Research and Markets: Pharma Revenue Growth in the Seven Major Pharmaceutical Markets Had Five Percent Annual Growth in 2004-2005, Growth in the BRIC Markets Was Higher At 22%

June 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

DUBLIN–(Business Wire)–
Research and Markets
(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/22745f/looking_at_offshor) has
announced the addition of the “Looking at Offshoring in the Pharmaceutical
Industry” report to their offering.

The organic spread of pharmaceutical industry worldwide has necessitated taking
steps beyond only export of drug lifecycles across time based zones to
development in those countries itself in order to capitalize on the
opportunities present in these countries whether in terms of knowledge resources
or as financial capabilities. These opportunities exist in terms of
manufacturing APIs or intermediate and final stage drugs. Offshoring is helping
these companies develop application specific drugs, share knowledge and transmit
the benefits of such research across the globe irrespective of borders.

Manufacturers are turning to labor intensive emerging markets like India and
China for fulfilling these additional capacity requirements. Such offshoring of
R&D as well as production efforts are guided by pressures of rising costs,
market competition, regulatory allowances, intense generic proliferation or
deriving better efficiencies. The route to entering such markets by these global
majors are being explored in India and China by acquiring local companies or
setting up wholly owned R& D subsidiaries.

While Pharma revenue growth in the seven major pharmaceutical markets has begun
to slow, with five percent annual growth in 2004-2005, growth in the BRIC
(Brazil, Russia, India and China) markets was significantly higher at 22%.
Consequently, in addition to acting as key sights for off-shoring drug
development and manufacturing, India and China are increasingly becoming key
targets for Western companies aiming to expand their global pharmaceutical
revenues.

Aruvian’s R’searchs report – Looking at Offshoring in the Pharmaceutical
Industry – is a detailed analysis of the recent practice of offshoring which has
been initiated in the pharmaceutical industry globally and the reasons behind
the need for and benefits derived from offshoring by these companies.

The report presents a demarcation of the industry and profiles the industry in
various marketing dimensions as the segments active in the industry; the
competitive forces at play and an outlook for the market. The report explains
the basic concepts of Offshoring as implemented in the pharmaceutical sector by
analyzing the value chains which have materialized globally pushing employment
scenarios in emerging and growing economies.

The impact of Offshoring as a practice cannot be understood without a complete
study of Indian and Chinese knowledge markets to the global pharma chains as
explained in this report along with the challenges or barriers faced by inflow
of offshoring pharma investment by R&D routes into these markets.

The report also provides an in depth explanation of the pharma manufacturing
process as is prevalent in the leading markets wherein pharma companies are
straddled with decisions to manufacture biologics or secondaries in offshoring
bases and the challenges expected in these markets towards such initiatives.

The report is a complete guide on Offshoring as being implemented in the current
scenario for the pharmaceutical industry and the future outlook for growth of
off shoring opportunities which can lead to mutually acceptable gains for the
investors and the suppliers in the pharma industry.

Aruvian Research’s report – Looking at Offshoring in the Pharmaceutical Industry
- is a detailed analysis of the recent practice of offshoring which has been
initiated in the pharmaceutical industry globally and the reasons behind the
need for and benefits derived from offshoring by these companies.

The report presents a demarcation of the industry and profiles the industry in
various marketing dimensions as the segments active in the industry; the
competitive forces at play and an outlook for the market. The report explains
the basic concepts of Offshoring as implemented in the pharmaceutical sector by
analyzing the value chains which have materialized globally pushing employment
scenarios in emerging and growing economies.

The impact of Offshoring as a practice cannot be understood without a complete
study of Indian and Chinese knowledge markets to the global pharma chains as
explained in this report along with the challenges or barriers faced by inflow
of offshoring pharma investment by R&D routes into these markets.

The report also provides an in depth explanation of the pharma manufacturing
process as is prevalent in the leading markets wherein pharma companies are
straddled with decisions to manufacture biologics or secondaries in offshoring
bases and the challenges expected in these markets towards such initiatives.

The report is a complete guide on Offshoring as being implemented in the current
scenario for the pharmaceutical industry and the future outlook for growth of
off shoring opportunities which can lead to mutually acceptable gains for the
investors and the suppliers in the pharma industry.

Key Topics Covered:

* Executive Summary
* Introduction to the Global Pharmaceutical Industry
* Offshoring in the Pharmaceutical Sector
* Offshoring of R&D
* Offshoring of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Processes
* Appendix
* Glossary of Terms

For more information visit

http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/22745f/looking_at_offshor

Research and Markets
Laura Wood, Senior Manager,
press@researchandmarkets.com
U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907
Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

Copyright Business Wire 2010

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Internet to run out of IP addresses ”in 500 days”

May 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Sydney, May 18 (ANI): It has emerged that the IP addresses used in helping to distinguish one computer from another are expected to run out in approximately 500 days.

The unique numbers, which are known as Internet protocol addresses, help identify the world”s networked devices.

An IP address uses four numbers from 0 to 255 to distinguish one computer from another. As an example, computers around the world can recognise the IP address 203.26.51.71 as a server for fairfax.com.au, which publishes this newspaper online.

There are more than four billion combinations. But the proliferation of networked devices means soon that will no longer be enough.

In a way, IP addresses are like phone numbers, which need to be entered correctly if a right connection is to be made. So the ability to uniquely identify everything in the computer world is essential.

IP addresses are like phone numbers in another way, too.

Just as Australia had to move from seven-digit phone numbers to eight digits in the early 1990s, massive change will now be required globally to resolve the problem.

However, there”s a complication.

“Unlike the telephone system, it”s not easy to just add more digits,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted chief scientist at the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, Geoff Huston, as saying.

Although every telephone number in Australia was successfully altered, the phones themselves didn”t change. Humans simply dialled an extra number and were connected to the person.

But every web server, every iPhone, every router and everything else – possibly billions of devices – will need to be reconfigured or upgraded.

“The idea that every last one has to go back into the doctor for a new transplant does sound a bit frightening. It”s almost like having to teach every device a new language,” Huston said.

Fortunately, a new language exists.

Computers now use IP version 4 and have since the 1980s. Its replacement is version 6, known as IPv6. For humans, little will change.

The traditional way we visit a website, by typing google.com or facebook.com, won”t be any different and personal computers will automatically use IPv4 or IPv6 as required.

The impending shortage has been apparent for more than a decade as the volume of networked devices has escalated but inertia has stymied efforts to prepare for IPv6, Huston revealed.

While personal computers have been capable of understanding IPv6 since Windows XP and Apple OS X, Huston says only about 5 percent of devices are configured to do so. Among web servers, the figure is less than 1 per cent.

Internode is one of the few Internet service providers that offers an IPv6 service. Telstra is among the many that do not. Tens of millions of mobile phones are on an IPv4 network only.

Technically, it”s not all that difficult to enable IPv6. Logistically, it”s a horrendous challenge, and the conversion can involve substantial costs, with little in return.

“It doesn”t make your Internet any shinier or any brighter, so customers won”t pay more,” he said.

Consequently, Huston predicts we will get to a point where large numbers of people will no longer be able to see everything on the Internet.

So far, the dwindling storehouse of IP addresses has been managed with trickery that translates one IP address to another.

But by about late September next year, the key body that distributes IP addresses will run out of them. Three months after that, every drop in the pipeline will dry up and the only way to get an IPv4 address will be to buy one from someone else.

Lacking that, consumers whose computers are not configured to use IPv6 won”t see new websites. Likewise, iPhones, which don”t understand IPv6, will be limited to the “old” Internet.

For businesses that are not prepared, this could spell trouble. Unless web servers and mobile phone services are configured to send information via IPv4 as well as IPv6, companies could be left with a fraction of their current customers.

The good news is that once IPv6 is in place, it should satisfy demand as far as a computer can calculate.

“If every single address was one grain of sand, in IPv6 you could build 300 million planets the size of Earth,” he added. (ANI)

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Chemicals from seaweeds damage coral on contact

May 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 11 (ANI): Researchers have offered first proof that several common species of seaweeds in both the Pacific and Caribbean Oceans can kill corals upon contact using chemical means.

While competition between seaweed and coral is just one of many factors affecting the decline of coral reefs worldwide, this chemical threat may provide a serious setback to efforts aimed at repopulating damaged reefs. Seaweeds are normally kept in check by herbivorous fish, but in many areas overfishing has reduced the populations of these plant-consumers, allowing seaweeds to overpopulate coral reefs.

A study documenting the chemical effects of seaweeds on corals was scheduled to be published May 10, 2010 in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“Between 40 and 70 percent of the seaweeds we studied killed corals,” said Mark Hay, a professor in the School of Biology at Georgia Tech. “We don”t know how significant this is compared to other problems affecting coral, but we know this is a growing problem. For reefs that have been battered by human use or overfishing, the presence of seaweeds may prevent natural recovery from happening at all.”

Coral reefs are declining worldwide, and scientists studying the problem had suspected that proliferation of seaweed was part of the cause – perhaps by crowding out the coral or by damaging it physically.

Using racks of coral being transplanted as part of repopulation efforts, Hay and graduate student Douglas Rasher compared the fate of corals from two different species when they were placed next to different types of seaweed common around Fijian reefs in the Pacific – and Panamanian reefs in Caribbean. They planted the seaweeds next to coral being transplanted – and also placed plastic plants next to some of the coral to simulate the effects of shading and mechanical damage. Other coral in the racks had neither seaweeds nor plastic plants near them.

The researchers revisited the coral two days, 10 days and 20 days later. In as little as two days, corals in contact with some seaweed species bleached and died in areas of direct contact. In other cases, the effects took a full 20 days to appear – or for some seaweed species, no damaging effects were noted during the 20-day period. Ultimately, as much as 70 percent of the seaweed species studied turned out to have harmful effects – but only when they were in direct contact with the coral.

To confirm that chemical factors were responsible, Hay and Rasher extracted chemicals from the seaweeds – and from only the surfaces of the seaweeds. They then applied both types of chemicals to corals by placing the chemicals into gel matrix bound to a strip of window screen, forming something similar to a gauze bandage and applying that directly to the corals. To a control group of corals, they applied the gel and screen without the seaweed chemicals.

The effects confirmed that chemicals from both the surface of certain seaweeds and extracts from those entire plants killed corals.

“In all cases where the coral had been harmed, the chemistry appeared to be responsible for it,” said Hay. “The evolutionary reasons why the seaweeds have these compounds are not known. It may be that these compounds protect the seaweeds against microbial infection, or that they help compete with other seaweeds. But it”s clear now that they also harm the corals, either by killing them or suppressing their growth.” (ANI)

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Khan network, construction at Chashma plant to grind Pak in US nuclear summit

April 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 5(ANI): The US nuclear summit in Washington is poised to bring unnecessary focus on Pakistan over its denial to links with the A. Q. Khan network and reports that China has signed a deal with them to construct two pressurised water reactors at the Chashma Nuclear Power Plant.

The Pakistan Embassy has said that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani would reach Washington to attend the summit on April 11 with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and a small delegation.

The conference, which aims to curb proliferation of nuclear materials, would provide an easy opportunity for a majority of world leaders to question Pakistan over the controversial issues.

Though Pakistan has denied any links to the Khan network (blamed for smuggling nuclear technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea) and has taken steps to further tighten security around its nuclear installations, anti-Pakistan lobbies in Washington have already started highlighting the case to put spotlight on Islamabad, The Dawn reports.

Pakistan may also be scrutinised over reports, which claim that China also agreed to provide a low-interest loan for 82 percent of the 1.912 billion dollar project for two 320 MWe units.

Gilani can hope to get some support from Chinese President Hu Jintao, who has confirmed his participation in the event.

China’s support can be very useful for Pakistan as the Americans too need Beijing’s support for other important issues, such as containing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and for promoting a universal ban on nuclear proliferation.

Over 50 heads of state or government have confirmed their participation in the April 12-13 summit. (ANI)

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Misinformation about antibiotics spreads quickly via Twitter

March 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, March 31 (ANI): A new study has revealed that misinformation about antibiotics can travel to large audience through social networking sites like Twitter.

Experts from Columbia University and MixedInk (New York, NY) examined the health information content of Twitter updates mentioning antibiotics to determine how people are sharing information and assess the proliferation of misinformation.

The investigation explored evidence of misunderstanding or misuse of antibiotics.

“Research focusing on microblogs and social networking services is still at an early stage. Further study is needed to assess how to promote healthy behaviors and to collect and disseminate trustworthy information using these tools,” Daniel Scanfeld and colleagues said.

The authors stressed that because health information is shared extensively on such networks, it is important for health care professionals to have a basic familiarity with social networking media services, such as Twitter.

They add that such services can potentially be used to gather important real-time health data and may provide a venue to identify potential misuse or misunderstanding of antibiotics, promote positive behavior change, and disseminate valid information.

The study appears in the April issue of AJIC: American Journal of Infection Control. (ANI)

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Bungled insulation scheme threatens business

March 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The owner of a roof-batt business at Cooma in the New South Wales South East says he is due to be evicted from his home, after the closure of the Federal Government’s home insulation scheme.

Tom Black says he is still owed $1600 from the government for an installation job last year, and the abrupt end to the scheme has left him without a customer.

Mr Black says he runs the only registered company in Cooma, but the proliferation of un-registered installers has left him broke.

He says the future of his business looks bleak.

“The abrupt end to the program, it has just left us high and dry,” he said.

“We never got a chance to actually make ourselves established.

“We are a swear word in the town.

“Insulation, you don’t mention the word.”

Mr Black says he is not eligible for the Government’s rescue package, because he was unable to book training for new work standards in time.

For more, go to the South East News blog at http://bit.ly/dgL1SN

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Ports boss denies dredging causing crab increase

March 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Gippsland Ports’ CEO Nick Murray is adamant an increase in the number of european shore crabs in the Gippsland Lakes is not the result of recent dredging.

Long-time lakes campaigner, Ross Scott, says the dredging at Lakes Entrance has increased the flow of saline water into the lakes.

He says the increased salinity has killed lake-side vegetation, increased the range of crabs and changed the lakes’ environment.

But Mr Murray says scientific research has found the increase in crab numbers was happening before the recent dredging.

“The life cycle and the reproductive cycle of the crabs is such that the concept of the 2008 [dredging] campaign and the 2009 campaign have been the cause of the proliferation of crabs, is not scientifically tenable,” he said.

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Pak government moves petition in LHC to quiz AQ Khan over proliferation disclosures

March 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, Mar.23 (ANI): The Pakistan government has moved a petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking permission to quiz disgraced nuclear scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan regarding his disclosure to a foreign newspaper about his involvement in offering nuclear know how to Iraq and Iran.

The petition, which has come just ahead of the strategic dialogue between Pakistan and the United States during which Islamabad is likely to push for a civil nuclear deal, cited an alleged interview that Khan gave to The Washington Post.

Khan had reportedly admitted in the interview that he was involved in proliferation to Iran and Iraq.

“We want to question Dr Khan about this interview, which has revealed sensitive information about Pakistan”s nuclear programme,” The BBC quoted the government’s petition, as saying.

“We want to learn who is passing on such information to foreign newspapers. Such information has a direct bearing on the security of Pakistan”s nuclear programme,” the application stated.

The interview, which has angered the Pakistan government, was published in two parts on March 10 and March 14 in The Washington Post.

Meanwhile, Dr. Khan has denied giving any such interview and said that the details have been fabricated.

The Lahore High Court has been hearing a petition filed by Dr. Khan challenging the security protocol imposed on him by the federal government.

It is pertinent to mention here that Dr. Khan had challenged his official protocol, terming it a violation of his fundamental rights, following which the Lahore High Court directed the concerned authorities to remove all restrictions on his movements.

However, under intense international pressure, the government appealed against the court’s directives, which saw the court put a stay order on the verdict. (ANI)

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Pak government moves petition in LHC to quiz AQ Khan over proliferation disclosures

March 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, Mar.23 (ANI): The Pakistan government has moved a petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) seeking permission to quiz disgraced nuclear scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan regarding his disclosure to a foreign newspaper about his involvement in offering nuclear know how to Iraq and Iran.

The petition, which has come just ahead of the strategic dialogue between Pakistan and the United States during which Islamabad is likely to push for a civil nuclear deal, cited an alleged interview that Khan gave to The Washington Post.

Khan had reportedly admitted in the interview that he was involved in proliferation to Iran and Iraq.

“We want to question Dr Khan about this interview, which has revealed sensitive information about Pakistan’s nuclear programme,” The BBC quoted the government’s petition, as saying.

“We want to learn who is passing on such information to foreign newspapers. Such information has a direct bearing on the security of Pakistan’s nuclear programme,” the application stated.

The interview, which has angered the Pakistan government, was published in two parts on March 10 and March 14 in The Washington Post.

Meanwhile, Dr. Khan has denied giving any such interview and said that the details have been fabricated.

The Lahore High Court has been hearing a petition filed by Dr. Khan challenging the security protocol imposed on him by the federal government.

It is pertinent to mention here that Dr. Khan had challenged his official protocol, terming it a violation of his fundamental rights, following which the Lahore High Court directed the concerned authorities to remove all restrictions on his movements.

However, under intense international pressure, the government appealed against the court’s directives, which saw the court put a stay order on the verdict. (ANI)

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A Q Khan’s nukes to Iran claims hold no ‘official status’: Pak diplomat

September 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep.10 (ANI): Hours after disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr AQ Khan claimed that Pakistan had helped Iran acquire the nuclear technology with the aim to jointly emerge as a ‘strong bloc’ in the region, a Pakistani diplomat has out rightly rejected Khan’s claims.

Spokesman of the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, Nadeem Kiyani, said Khan’s statement has no ‘official status’.These are the views of a person who has been rendered ineffective, and his network has been completely shut up,” The Nation quoted Kiyani, as saying.

Kiyani said Islamabad does not want proliferation of nuclear technology in the region and is doing everything to keep a tab on such activities.

Meanwhile, a proliferation expert has said that Dr. Khan has many secrets regarding the transfer of nuclear know-how’s to other countries, but is not willing to disclose the details.

“Khan has ‘always threatened to tell more, perhaps who authorised the transfer of designs and samples of technology, if not more, to several states,” said Stephen Cohen, a proliferation expert at the Brookings Institution.

Referring to the television interview in which Khan had disclosed that he provided nuclear details to countries like Libya and Iran with an aim to counter international pressure and ‘neutralize’ Israeli power, Cohen said: “Khan appeared to hold back a lot in the interview.” (ANI)

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Turning off oncogene may inhibit lung cancer stem cells’ growth

September 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 9 (ANI): A lung cancer oncogene, called PKCiota, is necessary for the proliferation of lung cancer stem cells, and turning it off could act as a key for the treatment of this deadly disease, according to scientists at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida.

These stem cells are rare and powerful master cells that manufacture the other cells that make up lung tumours, and are resistant to chemotherapy treatment.

The study also shows that an agent, aurothiomalate, being tested at Mayo Clinic in a phase I clinical trial substantially inhibits growth of these cancer stem cells.

“Our data indicate that PKCiota is required for the earliest steps in the development of lung cancer, which is the expansion of tumor-initiating cells or cancer stem cells,” said the study’s senior author, Dr. Alan Fields.

“Lung cancer stem cells appear to be the major drivers in many common lung cancers, and in order for a therapeutic treatment to be effective, it has to disrupt these cancer stem cells. We show that aurothiomalate, the agent now being tested in lung cancer patients, can, in fact, target these cells,” he added.

While aurothiomalate was once used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, the researchers have now discovered that it can also target PKCiota.

Currently, the agent is being tested in patients at Mayo Clinic’s sites in Minnesota and Arizona and, based on this phase I trial, a phase II human clinical trial is planned to combine aurothiomalate with agents targeted at other molecules involved in cancer growth.

“We had previously shown that PKCiota is required to maintain tumor growth, but what this study sought to determine is whether PKCiota is involved in the initial steps of lung cancer development,” said Fields.

Fields said that, in mice, an oncogene known as Kras is thought to transform normal lung stem cells into cancer stem cells, thereby initiating lung cancer.

In the present study, the researchers established a strain of mice in which Kras can be activated at the same time that the PKCiota gene is inactivated.

They found that when the PKCiota gene is inactivated, Kras was unable to cause errant growth and expansion of lung stem cells in mice, the process that initiates tumour formation.

“What this told us is that Kras requires PKCiota to transform the lung stem cells and make them proliferate. In other words, PKCiota is downstream from Kras, and is necessary for Kras to initiate lung tumor formation,” said Fields.

After discovering that aurothiomalate disables PKCiota, the researchers tested whether this agent is effective against lung cancer that develops due to Kras mutation.

“The drug showed potent inhibitory effects on the Kras-dependent proliferation of lung cancer stem cells both in cell culture and in animals,” said Fields.

“That further suggests that a drug like aurothiomalate could have an effect on tumors that are dependent on either Kras or PKCiota for growth and survival, and that is potentially a lot of cancers.

Aurothiomalate appears to be one of the few drugs available that can effectively target these critical cancer stem cells. In the clinic, however, it is likely that aurothiomalate will be most effective when combined with other agents designed to target other tumor survival pathways,” he added.

The study has been published in Cancer Research. (ANI)

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Need to prevent periodontitis to cut head and neck cancer risk

September 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 8 (ANI): Researchers at the University of Buffalo have stressed on the need for increased efforts to prevent and treat chronic periodontitis, a form of gum disease, to reduce the risk for head and neck cancer.

Led by Dr. Mine Tezal at Buffalo, periodontitis is an independent risk factor for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

“Prevent periodontitis; if you have it already, get treatment and maintain good oral hygiene,” said Tezal.

Chronic periodontitis is characterized by progressive loss of the bone and soft tissue attachment that surround the teeth.

The researchers assessed the role of chronic periodontitis on head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, as well as the individual roles on three subsites: oral cavity, oropharyngeal and laryngeal.

They used radiographic measurement of bone loss to measure periodontitis among 463 patients, 207 of whom were controls.

The results of the study revealed that chronic periodontitis might represent a clinical high-risk profile for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

The strength of the association was greatest in the oral cavity, followed by the oropharynx and larynx, according to Tezal.

When they stratified the relationship by tobacco use, they found that the association persisted in those patients who never used tobacco.

The researchers did not expect the periodontitis-head and neck squamous cell carcinoma association to be weaker in current smokers compared to former and never smokers, according to Tezal.

However, this interaction, although statistically significant, was not very strong.

“Confirmatory studies with more comprehensive assessment of smoking, such as duration, quantity and patterns of use, as well as smokeless tobacco history are needed,” said Tezal.

“Our study also suggests that chronic periodontitis may be associated with poorly differentiated tumor status in the oral cavity. Continuous stimulation of cellular proliferation by chronic inflammation may be responsible for this histological type. However, grading is subjective and we only observed this association in the oral cavity. Therefore, this association may be due to chance and needs further exploration,” she added.

Andrew Olshan, Ph.D., said these results lend further support to the potential importance of poor oral health in this form of cancer.

Olshan said, “Although the study is comparatively small, the researchers were able to also see an association between bone loss and the risk of head and neck cancer.”

The results of the study have been published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. (ANI)

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Free A Q Khan, a vulnerable man to foreign agencies

September 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Islamabad, Sep 1(ANI): A Q Khan, Pakistani nuclear scientist, widely regarded as the founder of Pakistan’s nuclear program, is a free man again and many consider that he may share the secrets with establishments around the world.

In January 2004, Khan had confessed to having been involved in a secret international network of nuclear weapons technology proliferation from Pakistan to Libya, Iran and North Korea.

It is believed that Khan and his network were one of the worst proliferators of nuclear technology that could be used to develop nuclear weapons.

Though Khan had been pardoned by Musharraf, the difficulty arises on the question that Khan was involved in a network and supplying blueprints for various parts of a nuclear programme for sale onwards to other countries.

Certainly, it becomes a cause of worry that Khan can go beyond his bitterness towards a former dictator and perhaps start to talk about the many, many secrets he undoubtedly keeps regarding the country’s nuclear programme, The Dawn reports.

In an August, 2005, Musharraf had confirmed that Khan had supplied gas centrifuges and gas centrifuge parts to North Korea and, possibly, an amount of uranium hexafluoride, which can make agencies around the world to try and get their hands on a free A.Q. Khan. (ANI)

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Pakistan modifying US missile posed a danger to India, says Sureesh Mehta

September 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Aug 31 (ANI): Outgoing Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta on Monday alleged that Pakistan’s attempt to modify Harpoon missile posed a danger to India’s interest.

As per media reports, the Obama administration has protested to Pakistan for illegally modifying U.S.-made missiles to expand its ability to hit land-based targets.

Citing senior administration and Congressional officials, the reports said the charge came in late June through an unpublicized diplomatic protest to Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and other top Pakistani officials.

The accusation, made amid growing concerns about Pakistan’s increasingly rapid conventional and nuclear weapons development, triggered a new round of U.S.-Pakistani tensions, the report added. eacting to the same, Mehta said that US authorities are constantly being told that their aid to Pakistan is not necessarily used for self-defence.

“Here are certain things which people do. Like if we made our own Brahmos (a supersonic cruise missile), it was for the sea, then it become land version, so there are certain things that can be done to it. This is a danger of proliferation which we have also been mentioning to Americans at all times that what you give them (Pakistan) will not necessarily be targeted for self defence. And this in any case has got nothing to do with self-defence; it is obviously against Indian interest,” Mehta added.

A senior Pakistani official called the accusation “incorrect,” saying that the missile tested was developed by Pakistan, just as it had modified North Korean designs to build a range of land-based missiles that could strike India, according to the Times.

U.S. officials said the disputed weapon is a conventional one based on the Harpoon antiship missiles that were sold to Pakistan during the Reagan administration as a defensive weapon, the newspaper reported, but the charges come as the Obama administration is seeking Congressional approval for 7.5 billion dollars in aid for Pakistan over the next five years.

U.S. military and intelligence officials suspect Pakistan of modifying the Harpoon sold to them in the 1980s, which would violate the Arms Control Export Act.

Pakistan denied the charge and said it developed the missile, the media report said.

According to experts, the missiles would bolster Pakistan’s ability to threaten India, stoking fears of heating up the two nations’ arms race. (ANI)

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Pakistan modified ‘defensive’ American missiles to pose threat to India: NYT

August 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug.30 (ANI): Top US administration and Congressional officials have accused Pakistan of illegally modifying American-made missiles to expand its capability to strike land targets, a potential threat to India.

Officials alleged that Islamabad has customized conventional Harpoon antiship missiles, which were provided to it by the Reagan administration as a defensive weapon in the cold war era.

“There’s a concerted effort to get these guys to slow down.Their energies are misdirected,” said one senior administration official.

The accusations come at a time when the Obama administration is pushing the Congress to approve 7.5 billion dollars in aid to Pakistan over the next five years.

It is also worth mentioning here that Washington, time and again, has asked Islamabad to focus more fighting the Taliban rather than expanding its nuclear and conventional forces against India.

According the New York Times, US officials made these accusations in ‘unpublicized’ diplomatic protest to Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and other top Pakistani officials in June.

The United States has also accused Pakistan of modifying American-made P-3C aircraft for land-attack missions.

“The focus of our concern is that this is a potential unauthorized modification of a maritime antiship defensive capability to an offensive land-attack missile. The potential for proliferation and end-use violations are things we watch very closely,” said another official on conditions of anonymity, adding, “When we have concerns, we act aggressively.”

However, Pakistan has denied the charge, saying it developed the missile itself.

A senior Pakistan said that the missile was developed by Pakistan, just as it had modified North Korean designs to build a range of land-based missiles that could strike India. (ANI)

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Scientific community wanted more tests, says Santhanam

August 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Aug 27 (ANI): Top defence scientist Dr.K. Santhanam said on Thursday that the scientific community in India had felt after the May 1998 nuclear tests that there should be another test to complete the research.

Speaking to ANI after controversially revealing that Pokhran II tests were not entirely successful Santhanam said: “The Science and Technology Community as a whole wanted to have some more tests.”

“…but conducting a nuclear test is a highly political decision, and no matter the wish of scientific community may be, the political leadership of the country will have its say,” he added.

Santhanam also clarified that he had at no stage said the tests were a complete failure.

“I didn’t say it was a failure but partially successful,” Santhanam added.

He also said that in the reports given to the government, the scientists had mentioned the outcome of their experiments.

“The scientific community placed its reports about the out come of the tests. They are highly classified and the political leadership of the country is aware about that,” he said.

Maintaining his stand to go for more tests before signing CTBT or NPT Santhanam said, “Many people in the administration knew that India is in need of another test.”

“The energy released after the blast were measured and the energy release was much lower than what was expected by the designers. It was not a surprise to me,” Santhanam recalled.

India tested five nuclear devices including two-sub kilo category of thermo nuclear devices code named “Operation Shakti,” on May 11 and 13, 1998 at Pokhran in Rajasthan.

Countering Santhanam’s views, former National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra said: “When they (scientists) said about the success of the tests in 1998, May 11 and 13, we asked whether they want to go for another test, but they (scientists) said No, and were satisfied by the tests.”

“It was very clear that based on their report only, we have announced it to the world. We have not lied to any one,” Mishra said adding it was only then that plans developed to discuss civil nuclear co-operation with the United States.

” In the entire scientific history, no country has gained 100 percent success in its first test of thermo nuclear device…if we get a chance, India should go for another test, especially of a thermonuclear device.” Santhanam said.

He, however, cautioned the country’s political leadership against signing either Comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT) or Non – proliferation treaty (NPT).

The NPT is a highly discriminative treaty and divides the whole world into a nuclear haves and have nots, “Santhanam claimed.

Santhanam said the new Indo- US nuclear deal does not come in the way of going for more tests.

“There is one clause in the Indo- US nuclear deal that if the security scenario around the country changes, then we can go for a test, and the country’s leadership should take a decision to go for a test taking confidence of all the factors involved,” Santhanam said. By Shreeraj Gudi(ANI)

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‘Mobile ID’ devices herald next generation of biometric gadgets

August 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, August 27 (ANI): Reports indicate that a new generation of small, portable, versatile biometric devices, referred to as ‘Mobile ID’, are flourishing.

These devices gather, process and transmit an individual’s biometric data, which includes fingerprints, facial and iris images.

They were developed by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) researchers working with first responders, criminal justice agencies, the military, industry and academia.

Previous work on standards for these biometric devices has focused primarily on getting different stationary and desktop systems with hardwired processing pathways to work together in an interoperable manner.

But, a new generation of small, portable and versatile biometric devices are raising new issues for interoperability.

“The proliferation of smaller devices including advanced personal digital assistants (PDAs), ultra-portable personal computers and high-speed cellular networks has made portable biometric systems a reality,” said computer scientist Shahram Orandi.

“While the portable systems have made leaps and bounds in terms of capability, there are still intrinsic limitations that must be factored into the big picture to ensure interoperability with the larger, more established environments such as desktop or large server-based systems,” he added.

The new mobile biometric devices allow first responders, police, the military and criminal justice organizations to collect biometric data with a handheld device on a street corner or in a remote area and then wirelessly send it to be compared to other samples on watch lists and databases in near real-time.

Identities can be determined quickly without having to take a subject to a central facility to collect his or her biometrics, which is not always possible.

Soldiers are beginning to use these devices to control access to secured areas, and first responders can use them to ensure that only approved workers are on-site during an incident or investigation. (ANI)

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Aspirin ‘cuts colorectal cancer death risk’

August 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 12 (ANI): Taking aspirin on a regular basis after being diagnosed with colon cancer has been found to reduce the chances of dying from the disease, reveals a new study.

Numerous prospective, observational studies have shown that regular aspirin use is linked to a lower risk of colorectal adenoma (a benign tumour) or cancer.

However, the influence of aspirin on survival after diagnosis of colorectal cancer has been unknown.

Dr. Andrew Chan of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston and colleagues studied aspirin use in 1,279 men and women with colorectal cancer that had not spread to other parts of the body.

They found that people who took aspirin regularly after their diagnosis were nearly 29 percent less likely to die from their cancer than people who did not take aspirin. These people also were 21 percent less likely to die for any reason while they were in the study lasting more than two decades.

“These results suggest that aspirin may influence the biology of established colorectal tumours in addition to preventing their occurrence,” Chan said.

Aspirin is likely, at least in part, to prevent colorectal neoplasia (tumour growth) through inhibition of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2; an enzyme), which promotes inflammation and cell proliferation, and is overexpressed in the majority of human colorectal cancers, according to background information in the article.

The study has been published in the August 12 issue of JAMA. (ANI)

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How a plant hormone is crucial in controlling root growth

July 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, July 8 (ANI): An international group of scientists, led by the Centre for Plant Integrative Biology at The University of Nottingham, UK, has shed light on how a plant hormone is crucial in controlling the growth of plant roots.

Plant growth is driven by an increase in two factors: the number of cells, and their size.

It is already known that the plant hormone gibberellin controls how root cells elongate as the root grows in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.

Now, a new research has described for the first time how this hormone also regulates the number of cells in the root in order to control root growth.

Gibberellin normally acts by signaling the removal of proteins which repress growth, and so promotes root cell production.

The new research shows that mutant plants that do not produce gibberellin are unable to increase their cell production rate and the size of the root meristem, the zone of cell proliferation.

Plants in which the cells in the meristem were made to express a mutant version of the growth-repressing protein GAI not degraded by gibberellin showed disrupted cell proliferation.

Expressing this mutant form, gai, in only one tissue, the endodermis (the innermost layer of the root cortex of a plant), was sufficient to stop the meristem enlarging.

In effect, the rate of expansion of dividing endodermal cells dictates the equivalent rate in other tissues.

According to Professor Malcolm Bennett, Biology Director for the Centre for Plant Integrative Biology and Professor of Plant Sciences in the Division of Plant and Crop Sciences, “We have shown that gibberellin plays a crucial role in controlling the size of the root meristem, and that it is the endodermis which sets the pace for expansion rates in the other tissues.”

“Understanding precisely how hormones regulate plant growth is one of the key areas of fundamental plant biology which will underpin crop improvements in the future,” he said. (ANI)

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Indian-origin scientist finds genetic switch that may help treat vascular diseases

July 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, July 6 (ANI): Taking a big leap towards finding a treatment of vascular diseases, a team led by an Indian-origin scientist at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) has discovered a key switch that makes stem cells turn into the type of muscle cells that reside in the wall of blood vessels.

Dr. Deepak Srivastava’s study claimed that the same switch could be used in the future to limit growth of vascular muscle cells that cause narrowing of arteries leading to heart attacks and strokes, limit formation of blood vessels that feed cancers, or make new blood vessels for organs that are not getting enough blood flow.

It was found that a tiny RNA molecule, called microRNA-145 (miR-145), not only had all the information necessary to turn a stem cell into a vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC), but could also affect VSMCs in the adult artery.

VSMCs possess the unique property of dividing on their own when an artery is injured or during atherosclerosis, ultimately causing narrowing of the vessel leading to occlusion.

The researchers found that miR-145 and its sister microRNA, miR-143, work together to stop the pathologic division of VSMCs.

But in the setting of vessel disease, their activity was turned down, which made the VSMCs to divide and clog up the artery.

MicroRNAs are small RNA molecules that do not make protein, but instead affect that amount of protein synthesized by the cell from their target mRNAs-the blueprints for translating the genetic code into proteins.

The researchers found that miR-145 and miR-143 together controlled the synthesis of a network of “master regulators” that control VSMCs, and thereby were able to function as a central “switch” for the behaviour of these important cells.

“The ability of miR-145 to efficiently direct the cell fate of vascular smooth muscle cells from stem cells represents the power of these tiny microRNAs to exert major effects on cells. We hope that we can use this knowledge to control when the body makes or does not make new blood vessels,” Nature magazine quoted Srivastava as saying.

He added: “Our findings in this study offer insights into regulatory mechanisms that govern the differentiation and proliferation of smooth muscle. They have fundamental implications for the treatment of vessel diseases like atherosclerosis and also may be important for cancer.”

The study has been published in the current issue of the journal Nature. (ANI)

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