CORRECTED – WRAPUP 1-BP runs crucial test on Gulf oil leak

July 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

HOUSTON, July 15 (Reuters) – BP Plc (BP.L) (BP.N) was running a crucial test on Thursday on its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well that could stanch the flow of crude that has polluted the ocean and shoreline since April.

BP began the process on Wednesday night, which could stretch up to 48 hours. The British energy giant began the tests after getting the green light from top U.S. government officials who had delayed the plan by 24 hours on concerns the process could irreparably damage the well.

If tests, which will be assessed every six hours, show that closing the cap might cause further damage to the well, the capping device could instead be used as part of a complex system to capture the oil and siphon it to ships on the surface.

Kent Wells, BP’s senior vice president of exploration and production, said undersea robots working a mile (1.6 km) below the surface had started shutting a series of three valves designed to ultimately stop the oil flow completely.

Critically, BP has closed the main valve in the middle of the cap, “and we no longer have flow out the top,” Wells said.

BP said late on Wednesday it had isolated a leak it detected in a line connected to one of the valves and was repairing it before proceeding with the test.

The developments will be watched by investors on Thursday as BP’s ultimate costs may hinge on how much oil is judged to have flown freely into the Gulf. The disaster is the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

On Wednesday, shares in BP ended 2.3 percent down in London in slow trading and were off about 1.9 percent in New York, with some analysts saying investors were likely cashing in profits ahead of further news on the new cap.

After losing over half of its market value at one point in the wake of the April 20 rig explosion that killed 11 workers and unleashed a flow of crude, its share price had been staging a rally, spurred by talk that company executives were seeking investors and optimism of a turning point in the spill. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ For full spill coverage link.reuters.com/hed87k Breakingviews [ID:nN14132617] Insider TV link.reuters.com/qyk76m Graphics link.reuters.com/dyp37m Graphic on BP shares r.reuters.com/dez27m ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

The decision to go ahead with the tests was taken after a day of intense deliberation that reached the level of President Barack Obama and his Cabinet, reflecting the stakes involved.

Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, who is overseeing the U.S. response to the spill, has said if tests show the well can withstand certain pressures, odds are good it could be “shut in” indefinitely.

The disaster has soiled hundreds of miles (km) of shoreline, shut down about a third of Gulf fisheries, put BP on the hook for billions of dollars in cleanup costs and legal liabilities and prompted Obama to temporarily halt deepwater drilling.

ANGER OVER SPILL

Anger among Americans over the failure to halt the spill added to Obama’s political problems, distracting him from his legislative agenda and denting his popularity as his Democratic Party faces tough congressional elections in November.

In Buras, Louisiana, crabber Larry Tew said he was hopeful about the cap tests. “I think it’s going to work. … I mean, they don’t have any other choice,” he said.

At least some of the oil from the well has been siphoned off to ships in the past few weeks, but that operation was halted while the tests are undertaken. BP has said by the end of July four vessels can be hooked up and collect up to 80,000 barrels (3.34 million gallons/12.7 million liters) per day.

That should be more than enough to capture the whole well output, as estimates put the spill rate between 35,000 barrels and 60,000 barrels a day.

The only proven way to kill the leak lies in the drilling of relief wells to intercept the ruptured one. The first of two such wells started in May is expected to intercept it by the end of July and plug by mid-August. (Additional reporting by Alexandria Sage in Buras, Louisiana, Chris Baltimore in Houston and Matthew Lynley in New York; Writing by Ed Stoddard; Editing by Todd Eastham)

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BP runs crucial test on Gulf oil leak

July 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

HOUSTON, July 15 (Reuters) – BP Plc (BP.L) (BP.N) was running a crucial test on Thursday on its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well that could stanch the flow of crude that has polluted the ocean and shoreline since April.

BP began the process on Wednesday night, which could stretch up to 48 hours. The British energy giant began the tests after getting the green light from top U.S. government officials who had delayed the plan by 24 hours on concerns the process could irreparably damage the well.

If tests, which will be assessed every six hours, show that closing the cap might cause further damage to the well, the capping device could instead be used as part of a complex system to capture the oil and siphon it to ships on the surface.

Kent Wells, BP’s senior vice president of exploration and production, said undersea robots working a mile (1.6 km) below the surface had started shutting a series of three valves designed to ultimately stop the oil flow completely.

Critically, BP has closed the main valve in the middle of the cap, “and we no longer have flow out the top,” Wells said.

BP said late on Wednesday it had isolated a leak it detected in a line connected to one of the valves and was repairing it before proceeding with the test.

The developments will be watched by investors on Thursday as BP’s ultimate costs may hinge on how much oil is judged to have flown freely into the Gulf. The disaster is the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

On Wednesday, shares in BP ended 2.3 percent down in London in slow trading and were off about 1.9 percent in New York, with some analysts saying investors were likely cashing in profits ahead of further news on the new cap.

After losing over half of its market value at one point in the wake of the April 20 rig explosion that killed 11 workers and unleashed a flow of crude, its share price had been staging a rally, spurred by talk that company executives were seeking investors and optimism of a turning point in the spill. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ For full spill coverage link.reuters.com/hed87k Breakingviews [ID:nN14132617] Insider TV link.reuters.com/qyk76m Graphics link.reuters.com/dyp37m Graphic on BP shares r.reuters.com/dez27m ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

The decision to go ahead with the tests was taken after a day of intense deliberation that reached the level of President Barack Obama and his Cabinet, reflecting the stakes involved.

Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, who is overseeing the U.S. response to the spill, has said if tests show the well can withstand certain pressures, odds are good it could be “shut in” indefinitely.

The disaster has soiled hundreds of miles (km) of shoreline, shut down about a third of Gulf fisheries, put BP on the hook for billions of dollars in cleanup costs and legal liabilities and prompted Obama to temporarily halt deepwater drilling.

ANGER OVER SPILL

Anger among Americans over the failure to halt the spill added to Obama’s political problems, distracting him from his legislative agenda and denting his popularity as his Democratic Party faces tough congressional elections in November.

In Buras, Louisiana, crabber Larry Tew said he was hopeful about the cap tests. “I think it’s going to work. … I mean, they don’t have any other choice,” he said.

At least some of the oil from the well has been siphoned off to ships in the past few weeks, but that operation was halted while the tests are undertaken. BP has said by the end of July four vessels can be hooked up and collect up to 80,000 barrels (3.34 million gallons/12.7 million liters) per day.

That should be more than enough to capture the whole well output, as estimates put the spill rate between 35,000 barrels and 60,000 barrels a day.

The only proven way to kill the leak lies in the drilling of relief wells to intercept the ruptured one. The first of two such wells started in May is expected to intercept it by the end of July and plug by mid-August. (Additional reporting by Alexandria Sage in Buras, Louisiana, Chris Baltimore in Houston and Matthew Lynley in New York; Writing by Ed Stoddard; Editing by Todd Eastham)

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Charting a Course for Cleaner Cargo in the Transport Sector

July 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Editor’s note: This article was authored by BSR, a global business network and consultancy focused on sustainability.]

During the past 20 years, global commerce has come to depend on an intricate web of supply chains that have revolutionized the way even the most basic products are sourced, assembled, and distributed.

The transportation and logistics sector linking these networks has become critical in supporting greater speed to market, more efficient and cheaper production, higher profits, and sustainable growth.

In spite of this function and its decade-long focus on creating more responsible supply chains, transportation and logistics remain a mostly overlooked area for potential risks and certain opportunities related to climate change.

Understanding greenhouse gas emissions across this complex system — which includes vehicle and vessel owners, logistics providers and freight forwarders, and warehousing and distribution points — will require a greater level of collaboration to support two key things:

• Common language: Most supply chains today are measured by key performance indicators (KPIs), and although current KPIs can be used to measure supply chain efficiency, they do not adequately address sustainability. Partnerships across these networks need to develop common standards, tools, and methods across entire value chains.

• Increased transparency: For reduced carbon emissions in the freight sector as a whole, shippers can shift to more carbon-efficient modes of transportation, optimize routes, and rethink supply chains only if they can quickly and accurately compare options. In order to do this, both carriers (companies that transport products) and shippers (companies that produce the products) need to increase visibility into the transportation supply chain.

This article uses BSR’s Clean Cargo Working Group as a case study to examine how one part of the sector — ocean freight — has begun working on common metrics and increased transparency. It also discusses the opportunities that remain for transportation and logistics industry as a whole to collaborate to reduce emissions.

Clean Cargo Working Group: Starting with Ocean Freight

Ocean transport carries more than 90 percent of the world’s traded goods and contributes between 3 percent and 4 percent of global emissions — or more than those generated by Germany.

Although ships trail behind road and air freight when it comes to emissions, the fact that a large shipping line can transport more than 3 percent of the globe’s gross national product at any given time places the industry in the spotlight. And driven by efforts from retailers and major companies to reduce costs and increase efficiency in the supply chain, carbon emissions represent the most material impacts from container shipping today.

To promote sustainable growth, organizations such as BSR’s Clean Cargo Working Group (CCWG), a supply chain collaboration between carriers (in this case, ocean freight companies) and shippers, are working to collectively address issues such as emissions. The CCWG has done this by developing tools and standards that allow carriers to benchmark performance, and allow shippers to access accurate data on which to base decisions about which carriers to use on a given route.

In 2007, CCWG created a standardized data-collection process that has resulted in the launch of current, industry-leading emissions factors, based on actual data, for ocean freight on all global trade lanes. Already, these efforts have allowed shippers to begin comparing carrier performance and have allowed carriers to identify higher- and lower-performing routes. The group is also finalizing a process to verify the annually collected data, and is seeking to align with other leading supply chain efforts to encourage consistent assessment and quantification of environmental impacts.

!–pagebreak– While these developments signal progress, they represent only one part of the transportation and logistics sector. In practice, shipments move across multiple modes of transport: truck to rail to ship to truck. In order consider all challenges and opportunities, increased levels of transparency and collaboration are needed among all modes of transport.

What’s Next: The Power of Networks

Standards developed to quantify GHG emissions across the supply chain, including the variety of product-related footprinting protocols, are only beginning to experiment with methods that measure transportation impacts.

The sector should begin sharing its tools and processes through an “open source” approach that will allow parallel efforts to be complementary, rather than overlapping.

To take advantage of networks, several things are needed:

• More shipper involvement: Efforts such as CCWG have made progress in bringing a significant portion of the sector together, with more than 60 percent of the container capacity being actively engaged. But it “takes two to emit,” meaning that in order to have a meaningful impact on the sector, more shippers are needed to play more active roles, including retailers, manufacturers, and all those whose goods need to be shipped. To support carriers’ investments in cleaner technologies and processes, shippers must clearly and strongly indicate their commitment to use greener carriers.

• Increased alignment among groups focused on logistics and transportation emissions: A growing number of organizations are currently working on overlapping efforts. CCWG, EPA’s SmartWay Transportation Partnership, EcoTransIT, NTM, and other transportation-focused groups have all made strides in developing tools and methods for different parts of the sector. Additionally, the field of calculator tools for GHG accounting is growing.

What’s missing is active alignment among these tools so that the best methodologies are used consistently and various efforts combine to create a more complete global emissions picture for the sector. Companies seeking to implement these tools can benefit by understanding what is behind them and influencing their development. If companies signal the need for more accurate data across the transportation supply chain, collaboration among organizations will help the industry combine, or make available, the best of each approach.

The payoff for pursuing collaboration is also positive in other regards: Collaboration can enable longer-term solutions such as product innovation among competitors, as evidenced by Maersk Line and NKK’s joint development of emission-reduction technologies and initiatives including waste-heat recovery, emission-abatement technologies, emission-cleaning systems, ballast-water treatment, and alternative fuels. Collaboration can also lead to new service opportunities and increased power to shape public policies that reduce barriers and enable incentives for sustainability.

By taking advantage of opportunities within networks, shifting to lower-emitting modes of transportation, and slowing down supply chains for greater fuel efficiency, collaborative groups have developed the most promising near-term solutions for portions of the supply chain.

The next opportunity — to significantly reduce emissions across the entire sector — will require a step-change in the amount of coordination between networked partners: a greater number of shippers engaged with all modes of transportation.

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Calypto`s Industry Expands Lead in ESL Verification with Latest SLEC Release

June 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

New Breakthrough in Formal Verification Technology for Complex Loop Handling
SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(Business Wire)–
Enabling electronic system level (ESL) design flows for increasingly complex
system on a chip (SoC) devices, Calypto® Design Systems, Inc. (www.calypto.com)
today announced that its latest SLEC® 5.0, release includes breakthrough
technology for verifying deep, complex loop structures in ESL flows. SLEC is the
industry`s only comprehensive functional verification solution that formally
verifies equivalence between ESL models and RTL implementations.

“The accelerating maturity of ESL flows requires Calypto`s R&D team to
continuously advance our algorithms to support an expanding set of designs,
including those that use loop structures to define complex digital functions,”
said Tom Sandoval, chief executive officer of Calypto Design Systems. “The
technology breakthroughs in SLEC 5.0 will enable the tool to support new
application spaces and provide a significantly improved user experience for our
customers.”

SLEC 5.0 includes next generation formal verification algorithms to handle
designs with deep, complex loops. Previous algorithms for loop verification
relied on expensive and often prohibitive loop unrolling technique that limited
capacity and forced users to manage loop sizes by setting static loop bounds.
With Calypto`s latest advances, verification of designs with complex loops will
no longer require the user to provide constraints, dramatically improving the
user experience and delivering a comprehensive and scalable verification
solution for a broader set of design applications.

New Features for Handling Designs with Large Memories

SLEC 5.0 also includes new features that enable comprehensive verification of
designs with large memories. Large arrays in a system level design that model
large memories in the corresponding RTL design can stress the capacity
boundaries of formal verification methods. SLEC 5.0 includes new techniques to
model memories that reduce their size in SLEC`s database by up to 90 percent and
effectively increase the size of the memories that can be handled by SLEC.

Improvements in SLEC System-HLS Flows

SLEC 5.0 includes enhanced flows for the three leading high level synthesis
(HLS) products in the market, improving usability and expanding the support of
their latest features:

* For Mentor CatapultC: New cat2SLEC flow auto-refines throughput, latency,
ac_channel size, flop maps and reset length
* For Cadence C-to-Silicon: New ctos2SLEC flow that utilizes CtoSilicon XML
database to auto populate design characteristics required for SLEC Verification
* For Forte Cynthesizer: New cyn2SLEC, fully automated support for external
memories and custom interfaces in pipelined designs

SLEC Family of Products

The SLEC family of products includes:

* SLEC System: Formally verifies equivalence of system-level models and RTL
designs.
* SLEC System-HLS: Formally verifies that an RTL design generated using
high-level synthesis is functionally equivalent to its corresponding system
level model.
* SLEC RTL: Formally ensures functional equivalence between a golden RTL model
and a corresponding RTL model has been sequentially modified to reduce power or
improveperformance.
* SLEC Pro: Comprehensively verifies that an RTL design generated by Calypto`s
PowerPro product is functionally equivalent to its corresponding golden RTL
model.

SLEC 5.0 Showcased at DAC 2010

Highlighting its full suite of PowerPro and SLEC products, Calypto will
demonstrate its SLEC 5.0 at this year`s Design Automation Conference (DAC) in
booth #286, being held June 14-16th in Anaheim, California. To register for a
private demonstration visit: www.calypto.com/events.php.

Additionally, Calypto will present at the panel titled, “What input language is
the best choice for high level synthesis?” to be held at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday,
June 17th in room 207AB.

Pricing and Availability

Available now, Calypto`s SLEC 5.0 runs on PC platforms running Linux. Pricing
for a one-year, time-based license is as follows:

SLEC System: $250,000

SLEC System-HLS (add on option to SLEC System): $50,000

SLEC RTL: $175,000

SLEC Pro: $125,000

About Calypto

Founded in 2002, Calypto® Design Systems, Inc. empowers designers to create
high-quality, low-power electronic systems by providing best-in-class RTL power
optimization and functional verification software, based on its patented
sequential analysis technology. Calypto, whose customers include Fortune 500
companies worldwide, is a member of the Cadence Connections program, the
IEEE-SA, Synopsys SystemVerilog Catalyst Program, the Mentor Graphics OpenDoor
program, Si2 and is an active participant in the Power Forward Initiative.
Calypto has offices in Europe, India, Japan and North America. Corporate
headquarters is located at: 2933 Bunker Hill Lane, Suite 202, Santa Clara,
Calif. 95054. Telephone: (408) 850-2300. More information can be found at:
www.calypto.com.

Calypto, PowerPro andSLEC are trademarks of Calypto Design Systems Inc.Other
products and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective companies.

Orr & Company for Calypto Design Systems
Diane Orr, 408-358-1617
diane@orr-co.com

Copyright Business Wire 2010

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300 B.C. panels take Mayan creation myth back by 1,000 years

May 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 18 (ANI): Archaeologists who have uncovered two massive carved stucco panels in the Mirador Basin of Guatemala’s northern rain forest say they are the earliest known representation of the Mayan creation myth, dating back to 300 B.C.

According to a report in Discover Magazine, the panels, which are 26 feet long and 20 feet high, with images of monsters, gods, and swimming heroes, predate other such artifacts by a millennium.

They formed the sides of a channel that carried rainwater into a complex system of stepped pools, where it was stored for drinking and agriculture.

The panels’ carved images depict an important scene from the Popol Vuh, a text of the Mayan myth that was first recorded in the 16th century, according to Idaho State University archaeologist Richard Hansen, who is directing the ongoing excavation.

In the part of the story shown, the Hero Twins swim through the underworld after retrieving the head of their father, the deity Hun Hunahpu.

Some historians dismiss the Popol Vuh as a contaminated document, containing not only ancient Mayan mythology, but also contemporary Spanish Catholic influences.

The discovery of the panels establishes key portions of the stories as genuinely Mayan.

“We can now extend the authenticity of the creation myth back another 1,000 years,” said Hansen. (ANI)

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Cancer-sniffing artificial noses on the anvil

March 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Feb 28 (ANI): Duke University researchers are decoding the way people’s noses recognize scents – a development that will lay the groundwork for a future of cancer-sniffing artificial noses.

In an experiment, researchers tested hundreds of receptor gene types found in human and mouse noses, reports National Geographic News.

Scientists were able to figure out which receptors respond to which odor molecules and translate the smells into brain signals by inundating the receptors with odors.

Unlocking this interface would show how the brain recognizes and reacts to different smells.

“We used many different types of [odorus] chemicals, from strawberries to garlic, and these chemicals have specific structure. [We asked] what kinds of receptors are activated by each?” said study co-author Harumi Saito of Duke University.

“Only three receptor types facilitate all of color vision,” said geneticist Joel Mainland of the Duke University Medical Center, whose findings will appear in tomorrow’s issue of the journal Science.

“For human smell you have 400 [receptors], so it becomes a very complex system to decode,” the expert added.

Avery Gilbert, author of What the Nose Knows: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life, added that “the big problem is lining up which odor molecules go with which receptors. It’s as if you have a pile of locks and a pile of keys and you’ve got to find out which key goes to each lock.”

Knowing how different receptors recognize odors could help produce artificial noses able to sniff out scents from cancer to bombs. (ANI)

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Satyam found to have messed up on WHO deal as well

February 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Feb.5 (ANI): Satyam Computer Services Ltd., the Indian software giant that has been accused of committing a billion dollar executive fraud, is involved in yet another kind of debacle – this time in connection with the World Health Organization (WHO).

At issue is Satyam’s role in the development of a 55.5 million dollar global business management system for WHO, which was slated to become the master control for staffing, financial payments and procurement by the organization by an initial deadline of September 2007.

That deadline has long since passed, and instead, according to documents obtained by FOX News, the project is far behind schedule, wallowing in glitches that have deeply affected WHO operations, and, despite management claims to the contrary, likely to end up far exceeding its budget.

According to the documents, Satyam ignored the instructions of software’s manufacturer Oracle for implementing the complex system; and ran user tests that validated the system without “being able to replicate a real-life situation,” provided little or no training to WHO employees; and failed to adequately involve health care professionals who see the system as a vital tool, among a host of other failings.

Among other things, the report strongly implies that the failure to use actual data in its testing may severely crimp the abilities of the disease-fighting organization, for example, in “mobilizing large amounts of money in a very short time for emergencies.”

Despite being written in a fog of bureaucratic language, the audit report is a scathing indictment of Satyam’s role as “system integrator” for the global business management program, and also of management’s oversight of the project – failings that include “the risk of over-dependence” by WHO on Satyam even after the project is completed.

WHO signed its contract with Satyam in September 2005 – at roughly the same time as the World Bank was in the final stages of a three year, hush-hush investigation of the company’s improper financial dealings with the bank’s chief information officer, Mohamed Muhsin, that would end with Muhsin’s ouster the following month.

Satyam itself was not suspended as a supplier by the bank, however, until February 2008 – a suspension that turned into an eight-year formal ban last September. Along with the financial dealings, the World Bank cited “lack of documentation on invoices” by Satyam as a cause for the belated sanctions.

In other words, Satyam won the contract at roughly the same time that the World Bank was about to fire its top technology manager for accepting heavily discounted shares of stock from Satyam in return for promoting the company’s fortunes.

Even WHO’s top management, which has been strongly defensive of its Satyam project, has admitted that “there remain continuing problems,” and has pushed off the full global roll-out of the system, beyond WHO’s Vienna headquarters and its Western Pacific region, into the indefinite future. (ANI)

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