate including a sum of 26,804 dollars a month for herself apart from a monthly allowance of 60,000 dollars for the three kids, as per the court’s order. (ANI)

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Holiday Inn hotel made of key cards is world’s first

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Melbourne, Sep 18 (ANI): A Holiday Inn hotel made entirely of key cards has been unveiled in New York.

The 37-square-metre hotel, built by world record-holding Cardstacker Bryan Berg, is made from more than 200,000 key cards and weighs 1814 kilograms.

It includes a guest bedroom, bathroom and lobby, with life-sized furniture.

The design was created by Holiday Inn, the world’s largest hotel group, to mark the relaunch of 1200 of its hotels around the world.

“The Key Card Hotel is a fun and interactive way to showcase the changes happening at our hotels and is the only structure of its kind to ever be created by a hotel brand,” News.com.au quoted Kevin Kowalski, Senior Vice President, Global Brand Management, Holiday Inn, as saying.

Berg, who will also build a freestanding three-metre replica of New York’s Empire State Building in the lobby of the Key Card Hotel using Holiday Inn playing cards, said constructing the hotel has been a great challenge.

“This is my largest cardstacking challenge to date and the only card creation I have ever made at full human scale,” Berg added about the hotel.

The first 250 guests who attended the Key Card Hotel grand opening received a free night stay at any Holiday Inn.

The company’s 1 billion dollar relaunch is one of the largest in the history of the hospitality industry. (ANI)

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Mystery of odd rotating stars solved by scientists

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 18 (ANI): A team of scientists has solved a longstanding mystery about a pair of stars called DI Herculis whose peculiar rotation had remained a mystery for three decades.

The shift in the orbit of DI Herculis was a mystery till now.

Now, MIT (Massachusetts Institute Of Technology) researchers and colleagues have determined that the stars are rotating tipped over on their sides, relative to their orbits around each other.

This produces tidal effects that counteract the expected rate for the orbits to shift orientation over time (called precession), finally explaining the mysterious anomaly.

The discrepancy in the rate of precession had been seen as a possible refutation of Einstein’s theory of relativity, so finding a conventional explanation means that relativity has withstood another possible challenge.

This discovery could also help to shed light on how binary stars (about half of all known stars) are formed and how their rotation and orbits evolve over time.

The mystery was solved by postdoctoral researcher Simon Albrecht and assistant professor of physics Joshua Winn and others, who used a high-resolution spectrograph called Sophie on a 1.93-meter telescope at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence in France to make highly detailed observations that revealed the unexpected tilt – one of more than 70 degrees from vertical, the other more than 80 degrees – of the stars’ rotation axes.

The team now hopes to study other unusual binary stars to try to determine how unusual this tipped-over configuration is. (ANI)

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Ambika Soni reaffirms commitment to Public Service Broadcasting Trust

September 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Sept 15 (ANI): The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has renewed its commitment of financial support to the Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT), a Delhi-based NGO.

Under the plan scheme component for production of documentaries through NGOs, the Films Division would grant funds to the PSBT, which has been short-listed for production of documentaries for the current financial year.

In the past also, the Doordarshan and the PSBT have had a successful public-private partnership.

Over the past nine years, a large number of documentary films have been funded by the Doordarshan.

Among the National Non-Feature Film Awards-2007, at least four of such joint productions of the Prasar Bharati and the PSBT have won accolades.

Speaking on the occasion of ‘Commemorating 50 years of Public Television In India’, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni invited suggestions from the luminaries of PSBT Trustees for making the Public Service Broadcaster-Doordarshan more vibrant and interesting while retaining its commitment for healthy entertainment suitable for family viewing.

Soni also reiterated that her Ministry would continue to strive to encourage creative skills so long as they honour the sensibilities of all single television viewing families.

The Minister exhorted the young filmmakers – particularly those who are the beneficiaries of the PSBT-Ministry fellowships, to take up the challenge of making relevant programmes for particularly the marginalized strata of society.

“The Doordarshan is the only channel with the widest terrestrial reach which caters to the remotest and border areas often neglected by the commercial interests of other channels,” she added.

She also invited stalwarts like Shyam Benegal (a PSBT Trustee), who had made the memorable ‘Bharat ek khoj’ serial for Doordarshan in the past, to contribute meaningfully to Doordarshan again.

Adoor Gopalkrishnan (Chairman PSBT)’s new film “Oru Pennum Randaanum”, funded by Doordarshan was screened on the occasion. (ANI)

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MI5 warns that young Brits heading for terrorist training Somalia soaring

September 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sep.13 (ANI): British intelligence chiefs have targeted war-torn Somalia as the next major challenge to their efforts to repel Islamic terrorism, after receiving reports of scores of youths leaving the UK for “jihad training” in that failed African state.

According to The Independent, MI5 bosses have warned ministers that the number of young Britons travelling to Somalia to fight in a “holy war”, or train in terror training camps, has soared in recent years as the country has emerged as an alternative base for radical Islamic groups.

The number of young Britons following the trail every year has more than quadrupled to at least 100 since 2004 – and analysts warn that the true figure (which would include those who enter the country overland) will be much higher.

However, the British authorities are particularly concerned about the number of people with no direct family connection to Somalia who are travelling to fight and train there.

The diversity suggests Somalia is flourishing as a training ground for radical British Muslims, who could join the local terrorist militia al-Shabaab (“the youth”), go on to join conflicts including the Afghan campaign, or return home to pose a security threat to the UK. (ANI)

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Samy Vellu’s men sweep MIC elections

September 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Kuala Lumpur, Sep. 13 (ANI): The team chosen by Malaysian Indian Congress president S. Samy Vellu has won all top four positions at the party elections held on Saturday.

The clean sweep has silenced Samy Vellu’s critics who were saying that the MIC president was losing grip on the party, the Star Online reports.

G. Palanivel led the charge by fighting off a strong challenge from S. Subramaniam to retain his deputy presidency by 82 votes.

The other challenger, S. Sothinathan, also failed to fare any better.

Other three vice-presidents elected are-Dr S. Subramaniam, S.K. Devamany and M. Saravanan.

Nineteen out f 23 central working committee posts were won by Samy Vellu’s men.

Following the result declaration, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak urged the MIC to re-unite and strengthen itself to face the challenges ahead. (ANI)

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Soon, ‘robobees’ that mimic bees’ behaviour

September 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 13 (ANI): A Northeastern University neurobiologist is collaborating with Harvard University researchers to develop micro flying robots that will emulate the bees’ brain, body and collective behaviour.

Biology professor Joseph Ayers would create robots, called the robobees, which would mimic the communal feeding behaviour of bee colonies.

The project will draw on the knowledge of computer scientists, engineers, and biologists to construct an electronic nervous system, a supervisory architecture and a high-energy source to power the innovative robots.

“This project will integrate the efforts and expertise of a diverse team of investigators to create a system that far transcends the sum of its parts. We expect substantial advances in basic science at the intersection of these seemingly disparate disciplines to result from this effort,” said Ayers.

Inspired by the biology of the bee and the insect’s colonial behaviour, the project aims to advance miniature robotics and the design of compact high-energy power sources.

The project would also spur innovations in ultra-low-power computing and electronic “smart” sensors that mediate biomimetic control.

In addition, it would refine coordination algorithms to manage multiple, independent machines.

Ayers is widely known for his work in biomimetics- the science of adapting the control systems found in nature to inform design of engineered systems to solve real-world problems-including the development of RoboLobster and RoboLamprey.

The autonomous, biomimetic underwater robotic models emulate the operations of the animals’ nervous systems using an electronic controller based on nonlinear, moving models of neurons and synapses.

“Animals have evolved to occupy every environmental niche where we would hope to operate robots, save outer space. They provide proven solutions to problems that confound even the most sophisticated robots, and our challenge is to capture these performance advantages in engineered devices,” said Ayers. (ANI)

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Faster, simpler Facebook Lite site available in India, US

September 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sep 12 (ANI): Social networking site Facebook has launched a slimmed-down version of its site for people with slow or poor Internet connections, and it is currently available only in India and the US.

Facebook’s Lite site, which will be faster and simpler because it offers fewer services than the main site, had initially been meant to support users in developing countries, where bandwidth constraints make the current version too slow to use.

The company said around 70 percent of its more than 250 million users were from outside America, with countries in Southeast Asia and Europe seeing a massive increase in growth where fast Internet connections are more common.

News about Facebook testing the Lite site first leaked out in August, with its options said to be limited to letting users write on their wall, post photos and videos, view events and browse other people’s profiles.

“It appears, at a quick glance, to be a better site for Facebook newbies or for anyone who finds the current site overwhelming and noisy,” the BBC quoted Rafe Needleman at technology website Cnet as saying.

“The new layout feels almost Twitter-like,” he said.

Terence O’Brien at Switched.com gave the slimmed-down version of what he called “ol’ blue” the thumbs-up because it “strips away distractions”.

“The simple site loads noticeably faster, is easier to navigate, and is much easier on the eyes thanks to the lack of people sending you ‘virtual booze’ or asking you to join their ‘vampire fraternity’,” he said.

“The new layout seems like a direct challenge to Twitter, which can attribute much of its success to is simplicity and portability,” he stated.

Many industry watchers said they believed that even users with good Internet connections might well flock to Facebook Lite because of its new look and ease of use.

“That is what some US users are planning to do,” Eric Eldon of InsideFacebook.com said.

“Indeed the reaction from US users has prompted Facebook to release it intentionally for US users, something it hadn’t previously planned on doing,” he added.

Eldon also said he believed a “worldwide rollout doesn’t seem too far away”.

Facebook has acknowledged this is a possibility in a statement on the site, which said the firm was “working on translating Lite into other languages”.

Anyone who switches to Facebook Lite and does not like it can switch back to the fuller version of the site. (ANI)

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South Africa Sports Minister warns of World War III over Semanya

September 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sep 12 (ANI): The South African government has threatened a “third world war” if the International Association of Athletics Federation bans champion runner Caster Semenya over a test that shows her to be a hermaphrodite, a person with both female and male sexual characteristics.

The IAAF commissioned a gender test on the teenager after her performance levels improved remarkably in the build-up to the competition.

The leaked report that a gender verification test had found the 18 year-old to be a hermaphrodite with no womb was greeted with outrage in South Africa on Friday, with politicians, sports officials and Semenya’s relatives decrying the teenager’s public humiliation.

On Friday the IAAF attempted to diffuse the controversy by refusing to confirm the medical reports, insisting that it would make official comment until after the test results had been verified by a panel of scientific experts.

But the prospect of the teenager being disqualified from future female races drew a furious response from South African Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile, The Telegraph reports.

“I think it would be the third world war. We will go to the highest levels in contesting such a decision.She’s a woman, she remains our heroine. We must protect her,” he said.

Semenya was due to run in a 4km race at the national cross-country championships in Pretoria on Saturday, but was withdrawn by her coach Michael Seme on the grounds that she was “not feeling well”.

The IAAF is expected to disqualify the South African from future events and advise her to have surgery because her condition carries grave health risks, The Daily Telegraph report claims.

A source closely involved with the IAAF tests said Semenya had internal testes-the male sexual organs, which produce testosterone.

“There certainly is evidence Semenya is a hermaphrodite. But the trouble is the IAAF now has the whole ANC and the whole of South Africa on their backs. Everything is going to have to be done absolutely by the book, no question of a challenge to the findings,” the source said. (ANI)

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Indo-Kazakh expedition team reaches Mount Marble Wall summit

September 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Astana (Kazakhstan), Sep 11(ANI): A mountaineering expedition team comprising six members of the Indian Army and eight from the Kazakhstan Army has successfully scaled the Mount Marble Wall Peak in Kazakhstan.

The expedition was jointly led by Lt Col SS Shekhawat and Ilinski, and the team reached Base Camp on August 23 at 3300 meters and established three camps on the mountain by August 27.

On September 3, the summit team left for Camp- III, located at a height of 5200 meters, and after nearly 11 hours of grueling climb finally summitted the peak on September 4.

The summit was a great challenge, as continuous inclement weather during the ascent and alpine climbing used by the teams further increased the degree of difficulty.

This was the first Indian expedition to Marble Wall Peak. (ANI)

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IAAF in a fix as tests prove Semenya is a hermaphrodite

September 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Melbourne, Sep 11 (ANI): The International Association of Athletics Federations is likely to strip champion runner Caster Semenya of the gold medal she won in Berlin last month, as a test has shown that she is a hermaphrodite – a person with both female and male sexual characteristics.

The tests, not yet publicly released, show the 18-year-old has no womb or ovaries.

The IAAF is expected to disqualify the South African from future events and advise her to have surgery because her condition carries grave health risks, The Daily Telegraph reports.

And she could be stripped of the gold medal she won in Berlin in last month, as she has three times more testosterone than a normal female.

A source closely involved with the IAAF tests said Semenya had internal testes — the male sexual organs, which produce testosterone.

It is believed that Semenya is unaware the tests has identified her as a hermaphrodite.

Only the certainty of a backlash from South Africa has so far prevented the IAAF from banning Semenya and revoking her gold medal.

South Africa embraced the feisty teenager after the storm of controversy from Berlin, declaring her “Our girl”.

African National Congress MP and National Assembly sports committee chairman Butana Komphela has already lodged a complaint with the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights, accusing the IAAF of racism and sexism.

The IAAF expects to receive the full set of results this week. (ANI)

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High-performance, low-cost green LEDs to brighten up the future

September 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 6 (ANI): A scientist is aiming to develop a high-performance, low-cost green LED (Light-emitting diode).

According to Christian Wetzel, professor of physics and the Wellfleet Professor of Future Chips at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), “Going green means different things to different people. For companies, going green means making a profit by selling equipment and services that allow one’s customers to be more efficient and reduce costs.”

“I’m doing both of those, but I’m also trying to make an LED that literally shines green light,” he said.

First discovered in the 1920s, LEDs are semiconductors that convert electricity into light.

When switched on, swarms of electrons pass through the semiconductor material and fall from an area with surplus electrons into an area with a shortage of electrons.

As they fall, the electrons jump to a lower orbital and release small amounts of energy. This energy is realized as photons – the most basic unit of light.

Unlike conventional light bulbs, LEDs produce almost no heat.

The color of light produced by LEDs depends on the type of semiconductor material it contains.

“We have high-performance red LEDs, we have high-performance blue LEDs, and if we paired them with a high-performance green LED we would be able to produce every color visible to the human eye – including true white,” said Wetzel.

“Every computer monitor and television produces its picture by using red, blue, and green. That means developing a high-performance green LED would likely lead to a new generation of high-performance, energy-efficient display devices,” he added.

“The problem, however, is that green LEDs are much more difficult to create than I, or anyone else, imagined,” he explained.

Simple preliminary attempts to create green LEDs, by merely adding more indium (In) to the gallium nitride (GaN) materials that composed blue LEDs, were unsuccessful.

The resulting green LEDs just weren’t strong or bright enough to stand toe-to-toe with red or blue.

Wetzel and his research group have been working to tweak precisely how to add more indium, and how to grow the structure more carefully into a device, with the goal of boosting the strength and light output of green LEDs.

“They’re endeavoring, he said, to close the green gap,” said Wetzel.

Once they overcome the challenge of developing efficient green LEDs, Wetzel envisions LED technology will quickly evolve from its current applications in signs and small displays and grow into a universally adopted, globally used replacement for traditional light bulbs and compact fluorescence tubes. (ANI)

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Pakistan’s 11.3 billion-dollar IMF loan in danger

September 6, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Islamabad, Sep. 5 (ANI): The 11.3 billion-dollar-loan that International Monetary Fund (IMF) was going to grant Pakistan, faces the risk of disruption if the country fails to reform its tax collection system.

The 7.6 billion dollar IMF loan, agreed late last year, and raised subsequently to 11.3 billion dollars, helped Pakistan avoid a default on foreign debt payments.

Western economists are concerned about the current year’s deficit, which stood at 5.2 percent rather than the 4.3 percent as agreed with the IMF.

Pakistani officials attributed it to the fallout from the military campaign in Swat.

However, western economists seem to think otherwise.

“The deficit shows a chronic problem with the Pakistani economy. The challenge is that of a very narrow base for tax collection,” the Daily Times quoted an economist as saying.

During its last review, the IMF gave a waiver on the fiscal deficit. But it will be difficult for Pakistan to keep on getting waivers. The tax to GDP ratio last year was 9 percent – the lowest in South Asia. (ANI)

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Rooney confident of handling intense pressure

September 4, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Sep 4(ANI): Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney has expressed confidence about handling the intense pressure at Manchester United as well as handling responsibilities of the national squad.

At the club level, after Cristiano Ronaldo’s exit, his responsibility at Old Trafford has doubled, while hopes and aspirations of the nation are on him to lead England to World Cup success.

“I started playing when I was 16 and there has always been expectation and pressure. I have no problem with that. I see it as a challenge,” the Daily Express quoted Rooney, as saying.

“I hope I can be the main man. I am probably playing the best football I have played for England, certainly over the last year. I am really enjoying myself with Manchester United,” he added.

The 23-year-old also said that Man U reckons Cristiano and Tevez’s exit as a big challenge to retain the league title and, personally it is a better opportunity for him to score more goals.

“I want to score more goals. I should be scoring more goals,” Rooney said.

Rooney further said that the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, will definitely be the biggest challenge in his career. (ANI)

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Abilities India Pistons and Rings Ltd. awarded two gold trophies in ACMA awards

September 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Sep 3 (ANI/Business Wire India): Abilities India Pistons and Rings Ltd. expert in manufacturing of Pistons and Piston Rings for 2 and4 stroke engines, for automobiles (mainly two / three wheelers) has won two Gold trophies, for excellence in Exports as well as in productivity and quality, in the golden Jubilee ceremony of ACMA awards (2008 – 2009).

Abilities India Pistons and Rings Ltd. is the largest manufacturer in India of two stroke pistons kits and is supplying it to USA, Europe and more than 35 countries through out the world.

Speaking on the occasion, Sunil Arora, Joint MD, AIP, stated that, “The real growth is going to start now. The market is ripe for the OEMs and there is tremendous scope to grow. With optimum capex and engineering excellence the company is gearing for the challenge. It was also a part of the ACMA Advance cluster which gave it the impetus to continuously strive for excellence.”

AIP is working as a leader for the manufacture of Pistons and Rings for automobiles (mainly two / three wheelers), chain saws, brush cutters, agriculture sprayers and compressors. AIP is a major OEM supplier for many reputed vehicle and engine manufactures of the country and overseas. AIP has to its credits the development of nearly 200 models of pistons for Chain Saws / Brush Cutters, which places it in a unique position to be a global supplier of Pistons to the OEM and after-markets as the necessary infrastructure for these models is readily available.

Abilities India Pistons and Rings Ltd. was established in the 1966 by R.S. Arora and converted into a limited company in 1995; the company has gone from strength to strength, overcoming many challenges on the way with great aplomb. It is an ISO/TS16949:2002 certified company, recognized EXPORT HOUSE as well as recipient of several AWARDS from EEPC and ACMA for excellence in Exports and Quality and Productivity.

Always keeping its employees first and firmly believing that the company’s success lies in its efficient and happy employees, the company continuously evolves practices that will ensure Total Employee Involvement. Stress is given to ‘all round improvement’ by making 5S, Poka Yoke, Kaizen, Deskilling and Talent development a part of its daily activities. (ANI)

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Antarctica’s plumbing system more dynamic than previously believed

September 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 2 (ANI): Scientists, using space-based lasers on a NASA satellite have created the most comprehensive inventory of lakes that actively drain or fill under Antarctica’s ice, which has revealed a continental plumbing system that is more dynamic than previously thought.

“Even though Antarctica’s ice sheet looks static, the more we watch it, the more we see there is activity going on there all the time,” said Benjamin Smith of the University of Washington in Seattle, who led the study.

Unlike most lakes, Antarctic lakes are under pressure from the ice above. That pressure can push melt water from place to place like water in a squeezed balloon.

The water moves under the ice in a broad, thin layer, but also through a linked cavity system. This flow can resupply other lakes near and far.

Understanding this plumbing is important, as it can lubricate glacier flow and send the ice speeding toward the ocean, where it can melt and contribute to sea level change.

But figuring out what’s happening beneath miles of ice is a challenge.

Researchers led by Smith analyzed 4.5 years of ice elevation data from NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation satellite (ICESat) to create the most complete inventory to date of changes in the Antarctic plumbing system.

The team has mapped the location of 124 active lakes, estimated how fast they drain or fill, and described the implications for lake and ice-sheet dynamics.

Smith, Helen Fricker, a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and colleagues extended their elevation analysis to cover most of the Antarctic continent and 4.5 years of data from ICESat’s Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS).

By observing how ice sheet elevation changed between the two or three times the satellite flew over a section every year, researchers could determine which lakes were active.

They also used the elevation changes and the properties of water and ice to estimate the volume change.

Only a few of the more than 200 previously identified lakes were confirmed active, implying that lakes in East Antarctica’s high-density “Lakes District” are mostly inactive and do not contribute much to ice sheet changes.

Most of the 124 newly observed active lakes turned up in coastal areas, at the head of large drainage systems, which have the largest potential to contribute to sea level change.

According to Robert Bindschadler, a glaciologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, “The survey shows that most active subglacial lakes are located where the ice is moving fast, which implies a relationship.” (ANI)

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Reserve Bank engaged in keeping inflation low

September 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Aug. 31 (ANI): Reserve Bank of India’s Deputy Governor K C Chakrabarty on Monday said the bank is faced with the challenging task of keeping inflation in check, when food price inflation has already reached around 10 percent.

“The food price inflation is already around 10 percent. Our key challenge is how to keep the inflationary pressure low,” he said while speaking at an event of the Institute of Banking.

He dwelt on a range of issues from drought to interest rates to government borrowings, and said the country would continue to grow at 6 percent-plus.

However, he pointed out that if the “drought affects the agriculture growth, it will partly affect the growth number”.

Commenting on interest rates, he ruled out any further cuts and said the central bank could even reverse its expansionary stance if the drought-induced inflationary prices go out of control.

“I don’t think today anybody is expecting interest rates to come down further,” he said.

Admitting the huge government borrowing to have exerted some pressure on interest rates, which have “already gone up a little-bit,” he said he expects interest rates to be stable as of now. (ANI)

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Counting duplicated genome segments now possible with new computational method

September 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, August 31 (ANI): Counting copies of duplicated genome sequences and doing initial analyses of their contents are possible with the aid of a new computational method, according to a study.

Led by scientists at the University of Washington (UW), the study suggests that the number of copies of particular DNA segments can differ from one person to the next.

The researchers use the term mrFAST, an acronym for micro-read Fast Alignment Search Tool, to refer to the novel method.

In their study report, they have highlighted the fact that segmental duplications in the human genome have been associated with susceptibility and resistance to disease.

The report points out that duplicated segments have been linked to such disorders as lupus, Crohn’s disease, mental retardation, schizophrenia, colour blindness, psoriasis, and age-related macular degeneration.

It adds that segmental duplications often contain duplicated genes, many of which have an unknown function, and that individuals have different numbers of copies of some of these duplications.

The researchers write that determining the number, content, and location of segmental duplications is an important step in understanding the health significance of gene copy-number variation.

“New computational methods, combined with next-generation DNA sequencing technology, has provided for the first time an accurate census of specific genes that exist in varying number of copies,” Nature magazine quoted Alkan as saying.

“This is a way to deal with some of the most complex regions of the human genome and do what might appear to be a simple thing: Count whether a person has one, two, three or more copies of a gene. In fact, such counting is surprisingly difficult,” said Kidd.

The researchers say that next-generation technology for sequencing the human genome has far greater detection power, and costs substantially less than the traditional sequencing method known as Sanger sequencing.

According to them, the new technologies are beginning to distinguish subtle dissimilarities between nearly identical gene copies.

“This can provide researchers with a more accurate assessment of specific gene content and insight into functional constraints,” Alkan said.

“The newer, faster genome sequencing platforms may eventually make it feasible to detect the full-spectrum of genomic variation among many individuals, including patients suffering from diseases of genetic origin. Next-generation technology and computational methods promise low cost, rapid sequencing of different individuals and may lead to a fuller understanding of the patterns and significance of human genetic variation,” Alkan added.

The analytical method they devised is already being tapped for the 1000 Genome Project, an international effort to catalog and compare the genomes of hundreds of people from around the world.

Alkan, Kidd, and their colleagues note that the ability to accurately and systematically determine the absolute copy number for any genomic segment is a notable step toward a true and complete picture of individual genomes, and how the genome shapes a person’s characteristics.

“The next challenge will be defining variation in the sequence content and the structural organization of these dynamic and important regions of the human genome,” they wrote.

A research article describing their study has been published in the journal Nature Genetics. (ANI)

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Scientists create world’s smallest semiconductor laser

September 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, August 31 (ANI): Researchers at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, have created the world’s smallest semiconductor laser, capable of generating visible light in a space smaller than a single protein molecule, an invention that breaks new ground in the field of optics.

The UC Berkeley team not only successfully squeezed light into such a tight space, but found a novel way to keep that light energy from dissipating as it moved along, thereby achieving laser action.

While it is traditionally accepted that an electromagnetic wave – including laser light – cannot be focused beyond the size of half its wavelength, research teams around the world have found a way to compress light down to dozens of nanometers by binding it to the electrons that oscillate collectively at the surface of metals.

This interaction between light and oscillating electrons is known as surface plasmons.

Scientists have been racing to construct surface plasmon lasers that can sustain and utilize these tiny optical excitations.

However, the resistance inherent in metals causes these surface plasmons to dissipate almost immediately after being generated, posing a critical challenge to achieving the buildup of the electromagnetic field necessary for lasing.

Zhang and his research team took a novel approach to stem the loss of light energy by pairing a cadmium sulfide nanowire – 1,000 times thinner than a human hair – with a silver surface separated by an insulating gap of only 5 nanometers, the size of a single protein molecule.

In this structure, the gap region stores light within an area 20 times smaller than its wavelength.

Because light energy is largely stored in this tiny non-metallic gap, loss is significantly diminished.

With the loss finally under control through this unique “hybrid” design, the researchers could then work on amplifying the light.

Trapping and sustaining light in radically tight quarters creates such extreme conditions that the very interaction of light and matter is strongly altered, the study authors explained.

“This work shatters traditional notions of laser limits, and makes a major advance toward applications in the biomedical, communications and computing fields,” said Xiang Zhang, professor of mechanical engineering and director of UC Berkeley’s Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center.

The achievement helps enable the development of such innovations as nanolasers that can probe, manipulate and characterize DNA molecules; optics-based telecommunications many times faster than current technology; and optical computing in which light replaces electronic circuitry with a corresponding leap in speed and processing power.

Scientists hope to eventually shrink light down to the size of an electron’s wavelength, which is about a nanometer. (ANI)

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