Three quarters of New Zealanders believe more funding for health and medical research should be a government priority and that the government should invest more funding in health research, according to a survey just released.
The poll of more than 500 Kiwis was conducted by Roy Morgan Research for a national health umbrella organisation, New Zealanders for Health Research (NZHR).
Improving hospitals and the healthcare system was the most important issue for the government to focus on, the survey found.
NZHR chief executive Chris Higgins says Kiwis surveyed placed the highest priority on research to find ways to prevent illness and promote good health, and to improve the health system.
“We found 44 percent of Kiwis donate to health research; the main reason for not donating is because health research is considered to be the government’s responsibility.
“A total of 84 percent said that pharmaceutical companies should invest more in health research, and 78 percent expressed willingness to participate in any clinical trial of a new medicine if they had a condition it might be able to treat.
“Nobody knows exactly how much the government spent on health research in the last year because government research funding in channelled through a number of agencies, who then use their discretion as to whether it gets spent on health research or some other research. The best estimate is that about $300 million worth of government spending would have found its way to health research.
“NZHR has decided to focus on allocations which have to be spent exclusively on health research. In the last year this figure was $90.4 million. We believe this figure should increase to $108 million next year. The government has budgeted $98 million. We estimate the annual philanthropic support for health research is about $17 million.
“New Zealand’s ringfenced government investment in health research stands at just 0.6 percent of health care costs. New Zealanders for Health Research believes that the government should be adopting a 10-year investment target of 2.4 percent.
“Three quarters of New Zealanders said in the survey that the government should invest more funding in health research and such a target therefore is likely to have wide electoral support,” Higgins says.
NZHR is chaired by Graham Malaghan, of the Wellington-based Malaghan Institute of Medical Research.
| A MakeLemonade/NZHR release || August 9, 2017 |||
Christchurch urologist Stu Gowland, who developed the country’s first mobile surgical bus, is stepping down as Mobile Health’s managing director but will be continuing as medical director.
Mark Eager, has been appointed as chief executive of Mobile Health. Mark has been with the surgical bus organisation for 10 years.
Gowland, a real Kiwi medical pioneer, was a founding member of the New Zealand Urology Associates.
He campaigned with others for improved health on various issues at Christchurch hospital in the 1990s and was the driving force to set up New Zealand’s first mobile surgical unit 15 years ago, board chair Keith Smith says.
“Stu, with colleagues, starting the planning of the surgical bus on a marked-out lawn and 15 years on the bus has performed more than 21,500 procedures all over New Zealand. So much of the credit goes to Stu’s vision, foresight and medical knowledge. Many Kiwis in rural areas are very grateful to him.
“He has been recognised in the New Year’s Honours list with a Queens Service Order (QSO) and by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons for his exceptional contribution to rural health with their Outstanding Services to the Community Award.”
he mobile operating theatre was built to enable free access to low-risk elective day surgery for rural New Zealanders. Today the surgical bus regularly visits 23 small towns and community areas around New Zealand.
Gowland established the first mobile kidney stone treatment (lithotriptsy) service in 1995 providing a nationwide, non-invasive treatment using focussed sound waves for kidney stones. To date about 12,000 patients have been treated with this world wide used technology.
The surgical unit runs on a five-week rotation system around New Zealand, carrying out operations over a day at Kaikohe, Dargaville, Warkworth, Pukekohe, Te Puia, Wairoa, Taumarunui, Waipukurau, Taihape, Hawera, Levin, Dannevirke, Kapiti, Featherston, Takaka, Motueka, Buller, Waikari, Rangiora, Oamaru, Clyde, Queenstown, Balclutha and Gore.
A makeLemonade/Mobile Health release || August 10, 2017 |||
One of New Zealand’s fastest rising consumer production companies, The Pure Food Co, is about to take off as it has opened a massive new manufacturing facility in Auckland.
The Pure Food Co, rated one of the rising stars in the latest Deloitte Fast 50 Index, had taken control of its business by ramping up opportunities after building their own production plant in Mt Wellington.
Pure Food founders Sam Bridgewater and Maia Royal have spent the last three years growing their food business at Auckland’s food innovation incubator The FoodBowl.
They had reached the point where they had enough investment to build their own 600 plus square metre manufacturing facility to fulfil their goal of supplying every hospital and aged care facility with high quality pureed food with clinical benefits.
The FoodBowl accelerates or incubates clients’ progress so they can develop and prove their worth to investors to back them to build a new plant so they can start their own independent production.
Pure Food produced pureed food predominately for the growing elderly population, or anyone in need of better nutrition. Bridgewater says the new factory is future-proofed so they can grow about 15 times without needing to move. This will allow them to expand throughout the rest of New Zealand and start to explore export markets.
With support from partners, Bridgewater and Royal established The Pure Food Co after watching a family member suffer from swallowing difficulties. The business is a personal quest to bring food to people with eating difficulties, providing meals into the aged and healthcare industry nationwide.
To begin with, Bridgewater and Royal didn’t have the technology and manufacturing skills to produce their texture modified products, so the FoodBowl was the perfect first step for them to trial and iterate development of their products.
“We started in a small room to get proof of concept and samples in the market then jumped up to a large room doing multiple 700kg batches as the demand grew, eventually getting to 2 tonne per day. The FoodBowl helped by bringing in new bits of equipment for us to trial and scale up with,” Bridgewater says.
“The benefit was a wide range of technologies under one roof for us to assess within our production line. It meant we didn’t have to spend a lot of money on pieces of equipment that we might not actually need down the line.
“Being under constant scrutiny from The FoodBowl pushed us to take it to the next level. We now have successfully commissioned a new plant within time and budget that exceeds MPI’s regulatory standards.
“We couldn’t have done things as fast without the assistance of The FoodBowl. They have introduced us to some of our suppliers like our packaging and machinery that we are working with now in our new factory. It was a perfect stepping stone for us and drove us to reach new standards and scale to ensure we were well equipped to make that leap out on to our own.”
The Pure Food Co is now providing close to 40,000 meals a month and has landed large clients such as Ryman and Compass group who caterer to hospitals.
| A MakeLemonade Pure Food Co release || August 9, 2017 |||
The USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) is a whole new class of aircraft carrier. Officially commissioned by the U.S. Navy and Newport News Ship Building Company, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier represents the first major redesign to a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier in over four decades.
When a warship is commissioned, it is legitimized under law, and placed in active service for the first time. Replacing what was known as the Nimitz class of aircraft carriers, the USS Ford will spend its first four years under scrutiny as builder’s sea trials get underway.
The trials test crucial systems and technologies aboard the ship, and will cost USD $780 million on top of its USD $12.9 billion manufacturing price tag. There were delays and overruns because of the complicated task of integrating whole new systems and an entirely new class of technology aboard the ship, which was originally supposed to be completed in 2015 for USD $10.5 billion.
Designing a new class of aircraft carrier means that expectations for improved performance are going to be set extremely high, and you’ll see that the features of the USS Ford make it a true marvel of modern weapons engineering.
Interestingly, the USS Ford also appears to be a minor milestone moment for 3D modeling technology, because this is the first ship to be fully designed as a 3D model. The USS Ford has its own nuclear plant inside of it, which generates a consistent and high enough rate of energy that affords the vessel a top speed of 30 knots (34.5 mph, 55.5 km/h).
Nuclear warships like the USS Ford are designed to be fully autonomous. The amount of nuclear energy produced by the USS Ford means that it could run without stopping to refuel for 20-25 years.
Nuclear Upgrade
There are two A1B reactor plants (“A” is for Aircraft Carrier, “1” is first-generation, and “B” is for Bechtel, the manufacturer) aboard the USS Ford, and they were specially developed by Bechtel for the new class of supercarrier. Bechtel normally handles engineering and construction for nuclear plants in the USA.
The A1B generates almost 3 times as much power as the A4W reactor plants on the active Nimitz-class carriers. The exact number is classified, but estimates have been made that the total increase in energy is 700 MW.
Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) Versus Steam Catapult System
The US Navy began experimenting with the design and production of a launch system that uses linear induction motors and electromagnets instead of steam-powered turbines because engineers realized that you could improve three things: eliminate the need for housing a separate steam boiler, increase the level of control during jet or drone takeoffs, and reduce the amount of maintenance in two ways—using solid state components and reducing wear and tear on the supercarrier from repeated launches.
Continue to view video, images and the full article on Engineering.com | August 10, 2017 |||
The New Zealand Customs Service (Customs) today filed charges against Pacific Aerospace Limited for three breaches of the United Nations Sanctions (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) Regulations 2006, and one charge under section 203(1)(b) of the Customs and Excise Act 1996.
The charges are in relation to the export of aircraft parts, and for making an erroneous declaration about parts exported inside the aircraft but not declared.
The maximum penalty for a breach of the Regulations is a maximum of 12 months imprisonment or a fine not exceeding $10,000 in the case of an individual or in the case of a company or other corporation, a fine not exceeding $100,000.
The maximum penalty if convicted of an offence under section 203(1)(b) of the Customs and Excise Act is a fine not exceeding $1,000 for an individual, or a fine not exceeding $5,000 for a body corporate.
As legal proceedings are underway, Customs can make no further comment.
| An NZ Custums Service statement || August 9, 2017 ///
The path towards oligopolisation in container shipping took another step forwards with the proposed USD 6.3 billion sale of Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas International Ltd. (OOIL) to Chinese state-owned Cosco Shipping Holdings Ltd. (Cosco) and Shanghai International Port Group Co. (SIPG), announced a couple of weeks ago.
On the completion of the deal, Cosco will hold 90.1% while SIPG will hold the remaining 9.9% stake in OOIL. The joint buyers said they will keep the OOIL branding, retain its listed status and maintain the companies’ global headquarters in Hong Kong along with all management. Employees will retain their existing compensation and benefits, and none will lose jobs as a result of the transaction for at least 24 months after the offer close.
OOIL and its container unit OOCL have a good track record for above-average profits in a challenging market and a reputation for being a very well-run company, earning the moniker “The Perfect Bride” by Drewry Maritime Financial Research. This was reflected in the substantial price-to-book premium of 1.4x, which is a fair bit above OOIL’s historical average P/B of 0.8x. Retaining the management team, processes and systems is a wise move and could be of enormous value to Cosco, in our opinion.
The deal also contributes to the shift in some of the previously entrenched liner fundamentals that have made consistent profits so elusive for carriers. In a new spotlight report (Two steps away from liner paradise?), Drewry Maritime Advisors, argues that with the total system (liner and ports) benefits from economies of scale being exhausted and in a less fragmented market, carriers can finally reach the nirvana of sustainable profitability.
As things stand, upon completion of the latest M&A (the Ocean Network Express, or ONE, merging of the Japanese companies’ container units is expected to become operational in April 2018) and taking into account future newbuild deliveries, there will only be 10 carriers with a minimum 2% share of global capacity by start of 2021, which between them will control approximately 82% of the world fleet. As the figure highlights, as recently as 2015 there were 17 carriers with at least a 2% share.
Figure 1: No. of carriers with min 2% share of world containership fleet capacity.
Shippers are getting used to consolidation in the container industry. That doesn’t mean they have to like it. As their pool of carriers shrinks they are more likely to lobby anti-competition regulators to step in. Recent container M&A such as Maersk Line’s recent takeover of Hamburg Süd and the proposed ONE merger of Japanese carriers have all encountered minor regulatory issues so any future deals may have to contend with conditions being applied that make them less attractive to conclude. The onus will be on carriers to disprove any form of collusive oligopoly is occurring.
| A T&L release || August 9, 2017 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242