Ten United States missionaries who tried to take 33 Haitian children out the country last week without the government’s consent have been charged with child kidnapping and criminal association for illegally trying to take children out of Haiti. Their claimed intention was to move the quake victims to a temporary orphanage being set up at a hotel-resort in the neighbouring Dominican Republic. Police said the Americans did not have paperwork, nor permissions, to remove the children from the country. If convicted, the Americans will face legal proceeding in Haiti and could face prison terms of up to fifteen years. Reuters reported that all ten acknowledged they had violated the law when they tried to take the children from Haiti, but denied they were aware of this breach of law until after their detention.
Haiti’s justice minister, Paul Denis, stated he saw no reason why the missionaries should be tried in the US. “It is Haitian law that has been violated,” he told AFP. “It is up to the Haitian authorities to hear and judge the case. I don’t see any reason why they should be tried in the United States.”
China has retorted after the United States promised to “take a tougher line” with Beijing in regards to currency and trade. Barack Obama said yesterday that he would make sure unfair advantages were not being given by countries to their currencies against the dollar. US companies have complained that the Chinese Yuan is artificially undervalued to give Chinese industries a price advantage.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Ma Zhaoxu, said the value of the Yuan was “not the main reason” for the trade surplus of China with the United States. He went on to say that the “level of the Yuan is close to reasonable and balanced”, and “accusations and pressure do not help to solve the problem”.
When asked at a meeting with Senate democrats, Obama was asked about the possibility of breaking Chinese ties. He replied that he would make sure that they, along with other countries, abided by trade agreements; but, warned that it would be “a mistake” for the United States to become protectionist. He stated his administration would “make sure that our [the US] goods are not artificially inflated in price” and that China’s goods were not deflated. Trade between the two countries came to a total of US$409 billion last year, with a US gap of US$266 billion .
Diplomatic relations between the two countries have been strained recently over a Taiwanese arms deal, Obama visiting the Dalai Lama and Internet censorship.
Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported that Toyota is poised to recall 270,000 gas-and-electric Prius vehicles (model ZVW30) sold in the US and Japan between May and December 2009, due to a flaw in the car’s anti-lock braking system.
Yahoo announced plans to sell its HotJobs employment search service to Monster worldwide for $225m, who currently control one-third of online jobs postings in the United States, it said yesterday.
Human brains cannot manage more than 150 friendships – even with the advent of social networking websites like Facebook, Bebo and Myspace. This is the conclusion of Robin Dunbar, Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford. Dunbar originally carried out research in this area in the 1990s, looking at social groups from modern offices back to ancient villages. He found that the neocortex in the brain, used for thinking and language, cannot cope with more than 150 friends – a conclusion known as “Dunbar’s number”. Groups of people tend to be limited to about 150 as, beyond that, social cohesion suffers. Revisiting the topic, Dunbar’s view is that this number has not increased even with online methods of keeping in touch with friends, like Facebook.
Dunbar compared the online activity of those with thousands of internet friends and those with hundreds, before concluding that there was no appreciable difference in their levels of activity. He defined a friend as someone that the individual cared about and made contact with at least yearly. “The interesting thing is that you can have 1,500 friends but when you actually look at traffic on sites, you see people maintain the same inner circle of around 150 people that we observe in the real world. [...] People obviously like the kudos of having hundreds of friends but the reality is that they’re unlikely to be bigger than anyone else’s”, he observed.
Another conclusion of his study was that women were better at keeping friendships going on Facebook than men – “girls are much better at maintaining relationships just by talking to each other. Boys need to do physical stuff together”. The full results of his study are due to be published later in 2010.
Dunbar, 52, has been an Oxford professor since 2007, having previously been Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Liverpool. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and and a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.
Proactiv®, the trusted leader in acne treatment for 15 years, today introduced new Proactiv®, the same effective formula that revolutionized the treatment of acne now enhanced with exclusive micro-crystal benzoyl peroxide. This innovation of the active acne-fighting ingredient designed to penetrate even clogged pores quickly is the first change to the original Proactiv since its launch. Current Proactiv customers report faster and gentler results with new Proactiv.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100111/NY35064 )
New Proactiv will be available on January 18, launching on television with a cast of all new Proactiv celebrities and exclusive enhancements to the Proactiv customer experience. Customers will receive unmatched access to round-the-clock guidance and support from trained Skin Care Advisors, as well as new online tools including Proactiv® Day One – a comprehensive online support system to help customers get the best possible treatment experience literally from Day One.
“It has been estimated that 85 percent of the 40-50 million Americans suffering with acne attempt to self-treat their condition,” said Dr. Katie Rodan, dermatologist and co-developer of Proactiv. “We created Proactiv to help people effectively manage this chronic and often devastating problem. From the beginning, Proactiv offered education about acne through our infomercial and now, we’re expanding that education with innovative online support and trained Skin Care Advisors available 24/7. We want our customers to know we care about them and are dedicated to their success.”
Dr. Rodan and Dr. Kathy Fields, dermatologist and Proactiv co-developer, traveled the country together to personally train Proactiv Skin Care Advisors. Now, this highly skilled group of experts is available to help customers in a whole new way – acting as acne-treatment coaches helping people reach their goal of a consistently clear complexion.
“Not everyone can get access to a dermatologist or insurance to cover an office visit,” said Dr. Kathy Fields. “As doctors, we’ve been dedicated to treating acne since we began practicing medicine, and we wanted to do everything we could to extend our knowledge and expertise to benefit as many people as possible.”
In addition to ongoing training of Proactiv Skin Care Advisors, Drs. Rodan and Fields will be available to personally respond to email questions, giving Proactiv customers access to the expertise of world-renowned dermatologists – without the expense or hassle of an office visit.
About Proactiv®
Proactiv® Solution, the world’s best selling acne system, is a leader in acne prevention and treatment formulated to offer consumers the opportunity for a lifetime of smooth, clear, healthy-looking skin. Now with new micro-crystal benzoyl peroxide, Proactiv utilizes Combination Therapy® to directly target the root causes of acne – bacteria, oil production, and dead skin cell build up – and heal and soothe acne prone skin. Proactiv clears existing blemishes, soothes inflammation and redness, and helps to prevent new breakouts from occurring. Proactiv Solution has a complete line of products, beyond the 3-Step System, including moisturizers, sunscreens, spot treatments and body washes formulated specifically for acne prone skin.
Proactiv, developed by Drs. Rodan and Fields, celebrates its 15-year anniversary in June 2010. It has been used successfully by millions of women, men and teens around the world. The iconic 3-Step System, along with other products in Proactiv’s extensive skin care line, have been recognized with 27 coveted awards and honors from the beauty and health industry.
Proactiv Solution is distributed by Guthy-Renker and can be purchased by calling (888) 819-2019 or online at www.newproactiv.com.
About Guthy-Renker
Guthy-Renker is one of the largest and most respected direct marketing companies in the world, with distribution in 61 countries. Since 1988, Guthy-Renker has discovered and developed dozens of well-loved, high quality consumer products in the beauty, skincare, entertainment and wellness categories. Known for moving, award-winning productions and marketing campaigns featuring some of today’s biggest stars, Guthy-Renker has been credited with transforming the broadcast direct marketing industry.
Co-Founders and Co-Chairmen Bill Guthy and Greg Renker have set industry standards for trust, integrity and best practices and have been invited to testify before regulators to help shape industry governing policies. Greg Renker, a founding member of the Electronic Retailing Association, was elected the first chairman of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the organization, for which he now serves as Chairman Emeritus.
Nearly 15 years ago, Guthy-Renker introduced Proactiv leveraging its unique style of marketing to bring a revolutionary new approach to acne treatment direct to consumers. Proactiv has become a best selling acne treatment all over the world, helping millions achieve the goal of clear skin.
Guthy-Renker has a superior track record of customer satisfaction for more than 20 years. Its direct to consumer model allows consumers to purchase products at a guaranteed low monthly price with generous extended return policies.
Guthy-Renker is headquartered in Palm Desert, CA; and has offices in Santa Monica, CA; San Francisco, CA; London; Beijing; Tokyo; New Zealand; and Sydney, Australia. For more information, visit http://www.guthy-renker.com/.
SOURCE Proactiv
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ASKO, Inc. a worldwide manufacturer of shear knives and wear parts for metal producers, processors, and recyclers, has recently acquired assets of The Wapakoneta Machine Company, expanding ASKO’s already extensive product and service capabilities.
In acquiring Wapak intellectual property, machinery, equipment and inventories, ASKO recognizes opportunities to serve new customers, expand business and create growth. The integration of the Wapak business into ASKO’s will benefit ASKO customers, ASKO employees and strengthen the company.
Bill Rackoff, CEO of ASKO, remarked that, “ASKO’s acquisition affords Wapakoneta customers the continuous availability of tooling grades and outstanding performance they have long relied upon. ASKO’s entire team looks forward to servicing Wapakoneta customer tooling requirements.”
Wapakoneta’s President, Dan Fischer, stated, “Wapakoneta is pleased that with ASKO’s purchase of assets, the customers of Wapakoneta may look forward to the continuous and reliable supply of the grades and quality products that Wapakoneta has perfected over the years. The employees and shareholders of Wapakoneta are working together closely with ASKO to assure a seamless transition for Wapakoneta’s former customers.”
Wapak, founded in 1891, has continually manufactured and serviced industrial knives at its sole manufacturing facility in Western Ohio. Wapak’s products include straight and circular knives for the steel and non ferrous metals industries, slitter tooling, and hardened machine ways.
The acquisition affords Wapak customers full access to ASKO’s extensive line of industry leading grades, technical expertise, and worldwide supply base. ASKO manufactures and supplies shear knives, slitter tooling, and wear parts for the metal producing, processing and recycling industries. ASKO has also developed EdgeMaster slitter set-up software which improves slit edge quality, speeds the set-up process, and improves set-up accuracy, addressing the unique demands of any coil processing operation.
ASKO combines expert understanding of specialty tool materials, heat treating, and tooling application requirements to create innovative metal processing solutions. With a network of manufacturing and service facilities and sales engineers located throughout the world, ASKO supplies customers’ high standards wherever metal processing occurs. ASKO offers grade and design recommendations tailored to specific industrial applications, enhancing customer quality and productivity.
For additional information about ASKO or product offerings, contact Bill Rackoff: Bill.Rackoff@Askoinc.com or visit our website: www.askoinc.com.
SOURCE ASKO, Inc.
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Agilysys, Inc. (Nasdaq: AGYS), a leading provider of innovative IT solutions, announced today that its Board of Directors set February 18, 2010 as the rescheduled date for a special meeting of shareholders to consider and vote on whether to authorize MAK Capital, its largest shareholder, to increase its ownership to 20% or more, but not to exceed one-third, of the company’s outstanding shares. The Board also set a new record date. Shareholders of record on January 15, 2010 will be eligible to vote at the meeting.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030915/AGLSLOGO )
As announced on November 20, 2009, Agilysys received an Acquiring Person Statement from MAK Capital indicating that MAK Capital intends to increase its ownership stake in the company. R. Andrew Cueva, managing director of MAK Capital, has served on the Agilysys Board of Directors since June 2008. The Board reaffirmed its determination that it will take no position and will make no recommendation either in favor of or against the proposed control share acquisition.
The special meeting of shareholders will be held at 8:30 a.m. EST on February 18, 2010 at 28925 Fountain Parkway, Solon, OH 44139.
In connection with the proposed control share acquisition, Agilysys has filed a preliminary proxy statement. SHAREHOLDERS SHOULD READ THE PRELIMINARY PROXY STATEMENT OF AGILYSYS BECAUSE IT CONTAINS IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED CONTROL SHARE ACQUISITION. A final proxy statement will be mailed to shareholders. Shareholders will also be able to obtain a copy of the proxy statement free of charge from the SEC’s website located at www.sec.gov, the company’s website located at www.agilysys.com, or from Georgeson Inc., the company’s proxy solicitor, by calling (800) 336-5134.
Agilysys, its directors and certain executive officers and other members of management are deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies with respect to the proposed control share acquisition. Information concerning Agilysys’ directors and executive officers is available in the Form 10-K filed with the SEC on June 9, 2009 and in the proxy statement filed with the SEC on June 24, 2009. Other information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitation and a description of their direct and indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, is contained in the preliminary proxy statement filed in connection with the proposed control share acquisition and other relevant materials filed with the SEC. Investors should read the proxy statement carefully before making any voting or investment decisions.
About Agilysys, Inc.
Agilysys is a leading provider of innovative IT solutions to corporate and public-sector customers, with special expertise in select markets, including retail and hospitality. The company uses technology — including hardware, software and services — to help customers resolve their most complicated IT needs. The company possesses expertise in enterprise architecture and high availability, infrastructure optimization, storage and resource management, identity management and business continuity; and provides industry-specific software, services and expertise to the retail and hospitality markets. Headquartered in Cleveland, Agilysys operates extensively throughout North America, with additional sales offices in the United Kingdom and Asia. For more information, visit www.agilysys.com.
SOURCE Agilysys, Inc.
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Novellus Systems (Nasdaq: NVLS) today introduced its next-generation ultra-violet thermal processing (UVTP) system, the SOLA xT. The SOLA xT is used in the manufacturing of advanced logic devices at 45nm and below and incorporates a proprietary UVTP treatment process that modifies the physical characteristics of a previously-deposited film through exposure to ultraviolet light and heat. The new system, featuring on-board UV monitoring and a customizable optics assembly, provides process flexibility and extendibility over multiple device generations. The first SOLA xT system will be shipped to UMC’s Fab 12i in Singapore.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20091020/SF95832LOGO)
The multi-station sequential processing (MSSP) architecture of SOLA allows independent control of temperature, wavelength and intensity at each station to deliver best-in-class uniformity and productivity. This high degree of process configurability results in UV treated ultra low-k (ULK) films with a 25 percent greater hardness compared to single wavelength, single temperature curing solutions. For example, UVTP is used to remove porogen and improve the mechanical strength of ULK dielectric films used as inter-metal layers. This treatment facilitates device integration and prepares the films to withstand subsequent semiconductor processing steps like packaging and chemical mechanical planarization (CMP). Other advanced manufacturing integration schemes use spin-on dielectrics, which sometimes incur damage during etching, wet cleaning or photoresist ashing steps. In this instance, UVTP can be used to repair this damage through chemical bond reconstruction. In the front-end-of-the-line, UVTP may also be employed to induce strain in the transistor channel of N-type Metal Oxide Semiconductor (NMOS) devices. Strain is induced by depositing a high tensile stress dielectric film, and subsequently exposing it to UV, resulting in an increase of device performance.
For all of the applications cited above, monitoring equipment health and delivering uniform wafer performance is necessary to improve production efficiencies in a high volume manufacturing environment. To achieve this goal, the new SOLA xT platform features on-board UV monitoring and advanced algorithms to maintain stable wafer-to-wafer performance. Best-in-class within-wafer uniformity results are achieved with SOLA xT’s customizable optics assembly, where the UV lamps and reflectors can be oriented differently at each of the four treatment stations. The MSSP architecture ensures that each wafer is processed through a single wafer path, resulting in one statistical distribution of data compared to competitive solutions with up to four or six different wafer paths, and hence as many different statistical distributions.
“The new SOLA xT is designed to meet the market needs for a robust UVTP system suitable for high volume manufacturing at 32 nm,” said Kevin Jennings, senior vice president of the PECVD business unit at Novellus Systems. “The independent control of temperature, UV wavelength, and UV intensity enable SOLA xT to extend to future technology generations, where new materials are likely to be introduced.”
For more information about Novellus’ UVTP technology, visit www.novellustechnews.com
About Novellus’ SOLA UVTP Technology:
Novellus’ SOLA ultraviolet thermal processing system (UVTP) is used for the post-deposition treatment of low dielectric constant films to improve mechanical and electrical properties. It is also used in the front end of the line, to improve the stress of high tensile nitride films used to enhance NMOS device performance. The multi-station sequential processing architecture of the SOLA platform results in high system throughput and excellent wafer non-uniformity and wafer-to-wafer repeatability.
About Novellus:
Novellus Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: NVLS) is a leading provider of advanced process equipment for the global semiconductor industry. An S&P 500 company, Novellus is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. with subsidiary offices across the globe. For more information, please visit www.novellus.com
Novellus and SOLA are registered trademarks, and SOLA xT is a trademark of Novellus Systems, Inc.
SOURCE Novellus Systems, Inc.
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BioInformatics, LLC announces the pending release of its newest report, The Contract Research Market for Drug Discovery Technologies: Opportunities for Life Science Suppliers. As lab budgets remain constricted, pharmaceutical and biotech labs are outsourcing pre-clinical and drug discovery services to create efficiency and offload the need to maintain staff, instruments and consumables for irregularly scheduled projects and projects that extend beyond their scope. This report was designed to provide guidance to the life science supplier as to the relationship between the pharmaceutical/biotech industries and Contract Research Organizations (CROs) — and how capitalizing on fluctuations in outsourcing, the types of projects and tools purchased represents an opportunity that can steadily impact revenues.
The report is scheduled to release in February, and is available at pre-release pricing until January 31, 2010.
The Contract Research Market for Drug Discovery Technologies: Opportunities for Life Science Suppliers, includes detailed responses from over 100 scientists from CROs and over 100 scientists from Industry labs outsourcing to CROs to understand buying habits, criteria for making decisions, current vendors and purchases planned for 2010. Suppliers can use this report to characterize the potential of the preclinical CRO market, project the size and share of the CRO market for both consumables and instrumentation for 2010, and identify opportunities for capturing CRO market share.
In this report, scientists also indicate planned instrument and consumable purchases by vendor. The following suppliers were provided as some of the choices in the survey:
Thermo Fisher Scientific ( TMO)
Agilent Technologies
BD Biosciences ( BDX)
Bio-Rad ( BIO)
Beckman Coulter ( BEC)
Life Technologies ( LIFE)
Millipore ( MIL)
GE Healthcare ( GE)
PerkinElmer ( PKI)
Qiagen ( QGEN)
Roche Applied Science
Sigma-Aldrich ( SIAL)
Waters Corporation
“This report provides direction for suppliers seeking to identify key purchasing decision points along the outsourcing chain,” states Tamara Zemlo, Ph.D., MPH, Vice President of Advisory Services. Dr. Zemlo further notes that “The appendix in the report features a comprehensive directory of CROs, which life science suppliers can use to develop key marketing and sales contacts within these organizations.”
To learn more about this report, a complimentary Executive Summary is available at http://www.gene2drug.com/reports/206/.
ABOUT BIOINFORMATICS, LLC
BioInformatics, LLC is the premier research and advisory firm serving the life science industry. By leveraging our professional social network of more than 46,000 biomedical researchers, we have supported more than 300 companies and provided insights that lead to better business decisions. Our assignments include assessing the size and attractiveness of markets, optimizing product configurations and pricing, validating corporate acquisitions, measuring customer loyalty, and evaluating brand strength and positioning.
For more information contact:
Mary Follin
Manager, Marketing/Sales
BioInformatics, LLC
2111 Wilson Blvd., Suite 250
Arlington, VA 22201
703.778.3080 x13 (phone)
m.follin@gene2drug.com
http://www.gene2drug.com/
SOURCE BioInformatics, LLC
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