Govt to lease aircraft for Air India
New Delhi: The Government has expressed concern over the shortage of aircraft with the international carrier Air India and said it would go in for leasing, pending acquisition of new planes.

Blaming the shortage of aircraft in Air India to the lack of initiative shown by the previous NDA government, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told Rajya Sabha that as an interim arrangement aircraft would be leased since procuring new ones would take time.

Patel said it would take about 18 months for a new aircraft to be acquired after an order is placed. He said at present Air India had 33 functional aircraft out of which 18 were owned by it while 15 were taken on lease.
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AMD ships 90 nanometer mobile processors for sale
Sunnyvale, USA: AMD has announced that it is achieving a smooth transition to 90 nanometer (nm) manufacturing and has shipped low-power 90nm Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processors for thin and light notebooks (previously codenamed "Oakville") for sale. Manufacturers are expected to launch systems based on the new 90nm Mobile AMD Athlon 64 processors in the coming months.

90nm AMD Athlon(TM) 64 processors for desktop systems are expected to ship later this quarter, followed by 90nm AMD Opteron(TM) processor shipments later this year. AMD will release further details of all products in conjunction with official product launches.

In addition to benefiting today's products, AMD's success at 90nm better positions the company to deliver dual-core processors mid-next year. Benefits to AMD's dual-core manufacturing roadmap include:

• 90nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process enhancements provide higher performance, lower power transistors, which can be integrated into new dual-core designs. This will better enable AMD to deliver dual-core processors that meet AMD's aggressive performance targets.
• 90nm transistors are much smaller and more power efficient than their 130nm predecessors, which allows for greater transistor densities within chips. This will better enable AMD to integrate additional components, including a second core and other improvements, on the same chip without a dramatic increase to chip size.
• AMD's patented Automated Precision Manufacturing capabilities provide a proven, high-yield 90nm manufacturing capability required for the increased fabrication complexities of dual-core designs.

AMD64 processors were designed from the ground-up as multi-core products, and feature technologies such as Direct Connect Architecture that are ideally suited for multi-core implementation.
Efficiencies gained from 90nm manufacturing are also expected to result in operational benefits for AMD. For example, reductions in chip sizes resulting from the 90nm transition allow AMD to produce more processors on the same sized wafer, resulting in increased production capacity.

AMD designs and produces innovative microprocessors, Flash memory devices and low-power processor solutions for the computer, communications and consumer electronics industries.
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AMD's 3700+ processor for desktop-replacement notebooks launched
Sunnyvale, USA: AMD has introduced the AMD Athlon 64 processor 3700+ for desktop-replacement notebooks, with this high performing 32-bit/64-bit processor now being made available for mobile PCs.

The AMD Athlon 64 processor 3700+ for desktop-replacement notebooks is the most advanced PC processor designed for notebook computing, offering outstanding 32-bit power today plus compatibility with tomorrow's 64-bit software. The 3700+ features HyperTransport technology for extraordinary application performance, plus an Enhanced Virus Protection security feature designed to prevent the spread of certain malicious viruses when enabled by Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2(a). HP and VoodooPC are among the first suppliers to offer notebooks based on the new AMD Athlon 64 processor 3700+ for desktop-replacement notebooks.

Configure-to-order notebook systems featuring the AMD Athlon 64 processor 3700+ are available now from both HP and VoodooPC.

The AMD Athlon 64 processor 3700+ for desktop-replacement notebooks is available immediately worldwide. The AMD Athlon 64 processor 3700+ for desktop-replacement notebooks is priced at $500 in 1,000-unit quantities.

AMD Athlon 64 processors for desktop-replacement notebooks are available in the following models: 3700+, 3400+, 3200+ and 3000+.

AMD has designed the AMD64 platform to allow end users to enjoy reliable, best-in-class performance on the 32-bit software they own today while preparing for a seamless transition to high-performance 64-bit applications.
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CalPERS: Low cost, less risk and more value
Sacramento, USA: The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) has added more value to its investment portfolio at less risk, and at a lower cost, than other large public pension funds over the five-year period ended December 31, 2003, according to a report.

The report, compiled by Cost Effectiveness Measurement, Inc. (CEM), has found that CalPERS saved $144 million compared to its peers, paying less for consulting, custodial, and active investment management services.

Costs to run the pension fund's investment portfolio were $413.2 million in 2003, compared to a peer benchmark of $557.1 million.
CEM also found that CalPERS investment staff added $7 billion in excess returns over the same time period, while taking less active risk than its peers. The CEM report reviewed 245 public pension funds in the United States, Europe, Canada, and Australia with assets totaling $1.8 trillion.

CalPERS generated the majority of its cost savings by using fewer outside investment managers and managing its investment portfolio in-house by its investment staff. The System's outside investment management costs were more than $90 million lower than other public pension funds. The System used significantly less external management than its peers, 36 percent versus 47 percent for its peers.

CEM also found that CalPERS added value in all major asset classes, including U.S. and international equity, fixed income, real estate, and private equity. The System earned a 23.3 percent return for the one-year period ended December 31, 2003. The funds returns were achieved without taking on a lot of risk. According to CEM, the risk that CalPERS took to implement its investment program was 1.4 percent below the U.S. pension fund median of 1.9 percent.

CalPERS is the nation's largest public pension fund with assets of $166 billion. The System provides retirement and health benefits to more than 1.4 million State and local public employees and their families.
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New light shed on common and deadly birth defect
Stanford, USA: Delving into a long term mystery, as to why people affected with the same genetic disorder, showed varied symptoms, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of California-San Francisco have found a powerful example of how one genetic pathway can wend its way through an emerging 'city' of brain structures and facial features, influencing each phase of development in slightly different ways.

The researchers have found that a key protein, required early in the development for embryonic survival, exerts a waning but vital influence throughout the sequential construction of the brain and face. Blocking this protein's action at varying developmental stages yields very different anatomical results — including one in which only the exterior, or the face, is affected while the scaffolding, or the brain, is left unscathed.

The results not only shed light on a common cause of miscarriage in humans, they also help to untangle a medical mystery: why children born with the same genetic disorder can have vastly different symptoms.

To search for the answer, which appears in the Aug. 16 issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers studied a birth defect called holoprosencephaly, or HPE, that results when the embryonic brain fails to properly divide into two hemispheres. Although the disorder affects only about one in every 10,000 infants in this country, it's believed that the initial rates are much higher, occurring about once in every 250 conceptions. Most fetuses are so severely affected that they are miscarried early in pregnancy.

Symptoms range from death within days to severe mental retardation, seizures and an inability to speak. Others, however, suffer only mild learning disabilities. Facial defects can include a cleft lip, a single central incisor or 'front tooth,' close-set eyes or even a single eye in the center of the child's forehead.

Although it's not known exactly what causes HPE, overexposure to alcohol or other chemicals during early development has been implicated. There's also a genetic component: children with HPE routinely crop up in some families, although the severity of symptoms within a family can vary widely. This mishmash of possible causes and symptoms has made it difficult for doctors to prevent and treat the disorder.

The researchers turned to chicken embryos to study the problem, capitalizing on the fact that fertilized eggs are, in effect, perfectly isolated, self-contained laboratories. The physical separation of the mother from the embryo means that scientists can add factors they wish to study in precisely controlled amounts at well-defined times during development. And even though a bird beak seems quite different than a human nose or a mouse snout, the cells and pathways involved in brain and facial patterning are conserved between the species.

Cordero used a chemical aptly named cyclopamine to interfere with developmental signals sent by sonic hedgehog, a protein previously implicated in HPE. Although exposure early in development created cyclopic embryos, progressively later exposure mimicked the entire range of symptoms seen in children with HPE. Intriguingly, exposure after sonic hedgehog had already established itself in the divided brain affected only the embryo's face, and holding off just a bit longer resulted in no detectable malformation of either brain or beak.

The scientists believe that HPE may arise from a combination of a faulty sonic hedgehog gene, present from conception, and varying times of exposure to environmental factors that further compromise the protein's signaling. In this scenario, early exposure leads to more severe defects and sometimes death, while later exposure can leave a child with only minor facial abnormalities.

Understanding how brain and facial features are developmentally linked may help doctors at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and elsewhere hone new therapies or diagnostic procedures for these severe birth defects.

Stanford University Medical Center integrates research, medical education and patient care at its three institutions — Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.
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