World Bank, IFC plan Re bonds
New Delhi: World Bank and its private lending arm International Finance Corporation are planning to float rupee-denominated bonds worth $100 million each when the market conditions are "favourable". Senior officials of World Bank and IFC have indicated that the multilateral agencies have obtained all the clearances for the bonds, but the exact timing of the issue is yet to be decided.
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INMA World Congress: Battle for the Individual
New York, USA: Nearly 400 delegates from 42 countries will converge on New York's Plaza Hotel May 16-19 for the 74th annual INMA World Congress of Newspaper Marketing. The annual conference of the International Newspaper Marketing Association (INMA) will provide the year's most innovative examination of strategic opportunities and threats facing the newspaper industry. The conference theme is "The Battle for the Individual" and how newspapers must move from mass-market strategies to a series of niche market and one-to-one strategies.

The INMA World Congress will examine key issues facing newspapers in 2004, including:

• A McKinsey & Company look at the business implications of quality broadsheets converting to tabloid format.
• A Microsoft cultural anthropologist discussing how the Internet generation interacts with media and specific opportunities for newspapers.
• Major advertising trends worldwide by the chairman of the London-based World Advertising Research Centre (WARC).
• The structural shifts in the classified advertising marketplace post-Internet boom and post-recession.
• Digital trends for newspaper companies, ranging from SMS text messaging to the Internet to next-generation technologies.

INMA's Silver Shovel award, signifying excellence to the newspaper industry and a commitment to the association, will be presented at a closing reception Tuesday evening, May 18, at Tavern on the Green in New York's Central Park.
Most delegates to the INMA World Congress represent the leading newspapers in Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, and the South Pacific, among others. More information on the INMA World Congress may be obtained by web at www.inma.org/nyc.cfm
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Panic Disorder: From mother to daughter
Stanford, USA: Panic disorder is a problem that is easily handed down from mother to daughter. A Stanford University School of Medicine study is aiming to identify ways to prevent this unfortunate inheritance. The study, led by Kimberly Wilson, PhD, a fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences (DPBS), will examine physical symptoms and thought patterns of daughters whose mothers have panic disorder. The work is the first in a line of investigations that could help determine who is most likely to develop panic disorder and where prevention programs might intervene. Panic disorder is marked by unpredictable attacks of anxiety accompanied by physical symptoms such as heart palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness and trembling.

People with the disorder, which affects 5 percent of the population, often become afraid of their physical responses and go out of their way to block them. The exact cause of panic disorder is unknown, but there is a strong family component. According to DPBS sources, the prevalence of the disorder among individuals who have a family member with the disorder is more than five times greater than among individuals with no family history. Researchers believe some aspects of the disorder are learned. For instance if a mother demonstrates fearful behaviour in certain situations, her daughter may eventually exhibit the behaviour.
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MSSA: Configuring Analog and Digital circuits together
Winston-Salem, USA: Triad Semiconductor, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company has announced the development of a mixed-signal structured array (MSSA). This new integrated circuit (IC) design architecture uses a single IC fabrication mask to configure an array of analog and digital circuit elements into an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The patent pending technology reduces ASIC development costs to a fraction of full custom designs. The MSSA resembles well-understood digital structured ASICs. Primitive circuit elements are fabricated in a structured manner in all but one of the manufacturing process steps.

The fundamental difference is that the MSSA technology includes both analog and digital circuits. Digital logic, analog amplifiers, resistors, switches and capacitors are included in the array. Using a single process layer known as the "via," they are interconnected to form an ASIC. Tooling is reduced to one mask layer and the configuration step occurs late in the fabrication process, thus drastically lowering ASIC tooling costs and manufacturing time. Because the design task is to configure a known array or circuit elements, design risk and development time are also reduced. The initial MSSA product platform, known as MSSA-1 is progressing towards production launch in October of 2004.
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