Monday, April 30, 2018

A.M. BEST AFFIRMS CREDIT RATINGS OF VIETNAM NATIONAL REINSURANCE CORPORATION




SINGAPORE, April 30 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- A.M. Best has affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of B++ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “bbb+” of Vietnam National Reinsurance Corporation (VINARE) (Vietnam). The outlook of these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.

The ratings reflect VINARE’s balance sheet strength, which A.M. Best categorizes as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.

VINARE’s risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), is supported by its low net and gross underwriting leverage. The company’s investment portfolio is conservative, with a majority of its assets invested in cash and deposits.

VINARE has maintained good operating performance throughout the past five years, driven by underwriting and investment activities. The company achieved an average combined ratio of approximately 87% from 2013 to 2017, lower than many direct insurers in Vietnam and its peers across the region.

In terms of business profile, VINARE continues to receive support from its shareholders, namely the State Capital Investment CorporationSwiss Reinsurance Company Ltd (Swiss Re) and other direct insurers in Vietnam, which are also its cedants. Swiss Re, VINARE’s second-largest shareholder, provides the company with technical support and modeling capabilities.

An offsetting rating factor is the company’s low earnings retention. This could impede capital growth relative to its cedants, which are experiencing capital increases from organic growth and foreign investment. In addition, Vietnam continues to attract international and regional reinsurance capacity.

While VINARE is well-positioned at its current rating level, negative rating actions may arise from material deterioration in its operating performance or risk-adjusted capitalization.

Toshiba releases a bipolar stepping motor driver

KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 (Bernama) -- Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corp (Toshiba) announced 'TB67S128FTG' - a bipolar stepping motor driver with a 50V/5A rating and support for 128 micro steps. Sample shipments start end of this month.

Toshiba applied its original current optimisation technology, Active Gain Control (AGC) to a new motor driver IC that achieves a large current drive (50V/5A rating) to support higher torque operation, a statement said.

This is because high speed and high performance motor control and lower power consumption are required for applications like 3D printers, office equipment and banking terminals such as ATM, cash dispensers, amusement machines and home appliances.

Toshiba's new motor driver IC realises high accuracy and low vibration by delivering 128 micro steps, realising a much higher definition than conventional 32-step devices.

It also uses Selectable Mixed Decay (SMD), a current adjustment function, to reduce noise and vibration effectively during motor drive by selecting the SMD configuration best suited for each motor.

Toshiba also use Advanced Current Detection System (ACDS) to its original current detection technology that reduces the number of components required for driver control, contributing to lower system costs and improved flexibility in board pattern design.

Toshiba is among the leading general devices companies which offers customers and business partners outstanding solutions in discrete semiconductors, system LSIs and HDD. More information at https://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/ap-en/company.html

-- BERNAMA 

CROCUS TECHNOLOGY RAISES $35M IN FINANCING

Final round of financing to fuel Crocus’ rapidly growing TMR magnetic sensor business

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 26 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Crocus Technology, a leading supplier of disruptive Tunnel Magneto-Resistance (TMR) sensors, today announces it has secured $35M in funding through a combination of debt and equity from internal investors and external sources.  The funding will enable Crocus Technology to accelerate its revenue growth by expanding its operations and go-to-market resources and by investing in the continuous development of innovative products to serve the demand of existing and emerging markets.

Crocus’ proprietary MLU technology enables its TMR sensor products to have high magnetic sensitivity with minimal variation over a wide temperature range, coupled with ultra-low power consumption, which makes them ideal sensing solutions for IoT, mobile, automotive, medical and industrial applications.  Crocus’ TMR integrated sensor products are embedded within a CMOS process providing a monolithic cost-effective solution and ensuring greater reliability and ruggedness.

The worldwide market for magnetic sensors is expected to grow at 8.77% CAGR from 2017 to 2023, with revenues expected to reach $5.37 billion USD in 2023. “The magnetic sensor market is continuing to experience growth in all segments with automotive, industrial, medical and consumer applications leading the way,” said Sachin Garg, Senior Analyst, MarketsandMarkets. “In particular, TMR sensors are slated to grow at a 9.41% CAGR over the next 5 years as their performance advantages offer greater value solution in OEMs’ end-products over older magnetic technologies and products.” 

WESTINGHOUSE AP1000® PLANT TO LOAD FUEL

Landmark milestone for Westinghouse technology

SANMEN, China, April 26 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Westinghouse Electric Company, China State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation (SNPTC) and CNNC Sanmen Nuclear Power Company Limited (SMNPC) announced today that the world’s first unit of AP1000 nuclear power plant located in Sanmen, Zhejiang Province, China, has received the fuel load permit from China’s National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) and has commenced initial fuel loading.

“Today we have reached a tremendous milestone for Westinghouse and our AP1000 plant technology,” said José Emeterio Gutiérrez, Westinghouse president and chief executive officer. “This is the next major step in delivering the world’s first AP1000 plant to our customer and demonstrating the benefits of our advanced passive safety technology to the world.”

Sanmen Unit 1 has successfully completed all the necessary functional tests as well as technical, safety and Chinese regulatory reviews. The fuel load process will be followed by initial criticality, initial synchronization to the electrical grid, and conservative, step by step, power ascension testing, until all testing is safely and successfully completed at 100% power.

“This major project milestone marks the start of the final commissioning program for Sanmen Unit 1,” said David Durham, Westinghouse New Projects Business senior vice president. “I am confident that our teams will continue to operate at the highest levels – at Sanmen, as well as the Haiyang and Vogtle projects and in our ongoing support of the worldwide operating fleet.”

Commenting on Westinghouse’s partnership with the Chinese government and suppliers as key contributors to the successful delivery of clean energy, Gavin Liu, president – Asia Region stated, “Westinghouse is proud to be a partner in China’s forward-looking nuclear energy program, an effort that will provide clean-air electricity to power China’s economy. Through technology transfer, localization and infrastructure development, Westinghouse continues to collaborate with our Chinese partners and supports the development of China’s nuclear power industry.”

In 2007, Westinghouse successfully won the bid for China’s generation III+ nuclear power projects to build two units of AP1000 reactors in Sanmen, Zhejiang Province and two units in Haiyang, Shandong Province. The company has two additional units currently under construction at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant near Waynesboro, Georgia.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180425005828/en/

Contact
Westinghouse Electric Company
Sarah Cassella, +1 412-374-4744
Manager, External Communications
Email: cassels@westinghouse.com

Source : Westinghouse Electric Company

--BERNAMA

JAM CITY LAUNCHES HARRY POTTER: HOGWARTS MYSTERY ON THE APP STORE AND GOOGLE PLAY

New Mobile Game Allows Players to Experience the Magic of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry First-Hand as Students

LOS ANGELES, April 26 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Jam City, a Los Angeles based mobile games studio, announced today that the new mobile game Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is available to download now on the App Store and Google Play. Developed by Jam City in partnership with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is the first mobile game where players create their own character and experience life as a Hogwarts student. The game will launch under Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment's Portkey Games, a label dedicated to creating new mobile and videogame experiences that place the player at the center of their own adventure, inspired by J.K. Rowling’s original stories.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here:
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=51792160&lang=en

“There are so few moments where a mobile entertainment company has the chance to truly bring magic into the world and we’ve been thrilled by the amazing response our game has already received from Harry Potter fans everywhere,” said Chris DeWolfe, co-founder and CEO of Jam City. “We at Jam City have been working hard to ensure that any aspiring witch or wizard can enter Hogwarts through their smartphones and tablets and begin their magical journeys.”

The story of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is set in the 1980s. In the game, players will progress as a student through Hogwarts, joining one of its four houses. Players will be able to create and upgrade personalized characters using an avatar customization system, learn an arsenal of magical skills, and form relationships with other students. They will also be able to master everything from crafting potions under Snape’s critical eye, to Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall. Along with interactive spellcasting, the game features an encounter system where narrative choices impact parts of the story.

"Being involved in the making of the Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery mobile game will give great pleasure to my grandchildren,” said Dame Maggie Smith, voice of Professor McGonagall in the game.

Players will also be introduced to some original game characters like Penny, a popular Hufflepuff potions expert, Tulip, a rebellious Ravenclaw prankster, and Merula, a Slytherin with a dark past. As players unravel the Hogwarts mystery, they will explore familiar locations like Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is free to play and is available NOW on mobile devices via the App Store and Google Play. For more details on Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, and to connect with other Harry Potter fans, visit www.facebook.com/HPHogwartsMystery/www.twitter.com/HogwartsMystery, and for more information visit www.HarryPotterHogwartsMystery.com/.

About Jam City:

Jam City is a global leader in mobile entertainment, providing social gaming experiences for millions of players around the world. Jam City was founded in 2010 by MySpace cofounders Chris DeWolfe and Aber Whitcomb, and former 20th Century Fox executive Josh Yguado. Jam City is the creative powerhouse behind some of the highest grossing and most enduring social gaming franchises for mobile, including Cookie Jam (Facebook “Game of the Year” winner) and Panda Pop. Jam City is the go-to studio for Hollywood, having developed immersive, narrative rich mobile games around iconic entertainment brands including Harry Potter, Family Guy and Marvel Avengers. Jam City has 500 employees across studios in Los Angeles (HQ), San Francisco, San Diego, Bogota and Buenos Aires. The Jam City team is known for its creative excellence and technological innovation in key areas including storytelling, data science and consumer insights.

About Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment:

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, a division of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Inc., is a premier worldwide publisher, developer, licensor and distributor of entertainment content for the interactive space across all platforms, including console, handheld, mobile and PC-based gaming for both internal and third party game titles.

About Portkey Games:

Portkey Games, from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, is the games label dedicated to creating new Wizarding World mobile and videogame experiences that place the player at the center of their own adventure, inspired by J.K. Rowling’s original stories. Portkey Games offers players the opportunity to make their own narrative choices and engage with the Wizarding World setting to discover new and unique experiences. The label was created to bring gamers and fans new gaming experiences that allow them to delve into the Wizarding World in immersive ways where they can create their own magical story.

About the Harry Potter Series:

Harry Potter continues to be a global phenomenon. Each of the seven books by author J.K. Rowling has broken sales records, with the series to date having sold over 500 million copies worldwide and translated into over 80 languages. The Harry Potter films, produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, have grossed more than $7.7 billion to date worldwide at the box office, making Harry Potter one of the largest-grossing film franchise in history.

HARRY POTTER: HOGWARTS MYSTERY software © 2018 Jam City, Inc. Developed by Jam City. Jam City® and the Jam City Logo are registered and/or unregistered trademarks of Jam City, Inc. WIZARDING WORLD, HARRY POTTER and FANTASTIC BEASTS Publishing Rights © J.K. Rowling. PORTKEY GAMES, HARRY POTTER: HOGWARTS MYSTERY, WIZARDING WORLD, HARRY POTTER and FANTASTIC BEASTS characters, names and related indicia © and ™ Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

WB GAMES LOGO, WB SHIELD: ™ & © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (s18)
 
Editor’s Note:
60 SECOND VIDEO NEWS RELEASE - HIGH RESOLUTION VIDEO
90 SECOND VIDEO NEWS RELEASE - HIGH RESOLUTION VIDEO
B-ROLL PACKAGE - HIGH RESOLUTION VIDEO
Contacts
Media Contacts:
for Jam City
Sarah Ross, 310-924-1404
sarahr@jamcity.com
or
Jam City
Kenny Johnston, 602-999-1890
KJohnston@jamcity.com
or
ONE PR Studio (for Jam City in the US)
Kjell Vistad | Gilberto Williams-Gamboa
510-893-3271
jamcity@oneprstudio.com
 
Source: Jam City
 
View this news release and multimedia online at:
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=51792160&lang=en

--BERNAMA

Friday, April 27, 2018

​TEMASYS COMMUNICATIONS AND APPIAN PARTNER TO POWER REAL-TIME COMMUNICATIONS IN THE CONTACT CENTER

Temasys to provide chat and co-browsing for the Appian Intelligent Contact Center

PALO ALTO, Calif., April 25 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Temasys Communications announced today that Appian has integrated with the Temasys Skylink technology, enabling real-time communications, including chat and co-browsing, in Appian’s new Intelligent Contact Center (ICC) Platform.

“For our contact center customers, omni-channel communications are essential. Appian is working with Temasys to provide contact centers with real-time communication channels such as chat and co-browsing via the Temasys versatile SDKs,” said Arturo Oliver, Senior Director of Product Strategy at Appian.

Temasys Skylink APIs will be compatible with the Appian Intelligent Contact Center Platform, making it easy for Appian customers to add real-time communication to their applications, including chat, voice, video and co-browsing. These integrations enable users to visit a website, begin a chat session that seamlessly escalates to a voice call and extend to co-browsing — all without changing apps or establishing a new connection.

“We’re thrilled to work with Appian to provide real-time communication for their Intelligent Contact Center Platform. In addition, we look forward to helping our mutual customers integrate chat, voice, video and co-browsing into other applications running on Appian’s platform,” said Bent Rye, Temasys CEO.

See the Demo at Appian World — April 23-25, 2018

Temasys technology will be featured in the keynote at Appian World held from April 23 - 25 at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, FL USA. Learn more by visiting the Temasys booth at Appian World or by visiting: www.temasys.io

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

JDS DEVELOPMENT GROUP SECURES $137 MILLION CONSTRUCTION FINANCING FROM MADISON REALTY CAPITAL FOR DISTINCTIVE MIAMI BEACH CONDOMINIUM MONAD TERRACE

New York-based Madison Realty Capital Provides Final Funding for Pritzker Prize-Winner Jean Nouvel’s First Built Work in Miami

MIAMI , April 25 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New York-based Madison Realty Capital has provided a $137 million construction loan to New York-based JDS Development Group for Monad Terrace. The deal indicates conviction in the development team, the high-design product by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel and the South Beach market’s extremely limited new development inventory and viability. The financing will fully capitalize the project, which features 59 individually-designed waterfront residences.

“This is a unique assemblage of land within a prime waterfront residential enclave in South Beach, Miami and we are excited to close another transaction with an esteemed developer like Michael Stern,” said Josh Zegen, Co-Founder and Managing Principal of MRC. “In addition, there’s virtually no new development product coming out of the ground in South Beach right now, so we offered a customized financing solution for JDS’s needs given our knowledge of the market. It was a special opportunity to support an A-team in one of the most attractive markets for real estate.”

“Securing this loan demonstrates the strength of the project, the attractiveness of the Miami Beach market and the overall demand for luxury housing in Miami,” said Michael Stern, Founder and Managing Partner of JDS Development. “Monad Terrace serves as a landmark for thoughtful and innovative development that is also beautiful and has a strong architectural identity. This product is like nothing else in Miami Beach, which the MRC team recognized. It was a pleasure to work with them on this, they provided a swift and professional execution.”

As further proof, sales at Monad Terrace are averaging almost $2,000 P/PSF, and a penthouse unit is under contract for $2,700 per foot, a record for the neighborhood.

“There is already sales momentum, and we expect this will continue on a steady upward trajectory until sell-out,” said Jay Phillip Parker, CEO of Douglas Elliman Florida.

Monad Terrace offers residences ranging from two- to five-bedrooms touting 1,453 to 5,350 square feet of interior space. Buyers are privy to luxe appointments and features including private elevator access, custom kitchens and bathrooms by Jean Nouvel and sprawling outdoor terraces. The building offers a true indoor-outdoor living experience, featuring climbing gardens and reflecting pools that complement the property’s central lagoon and ocean views.

Perhaps one of the most stand-out aspects is how the project fuses environmental responsibility with innovative climate resilience features into the architecture, starting by elevating the building 11.5 feet, well over Miami Beach standards.

Construction is underway, with the foundation nearly complete. The tower is expected to go vertical in Spring 2018 and estimated to complete in Fall 2019. The project was designed in collaboration with Miami-based Kobi Karp Architecture and Interior Design, Inc.

JDS was represented by Douglas B. Heitner, Erik Nygaard, and Albert J. Delgado of Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP. Madison Realty Capital was represented by Jerold C. Feuerstein of  Kriss & Feuerstein LLP. The financing was placed by a JLL team led by Aaron Appel.

Sales and marketing for Monad Terrace is managed exclusively by Douglas Elliman Development Marketing.

For more information, please see monadterrace.miami or visit the sales gallery at 1400 Alton Road, Miami Beach.

About Madison Realty Capital (MRC)
MRC is a New York-based real estate investment firm that pursues real estate equity and debt investments in the middle market.  Founded in 2004, MRC has invested in approximately $7 billion of transactions in the multifamily, retail, office, industrial and hotel sectors.

About JDS Development Group
JDS Development Group is a real estate development, construction, and acquisition firm raising the bar of residential, hospitality, and mixed-use projects in New York City and Miami. JDS has more than nine million square feet of property in various stages of development, including the record-setting Walker Tower and Stella Tower, the American Copper Buildings, 111 West 57th Street and The Fitzroy, JDS’s goal is to redefine what it means to be a real estate developer in the twenty-first century. The firm is dedicated to pushing design boundaries and aligning incentives to leave the urban landscape better served by its buildings. Visit: www.jdsdevelopment.com.

Media inquiries, contact
Zakarin Martinez Public Relations: (305) 372-2502
Jenna D’Aniello – jenna@zm-pr.com

Source : Madison Realty Capital

--BERNAMA

EXPERIENCE 3D ANALYTICS AT GEOINT 2018 SYMPOSIUM

Vricon and Esri bring 3D analytics to the GEOINT community

Tampa, Floria, April 25 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vricon, a producer of geospatial 3D solutions, and Esri, the global leader in spatial analytics, are teaming to bring the best of 3D analysis to warfighters, analysts, and users at this year’s GEOINT 2018 Symposium in Tampa, Florida.  Working with 3D data in ArcGIS Pro enables analysts to see the world as it really exists, explain what they're seeing more clearly, and help better convey their findings to decision makers.

“Because Vricon 3D data is now available in Esri ArcGIS Pro, analysts can use the full power of 3D at scale,” said Magnus Brege, Vricon CEO. “They’re not limited to postage stamp-sized areas, but can explore the world—The Globe in 3D—using ArcGIS Pro.”

Very recently, working with 3D data was challenging and at times, intimidating.  Analysts were unfamiliar with 3D software, formats, and analytic methodologies. But now, analysts can use Esri tools—tools they know and are comfortable with—to perform their analysis in a 3D environment.  Moreover, the ArcGIS Pro platform helps analysts access Vricon data with ease and begin working with the data immediately. 

“We’ve helped shorten the analyst’s learning curve by providing Vricon 3D data in an analytical environment that analysts use today,” said Ben Conklin, Defense and Intelligence Industry Manager, Esri. “We’re helping analysts capture features where they are easiest to identify and enhance their analysis.  It’s far more intuitive for them.”

This breakthrough in 3D analysis is made possible by the Indexed 3D Scene Layer (I3S) format, a new 3D standard for content strategy that was approved by the Open Geospatial Consortium in September 2017. 3D content is often much larger than 2D content.  3D models of buildings, for example, may be massively more complex and take up much more storage space than 2D building footprints for the same buildings. I3S is designed specifically for 3D geospatial content—to include the requisite coordinate systems and height models and multiple layer types—and supports the storage and transmission of large data sets.

Esri and Vricon invite GEOINT 2018 Symposium participants to visit their booths to view demonstrations of 3D analytics using Vricon data and Esri’s ArcGIS Pro.  Esri is located in booth #829, and Vricon is located in booth #847.

About Vricon
Vricon serves the global professional geospatial market with world-leading 3D geodata and 3D visualization solutions. Vricon is headquartered in McLean, Virginia. For further information, visit http://www.vricon.com.

Attachment

Craig Brower
Vricon
703-283-4588
craig.brower@vricon.com

Source : Vricon

--BERNAMA

​YPO WELCOMES 2018 YPO INNOVATION WEEK SPONSORS

DALLAS, April 24 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YPO, the world’s premier leadership organization of chief executives, announced today that Techstars has joined as a gold sponsor and Geniecast, Emplify and Telluride are silver sponsors of the 2018 YPO Innovation Week

YPO Innovation Week sponsors offer valuable insight, key connections and respected expertise that made the world’s largest and most impactful innovation initiative possible.

“YPO Innovation Week brings together some of the most innovative and disruptive leaders around the world,” said YPO CEO Scott Mordell. “We are so pleased to partner with these prestigious and forward-thinking organizations and businesses to help elevate the week’s experiences for our members and take innovation to the next level.”

During the week of 7-11 May 2018, YPO will host innovation events across the globe from Sydney, Australia to London, England; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to Palo Alto, California, USA and Nairobi, Kenya, and more.

The mission of YPO Innovation Week is to drive innovation and transformation across a diverse range of industries and sectors through signature events, live interactive video casts and livestream events across more than 30 countries. Business leaders and pioneering thinkers will engage in a weeklong forum discussing the most important innovations affecting business today, including augmented and virtual reality, vehicle technology, digital imaging, wearables, smart home, sensors and more.

“We welcome these prestigious partners and their participation in the 2018 YPO Innovation Week,” said YPO Innovation Week Chair Keith Alper. “With their support, we will truly be able to overturn conventional thinking and inspire business leaders to accelerate what’s next.”

Gold Sponsors
Techstars is featuring Techstars Founders who will deliver pitches at several YPO Innovation Week events, including the Global FinTech Summit, the World Technology Summit and the NYSE Closing Bell event.

Silver Sponsors
Geniecast is hosting digital events throughout YPO Innovation Week via two-way video broadcast.

Emplify’s CEO Santiago Jaramillo, a YPO member, will present on the future of work at the Silicon Valley Summit and World Technology Summit.

Telluride is hosting a virtual reality space at the Silicon Valley Summit and providing an exclusive prize package for YPO Global Innovation Award finalists.

About YPO

The premier leadership organization of chief executives in the world.

YPO is the global platform for chief executives to engage, learn and grow. YPO members harness the knowledge, influence and trust of the world’s most influential and innovative business leaders to inspire business, personal, family and community impact.

Today, YPO empowers more than 25,000 members in more than 130 countries, diversified among industries and types of businesses. Altogether, YPO member-run companies employ more than 16 million people and generate USD6 trillion in annual revenues.

Leadership. Learning. Lifelong. For more information, visit YPO.org.

About Techstars
Techstars is the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. Techstars founders connect with other entrepreneurs, experts, mentors, alumni, investors, community leaders, and corporations to grow their companies. Techstars operates four divisions: Techstars Startup Programs, Techstars Mentorship-Driven Accelerator Programs, Techstars Corporate Innovation Partnerships, and the Techstars Venture Capital Fund. Techstars portfolio includes more than 1,300 companies with a market cap of $12 billion. www.techstars.com

About Geniecast
Geniecast is transforming the way the world connects people, ideas, and inspiration. We are curators, producers, and distributors of the world’s largest online marketplace of thought leaders, athletes, speakers, celebrities, facilitators and more – all available via two-way, live video broadcast. Join us in the quest to inspire, lead, and evolve. At Geniecast, we strive to offer human-centric client services through great people and clever technology, one transaction at a time. From a warm welcome to individualized attention, we engage with you, one connection at a time. And, when you least expect it, we plan to surprise you with an extra touch, one experience at a time. To learn more, visit https://geniecast.com/.

About Emplify
Emplify, the industry leader in data-driven employee analytics and action-enabling insights for business leaders, helps executives leverage employee insights to make their workforce more successful. Backed by decades of research in human psychology and neuroscience, Emplify InsightsTM blends employee engagement best practices and hands-on expert coaching into an agile feedback system that’s simple yet more effective than historic annual employee surveys, and more trustworthy than modern pulse surveys. Emplify is trusted by companies like Ivy Tech Community College, Herff Jones, Harley Davidson, Cheetah Digital, Crew Carwash, Yamaha, and many others. Learn more at emplify.com.

About Telluride
Forty-five minutes from the nearest stoplight, at the end of a incredibly beautiful box canyon sits Telluride, Colorado, a National Historic Landmark surrounded by the highest concentration of 13,000' and 14,000' peaks in the United States. Above Telluride is a modern mountain village connected by a gondola, the only one of its kind in North America. While the ski terrain is world-renowned, the resort is truly defined by a collection of intimate and unmatched experiences. With your first walk down the historic main street, you’ll find the character and charm of Telluride as special as the majestic San Juan Mountains. To learn more, visit www.tellurideskiresort.com.

Contact:
YPO
Linda Fisk
Office: +1 972 629 7305 (United States)
Mobile: +1 972 207 4298
press@ypo.org

Source : Young Presidents’ Organization, Inc.

--BERNAMA

VRICON UNVEILS NEW SOLUTION AT GEOINT 2018: VRICON PRECISION 3D REGISTRATION (P3DR)

Precise, accurate, georegistered GEOINT data for analytics and visualization—at a global scale

McLean, Virginia, April 24 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vricon is pleased to announce that it is unveiling the next in a series of GEOINT solutions — Vricon Precision 3D Registration (P3DR) — at this year’s GEOINT 2018 Symposium in Tampa, Fla. Vricon P3DR is a software suite designed to automatically georegister imagery, regardless of collection platform, against the most accurate 3D geospatial foundation available, The Globe in 3D.

P3DR can be implemented as a real-time processing workflow for imagery feeds without the need for GPS location, heading information, or ground control points.

“While we’ve always been able to perform georegistration of individual data sets using our 3D models as an accurate foundation, Vricon P3DR takes this capability to a whole new level,” said Magnus Brege, Vricon CEO. “Our users now have multiple options for where and when they can automatically georegister their FMV or other imagery sources in real-time and at an enterprise scale.”

Precisely locating geospatial data from different sources is a persistent challenge for the geospatial community. Imagery data is collected at different times, on different platforms, and with different look angles, sensor characteristics, and raw pointing accuracies. High-off-nadir Full Motion Video (FMV) is particularly challenging, given the relatively narrow field of view, high resolution, and often poor initial pointing accuracy of the sensors.

All of these complexities yield data sets that are significantly misaligned with each other and the real world. The alignment is often off by tens or even hundreds of meters. As a result, users are unable to automatically correlate multi-sensor data, making it difficult to fully leverage collection assets on critical targets. This also creates additional work for analysts, who spend hours trying to align various image sources. Vricon P3DR software — enabled by Vricon’s Globe in 3D — provides a way to quickly and accurately georegister data anywhere on the globe.

Vricon P3DR provides critical accuracy enhancements to other ISR sources, enabling GEOINT data to be used to precisely direct resources to any specific location on the planet. Vricon P3DR software builds off Vricon’s industry-leading Globe in 3D to support analysts and warfighters with:
  • 0.5-meter resolution foundational 3D context
  • Absolute accuracy of 3 meters or better in all dimensions (x, y, and z)
  • Global coverage — even in denied areas
Vricon products and services provide ready solutions for military, intelligence, telecommunications, and emergency response needs, to include:
  • GPS-denied navigation
  • Sensor fusion
  • Targeting
  • Situational awareness
GEOINT attendees can learn more about Vricon P3DR at booth #847 in the GEOINT Exhibit Hall. Vricon also will present a Lightning Talk at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, 24 April, at the Innovation Corner.

About Vricon

Vricon serves the global professional geospatial market with world-leading 3D geodata and 3D visualization solutions. Vricon is headquartered in McLean, Virginia. For further information, visit http://www.vricon.com.

Attachment

Craig Brower
Vricon
703-283-4588
craig.brower@vricon.com

Source : Vricon

--BERNAMA

TACONIC BIOSCIENCES LICENSES EASI-CRISPR TECHNOLOGY FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA

RENSSELAER, N.Y., April 23 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Taconic Biosciences, a global leader in providing genetically engineered mouse model and service solutions, has been granted a license to the Easi-CRISPR technology from the University of Nebraska.

Easi-CRISPR was developed in the laboratories of Drs. Masato Ohtsuka (Tokai University in Japan), and Channabasavaiah Gurumurthy (University of Nebraska). The terms of the agreement include a world-wide, non-exclusive license to the technology, allowing Taconic rights to generate and sell rodent models generated via Easi-CRISPR.  When compared to traditional CRISPR, Easi-CRISPR represents a significant advantage, allowing researchers to perform whole genetic insertions versus being limited to point mutations and constitutive knockouts. 

“Easi-CRISPR is the next progression of the revolutionary CRISPR/Cas technology.  Combining the speed of CRISPR with larger genetic insertions allows complex projects typically requiring homologous recombination techniques to reduce project timelines by six months.  In an industry where time is a precious resource, access to this technology underscores Taconic’s commitment to providing our customers with the best solutions,” shared John Couse, vice president of scientific services of Taconic Biosciences. 

Channabasavaiah Gurumurthy commented, “we are pleased to see the research community quickly adopting Easi-CRISPR. Licensing of Easi-CRISPR by Taconic, a globally recognized leader of animal model generation, should help scientists rapidly generate innovative models to benefit scientific research”.  

Taconic is a fully-licensed provider of rodent model generation services and has over twenty years of model design experience. The company provides gene inactivation, gene mutation or replacement, transgene expression, RNAi, and gene editing via CRISPR/Cas9, pronuclear injection, and homologous recombination technologies to ensure that the right tools are leveraged for each specific customer project. Taconic's unique capability of providing a seamless transition from model design to breeding and colony management, offers customers a complete solution. These scientific solutions include acquiring or generating, importing, licensing, breeding, testing, preparing, and distributing genetically engineered models to any location worldwide.

To learn more about Taconic’s custom model generation, please call 1-888-TACONIC (888-822-6642) in the US, +45 70 23 04 05 in Europe, or email info@taconic.com.

About Taconic Biosciences, Inc.
Taconic Biosciences is a fully-licensed, global leader in genetically engineered rodent models and services. Founded in 1952, Taconic provides the best animal solutions so that customers can acquire, custom generate, breed, precondition, test, and distribute valuable research models worldwide. Specialists in genetically engineered mouse and rat models, precision research mouse models, and integrated model design and breeding services, Taconic operates three service laboratories and six breeding facilities in the U.S. and Europe, maintains distributor relationships in Asia and has global shipping capabilities to provide animal models almost anywhere in the world.

Media Contact:
Kelly Owen Grover
Director of Marketing Communications
(518) 697-3824
kelly.grover@taconic.com

Source : Taconic Biosciences

--BERNAMA

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

China's Jiangjin district investment roadshow in Singapore on April 24


 
KUALA LUMPUR, April 23 (Bernama) -- Jiangjin District, located in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality will launch an investment promoting event in Singapore on April 24 to explore cooperation opportunities with Singapore and other ASEAN countries.

The establishment of the Chongqing Jiangjin Comprehensive Bonded Zone is to further facilitate the cooperation and communication between Chongqing and ASEAN countries.

China Economic Information Service, in a statement said a delegation led by Secretary of Jiangjin District Party Committee, Cheng Zhiyi will give a full display of the excellent investment environment in the district to politicians, businessmen and local enterprises and institutions in Singapore. The delegation will also make an analysis on its investment value from multiple dimensions including location and transportation, ecological environment, industrial layout, logistics, tourism as well as political and business environment.

The statement added that they will conduct an in-depth exchange with local political and business figures and visit high-quality enterprises.

"By bringing into full play Singapore's advantage as an international finance and trade center, the investment promotion will help accelerate the opening up of Jiangjin District and expand its investment promotion areas to realize a great-leap-forward economic development, " said Cheng, in a statement.

Jiangjin District is a vital link on the southbound passageway of Chongqing-Guizhou-Guangxi-Singapore and also a key point on the Silk Road Economic Belt.

-- BERNAMA

CISCO ACI IS DATA CENTER SOLUTION OF CHOICE FOR SERVICE PROVIDERS WORLDWIDE

Service providers deliver new cloud services more quickly and offer superior customer experience with the help of Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 20 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Providing secure, differentiated and rapidly delivered cloud services to customers is a crucial requirement for today’s service providers.  To meet cloud infrastructure demands, global service providers are increasingly turning to the Cisco® Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI™), the industry-leading software-defined networking (SDN) solution. Cisco ACI reduces operational costs with an automated, policy-based programmable architecture, while improving scalability and security. In addition, new Cisco ACI multi-site management capability helps service providers to connect and manage multiple geographically distributed Cisco ACI fabrics and to move and manage workloads with a single pane of glass.

Cisco ACI is being deployed worldwide by service providers such as NTT Communications (United States), T-Systems (Germany), Hosters (Denmark), scanplus GmbH (Germany), Tieto Oyj (Finland), and Ritter (United States).

NTT Communications
NTT Communications (NTT Com) is a subsidiary of NTT Group and a 20-year IT service provider veteran.   The U.S. division of NTT Com recognized a market opportunity to better serve the enterprise market with a portfolio of managed service offerings tailored to key vertical markets that would also meet compliance mandates and regulations. 

To succeed in this new direction, NTT Com decided to transform its data centers with a focus on greater security and performance. NTT Com selected Cisco ACI because it offered a much more agile management model over competing industry solutions.  NTT Com can now quickly set up highly complex data center domains, bringing new customers onboard in as little as three days, and the security policies inherent in Cisco’s SDN solution also support the compliance needs of its customers. 

“Cisco ACI means applications guide the way the network acts, not the other way around,” says Indranil Sengupta, vice president of product engineering at NTT Com.  “We’re able to offer an outstanding customer experience with fewer errors and up to 80 percent better application performance.”

T-Systems

With operations in more than 20 countries and multi-billion euro revenues, T-Systems, based in Germany, is one of the world’s leading providers of information and communications technology.  Increasingly T-Systems midsize customers are requesting new services based on cloud services and innovative business models, such as data analytics, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications, and industrial Internet.  T-Systems selected Cisco ACI to provide its customers with tailored infrastructure, platforms, and software solutions.

“Our customers want high quality services, uncompromised security, and flexibility, all at a reasonable price,” says Andreas Schwall, Delivery Executive Production Midmarket at T-Systems. “Our challenge was to reduce IT effort and maintenance-based outages, while improving capacity at the network and security layer.”

In addition, Cisco ACI allows T-Systems to run more agile, flexible operations and open up new security offerings for customers. “Based on open APIs and an application-centric view of our landscape, we can reduce lead times during the onboarding process and rapidly add more services to our portfolio,” adds Schwall.

Now application traffic steers the network, rather than the other way around, enabling T-Systems to build the network environment around different customer applications, significantly improving performance and better meeting requirements.   Optimizing software-defined automation has reduced manual tasks by 90%, providing a productivity gain equivalent to three full-time employees.

Hosters
Hosters, located in Denmark, is a certified Microsoft Azure Managed Service Provider offering cloud and hybrid solutions.  The company turned to Cisco ACI to reduce time to market and to provide customers with the right solution easily and quickly.  Security was also an important consideration, and Hosters worked with Fortinet and Cisco ACI to ensure the highest levels of security for customers.  Cisco ACI is now operating in three Hosters data centers and baby spines, and the company is planning to upgrade its data centers to 100GbE, made easier with the Cisco ACI deployment.

“The results of the Cisco ACI deployment have exceeded our expectations,” said Thomas Raabo, CTO, Hosters.  “Our deployment time of new services to customers has been cut down from weeks to hours, and we are spending less time on systems integration and more time on innovation.  We’re moving to a DevOps model of continuous improvement, and we’re creating agility and value that can be passed along to our customers.”

scanplus GmbH
As a leading provider of managed cloud services in Germany, scanplus delivers to Deutsche Telekom business customers carrier-grade cloud services with rock-solid service level agreements throughout Europe. scanplus wanted to provide Deutsche Telekom customers with a “cloud in a box” that offered options and full automation and delivery through a self-service portal. scanplus chose Cisco ACI to address these needs, and will also benefit from a network fabric that scales to multiple sites, with single pane-of-glass management and automation.  Because scanplus is supporting a large number of business customers in a shared cloud environment, data protection and strict tenant segmentation are essential.   Designed for secure multi-tenancy, Cisco ACI makes it possible for applications and users to share the same infrastructure without leaking information across tenant boundaries. 

“With Cisco ACI, we have full segmentation of each tenant, and can also reference other tenant objects within a tenant while maintaining isolation, which makes them private, separated, and highly secure,” said Stefan Daiber, head of architecture at scanplus.  

Using Cisco ACI multi-site functionality, scanplus is also in the process of extending its network fabric to multiple data centers.  Because the solution works with any vendor’s hypervisor, it can easily accommodate the different systems in each location.

“The openness of Cisco ACI is a big benefit,” said Daiber.  “It doesn’t just support any hypervisor, but also all of the network equipment surrounding the hypervisor.  It gives us a tremendous amount of choice and flexibility.”

Tieto Oyj
Tieto Oyj, headquartered in Finland, is a Nordic software and services company.   Tieto has deployed Cisco ACI as a Layer 2 fabric in six data centers in three countries.  Tieto’s growth strategy is to shift from providing basic services to also delivering an outstanding experience for its customers. That means being able to deliver services quickly and making it possible to build anything on the application level that a customer wants—without being hindered by the underlying physical infrastructure.  

Tieto selected Cisco ACI solution to ensure a holistic architecture with centralized automation and policy-driven application profiles. Using the Cisco ACI unified policy model, the team enforces policy through endpoint groups (EPGs), a collection of network endpoints that includes a wide range of entities, including bare-metal servers, virtual machines, and containers.

“Cisco ACI provides a foundation that we can build on to channel innovation into new services,” said Juha Syrjänen, Head of Connectivity Services Business at Tieto. “We’ll be able to quickly and efficiently deliver basic connectivity services, while building a new connectivity ecosystem between our customers, their other partners, and Tieto.”

Ritter Communications
Headquartered in the United States, Ritter Communications serves more than 45,000 customers in rural Arkansas and Tennessee with advanced voice and data services typically only found in major metropolitan areas.  Although Ritter Communications has provided local phone service since 1906, sheer connectivity doesn’t deliver the revenues it once did.  Ritter needed to deliver a new set of business-focused cloud services to drive revenue growth.  But Ritter had limited operational experience with cloud services, and so did its customers.

“We serve a very rural market, and many network managers are tied to their servers.  They wouldn’t feel comfortable putting everything in the public cloud,” said Greg Sunderwood, vice president of engineering at Ritter Communications.   “We wanted more differentiation on the front end and more control on the back end.”

Ritter’s Hosted Solutions team found the answer in Cisco Cloud Architecture for the Microsoft Cloud Platform.  The integrated solutions feature a combination of Cisco ACI, Windows Azure Pack, and Cisco Unified Computing Systems (UCS®). 

“We essentially pull the public cloud into a customer’s environment,” says Brandon Fergerson, senior cloud engineer at Ritter Communications.  “Microsoft Azure is the customer-facing management console, and Cisco ACI handles back end infrastructure and network management.”

The Hosted Solutions team has gone from manual provisioning to 100 percent virtual deployments, and customer spending for the new services is 50 to 60 percent higher than Ritter anticipated.

“We’ve turned server-hugging skepticism into cloud-first approaches,” Fergerson says.  “I see it all the time.  The subscriptions start with just one low-risk server, then it seems like every time I check back on that tenant, they are adding more and more resources in the cloud as the trust grows.  The Ritter cloud is a simple, customer-friendly, highly automated offering, and it’s been the catalyst for a mind shift—for us and our customers.”

Additional Resources
Read case study: NTT Communications
Read case study:  T-Systems
Read case study:  scanplus GmbH
Read case study: Hosters
Read case study:  Tieto Oyj
Read case study:  Ritter Communications
Learn more about: Cisco ACI
Learn more about Cisco ACI ecosystem partners
Learn more about: Cisco data center technology

About Cisco
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Press Relations:          
Lee Davis                   
Cisco                          
650-868-3036             
leedavis@cisco.com   

Analyst Relations:      
Aimee Schoaf            
Cisco                          
623-377-0377             
aschoaf@cisco.com

Investor Relations
Carol Villazon
Cisco
408-527-6538
carolv@cisco.com

Source : Cisco Systems, Inc.

--BERNAMA