IGIHE

Category: Science &Technology

  • ZTE to Provide Africa with Renewable Power Solutions

    ZTE to Provide Africa with Renewable Power Solutions

    {{Telecommunications equipment and network solutions provider ZTE Corporation is working with governments and enterprises across 15 African countries to deploy the use of renewable solar energy for powering homes and telecommunications systems.}}

    According to a Wall Street Journal report, the projects will involve a variety of ZTE’s green energy products and solutions, including solar lighting systems, mobile solar power systems, solar power for telecommunications base stations and solar power for household lighting systems.

    Oumarou Dogari Moumouni, the former mayor of Niamey, the capital of Niger, said, “The solar street lighting project constructed by ZTE is one of the best renewable energy projects that exists in Niger.”

    Africa suffers from constant power shortages leaving more than 580mn people to light their homes with kerosene lamps harmful to both their health and the environment.

    ZTE CTO of government and enterprise business in the Middle East and Africa region Wang Yiwen said, “ZTE’s cooperation with governments and businesses throughout Africa is providing both economic and social benefits across the region.

    We are helping African countries maximise the power of their local resources and use renewable energy in a number of innovative ways.”

    agencies

  • Ugandan Minister to Chair UN Board on ICT

    Ugandan Minister to Chair UN Board on ICT

    {{Uganda’s ICT minister Eng. John Nasasira has been nominated to head a UN body dealing with international telecommunications development.}}

    Nasasira was appointed chairman of the Smart Sustainable Development Model advisory board, a UN body under the International Telecommunications Union, whose headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.

    “This is a great opportunity and honour, not only for me but also Uganda,” he told New Vision. “I will do my best to deliver on this assignment and represent our country as I always do.”

    The body, whose mandate is to link ICT for development and ICT for disaster management, is an initiative developed to mobilise infrastructure for social services in cases of disaster emergencies. Nasasira becomes a founding member and first chairman of the advisory board.

    The 20-person board includes ministers from Japan, Luxemburg, Indonesia, Thailand and Jamaica. It also includes satellite professionals from the UK, US, Netherlands, France Saudi Arabia and UAE. Others are officials from the UN and other humanitarian organisations.

  • Microsoft Ventures Provides Support for African Entrepreneurs

    Microsoft Ventures Provides Support for African Entrepreneurs

    {{As leading Harvard Professor, Michael Porter, once said: “Innovation is the central issue to economic prosperity.”

    At Microsoft we couldn’t agree more, which is why one of our goals is to empower Africans to make the most of, and monetize their own business ideas. }}

    There is certainly no shortage of brilliant ideas on the continent, but no matter how bright they burn, they require time, investment, and the right tools to become a blazing, fully-fledged business.

    This is why we are so excited to announce that Microsoft’s Ventures partnership program is expanding into Africa, starting in Kenya. Microsoft Ventures was created to give startups a leg-up by providing access to tools, technology and training.

    Kenya is quickly being recognised as an innovation hub, particularly in the mobility space. It’s been reported that there are 74 mobile phones for every 100 Kenyans and, of those who access the internet, 99% do it via a mobile device.

    Expanded to Africa as part of our 4Afrika Initiative, Microsoft Ventures speaks to our belief that technology can accelerate growth for Africa, and Africa can also accelerate technology for the world.

    Around the world, Microsoft Ventures selects strategic accelerator partners in each region to provide local market expertise.

    For our venture into Kenya, we’ve selected 88mph for its proven track record in helping local entrepreneurs turn ideas into thriving businesses.

    Since opening up in July 2011 the company has already graduated 32 startups. That equals nearly one success story for every month they’ve been in operation!

    One of my favourite stories and a prime example of what we hope to achieve with this partnership, is a company called Gamsole, started by Nigeria’s own Abiola Olaniram.

    Abiola had a vision of creating his own tech company, capitalising on the growing mobile space and people’s love of entertainment in Africa and all over the world.

    Funded by 88mph and Microsoft’s BizSpark program, he started developing Windows Games and is now the highest paid Windows game developer in Africa, with over 1.5 million downloads.

    This is just one example. You can read about dozens more on the Microsoft Ventures website.

    We want to remove as many barriers as we can to enabling a startup to thrive. The program is simple: those who are interested can apply to an immersive 3-6 month
    accelerator program.

    The only requirements are a full-time founding team and less than $1 million raised. Qualifying companies will have access to mentors, technical and design experts, development tools and key resources.

    Ultimately, we want to see a thriving African startup ecosystem contributing to Africa’s economic development and competitiveness on a global scale. We feel strongly that by partnering with 88mph we are helping to pave the way to a better, stronger future.

    {Author is the Director 4Afrika Venture Capital and Startup Programs}

  • Dexter Payment Card Malware Strikes South Africa

    Dexter Payment Card Malware Strikes South Africa

    {{South Africa has been hit by one of the biggest cyber-fraud attacks in its history, according to the body that oversees local financial transactions.}}

    The payment card systems of thousands of shops, restaurants and hotels had been compromised, said the Payment Association of South Africa (Pasa).

    Losses were thought to be in the “tens of millions, but not hundreds of millions of rands”, it said.

    It added the attackers had used a new variant of the malware known as Dexter.

    Ten million rand is worth £626,000 or just over $1m.

    Dexter gets its name from a string of code found in one of its files, which may refer to the US television show that followed the exploits of a serial killer.

    The Dexter code was linked to a series of attacks on point-of-sale systems in the UK, US and dozens of other countries towards the end of last year.

    It skims and transmits the cards’ magnetic-strip information, allowing clones to be made that can then be used for fraudulent purchases,.

    Pasa said it believed the criminals responsible were based in Europe, but added it was not sure from which countries.

    Copied magstrips

    “It’s probably the worst [attack] of its kind in terms of the losses,” Walter Volker, Pasa’s chief executive, told media.

    “We started detecting higher levels of fraud at some of these retailers early in the year – from about late-January, February. We initially thought it was a normal seasonal thing, but as the volumes increased we decided to appoint a forensics investigation company.

    “Eventually it was able to find this particular malware in some of the locations. Very soon after we found the cause of the compromise, we were able to clean up those sites with anti-malware software.”

    Mr Volker added that while the attack had targeted back-end systems to steal data from the cards’ magstrips, it had not stolen Pin codes or CVV payment authentication numbers – meaning the thieves would not have been able to withdraw money from bank cash machines or have used the information to make purchases from internet shops.

    “Normal anti-virus software would probably have cleaned up Dexter but it was a particular custom-built variant, which was not detectable with the normal scanning software that everybody’s got,” Mr Volker added.

    “It seems like it was a European-based syndicate – we don’t exactly where – but Interpol and Europol are making good progress in trying to apprehend these particular perpetrators.”

    KFC fast-food restaurants’ card systems were among those to have been compromised, according to a statement given by the chain’s owner to theBloomberg news agency.

    “We take this extremely seriously,” Yum Brands said. “Our first priority is to make sure that the impact on our customers remains minimal.”

    Bloomberg added that a locally based burger and pizza chain operator, Famous Brands, had also confirmed some of its payment machines had been exposed.

    However, Pasa stressed that it would ultimately be the banks – rather than the public or other businesses – that would face losses as a consequence of the attack.

    “In terms of the banks, there’s probably not a single issuing bank in the country that has not been affected in some way,” said Mr Volker.

    “The South African card holders – or potentially tourists using their cards at the affected sites – will not be exposed to any losses. It’s just the inconvenience of detecting false transactions on their accounts.

    “If that has happened they should just contact their issuing bank.”

    wirestory

  • Winners Take Chemistry into Cyberspace

    Winners Take Chemistry into Cyberspace

    Three U.S. scientists won the Nobel chemistry prize on Wednesday for pioneering work on computer programs that simulate complex chemical processes and have revolutionized research in areas from drugs to solar energy.

    The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, awarding the prize of 8 million crowns ($1.25 million) to Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel, said their work had effectively taken chemistry into cyberspace. Long gone were the days of modeling reactions using plastic balls and sticks.

    “Today the computer is just as important a tool for chemists as the test tube,” the academy said in a statement. “Computer models mirroring real life have become crucial for most advances made in chemistry today.”

    Chemical reactions occur at lightning speed as electrons jump between atomic nuclei, making it virtually impossible to map every separate step in chemical processes involving large molecules like proteins.

    Powerful computer models, first developed by the three scientists in 1970s, offer a new window onto such reactions and have become a mainstay for researchers in thousands of academic and industrial laboratories around the world.

    {agencies}

  • Trio Awarded Nobel Medicine Prize

    Trio Awarded Nobel Medicine Prize

    Americans James Rothman and Randy Schekman and German-born Thomas Sudhof have been awarded the Nobel Medicine Prize for their groundbreaking work on how the cell organises its transport system.

    The trio, who all work at US universities, were honoured for “their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells”, the Nobel committee said in its announcement in Stockholm, Sweden, on Monday.

    Their research has helped explain processes as varied as the release of insulin into the blood, communication between nerve cells and the way viruses infect cells.

    Schekman said he was awakened at 1am at his home in California by the chairman of the prize committee and was still suffering from jetlag after returning from a trip to Germany the night before.

    “I wasn’t thinking too straight. I didn’t have anything elegant to say,” he told The Associated Press. “All I could say was `Oh my God,’ and that was that.”

    He called the prize a wonderful acknowledgment of the work he and his students had done and said he knew it would change his life.

    “I called my lab manager and I told him to go buy a couple bottles of Champagne and expect to have a celebration with my lab,” he said.

    Multiple prizes

    Rothman and Schekman received the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for their discoveries in 2002 – an award often seen as a precursor of a Nobel Prize.

    The announcements of Nobel laureates will continue this week and next with physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics.

    Each prize is worth $1.2m.

    Established by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the Nobel Prizes have been handed out by award committees in Stockholm and Oslo since 1901. The winners always receive their awards on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896.

    Last year’s medicine award went to Britain’s John Gurdon and Japan’s Shinya Yamanaka for their contributions to stem cell science.

    Source: Agencies

  • ICT Minister Urges Girls to Embrace Use of ICT

    ICT Minister Urges Girls to Embrace Use of ICT

    {{The Minister of Youth and ICT, Jean Philbert Nsengimana has urged young people to embrace the use of ICT. He called upon girls to eembrace ICT to maximize opportunities it offers.}}

    Nsengimana made the remarrs during an ICT Literacy and Awareness campaign in Nyamagabe District in Southern Province during the two days campaign on Thursday and Friday where hundreds of girls trained in ICT.

    Girls’ models in ICT explained their sisters of different secondary schools in Nyamagabe the importance of embracing ICT, sharing their expertise and incite them to love technology.

    Minister Nsengimana at that occasion stated that the number of girls in ICT sectors is still low, which pushed the ministry to focus more on empowering girls to embrace technology. He called upon girls to welcome ICT to maximize opportunities it offers.

    “Knowledge is power and wealth.” he reiterated that opportunities of ICT must reach all sectors of Rwandans regardless economy, level of education, location, and that none could lose its opportunities. He added that “Our economy will no longer bas on raw power but will be knowledge based.”

    He called upon all residents to embrace it for their benefit and their own development. He commended private sectors for being good partners with the government to foster Rwandans technological level. “As we foster ICT, we develop our economy and self-reliance,” he noted.

    Minister pointed out that ICT offers many chances that were not there in past. “ICT gives opportunities that were not in past and gives new jobs that were not created. We want to make awareness of these opportunities,” Minister Nsengimana stressed.

    Lillian Uwineza, 17, a student at TTC Mbuga stressed that using ICT helps them to learn more; “Now I’m able to surf on the internet and I can gain more knowledge and excel in the class.”

    The purpose of this campaign is to drive the awareness and usage of ICT services, content and applications, to increase the ICT Literacy, educate and train Rwandans and business people on the potential of ICT to drive competitiveness, efficiency, transparency as well as civic participation.

    The government has invested heavily in information and communications technology (ICT). Since the inception of the first national ICT strategy and plan in 2000, Rwanda has significantly transformed the way business and society uses technology.

    The Ministry of Youth and ICT in collaboration with other Ministries as well as its various stakeholders in ICT promotion adopted the five-year ICT literacy awareness campaign.

    This campaign has been officially launched in January in Rulindo District, Northern Province. So far one District per province across Rwanda hosted this campaign.

  • Telecom Masts to Connect to Optic Fibre Cable

    Telecom Masts to Connect to Optic Fibre Cable

    Rwanda government targets to extend the optic fibre cable to existing telecommunication masts all over the country to lay ground for Fourth Generation (4G) wireless broadband network.

    The 3,000km optic cable covers all 30 districts.

    To improve the state of Internet connectivity and speed, the government in June penned an agreement with South Korea’s largest telecom company, Korea Telecom to deploy 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) broadband network across the country.

    The 4G broadband infrastructure targets to cover 95 per cent of the population within three years, according to the joint venture deal that is based on an initial 25-year term.

    the Minister for Youth and ICT, Jean-Philbert Nsengimana, said the plans are underway to connect the cable to telecom masts instead of sectors, cells and villages.

    “Extension to sectors is part of the last mile project and, in this project, we are going to use 4G because it’s not easy to extend the fibre to every school, home, cell, village and health centre,” he said.

    The minister noted that, the move to connect the optic cable to existing masts will help to achieve a wider coverage of wireless broadband network.

    Korea’s Systems Integration and IT Services Joint Venture Company will carry out the rollout plan of the optic cable to masts which will largely depend on a sharing agreement between the company and the owners of the masts (telecom companies and internet service providers).

    According to the minister, there will also be a need to erect more masts if the existing ones are not enough.

    source:Newtimes

  • Baby Born After Ovaries ‘Reawakened’

    Baby Born After Ovaries ‘Reawakened’

    {{A baby has been born through a new technique to “reawaken” the ovaries of women who had a very early menopause.}}

    Doctors in the US and Japan developed the technique to remove the ovaries, activate them in the laboratory and re-implant fragments of ovarian tissue.

    The technique, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has resulted in one baby being born, with another expected.

    The findings were described as early, but a “potential game-changer”.

    The 27 women involved in the study became infertile around the age of 30 due to “primary ovarian insufficiency”. The condition affects one in 100 women who essentially run out of eggs too young, leading to an early menopause.

    Women have a fixed number of eggs at birth and those with the condition tend to use them up too quickly or are born with far fewer eggs in the first place.

    {{Wake-up}}

    Eggs in the ovaries are not fully formed; rather, they stay as follicles and some mature each month.

    The teams at Stanford University, US, and St Marianna University School of Medicine, Japan, were trying to activate the last few remaining follicles, which may be present.

    They removed the ovaries from the women and used a combination of two techniques to wake up the sleeping follicles.

    First they cut the ovaries into fragments, which has been used in the past as a fertility treatment. Then a chemical to “take the brakes off” egg development was applied.

    The fragments were put back at the top of the fallopian tubes and the women were given hormone therapy.

    Following the treatment, residual follicles started to develop in eight women. Eggs were taken for normal IVF and so far one couple has had a baby and another woman is pregnant.

    {{Major interest}}

    The implications for women with early menopause are still unclear as the technique will require further testing and refinement before it could be used in clinics.

    Prof Charles Kingsland, from Liverpool Women’s Hospital and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: “It’s really clever, but will it work for everyone? We don’t know.

    “It’s potentially really, really, interesting, but we need a lot more investigation to confirm this is not another false dawn.

    “I will see primary ovarian insufficiency on a regular basis in my clinic so if it’s effective in the long term, it’s something we’d be interested in.”

    Prof Nick Macklon, from the University of Southampton, told media: “Finding a new way to get new eggs by waking up sleeping follicles is very promising. It’s potentially a game-changer.

    “It’s a very important and very exciting piece of science, but it is not ready for the clinic. It still needs good randomised control trial data.”

    He added that performing the technique outside of a research study would be unfeasible, but a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of egg development could lead to new medications.

    wirestory

  • South Korea Shows New Missiles Designed to hit North

    South Korea Shows New Missiles Designed to hit North

    {{South Korea showed off on Tuesday new missiles designed to target North Korea’s artillery and long-range missiles and vowed to boost deterrence against its unpredictable neighbor.}}

    The ballistic Hyeonmu-2, with a range of 300 km (190 miles), and the Hyeonmu-3, a cruise missile with a range of more than 1,000 km (620 miles) were put on public display for the first time in a rare South Korean military parade.

    Both of the indigenously developed missiles have been deployed. They were unveiled in February after the North conducted its third nuclear test in defiance of international warnings, two months after it successfully launched a long-range rocket and put an object into space.

    “We must build a strong anti-North deterrence until the day the North drops its nuclear arms and makes the right choice for its people and for peace on the Korean peninsula,” South Korean President Park Geun-hye said at the parade marking the founding of the South’s armed forces 65 years ago.

    Visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel watched the parade from a podium at a military airfield south of the capital, Seoul.

    Hagel, on a four-day visit to the staunch U.S. ally, visited the heavily fortified Korean border on Monday and said there was no plan to cut the number of U.S. troops stationed in the South from 28,500.

    The North’s rocket launch in December was widely seen as a test of long-range missile technology. The North said it was putting up a satellite for peaceful purposes.

    The launch and the February nuclear test led to tougher U.N. sanctions aimed at stopping the North’s arms development and trade. The sanctions angered the North and it responded with threats of a nuclear strike on South Korea and the United States.

    North Korea, which is much poorer than the South, has invested heavily in weapons of mass destruction.

    The South has a modern conventional military superior to the North’s army, which relies on largely obsolete equipment, but is barred under agreements with the United States and by international conventions from developing nuclear arms or longer-range missiles.

    South Korea reached a deal last year with the United States to extend the range of its missiles to better counter the threat from the North, securing the right to develop ballistic missiles with a range of up to 800 km (500 miles).

    Unlike North Korea which often stages large-scale military parades, South Korea rarely puts on large, public displays of its military. Tuesday’s parade was the biggest in 10 years.

    North and South Korea remain technically at war under a truce that brought a halt to the 1950-53 Korean War.

    reuters