MaSSSoftech

M edical detective work may have just gotten a lot easier.

Just how difficult it is gets highlighted every time an infectious disease sweeps the globe, as the new strain of swine flu did earlier this year. Current methods of testing for disease-causing microbes are pretty effective at discovering whether an infected fluid or tissue sample contains a known virus or bacteria. But trying to detect previously unknown organisms is a whole different story.
To address this problem, David Ecker, co-founder of Ibis Biosciences Inc., and a team of researchers developed a sensor able to quickly detect and identify all the pathogens in a given sample.

The equipment promises not only to alert health officials to new disease strains, but also to guard against bioterrorism and enable hospitals to identify antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Abbott Laboratories and its Ibis Biosciences unit, which developed the Ibis T5000 sensor, took the Gold in this year's Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Awards.

The Silver award went to Touch Bionics Inc. for its i-Limb artificial hand, which features bendable fingers and a rotating thumb. The hand uses sophisticated motors and computer controls to grip objects and move in ways that traditional prosthetic hands can't.

Vihaan Networks Ltd., an Indian telecommunications company known as VNL, won the Bronze award for a solar-powered base station to bring cellphone access to remote rural villages. The inexpensive base station can be quickly assembled and set up by unskilled villagers, and can run entirely on the built-in solar panels and batteries.

For the ninth annual Innovation Awards, a Journal editor reviewed nearly 500 entries, sending more than 180 to a team of judges from research institutions, venture-capital firms and other companies. Judges considered whether innovations were truly groundbreaking and—new this year—looked at whether their application would be particularly useful in a time of economic hardship.
And the winners in each category are…
Computing Systems

Capturing real-life motion to use in computer animation can be complicated. Typically, actors are filmed wearing bodysuits covered with glowing dots or embedded with sensors that trace their movements, then high-powered computers use that data to help create characters that move realistically.

New York-based Organic Motion Inc. won in the computing-systems category for developing a motion-capture system that doesn't require bodysuits or markers.

The core of the system is technology that uses sophisticated software to produce a digital clone of a person being filmed. Fourteen video cameras capture images simultaneously and send them to a standard computer with a high-end programmable graphics card, making the system far cheaper than the specialized equipment used in movie special-effects shops.

Organic Motion systems are being used in the creation of virtual environments for training coal-mine rescue personnel and for helping returning military veterans readjust to civilian life. Andrew Tschesnok, the company's chief executive and founder, says future versions will work with next-generation game consoles for more-lifelike game experiences.
Consumer Electronics

Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute, or ITRI, won in the consumer-electronics category for its work developing a paper-thin, flexible speaker.

Researchers at ITRI, a nonprofit organization, devised a way to create arrays of tiny speakers that can be combined to produce high-fidelity speaker systems of almost any size.

Because the fleXpeaker is lightweight and consumes little power, it could be attractive for use in cellphones or in car sound systems. Other possible applications include giant banners that could be used to deliver public-service announcements in train stations or advertising messages in shopping malls.

ITRI is seeking to license the technology or create a spinoff ­company to commercialize the ­product.
Energy

SFC Smart Fuel Cell AG, based just outside Munich, won in this category for developing small, lightweight fuel cells that can be used by soldiers instead of much bulkier, heavier batteries to power communications and navigation devices and other battlefield equipment.
One advantage of the SFC fuel cells is that they produce power from methanol. Many fuel cells produce electricity from hydrogen. But hydrogen is highly explosive, so it needs to be stored in special heavy-metal cartridges. Cartridges for the SFC fuel cells are less expensive, lighter and less bulky.
Environment

Serious Materials Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., was recognized in this category for its EcoRock drywall substitute, which is made with recycled material and, the company says, requires 80% less energy to make and produces 80% less carbon dioxide than standard gypsum-based drywall. EcoRock, which is also termite- and mold-resistant, will be priced to compete with premium drywall products. Serious Materials has been selling limited test quantities of the product to a few contractors since early this year and plans to expand production and distribution over the next two years.

Though some judges wondered if a relatively high price would limit how widely the product is used, it is a "novel solution to a basic problem that has enormous impact," says Darlene Solomon, chief technology officer of Agilent Technologies and an Innovation Awards judge.
Health-Care IT

DataDyne.org, a Washington-based nonprofit, and its co-founder, Joel Selanikio, won in this category for EpiSurveyor, free software for mobile devices designed to help health officials in developing countries collect health information.
In developing countries, gathering and analyzing time-sensitive health-care information can be a challenge. Rural health clinics typically compile data only in paper records, making it difficult to spot and to respond quickly to emerging trends.

With EpiSurveyor, developed with support from the United Nations Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation, health officials can create health-survey forms that can be downloaded to commonly used mobile phones. Health workers carrying the phones can then collect information—about immunization rates, vaccine supplies or possible disease outbreaks—when they visit local clinics. The information can then be quickly analyzed to determine, say, whether medical supplies need to be restocked or to track the spread of a disease.

The software has been rolled out in more than 20 African countries.
Materials and Other Base Technologies

Light fixtures based on light-emitting diodes—semiconductors that glow brightly when charged—promise long-lasting, low-energy illumination. But there's a problem: The light produced is harsh and bluish in color. Special filters can be added to produce warmer tones, but they can make the fixtures less efficient. Devising a way to make warmer-colored, high-efficiency LEDs is seen as essential to their widespread adoption.

QD Vision Inc. of Watertown, Mass., won in this category for inventing a way to dramatically improve the color quality of LED lights by using quantum dots—tiny semiconducting nanocrystals. QD Vision quantum dots can also be used to make energy-efficient flat-panel and other displays that can deliver purer, more intense colors.

The U.S. government has gone on a wireless shopping spree, buying off-the-shelf equipment, services and software to meet its changing communications needs.

In the past, many federal offices handed out smart phones, like the BlackBerry or devices running Windows Mobile software, only to their top executives. Rank-and-file employees either were tethered to office-based computers running on private networks or, if they were in the military or other critical field operations, used expensive, specialized wireless devices.
Now, with an increasingly mobile and tech-savvy work force, government and disaster-relief agencies are embracing off-the-shelf wireless devices and commercial high-speed networks for tasks previously handled by specialized systems.

This year, the U.S. government will spend $70 billion on information technology, including wireless devices, service contracts and applications, according to Warren Suss, president of Suss Consulting Inc., a Jenkintown, Pa., company that advises government agencies and the companies that supply them. An increasing proportion of that spending is on commercial equipment and services.

The shift is being driven by the desire to make government workers more effective and efficient by giving them access to critical information wherever they are, and by the need to cut costs—private networks and proprietary devices are expensive to develop and require specialized staff to maintain and update.

The government's embrace of telecommuting to lessen the need for office space has accelerated the trend. And it has been facilitated by a streamlined purchasing process that eliminates much of the negotiating each government agency had to do to buy wireless technology.
Information At Hand

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, a support agency for the federal court system, first considered using hand-held devices for its probation and pretrial-services officers because of budget cuts. The agency's clerical staff was being cut, making the devices attractive because they would allow officers to enter information directly into the agency's database, rather than submit reports to be input by someone else.

But the agency, which uses Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry devices, has found many other uses for them. Officers can use online programs to direct them to a parolee's house, or set a calendar application to remind them to administer a drug test. They can also tap a secure Federal Bureau of Investigation database for mug shots and other information on people with criminal records.

"I can show an offender's picture from my device to a victim or a police officer," says Frank Fuller, senior U.S. probation officer for the Western District of Virginia.

Off-the-shelf products also made it practical for the agency to pursue a major technology initiative. It developed an application to store data securely on officers' hand-held devices, so that the information can be accessed amid natural disasters, in remote areas and in other situations where wireless coverage is unavailable or compromised. "With the associated complexity and expense, this project never would have gotten off the ground without using available devices and networks," says Nick DiSabatino, chief of technology for probation and pretrial services at the agency.
Providers Prosper

The shift in government spending has been a boon to providers of wireless devices and services. AT&T Inc., for example, has generated $800 million in federal contracts in two years under the Networx Universal program, the initiative that streamlined technology purchases by government agencies.

In the past year alone, AT&T has announced contracts for $292 million to build a data network for the Department of Homeland Security, for $120 million to provide data networking services for the 1,300 offices of the Department of Veterans Affairs, for $80 million to supply a backup data network for the Social Security Administration, and for $50 million to supply BlackBerry devices, push-to-talk cellphones and wireless data cards for laptops for field workers at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The company declines to reveal the total of its federal contracts, but Don Herring, senior vice president, AT&T Government Solutions, says it is a multibillion-dollar business.

Another beneficiary of the new government focus on cost-cutting and efficiency is Research In Motion. For example, the Federal Aviation Administration now uses BlackBerry devices for communications among its employees, partly as a way to minimize its purchases of equipment, since they provide a single substitute for pagers, cellphones and in some cases laptops.

The fastest-growing pool of government spending is on applications, according to Mr. Suss, of Suss Consulting, with contracts going to companies like Citrix Systems Inc. that host applications for users to access from whatever device they are using. The use of public networks also requires the government to spend on encryption and other security software to protect sensitive information.

At the end of this month, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Information Technology will pull the plug on dial-up Internet, a fitting death knell for an outdated technology. Though around 15 percent of Americans continue to use phone lines and chattering modems to bring e-mail and the World Wide Web into their homes, the era of dial-up is long gone. Its reign as the Internet conduit for the masses was, like most technologies in the Information Age, brief.

It is tempting to wax poetic about how dramatically the Internet has changed since the mid-1990s, when 28.8k was the standard, Web 2.0 marvels like YouTube and Gmail were hardly thought possible, and Facebook was just a gleam in Mark Zuckerberg’s pre-teen eye. Instead, we should reflect on how far we have to go, since complacent communications companies and outdated technologies still prevail.

The United States may have invented the Internet (although the credit doesn’t go to Al Gore), but our great nation recently ranked 28th in Internet connectivity according to a recent study by the Communications Workers of America. If that wasn’t enough, the study also claimed that the average Internet speed has only increased by about 30 percent in the last two years. This might seem like a big improvement on first glance, but really it’s far from noteworthy in an industry where things tend to double every two years.

The United States does have a significant geographic disadvantage when compared to tiny countries with faster networks, like Sweden or the Netherlands. Stringing high-speed access to rural areas is much easier when your entire country is the size of Illinois. But while a significant access gap exists between urban and rural America, even the fastest regions of the U.S. (the northern Atlantic states) can’t crack the 10 megabits per second mark. South Korea’s average connection speed is over twice that fast.

What are we doing wrong? European countries have been able to achieve faster speeds by forcing telephone companies to rent lines to local Internet service providers for use with broadband DSL. The Federal Communications Commission attempted to do the same during the middle of the decade to allow competition, but it had to back down from this practice after phone companies threatened to sue. Worse, the FCC and the courts allowed SBC to buy both AT&T and Bellsouth in 2005 and 2006, creating a huge monopoly that rivaled AT&T of the 1980s. Lack of competition in the U.S. broadband market has lead to huge profits for companies like Comcast and Verizon, making U.S. Internet not only slow but also among the most expensive in the world.

President Barack Obama has pledged to put broadband in every home through the use of tax credits. His plan stands in contrast to President George W. Bush’s deregulatory approach and harks back to the push to bring electricity and indoor plumbing to rural America in the mid-20th century. The goal is admirable, but may not yield much progress. Top ISPs have responded with a plan to simply redefine FCC’s definition broadband at a lower speed and introduce a three-tiered access system that could force consumers to pay more to receive the same connection speeds. Some providers have made efforts to provide bundled communications, which include telephone, television, and Internet, via fast fiber-optic cables in major cities, but rural Americans are still by and large left behind.

It is no surprise that market-only solutions have failed, because monopolies have little incentive to change, and the benefits of high-speed Internet are somewhat unclear to low-income Americans. The FCC and the courts need to stand up to the established telecommunications companies if they hope to put consumer and business interests first.

Providing widespread Internet access that is both fast and affordable has benefits that extend far beyond creature comforts like downloading movies. A recent report from the World Bank Group found that a 10 percent increase in connection speeds is correlated with a 1.3 percent increase in economic growth. The faster the Internet becomes, the more purposes it can serve; high-speed Internet is the basis for many local IT businesses that generate jobs and exports. Expanding the high-speed Web to rural areas and increasing speeds in developed areas will also make long-distance learning easier and expand the possibilities of telemedicine.

Although the U.S. has demonstrably fallen behind in terms of Internet access, there is still time to catch up. A few years of good policy would create drastic improvement. Further, any claim that the U.S. is losing its edge is nonsense. A huge digital divide still exists between the industrialized countries in the West and East Asia and those of South Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In India, for instance, only around 10 percent of the population has Internet access at all.

As Harvard students, we have even less to worry about. Those using the university’s wireless connection can expect a download rate of around 20 megabits per second when communicating within the country, according to an assessment using speedtest.net. That is, unless you happen to be a FAS affiliate still connecting to the Harvard network using dial-up. In that case, I can only say: Your days are numbered.

Even in a down economy, the industrial RFID market is still expected to grow about 10% in 2009, one of the only segments of the automatic data collection industry on the uptick this year.



Manufacturers may not be slapping very many RFID tags on cases and pallets before they ship them out the door, but business is discovering new ways to track valuable assets with RFID technology. And, the industry continues to come up with new technologies and systems to enable these new solutions.



Last week, I talked to Tom Pavela, CEO of Omni-ID, a 3-1/2 year old spin-off from Kinetic, about a new portfolio of high performance tags the company is about to release. Omni-ID has developed passive RFID UHF tags that bring together five characteristics:



* Unlike typical EPC tags, they can work in harsh environments including metals and liquids and temperatures of up to 120 C.



* They offer higher memory than typical tags, up to 512 bits of memory.



*They have read rates of over 100 feet, which makes them appropriate for tracking containers in a port or trailers in a yard.



* They are built around a global broadband standard that allows them to operate in a global supply chain without giving up performance.



* And, because they use passive technology, they are less expensive than comparable active tags.



Omni-ID, for instance, developed a niche with solutions to track and trace high value equipment in the information technology industry. For instance, customers use them to keep track of servers, which involve a lot of metal. Taking the lessons learned from that industry, Omni-ID is now looking to move into new markets, like aerospace and defense, logistics and transportation, manufacturing and even retail. “We are working on a solution for Sam’s Club to place tags on the metal beams on their racks, not their cases and pallets,” says Pavela. “When a lift truck driver puts a pallet away on the rack in a store, a reader on the lift truck reads the tag to confirm the putaway location.”


It's an indication of where the industry might be going. "We’ve discovered there are a lot of potential applications beyond trying to tag items and cartons that go out into the supply chain,” says Pavela. “Our focus, and where we think RFID is really gaining traction, is in closed-loop environments.”

Recent IBM Study of Midmarket CIOs Shows Making Better Use of Data is Top
Competitive Priority



LOS ANGELES, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MIDSIZE ENTERPRISE SUMMIT WEST
-- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today introduced new services, software and systems for
midsize companies that can help them gain actionable insight, increase
productivity, and improve collaboration.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO )

IBM is introducing Cognos Express business intelligence software, an analytics
solution designed for companies with 100 to 1,000 employees.

Also being introduced is a new offering from IBM Global Technology Services,
the IBM Storage Optimization and Integration Services - transformation
strategy - rapid. In addition, two existing products IBM Mashup Center, and
Lotus Live Engage, have been certified by IBM as "Midmarket Ready." Recently,
IBM also introduced a new storage system, the IBM System Storage DS5020
Express, and updated the SurePOS 500 Express point-of-sale solution.

Cognos Express is designed to deliver essential business intelligence and
planning capabilities purpose built for midsize companies. To read more about
Cognos Express please see this news release. In addition, a virtual event
will be held on Sept. 29 providing an in-depth look at IBM Cognos Express with
product demonstrations that showcase the full range of its reporting, analysis
and planning capabilities. Register here.

Cognos Express helps medium-size companies turn data into actionable insight
which is a top priority for midmarket CIOs looking to improve their companies'
competitiveness, according to a new IBM Global CIO survey of midsize
companies.

After business intelligence, midmarket company CIOs listed virtualization
solutions, risk management and collaboration technologies as their top
technology concerns.

IBM conducted 158 in person interviews with midmarket CIOs from January
through April 2009 to understand their issues, priorities, and views on the
role of IT. The sample includes CIOs from 31 countries across a range of
industries.

"These new offerings hit all the critical areas identified by midsize company
CIOs including technology that will help them more effectively use information
to enhance competitiveness, improve collaboration and increase efficiency,"
said Marc Dupaquier, IBM general manager of the global mid market.

Watch a video with Marc Dupaquier and IBM CIO Pat Toole discussing the midsize
company CIO study findings here.

RFID Innovation
One example of a company that has used information technology to work smarter
is Pacific Coast Producers (PCP), a California-based premium packager of
canned fruits and tomatoes. In response to demands from large national retail
chains the company created an RFID tracking system with help from IBM Global
Business Services consultants and IBM Business Partner OATSystems. The
solution incorporates OATSystems' RFID application software, IBM System x
servers and IBM middleware including MQSeries, DB2 and WebSphere.

"Pacific Coast Producers seized the opportunity to go beyond RFID tracking by
infusing the solution with business intelligence capabilities that help to
improve processes and position the company as a customer-focused supplier,"
said Peter Wtulich,

CIO and vice president for Information Services at PCP. "What began as a
customer mandate became a valuable new source of information and insight that
helps PCP work smarter."

All of the new offerings listed below are part of IBM's Midmarket portfolio.
That means IBM has certified that the offering is appropriate for midsize
companies, has trained IBM sellers and Business Partners on the offering and
has priced the offering so that companies with between 100 and 1,000 employees
will see a rapid return on their investment.

IBM Mashup Center
IBM Mashup Center makes it easy for midsize businesses to combine information
from diverse sources in entirely new ways to unlock business value. A 20 user
license for IBM Mashup Center is priced at $2,600.

Watch an IBM Mashup Center video that demonstrates its power and ease of use.
Additional IBM Mashup Center "How To" videos can be found on the popular
external Lotus Greenhouse site. Lotus Greenhouse is a live community website
where you can use Lotus collaboration products at no charge. Anyone can join
the community to exchange ideas, collaborate with others, and share
information on innovation and collaborative products. Lotus Greenhouse offers
the opportunity for anyone to take the Mashup Center Introductory Tutorial, or
view and create sample mashup pages.

"IBM's Mashup Center helps non-technical people help themselves by making it
easy to assemble quick applications from many different sources like Web
pages, spreadsheets, Web feeds and databases and uses that data to create
valuable information that helps address daily business challenges," Dupaquier
said.

Lotus Live Engage
LotusLive Engage is a cloud-delivered service that enables midsize companies
to network and collaborate beyond corporate firewalls, without increasing the
resources in their IT departments.

The latest new feature is LotusLive Mobile, a new beta offering, that allows
users to attend LotusLive Engage Web conferences via BlackBerry(R) smartphones
and other mobile devices, saving time, money and providing work-style
flexibility. Download the beta offering here.

LotusLive Engage provides browser-based collaboration tools including Web
conferencing, instant messaging, project management, and document sharing.
Pricing starts as low as $15 per user per month. This fall, Lotus Live Engage
will support nine new languages including Brazilian Portuguese, French,
German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, and
Traditional Chinese.

See a video demonstration of Lotus Live Engage here.

A complimentary 30-day trial of Lotus Live Engage is available here including
no-cost Web meetings for up to 15 people, file storing and sharing and
business networking capabilities.

"LotusLive gives small businesses access to collaboration tools that can help
them rapidly work with partners and customers at a low price to drive
immediate business results," said Phil Salm, IBM software solutions
specialist, CDW.

IBM Storage Optimization and Integration Services - transformation strategy -
rapid
This new offering helps midsize companies build a detailed and actionable plan
to achieve a best practice state for heterogeneous storage and backup
environments in order to drive cost savings or cost avoidance for staffing,
storage, backup, file systems, and power and cooling.

The IBM Storage Optimization and Integration Services - transformation
strategy - rapid is designed for midsize businesses across virtually all
industries who are experiencing explosive growth in the amount of information
they are dealing with and are looking to reduce or more efficiently maintain
their information and better manage storage operating and capital costs.

This service provides a detailed roadmap to help identify the roots of
unnecessary complexity and cost by using eight key metrics to measure the
efficiency and effectiveness of a customer's interconnected IT and storage
environments.

IBM System Storage DS5020 Express
The IBM DS5020 Express disk system is designed to provide midsize businesses
with the performance, reliability, and robust functionality that large
companies are accustomed to - at an affordable price. Its core features and
dynamic flexibility make it a great fit for a wide range of requirements,
proving piece of mind and exceptional return on investment.

The DS5020 supports all current premium features, including encryption,
partitioning, FlashCopy, VolumeCopy and Enhanced Remote Mirroring.

SurePOS 500 Express
The new IBM SurePOS 500 Express point-of-sale solution features a new slimmer
design and captures real-time information that can be leveraged to implement
new customer service initiatives, manage inventory and deliver smarter
business outcomes.

It also is easy to assemble, easy to use, speeds up transaction times,
significantly reduces power consumption, and is designed to meet the needs of
small and midsize companies.

IBM Business Partners
To support IBM Business Partners selling into the midmarket, IBM rolled out
new skills and training focused on "Selling to the CFO." As the CFO becomes
more central in purchasing decisions, this education enables partners to more
effectively engage the CFO. Since it was introduced in May, 5,000 partners
have completed the training and gained these critical skills. IBM also
recently introduced the IBM Business Partner Development Series where the
company is hosting more than 60 no-cost online classes and 25 Smarter
Planet-themed education and networking events at IBM Innovation Centers around
the world. From San Mateo to Shanghai, the education covers the Smarter
Planet agenda, as well as detailed sessions on dynamic infrastructure, green
IT, new intelligence and smart work.

IBM Global Financing
While market and credit conditions are evolving, IBM Global Financing
continues to lend to qualified customers. IBM Financing Advantage offers a
comprehensive portfolio of financing solutions to help address the
requirements of midsize businesses to fund their IT agendas, maximize working
capital, recover technology value and manage risk.

About IBM
Learn more about new midsized business solutions from IBM.

Midsize businesses now have access to IBM and third party subject matter
experts on infoBOOM!, an interactive IT strategy community that is run jointly
by IBM and CIO.com. infoBOOM! is a place to discuss industry trends, to gain
insights that can help companies improve the way they do business, and to find
relevant and timely information to solve business problems and address the
unique challenges facing midsize companies. You can visit the infoBOOM!
community on CIO.com at http://theinfoboom.com, or join either the Facebook
infoBOOM! group, or the infoBOOM! group on LinkedIn.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Premier healthcare alliance has contracted with AirStrip Technologies™, L.P. to offer its 2,200 hospitals members a mobile healthcare information technology (HIT) solution to improve obstetrical (OB) care, patient safety and communication among healthcare providers.

Premier’s Purchasing Partners division is the first group purchasing organization to offer AirStrip OB™, which provides obstetricians and nurses with real-time, remote access to fetal and maternal waveform data, such as fetal heart rate and maternal contractions. This information can be accessed on mobile devices using cell phone connections, such as a BlackBerry, iPhone and a variety of Windows Mobile smart phones. The solution also provides hospital staff with the latest nursing notes, vital signs, order results and a host of other critical data from the hospital labor and delivery unit.

Said Lynn Simpson, MD at the Cleveland Clinic, “In my opinion, this is an absolute must for obstetricians. If you can spend your whole day in labor and delivery, you may not need this program, but if you are like the rest of us, you cannot defend not having the ability to monitor fetal strips anywhere, anytime.”

AirStrip OB is being used at more than 100 hospitals across the U.S., including Premier alliance members Cleveland Clinic and Texas Health Resources.

“A number of Premier alliance member hospitals are successfully using the technology already,” said Mike Alkire, president of Premier Purchasing Partners. “This relationship with AirStrip will ensure that more healthcare providers will be able to experience the benefits the technology provides.”

Key advantages that have driven the deployment of AirStrip OB include its ability to increase patient safety, reduce risks, improve communication among caregivers, generate return on investment, and improve the quality of life for obstetricians and nurses. Users of AirStrip OB are able to view OB patient data anywhere they have a cell phone connection and can therefore reactively respond to a nursing question or patient concern, as well as proactively “check in” on what is occurring in the labor and delivery unit.

“The core purpose of Premier is to improve the health of communities, and we see great alignment with our AirStrip Technologies remote healthcare surveillance solution to help deliver measurable improvements in care throughout the Premier membership,” AirStrip cofounder and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Cameron Powell said.

“AirStrip OB saves healthcare providers valuable time by reducing the amount of extra trips to and from the labor and delivery unit,” said Kathy Connolly, RN, principal of Women’s Services for Premier Consulting Solutions. “Constant patient data updates can improve the process and quality of care by helping to reduce communication errors, the number one cause of patient injury in a hospital.”

About AirStrip Technologies, L.P.

Headquartered in San Antonio, AirStrip Technologies has designed and built a platform that securely delivers critical patient information, including waveform data, from hospital systems to a doctor or nurse’s smart phone. The platform, which is completely reusable, scalable and data independent, can be employed throughout the healthcare enterprise. It is one of the only systems able to deliver most types of healthcare data direct from hospital monitoring systems. The AirStrip platform, including the proprietary waveform engine, offers extraordinary value in any industry in which remote surveillance of monitoring systems is required. Visit www.airstriptech.com for more information.

RESTON, Va., Sept. 14, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has been awarded a follow-on contract from the consolidated city of Indianapolis and Marion County, Ind. for information technology (IT) services that will offer improvements in customer service, technology efficiencies, risk avoidance and cost effectiveness.

Northrop Grumman was awarded the initial five-year contract in 2004. The four-year contract extension is valued at $33.9 million.

Under the terms of the contract, Northrop Grumman's Information Systems sector will provide onsite management, and operation and support of the city and county's data center, help desk, networks, and distributed computing that includes desktop repair, and install, move, add and change operations.

"We will continue to leverage this partnership and our experience with Indianapolis and Marion County's IT environment to provide new and enhanced technology to better serve citizens," said Ed Sturms, Northrop Grumman's vice president for Commercial, State and Local Programs.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide.

DEDHAM, MA -- 09/14/09 -- Metatomix, Inc., a leading provider of semantic solutions to justice and public safety, financial services, manufacturing and life sciences organizations, today announced its solutions for Justice and Homeland Security will be highlighted at the 2009 Courts Technology Conference, Sept. 22-24 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colo. A gold sponsor, Metatomix will feature its solutions for Justice and Homeland Security in three showcase theatre presentations and in the recently produced Metatomix webcast featuring Gartner Research analyst Jeff Vining; the Honorable Ben Studdard III, Chief State Court Judge, Henry County, Ga.; and Frank J. Kitzerow, Chief of Police, Jupiter, Fla. The webcast can be viewed at Metatomix's booth, #410, on the exhibition floor.

In the first showcase theatre presentation on Wednesday, Sept. 23 from 10:30 - 11:00 a.m., Robert D. Stuart, director of the information technology division at the Supreme Court of Ohio, will give a presentation titled "Ohio Courts Network - Statewide Information Exchange System." The presentation will demonstrate how Metatomix's mtx Judicial Inquiry System (JIS) enables the Ohio Courts Network to generate correlated results from multiple criminal justice systems by using a single login.

The second showcase theatre presentation, "Henry County Georgia Courts - Metatomix Data Sharing Case Study," will be presented by Clark Rainer, director of technical services for Henry County Courts, Ga., on Wednesday, Sept. 23 from 1:30 - 2:00 p.m. Specifically, Rainer will demonstrate how Metatomix's JIS and mtx Active Warrant Alert Calendar (AWAC) have helped integration efforts in the courts system by creating a real-time 360 degree view of persons of interest, thus ensuring public safety and saving valuable resources.

The third showcase theatre presentation will be conducted by Craig McLean, the information services director for Florida's Twentieth Judicial Circuit on Thursday, Sept. 24 from 12:15 - 12:45 p.m. McLean will give a presentation titled, "Florida Twentieth Judicial Circuit's Active Warrant Alert Calendaring System," which will feature a live demo of the company's mtx AWAC system as well as details on how it is being used to save time, resources and lives in Lee County, Fla.

Members of the media and analyst communities interested in speaking with Metatomix at this event should visit company booth #410 or contact Brad Baker at 781-672-3118 or bbaker@chenpr.com.

About Metatomix, Inc.

Founded in 2000, Metatomix is a leading provider of semantic solutions to justice and public safety, financial services, manufacturing and life sciences organizations. Metatomix solutions link data from disparate systems to create a common semantic understanding across the enterprise. Using this contextual understanding, Metatomix solutions enable real-time analysis and insights, orchestrating and coordinating responses among both people and systems to optimize business performance. For more information, visit the Metatomix Web site at www.metatomix.com.

Metatomix is a trademark of Metatomix, Inc. Other brand names or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Indianapolis and Marion County Extend Information Technology Services Contract
With Northrop Grumman

RESTON, Va., Sept. 14, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Northrop Grumman Corporation
(NYSE:NOC) has been awarded a follow-on contract from the consolidated city of
Indianapolis and Marion County, Ind. for information technology (IT) services
that will offer improvements in customer service, technology efficiencies, risk
avoidance and cost effectiveness.

Northrop Grumman was awarded the initial five-year contract in 2004. The
four-year contract extension is valued at $33.9 million.

Under the terms of the contract, Northrop Grumman's Information Systems sector
will provide onsite management, and operation and support of the city and
county's data center, help desk, networks, and distributed computing that
includes desktop repair, and install, move, add and change operations.

"We will continue to leverage this partnership and our experience with
Indianapolis and Marion County's IT environment to provide new and enhanced
technology to better serve citizens," said Ed Sturms, Northrop Grumman's vice
president for Commercial, State and Local Programs.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000
employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace,
electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to
government and commercial customers worldwide.

Recognizes Professionals in the Field of Electronic Discovery Who Meet Rigorous
Experience, Training and Testing Requirements
PASADENA, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
Guidance Software Inc. (NASDAQ:GUID), The World Leader in Digital
Investigations, today announced the new EnCase Certified eDiscovery Practitioner
(EnCEP) program. The program certifies private and public sector professionals
in the use of Guidance Software's EnCase eDiscovery software, as well as their
proficiency in eDiscovery planning, project management and best practices.

EnCase eDiscovery is the leading eDiscovery solution for the search, collection,
preservation, and processing of electronically stored information (ESI). Earning
the EnCEP certification signifies that a practitioner is skilled in the
application of the solution to manage and successfully complete all sizes of
eDiscovery matters in accordance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

"The EnCase Certified eDiscovery Practitioner program was created by industry
experts to meet the needs of our EnCase eDiscovery users who are handling
electronic evidence in both routine and some of the largest and most complex
litigations of our day," said Al Hobbs, Vice President, Professional Development
& Training Operations for Guidance Software. "Candidates who complete the EnCEP
program, and earn the designation, will have demonstrated their expertise in the
leading edge EnCase technology and methodology for the collection and processing
of electronically stored information."

"Successful litigation depends on good legal scholarship as well as the
appropriate technology infrastructure to support e-discovery. We recommend that
legal professionals are screened on their understanding of technology and
enterprise computing, as well as their comprehension of how technology is
deployed," said John Bace, a research vice president at Gartner, graduate of the
John Marshall Law School in Chicago, and Advisory Board member for the Center
for Information Technology & Privacy Law at the School. "Certification programs
such as these are a step in the right direction toward ensuring that IT
professionals are proficient in eDiscovery."

Over the past eight years, Guidance Software has certified more than 2,100
computer investigative professionals with the globally recognized EnCase
Certified Examiner (EnCE) designation. The new EnCEP program will similarly
enable eDiscovery practitioners to demonstrate their skills, training and
experience in the proper handling of ESI for legal purposes.

Information on the requirements for EnCEP candidates, the testing program and
certification renewal can be found at
http://www.guidancesoftware.com/computer-forensics-training-certifications.htm.

About Guidance Software (GUID)

Guidance Software is recognized worldwide as the industry leader in digital
investigative solutions. Its EnCase(r) platform provides the foundation for
government, corporate and law enforcement organizations to conduct thorough,
network-enabled, and court-validated computer investigations of any kind, such
as responding to eDiscovery requests, conducting internal investigations,
responding to regulatory inquiries or performing data and compliance auditing -
all while maintaining the integrity of the data. There are more than 30,000
licensed users of the EnCase technology worldwide, and thousands attend Guidance
Software's renowned training programs annually. Validated by numerous courts,
corporate legal departments, government agencies and law enforcement
organizations worldwide, EnCase has been honored with industry awards and
recognition from eWEEK, SC Magazine, Network Computing, and the Socha-Gelbmann
survey. For more information about Guidance Software, visit
www.guidancesoftware.com.