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CHICAGO, Aug. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- At their July Advisory Task Force Meeting in Chicago, the National Transitions of Care Coalition (NTOCC), announced the formation of the Health Information Technology Work Group. The NTOCC HIT Work Group will focus on the national efforts to develop electronic medical records, HIT exchange and promote interoperability to advance improved patient care.

"With HIT now so closely linked to health reform, we see it as a critical component to achieving a more efficient health care system and equally important in facilitating smoother transitions in care that ultimately lead to better patient outcomes," said Cheri Lattimer, RN, BSN, and NTOCC Project Director." To this end, we have assembled a Work Group of notable HIT experts from various sectors of the health care industry." Members of the Work Group are -- Leah Binder, MA, MGA, CEO, The Leapfrog Group; H. Edward Davidson, PharmD, MPH, Assistant Professor Clinical Internal Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical School; Partner, Insight Therapeutics; David Dorr, Assistant Professor, Oregon Health & Science University; Jean Paul Gagnon, PhD, Senior Director, U.S. Policy & Strategic Advocacy, sanofi-aventis U.S.; Eva Powell, MSW, CPHG, Director Health Information Technology Project of The National Partnership for Women & Families; William M. Russell, Vice President, Clinical Information, Erickson Retirement Communities; Annette Schmidt, Director, External Affairs, sanofi-aventis U.S., and Charles Smith, PhD, CEO, CIGNA.

The HIT Work Group will begin a number of activities including, assessment of the barriers and gaps in health information technology related to transitions of care (TOC) and developing a White Paper that would provide recommendations on how to close gaps or remove barriers.

The Advisory Task Force reaffirmed their consensus on seven considerations for improving transitions. The Coalition is looking to build awareness among legislators and policymakers that these considerations should be part of any health care reform initiatives. The seven considerations are:

• Improve communication during transitions between providers, patients, and caregivers;
• Implement electronic medical records that include standardized medication reconciliation elements;
• Establish points of accountability for sending and receiving care, particularly for hospitalists, SNFists (physicians practicing in skilled nursing facilities), primary care physicians, and specialists;
• Increase the use of case management and professional care coordination;
• Expand the role of the pharmacist in transitions of care;
• Implement payment systems that align incentives; and
• Develop performance measures to encourage better transitions of care.
  

Transitions of care include situations in which a patient moves from primary care to specialty physicians or moves within the hospital, including moves from the emergency department to other departments, such as surgery or intensive care; or when a patient is discharged from the hospital and goes home or to an assisted living or skilled nursing facility. Patients, especially older persons, face significant challenges when moving from one level of care or practice setting to another in the healthcare system. During these transitions, lack of communication can result in redundant or conflicting information that often creates serious issues for patients, their caregivers, and their families.

NTOCC is chaired and coordinated by the Case Management Society of America in partnership with and financial support from sanofi-aventis, U.S.

About National Transitions of Care Coalition (NTOCC)

NTOCC was formed in 2006 to address a serious U.S. health care issue: filling the gaps that occur when patients leave one care setting and move to another care setting. These transitions include patients moving from primary care to specialty physicians; moving or transferring patients from the emergency department to intensive care or surgery; or when patients are discharged from the hospital to home, assisted living arrangements, or skilled nursing facilities. The U.S. healthcare system often fails to meet the needs of elderly patient populations during these transitions because care is rushed and responsibility is fragmented with little communication across care settings and multiple providers. These failures lead to undue burdens on patients and their families and negatively impact patient safety, quality of care and outcomes. The focus of NTOCC is to bring together thought leaders and health care experts from various settings to address this critical issue, define solutions and develop tools to address the gaps impacting patient care. Tools and resources developed by NTOCC will be made available to everyone in the health care industry including providers, payers, patients and consumers. NTOCC is chaired and coordinated by the Case Management Society of America in partnership with sanofi-aventis U.S. For more information, visit www.NTOCC.org.

The NTOCC Advisory Board has guided the work of the coalition since 2006 and includes the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP), American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA), American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), American Geriatrics Society (AGS), American Medical Directors Association (AMDA), American Medical Group Association (AMGA), American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM), American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), American Society on Aging (ASA), American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP), AXA Assistance USA Inc., Case Management Society of America (CMSA), Consumers Advancing Patient Safety (CAPS), Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG), Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), Joint Commission International Center for Patient Safety (ICPS) ,Lipitz Center for Integrated Health Care, Mid-America Coalition on Health Care (MACHC), National Association of Directors of Nursing Administration - Long Term Care (NADONA / LTC), National Association of Social Workers (NASW), National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH), National Case Management Network of Canada (NCMN), National Family Caregivers Association (NFCA), National Quality Forum (NQF), Predictive Health, LLC, sanofi-aventis, U.S., Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM), The Joint Commission Disease - Specific Care Certification, United Health Group (UHG) and URAC.

About Case Management Society of America (CMSA)

Established in 1990, the Case Management Society of America is an international non-profit 501(c)(6) multi-disciplinary professional association dedicated to the support and advancement of the case management profession through educational forums, networking opportunities, legislative advocacy, and establishing standards to advance the profession. It is based in Little Rock, AR, and serves more than 20,000 members/subscribers and 70 affiliate and pending chapters. Since its inception, CMSA has been at the forefront of setting professional standards for the industry, which allows for the highest level of efficiency and integrity, as well as developing national and local leaders who are recognized for their practice and professional excellence. For more information on CMSA, call CMSA at (501) 225-2229 or go to www.cmsa.org.

About sanofi-aventis

Sanofi-aventis U.S. is an affiliate of sanofi-aventis, a leading global pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and distributes therapeutic solutions to help improve the lives of patients. Sanofi-aventis is listed in Paris (EURONEXT: SAN) and in New York (NYSE: SNY). For more information, visit: www.sanofi-aventis.us or www.sanofi-aventis.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

    Cheri Lattimer, RN, BSN
   Project Director, NTOCC
   Executive Director, CMSA
   Phone: (501) 225-2229
   Email: clattimer@acminet.com

Lagos — Three Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife professors, Timi Kuku, Dean Faculty of Technology, J.A Osunade, Head, Department Of Agricultural Engineering and Dr. Osunade, Director, Information Technology and Communication, have spoken on the school's technology foundation, which has nurtured several graduates, who are now leading developments in the Information Communications and Technology (ICT) development in Nigeria.

They spoke ahead of the scheduled plan to recognise and award about 10 graduates of the university who are leading ICT governance and enterprise in the country.

The OAU Alumni Association, in Lagos in collaboration with eWorld Magazine has concluded plans to award top ICT players, who grtaduated from the University at various times.

Speaking on the development Kuku said the school is delighted "We are known to be great; our name implies "Great Ife." Our greatness does not come from shouting but from the fact that the sort of education we give are very basic and fundamental and we go all out to make sure that our students get the very best, and what people see outside is a reflection of what has always happened here in the university.

According to him, this has been possible due to the very good foundation and a crop of very dedicated teachers that the school has.

Kuku also said that the university's relationship with top world schools such as the Massachusset Institute of Technology (M.I.T) in the United States, Imperial College in London and through a process of continous modification of the school's curricula exposes it to the latest academic orientation.

Speaking on the growing case where several companies complain that present university graduates in Nigeria are not employable, Kuku argues the complain does not apply to OAU graduates because the school ensures that "the training we give to them easily makes them adaptable and equips them to acquire additional training easily apart from what they have been given, here".

Kuku said the university is currently, working on two new concepts of teaching, one of which is called the problem based learning in which case instead of the normal teaching students are given problems to solve, and these problems come from the industry.

Lending his voice to the issue, Osunade said that students from O.A.U take the lead at interviews. "The feedback we get here is employers will tell you that they prefer students from this institution", he added.

According to Aderoumu O.A.U is involved in several ICT initiatives among them are the OAU Net which covers the whole of the campus, all the faculties, individual lecturers offices and the students hostel.

It also also has the Carnegie grant which it has won for six consecutive years now - from 2003 to 2009. Part of the grant is being used to develop ICT in the university.

Some of the OAU graduates due for recognition include the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Engineer Ernest Ndukwe whose outstanding work is referenced at International forums, Director-General of the Nigerian Information and Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Professor Cleopas Angaye, President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Dr Emmanuel Ekuwem.

Others include Group Managing Directors of Omatek, Linkserve, Chams, Mrs Florence Seriki, Chima Onyekwere and Demola Aladekomo.

Others to receive award include MTN Chief Technical Officer, Karl Toriola and Main One Managing Director, Funke Opeke.

According to the Chairman of the award planning committee, Dr Olusanya Awosan, the Vice Chancellor of OAU, Professor Michael Faborede is quite enthusiastic about the event, which he has accepted to chair.

ScienceDaily (Aug. 11, 2009) — Computer scientists demonstrated that criminals could hack an electronic voting machine and steal votes using a malicious programming approach that had not been invented when the voting machine was designed. The team of scientists from University of California, San Diego, the University of Michigan, and Princeton University employed “return-oriented programming” to force a Sequoia AVC Advantage electronic voting machine to turn against itself and steal votes.

“Voting machines must remain secure throughout their entire service lifetime, and this study demonstrates how a relatively new programming technique can be used to take control of a voting machine that was designed to resist takeover, but that did not anticipate this new kind of malicious programming,” said Hovav Shacham, a professor of computer science at UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering and an author on the new study presented on August 10, 2009 at the 2009 Electronic Voting Technology Workshop / Workshop on Trustworthy Elections (EVT/WOTE 2009), the premier academic forum for voting security research.

In 2007, Shacham first described return-oriented programming, which is a powerful systems security exploit that generates malicious behavior by combining short snippets of benign code already present in the system.

The new study demonstrates that return-oriented programming can be used to execute vote-stealing computations by taking control of a voting machine designed to prevent code injection. Shacham and UC San Diego computer science Ph.D. student Stephen Checkoway collaborated with researchers from Princeton University and the University of Michigan on this project.

“With this work, we hope to encourage further public dialog regarding what voting technologies can best ensure secure elections and what stop gap measures should be adopted if less than optimal systems are still in use,” said J. Alex Halderman, an electrical engineering and computer science professor at the University of Michigan.

The computer scientists had no access to the machine’s source code—or any other proprietary information—when designing the demonstration attack. By using just the information that would be available to anyone who bought or stole a voting machine, the researchers addressed a common criticism made against voting security researchers: that they enjoy unrealistic access to the systems they study.

“Based on our understanding of security and computer technology, it looks like paper-based elections are the way to go. Probably the best approach would involve fast optical scanners reading paper ballots. These kinds of paper-based systems are amenable to statistical audits, which is something the election security research community is shifting to,” said Shacham.

“You can actually run a modern and efficient election on paper that does not look like the Florida 2000 Presidential election,” said Shacham. “If you are using electronic voting machines, you need to have a separate paper record at the very least.”

Last year, Shacham, Halderman and others authored a paper entitled “You Go to Elections with the Voting System You have: Stop-Gap Mitigations for Deployed Voting Systems” that was presented at the 2008 Electronic Voting Technology Workshop.” http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~hovav/papers/hrsw08.html

“This research shows that voting machines must be secure even against attacks that were not yet invented when the machines were designed and sold. Preventing not-yet-discovered attacks requires an extraordinary level of security engineering, or the use of safeguards such as voter-verified paper ballots,” said Edward Felten, an author on the new study; Director of the Center for Information Technology Policy; and Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs at Princeton University.

Return-Oriented Programming Demonstrates Voting Machine Vulnerabilities

To take over the voting machine, the computer scientists found a flaw in its software that could be exploited with return-oriented programming. But before they could find a flaw in the software, they had to reverse engineer the machine’s software and its hardware—without the benefit of source code.

Princeton University computer scientists affiliated with the Center for Information Technology Policy began by reverse engineering the hardware of a decommissioned Sequoia AVC Advantage electronic voting machine, purchased legally through a government auction. J. Alex Halderman—an electrical engineering and computer science professor at the University of Michigan (who recently finished his Ph.D. in computer science at Princeton) and Ariel Feldman—a Princeton University computer science Ph.D. student, reverse-engineered the hardware and documented its behavior.

It soon became clear to the researchers that the voting machine had been designed to reject any injected code that might be used to take over the machine. When they learned of Shacham’s return-oriented programming approach, the UC San Diego computer scientists were invited to take over the project. Stephen Checkoway, the computer science Ph.D. student at UC San Diego, did the bulk of the reverse engineering of the voting machine’s software. He deciphered the software by reading the machine’s read-only memory.

Simultaneously, Checkoway extended return-oriented programming to the voting machine’s processor architecture, the Z80. Once Checkoway and Shacham found the flaw in the voting machine’s software—a search which took some time—they were ready to use return-oriented programming to expose the machine’s vulnerabilities and steal votes.

The computer scientists crafted a demonstration attack using return-oriented programming that successfully took control of the reverse engineered software and hardware and changed vote totals. Next, Shacham and Checkoway flew to Princeton and proved that their demonstration attack worked on the actual voting machine, and not just the simulated version that the computer scientists built.

The computer scientists showed that an attacker would need just a few minutes of access to the machine the night before the election in order to take it over and steal votes the following day. The attacker introduces the demonstration attack into the machine through a cartridge with maliciously constructed contents that is inserted into an unused port in the machine. The attacker navigates the machine’s menus to trigger the vulnerability the researchers found. Now, the malicious software controls the machine. The attacker can, at this point, remove the cartridge, turn the machine’s power switch to the “off” position, and leave. Everything appears normal, but the attacker’s software is silently at work.

When poll workers enter in the morning, they normally turn this type of voting machine on. At this point, the exploit would make the machine appear to turn back on, even though it was never actually turned off.

“We overwrote the computer’s memory and state so it does what we want it to do, but if you shut off the machine and reboot from ROM, the exploit is gone and the machine returns to its original behavior,” explained Checkoway.

The computer scientists tested a machine that is very similar to machines that are used today in New Jersey and Louisiana. These New Jersey and Louisiana machines may have corrected the specific vulnerabilities the computer scientists exploited, but they have the same architectural limitations. The researchers highlight the possibility that current voting machines will be vulnerable to return-oriented programming attacks similar to the attack demonstrated in this study.

“This work shows how difficult it is to design voting machines that will remain secure over time. It’s impossible to anticipate what new kinds of attacks will be discovered in the future,” said Halderman.

RHINEBECK - Northern Dutchess Hospital received a $168,000 grant from the state Department of Health to support continued technology upgrades. The hospital received the special grant to off-set the $500,000 in costs associated with the purchase and installation of a digital mammography unit.

Digital mammography has now become the “gold standard” in terms of screening for breast cancer. This state-of-the-art technology offers greater accuracy in the detection of small lesions, spots and lumps in an early state when treatment options have a much higher success rate.

According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in the United States, just behind skin and lung cancers.

About one out of every eight women will have breast cancer at some time in her life. Each year, nearly 200,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed and over 40,000 women die from this disease annually in the United States.

This digital mammography technology also supports Northern Dutchess Hospital’s overall Health Information Technology plan. With this technology, traditional film images are replaced by digital images. These images can then be viewed via a secured Internet link by consulting physicians and specialists at off-site locations.

“This support helps us provide the highest standard of care our patients expect and deserve”, says Denise George, president and CEO of Northern Dutchess Hospital. “It is a direct example of how healthcare leaders are working with our elected officials to bring the best technology to our patients.”

Senator Stephen Saland helped secure the grant.

GCN recognizes the innovators who help keep government on the front line of IT

• By Joab Jackson
• Aug 10, 2009

Name: Anthony M. Hoang

Age: 32

Organization: Homeland Security Department, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Office of the Chief Technology Officer, Enterprise Data Management Office

Title: Principal Information Architect

First IT mentor: My father, John Hoang, instilled entrepreneurialism, a discipline of hard work, and an ethic of innovation. He allowed me to be his “apprentice” (assembling 286 12 MHz PCs) when I was in the fourth grade, and my passion has only grown ever since.

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More on Rising Stars

Rising Stars 2009
GCN Rising Stars
Soo-Hoo brings finer IT to N.Y.'s finest
Cole works to keep CBP, DHS a step ahead of malicious attacks

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Latest accomplishment on the job: The component organizations at the department have each contributed significantly to strengthening the DHS Information Sharing Environment. I recently had the opportunity to elevate some of the most innovative and effective practices in SOA to the department’s information officers for increasing interoperability and IT efficiency.

Career highlight: One of my career highlights has been the opportunity to show up every day to an environment where I am constantly in awe of my co-workers' abilities and relentless dedication. Being a part of the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) [Program Management Office] has been an opportunity of a lifetime — to be a part of one the most effective and driven interagency teams confronting the challenges of information sharing toward the end of strengthening the nation.

Favorite job-related bookmark: Being that we, IT leaders, are essentially in the business of leading change, I find the TED talks to be useful fuel for the work we do: www.ted.com (I particularly liked Seth Godin’s and Gordon Brown’s TED2009 talks).

For my government IT news, I rely on the 15-20 e-mails that I receive every day from my colleague Anthony Saputo (he’s even active on the weekends!)

Dream non-IT related job (really): I have dreams of working for Gary Haugen’s International Justice Mission (combating human trafficking and violent injustice) or Bono’s ONE Campaign (combating global poverty).

The greatest information technology innovation can be quickly lost to obscurity if it doesn't have a champion to get it into the operational shops. Anthony Hoang, the Homeland Security Department’s principal information architect, has shown a remarkable persistence for making this happen.

"He consistently fills the leadership void in working groups and possesses the qualities within that will ensure his career leads towards senior leadership," said Donna Roy, executive director of the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM), a joint partnership of DHS and the Justice Department.

Hoang has been instrumental in bringing to DHS a standard for improving the exchange of information across DHS offices. He started and now leads the Information Sharing and Exchange Program within the Enterprise Data Management Office. Given that DHS has an annual IT budget of $5.3 billion, which is spread over 22 different components, getting everyone on the same page is a challenging task. On top of that, DHS also shares information with other federal agencies and other governments worldwide.

"We've seen a lot of mandates for data sharing," he said. "It sounds inherently like an IT problem but, really, a successful initiative is where the business [side] gets involved."

NIEM, which uses the Extensible Markup Language, is a schema that allows two parties to agree on a set of terms for common datasets, such as "name" or "address." In 2007, Hoang started a program from scratch to adapt NIEM. Since starting as a one-man operation with little funding, he has built up the office to include seven contractors and federal employees, all of whom are working through the problems of adopting an XML schema at the operational level.

Bridging the technical and operational worlds is natural for Hoang. When he went to the University of Virginia, he majored not strictly in engineering but in a multidisciplinary field called systems engineering. "It was a degree in methodical problem-solving," he said. The idea was to study complex systems, such as finance systems or transportation systems. It involved not only engineering classes but also classes in math, statistics, finance and computers. "People graduating from this program really had a balanced skill set."

This work has carried through to his present job. "We are very much in the role where we’re not doing technology for the sake of technology but rather to bring value to some business [task] or some mission," he said.

For instance, he reconciled NIEM with another DHS schema, the Geospatial Data Model, so DHS grant recipients wouldn't need to file their information using both formats. He spearheaded an effort at DHS to develop NIEM training materials and encouraged the agency's Science and Technology Directorate to invest in the development of NIEM tools.

Hoang also has championed more than just NIEM. He contributed significantly to uCore, a project to define an information-sharing schema among military and intelligence agencies. He also was instrumental in helping assemble a DHS terrorist watch list, which involved working with multiple DHS agencies.

"His work will have long lasting impacts for DHS … and across the federal government for years to come," Roy said.

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Auditors looking at credit card spending at the Montgomery County planning agency are examining several technology purchases that appear to have been authorized by Planning Director Rollin Stanley in violation of agency procedures, but they have found no evidence of illegal activity, a top agency official said.

Oscar S. Rodriguez, executive director of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, which oversees the Montgomery and Prince George's County parks and planning agencies, said Monday that auditors are trying to figure out how much money is involved.

"I don't want to leave the impression that something was stolen," he said. "No one believes that. But there are rules and regulations for how you use the cards, and if you consistently don't follow them, you lose your right to the credit card."

Rodriguez said that during the probe, which began in April, officials took back the credit card of Henry Mobayeni, a high-ranking technology official who works for Stanley. Stanley also surrendered his card. Mobayeni's card was used to make some of the purchases that are under scrutiny.

Last Thursday, Stanley wrote a check to the agency to cover about $600 in challenged expenses, including meals, alcohol and about $150 in sales taxes that he paid when buying office furniture. The furniture should have been a tax-free purchase, and the agency does not reimburse employees if they erroneously pay sales tax. On July 31, Stanley repaid the agency $626 for personal cellphone calls.

Stanley said the technology spending under scrutiny is limited to an $800 emergency purchase of a computer system security firewall. Rodriguez said Monday that the problem is bigger than that and includes other technology purchases, none of which appear to have been made using proper contracts.

Rodriguez said Stanley also needs to provide documentation that Verizon has agreed to withdraw a $4,000 bill for the use of a computer aircard -- a device that provides wireless Internet access -- that Stanley apparently kept running for days. Late Monday, Mobayeni received written confirmation from Verizon that the company would rescind the charge.

Valerie Berton, a spokeswoman for the Montgomery planning agency, said Mobayeni, Stanley and Alison Davis, Mobayeni's direct supervisor, "have no concerns about our [information technology] spending. In all of our IT spending, we review everything very carefully to ensure that all of our purchases are properly executed."

Rodriguez, whose comments were made in response to a Washington Post article Saturday that said Stanley was facing scrutiny, challenged an assertion by Stanley that the commission had caused a four-month delay in resolving issues raised in the audit. Rodriguez said that under agency rules, Stanley is required to come up with a list of reimbursable items for the bi-county commission's finance office and had not done so until recently, after he was pressed repeatedly by agency officials to settle his accounts.

Stanley has been Montgomery's planning director for 18 months. He is paid $179,400 a year.

Rodriguez said the audit, being conducted by internal auditor Abinet Belachew and his staff, should be completed in the fall. The audit began after outside auditors at the accounting firm Clifton Gunderson advised the agency to tighten its internal auditing procedures.

DALIAN, China, Aug. 10 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- RINO International Corp. (Nasdaq: RINO), through its subsidiaries and controlled affiliates in the People's Republic of China (collectively, the "Company" or "RINO"), designs, manufactures, installs and services proprietary and patented wastewater treatment, desulphurization equipment, and high temperature anti-oxidation systems for iron and steel manufacturers in the People's Republic of China ("PRC"), today is providing a summary of a report issued on July 31, 2009 by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology which details its formal plan for the implementation of sintering desulphurization equipment at Chinese steel companies. This information can be found at http://www.miit.gov.cn/n11293472/n11293832/n11293907/n11368223/12484645.html and following is a summary of what was reported, in addition to RINO specific commentary related to how it will capitalize on this opportunity.

To provide some background, the sinter at a steel production facility contains equipment where powdered iron-ore is mixed with coking coal or anthracite and burned at high temperatures for further processing in the blast furnace. It is one of the first components of the steel production process and as a result significant amounts of air pollution are generated, which are comprised of SO2 (sulphur dioxide), NO2 (nitrogen dioxide), dust and metal particles. RINO International, Inc. was the first company in China to develop a flue gas desulphurization (FGD) solution specifically for the sinter. This multifaceted system with patented automation technology was designed to significantly reduce harmful air pollutants, specifically curbing SO2 emissions by up to 99%. Prior to 2005, when the government initially began to address this problem, there was no filtration system available.

As detailed in the report, China is estimated to have approximately 500 sinters with a total sintering bed capacity of 53,820 m2. To date, less than 10% of the sinters, which in range in size, have been equipped with FGD systems. The government estimates through May 2009 that a total of 40 sinter FGD installations have been completed with RINO effectuating 28 of these. Combined, these FGD systems represent approximately 6,312 m2 of sinter space with 82,000 tons of annual desulphurization capacity.

The new policy carries important implications for RINO's business as it prioritizes the steel sinter FGD as a priority environmental project, sets specific desulphurization targets, and enables both the central and local governments to provide priority funding for the installation of FGD equipment, while offering further support for domestic based technology. The government plan calls for the number of sinters to be equipped with FGD systems to double annually through 2011. Specifically, the government aims to install FGD for an additional 15,800m2 of sintering bed capacity with a total of 200,000 tons of annual desulphurization capacity. To support adoption, the government will encourage the build-out through BOT (build-operate-transfer) ownership structures which would allow the financier to operate the system for up to 20 years and then transfer ownership to the steel producer. The government will increase its ongoing inspection of SO2 emission by steel companies and plans to install on-line, real time monitoring devices to ensure compliance.

Mr. Zou Dejun, President and CEO of RINO International, commented, "We are very pleased with the recently published guidelines that support accelerated adoption of FGD systems found specifically in the steel industry. We believe that the addressable market for sinter FGD systems specific to RINO is over 200, which includes sinters at least 90m2 in size, and creates a billion dollar plus opportunity for our Company. We anticipate our growth will accelerate during the coming year as the government mandate creates an impetus for steel companies to become compliant while enforcing air emission guidelines. We have seen new bidding activity pick up in response and are currently pursuing a couple of very large sinter projects."

About RINO International Corporation

RINO International Corporation, through its direct and indirect subsidiaries, including Innomind Group Limited and Dalian Innomind Environment Engineering Co., Ltd., its contractually-controlled affiliate, Dalian RINO Environmental Engineering Science and Technology Co., Ltd. ("Dalian Rino") and Dalian Rino's wholly-owned subsidiaries, Dalian Rino Environmental Engineering Project Design Co., Ltd. and Dalian Rino Environmental Construction & Installation Project Co., Ltd., is a leading provider of environmental protection equipment for the iron and steel industry in China. Specifically, RINO designs, manufactures, installs and services proprietary and patented wastewater treatment, flue gas desulphurization equipment, and high temperature anti-oxidation systems, which are all designed to reduce either industrial pollution and/or improve energy utilization. RINO's manufacturing facility maintains the ISO 9001 Quality Management System and ISO 14001 Environment Management System certifications, in addition to receiving numerous government and industry awards.

Additional information about the Company is available at the Company's website: http://www.rinogroup.com .

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain statement in this press release may contain forward-looking information about the Company. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. These statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believe," "expect," "may," "will," "should," "project," "plan," "seek," "intend," or "anticipate" or the negative thereof or comparable terminology, and statements which may include discussions of strategy, and statements about industry trends future performance, operations and products of each of the entities referred to above. Actual performance results may vary significantly from expectations and projections as a result of various factors, including without limitation and the risks set forth "Risk Factors" contained in the Company's Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. This is a summary of the report issued by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and is not a complete translation. This information could be subject to change without notice. RINO did not independently verify information provided in the report.

    For more information, please contact:

   For the Company:
    Jenny Liu, CFO
    Tel:   +86-411-8766-1233
    Email: jennyliu@rinogroup.com

   Investors:
   HC International, Inc.
    Matt Hayden
    Tel:   +1-561-245-5155
    Email: matt.hayden@hcinternational.net

FAIRFAX, Va., Aug. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Electronic Consulting Services, Inc. (ECS), a leading provider of information technology and system engineering services to the U.S. Federal Government, announced today that it was one of six companies awarded a seven year $955 million blanket purchase agreement (BPA) with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Environmental Information (OEI). The scope of the ITS-EPA II BPA is to provide innovative, agile, and scalable cost effective solutions to assist in the provisioning of quality IT services to the EPA. In addition, the requirement was created to assist the EPA in achieving scalability and agility to meet the increasing IT business requirements. By managing IT consistent with EPA's business goals, the IT infrastructure remains reliable, allows for flexible levels of service, improves operational efficiency and agility, and provides for cost effective solutions. ECS will be eligible to provide IT infrastructure support services to the EPA including Level 1 & 2 help desk support; application support and solutions; in-building cellular services in support of EPA's mobile devices; VOIP infrastructure and support services; Smart conference room support; computer room server and storage management; WAN/LAN support; personal computing and IT support including end user tools; management of the EPA headquarters cable television connections and subscriptions; management, implementation and oversight contract reporting activities associated with IT service management; high performance scientific computing; geospatial hosting environment support; risk mitigation and incident management; computer security incident response center management; and support of EPA's Multi-Media Center.

Roy Kapani, ECS' President and CEO stated, "ECS is very appreciative of the EPA's continued confidence in our people, which is further evidenced by this new contract award. ECS has been serving the EPA for the past 3 years and is excited by the opportunity to build upon our knowledge and experience to provide consistently high quality services to the customers of OEI. I want to thank the EPA for their continued support of our company."

About Electronic Consulting Services, Inc. (ECS):

ECS is a leading provider of system engineering and information technology services and solutions to U.S. Federal Government agencies. As an externally assessed CMMI Level 3 company and an ISO 9001- registered company, ECS' award-winning expertise and commitment to quality services are critical in meeting the mission of Federal agencies in serving the needs of the American people. Headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, ECS has 7 office locations throughout the U.S. For more information, visit our web site at www.ecs-federal.com.

By Edward Colimore

Inquirer Staff Writer

In Atlanta, a kidnap victim in 2007 quietly managed to sneak a text message to his brother. The police were contacted, and the abductee was rescued.

And in Kershaw County, N.C., a 14-year-old girl held captive in a bunker in 2006 sent a text to her mother from her captor's phone. She also was rescued.

The technology to send text messages has long been available. But the money to upgrade 911 call centers to receive them has not.

"I see this as a terrific problem," said Monica Gavio, Southern New Jersey vice president of the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) and 911 coordinator for the Burlington County Department of Public Safety in Westampton.

"More and more people rely on text messaging. The younger generation is using texting more than voice," Gavio said.

Several states, including New Jersey, have used millions of dollars that had been dedicated to "enhanced 911 services" to plug state budget gaps or to pay for other public safety initiatives.

The lack of funds has prevented call centers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania from obtaining upgraded computer systems and communication lines and to train 911 staffs to receive text messages.

The only center in the country with capability to directly receive text messages began service this month in Black Hawk County, Iowa.

Upgrading the nation's 911 operations to Internet protocol-based broadband systems could cost tens of millions of dollars and take three years once the funds are available, said the association, which has chapters across the country.

Modernizing 911 systems to accept text messages is important, Gavio said, because "there are times when someone can't speak. There could be a home intrusion or an abduction. Texting also is important to the hearing- and speech-impaired because they can't use voice."

Those clients now use tele-typewriters (TTYs) and telecommunications devices for the deaf (TDDs) to communicate with 911 centers.

"I believe [texting] will be a necessity at some point in time and may eventually replace" the devices, said Tim Baldwin, a spokesman for Lancaster County's 911 Center and first vice president of the Pennsylvania NENA chapter. "We're going to have to accept [text] messages in the future."

Text and video messages from phones and other handheld devices could give the dispatch center and first-responders more information to deal with emergencies.

"If you had [details about] an overturned tanker on the New Jersey Turnpike, the people at the call center would be able to pull information on tanker records," said Chris Nussman, education program manager at NENA's national headquarters in Arlington, Va.

"You know what you're dealing with. You can have hazardous-material information." The 911 enhancement "has a huge capacity for information gathering and sharing," he said.

Funding has been a problem because many states, hurt by the recession, have diverted money they collect via mobile phone fees to pay for other needs, from police uniforms to state-police operations.

New Jersey, Delaware, New York, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Hawaii, Arizona, and Oregon are among the states to dip into funds that were intended for 911 enhancement.

Mobile phone subscribers in almost every state find a fee of 20 cents to $1.50 on their monthly bill designated for "E911" or enhanced 911 services.

More than $200 million collected nationally for 911 upgrades over the last two years has been used for other purposes, according to the Associated Press.

An upgraded system would allow 911 operators to receive photos, videos and text messages, and to share the information with first responders.

"We've issued a policy statement strongly opposing the raiding" of 911 funding, Nussman said.

"Unfortunately, some state and local governments have seen 911 revenues - funds raised through fees assessed on telecommunications bills specifically for 911 - as a revenue source available to be diverted . . . for use in other programs, to balance budgets, and/or to provide budget flexibility to fund other non-911 budget priorities," NENA said in a statement this summer.

The association has recommended that state and local governments be held to the same "truth-in-billing" standards as commercial telecommunications companies when disclosing the purposes of fees.

In January, Gov. Corzine suspended a local grant program for 911 call centers to help balance the budget.

That cut affects the budgets of many police 911 dispatch operations, such as Cherry Hill's, which uses the funds for advanced digital technology and maintenance, said Dan Keashen, a township spokesman.

"Broadband is one of those technologies that enable more efficient communications between institutions and consumers," said Shelley Bates, a spokeswoman for New Jersey's Office of Information Technology. "But we don't have the funds to go broadband yet."

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Contact staff writer Edward Colimore at 856-779-3833 or ecolimore@phillynews.com.