Category Archives: Technology

It may sound like a script for a science fiction movie, but scientists have created the worlds first mutant ants.

Two independent research teams have harnessed the gene editing technology CRISPR to genetically alter the ants. In one study, researchers at Rockefeller University modified a gene essential for sensing the pheromones that ants use to communicate. Experts say that the resulting deficiencies in the ants social behaviors and their ability to survive in a colony, sheds light on social evolution.

It was well known that ant language is produced through pheromones, but now we understand a lot more about how pheromones are perceived, said Daniel Kronauer, head of Rockefeller Universitys Laboratory of Social Evolution and Behavior, in a statement. The way ants interact is fundamentally different from how solitary organisms interact, and with these findings we know a bit more about the genetic evolution that enabled ants to create structured societies.

GENE EDITING BREAKTHROUGH COULD PAVE WAY FOR PIG-TO-HUMAN ORGAN TRANSPLANTS

CRISPR, which has been compared to a pair of molecular scissors, lets scientists alter or replace specific sections of DNA.

Scientists used CRISPR to disrupt a gene known asOrco in the clonal raider ant,species Ooceraea biroi, but then faced the challenge of keeping the mutant ants alive. We had to convince the colonies to accept the mutants. If the conditions werent right, the worker ants would stop caring for larvae and destroy them, said Rockefeller University graduate fellow Waring Trible, in the statement. Once the ants successfully made it to the adult phase, we noticed a shift in their behavior almost immediately.

While ants typically travel single file, researchers noticed that the mutant ants couldnt fall in line, along with other behavioral abnormalities.

DNA BREAKTHROUGH: SCIENTISTS REPAIR GENES IN HUMAN EMBRYOS TO PREVENT INHERITED DISEASES

The results of the study are published in the journal Cell.

This image shows a Harpegnathos saltator worker ant in the process of stinging a cricket to paralyze it and drag it into the nest as part of its hunting duties. (Credit: Brigitte Baella)

A separate study, also published in the journal Cell, saw scientists target the Orco gene in the Indian jumping ant,Harpegnathos saltator. Experts note that the Indian jumping ant is unlike other ant species because only the queen can mate and pass genes onto the next generation. However, any adult female worker of the species can become a pseudo queen in the queens absence.

The second study was led by researchers from New York University, NYU School of Medicine, Arizona State University, the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University.

Ant queens suppress the ability of female workers to mate and lay eggs, although if the queen is removed, the most aggressive females, after winning a series of antenna duels with rivals, can go on to lay eggs.

DNA DISCOVERY UNRAVELS THE MYSTERY OF EARLY GREEK CIVILIZATIONS

The study engineered three mutant ants to lack the Orco gene. Without the gene, females cannot process pheromones, making them less likely to engage in dueling.

"While ant behavior does not directly extend to humans, we believe that this work promises to advance our understanding of social communication, with the potential to shape the design of future research into disorders like schizophrenia, depression or autism that interfere with it," said Claude Desplan, professor at NYU's Department of Biology, and one of the reports authors, in a statement.

In a third related study by the University of Pennsylvania, scientists injected the brain chemical corazonin into ants transitioning to become a pseudo-queen, which simulated worker-like hunting behaviors, while inhibiting pseudo-queen behavior, such as dueling and laying eggs.

DNA DISCOVERY IDENTIFIES LIVING DESCENDANTS OF BIBLICAL CANAANITES

These results are also published in the journal Cell.

Gene editing has been generating plenty of buzz recently. Earlier this week, scientists announced the elimination of viruses in pigs that could be harmful to people, utilizing the CRISPR technology. The discovery could potentially lay the foundations for pig-to-human organ transplants.

GENE EDITING BREAKTHROUGH COULD PAVE WAY FOR PIG-TO-HUMAN ORGAN TRANSPLANTS

In another project, researchers used gene-editing to correct a disease-causing gene mutation in human embryos, preventing the mutation from passing to future generations. In the stunning discovery, a research team led by Oregon Health and Science University reported that embryos can fix themselves if scientists jump-start the process early enough.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

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Scientists create world's first mutant ants with gene editing technology - Fox News

When AWS today became a full-fledged member of the container standards body, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, it represented a significant milestone. By joining Google, IBM, Microsoft, Red Hat and just about every company that matters in the space, AWS has acknowledged that when it comes to container management, standards matter.

AWS has been known to go the proprietary route, after all. When youre that big and powerful, and control vast swaths of market share as AWS does, you can afford to go your own way from time to time. Containers is an area it hasnt controlled, though. That belongs to Kubernetes, the open source container management tool originally developed inside Google.

AWS was smart enough to recognize that Kubernetes is becoming an industry standard in itself, and that when it comes to build versus buy versus going open source, AWS wisely recognized that battle has been fought and won.

Once it recognized Googles dominance in container management, the next logical step was to join the CNCF and adhere to the same container standards the entire industry is using. Sometimes its better to switch than fight, and this was clearly one of those times.

What we have now is aclearer path to containerization, a technology that is all the rage inside large companies for many good reasons. They allow you to break down the application into discrete manageable chunks, making updates a heck of a lot easier, and clearly dividing developer tasks and operations tasks in a DevOps model.

Standards provide a common basis for managing containers. Everyone can build their own tools on top of them. Google already has when it built Kubernetes, Red Hat has OpenShift, Microsoft makes Azure Container Service and so forth and so on.

Companies like standards because they know the technology is going to work a certain way, regardless of who built it. Each vendor provides a similar set of basic services, then differentiates itself based on what it builds on top.

Technology tends to take off once a standard is agreed upon by the majority of the industry. Look at the World Wide Web. It has taken off because there is a standard way of building web sites. When companies agree to the building blocks, everything else seems to fall into place.

A lack of standards has traditionally held back technology. Having common building blocks just make sense. Sometimes a clear market leader doesnt always agree. Today AWS showed why it matters, even to them.

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AWS just proved why standards drive technology platforms - TechCrunch

The technology industry is a great place to find innovative stocks with the potential for huge gains, and many investors like to use index-tracking investments like exchange-traded funds to take advantage of opportunities in particular niches of the market. The most popular ETFs in the technology space are heavily weighted toward the behemoths of the industry, but for top returns, you have to drill down a bit deeper and find the most promising corners of technology. The funds below are among the top-performing index ETFs in technology in 2017, and they've all attracted at least $100 million in assets because of their success.

Technology Fund

Assets Under Management

Expense Ratio

Year-to-Date Return

Guggenheim China Technology (NYSEMKT:CQQQ)

$155 million

0.70%

49%

Global X Social Media Index (NASDAQ:SOCL)

$155 million

0.65%

39%

PowerShares Nasdaq Internet (NASDAQ:PNQI)

$467 million

0.60%

32%

iShares North American Tech-Software (NYSEMKT:IGV)

$1.07 billion

0.48%

29%

iShares Global Tech (NYSEMKT:IXN)

$1.26 billion

0.48%

27%

Robo Global Robotics and Automation Index (NASDAQ:ROBO)

$1.01 billion

26%

Data source: Fund providers.

Each of the funds above focuses on a different area of the technology sector, but they've all found ways to profit. The Guggenheim China fund concentrates its portfolio on Chinese stocks, with all of the nation's top e-commerce and internet companies represented among the portfolio's top holdings. The idea of the fund is to benefit from China's goal to become a digital nation both for enterprises and for ordinary citizens, and that theme has worked extremely well so far this year as investors rediscover the growth potential of the Chinese economy.

The Global X Social Media ETF has also benefited from the rise of Chinese tech companies, with about a third of its assets in emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific region. Yet this fund isn't afraid to tread in busier areas, with the two top social media plays in the U.S. also among its top holdings. You'll find a variety of approaches to social media, including microblogging and video-gaming companies, as well as more traditional social networking tools. Strong performance globally in this niche has sent shares of the ETF sharply higher in 2017.

The PowerShares Internet fund offers a more domestically focused equivalent of what the Guggenheim China fund does internationally, with broad-based exposure to companies that benefit from the internet. From social networks and video-streaming services to online travel and e-commerce websites, the PowerShares fund tracks Nasdaq-listed internet stocks, so about three-quarters of its holdings are U.S. companies, with most of the remainder giving it exposure to China.

Image source: Getty Images.

Internet stocks have been hot, but they aren't the only investment vehicles to make money in technology. The iShares North American Tech-Software ETF focuses on software development companies, and among its top holdings, you'll find some of the colossuses of the tech world. The top producers of database, publishing, office, customer relationship management, and video game software are all among the fund's top holdings, and solid performance from these stocks in general has helped lift the fund higher.

The iShares Global Tech fund goes even further, giving investors the who's who of technology companies around the world. U.S. companies dominate the list, making up all of the top five holdings and representing more than 75% of the fund's assets. Stocks from Japan, Korea, China, and various parts of Europe round out the portfolio, offering a well-diversified but megacap-heavy set of holdings to its investors.

Finally, the Robo Global ETF focuses on companies in the robotics and automation fields from various corners of the world. The fund has a decidedly smaller-company focus, with a third of its assets invested in small-cap stocks and another 42% in mid caps. You'll find producers of unmanned aerial vehicles, robotic surgical equipment, and autonomous vacuum cleaners among its holdings, along with makers of enabling technology to help further robotics and automation enterprises.

The technology sector is a fertile ground for high-growth companies, and there are many ways to position yourself to produce long-term gains. The six funds above have been among the most successful this year, but dozens of other tech ETFs have the potential to become the winners of tomorrow as well.

Dan Caplinger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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These Technology Index Funds Are Crushing It in 2017 - Motley Fool

Every day, more than 10 Americans suffer amputations on what is by far the most dangerous woodworking tools: the table saw. Regulators in Washington, D.C., are moving closer to adopting a rule that would make new saws so much safer that they could prevent 99 percent of serious accidents.

But even after more than a decade of study, and the existence of a proven technology that all sides agree works astoundingly well to prevent injuries, it's unclear if the Consumer Product Safety Commission will finally pass a rule requiring all new saws to have an active injury prevention monitoring system built into them.

SawStop founder Steve Gass testifies at a Consumer Product Safety Commission. Chris Arnold/NPR hide caption

SawStop founder Steve Gass testifies at a Consumer Product Safety Commission.

We did our first story on this issue in 2004. I saw a small ad in the back of a woodworking magazine. It read something like: Sawstop: the table saw that won't cut off your fingers. That sounded like a pretty good innovation. A table saw has a big jagged metal blade that spins at 100 mph, and a lot of people get hurt using this type of saw.

I called the company and talked to inventor Steve Gass. He had this amazing story to tell. "I was just out in my shop one day, and I happened to look over at my table saw and thought, `You know, I wonder, if you ran your hand under the blade, if you could stop it quick enough that you wouldn't get a serious injury,' " Gass says. "And it seemed doable."

Gass is a physicist and he designed a saw that could tell the difference between when it was cutting wood and the instant it started cutting a human finger or hand. The technology is beautiful in its simplicity: wood doesn't conduct electricity, but you do. Humans are made up mostly of salty water a great conductor.

The SawStop senses an electrical current in the hot dog. Courtesy of SawStop hide caption

The SawStop senses an electrical current in the hot dog.

Gass induced a very weak electric current onto the blade of the saw. He put an inexpensive little sensing device inside it. And if the saw nicks a finger, within 3/1000ths of a second, it fires a break that stops the blade. Gass demonstrates this in an epic demonstration video using a hot dog in place of a finger. The blade looks like it just vanishes into the table.

There was a big need for this invention. Every year more than 4,000 Americans suffer amputations, get their hands mangled using table saws. Upwards of 30,000 people wind up in emergency rooms with lesser injuries. And Gass had figured out a safety brake that could prevent all those accidents.

A hot dog with a slight nick Courtesy of SawStop hide caption

A hot dog with a slight nick

He called all the major power tool companies telling them about his breakthrough but none of them wanted to buy his safety break. He says one company told him "safety doesn't sell." "I was just shocked," Gass said. "That's crazy."

Gass started his own saw company and proved the technology worked. In 2003, he petitioned the Consumer Product Safety Commission asking them to require the rest of the industry to make their saws safer too.

On Wednesday, Steve Gass was back in Washington at an SPSC hearing this time asking: why haven't you done this yet?

"You commissioners have the power to take one of the most dangerous products ever available to consumers and make it vastly safer," Gass said at the public hearing. "And yet, here we are over 14 years later after this petition was initially filed, still engaged in a glacial process with an uncertain end. There's no time left to waste."

Josh Ward Mollie Simon/NPR hide caption

Josh Ward

Earlier this year, the safety commission voted to take a key step toward a new safety rule for saws. The CPSC staff recommended creating a mandatory standard requiring saws to have sensing technology that could stop the blade to prevent injuries. And it has issued a draft of the proposed rule for public comment.

Gass told the commissioners that history has continued to prove his technology effective. To this day the company says Sawstop has never been involved in a serious table saw accident and has documented more than 5,000 "finger saves." He estimates his saws are "99 percent" effective at preventing injuries.

The hearing was also a chance for the broader industry and the public to weigh in. Joshua Ward from Oregon wanted to be there. In 2013, Ward was in a woodshop class in high school when the table saw he was using jerked the wood he was cutting in a way that sent his left hand smashing into the spinning blade. Four of his fingers were either cut off or badly mangled.

Beyond the surgeries and the pain, Ward says it's limited his life. His dad's a firefighter and he says he grew up in the firehouse with his dad everyday. It's kind of been a life-long dream of mine to be a firefighter, it's been in my family forever, and this injury has put that to an end," Ward said.

"As we speak it's about 12:30," Ward said adding that means, "Six people have already had fingers amputated today. And another 10 tomorrow. So I come with frustration and I'm really hoping that we adopt this mandatory standard."

Even after all this time, it's unclear if the CPSC will vote to adopt the rule. The industry for years has had a long list of complaints and concerns about mandating this kind of safety standard. For one, adding the safety technology will add cost to the saws. The industry has said the cost is too onerous. But those cost estimates have ranged over time.

Steve Gass says Sawstop is about to come out with a $400 saw with his injury prevention system. The cheapest table saws sell for a bit under $200. So that is double the price of those inexpensive saws.

CPSC commissioners in favor of the rule point out though that the $200 price difference is dwarfed by the financial cost and pain and suffering harm caused by 30,000 ER visits and more than 4,000 amputations every year. CPSC's analysis puts the annual cost of table saw accidents at around $4 billion.

Susan Young with the industry group the Power Tool Institute claimed at the hearing that some of the commissions' research in this area is flawed. She said the proposed rule needs even more study and "lacks essential data from critical studies currently being conducted and continuing throughout 2017."

CPSC Acting Chairman Ann Marie Buerkle said she was also concerned that the rule might force companies to license technology from Sawstop, which she said might create a monopoly. "As a regulator said, 'I am not comfortable creating a monopoly,' " Buerkle said.

Other commissioners said that the rule wouldn't create some kind of unfair monopoly. They said that's not the CSPC's concern anyway which companies win or lose because of a safety rule.

Sally Greenberg the executive director of the National Consumers League agrees, "That isn't their job, their job is to get safer products to the marketplace."

Meanwhile, Congress has thrown up a roadblock against safer saws.

The House Committee on Appropriations approved a bill for the 2018 fiscal year which includes a clause prohibiting CPSC from acting on table saw safety.

"None of the funds appropriated by this Act may be used to finalize any rule by the Consumer Product Safety Commission relating to blade-contact injuries on table saws," the rider on the budget bill reads.

Republican Rep. Tom Graves of Georgia, who chairs the Financial Services and General Government subcommittee where the rider originated, was unavailable for an interview.

The Power Tool Institute has already invested tens of thousands of dollars this year to lobby Congress against the CPSC rule.

But, the rider has not yet passed in the Senate, where Greenberg, of the National Consumers League, says it may be easier to remove.

But with uncertainty about how to move forward, CPSC Commissioner Elliot Kaye had a message for Joshua Ward who was injured in a woodshop class.

"Mr. Ward. I want to apologize to you personally that we failed you, and that we continue to fail the 10 victims a day that you mentioned earlier," Kaye said. "We should do better. We can do better."

For his part, CPSC Commissioner Robert Adler hopes his agency will push ahead with a final rule requiring safer standards for table saws. "Oh absolutely I do," Adler said. "These injuries are many, they are ghastly and I believe the technology will eliminate almost all of them."

For now, the Consumer Product Safety Commission will be analyzing public comments. It might revise its proposed rule after that. Then the commission could vote on whether to make table saws a whole lot safer.

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Despite Proven Technology, Attempts To Make Table Saws Safer Drag On - NPR

The technology sector continues to grow at a rapid pace even with all of the major markets at or near record levels. But the question arises, is there still room for growth for the remainder of 2017 and beyond? The answer is YES. Technology companies have posted solid earnings for the second quarter with the S&P 500 technology sector posting +16.5% year-over-year earnings growth. These positive earnings numbers combined with solid valuations give the sector strong upside growth opportunities. Moreover, low unemployment, an improving jobs picture, and international expansion act as further tailwinds for the sector.

This positive sentiment will help mutual funds that are overweighed in the technology sector produce outsized gains over the next several quarters. We have identified four such funds that are well-positioned to take advantage of the tech surge.

When looking for the best mutual funds, we need a method for narrowing down the universe of potential mutual fund options. This is easily accomplished by utilizing the Zacks Mutual Fund Screener; this tool enables the investor to filter out 60 different categories, and narrow down the scope of mutual fund options. For this writing we utilized 4 of the larger filters, Mutual Fund Rank = 1, Expense Ratio <= 1.1, % Stocks > 65%, and % Technology > 65%. These filters produced 7 funds, and from that list we chose the top 4. We wanted to find the top ranked funds with low expense ratios that are heavily weighted in technology stocks.

Please note, that there will be references to load fees, and expense ratios; if you click on the hyperlinks you will be directed to a brief article explaining in detail what those fees and expenses are, and how they impact your mutual fund returns.

Fidelity Select Computers Portfolio (MUTF:FDCPX) was incepted in July 1985 and is managed by the Fidelity Group. The objective of this technology fund is to seek capital appreciation. The fund normally invests at least 80% of assets in common stocks of companies principally engaged in research, design, development, manufacture, or distribution of products, processes, or services that relate to currently available or experimental hardware technology within the computer industry. The fund offers dividends and capital gains in April and December.

Cost specifics: The minimum initial investment is $2,500, it has no load fees, but does have a 0.55% management fee, a 0.75% redemption fee, and a total expense ratio of 0.81.

Performance and Management: YTD +16.49%, 1 year 37.72%, 5 year +12.04%, and 10 year +9.42%. FDCPX is managed by Christopher Lin who earned his economics degree from Harvard with honors. He has managed this portfolio since 2013.

Top Holdings: As of the most recent filing the portfolio held positions in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Samsung (OTC:SSNLF), HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ), Western Digital (NYSE:WDC), and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB).

Columbia Global Technology Growth (MUTF:CMTFX) was incepted in November 2002 and is managed by Columbia Management Advisors, Inc. The fund seeks capital appreciation. Under normal market conditions, the manager invests at least 80% of the fund's total assets in stocks of technology companies that may benefit from technological improvements, advancements or developments. The fund invests in companies of all sizes, and expects to invest a significant percentage of its assets in small and mid-cap companies. The fund may also invest, to a limited extent, in foreign securities, including American Depositary Receipts. Dividends and capital gains, if any, are distributed annually.

Cost specifics: There is a minimum $2,500 initial investment, with a 0.87% management fee, and a total expense ratio of 1.08. This fund does not have any load fees.

Performance and Management: YTD +20.95%, 1 year +37.03%, 5 year +22.10%, and 10 year +10.35%. CMTFX is managed by Rahul Narang who has won the Lipper Fund Award for the Best in three-year performance Science Technology fund category. He has managed this fund since 2012.

Top Holdings: As of the most recent filing the portfolio held some of the big tech names including Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Apple, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Facebook, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), and Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT).

Fidelity Select Semiconductors Portfolio (MUTF:FSELX) was incepted in July 1985 and is managed by Fidelity Group. The objective of the fund is to seek capital appreciation. The fund normally invests at least 80% of assets in common stocks of companies principally engaged in the design, manufacture, or sale of electronic components (semiconductors, connectors, printed circuit boards, and other components); equipment vendors to electronic component manufacturers; electronic component distributors; and electronic instruments and electronic systems vendors. The fund offers dividends and capital gains twice a year in April and December.

Cost specifics: The minimum initial investment is $2,500, it has no load fees, yet it does have a 0.55% management fee, a 0.75% redemption fee, and a total expense ratio of 0.75.

Performance and Management: YTD +10.5%, 1 year +41.15%, 5 year 23.15%, and 10 year +10.61%. FSELX is managed by Steve S Barwikowski who has managed the portfolio since 2009.

Top Holdings: As of the most recent filing, the portfolio held Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), Broadcom Limited (NASDAQ:AVGO), Analog Devices (NASDAQ:ADI), and Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU).

Fidelity Select Technology (MUTF:FSPTX) was incepted on July 14, 1981, and is managed by the Fidelity Group. The objective of the fund is to seek capital appreciation. Normally the fund invests at least 80% of assets in common stocks of companies principally engaged in offering, using, or developing products, processes, or services that will provide or will benefit significantly from technological advances and improvements. The fund offers dividends and capital gains twice a year in the month of April and December.

Cost specifics: The minimum initial investment is $2,500, there are no load fees associated with the fund, but it does have a 0.55% management fee, and a total expense ratio of 0.76.

Performance and Management: YTD +27.83%, 1 year +44.45%, 5 year 18.42%, 10 year +11.42%. FSPTX is managed by Charlie Chai who is a CFA, with a BS degree in math and economics from Dartmouth College. Mr. Chai has been managing this fund since 2007.

Top Holdings: As of the most recent filing the portfolio consisted of companies like Apple, Facebook, Alphabet, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK).

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4 Best Technology Mutual Funds With Low Expense Ratios - Seeking Alpha

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Researchers in the United States have unveiled a prototype of a battery-free mobile phone, using technology they hope will eventually come to be integrated into mass-market products.

The phone is the work of a group of researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle and works by harvesting tiny amounts of power from radio signals, known as radio frequency or 'RF' waves.

"Ambient RF waves are all around us so, as an example, your FM station broadcasts radio waves, your AM stations do that, your TV stations, your cellphone towers. They all are transmitting RF waves," team member Vamsi Talla told Reuters.

The phone is a first prototype and its operation is basic - at first glance it looks little more than a circuit board with a few parts attached and the caller must wear headphones and press a button to switch between talking and listening.

But researchers say there are plans to develop further prototypes, featuring a low-power screen for texting and even a basic camera. They also plan a version of the battery-free phone that uses a tiny solar cell to provide power.

The researchers plan to release a product in eight to nine months time, thought they would not give further details. One team member however, was prepared to give a glimpse of how their work will impact the future of cellphone technology.

"In the future every smartphone will come with a battery-free mode where you can at least make a voice call when your battery's dead."

The initiative is not the only one seeking to improve the way that mobile technology is powered. Researchers at the Universities of Bristol and Surrey in Britain, are developing supercapacitors, which they believe will eventually allow devices to charge in a period of a few minutes.

Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Mark Hanrahan in London; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky

The rest is here:

Mass market hopes for battery-free cell phone technology - Reuters

Jordan Blum, Houston Chronicle

CB&I has launched a recruitment and training campaign, an executive said at an engineering and construction forum this week.

CB&I has launched a recruitment and training campaign, an executive said at an engineering and construction forum this week.

CB&I selling technology business, suspending dividend

Financially struggling energy contractor CB&I said it's putting its technology business up for sale and suspending its investor payouts to help stabilize the bottom line.

With the energy sector's construction boom largely stalled, The Woodlands-based CB&I reported a $425 million quarterly loss on Wednesday and revealed that its revenues fell more than 40 percent from the same time last year.

CB&I's goal now is to come out of this difficult period as a smaller, more focused companygeared toward the liquefied natural gas, petrochemical, refining and gas power generation sectors, said new CEO Patrick Mullen. Much of the LNG and petrochemical growth is occurring along the Gulf Coast.

The former chief operating officer just stepped into the CEO role in July after longtime Chief Executive Philip Asherman retired.

"Although our second quarter results are disappointing, we are taking decisive actions to improve our operating performance and strengthen the company's financial position," Mullen said late Wednesday afternoon. "We have initiated a comprehensive cost reduction program and suspended our dividend."

He did not immediately provide any information on potential layoffs. The shareholder dividend paid out 7 cents per share each quarter.

CB&I employed about 32,000 people at the end of June, down from about 40,000 before it sold its capital services business earlier this year. CB&I also sold its nuclear construction business less than two years ago. CB&I employed about 54,000 people before exiting the nuclear business. CB&I first acquired the nuclear construction business as part of its $3 billion acquisition of The Shaw Group in 2012.

The selloff is continuing with the technology business to reduce its debt and help CB&I focus on its strengths in engineering, construction and fabrication, Mullen said.

The technology business includes about 3,000 patents and patent application trademarks and more than 100 licensed technologies in its engineering and fabrication work, according to CB&I.

Continued here:

CB&I selling technology business, suspending dividend - Chron.com

Jason VandeBoom Founder and CEO ActiveCampaign

When it comes to marketing technology, the argument for using best-of-breed tools is cleartheyre the best in their respective categories. But for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), using multiple marketing technologies can be cost-prohibitive, and the challenge of integrating them can be unmanageable. But Jason VandeBoom, founder and CEO of marketing automation provider ActiveCampaign, says sometimes its worth it. VandeBoom spoke with eMarketers Maria Minsker about why all-in-one marketing technology suites are not the right route for smaller organizations.

eMarketer: What are some of the biggest challenges SMBs face with regard to marketing technology?

Jason VandeBoom: Technology providers that target these markets focus on building all-in-one tools. The problem with that is, although they say they can do it all, theyre not advanced when it comes to specific capabilities. As a result, customers that use these platforms only tend to use a small percentage of it and dont really benefit from most of the technology theyre paying for.

eMarketer: Using best-of-breed tools means integration challenges. How can smaller companies deal with those challenges?

VandeBoom: Regardless of company size, if integration isnt carried out correctly, best-of-breed tools can cause more pain than good. Companies should seek out tools with built-in integrations, or look to third parties for connector technologies and applications that can group tools and data together to make insight more actionable. Smaller businesses need partners that can provide integration and do some of the work for them.

Smaller businesses need partners that can provide integration and do some of the work for them.

eMarketer: Are best-of-breed tools scalable? Should growing businesses switch to multisolution suites?

VandeBoom: As businesses grow, it actually becomes more obvious that all-in-one solution suites are not the way to go. There are very few medium-sized companies that are able to find all the tools they need in a single package and actually be satisfied with the breadth and capabilities that those tools provide.

eMarketer: How can companies that use best-of-breed tools make sure they dont fall into the trap of chasing the latest and greatest products?

VandeBoom: SMBs often look for tools that are accessible to users without a technical background, so industry buzz about certain types of technology doesnt really influence them. Regardless, businesses should be focused on the outcome of their marketing efforts, not the tool theyre using.

Industry buzz about certain types of technology doesnt really influence [SMBs].

eMarketer: Do you anticipate that more businesses will leave multisolution suites behind and shift to best-of-breed technologies?

VandeBoom: There is going to be a bigger push against all-in-one tools. But to attract SMBs, best-of-breed technology providers are going to have to make an effort to develop tools that are more integrated, suggestive and autonomous, so that marketers at SMBs can take advantage of opportunities that are hard to spot.

Excerpt from:

Why SMBs Should Opt for Best-of-Breed Marketing Technology - eMarketer

Mazda

Fresh on the heels of last week's tie-up with Toyota, Mazda announced on Tuesday that it has finally made a breakthrough in gasoline engine technology. Mazda is calling it Skyactive-X; we know it better as homogeneous charge compression ignition, or HCCI. It should mean a 20- to 30-percent boost in efficiency compared to Mazda's current gasoline direct-injection engines, and we may well see it in the next revision to the Mazda 3.

HCCI engines have been one of those "if only" technologies for some time now. Kyle Niemeyer first covered the idea back in 2012 for Ars as part of a deep dive into new engine tech that could help meet looming efficiency requirements for automakers.

In essence, HCCI is an attempt to run a gasoline engine like a diesel instead. Rather than squirt fuel into a cylinderdone directly, at high pressure, in the case of Mazda's current gasoline enginesthen ignite it with a spark, the fuel and air are well-mixed and then compressed to achieve the banginsuck, squeeze, bang, blow.

Because the fuel and air are so well-mixed, combustion should happen simultaneously at multiple points within the cylinder's volume, burning more evenly, at a lower temperature, with fewer particulates or nitrogen oxides in the exhaust than a normal spark-ignited gasoline engine or a diesel engine. Making it work is apparently much harder than describing it; at various times, General Motors, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Honda, and Bosch have all tried their hand at the technology to little avail.

But Mazda is nothing if not stubborn when it comes to eclectic engine technologies; after all, it bravely persevered with the rotary engine for decades. In January,there were signs that it had made real progress with HCCI, and today we have the confirmation as part of a broader announcement from Mazda about its new long-term sustainability plan. Another element of the plangiven the catchy title "Sustainable Zoom-Zoom 2030"is to start introducing EVs and hybrids "in regions that use a high ratio of clean energy for power generation or restrict certain vehicles to reduce air pollution."

The new HCCI engines will still use the good-old spark plug; for some operating conditions, it's better to run it as a conventional spark-ignition engine. Mazda says it has perfected the control issues that let the engine know when to transition between spark ignition and when things can be leaned-out enough to use HCCI, and it's calling it "spark controlled compression ignition."

The engines will also be supercharged, so they will be torquier than the current Mazda gasoline-powered engine range, and they'll be cleaner and more efficient. (Mazda's press release says that, volume for volume, they should be comparable to its current turbodiesel range in that regard.)

Reuters reports that Mazda also plans to keep HCCI to itself, although we wonder if that applies to its new best friend Toyota.

We know there is a vocal population who would like to see OEMs like Mazda give up development of new internal combustion engine technology altogether, focusing instead on fully switching over to battery electric vehicles. These days,national governments are throwing out dates like 2030 and 2040 for banning new fossil-fueled vehicles from sale.

But 2040 is aways off, and if William Gibson has taught us anything, it's that the future is not evenly distributed. Certainly in the mid-term, there will be a use for hydrocarbon-fueled vehicles, particularly outside of dense urban corridors where average journeys are shorter and recharging infrastructure is thicker on the ground. So anything that makes those vehicles cleaner and more efficient ought to be viewed as a good thing.

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Mazda says it has made a long-awaited breakthrough in engine technology - Ars Technica

A technician works on a double deployed cubesat in the Clyde Space clean room. Credit: Clyde Space

LOGAN, Utah Scotlands Clyde Space will build buses for three small satellites Silicon Valley startup Audacy plans to send into medium Earth orbit in 2019, according to an agreement announced Aug. 8 at the Small Satellite conference here.

Audacy is seeking to establish a commercial version of NASAs Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, which transmits communications from satellites to ground stations. With satellites in medium Earth orbit, Audacy plans to offer simultaneous access to its network for customers operating thousands of satellites, launch vehicles and human spaceflight missions.

Before establishing its operational constellation of satellites weighing hundreds of kilograms, Audacy wants to demonstrate its technology, including customer satellite terminals featuring K-band antennas and software defined radios, on the cubesats built by Clyde Space, James Spicer, Audacy chief engineer, said by email.

Craig Clark, Clyde Space chief executive, said he was delighted to win Audacys order because the firm has an awesome concept and because Audacy conducted an exhaustive review of the market before selecting Clyde Space for its demonstration mission. I really like this win. I wanted to work with them, Clark told SpaceNews.

In addition to building the satellite bus, Clyde Space will bring Audacy personnel into its Glasgow facility to help them design their technology demonstration mission and operate the cubesats, Clark said.

Through the demonstration mission, Audacy will support numerous customer satellites with a range of missions and applications in multiple sectors from agriculture to disaster management, according to the announcement.

Audacy, a company established in 2015 by co-founders who met at Stanford Universitys Graduate School of Business, established its first ground station in San Francisco in 2017 and its second, in Singapore in 2018. As demand grows, the firm plans to build a third ground station in Luxembourg.

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Clyde Space to build cubesats for Audacy technology demonstration - SpaceNews