If you like sweet treats (and who doesn’t?), you’ve probably got sugar beets to thank, since they’re responsible for producing sucrose, or table sugar.And those sugar beets are likely to have started from a seed developed by Belgian biotech leader SESVanderHave. With an R&D lab that tests more than one million new genotypes and grows more than 10,000 plants in its research plots each year, SESVanderHave is on the cutting edge of the sugar beet industry.It also generates a lot of big data. Consider that a single bioinformatics project involving next-generation sequencing can generate nearly 150 terabytes of data over the life of the research.SESVanderHave’s challenge was that its legacy block storage wasn’t designed for such big data. Yet researchers kept adding large DNA files until the storage capacity ran out and the file server crashed. This significantly slowed researchers’ ability to complete new projects that were critical to maintaining the company’s market leadership.In response, SESVanderHave selected Dell EMC® Isilon® scale-out storage as the exclusive environment for its biotech researchers. The efficiencies that SESVanderHave has recognized with Isilon are significant:With Isilon, SESVanderHave has reduced the time to analyze a 20 gigabyte DNA file from one and a half days to three to four hours;Projects that could take more than a year now complete in less than three months.As a result, SESVanderHave can deliver a broader range of customized seed varieties to meet specific market needs ranging from environmental conditions to production yields. Additionally, SESVanderHave gained storage capacity and performance to accelerate its genomic research projects and bring new sugar beet seed varieties to market faster. This translates into a powerful competitive advantage.Kurt Bellen, SESVanderHave’s system team leader, says, “Our researchers can process more data, which allows our research department to stay ahead of the competition.”Isilon enables researchers to run multiple analysis tools to complete entire projects more quickly. “Now, projects which contribute to producing disease-resistant plants can be completed in a few months compared to a year before.” said Bellen.SESVanderHave’s IT organization has also benefited from Isilon by eliminating storage silos. Previously, scientists had to find space for their research results wherever they could because the company’s shared block storage wasn’t designed for big data. Now SESVanderHave has a single big data environment dedicated to biotech research.Bellen concludes, “The amount of data our biotech researchers process now compared to before helps them come up with more solutions for increasing sugar yields and overcoming threats from diseases and insects that could limit sugar beet production. This will help us maintain our global leadership for years to come.”Click here to read more about Dell EMC’s work with SESVanderHave in this customer profile.
RELATED NEWS: WHO WINS THE “BOOKING FIGHT” – HOTELS OR ONLINE TRAVEL AGENCIES? Also, more than a quarter (28%) admit that booking an attractive object is mandatory for a vacation, in order to be able to take photos that will be displayed as friends #goals among friends and family. Since arriving at their destination, travelers have been looking for moments worth posting on Instagram to display their content with #goals tags because one-fifth of global travelers (20%) among whom more than a fifth (21%) of travelers from Croatia admit to choose accommodation that can be shown in the photos to be more expensive than it really was. BOOKING.COM STARTS BOOKINGSUITE APP STORE. GAME CHANGER U SECTOR TOURISM Booking.com analyzed the results of a survey conducted on 18.500 travelers from 29 countries, including more than 500 respondents from Croatia, to find out the impact of social networks on booking non-hotel accommodation such as apartments or holiday homes. Since posting holiday photos on social media is considered a postcard of today, travelers are constantly looking for inspiration, individuality and want to stand out. For that, they are ready to deviate from the usual tourist choices when choosing accommodation on vacation because almost half of travelers from Croatia (51%) reveal that they would like to visit a place that is so unique that none of their friends were there. Not only do travelers use social media to impress their friends and family, but now more than ever they are looking for inspiration for their holiday through social media, photos, influencers and apps, all at their fingertips. The growing popularity of social media has transformed travel, from planning, inspiration and booking to content sharing. It is therefore not surprising that more than a quarter of global travelers (26%) plan to choose unique accommodation so that they stand out in the crowd and would be considered trendsetters. The same opinion is shared by 18% of passengers from Croatia.
About the authorCarlos VolcanoShare the loveHave your say Juventus goalkeeper Szczesny: Dybala made difference for Lokomotiv Moscow winby Carlos Volcano3 days agoSend to a friendShare the loveJuventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was always confident of victory over Lokomotiv Moscow.The Russians had taken a shock lead after 30 minutes, but Dybala scored twice in two minutes late in the second-half to win this Champions League clash 2-1.“It was a struggle to get the result, but we controlled the game for 90 minutes and needed a lot of patience to break them down, as they were very organised and put a solid wall back there,” the goalkeeper told Sky Sport Italia.“A great left-foot shot from Dybala made the difference. Lokomotiv were clammed up in defence and we had to move the ball from left to right and back again to open up some spaces.“We must continue being protagonists in Serie A too and that means getting three points against Lecce this weekend.”
The 2015 Big Ten football champion won’t be decided until this December, but it’s already time to start thinking about which programs have put themselves in the best positions to take the crown. 5Dimes has released its Big Ten Champion moneyline odds, and as you’d imagine, the Ohio State Buckeyes, with three potential Heisman Trophy candidates at quarterback, are the favorite to repeat as champions. Michigan State, Wisconsin and Nebraska are the next-best bets.Purdue has the worst odds, as you’d imagine. If you put down $100 on the Boilermakers, you’d make $8,000 if they won the B1G title.Michigan, in its first season under new head coach Jim Harbaugh, has the sixth-best odds at +1300. You can check out odds for all of the conferences, as well as the national title, here.
Tony Award winner and host of CBS-TV’s The Late Late Show James Corden, will be joined by Jason Bentley, DJ and KCRW radio host, at the first Next Gen Rebels After-Party, Wednesday, May 11th from 9:30 p.m. to midnight at the Barker Hangar (3021 Airport, Santa Monica).Presented by Sandy and David Ellison with Skydance Media, the late night event immediately follows the biennial Rebels With a Cause Gala honoring Dr. Cheryl and Haim Saban, also at Barker Hangar. This addition of an after-party is designed to introduce today’s young adults to the groundbreaking cancer prevention research being developed by David B. Agus, MD and the team at USC’s Center for Applied Molecular Medicine (CAMM).The Next Gen Rebels After-Party will be an evening that features today’s best music played by Jason Bentley, host of KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic and Metropolis. Tickets for the after-party are priced at $200 and limited edition Rebels With a Cause T-shirts will be available on site with an additional donation of $10 or more. Guests must be 21 and over to enter.James Corden is a multi-faceted performer, host, actor, writer and producer with accomplishments that span television, theater, film and comedy. He currently hosts the late-night television talk show The Late Late Show with James Corden on CBS. In 2012 he won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for One Man, Two Guvnors. Corden co-created, co-wrote and starred in the BBC sitcom Gavin & Stacey (2007-2010), for which he won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Comedy Performance. He also hosts the British television comedy game show A League of Their Own since 2010. This year he will host the 70th Annual Tony Awards.Music director of influential NPR radio station KCRW in Santa Monica, Jason Bentley hosts their acclaimed programs Morning Becomes Eclectic and Metropolis. A much sought-after DJ, his schedule includes sets at The Coachella Festival, The Electric Daisy Carnival, Lightning in a Bottle, CRSSD Fest as well as a host of art, fashion and music industry events. Bentley has also built a distinguished career as a music supervisor for film, including the Matrix trilogy and TRON Legacy with Daft Punk. He has worked at Madonna’s Maverick Records as well as Island Records with founder Chris Blackwell and is closely associated with the Recording Academy (NARAS), the organization behind The Grammy Awards.David B. Agus MD is Director of the Westside Cancer Center and the Center for Applied Molecular Medicine (CAMM) at the Keck School of Medicine at USC.For more info about the event, click here.
TORONTO – DHX Media Ltd. is beginning to see returns from its investments over the past three years to build its library and now expects spending to be more moderate, chief executive Dana Landry said Tuesday.He said acquiring the Peanuts franchise — in a US$345-million debt-financed deal that closed at the end of June — has created a more diversified, stable business for DHX.“Over 40 per cent of our revenues now come from licencing consumer products, compared with 18 per cent during the same period last year,” Landry said.The Halifax-based company (TSX:DHX.B) has a three-pronged strategy: create or acquire child- and family-oriented content, generate revenue globally from its content and license merchandise based on its characters.“The plan is to leverage our expertise to grow our existing brands through new original content,” Landry said. “This will allow us to add new categories and new territories in our consumer products portfolio.”But he also said the company is putting a high priority on improving its free cash flow and is on track to reduce operating costs and leverage while improving revenue.The company said it will realize its target of $11 million in total annualized acquisition-related synergies and cost reductions by the end of its 2019 financial year.The comments came as DHX reported it earned $8.1 million or six cents per share, compared with a profit of $1.4 million or a penny per share a year ago.Revenue for the three months ended Sept. 30 — for the first quarter of its 2018 financial year — grew to $98.6 million, compared with $53.8 million in the same quarter last year, in part because of its acquisition of the Peanuts and Strawberry Shortcake characters earlier this year.Landry’s positive tone during the call with financial analysts was a marked contrast to his remarks while discussing DHX Media’s fourth quarter earlier this year, when he said the company had taken “corrective actions” to address “disappointing financial results.”On Oct. 2, less than a week after Landry made that comment, DHX Media launched a strategic review of its alternatives — including the possible sale of all or part of the company.Landry said Tuesday that discussions with business partners and cost-cutting measures are proceeding as usual while a special committee of DHX directors undertakes the review.Executive chairman Michael Donovan said the strategic review was launched in the context of DHX’s acquisition of the Peanuts franchise, but he declined to make specific comments about how long it will take.He said that DHX sees Peanuts as a “core” holding but “we’re committed to exploring all options to enhance shareholder value. We’ll update shareholders when the process is complete.”
Over three decades back, it looked quite impossible to ask the World Bank to review a project approved by them and to have a complaint mechanism inside the Bank. Yet, the struggle of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) against the Bank-financed Sardar Sarovar (Narmada) Dam did just that. After years of struggle, in 1991, the movement got the World Bank to review the dam project. Two years later, the Bank withdrew from the project — a first in their history of financing projects around the world. On February 27, 2019, by challenging the immunity of the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) at the United States of America (US) Supreme Court in a landmark case, the fishworkers associated with Machimar Adhikaar Sangharsh Sangathan (MASS) rewrote history. Also Read – A special kind of bondParadoxically, both these peoples’ movements have roots in Gujarat. Indeed, it would have been impossible for the people to reach the highest court of US if not for the tenacity of the committed team of lawyer-activists at EarthRights International — a US-based NGO specialising in “legal actions against perpetrators of earth rights abuses, training grassroots and community leaders and advocacy campaigns.” However, the victory, though significant, is only partial in this case. In 2015, a case was filed before the District Court of Washington DC — where IFC is registered — to hold IFC accountable for lending to the Tata Mundra project (Coastal Gujarat Power Ltd). The petitioners claimed irreversible loss to their livelihood. IFC, instead of challenging the case, sought to hide behind the veil of immunity. Now that the Supreme Court has decided that they do not enjoy absolute immunity, the case about IFC’s liability in Tata Mundra project will commence in the District Court. Also Read – Insider threat managementWith the documentation of non-compliance of IFC’s social and environmental policies, as reported by its own Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) in an eloquently crafted report, it’s only a matter of time before IFC is held accountable and made to pay. Besides, the Compliance Review Panel (CRP) — the independent accountability mechanism of Asian Development Bank (ADB) — another co-financier of the project, also reported about the gross violations of ADB policies. ADB’s actions on the findings continue to be inadequate and far from addressing the real violations as reported by the CRP. Despite confronting a heedless company and careless financiers, the people never gave up hope. Even in the face of extreme difficulty, with sources of their livelihood dwindling and pressure from different quarters to withdraw the case, they stood their ground. And that paid. Immunity, even as a principle, is incompatible with present day’s advanced discourse on human rights, good governance and equitable development — terms which the Bank tosses around at their conferences and publications, but seldom practices. Even an elected government could be taken to court by its citizens. So how can then the World Bank and other international organisations enjoy immunity? Absolute immunity leads to impunity, and that foments lack of transparency and the reluctance to be held accountable. This historical decision has opened up an opportunity for communities around the globe to take decisive actions against lenders whose investments are causing damage to humans and the environment. This decision will push financial institutions to be more responsible in their lending and ensure that no or least damages are caused due to their investments. As in the case of Narmada and many other struggles, this judgment proves that local struggles along with the support of other likeminded organisations, developing extensive documentation of violations and building their case on rock-solid facts, will certainly drive the violators to look for hideouts. It has undeniably thrown open an opportunity for peoples’ movements, fighting against destructive developmental projects, to include ‘finance’ as a part of their existing strategies. It also upholds that the rights of the people are above the privileges of the rich and powerful. In a world where spaces are shrinking for people to dissent in order to protect their rights and are disempowered before the might of corporations and financiers, this verdict becomes more significant. Not just for the World Bank Group, this decision is a clarion call to other financial institutions as well — both national and international — that they will be held accountable, and made to pay, for investments where they do not consider people and environment. Interestingly, a case from Honduras filed by the farmers may not have to go through the same process. The suit, filed through EarthRights International, arises out of the substantial financial support by IFC and the IFC Asset Management Corporation (IFC-AMC) — both World Bank entities — in Honduran palm-oil company Dinant. The company has been at the centre of bloody, decades-long land-grabbing in the Bajo Aguán region of Honduras. Furthermore, the outgoing President Jim Yong Kim was at the helm when CAO report about non-compliance of IFC’s policies by the company was published. The CAO reported many shocking findings — that the social and environmental impact assessments were erroneous, people were not consulted before the project was approved, project is causing health hazards to people in the vicinity and the livelihood of the people is gravely impacted. Kim had every reason to take action on the report. Instead, he chose to ignore the findings and the demands of the people. The consistent indifference of the Bank led the people to knock at the doors of US judiciary. Of course, inadvertently, Kim made the World Bank a step closer to accountability. And he will be remembered for that. In 2013, a campaign around the CAO findings was named ‘Wake Up Kim’. It demanded that President Kim wake up from his slumber, recognise the violations and take actions. Time has come to rename it to ‘Wake Up World Bank’. (The author is Executive Director of Centre for Financial Accountability. The views expressed are strictly personal)
New Delhi: A major fire engulfed a chemical factory in Naraina area here on Monday, forcing 30 fire tenders to battle the flames, an official said. No casualty has been reported. The incident happened in the Naraina industrial area.
NEW DELHI: Delhi Congress unit Chief Sheila Dikshit’s blue-eyed boy and senior Congress leader Raj Kumar Chauhan quit the party to join the BJP on Saturday, a day before the national capital votes in the parliamentary election.Chauhan was upset with the Congress after he was denied ticket from the North West Delhi Lok Sabha seat. Delhi Congress working president Rajesh Lilothia has been fielded by the party from the seat. The former four-time MLA and minister in the Sheila Dikshit government joined the BJP in the presence of its Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari and Union minister Vijay Goel. Chauhan said he believed in the policies of Prime Minister Natendra Modi and would work to strengthen bonds of his Khatik community with the BJP. Also Read – Odd-Even: CM seeks transport dept’s views on exemption to women, two wheelers, CNG vehiclesOn this occasion, Manoj Tiwari said that Raj Kumar Chauhan has suffered a lot in the Congress Party which completely exposes the real face of Congress. It has been the policy of the Congress Party that whoever opposes should be knocked out. He said that in place of apologizing for the 1984 Anti Sikh Riots, Congress is adding insulting to the injury of Sikhs. There is a long list of Congress leaders who are suffocating due to the unfair treatment by the top leadership. Meanwhile,Loksabha Candidate of Ambedkar National Congress Party from North East Delhi Sunil Vishwakarma gave his support to Tiwari and appeals to make him victorious. Devraha and Outer Delhi District President Manoj Shokeen were present on this occasion. Tiwari said the decision of Chauhan to quit the Congress “exposed” the party’s policy.
Bordeaux – Immigration is back on the French political scene. Jean François Copé, president of right wing party UMP, has announced his formation will propose a bill aiming at redefining the French right of soil.Currently, under the jus soli, every child born in France of foreign parents automatically acquires the French nationality when he turns 18 if he has lived in France for at least five years between the age of 8 and 18. However, Guillaume Larrivé, a UMP MP, wants things to change and will present a potential reform before the National Assembly today.“Children born in France to foreign parents are destined to become French, but that right to French nationality must not be open to those who ignore the republican pact,” said Larrivé about the four articles he plans to present. One of them “Subordinate the benefit from the jus soli to the demonstration of the child’s will to acquire the French citizenship.” In other words, the state will be able to make a selection of individuals who deserve to become French or not.The text also mentions the possibility to deny citizenship to women wearing a veil, illegal immigrants and people having been to jail for at least six months.The initiative is supported by former President Sarkozy’s most fervent followers, even though Sarkozy has himself always defended this right. During the 2012 presidential campaign, he had declared “The right of soil is part of the French tradition.”Indeed, the jus soli was first introduced in the French law on February 23, 1515. With local elections less than 5 months away and France’s long tradition as a host country for immigrants, immigration is definitely on the agenda and remains a burning topic. On October 9th, Roma teenager Leonarda was arrested during a school field trip and deported to Kosovo with her family, sparking national anger and indignation.