November 16, 2021

Cawood Scientific Group Joins Ensign-Bickford Industries

DENVER, Nov. 16, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ensign-Bickford Industries, Inc. (EBI) today announced it has successfully closed on its acquisition of Cawood Scientific Limited (Cawood), headquartered in Bracknell, UK.

Headquartered in Denver, CO, EBI is a 185-year-old privately held corporation with diversified businesses in aerospace and defense, molecular diagnostics, and pet food palatability markets. Cawood Scientific is the UK’s leading independent scientific group, with laboratories throughout the UK, EU, and US serving the agriculture, food, and environmental sectors. Cawood will become a member of EBI’s Agriculture and Environmental Diagnostics Group.

Commenting on the acquisition, EBI President and CEO Tom Perlitz said, “Cawood has more than just exceptional growth potential, it comes to us as a thriving business with a solid market position and great talent – built on a set of strong principles that very closely mirror the core values of EBI. This partnership will support both goals to expand our diagnostic offerings and extend our reach in global markets, and we could not be more pleased to welcome Cawood into the EBI family.”

“Over the last 18 months, Cawood has doubled in size, following significant investment in acquisitions, equipment, and technology, and EBI is committed to supporting and guiding that strategic growth long-term,” said Cawood’s Simon Parrington, who will continue as the Cawood Group CEO.

Tom Perlitz also noted, “Cawood will represent a unique partnership with EBI’s EnviroLogix business that will strengthen and grow EBI’s foothold in the agricultural supply chain. With the addition of Cawood’s capabilities to our diagnostics growth platform, we will be able to offer a compelling farm-to-feed diagnostic solution for our customers in the ag industry as we expand globally.”

Ensign-Bickford Industries (EBI) is a 185-year-old privately held corporation with diversified businesses in aerospace & defense, molecular diagnostics, and pet food palatability markets. EBI’s businesses provide the global marketplace value-added products and services, including palatability enhancers for the pet food industry, precision energetic systems for the aerospace market, innovative explosive and non-explosive solutions for defense customers, and molecular and protein detection for the agricultural industry. EBI is headquartered in Denver, CO. For more information, visit http://www.ensign-bickfordind.com/

Cawood Scientific Limited (Cawood), is the UK’s leading independent scientific group, with offices in the US, Spain, Czech Republic, and Republic of Ireland. The group provides independent laboratory analysis for the agriculture, food, infrastructure, and environmental sectors, as well as contract research to support the development of agrochemicals, biocides, and other chemicals. For more information visit https://cawood.co.uk/

Media Contact
Alexandra Ulrich
ajulrich@envirologix.com
207-274-6503

November 16, 2021

Review of Regional Weather for October 2021

1. Overview

1.1 During October 2021, above-average rainfall was recorded over much of the northern ASEAN region, while a mix of below- to above-average rainfall was recorded over the southern ASEAN region (Figure 1). For the northern ASEAN region, above-average rainfall was recorded apart from over central and northern Myanmar and parts of the Philippines. The largest positive anomalies (wetter conditions) were recorded over eastern Mainland Southeast Asia for both satellite-derived rainfall estimates datasets (GSMaP-NRT and CMORPH-Blended), which was associated with Severe Tropical Storm Kompasu. A second tropical storm, Tropical Storm Lionrock, crossed the central Philippines at the start of October, contributing to the large positive anomalies in the ocean region around the Philippines (GSMaP-NRT). For the southern ASEAN region, negative anomalies (drier conditions) were recorded over western parts as well as northern Borneo, although the negative anomalies were larger based on CMORPH-Blended data compared to GSMaP-NRT. Elsewhere in the southern ASEAN region, rainfall tended to be near-to above-average during October 2021.

1.2 The observed rainfall anomaly pattern of above-average rainfall for much of the northern ASEAN region and a mix of below- to above-average rainfall for the southern ASEAN region is broadly consistent with the predictions from the subseasonal weather outlooks for October 2021 (4 – 17 October and 18 – 31 October).

Figure 1: Rainfall anomalies for the month of October 2021 based on GSMaP-NRT data (left) and CMORPH-Blended data (right). The climatological reference period is 2001-2020. Green colour denotes above-average rainfall (wetter), while orange denotes below-average rainfall (drier).

1.3 Most of the ASEAN region experienced near to above-average temperatures during October 2021 (Figure 2). The exception was over eastern parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, which experienced below- to near-average temperatures. The largest positive anomalies (warmer temperatures) were over northern Myanmar and the western Maritime Continent where negative rainfall anomalies (drier conditions) were also recorded.

Figure 2: Temperature anomalies for the month of October 2021 based on ERA-5 reanalysis. The climatological reference period is 2001-2020. Red colour denotes above-average temperature (warmer), while blue denotes below-average temperature (colder).

2. Climate Drivers

2.1 The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO, Figure 3) signal was present over the Maritime Continent at the start of October 2021 (Phases 4 and 5). However, this signal weakened rapidly as it approached the Western Pacific (Phase 6) likely influenced by the background La Niña conditions. For the rest of October, there was no discernible MJO signal, based on the MJO phase diagram below. Phases 4 and 5 tend to bring wetter conditions to parts of the ASEAN region around 10°N, while Phase 5 tends to bring drier conditions to the western Maritime Continent.

Figure 3: The MJO phase diagram. The diagram illustrates the movement of the MJO through different phases, which correspond to different locations along the equator (denoted in the text with the first day of the month in blue and the last day of the month in red). The distance of the index from the centre of the diagram is related to the strength of the MJO. Values within the grey circle are considered weak or indiscernible (data from the Bureau of Meteorology, Australia).

2.2 By the end of October 2021, La Niña conditions were present in the tropical Pacific. Sea surface temperatures in the Nino3.4 region (used to monitor ENSO) continued to cool, with some signs of La Niña conditions in the atmosphere. A weak negative Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) was present and at the seasonal timescale, negative IOD events tend to bring wetter conditions to the southern Maritime Continent.

November 16, 2021

InDevR Launches ArrayMax Mixer for Even Faster VaxArray Assay Times

Featured Image for InDevR, Inc.

BOULDER, Colo., Nov. 16, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — InDevR, Inc., a life science tools company providing powerful analytical technologies to support the development and production of vaccines and biotherapeutics, announced commercial availability of its new ArrayMax^TM Mixer to provide significantly reduced assay times for its VaxArray® Portfolio of immunoassay kits.

Current VaxArray Assays include kits for influenza, coronavirus, measles/rubella, and polio, and provide vaccine manufacturers faster characterization of identity, quantity, and stability parameters during manufacture and release of vaccine products. The ArrayMax Mixer significantly improves mixing over static incubation or traditional orbital shakers during assay execution using either antibody or antigen samples. In internal validation studies comparing ArrayMax to original VaxArray protocols, similar or improved analytical performance was obtained using new ArrayMax-executed VaxArray protocols and up to an 85% reduction of time to result was obtained.

In a small 6″x 6″ footprint, this convenient new tool provides the possibility to generate VaxArray results in a fraction of the time compared to traditional ELISA, providing a total assay time of less than one hour for currently available VaxArray Kits. As an example, the VaxArray Influenza Seasonal HA Assay previously had an approximate 2.5 hour time to result including sample preparation. Using the ArrayMax Mixer, the total assay time was reduced to < 30 minutes, which provides a 5x faster time to result. Coupled with high throughput multiplex detection of several analytes simultaneously, VaxArray allows incredibly fast, best-in-class immunoassay detection of vaccine products or serology analytes. InDevR also offers custom immunoassay kits for measurement of up to nine analytes, and ArrayMax enables all of these measurements in ~1 hour.

Erica Dawson, CTO of InDevR, noted, “Our VaxArray Assay Kits already provide significant advantages over outdated, laborious, and error prone techniques such as SRID, TCID₅₀, and ELISAs. This further reduction in total assay time for the VaxArray Kits will benefit any vaccine development or manufacturer in bioprocess development, optimization and monitoring, as well as vaccine release testing. We are excited to continue empowering vaccine producers by further expanding our portfolio.”

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Media Contact:

Terry Salyer, CCO

Phone: 650-520-8251

Email: salyer@indevr.com

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November 16, 2021November 17, 2021

Iran, Turkey Agree To Develop “Cooperation Roadmap” Vow To Boost All-Out Ties

TEHRAN– Iranian foreign minister and his visiting Turkish counterpart, yesterday agreed on designing a long-term “cooperation roadmap” and vowed to further comprehensive ties.

At the joint press conference held in the capital, Tehran, the Iranian Minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, said, both sides agreed to draw up a new roadmap for a long-term cooperation between Tehran and Ankara.

Amir Abdollahian called relations between Iran and Turkey “friendly, historical and sincere” and said, “We are looking forward to the upcoming visit of the President of Turkey to Tehran. We will be able to finalise the roadmap for long-term cooperation between our two countries.”

He expressed the hope that the existing trade barriers between the two countries will be quickly removed by developing joint mechanisms.

“In today’s (yesterday’s) meeting, we paid special attention to facilitating transit traffic and consular issues, and we don’t see any obstacles to accelerate this cooperation,” he noted.

Under the circumstances of pandemic, Iran and Turkey’s trade relations were affected to some extent, however, both have been able to manage continuation of these relations, he said.

Asked about tripartite cooperation to open a trade route from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) through Iran to Turkey, Amir Abdollahian said, “We are considering trilateral and multilateral cooperation, given the existing capacities in the region.”

As for regional and international issues, he stated that, there is a lot of consensus between Iran and Turkey on regional issues, which were considered during yesterday’s talks.

“We had a good conversation on various international and regional issues, focusing on the recent developments in Afghanistan and emphasising the stability of security in West Asia.”

With reference to the existing crisis in Yemen, the Iranian foreign minister expressed his hope that the civil war in the Arab state would end as soon as possible and it would bring an end to the humanitarian siege imposed on the country.

He also pointed to the recent developments in Lebanon, noting that, “we are concerned about what happened in the diplomatic area and the closure of some Arab embassies in this country, and we will continue our policies to support Lebanon.”

Iran and Turkey condemn the recent terrorist act against the Iraqi prime minister and hope that with the formation of a new parliament, stability will be restored in Iraq, said Abdollahian.

For his part, the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, expressed satisfaction with his visit to Iran and offered his sympathy with the victims of the recent earthquake in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province. “Turkey has always been a brother to Iran and is ready to provide any kind of services,” he said.

With reference to the upcoming talks on Iran’s nuclear programme, Cavusoglu urged the revival of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and lifting unilateral sanctions against Iran.

Expressing satisfaction with the resumption of JCPOA talks, he said, “I hope these talks will reach a positive result, not only for economic issues, but also for regional stability.”

He emphasised bilateral cooperation in regional issues as “important,” saying, Turkey is ready to cooperate with Iran on the issues about Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

November 16, 2021November 17, 2021

Singapore To Launch Vaccinated Travel Lanes With Five More Countries

SINGAPORE – Singapore will extend the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) arrangement, to include India, Indonesia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Ministry of Health said, in a press release yesterday.

The VTLs with India and Indonesia will start to work from Nov 29, and those with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE will be launched on Dec 6.

To date, Singapore launched VTLs with Australia, Brunei, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Britain, and the United States.

Singapore will also launch VTLs with Malaysia, Finland, and Sweden from Nov 29.

According to the health ministry, travellers under the VTL arrangement are not subject to Stay-Home Notice (SHN) on arrival. Instead, they will be required to produce a negative result of Pre-Departure Test, taken within two days prior to departure, and undergo an on-arrival PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test.

Yesterday, Singapore’s health ministry reported 2,069 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the total tally to 239,272. Meanwhile, eight more cases, aged from 71 to 96, were reported to have died from COVID-19, in the country, taking the COVID-19 death toll to 594.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

November 16, 2021November 17, 2021

Philippine President Duterte To Run For Senator In 2022 Elections

MANILA– Outgoing Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte, yesterday filed his certificate of candidacy for senator, in the May 2022 elections.

Duterte, 76, sent his lawyer to the Commission on Elections, to register yesterday, the last day for making candidate substitutions. He will run under political party Pederalismo ng Dugong Dakilang Samahan (PDDS), rather than his ruling PDP-Laban party.

Last month, Duterte said that, he was retiring from politics and will not run in the next elections “in obedience to the will of the people.”

Duterte was elected as president of the Philippines in 2016, and his term ends on June 30, 2022. The constitution limits Philippine presidents to a single six-year term. The next elections are scheduled to be held on May 9, 2022.

Duterte’s spokesperson, Harry Roque, also sought a senate seat in the coming elections, after resigning yesterday.

“Since I have filed my certificate of candidacy, I am no longer presidential spokesperson,” Roque told reporters, shortly after registering at the poll body.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK