EMSc supporting charities large and small

EMSc UK Ltd is extremely proud to announce it is one of the main sponsors at an upcoming UNICEF event in Leeds. The event, which is being hosted by Martin Bell, will be held on Monday 13th June at the Queens Hotel in Leeds city centre.

Martin Bell, UNICEF goodwill ambassador, former BBC journalist and a former Independent MP, will talk about his extraordinary experiences around the world, highlighting the important role UNICEF plays in improving children’s’ lives.

EMS has also recently made a donation to a school in Rotherham through the Kidsafe charity. Kidsafe is an organisation that is actively committed to helping keep children safe across the UK and Eire. The money the company has donated will be used to provide a local school with vital safety information free of charge, on topics including ‘Stranger Danger’, vandalism, crime prevention, racism, bullying, drugs, road safety and the Green Cross Code.


Alex Mardapittas, managing director at EMS commented

“We recognise that future generations will have a large part to play in looking after our planet and environmental sustainability, which is why we are proud to be supporting these children’s charities.” He added, “As a company proud of its Yorkshire roots, and being based in Rotherham, we are particularly keen to demonstrate our support for local schools and children’s charity events.”

EMS’ market leading voltage optimisation system Powerstar, is the most efficient voltage optimisation solution in the world and can save up to 26.1% of total electricity consumption and related CO² emissions, all without compromising the supply to electrical equipment. The payback period after installing the product is typically between 0.8 and 2.5 years.

www.powerstar.co.uk

Facebook Crossed Around 700 Million Users

The number of Facebook users has reached 700 million worldwide in May, with developing countries that contribute the most, according to data, statistics, site, social Bakers.

“Facebook is still on the rise. Number of its total users is closing in to 700 million users,” said Social Bakers said.

Five countries-Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines, Mexico and Argentina, have each contributed more than one million new users to social networking site Facebook, in May.

In sixth place is India, with the addition of 918,140 new users last month, bringing the total number of users to 25.77 million of the country.

Best performer Brazil attracted 1.95 million new users of Facebook in May, taking all the members of 19.09 million.

Brazil is followed by Indonesia with 1.59 million new users, the Philippines (1.33 million), Mexico (1.11 million) and Argentina (1.06 million).

Google Presents New Tool Global Market Finder

Search engine giant Google announced today the launch of a new tool for Global Market Finder in India, which allows advertisers to find new markets for their products abroad.

“The new tool is designed to help Indian businesses expand their business and reach out to potential customers in international markets,” said Sridhar Seshadri.

This new tool will enable companies of all sizes to overcome traditional barriers to international expansion, such as finding the right customers, translating their websites and advertising campaigns in local languages and clients in foreign markets relevant ads, "he said.

The Global Market Finder and Google Ads for Global Advertisers would be available worldwide from advertisers in 43 languages, "he said.

“According to the recent foreign trade data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Indian export market has witnessed 37.5 per cent growth in 2010-11 fiscal, which is a standing testimony of the huge potential of this space,” he said.

“With this launch, we want to reach out and help all advertisers, especially SMBs, by giving them access to information about the markets that have shown demand for their products,” he said.

Facebook Can Boost Positive Influence On Self-Esteem

Facebook can be a positive influence on self-esteem of college students, according to a new study.

This is probably because they can not put your best face forward, "says Jeffrey Hancock, associate professor of communication at Cornell University.

Hancock said, users can choose what they reveal about themselves and to filter out anything that might reflect badly.

Feedback posted publicly with friends Facebook profiles are generally very positive, which may further increase self-esteem, "he said.

"Unlike a mirror, which reminds us who we really are and can have a negative effect on self-esteem, if this image does not match our ideal, Facebook could see a positive version of ourselves," said Hancock.

For the study, 63 students left alone in the Cornell University laboratory of social media, or they sat on computers that have shown their Facebook profile or on computers that were turned off. Some of the computers were off a mirror leaning against the screen, while others had no mirror.

These Facebook got to spend three minutes on a site, just look at their profiles and associated tabs. They were then given a questionnaire to measure their self-esteem.

Participants are looking in the mirror and the control groups received the same questionnaire.

While their reports do not increase self-esteem, to those who had been using Facebook a lot more positive about themselves.

And those who changed Facebook profile during exercise had the highest regard.

The study is published in the journal CyberPsychology, behavior and social networking.

Npower report confirms VO4HOME credentials

A recent research report carried out by RWE Npower has concluded that an installation of VO4HOME, the innovative energy saving voltage optimisation solution for the home, resulted in a 12% reduction in kWh electricity consumption*. The reduction equates to an annual electricity saving of approximately 600kWh, resulting in cost saving of £90 per annum and a CO2 emissions saving of 330kg per annum.

Designed to maximise the delivery of energy into the home to 220V/230V - currently the voltage supplied to homes by UK energy companies averages 242V, while electrical equipment in the home is designed to operate on 220V/230V - VO4HOME is the only domestic voltage optimisation system that is capable of optimising the entire home, not just selected circuits.

An innovative energy saving device VO4HOME, which relies on magnetic interaction, has no moving parts and requires no maintenance. In addition, it delivers low impedance, high efficiency and comes with a 5 year warranty and guaranteed savings.

Although a growing number of commercial properties have been benefitting from the installation of voltage optimisation solutions, the technology has not yet been widely extended to the domestic market.

There are an estimated 27 million households in Britain, if each household were to be installed with a VO4HOME system, the UK as a whole would save between £2.7 billion and £4 billion each year on energy costs and reduce its carbon emissions by 9 - 13.5 billion lbs per year.

Geoff Clifton, business development manager at VO4HOME, commented,

“We have developed a product that will have a huge impact on the amount of carbon emitted by households across the UK. With a VO4HOME installed households can make tangible savings on their annual electricity bill, whilst helping to save the environment.”

Price is available by Email
or calling 08448 248 338

www.vo4home.com

Local Telecommunications Company Being Bought

A San Francisco based private equity firm, Golden Gate Capital, has acquired Tollgrade Communications for $137 million. Located in Cheswick, Tollgrade has 109 employees and is the second Pittsburgh area tech firm to be bought in several months. Wilkins based Vocollect, a voice product firm, was acquired by Intermec, a Washington based firm that said it will keep Vocollect's employees and operations in the Pittsburgh region.

Financial Advisor for Janney, Montgomery Scott, Pete Schlict, says that there are reasons Golden Gate Capital may choose to keep Tollgrade local. "The installed base of intellectual property is here in Western Pennsylvania, and so it wold be reasonable to say that that would be compelling reason in order to remain in Western Pennsylvania."

Golden Gate Capital works with management teams to invest in potential growth areas. If shareholders approve the acquisition they will be paid out $10.10 per common share, then Tollgrade will close in the second quarter of 2011 taking it of the New York Stock Exchange.

RM Tracking Ghost Rider Personal GPS Tracker

Rocky Mountain Tracking launches the Ghost Rider, one the the smallest personal GPS tracker. The compact device offers real time tracking and location of asset and offers location history with full address, data and time stamp.

The Ghost Rider offers a long battery life of up to 5 days, based on 30 seconds of continuous tracking. The device mesures 4″(L) x 2.5″(W) x 1″(H). The Ghost Rider itself is priced at $395 and the monthly service plan starts at $16.95 with 500 locates.

Mersey Care NHS makes 18% energy savings with Powerstar

Energy saving, voltage optimisation solutions provider EMSc Powerstar, is pleased to announce that Mersey Care NHS Trust is amongst the latest Care Trusts to have installed Powerstar, with installations including Ashworth, Mossley and Rathbone Hospitals along with Scott Clinic.

Total savings across the sites have reached an average 18% on annual energy consumption. At Rathbone Hospital annual kWh savings are 65,796, the equivalent of £6,974, whilst Scott Clinic has benefited from annual kWh savings of 51,573 kWh, or £5,446.


With limited budgets and the impending launch of the Carbon Reduction Commitment, combined with new emerging healthcare policies, NHS executives are seeking reliable, proven energy saving technologies that can not only help reduce carbon emissions, but can also make significant savings on energy consumption. As a result a growing number of NHS Trusts are turning to Powerstar, an entirely British made voltage optimisation system, not only for it’s ability to reduce energy consumption, but also to improve the life expectancy of on-site equipment as well as reduce maintenance costs.


Voltage optimisation is a recognised technology that is particularly relevant in the UK, as power supplied by the National Grid exceeds the recommended operating voltages for much of the plant, machinery and equipment used. The Powerstar voltage optimisation system cuts energy use by controlling the incoming voltage so that it more accurately meets the specifications of equipment on site.

Mark O’Grady, managing director of MITIE Engineering Maintenance, the facility management company used by Mersey Care NHS trust for the Powerstar installations commented:

“We would highly recommend Powerstar voltage optimisation systems. The Powerstar installations at the Mersey Care NHS Trust have achieved an 18% saving on total electricity consumption.”

As the UK faces worsening power quality issues with harmonic, transient, power factor and phase balancing issues, voltage optimising is emerging as one of the most secure technologies for NHS sites to adopt as part of their sustainability strategies.

Terry Shemwell, Powerstar Consultant to Local Authorities and the NHS commented:

“The NHS has highlighted its commitment to cutting carbon emissions and meeting the government’s targets to cutting emissions by 80%, by 2050. Solutions such as Powerstar are allowing trusts to not only achieve these targets but plough back money saved into improved patient care and services.”

Powerstar® is the registered trademark of EMSc (UK) Ltd.

About Powerstar:

Payback period is typically between 0.8 and 2.5 years

Can save up to 26.1% of electricity consumption

Is fully designed and manufactured in the UK. All Powerstar components, including even minor items such as the paint, are sourced from UK manufacturers. The Powerstar design and any associated software are designed by EMSc UK Limited

Requires no maintenance and has a 15 year warranty

Is an approved energy savings system and may qualify for an interest-free Energy Efficiency Loan from the Carbon Trust

Comes with guaranteed savings

Will improve the life expectancy of electrical equipment.

Will improve the power quality (reduce harmonics and improve the power factor)

Has the highest efficiency and provides better savings than any other voltage optimisation system sold in the UK. This has been proven in independent tests (on the same load and same voltage reduction), head to head with similar competitive systems. In these tests Powerstar achieved:
Significantly higher energy savings (up to 13% more)
Reduced harmonics by 88% more than competitive systems
Running significantly cooler than competitive systems. (While Powerstar operated at normal ambient temperatures, competitive systems were operating at nearly 70°C).

The EMS team has over 150 years combined experience in designing and manufacturing special transformers and the Powerstar design is a direct result of this experience.

2010 - Winners of the Yorkshire Forward Innovator/10: Innovation in Action Award
2006 - Winners of the CARE4AIR AWARD

www.powerstar.co.uk

Harvard lights up Surrey

Harvard is pleased to announce that Surrey County has recently started to install the company’s revolutionary wireless street lighting solution LeafNut, across its 89,000 street lights.

The project, which is due to take five years to complete, will help Surrey County Council to reduce its carbon emissions to comply with the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency (CRCEE) scheme. The CRCEE states that councils need to reduce their carbon emissions by 34% by 2020, based on 1990 levels, or they will have to pay tax credits to central government. The LeafNut system helps to reduce carbon emissions by 100kg of carbon per year, for every street light, which will ensure councils are well placed to meet targets.

There has been much adverse publicity recently about Local Authorities deciding to switch off street lights to due expenditure cutbacks, particularly following last October’s Chancellor’s Spending Review. LeafNut allows Local Authorities to manage street lighting without having to controversially switch off street lights.

The innovative solution allows Authorities to dim street lights instead of switching them off. Each individual street light can now, for the first time ever, be securely managed over the Internet and appropriate lighting levels set for specific times of day. However, should lighting levels need to be raised, this can be done in an instant. This is done through the use of the solution’s Central Management System (CMS) WiMAC, which remotely and pro-actively manages the output of each individual street light.

Surrey County Council leader, Dr. Andrew Povey, said, “This will be the largest scale introduction of this type of street lighting technology in Britain.” Surrey County Council Cabinet Member for Transport, Ian Lake, also commented, “The new technology is a lot more energy efficient than our current street lights, leading to both financial and energy savings, which are good for the pocket and the environment.”

Michael McDonnell, sales & marketing director at Harvard, commented,

“We are extremely proud that LeafNut has been chosen for another large scale project. The system will help Surrey Council to reduce its carbon emissions, which will in turn help it to meet its carbon reduction targets, as part of the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme.”

About Harvard:
Established in 1993, Harvard has grown to be a leading player in the LED lighting and wireless street lighting industries. Harvard’s innovative range of products includes the CoolLED range of switchable drivers and LeafNut, the revolutionary wireless remote monitoring system for street lighting.






About LeafNut:
The LeafNut system has already been deployed in nearly 30 locations across the world.
UK: Hertfordshire, Blackpool, Luton, Suffolk, Westminster, Durham, Sheffield, Monmouthshire, North Somerset, Hartlepool, Plymouth, Warrington, Medway, Nottingham, Surrey, Neath Port Talbot, Blaneau Gwent, Merthyr Tedfil, Kirklees
World: Heerlen (Netherlands), Lech (Austria), Madrid (Spain), Budapest (Hungary), Poitiers (France), Cork (Ireland), Hobart (Tasmania), Canberra (Australia)

The system can save up to £46 a light per year and up to 100kg of carbon emissions per year on each street light

LeafNut uses the WiMAC wireless Central Management System to remotely monitor and control the output of each individual street light

The innovative technology reduces maintenance costs by identifying lamp problems in advance and accurately predicting lamp failure

LeafNut helps Councils meet Carbon Reduction targets

Awards
2010 - Winners of the Yorkshire Forward Innovator/10: Innovation in Action Award

www.HarvardEng.com

Not just laptops, corporators demand proper software too

For the corporators of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation ( BMC), all things should seem pictureperfect before they can actually begin with their work.

Not content with the laptops and official email ids given by the civic body, they have now demanded software that will provide them all the data and information about their respective wards so that they can work in a better way.

According to the BMC sources, lot of corporators are complaining about the lack of necessary statistics of on- going development works in their wards. Details like population of the ward, provision of budget for various works, important locations, water supply, flood prone areas etc. are essential for their knowledge, they say.

Shiv Sena's Sunil Prabhu, who is also a BMC house leader, has asked the civic information technology ( IT) department the need of such software, which will have all these details, for the corporators. " While carrying out civic works in our wards, we often require such information and every time we have to keep asking civic officials for the details.

If this data is readily available in our laptops, it will be very convenient for us," he said.

Officials of the IT department are still mulling over the software proposal as the past experience of the corporators about use of laptops has not been very encouraging.

The BMC, in 2009, had provided all the 227 corporators a Sony Vaio laptop with the intention of reducing the paper work and providing civic agendas on their computers. Two months ago, the civic body also gave them personal email ids. However, leave alone logging in, majority of the corporators are not even using the laptops, said an official.

Standing committee chairman Rahul Shevale said, " It's true that the corporators have been given laptops and the civic body had even organized a computer training programme for them to learn the know- how of computers.

But the SAP software, which the BMC uses to connect all its system, is not yet installed in their laptops. Also the lack of necessary software is also hampering them from using the laptops." We are discussing the software issue with the corporators about their requirements and how it can be developed, said an official.

However, he admitted that the software can be useful for the corporators for carrying out development works in their wards.

Life Sci Greenhouse on G20 Tour

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato are taking tours of several high-tech and green businesses in the region in an effort to point out some of the reasons why the city was chosen to host the G20 Summit in September. Monday they toured the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse. The center hosts startup companies as they work to development early stage technologies into marketable products. Onorato says, "The Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse is a perfect example of why our region has earned a reputation of being on the leading edge of science and technology." The Green House sits next to the Hot Metal Bridge on land that was once a Jones and Laughlin steel mill. It is now know as The Pittsburgh Technology Center. Greenhouse CEO John Manzetti stood on the 5th floor patio of the building and pointed to the bridge as a symbol of the past and then at his building, the others in the Technology Center and the development on the Southside as the future of the city. Manzetti says it would be great if any of the G20 visitors from a president to a reporter stopped by. He says, "It's our privilege to get the word out that this region has some of the world's very best life sciences technologies. We are creating companies and growing our talent pool of researchers and entrepreneurs which will allow us bring more innovation and investment opportunities to the market." No tours of the building have been set for visiting dignitaries but Ravenstahl says anyone asking about the region’s transformation will be told about it.

iPhone App Allows Quick Complaints to City

The city of Pittsburgh now has an iPhone app that will allow user to make 311 style complaints on the go. The application released over the weekend allows users to take a picture of a pothole, graffiti or other nagging problem and then submit it directly to the city’s 311 complaint system. That complaint will come complete with a geo tag that developer Priya Narasimhan says will let the city know exactly where the picture was snapped. Narasimhan says that not only allows the city to see a picture of the problem but it also will place it on a map along with other complaints. Narasimhan’s company Yinz Cam created the application for the city without charge. With the hope that other cities will purchase similar systems. The company hopes to soon roll out the Pittsburgh version of the application that will work on other smart phones. Right now there are three ways to make a complaint to the 311 center; calling 311, filling out a form on line or emailing a complaint. Pictures can be emailed but Pittsburgh City Councilman Bill Peduto says that often clogs up the email system. Council members do not currently have direct access to the 311 system but they can ask for reports. Public works does have access to the 311 system.

City Council Hearing on WiMAX

City Council held a meeting this morning on the possible future in Pittsburgh of 4th generation WiMAX technology, which was initiated recently in Baltimore and will soon be operational in Portland, Oregon. Clearwire, with 46 pre-WiMAX markets, recently merged with a division of Sprint to build a national WiMAX network.

Speakers noted that one challenge of new technological opportunities is how to assure that all residents can share the benefits, regardless of income level. Clearwire representative John Bunce says his company usually doesn't ask for public subsidies but frequently makes arrangements to discount services to the municipality and to low-income residents in exchange for access to public locations to hang their equipment.

Bunce says Clearwire has more spectrum than AT&T or Verizon; WiMAX has a much higher radius than WiFi, is slower than Fios but faster than DSL. He doubts Pittsburgh could get WiMAX as early as 2009.

2 Grants awarded to College Students

The Pennsylvania Assistive Technology Commercialization Initiative or PATCI (Pat-Key) is a grant program run by the Technology Collaborative as a way to fund new start up companies run by College students. The two part grant program focuses on Quality of Life and assisted living technologies. Two Student Teams, one from Penn State Main Campus and Lehigh University received $30,000 grants to fund their new companies.
The Lehigh University team is developing a product that will make it easier for elderly people to plug and unplug appliances with the help of magnets.
The Penn State team is developing a Wireless Sensor Network for health care Facilities. For example, if a nursing home patient who needs monitoring leaves their room the nurses would be alerted to that.
The first part of the grant system gives money to teams to develop their ideas, and the second part delivers a $30,000 dollar grant to implement and start to manufacture the product. Nine teams took part in the first stage of the project with only 3 teams applying for the second stage of the grant.

Mind Machine Enables Monkeys to Feed Themselves

The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has successfully created a brain-machine that gives monkeys the ability to feed themselves with their brain. The machine reads neural impulses and sends them to a robotic arm that then mimics the movements that a normal arm would make. This is a breakthrough for this technology that could lead to the creation of devices that would enable those with physical disabilities the ability to function normally. The technology is opening up new information about how the brain functions and could provide insight into possible cures of many diseases.