U.S. energy giant Chevorn announced on Monday that it had struck oil at a deepwater well in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast in the state of Louisiana.
The new discovery is located at the Walker Ridge Block 98 well in the Coronado prospect, about 12 miles (about 19 kilometers) from another discovery announced last week by Anadarko Petroleum Corp and ConocoPhillips. Operating in 6,000 feet (about 1,800 meters) beneath the water, Chevron drilled through a thick underground salt layer to find oil at a depth of 31,carbon prepreg866 feet below sea level, according to the website of The Houston Chronicle.
The company said at the above-mentioned well,carbon fabric workers encountered more than 400 feet of net oil pay, or the thickness of an oil reservoir that can produce hydrocarbons. The Coronado prospect is a part of a region dubbed as the Lower Tertiary Trend, which is especially challenging to drill because a thick underground salt layer makes seismic scans hard to read.These come to you with a guarantee that would assure you that these Household scissors remain with you for a longer term and that too in a perfect shape.
Chevron holds a 40 percent working interest in the Coronado prospect and is the operator of the Coronado discovery well.carbon sheets The new discovery was Chevron's second attempt to drill into the Coronado prospect after a 2011 effort was abandoned.Antique bath fixtures
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Dollar General's Q4 Doesn't Halt Dollar Store Rally
Dollar
General (DG) sales and guidance fell below Wall Street forecasts, but
shares ultimately rallied Monday on the "decent result" amid a difficult
economy.
Goodlettsville, Tenn.-based Dollar General, the largest discount variety chain and operator of more than 10,000 stores, said Q4 earnings per share climbed 11.5% to 97 cents, beating analyst consensus by 7 cents a share. Gross profit margins improved, surprising some analysts.
Revenue rose less than 1% to $4.adhesive film21 billion, lighter than the expected $4.26 billion. Sales rose 8%, excluding an extra week in Q4 2011. Either way, it was the weakest gain in several years.Bad economic times are a mixed blessing for Dollar General. Pictured is a store in Hialeah, Fla. AP View Enlarged Image
Adjusted same-store sales rose 3% vs.carbon sheets a year earlier."We grew our market share and invested strategically," Chairman and CEO Rick Dreiling said in a statement. He cited the payroll tax hike and delayed tax refunds as hurting sales.
Bad economic times are a mixed blessing for Dollar General."When times get tough our customers need us even more," Dreiling said on the conference call.
Looking ahead, Dreiling expects Dollar General's sales to grow 10% to 12% this year, with same-store sales up 4% to 6%. But he sees EPS of $3.15 to $3.30. The midpoint is below the $3.cc composite27 consensus of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
Investors struggled with Dollar General's results.Clawfoot tub faucets Shares gapped up 5% early to a six-month high, briefly turned negative before closing for a 2% gain on the stock market Monday.
Dollar General is pushing into tobacco products. That may have hurt Family Dollar Stores (FDO), which fell nearly 2% Monday.Dollar Tree (DLTR) shot up early, but closed up just a fraction.Shares of all three dollar stores sold off sharply in mid-2012. They started to rebound late last month on Dollar Tree's stronger-than-expected results.
Dollar General's Q4 results weren't perfect but good enough,Clawfoot tubs according to brokers Sanford Bernstein and Nomura Securities."We believe this was a decent result in the midst of a choppy period," Nomura analyst Aram Rubinson said in a client note.
Goodlettsville, Tenn.-based Dollar General, the largest discount variety chain and operator of more than 10,000 stores, said Q4 earnings per share climbed 11.5% to 97 cents, beating analyst consensus by 7 cents a share. Gross profit margins improved, surprising some analysts.
Revenue rose less than 1% to $4.adhesive film21 billion, lighter than the expected $4.26 billion. Sales rose 8%, excluding an extra week in Q4 2011. Either way, it was the weakest gain in several years.Bad economic times are a mixed blessing for Dollar General. Pictured is a store in Hialeah, Fla. AP View Enlarged Image
Adjusted same-store sales rose 3% vs.carbon sheets a year earlier."We grew our market share and invested strategically," Chairman and CEO Rick Dreiling said in a statement. He cited the payroll tax hike and delayed tax refunds as hurting sales.
Bad economic times are a mixed blessing for Dollar General."When times get tough our customers need us even more," Dreiling said on the conference call.
Looking ahead, Dreiling expects Dollar General's sales to grow 10% to 12% this year, with same-store sales up 4% to 6%. But he sees EPS of $3.15 to $3.30. The midpoint is below the $3.cc composite27 consensus of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
Investors struggled with Dollar General's results.Clawfoot tub faucets Shares gapped up 5% early to a six-month high, briefly turned negative before closing for a 2% gain on the stock market Monday.
Dollar General is pushing into tobacco products. That may have hurt Family Dollar Stores (FDO), which fell nearly 2% Monday.Dollar Tree (DLTR) shot up early, but closed up just a fraction.Shares of all three dollar stores sold off sharply in mid-2012. They started to rebound late last month on Dollar Tree's stronger-than-expected results.
Dollar General's Q4 results weren't perfect but good enough,Clawfoot tubs according to brokers Sanford Bernstein and Nomura Securities."We believe this was a decent result in the midst of a choppy period," Nomura analyst Aram Rubinson said in a client note.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
That makes two of us: How bioengineers are using 3D printing to create body parts
The scientists first analysed a digital 3-D image of a human ear, then used a 3-D printer to assemble a mould, into which they injected a mixture of collagen gel from rat tails and cartilage cells from cow ears. The collagen served as a scaffold upon which cartilage could grow, and over three months, the cartilage grew to replace the collagen.
"It takes half a day to design the mould, a day or so to print it, 30 minutes to inject the gel, and we can remove the ear 15 minutes later. We trim the ear and then let it culture for several days in nourishing cell culture media before it is implanted," says Professor Lawrence Bonassar, leader of the study.
The bioengineered ear replacement may be the solution reconstructive surgeons have long wished for to help children born with ear deformities, says co-lead author Dr Jason Spector. Microtia, a congenital deformity where the external ear is not developed, affects thousands of children each year. Many people also lose part or their entire ear in an accident or from cancer.
Three-dimensional printing technology is already generating revenue in two areas: dental fabrication of crowns, bridges, and implants; and prosthetics manufacturing.
Last month, an 83-year-old Belgian woman, whose chronic bone infection had destroyed her lower jaw, was able to eat and speak again with a 3-D printed prosthetic jaw made from 33 layers of titanium powder that were heated, fused together and then coated with bioceramic artificial bone.
The area of "bioprinting" - the 3-D printing of human organs for transplant - however, is still in its infancy. Bioprinters use a "bio-ink" made of living cell mixtures to build a 3-D structure of cells, layer by layer, to form tissue. This tissue is then developed into organs.
Liver tissue, heart tissue, and pancreatic tissue will continue to be areas for us to explore
Dr Jordan Miller, University of Pennsylvania
In 2011, a team led by Anthony Atala, at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in the US, revealed the development of a technique to grow engineered urethras for several Mexican boys whose urethras were damaged in car accidents. The scientists took a sample of tissue from the boys and multiplied the cells in the lab before seeding them on a cylinder of biodegradable material. The resultant tube of tissue was transplanted into the boys' urinary systems.
"When they came in, they had a leg bag to drain their urine, and they had to carry it everywhere they went," says Atala. After the treatment, "these children are now normal".
Replacing human body parts that are primarily made of cartilage, such as joints, the trachea and the nose, is helped by the fact that cartilage does not require a blood supply to survive. Building organs that rely on blood is trickier - though University of Pennsylvania scientists have been making advances in this area.
In a study published last year in the journal Nature Materials, the scientists showed that 3-D printed templates of filament networks can be used to rapidly create vasculature and improve the function of engineered living tissues. Without a vascular system, which delivers nutrients while removing waste products, living cells on the inside of a 3-D body part cannot survive.
Building a vascular network is tricky because the layer-by-layer fabrication of 3-D printing creates structural seams between the layers, which could burst when fluid is pumped through them at high pressure - as in the body's blood vessels.
The researchers designed 3-D filament networks in the shape of a vascular system that sat inside a mould. The mould and the vascular template were removed once cells were added to form a solid gel tissue around the filaments.
To find the optimal material, the team tested different formulations using a simple material: sugar. Sugars are mechanically strong, so the printed 3-D network could be sufficiently rigid to support its own weight. In addition, the template could be easily dissolved and flow out of the gel construct, leaving a vascular architecture spread throughout the bioengineered tissue.
"The perfect cylinders we are moulding into engineered tissues are similar to those that make up human blood vasculature," says Dr Jordan Miller, the study's lead author.
To print the sugar network, the scientists modified a commercially available 3-D printer called RepRap to extrude molten sugar with high precision. Once the template was made, gels containing human cells were set around the sugar network to create tissue. The sugar was then dissolved, leaving a channel through which nutrient-rich media could be pumped to feed the cells inside.
The team created a piece of liver tissue using human liver cells. "Our 3-D culture technique is able to create tissues in physiologically relevant architectures and at normal cell densities - tens to hundreds of millions of cells per millilitre - which allows us to explore cellular behaviour in a way that more closely mimics how cells grow in the body," says Miller.
Armed with this new technology, Miller and his colleagues are studying future possibilities. "We are investigating using this technique for making large-scale engineered tissues containing tens of millions of cells," he says. "Liver tissue, heart tissue, and pancreatic tissue will continue to be areas for us to explore."
"It takes half a day to design the mould, a day or so to print it, 30 minutes to inject the gel, and we can remove the ear 15 minutes later. We trim the ear and then let it culture for several days in nourishing cell culture media before it is implanted," says Professor Lawrence Bonassar, leader of the study.
The bioengineered ear replacement may be the solution reconstructive surgeons have long wished for to help children born with ear deformities, says co-lead author Dr Jason Spector. Microtia, a congenital deformity where the external ear is not developed, affects thousands of children each year. Many people also lose part or their entire ear in an accident or from cancer.
Three-dimensional printing technology is already generating revenue in two areas: dental fabrication of crowns, bridges, and implants; and prosthetics manufacturing.
Last month, an 83-year-old Belgian woman, whose chronic bone infection had destroyed her lower jaw, was able to eat and speak again with a 3-D printed prosthetic jaw made from 33 layers of titanium powder that were heated, fused together and then coated with bioceramic artificial bone.
The area of "bioprinting" - the 3-D printing of human organs for transplant - however, is still in its infancy. Bioprinters use a "bio-ink" made of living cell mixtures to build a 3-D structure of cells, layer by layer, to form tissue. This tissue is then developed into organs.
Liver tissue, heart tissue, and pancreatic tissue will continue to be areas for us to explore
Dr Jordan Miller, University of Pennsylvania
In 2011, a team led by Anthony Atala, at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in the US, revealed the development of a technique to grow engineered urethras for several Mexican boys whose urethras were damaged in car accidents. The scientists took a sample of tissue from the boys and multiplied the cells in the lab before seeding them on a cylinder of biodegradable material. The resultant tube of tissue was transplanted into the boys' urinary systems.
"When they came in, they had a leg bag to drain their urine, and they had to carry it everywhere they went," says Atala. After the treatment, "these children are now normal".
Replacing human body parts that are primarily made of cartilage, such as joints, the trachea and the nose, is helped by the fact that cartilage does not require a blood supply to survive. Building organs that rely on blood is trickier - though University of Pennsylvania scientists have been making advances in this area.
In a study published last year in the journal Nature Materials, the scientists showed that 3-D printed templates of filament networks can be used to rapidly create vasculature and improve the function of engineered living tissues. Without a vascular system, which delivers nutrients while removing waste products, living cells on the inside of a 3-D body part cannot survive.
Building a vascular network is tricky because the layer-by-layer fabrication of 3-D printing creates structural seams between the layers, which could burst when fluid is pumped through them at high pressure - as in the body's blood vessels.
The researchers designed 3-D filament networks in the shape of a vascular system that sat inside a mould. The mould and the vascular template were removed once cells were added to form a solid gel tissue around the filaments.
To find the optimal material, the team tested different formulations using a simple material: sugar. Sugars are mechanically strong, so the printed 3-D network could be sufficiently rigid to support its own weight. In addition, the template could be easily dissolved and flow out of the gel construct, leaving a vascular architecture spread throughout the bioengineered tissue.
"The perfect cylinders we are moulding into engineered tissues are similar to those that make up human blood vasculature," says Dr Jordan Miller, the study's lead author.
To print the sugar network, the scientists modified a commercially available 3-D printer called RepRap to extrude molten sugar with high precision. Once the template was made, gels containing human cells were set around the sugar network to create tissue. The sugar was then dissolved, leaving a channel through which nutrient-rich media could be pumped to feed the cells inside.
The team created a piece of liver tissue using human liver cells. "Our 3-D culture technique is able to create tissues in physiologically relevant architectures and at normal cell densities - tens to hundreds of millions of cells per millilitre - which allows us to explore cellular behaviour in a way that more closely mimics how cells grow in the body," says Miller.
Armed with this new technology, Miller and his colleagues are studying future possibilities. "We are investigating using this technique for making large-scale engineered tissues containing tens of millions of cells," he says. "Liver tissue, heart tissue, and pancreatic tissue will continue to be areas for us to explore."
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Cone Concrete Crusher your best choice for crushing rock!
The Cone concrete crusher (mobile cone crushing and screening plant) is another kind of mobile crushing unit, mainly to satisfy different requirement of final products. Cone crusher replaces impact crusher to produce much harder and fine stone or sand products. According to actual needs,vibrating screen manufacturers cone crusher can be adjusted to different crushing chamber. It expands the using area of medium-coarse crushing cone crusher mobile crushing station.
The Cone concrete crusher (mobile cone crushing and screening plant) is a new rock crushing equipment, stone crushing machine. It is widely used in building construction waste crushing, expressway, railroading and hydroelectric project, etc.
The Cone concrete crusher (mobile cone crushing and screening plant) is mainly used in fine crushing. According to raw material and the required final products, Circular vibrating screen machinecone crushing and screening plant is used for rock crushing of high hardness and fine final products. The cone concrete crusher can be adjusted Custom Sand Washeraccording to the actual requirement.
The Cone concrete crusher (mobile cone crushing and screening plant) is a new rock crushing equipment, stone crushing machine. It is widely used in building construction waste crushing, expressway, railroading and hydroelectric project, etc.
The Cone concrete crusher (mobile cone crushing and screening plant) is mainly used in fine crushing. According to raw material and the required final products, Circular vibrating screen machinecone crushing and screening plant is used for rock crushing of high hardness and fine final products. The cone concrete crusher can be adjusted Custom Sand Washeraccording to the actual requirement.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Severstal suspends foreign projects as its profit drops threefold
One of the world’s leading metal companies, Russia's Severstal is suspending foreign projects in India and Trinidad and Tobago, after failing to reach agreement with its partners abroad.
A drop in profits, and weak global demand and prices also altered Severstal’s investment plans.
Severstal's main shareholder, Aleksey Mordashov speaking at a conference on Tuesday said his company is suspending its foreign projects in India and Trinidad and Tobago cutting $3 billion in investment.
According to Mordashov, the indian project stumbled when the Indian partners refused to give control of the project over to the Russian company. It was initially planned that Severstal and Indian NMDC will invest $5 billion to build a plant with a capacity to produce three million tons annually. Work on the project is currently suspended.
The Trinidad and Tobago project is still a big question as Severstal is waiting for the country’s authorities. The project was announced in January 2012. According to the plan Severstal was to invest $600 milion and build an iron plant with a capacity of 1.5 million tons per year.
Russia's second biggest steel producer published results on Tuesday showing a loss of $150 million in the fourth quarter of 2012 caused by weak demand and falling prices.
At the end of 2012 revenue dropped by 10.8 percent compared to 2011 to $14.1 billion. Net profit fell almost threefold year-on year to $762 million.
The company expects the unstable global economic backdrop to have a negative impact on steel prices in 2013, Gazeta.ru reports. In order to go back to the target level of debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 1.5, Severstal has slashed investment in 2013 to $1.3 billion from the previously planned $1.7 billion.
China and Europe's debt crisis also contributed to the decline in the steelmakers’ business, as it has hit construction and industrial production.
“The key negative data comes from the last quarter. Since January the company restored the production volume, however further growth can be negatively affected by the risks from China,” BKS analyst Oleg Petropavlovsky is quoted by Gazeta.ru as saying. “If the Chinese government continues to take measures to reduce real estate demand, it will have a negative impact on the amounts of consumption and the prices of steel.”
A drop in profits, and weak global demand and prices also altered Severstal’s investment plans.
Severstal's main shareholder, Aleksey Mordashov speaking at a conference on Tuesday said his company is suspending its foreign projects in India and Trinidad and Tobago cutting $3 billion in investment.
According to Mordashov, the indian project stumbled when the Indian partners refused to give control of the project over to the Russian company. It was initially planned that Severstal and Indian NMDC will invest $5 billion to build a plant with a capacity to produce three million tons annually. Work on the project is currently suspended.
The Trinidad and Tobago project is still a big question as Severstal is waiting for the country’s authorities. The project was announced in January 2012. According to the plan Severstal was to invest $600 milion and build an iron plant with a capacity of 1.5 million tons per year.
Russia's second biggest steel producer published results on Tuesday showing a loss of $150 million in the fourth quarter of 2012 caused by weak demand and falling prices.
At the end of 2012 revenue dropped by 10.8 percent compared to 2011 to $14.1 billion. Net profit fell almost threefold year-on year to $762 million.
The company expects the unstable global economic backdrop to have a negative impact on steel prices in 2013, Gazeta.ru reports. In order to go back to the target level of debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 1.5, Severstal has slashed investment in 2013 to $1.3 billion from the previously planned $1.7 billion.
China and Europe's debt crisis also contributed to the decline in the steelmakers’ business, as it has hit construction and industrial production.
“The key negative data comes from the last quarter. Since January the company restored the production volume, however further growth can be negatively affected by the risks from China,” BKS analyst Oleg Petropavlovsky is quoted by Gazeta.ru as saying. “If the Chinese government continues to take measures to reduce real estate demand, it will have a negative impact on the amounts of consumption and the prices of steel.”
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Industrial production index, output on uptrend
Risks include slippage in the US and EU economies, appreciation of the baht, higher wages and volatile oil prices. Positives include growth in exports to Asean and other Asian markets, mild inflation and shallow interest rates.
The production index in January stood at 175.97, a jump of 10.1 per cent from last year in the wake of the great flood of late 2011. Director-general Nattapon Nattasomboon said yesterday that the improving index indicated that the quarterly index would grow at the same rate as January's.
Auto production in January surged 68.1 per cent year on year to 236,025 units and is expected to zoom 42.5 per cent to 711,662 units this quarter. Output for the whole year is expected to be up 14.8 per cent to 2.8 million units, of which 1.6 million units will go to the domestic market. The full-year forecast is 5 per cent higher than the office's original forecast of 2.55 million units.
About 1.25 million vehicles were sold under the government's first-car scheme, of which 723,000 or 58 per cent have been delivered to buyers. About 231,000 cars are expected to be delivered this quarter.
Steel production went up 8 per cent to 560,000 tonnes in January, while consumption rose 8 per cent to 1.44 million tonnes. The growth rate is expected to stay at 8 per cent this quarter. State construction has been expanding since the second quarter of last year.
The production index of electric and electronics industries in January edged up 4.43 per cent on the government's stimulation of domestic demand.
Fabric production rose in January to serve demand of local and overseas markets, especially Japan and Asean.
But garment production dropped because of the lingering economic problems of the United States and the European Union. Garment exports declined 5 per cent.
The food production index shrank 5.4 per cent and food exports plunged 18.1 per cent. The index is forecast to shrivel 4.7 per cent this quarter because of the EU's economic problems. Food exports this quarter are also expected to fall 31.1 per cent in line with declining domestic sugar production.
The production index in January stood at 175.97, a jump of 10.1 per cent from last year in the wake of the great flood of late 2011. Director-general Nattapon Nattasomboon said yesterday that the improving index indicated that the quarterly index would grow at the same rate as January's.
Auto production in January surged 68.1 per cent year on year to 236,025 units and is expected to zoom 42.5 per cent to 711,662 units this quarter. Output for the whole year is expected to be up 14.8 per cent to 2.8 million units, of which 1.6 million units will go to the domestic market. The full-year forecast is 5 per cent higher than the office's original forecast of 2.55 million units.
About 1.25 million vehicles were sold under the government's first-car scheme, of which 723,000 or 58 per cent have been delivered to buyers. About 231,000 cars are expected to be delivered this quarter.
Steel production went up 8 per cent to 560,000 tonnes in January, while consumption rose 8 per cent to 1.44 million tonnes. The growth rate is expected to stay at 8 per cent this quarter. State construction has been expanding since the second quarter of last year.
The production index of electric and electronics industries in January edged up 4.43 per cent on the government's stimulation of domestic demand.
Fabric production rose in January to serve demand of local and overseas markets, especially Japan and Asean.
But garment production dropped because of the lingering economic problems of the United States and the European Union. Garment exports declined 5 per cent.
The food production index shrank 5.4 per cent and food exports plunged 18.1 per cent. The index is forecast to shrivel 4.7 per cent this quarter because of the EU's economic problems. Food exports this quarter are also expected to fall 31.1 per cent in line with declining domestic sugar production.
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