The popular Outlander LS, in both 2WD and 4WD, was selected for Large Wagon and Large SUV categories respectively, while Triton GL and GLX were both selected for the 2WD and 4WD Utility categories.

Mitsubishi Motors NZ national fleet sales manager Mike Davidson is delighted with the decision.

“The endorsement is a reflection of the quality and value of both models, our industry-leading 10/5 Diamond Advantage Warranty and the strength of the Mitsubishi network,” he said

“Ever since its launch in 2005, Outlander has been a New Zealand favourite and it continues to top the sales charts in its class. Triton has moved from strength to strength and is recognised for its class-leading 4WD and safety features. It is the only option in the diesel ute segment with active stability control and the GL configuration is the only 4WD ute with rear diff lock as standard.

“The all-of-government procurement process reviewed 518 vehicles provided by 14 suppliers. Up to eighty five percent of the vehicles available to agencies could potentially be supplied by Mitsubishi and two other suppliers,” said Mr Davidson.

Vehicles were assessed across a range of criteria – including total cost of ownership, safety, fit for purpose, service network and warranty and environmental impacts – which, for the latter, followed an approach to fuel consumption and emissions consistent with the United Nations Environment Programme guidelines.

Minister for Economic Development Gerry Brownlee expects that over five years, the deal will save taxpayers $18.5 million or 8% of the Government’s current vehicle expenditure at the same time as improving safety and environmental standards. Scoop

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Researchers have described the device as the first fuel cell that produces electricity with technology borrowed from the biological powerhouses that energize people and other living things on Earth.

“This is the first demonstration of a new class of biofuel cells. When further developed, these devices have the potential for replacing disposable and rechargeable batteries in a wide variety of consumer electronics and other products. It is the first such device based on one of the microscopic parts of the billions upon billions of cells that make up the body,” said Dr. Shelley Minteer, who presented the report.

For the new biofuel cell, researchers chose one of the most amazing organelles- the mitochondria.

Sometimes called the cell’s own powerhouses, mitochondria transform the calories in food into chemical energy that the body needs to sustain life. Mitochondria use a chemical formed from the digestion of sugar and fats, called pyruvate, to make another substance called ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which stores energy until needed.

Each day the mitochondria in a typical person produce and recycle an amount of ATP equal to the person’s body weight.

This energy-producing system powered by sugar or fats opens the possibility of refueling a laptop or cell phone with vegetable fats or common oils, said Minteer, a chemist with Saint Louis University in Missouri.

Researchers described the development and successful lab testing of the first mitochondria fuel cell.

The device consists of a thin layer of mitochondria sandwiched between two electrodes, including a gas-permeable electrode.

Tests showed that it produced electricity using sugar or cooking oil byproducts as fuel.

Other potential applications of mitochondria fuel cells include their use as power sources in wireless sensors for temperature monitoring, motion detection, and monitoring the location of vehicles in a fleet.

The new biofuel cells also could serve as a power-source for stamp-sized sensors designed to detect hidden explosives, the scientists said. Newstrack India

As a matter of fact, people who wanted to avail these free cell phones must not forget that they’ll agree to possibly keep the service from that provider for a certain period of time. And in the event, anybody who wishes to end the contract even before it expires, they’ll certainly be charged of what was called as a break free. The service provider is making huge profit from any service contract being ink. They make money from the fees which the customer pays in making and receiving calls. Thus, if anybody does not finish their contract, the provider will charge termination fee which could range between few hundreds or even more depending on the customer’s location, and the kind of phone.

Plasma televisions at the Panasonic Center in Tokyo. Panasonic is making a push into emerging markets like India and China.

The company also sells no-frills refrigerators for poorer countries that come with extra space for pumped water and are priced at $170.

And between those extremes Panasonic has a vast catalog of other consumer electronics products in various price ranges, including four types of nose-hair trimmers and a separate device for ear fuzz.

But how long can Panasonic keep trying to be all things to all consumers?

Analysts complain that Panasonic suffers from a case of the attention deficit disorder that they say plagues many Japanese consumer electronics giants. The affliction, critics say, has distracted management and ceded markets to more focused, agile players like the American company Apple and Samsung of South Korea.

After the empire-building glory years for Japanese manufacturers in the 1980s, as markets began to clog with cheap products and competition grew more intense, it became clear that the Japanese needed to concentrate on fewer products instead of trying to compete across hundreds of unrelated ones.

And yet, despite repeated company promises to “sentaku to shuchu,” or “choose and focus” — an oft-heard corporate refrain in Japan in recent years — many Japanese manufacturers have struggled to pare their operations and curtail overlapping product universes.

But Panasonic, shrugging off criticism that it is spread too thin, seems intent on even further product expansion — despite having lost 103 billion yen ($1.2 billion) on revenue of 7.4 trillion yen (about $83 billion) in the fiscal year that ended in March. An investment bank, Macquarie, predicts that Panasonic’s net profit will rebound to 91 billion yen for the fiscal year ending in March 2011, as the global economy recovers.

“It’s true our business spans a wide area,” Fumio Ohtsubo, the president, said in a recent interview at the Tokyo offices of Panasonic, which is based in Osaka. “But it’s not as difficult as you might think.” In fact, the new drive by Panasonic to sell its wares in poorer countries like India and Indonesia has yielded early successes. So has its push into 3-D technology, billed as the next revolution in home entertainment in rich countries like the United States and Japan.

But those efforts also increase entropy in an already far-flung product universe, each category with its own broad spectrum — Blu-ray disc recorders to mobile phones, microwaves to massage chairs, rechargeable camera batteries to automotive fuel cells.

At the same time, Panasonic is also shouldering the costs of its 400 billion yen ($4.5 billion) acquisition last year of Sanyo Electric, the world’s largest maker of rechargeable batteries and a major manufacturer of solar panels. The purchase was meant to raise Panasonic’s standing in the promising renewable energy field, but it also expanded its product line even further.

“We probably sell tens of thousands of products; we’ve never counted,” said Akira Kadota, a Panasonic spokesman in Tokyo. “Perhaps even a million?”

Sprawl is by no means unique to Panasonic. Until recently Sharp, Fujitsu, Toshiba, NEC, Casio, Hitachi, Kyocera and Sony all made cellphones, while in some cases also building nuclear reactors and advanced business-network server computers.

Sony, the electronics and entertainment giant, perhaps best known for its televisions and the PlayStation game consoles, is also busy making car navigation systems and rechargeable batteries for laptops and other gadgets, while also running a movie studio and a financial services firm. That breadth, some analysts argue, is distracting Sony from major battles like the one against Nintendo and Microsoft in the lucrative gaming market.

“A large majority of tech companies in Japan have way too many businesses,” said Atul Goyal, a consumer electronics analyst at the brokerage firm CLSA. “These companies need to think: what are their strengths, what are their weaknesses, and focus on their core strengths.”

Generally bucking the trend is Nintendo, one of Japan’s most consistently profitable tech companies, which sells just two hardware products: the Wii home video game console and the DS hand-held. (Staying true to its game roots, Nintendo also makes traditional Hanafuda playing cards and Go board games.)

An obvious move that many Japanese manufacturers could consider, favored by American conglomerates like General Electric, would be to sell off money-losing or marginally profitable businesses and cut excess workers. But large layoffs, considered a lapse of social responsibility, especially at larger companies, are still frowned upon in corporate Japan.

There have been some steps toward consolidation. Last month, Fujitsu and Toshiba said they would combine their cellphone operations to better compete domestically against companies like Apple and its iPhone. Separately, NEC, Casio and Hitachi merged their handset operations.

But Panasonic, with 385,000 employees worldwide, continues to push forward on all fronts.

Its revamped business strategy, presented to analysts in May, charts a three-year course. Panasonic is aiming for a 330-billion-yen expansion of sales in emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, India and China, and plans to reach 1 trillion yen ($11 billion) from those markets in 2013.

And over all, Panasonic means to increase annual sales to 10 trillion yen ($112 billion) in 2013, which would be up 35 percent from its most recent fiscal year.

“We have high expectations for emerging markets,” said Mr. Ohtsubo, the president. “Our focus will be on increasing overseas sales.”

To tailor products to local needs, Panasonic says it has conducted “lifestyle research” in various emerging markets. After visiting Indonesian households, for example, the company designed a refrigerator with extra space for the pumped water that families often store in bottles, as well as a dedicated shelf for medicines and cosmetics that are often stored chilled alongside fruits and vegetables.

To drive down costs, Panasonic also eliminated a separate freezer compartment, which simplified manufacturing and cut down on parts, to achieve that $170 price tag for the standard model.

At the opposite end of the pricing spectrum, Panasonic has been pushing its 3-D plasma TVs, rushing early models to market in the United States in March, on the heels of the flat-panel market leader, Samsung.

Mr. Ohtsubo said that brisk sales had prompted Panasonic to raise its internal target for 3-D TV sales to a million units, up from 700,000, in the first year. A 50-inch 3-D plasma TV bundled with a Blu-ray player and glasses costs $2,900.

But 3-D vision is not the same as a strategic focus, as is evident in Panasonic’s development efforts in other product categories — like its new Three-Star Bistro microwave, which comes with a new setting that lets users grill frozen fish and meat without defrosting, and which Panasonic says is a first.

Impressive feat — or dilettantish distraction? Depends on your perspective.

“In terms of technological potential and breadth, we’re on top,” says Mr. Ohtsubo.

But some others are not sure it is a sustainable strategy.

“When resources are limited, it’s important to ask, what do you really want to commit to?” said Michiko Kakiya, a Tokyo-based technology analyst for Macquarie, the investment bank. “It is important to start choosing.”  The New York Times

The law, first of its kind in the US, is being contested by CTIA – The Wireless Association. The group said the law will mislead consumers into thinking that one phone may be safer than another on the basis of radiation measurements.

Studies have not convincingly found that cell phone radiation is a health risk, however, research is ongoing on brain tumors.

The industry group said the city is taking over the authority of the Federal Communications Commission, which sets limits for phone radiation.

The Associated Press (AP) reports that the city office was unable to comment on the lawsuit at press time. Previously, Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office said that the ordinance is a “modest measure that will provide greater transparency and information to consumers for whom this is an area of interest or concern.”

The local ordinance makes cell phone retailers disclose how much energy will theoretically be absorbed by a user’s head. The FCC limits this specific absorption rate (SAR) to an average of 1.6 watts per kilogram. Measurements for phones sold in the US are available on the agency’s site, but rarely in stores.

“Nobody should be suggesting to consumers that they ought to be shopping for phones based on a difference in SAR values,” John Walls, vice president for public affairs at CTIA, told AP. “There’s no scientific basis to suggest, as the ordinance does, that two phones with different values have a safety distinction between them,” as long as the measurement’s are below the FCC limit.

The law states that larger retail chains will have to start placing SAR notices on phones beginning in February 2011, while other stores will have until 2012.

CTIA, in response to the San Francisco law, said it will hold its annual trade show in San Francisco this fall, as it usually does, but will look for another host city for the 2011 show. “We thought it was a clear message from the mayor that we weren’t wanted there,” Walls told AP. redOrbit

More likely, it’s related to the genetics of the parents who turned to in vitro fertilization because of infertility, the study’s Swedish authors and other experts say. Also, test-tube infants often are born prematurely and have breathing problems at birth – traits linked in other studies with increased cancer risks.

Still, cancer in these children is rare despite any elevated risks.

“It’s rather reassuring,” said Dr. Bengt Kallen, the study’s lead author and a researcher at the University of Lund. The risk “is so small that it can’t matter much for the individual parents or parents-to-be.”

The study examined Swedish children conceived by IVF, in which eggs are fertilized with sperm in a lab dish and then implanted in the womb. Research on possible health risks including cancer and birth defects in IVF children has had mixed results.

Dr. Tommaso Falcone, the Cleveland Clinic’s obstetrics and gynecology chief, said it’s uncertain whether similar results would be found in the more racially diverse United States. About 57,000 infants are born after IVF each year in the U.S., or roughly 1 percent of all births

The results of the new study were published online Monday in Pediatrics. It analyzed more than 2.4 million births in Sweden between 1982 and 2005, including almost 27,000 IVF babies, along with cancer data in children tracked for up to 19 years.

Overall, 53 IVF children developed cancer versus 38 that would be expected in other children of the same age, a 42 percent increased risk. Leukemia and brain cancers were among the most common.

Kallen said possible reasons for the link include unidentified traits in the parents that might be related to infertility and cancer risks.

Absolute risks for cancer in these children are still very low, “far less than 1 percent,” Falcone noted.

Dr. Elizabeth Ginsburg, medical director of the IVF program at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said patients nonetheless should be counseled about the study results. By Lindsey Tanner,  PhysOrg

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Dr. Roland Buresh, part of the International Rice Research (IRRI) team that has joined the Philippine Department of Agriculture to establish the system, says that after responding to a series of simple questions about their rice paddy, farmers would receive an automated text reply recommending what amounts, sources, and timings of fertilizer are needed for profitable rice production in their paddy.

In Rice Today July–September 2010, Buresh explains the technology and what they hope to achieve.

In Cambodia, farmers are further advancing technology adoption of mechanical harvesters and dryers, better storage techniques, among other postharvest technologies. In this issue, we hear how the technologies are spreading and being embraced by Cambodian rice farmers to reduce labor, save money and time, and improve the quantity and quality of grain available at the end of the day.

Rice Today also delves deeper into the controversial topic of “land grabs” for rice production, exploring the potential benefits and downsides to this approach to increasing global rice production.

Land grabs will also be one of the themes at the 3rd International Rice Congress 2010 (IRC2010), which will be held in Hanoi, Vietnam, 8-12 November 2010. IRC2010 is the world’s largest gathering of rice scientists, researchers, and technology experts and is expected to attract thousands of international delegates. IRC2010 follows the Africa Rice Congress 2010, held in Mali in March this year—Rice Today reports on the Congress and its recommendations to boost Africa’s rice sector, including a “Marshall Plan” for capacity building.

Aside from being IRRI’s 50th anniversary year, 2010 is also the International Year of Biodiversity. Rice Today explores the challenges farmers face in finding the perfect biodiversity balance in their paddies to minimize losses due to pests and weeds, reduce labor, supply additional food sources, and deliver ecosystem services such as nectar for bees.

Just keeping up production in the MERCOSUR (Southern Common Market) region of South America responsible for 85% of the continent’s rice production is a challenge this season, with adverse weather conditions causing production to drop an average of 8% since last season. The weather is also upsetting North American rice production, where rains in California are predicted to reduce the crop there.

Despite changes in rice production, “In the last few months, global rice prices have fallen by more than 25%,” according to Dr. Sam Mohanty. In his Rice Today article, Mohanty provides some insights into the market and the ongoing need to boost rice yields by 1.2-1.5% every year to ensure food security in Asia.

To help understand changes in rice production, IRRI’s mapping team, led by Dr. Andy Nelson, has published a map of rice-growing regions in South Asia for this season. They will compare maps from different years to identify new rice production areas and areas where rice is replaced by other land uses.

And, in a final farewell, this issue’s Pioneer interview is with Dr. Michael Jackson—who recently retired from IRRI after 19 years. He joined IRRI to lead the International Rice Genebank where he applied scientific best practice and harnessed the skills of staff to build the Genebank into one of the world’s best. He then applied his “systematic way of doing business” to improve project and contract management, and donor relations. redOrbit

“It’s my aim to ensure Nokia stays as the market and intellectual leader in creating the digital world,” Anssi Vanjoki wrote in a blog on Nokia’s website.

“There is no denying, that as a challenger now, we have a fight on our hands. The first battle is to bring you products and services you will want to own and use.”

The world’s top cellphone maker warned in mid-June second-quarter sales and profits at its key phones unit would be weaker than expected as it struggles to compete against Apple’s iPhone. Nokia also said 2010 profit margin at the phone business would be weaker.

Vanjoki noted it would be a tough task to make Nokia the leader in smartphones again, but added the company has all the assets “to produce killer smartphones and market-changing mobile computers.”

“Symbian and MeeGo are the best software for our smartest devices. As such, we have no plans to use any other software,” he said, adding “there are no plans to introduce an Android device from Nokia.” The Times of India