Latest news with #MTM
New Indian Express
a day ago
- Health
- New Indian Express
25,000 MSME workers in TN's Tiruchy to be screened under health scheme
TIRUCHY: Amid rising concerns over undiagnosed health issues among the working population, the Tiruchy health department will begin screening more than 25,571 workers employed in 878 small-scale business establishments across the district. It is likely to begin in June. This initiative comes under the expanded Workplace-Based Communicable Disease (NCD) screening programme, a key component of Tamil Nadu government's 'Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam' (MTM) scheme. Following a recent announcement in the Legislative Assembly, it was said that the workplace screening services for NCDs would be scaled up to include small business establishments across the state. The expansion aims to bridge the healthcare gap for workers, particularly those in micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Factories, industries, and companies with fewer than 1,000 employees have been identified for the screening drive, based on data provided by the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health (DISH).
Straits Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
ComfortDelGro will bid to run Melbourne trains from 2027 as part of consortium
ComfortDelGro currently manages more than 360 buses that serve Melbourne's metropolitan routes and operates Australia's largest taxi network with a fleet of over 8,300 vehicles. PHOTO: COMFORTDELGRO ComfortDelGro will bid to run Melbourne trains from 2027 as part of consortium SINGAPORE – Home-grown transport operator ComfortDelGro will be bidding to operate and maintain the metro lines in Melbourne, Australia, from 2027 , when the contract of current operator Metro Trains Melbourne (MTM) expires. Announcing this on LinkedIn on May 26 , ComfortDelGro said it will be part of a consortium that includes Australian rail manufacturer UGL, Japan's East Japan Railway and Japanese investment conglomerate Marubeni Corp. While the tender for the operation and maintenance of the Melbourne metro system has not been called, this consortium was formed ahead of time to prepare for the bidding. Melbourne's metro network spans 405km and comprises 17 train lines and 222 stations , making it Australia's largest suburban rail system, ComfortDelGro noted. The company said on LinkedIn that it would bring global expertise, innovation, exceptional service and operational excellence through this partnership. Citing its decades of experience in managing metro systems in Singapore and serving the communities in Australia, ComfortDelGro said it is looking forward to proposing innovative and sustainable transport solutions to elevate the rail experience for passengers in Melbourne. At present, Melbourne's metro network is being operated by MTM, a joint venture between Hong Kong's Mass Transit Railway, Australian transport company John Holland Group and UGL. MTM has been operating Melbourne's metro system for close to 16 years to date, from November 2009, but the contract will expire in 2027. It started running the city's rail network under an eight -year concession contract, which was later extended for seven more years in September 2017 and then subsequently extended for 18 more months till 2027. ComfortDelGro's plan to bid to operate the rail network in Melbourne comes on the back of the company successfully clinching an 11-year contract to run and maintain Stockholm Metro's three existing lines – awarded in January 2024 – as well as a six-year contract to operate the south sector of Paris' Line 15, which was awarded in July 2023. The company's first foray overseas as a rail operator was in August 2021, when it bagged a $1.13 billion deal to operate rail services in Auckland, New Zealand. Earlier in January, ComfortDelGro similarly expressed interest in bidding for an operation and maintenance contract for the Copenhagen metro system in Denmark. In Melbourne, the company currently manages more than 360 buses that serve the city's metropolitan routes and operates Australia's largest taxi network with a fleet of over 8,300 vehicles. Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Preserving the George Floyd protest murals: L.A. arts and culture this week
This Memorial Day weekend marks the five-year anniversary of George Floyd's death. Floyd's murder under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer sparked a protest movement that reached the streets of cities across the nation. In Minneapolis, residents, activists and artists painted murals and messages on plywood boards used to protect storefront windows during the unrest. More than 1,000 of those pieces of art have been collected and preserved by the organization Memorialize the Movement. The Minnesota Star Tribune recently ran a fascinating profile by Dee DePass and Alicia Eler of MTM's founder and executive director, Leesa Kelly, along with two other community activists, Kenda Zellner-Smith, who created the group Save the Boards, and Jeanelle Austin, who started George Floyd Global Memorial, now called Rise and Remember. Together, the three women have dedicated themselves to ensuring the Floyd protest art remains visible and accessible to the public. A large portion of their time is spent on fundraising to pay for the costly storage of the boards. According to the Star Tribune, the rent on Memorialize the Movement's warehouse is $3,500 a month, and the group spends another $1,500 on utilities and staff. Fundraising for this kind of work may become more challenging with the Trump administration's ban on diversity, equity and inclusion — not to mention the possible elimination of the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities. These headwinds have not dimmed the spirits of the women, who regularly stage exhibitions of the protest murals in places such as Minnesota's Carleton College, Normandale Community College, Franconia Sculpture Park and Roseville Lutheran Church, as well as Watermill Center in upstate New York, For more information on Memorialize the Movement, click here. I'm arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt taking a moment to reflect and remember. Read on for this week's arts news. Haven't yet made plans for Memorial Day? Go to a museum! Here's a quick sampling of places that are open on the holiday: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. See the new NHM Commons and the dinosaur Gnatalie. The NHM's sister operation at the La Brea Tar Pits & Museum also is open, same hours. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in L.A. will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. You can take in the new exhibition 'Director's Inspiration: Bong Joon Ho,' centered on the filmmaker behind 'Parasite,' 'Mickey 17' and 'Snowpiercer.' Make a day of it and walk over to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena will be open its usual Monday hours, noon to 5 p.m. Times critic Christiopher Knight offers this exceptionally helpful guide to the collection. Unless it's Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's Day, the California Science Center in Exposition Park is always opens, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with free admission to the galleries. Bring kids to the just-opened interactive exhibition 'Game On! Science, Sports & Play' or the return of 'Dogs! A Science Tale.' The Huntington in San Marino will be open. 'Don Bachardy: A Life in Portraits' (read Knight's praise for the show) and the Betye Saar site-specific installation 'Drifting Toward Twilight' are on view, and temperatures in those fabulous gardens should be lovely. Times theater critic Charles McNulty spent time in New York talking with Kimberly Belflower about her Tony-nominated play, 'John Proctor Is the Villain,' starring Sadie Sink from the Netflix hit 'Stranger Things.' The play, about students in Georgia reading Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible,' 'casts a mysterious spell that I'm still processing a month later,' McNulty writes. Meanwhile, back in L.A., McNulty praises a lovely revival of playwright Terrance McNally's musical adaptation of the 1994 film 'A Man of No Importance.' The film starred Albert Finney as a Dublin bus conductor obsessed with Oscar Wilde and amateur theater. The musical team behind 'Ragtime' — Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) — adds whimsical dimensions to the story. Of particular note, McNulty writes, is the 'graceful direction of the company's producing artistic director, Julia Rodriguez-Elliott,' who 'finds freedom in Wilde's iconoclastic example.' Arnold Schoenberg arrived in L.A. after fleeing Nazi Germany in the mid-1930s, and the composer eventually found himself in a meeting with MGM producer Irving Thalberg about scoring 'The Good Earth.' This encounter provided the genesis for Tod Machover's opera, 'Schoenberg in Hollywood,' which staged its West Coast premiere at UCLA's Nimoy Theater. Times classical music critic Mark Swed was present and wrote this review, noting at the end that despite all of his contributions to the city's cultural ecosystem, Schoenberg does not have his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Theatre Producers of Southern California, a trade group representing nonprofit theaters, is raising alarms about Gov. Gavin Newsom's proposed $11.5-million cut to the Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund, which was only recently instituted after years of efforts by struggling arts organizations. 'We understand that the state faces a challenging budget deficit and are prepared to support you in making difficult decisions,' board vice president Beatrice Casagran said in a statement. 'However, the proposed clawback of 100% of the state's entire investment in the Payroll Fund will eradicate six years of bipartisan legislative efforts to address cascading negative impacts that have led to dire economic instability for workers in the live arts.' The Actors Equity Assn., under its president, Brooke Shields, also opposes the proposed cuts. 'At a time when the arts are under attack in Washington, D.C., it's deeply disappointing to also be fighting funding cuts again in Sacramento. California, which now ranks 35th in the nation in arts funding, cannot be a leader in the arts if it continues to cut arts funding year after year,' Shields said in a statement. Concerned voters can ask their senators to sign on to the letter opposing the cuts by state Sen. Ben Allen to the Senate Budget Committee. They also can ask their assemblymembers to sign onto the letter by Assemblyman Matt Haney to the Assembly Budget Committee. Los Angeles Opera is staging a costume shop sale for the first time in more than a decade, and the public is invited. Expect handmade outfits from shows such as 'Carmen,' 'The Magic Flute' and 'Macbeth.' A news release about the event describes the offerings: 'From 16th-century finery to fantastical creations, this sale includes complete costumes in all sizes, along with wigs, accessories, shoes, jewelry, masks, headpieces and more, each piece a work of art designed by visionaries such as Julie Taymor, Constance Hoffman, Gerald Scarfe and Martin Pakledinaz.' The fun gets going in the lobby of Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at 9:30 a.m. on June 21 and lasts until 3 p.m. The Washington Post reports that former Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter is defending the finances of the organization prior to President Trump's takeover. Rutter's leadership has been under attack by the center's new interim director, Ric Grenell, who accused her and other former executives of 'fraud' during a speech at the White House last week. 'I am deeply troubled by the false allegations regarding the management of the Kennedy Center being made by people without the context or expertise to understand the complexities involved in nonprofit and arts management, which has been my professional experience for 47 years,' Rutter said in a statement to the Post. — Jessica Gelt The headlines out of Cannes this year feel a bit subued, if not bleak. But leave it to Times film critic Amy Nicholson to open her latest Cannes diary with a Samoyed walking the red carpet in a ruffled gown. And because I love him and I miss him, I also point you to The Times' former Pulitzer Prize-winning critic, Justin Chang, who has this stellar coverage.
News.com.au
01-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Could MTM's Flash Joule processing tech be the shot in the arm America needs for REE independence?
China's REE squeeze fuels US investor push into next-gen rare earths MTM is looking to re-shore REE refining in the US with its Flash Joule Heating technology A commercial demonstration, already in the works, will be built by the end of the year China's export curbs on rare earths have sparked a scramble among US investors to back the next generation of high-potential rare earth element ventures. In April, Beijing imposed export restrictions on key heavy REEs such as dysprosium, terbium, gadolinium, samarium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium – materials that are critical not only to EVs and wind turbines but also to F-35 fighter jets, nuclear submarines, Tomahawk missiles, and MRI machines. But the problem for the US lies in the fact that it produces only a small share of the world's REEs at home and procures 72% of its needs from China. It now faces a critical gap in commercial-scale heavy REE separation capabilities. China, on the other hand, dominates both the production and processing of REEs. It produces about 70% of the world's mined rare earths, but holds an even more substantial lead in refining, processing roughly 85% of global supply. While many rare earth companies remain tethered to China-centric supply chains, MTM Critical Metals (ASX:MTM) has charted its own path with a proprietary US-based processing solution that could potentially redefine domestic independence. The company's wholly owned US subsidiary, Flash Metals USA Inc, holds the global exclusive license for Flash Joule Heating (FJH) — an electrothermal processing platform originally developed at Rice University in Houston. Unlike traditional sulphuric acid-based flowsheet which are energy-intensive, hazardous, and slow, FJH technology rapidly heats feedstock to over 3000 degrees Kelvin in seconds using pulsed direct current and chlorine gas. The technology unlocks an entirely new commercial pathway for MTM in urban mining, which is being trailed on three different fronts – NdFeB permanent magnet scrap from EVs, wind turbines and electronics, electronic waste from servers and telecom hardware, and secondary streams such as refinery waste and red mud. In an interview with Stockhead, MTM managing director Michael Walshe said the goal for the company is to recover REEs from US sourced industrial and post-consumer waste to reduce reliance on mined feedstock and build a circular domestic supply chain – something China has already mastered. Repositioning as an industrial-tech player 'From a high-level perspective, what we're aiming to do is to transition from an exploration company and rebrand ourselves as an industrial technology company like IperionX (ASX:IPX) and Alpha HPA (ASX:A4N),' he said. 'Generally speaking, they've transitioned from beginning their lives as explorers to now being industrial tech, which seems to command higher valuations if you get the technology to work out correctly.' Despite not having entered commercial production, both companies have market capitalisations north of $1bn. Iperion owns the Titan critical mineral project in Tennessee – the largest resource of titanium, rare earth and zircon mineral sands in the US. Its technological foundation lies in a decade-long collaboration between the University of Utah, Boeing, and Arconic, with funding from the US Department of Energy's ARPA-E program. This partnership led to the development of proprietary technologies aimed at producing titanium more sustainably and efficiently. Alpha HPA marked its entry into industrial technology with the development of its proprietary HPA First Process, a low-carbon, near-zero waste technology designed to produce ultra-high-purity alumina (HPA). The technology extracts HPA from various feedstocks including bauxite and recycled materials using a solvent extraction and refining method, significantly reducing emissions compared to traditional methods and enables the recycling of nearly 100% of reagents used in production. Walshe said while MTM are still very early in their journey to a potential re-rate, the Flash Joule Heating technology has shown signs of promise. Testwork shows solid opportunity 'There's a huge range of different metals that we're going after but right now our primary focus is on three different feedstocks,' he said. 'That includes the gold-rich electronic waste, a gallium and germanium-rich refinery waste as well that we've secured from a New York-based company and then the third is the rare earth concentrates, where we're aiming to improve the flow sheets of how rare earth concentrates are traditionally processed.' MoUs are already progressing on the first two. Testing on printed circuit board feedstock carrying grades of 551g/t gold, 2804g/t silver and 42% copper demonstrated recoveries of over 95% for gold and titanium, with silver, tin and zinc recoveries exceeding 90% in water-soluble metal chlorides using FJH. As much a 100% of the gold was recovered to the chloride, with silver recoveries of 97% from the e-waste char residue generated as a by-product of a process that turns the plastics from e-waste into syn-gas. MTM's US subsidiary Flash Metals USA has now executed a letter of intent with Dynamic Lifecycle Innovation Inc. to produce a target volume of 800t of PCB rich e-waste material annually over a five-year period starting in Q4 2025. It comes on top of a MoU with New York based Indium Corporation, which will supply high grade scrap from which MTM plans to extract gallium, germanium and indium, metals critical to semiconductor chips and solar panels which China has issued export controls on. While it is yet to reveal a partner in the rare earths space, testwork has shown FJH could be used to convert rare earth concentrates into REE chlorides. They are a more valuable, easier to handle and refined intermediate compared to sulphates which generated average recoveries of 93% of rare earth elements in testwork with a 95% reduction in key impurities iron, aluminium and phosphorous using a single step solution. Commercialisation is in the works A major step towards commercialisation was taken in March with the finalisation of the process design for its FJH demonstration plant based in Houston, Texas. 'We aim to have that plant built by the end of this calendar year, so by December we hope to have the plant built and in commissioning,' he told Stockhead. 'Then in the first half of next year we'll hopefully be processing these feedstocks and recovering the metals from them and potentially generating revenue.' Walshe said there were a number of factors contributing to the company's plans on making significant progress in the US, compared to other locations like Australia. 'The first is that it's a US invented technology and typically it is a lot easier to get big checks from the grant agencies like the Department of Defence which we are targeting – there's a huge amount of grant funding for critical metal processing over there,' he said. 'We've got a few different grants underway with the Department of Defence and also with the Department of Energy. 'There's also a lot of feedstock available for electronic waste within the US and therefore we would be immune to any tariff related impacts if we're sourcing all the material in the US,' Walshe added. 'We also eventually want to get on the NASDAQ as a dual listing similar to Iperion and the reason for that is the pools of available capital available in the US are much, much bigger than in Australia.' He said given the current geopolitics, there's a renewed interest in commodities in general, getting out of the big tech stocks and going into the more hard type commodity-based stocks. 'We think that over next four years under Trump, that interest is only going to increase – plus we have that technology edge which tends to fair best in the US out of anywhere globally.'
The Hindu
27-04-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam scheme hits the mark by improving hypertension, diabetes control in T.N.
By taking healthcare directly to the people's doorsteps, Tamil Nadu's flagship scheme - 'Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam' (MTM) - has demonstrated an improvement in the management of hypertension and diabetes in the State. Among adults with hypertension, the proportion with blood pressure control rose to 17%, whereas for diabetes, the proportion with blood sugar control rose to 16.7%. This finding from Tamil Nadu STEPS (World Health Organization STEPwise approach to NCD risk factor surveillance) Survey 2023-2024, which was taken up by the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Epidemiology (ICMR-NIE), comes as an early indicator of MTM's reach. The scheme was rolled out in August 2021. Survey findings T. S. Selvavinayagam, director, Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, said that the survey reflected community-level control among the population. 'This survey substantiates the efforts taken by the State government under MTM to achieve the Disbursement-Linked Indicators (DLI) set by the World Bank. It is a great achievement considering our population and number of years since we took up intensive efforts across the State,' he said. To evaluate the progress of initiatives in line with theProgram for Results basis, the World Bank laid down DLIs of six percentage points for improvement in the control rate of diabetes and three percentage points for hypertension. In the baseline survey (TN STEPS Survey 2019-20), the control rate was 7.3% for hypertension and 10.8% for diabetes, Archana Ramalingam, scientist-E (Medical), Division of NCD Epidemiology, ICMR-NIE, said. 'We started the second survey (TN STEPS Survey 2023-24) in November 2023 and completed it by the end of March 2024. We had 8,114 participants across the State. We found that among adults with hypertension, the proportion with blood pressure control rose to 17%. Similarly, for diabetes, the proportion with blood sugar control rose to 16.7%,' she added. Improved disease control Dr. Archana said that the survey results showed a clear improvement in terms of the proportion diagnosed, initiated for treatment and blood pressure control for hypertension. 'There was a significant improvement in the percentage of patients diagnosed with hypertension - from 32% in the baseline survey to about 47% in the second survey. In the case of diabetes, the baseline survey showed that 53% had already been diagnosed, and 44% were receiving treatment. While the second survey did not show much improvement in the percentage diagnosed due to a high baseline, the proportion with blood sugar control improved to 16.7%,' she added. Post-MTM, there has been a definite improvement in the management of hypertension and diabetes, she said. 'Improving regular medication access through Women Health Volunteers has borne results. Task-sharing interventions like MTM are bound to help in a State like TN that has invested in healthcare, and this is likely to lead to improvements in the future,' she said. Implementation concerns and way forward While task-sharing interventions have helped improve hypertension and diabetes control, she said that field visits showed that there can be significant challenges in implementing them in urban settings. 'In the rural areas, we saw greater acceptance and impact of the initiatives. However, people in the urban parts, especially cities like Chennai and Coimbatore, are still largely using private facilities for hypertension and diabetes care,' she said. With the early implementation results of the MTM showing promise, the Health department should take steps to identify the gaps in implementation and opt to continuously improve the quality of services to improve the control rate further, she stressed. Dr. Selvavinagayam said there is still a long way to go. 'We will now focus on the individual control level, which is essential for preventing any complications,' he said.
