If you've ever watched any of the Star Trek episodes, you may be forgiven for experiencing a slight sense of déjà vu when you see the new SeaOrbiter.

Although you may not see the immediate resemblance, the ship may look strangely familiar until it finally clicks into place. Startrek Enterprise? It looks very similar in some ways, very different in other ways.

But no doubt, you're likely to see something familiar there reminding you of the Starship Enterprise.

Literally looking like something from a futuristic movie, the SeaOrbiter is a vessel unlike you've ever seen. Upon first glance, you will actually be forgiven for wondering how on earth this monster will manage to glide through the oceans of the world. The vessel looks totally unstable, unlike any other conventiional ship you may have ever seen.

But then again, this is no conventional ship.

The huge 167ft structure will be partly submerged, allowing what seems to be an upper deck and a lower deck - the latter being submerged under the water. Located in Norway, the testing of a smaller version of the vessel in simulated ocean conditions at Europe's largest simulation laboratory proved the vessel to be extremely stable, even in some of the toughest simulated ocean conditions.

The vessel is currently in prototype phase but the inventor, Jacques Rougerie, has big dreams for the SeaOrbiter. It seems like the SeaOrbiter will act as a floating laboratory where researchers can remain under water almost permanently while researching the world's oceans.

Now what would be the appropriate parting shot for this story? "Beam me up, Scotty!" No...how about "Take us down, Scotty?"

A new generation of ultrasmall transistors and more powerful computer chips using tiny structures called semiconducting nanowires are closer to reality after a key discovery by researchers at IBM, Purdue University and the University of California at Los Angeles.

The researchers have learned how to create nanowires with layers of different materials that are sharply defined at the atomic level, which is a critical requirement for making efficient transistors out of the structures.

Renewable energy is a very hot topic these days, one which is receiving an incredible amount of attention - for good reason.

The world has by now realized that it cannot just keep consuming valuable environmental resources in the pursuit of energy.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. Maple tree seeds (or samara fruit) have been delighting children since times immemorial. Interestingly, the aspiring aerospace engineers at the University of Maryland's Clark School of Engineering have been learning the techniques to exploit the Maple tree seeds’ unique design for surveillance in emergency situations, including defense.

Back in the decade of 1950s, researchers tried to develop an unmanned aerial vehicle based on the way a maple seed falls to the ground. However, the wind proved to be a great hurdle knocking off all the vehicles one by one without letting them land safely on the ground. Till June, 2009, the safe landing of the vehicle on the ground had been an open challenge for all the engineers.

However, Clark School students finally succeeded in solving the problem. The strategy opted by them allowed the vehicle to take off and finally it was deployed from an aircraft. However, it was found to be more economical and easier to launch the device by hand.

Further, the students studied the maple tree seeds thoroughly to develop the first uncontrollable MAV monocopter. A new design was developed introducing tiny flyers that flew with natural elegance. Next came the first rotorcraft of the world. It was controllable, single winged and comparatively manageable and could be quite useful in surveillance for defense, fire control, and various other rescue purposes.

One of the researchers, Evan Ulrich, remarked, “Natural maple seeds usually trade off altitude for rotation as they fall to the ground." The altitude and the rotation caused by the wind provide the maple seed trees with power that’s required to fly in the air. It will be interesting to see what type of applications are actually born out of this 'new' technology. Hobby flight? Aerial Surveilance maybe? This should be an interesting technology to see develop in the near future. For further details, contact the Maryland Office of University Communications.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines made history on Monday, 23 November 2009, by operating the very first passenger flight using a biofuel called biokerosene. The SkyEnergy consortium has also been established, seeing KLM join hands with North Sea Petroleum and Spring Associates.

The consortium will be advised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) with regards to all things ecological.

KLM says it is very careful in the development of biokerosene, following very strict financial, technological and ecological criteria, so as to not jeopardise the food chain, promote deforestation or excessive water consumption. KLM President & CEO Peter Hartman added: “The conservation of biodiversity is, of course, also a precondition. Our cooperation with WWF is both important and inspirational.”

Klm has been involved in research of biokerosene research since 2007, and with the establishment of SkyEnergy they hope to accelerate the development of this technology.

According to KLM's press release: “KLM has been involved in biokerosene research since 2007. With the establishment of SkyEnergy, we are accelerating development and hope to achieve a market breakthrough. Within the consortium, we have clustered expertise and experience in legislation, ecology and technology, as well as the ability to develop biokerosene in an economically viable manner. We are moving forward with great resolve, but cannot do it alone. We need the efforts and support of government, industry and broader society.”

KLM and Air France are also together pursuing what they call an ambitious Climate Action Plan.

Biokerosene is made up of kerosene that is derived from biomass, and is a flammable hydrocarbon liquid.

Terepac has been hard at work creating a microelectronic nervous system for the world. It focuses on developing a technology that allows the common people to make use of electronics in their daily lives.

The company aims at making the use of technology easier and more productive for the people.

Rather than a complex "Internet of Things" to find the useful ones from, Terepac aims at providing its clients an inexpensive, yet practical two way communication and sensing platform . Moreover, it fully appreciates that the devices it provides must safeguard the privacy of the users. And the variety is amazing! The fundamental components of the platform include radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.

The tags, both passive and active are coupled with wireless networked sensors. Though the sensors employ the communication and object identification capabilities of the tags, they obtain and manage the data from the required location in a highly efficient way. It dramatically enhances the capabilities of the tags. Terepac products are quite economical when it comes to usage. They also reduce the environmental impact caused by most of the sensors currently available in the market. Many of these lack in the packaging technology.

The brand is on the look out for partners interested in semiconductor design and fabrication industry. The name aims at providing components, both smaller and more economical. This approach targets at meeting the customer requirements effectively without making them pay huge sums. The company also employs system designers who may provide designs that target customer requirements and the market channels as well.

The brand also aims at providing its clients with the services based upon a variety of electronic products. In order to know more about electronic assembly and packaging by Terepac, please visit www.terepac.com

Facebook was hit on Tuesday by a well-meaning intruder who took over some of the site's online groups as a way of sending a message: "Think about the safety in your social media life to the same extent you do in your real life."

The social networking site, with more than 300 million users worldwide, has thousands of different groups that members can join, from college alumni to those who support various causes. It's not clear how many of the groups were taken over by an organization calling itself "Control Your Info," but it may have been in the hundreds.

"There has been no hacking and there is no confidential information at risk," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. "We are still investigating this situation, but an extremely small number of groups have been affected."

There are many places like Australia, India, Bali, China, Dubai, Egypt, Europe, Maldives, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Mauritius, Singapore, Srilanka they are consistently accessible to acceptable the tourists. Explore the cruise to India is about to appointment admirable places, forts, cultural places, Indian culture,

Exchange rates come in two forms:

• “Floating”—here, currencies are set on the open market based on the supply of and demand for each currency. For example, all other things being equal, if the U.S. imports more from Japan than it exports there, there will be less demand for U.S. dollars (they are not desired for purchasing goods) and more demand for Japanese yen—thus, the price of the yen, in dollars, will increase, so you will get fewer yen for a dollar.
• “Fixed”—currencies may be “pegged” to another currency (e.g., the Argentine currency is guaranteed in terms of a dollar value), to a composite of currencies (i.e., to avoid making the currency dependent entirely on the U.S. dollar, the value might be 0.25*U.S. dollar+4*Mexican peso+50*Japanese yen+0.2*German mark+0.1*British pound), or to some other valuable such as gold. Note that it is very difficult to maintain these fixed exchange rates—governments must buy or sell currency on the open market when currencies go outside the accepted ranges. Fixed exchange rates, although they produce stability and predictability, tend to get in the way of market forces—if a currency is kept artificially low, a country will tend to export too much and import too little.

Trade balances and exchange rates. When exchange rates are allowed to fluctuate, the currency of a country that tends to run a trade deficit will tend to decline over time, since there will be less demand for that currency. This reduced exchange rate will then tend to make exports more attractive in other countries, and imports less attractive at home.

Measuring country wealth. There are two ways to measure the wealth of a country. The nominal per capita gross domestic product (GDP) refers to the value of goods and services produced per person in a country if this value in local currency were to be exchanged into dollars. Suppose, for example, that the per capita GDP of Japan is 3,500,000 yen and the dollar exchanges for 100 yen, so that the per capita GDP is (3,500,000/100)=$35,000. However, that $35,000 will not buy as much in Japan—food and housing are much more expensive there. Therefore, we introduce the idea of purchase parity adjusted per capita GDP, which reflects what this money can buy in the country. This is typically based on the relative costs of a weighted “basket” of goods in a country (e.g., 35% of the cost of housing, 40% the cost of food, 10% the cost of clothing, and 15% cost of other items). If it turns out that this measure of cost of living is 30% higher in Japan, the purchase parity adjusted GPD in Japan would then be ($35,000/(130%) = $26,923. (The Gross Domestic Product (GPD) and Gross National Product (GNP) are almost identical figures. The GNP, for example, includes income made by citizens working abroad, and does not include the income of foreigners working in the country. Traditionally, the GNP was more prevalent; today the GPD is more commonly used—in practice, the two measures fall within a few percent of each other.)

In general, the nominal per capita GPD is more useful for determining local consumers’ ability to buy imported goods, the cost of which are determined in large measure by the costs in the home market, while the purchase parity adjusted measure is more useful when products are produced, at local costs, in the country of purchase. For example, the ability of Argentinians to purchase micro computer chips, which are produced mostly in the U.S. and Japan, is better predicted by nominal income, while the ability to purchase toothpaste made by a U.S. firm in a factory in Argentina is better predicted by purchase parity adjusted income.

It should be noted that, in some countries, income is quite unevenly distributed so that these average measures may not be very meaningful. In Brazil, for example, there is a very large underclass making significantly less than the national average, and thus, the national figure is not a good indicator of the purchase power of the mass market. Similarly, great regional differences exist within some countries—income is much higher in northern Germany than it is in the former East Germany, and income in southern Italy is much lower than in northern Italy.

Lars Perner, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Clinical Marketing
Department of Marketing
Marshall School of Business
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0443, USA
(213) 740-7127

INTERNATIONAL MARKETING

The Global Market Place

Globalization of Markets and Competition: Trade is increasingly global in scope today. There are several reasons for this. One significant reason is technological—because of improved transportation and communication opportunities today, trade is now more practical. Thus, consumers and businesses now have access to the very best products from many different countries. Increasingly rapid technology lifecycles also increases the competition among countries as to who can produce the newest in technology. In part to accommodate these realities, countries in the last several decades have taken increasing steps to promote global trade through agreements such as the General Treaty on Trade and Tariffs, and trade organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the European Union (EU).

Stages in the International Involvement of a Firm. We discussed several stages through which a firm may go as it becomes increasingly involved across borders. A purely domestic firm focuses only on its home market, has no current ambitions of expanding abroad, and does not perceive any significant competitive threat from abroad. Such a firm may eventually get some orders from abroad, which are seen either as an irritation (for small orders, there may be a great deal of effort and cost involved in obtaining relatively modest revenue) or as "icing on the cake." As the firm begins to export more, it enters the export stage, where little effort is made to market the product abroad, although an increasing number of foreign orders are filled. In the international stage, as certain country markets begin to appear especially attractive with more foreign orders originating there, the firm may go into countries on an ad hoc basis—that is, each country may be entered sequentially, but with relatively little learning and marketing efforts being shared across countries. In the multi-national stage, some efficiencies are pursued by standardizing across a region (e.g., Central America, West Africa, or Northern Europe). Finally, in the global stage, the focus centers on the entire World market, with decisions made optimize the product’s position across markets—the home country is no longer the center of the product. An example of a truly global company is Coca Cola.

Note that these stages represent points on a continuum from a purely domestic orientation to a truly global one; companies may fall in between these discrete stages, and different parts of the firm may have characteristics of various stages—for example, the pickup truck division of an auto-manufacturer may be largely domestically focused, while the passenger car division is globally focused. Although a global focus is generally appropriate for most large firms, note that it may not be ideal for all companies to pursue the global stage. For example, manufacturers of ice cubes may do well as domestic, or even locally centered, firms.

Some forces in international trade. The text contains a rather long-winded appendix discussing some relatively simple ideas. Comparative advantage, discussed in more detail in the economics notes, suggests trade between countries is beneficial because these countries differ in their relative economic strengths—some have more advanced technology and some have lower costs. The International Product Life Cycle suggests that countries will differ in their timing of the demand for various products. Products tend to be adopted more quickly in the United States and Japan, for example, so once the demand for a product (say, VCRs) is in the decline in these markets, an increasing market potential might exist in other countries (e.g., Europe and the rest of Asia). Internalization/transaction costs refers to the fact that developing certain very large scale projects, such as an automobile intended for the World market, may entail such large costs that these must be spread over several countries.

For the last three decades Foreign Exchange market, - briefly Forex or FX, had integrated into the world's biggest financial market. The volume of daily transactions is about 1-3 trillion of US dollars. The trading instruments on this market are the currencies of different countries, so the fluctuation of currency's rates allows to gain a real profit.

Of course monetary assets of different countries exchanged since the term money appeared as well as an idea to obtain profit from currency's rates difference. Now it is not a new idea, but the transformation of foreign exchange market to the modern stage with an opportunity to conduct conversional operations of such volumes arose only after an introduction of floating rates regime by the state-members of IMF. Within this regime's framework the rate of one currency to another is defining only by the supply and demand on the market.

Presently Forex market is a global telecommunication network of banks and different financial organizations. It does not have any fixed trading place and time restrictions - the trade starts on Monday morning in New Zealand and closes on Friday evening in USA

The advantages of Forex market are:

Round-the-clock trading access: the ability to trade for 24 hours a day;

Liquidity: the market works with a huge money and gives the customers complete freedom to open or close their position of different volume;

Leverage: an ability to use leverage. It decreases requirements to the sum of the initial deposit (margin trade). So in case you deposit 10 000 USD into your account you'd have an opportunity to work with 1 000 000 USD (leverage 1:100);

Objectivity: no exterior regulated structures, so the currency's rate is establishing in accordance with current supply and demand on the market;

Globality: everyone can become a market participant irrespective to the living place, as trading requires only your skills and Internet access.

At present mostly all the operations on the market are conducting only to obtain profit. With the development of Internet and other means of communication this sector of the financial markets becomes more accessible and attractive for the investors of different levels.

ایک نئے جائزے سے معلوم ہوا ہے کہ تیرہ سے انیس سال تک کی عمر کے جو نوجوان جتنا زیادہ دیر تک ٹیلی ویژن اور دوسرے الیکٹرانک میڈیا کے سامنے اپنا وقت گزارتے ہیں ان میں ڈپریشن کے مرض میں مبتلا ہونے کا امکان اتنا ہی زیادہ بڑھ جاتا ہے۔اس جائز ے کے نتائج آرکائیوز آف جنرل سائیکیٹری میں شائع ہوئے۔

اس ریسرچ کے محقیقین نے وضاحت کی کہ ڈپریشن دنیا بھر اس معذوری کی ایک بڑی وجہ بن گئی ہے جو جان لیوا نہیں ہوتی ۔ریسرچ کے ماہرین کا کہنا ہے کہ نوجوانی میں ڈپریشن کے پیدا ہونے کی وجہ وہ یعنی وہ جسمانی ، نفسیاتی ،سماجی اور وہ ہمہ جہت عمل ہو سکتا ہے جس پر انسان کے مزاج ، جینیاتی ورثے ، والدین کی پرورش کا انداز ، فکری کمزوریاں ، پریشان کن واقعات مثلاً سانحے یا غربت اور باہمی تعلقات کا اثر ہو تا ہے ۔ محقیقین کاکہنا ہے کہ اس حقیقت کے پیش نظر کہ نوجوانوں کے روزانہ اوسطاً 8 اعشاریہ 5 گھنٹے الیکٹرانک میڈیا کے سامنے گزرتے ہیں تومیڈیا بھی ان میں ڈپریشن کی ایک وجہ ہو سکتا ہے ۔

یونیورسٹی آف پٹس برگ کے اسکول آف میڈیسن کے ڈاکٹر برائن اے پریمیک اور ٹیم نے اس بات کا جائزہ لینے کے لیے کہ الیکٹرانک میڈیا نوجوانوں میں کس حد تک ڈپریشن پیدا کرسکتا ہے، نیشنل لانگی چیوڈنل سروے آف ایڈولسنٹ ہیلتھ کی جانب سے اکٹھے کیے گئے مواد کا جائزہ لیا۔ اس جائزے میں شامل 4142 نوجوانوں کے بارے میں یہ جاننے کی کوشش کی گئی تھی کہ وہ کتنا وقت الیکٹرانک میڈیا کے سامنے گذارتے ہیں۔

محققین کو معلوم ہوا کہ 1995 میں جب یہ مطالعاتی جائزہ شروع کیا گیا تو ان میں سے کوئی بھی نوجوان ڈیپریشن کا شکار نہیں تھا۔ابتدائی سروے میں نوجوانوں سے پوچھا گیا تھا کہ وہ کتناوقت ٹیلی وژن ، ویڈیو ز، کمپیوٹر پر گیمز کھیلنے یا ریڈیو سننے پر صرف کرتے ہیں۔ یہ سروے اس وقت کیا گیا تھا جب ڈی وی ڈیز اور انٹرنیٹ کا استعمال عام نہیں ہواتھا۔اس جائزے سے پتہ چلا تھا کہ وہ نوجوان روزانہ اوسطاً 5.68 گھنٹےالیکٹرانک میڈیا کے سامنے گذارتے تھے۔ جن میں سے وہ 2.3 گھنٹے ٹیلی وژن، 0.62 گھنٹے ویڈیو کیسٹ، 0.41 گھنٹے کمپیوٹر گیمز اور 2.34 گھنٹے ریڈیو سننے پر صرف کرتے تھے۔
جائزے میں شامل ان افراد پر سات سال کے بعد دوبارہ سروے کیا گیا جب ان کی اوسط عمر 21.8 سال ہوچکی تھی۔ ان میں سے 308 نوجوانوں یعنی 7.4 فی صد میں ایسی علامات پیدا ہوچکی تھیں جو ڈپیریشن کے مرض جیسی ہوتی ہیں۔

جائزے کے مصنفین کا کہنا ہے کہ ٹیلی وژن کے سامنے ہر روز گذارے گئے ہر اضافی گھنٹے کے نتیجے میں نوجوانوں میں ڈپپریشن کی علامات کے تناسب میں اضافہ ہوتا گیا۔جائزے سے یہ بھی معلوم ہوا کہ نوجوان لڑکیوں کی نسبت جنہوں نے اتنا ہی وقت الیکٹرانک میڈیا کے سامنے گذارا تھا، نوجوان لڑکوں کی ڈپیریشن پیدا ہونے کے امکانات زیادہ پائے گئے۔
مصنفین کا کہنا ہے کہ الیکٹرانک میڈیا کے ساتھ ساتھ نوجوانوں میں ڈیپریشن پیدا ہونے کے اور بھی اسباب ہوسکتے ہیں۔ ان کا کہنا ہے کہ اگر نوجوان الیکٹرانک میڈیا پر صرف کیے جانے والے وقت کو دوسری سماجی ، تخلیقی یا کھیلوں کی سرگرمیوں پر صرف کریں تو ان میں ڈیپریشن پیدا ہونے کے امکانات میں کمی ہوسکتی ہے۔ وہ کہتے ہیں کہ رات کے وقت میڈیا کے سامنے وقت گذارنے سے نیند میں خلل پڑ سکتا ہے جو معمول کی فکری اور جذباتی نشوونما کے لیے انتہائی اہمیت رکھتی ہے۔

ماہرین کا کہنا ہے کہ یہ بھی ممکن ہے کہ میڈیا کے ذریعے منتقل ہونے والے پیغامات جارحیت یا دوسرے پر خطر طرز عمل پر ابھاریں جس سے ان کی انفرادی شخصت کی نشو و نما متاثر ہوسکتی ہے یا ان میں خوف اور بے چینی پیدا ہوسکتی ہے۔

جائزے کے مصنفین کا کہناہے کہ نوجوانوں کا علاج کرنے والے ماہرین نفسیات ، ڈاکٹروں اور صحت کی دیکھ بھال کے اداروں کے لیے یہ چیز فائدہ مند ہوسکتی ہے کہ وہ اپنے نوجوان مریضوں سے یہ دریافت کریں کہ وہ اپنا کتنا وقت ٹیلی وژن اور دوسرے الیکٹرانک میڈیا کے سامنے گذارتے ہیں۔ اگر انہیں یہ پتہ چلے کہ ان کا مریض کے وقت کا ایک بڑا حصہ الیکٹرانک میڈیا کے سامنے گذرتا ہے تو ان کی نفسیاتی اور سماجی زنذگی کا تفصیلی جائزہ لیا جانا چاہیے۔اور اس کےسا تھ ساتھ انہیں یہ مشورہ بھی دیا جانا چاہیئے کہ وہ دوسری سماجی اور تخلیقی سرگرمیوں میں حصہ لیں تاکہ ان میں ڈیپریشن پیدا ہونے کے امکانات گھٹ جائیں۔

اردو ٹیکنالوجی اخبار: مختصرترین سپر کمپیوٹر جسے آپ اپنی جیب میں رکھ سکتے ہیں