Thursday, May 7, 2009

WDA, e2i embark on recruitment drive for ION Orchard

WDA, e2i embark on recruitment drive for ION Orchard
By 938 LIVE | Posted: 06 May 2009 1255 hrs

SINGAPORE: The extensive recruitment exercise for the 3,000 job vacancies in the ION Orchard shopping mall has kicked off with a search to immediately fill up to 1,500 positions in the initial recruitment phase on Wednesday.

About 20 per cent of the 1,500 positions are suitable for professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETS) and fresh graduates.

Of the 1,500 vacancies, some 70 per cent will be for retail positions and 30 per cent will be in the food and beverage sector.

The recruitment is done in partnership with the NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) and the Workforce Development Agency (WDA). E2i's role is to reach out to the public and invite interested jobseekers to attend the job fairs.

At the fair, the e2i employability coaches will identify suitable jobseekers who possess the right aptitude for the jobs, and enroll them for suitable training to acquire relevant skills.

The tripartite collaboration also extends to efforts to enhance local workers' customer service skills and to boost the overall image and professionalism of Singapore's service industry.

The partners will be providing successful candidates with the certified service professional training developed by WDA.

The training programme will cover service quality, etiquette, grooming and interpersonal skills to further enhance the candidates' service competency prior to their employment by ION Orchard. The training programme is recommended for all successful candidates hired through the recruitment initiative.

As at 6pm on Tuesday, some 3,000 job seekers have registered via sms, e2i's website and hotline.

Jobseekers who are looking for a career at ION Orchard may continue to register online or call the e2i hotline at 6474 3777. Registration closes at 6.00pm on Thursday.

- 938LIVE/yt

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Swine Flu Genes Dissimilar To Past Pandemics

Swine Flu Genes Dissimilar To Past Pandemics

ScienceDaily (May 7, 2009) — Some genetic markers of influenza infection severity have been identified from past outbreaks. Researchers have failed to find most of these markers, described in the open access journal BMC Microbiology, in samples of the current swine-flu strain.

Jonathan Allen and Tom Slezak from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, America, published their analysis identifying 34 conserved amino acid markers from past pandemic flu strains two weeks ago. They have since studied sequences from the new virus and found that only about half of their 34 markers are present.

Slezak said, "This lack of similarity does not necessarily mean that the current H1N1 virus is not going to be a major problem, but it does suggest that it lacks many of the attributes that have made previous outbreaks deadly".

The researchers stress that, although their work appears to suggest that the current virus may not be as dangerous as feared, more studies are required before any firm conclusions can be drawn.

Journal reference:

1. Allen et al. Conserved amino acid markers from past influenza pandemic strains. BMC Microbiology, 2009; 9 (1): 77 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2180-9-77


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Asian nations warned to stay vigilant over flu

Asian nations warned to stay vigilant over flu
Posted: 07 May 2009 1853 hrs

BANGKOK: The World Health Organization Thursday urged Asian nations to remain vigilant against influenza A (H1N1), admitting that it had yet to get a handle on the outbreak despite the relatively low death toll.

The warning came as officials from China, Japan, South Korea and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met in Bangkok to forge a common front in the fight against the virus.

Hundreds of Thai soldiers surrounded the venue for the meeting at a downtown Bangkok hotel to prevent a repeat of anti-government protests that wrecked a regional summit in Thailand in April.

WHO Acting Director-General Keiji Fukuda said the virus was milder than that which caused the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic but warned that it could yet follow a similar pattern and become more virulent later in the year.

"It is critical for countries to maintain their alertness and monitoring so this evolution can be followed as closely as possible," Fukuda told the Asian officials via videolink from Geneva.

"We don't believe we have fully got a handle on the severity of the phenomenon," he said, adding that Asian nations "should look very closely at their preparedness plans".

Asia has been relatively unscathed by the virus. WHO figures on Wednesday said 1,893 cases of influenza A(H1N1) infections have been reported by 23 countries, with 31 dying from the disease.

Officials from the 13 Asian nations meeting at Bangkok later updated their counterparts on the measures they have adopted to counter the virus. Health ministers from the region will meet on Friday.

Asian nations, already experienced with dealing with deadly SARS and bird flu, have introduced a range of measures from thermoscanners at airports to widespread surveillance steps.

South Korea on Thursday confirmed its third case of influenza A(H1N1) while China started lifting a seven-day quarantine on passengers who had shared a flight from Mexico with a man who later tested positive for the flu.

Fukuda said, however, that vigilance was necessary.

"Complacency is the greatest danger," he said. "It does appear to be a period where the virus may be seeding itself in various parts of the world."

He added: "What we are seeing now is milder than in 1918 (when up to 50 million people died). But the 1918 started mild in springtime and became more severe in winter."

Developing nations in the southern hemisphere, where it is currently the flu season, could be particularly at risk if the virus spreads there, he said, especially in Africa.

Anne Schuchat, deputy director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the conference there was "encouraging news" about the severity of the A(H1N1) virus, with only two deaths in the United States so far.

But she said it was possible that "many more losses will occur".

The meeting was the first of ASEAN and its regional partners since protesters stormed a summit in the Thai beach resort of Pattaya in April, forcing some foreign leaders to evacuate by helicopter.

Thai security forces blocked roads around the hotel and troops brandishing riot shields and batons stood guard on Thursday, although there was no sign of any demonstrations.

- AFP/ir

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Singapore to lower flu alert to yellow over next five days

Singapore to lower flu alert to yellow over next five days
Posted: 06 May 2009

SINGAPORE - Singapore said Wednesday it would likely lower its alert level for swine flu next week, as the new strain of the virus appeared milder than originally feared.

Authorities, however, will maintain temperature checks at the city-state's
airport, sea ports and land border, the health ministry said in a statement.

Passengers who had travelled to Mexico - the epicentre of the current flu outbreak - within seven days prior to their arrival in Singapore would still be placed under quarantine, it said.

Screenings for flu-like symptoms at offices, schools, buildings and events will be lifted. If the situation remains the same, the alert level will be downgraded to "yellow" - the third in a five-step system - by Monday from the current "orange", the ministry said.

"The new strain of influenza A(H1N1) seems milder than originally feared and appears to be more like seasonal flu," the ministry said. "However, as the situation is still evolving, we would need to constantly review and adjust our responses and be prepared to deal with the changing threat."

The easing of measures is aimed at conserving resources and avoiding "flu fatigue", said Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan at a news conference on Wednesday. "We should shift to a sustainable level of flu precaution," he told reporters.

He added: "SARS was not very infectious but deadly. It's like a big elephant. It is easier to spot and when you spot one, you try to shoot it and kill it with an elephant gun. H1N1 is not the same. It's like locusts that come once in a while, and thousands of them. You can try to kill them with elephant guns but it's not possible."

Downgrading alert levels will also help the ministry conserve "bullets" such as the N95 masks, which are running out islandwide, for the second wave of the H1N1 virus attack.

Mr Khaw said: "If your public health measures were to have effect, it must be quick. It must be over-reacting. You must not under react. But you cannot over-react forever - then you cause problem of 'cry wolf'.

"Yellow is not green, the virus is still out there. The situation remains dynamic and we must continue to stay vigilant and manage this crisis nimbly."

As of Wednesday, 12 people are currently in government-imposed home quarantine, the health ministry said. This includes six Singaporeans, five Mexicans and one Indonesian.

Two of the five Mexicans will complete their seven days in isolation just before midnight Wednesday.

Mr Khaw said that as the disease is highly contagious, the public has a very important role to play in combating it by raising standards of hygiene. He urged all Singaporeans to aspire to the Japanese standards of cleanliness and hygiene.

The ministry said that if the virus mutates to become stronger, then alert levels may be revised upwards again.

Mr Khaw also commended the Mexican government for reacting to the H1N1 outbreak promptly and for openly sharing data with the world.

Earlier this week, the Mexican Ambassador in Singapore objected to the republic's decision to impose temporary visa requirements on Mexican passport holders. It said the move is "unnecessary" and "unjustified".

The Health Ministry said Home Quarantine Orders will still apply to persons with a travel history to Mexico in the past seven days and it will closely monitor the situation before deciding whether to lift visa requirements.

Under Singapore law, anyone found in breach of the quarantine order can be fined 10,000 Singapore dollars (US$6,802), jailed six months or both, for a first-time offence.

- AFP/CNA/vm

- wong chee tat :)

Swine flu could protect against deadly mutation: experts

Swine flu could protect against deadly mutation: experts
May 7th, 2009 by Marlowe Hood

The global outbreak of swine flu hovering just below the pandemic threshold could provide immunity for those already infected if the virus mutates into a more deadly form, scientists have told AFP.

That is what happened in 1918, when most people who fell ill with a mild Spring flu were effectively inoculated from the far more lethal strains that roared back a few months later and killed at least 40 million worldwide, according to recent and upcoming studies.

The death rate among those infected during the first wave was 70 percent lower, according to groundbreaking research published in November in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

The findings suggest that going all-out to prevent exposure to the kind of non-seasonal flu sweeping across the world today may turn out to be counter-productive in the fight to reduce mortality.

Health officials around the world have taken decisive measures to halt the flu's spread, including closing schools and quarantining travellers.

Mexico City, the epidemic's epicentre, was essentially shuttered for five days until Wednesday.

"In 1918, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, it would have been better to allow a first wave of infection in order to build immunity to the merging virus while it was still mild," said Lone Simonsen, an epidemiologist at George Washington University and a co-author of the November study.

Like the early phase of the devastating pandemic nearly a century ago, the current outbreak of A(H1N1) has spread widely but caused few deaths.

In the last two weeks, the swine flu has spread to 23 countries and infected more than 1,500 people, more than 90 percent of them in North America, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Among the 42 fatalities reported by health officials in Mexico, more than half were healthy young adults, much like the pattern nearly a century ago.

"In a scenario similar to the 1918 pandemic, we would not want to mitigate a 'friendly' first wave," said Cecile Viboud, a scientist at the US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland who also contributed to the study.

But both researchers agree that it would be difficult to translate their findings into policy recommendations.

"That was then and this is now. We do not even know if there is going to be a second wave, or whether it will be severe. Besides, the mitigation strategy that is currently being implemented may work," Simonsen said by phone.

"We don't know enough about the process of adaptation of novel influenza viruses," noted Viboud by email.

That the first wave of the 1918 flu acted like a vaccine for subsequent waves may seem unsurprising. But their study, which analysed monthly hospitalisation and mortality rates for respiratory illness in dozens of army camps in the United States and Britain, is the first to muster convincing evidence.

"For a lot of people in our field, history begins in about 1995, which is as far back as most electronic archives go," said Christopher Fraser, a mathematical modeller and infectious disease epidemiologist at Imperial College London.

"But if you go back through older records with a modern understanding and computational techniques for processing lots of data, you can really gain a lot of insight into what happened," he told AFP.

Fraser will publish later this month research, based on the private archives of a chief US investigator during the 1918 pandemic, that comes to much the same conclusion.

"We also found that prior immunity protected the population to a very large extent in the autumn wave," he said.

Health officials today, he added, face a chicken-and-egg problem in deciding whether to "let the infection go".

"You would need at least a few thousand infections before you could really say that," which may not happen if the global effort to contain the swine flu's spread succeeds, he explained.

But if you do let the virus progress before finding out how virulent it is, it could put people at risk if the first wave turns out to be more dangerous than expected.

John Oxford, a top virologist at the Saint Bartholomew's and the Royal London Hospital, agrees that "it would be too dangerous to let the virus run its course -- there are still too many unknowns".

The ratio of infections to fatalities has yet to be calculated, he pointed out.

Fraser, part of a WHO outbreak task force sifting through the data from Mexico, said new figures on the Mexico outbreak would likely be released by Friday.

(c) 2009 AFP

- wong chee tat :)

For fresh grads, a Catch-22 situation

For fresh grads, a Catch-22 situation

By Tan Ying Ding

IT HAS been nine months and 10 days since I graduated - for me, a transitional period that I call bittersweet.

Now, with a recent letter from the Central Provident Fund Board requesting I repay in cash the amount withdrawn for my university education, I'm reminded that I am among the statistics of fresh graduates struggling to land a job in the current global economic downturn.

Since I graduated in July, I have sent a total of 32 resumes to statutory boards, government ministries, private financial institutions, etc.

Six companies replied - five to offer me an interview, one to reject me.

Though my peers might have sent out more cover letters and resumes, I believe there is a growing sentiment of depression felt equally by us all - we might have consigned ourselves to the waiting room of Limbo, considering the need to seek a psychiatrist.

More companies have frozen their headcounts, others have retracted job offers - as has happened with a few of my friends. Still others are cutting back on hiring fresh graduates with little or no working experience.

Indeed, after seven months of trying, I even allowed myself to be coaxed by a licensed representative of a leading life insurance company in Singapore into taking the Capital Markets & Financial Advisory Services Module 5 examination (requisite for all representatives of licensed and exempted financial advisers).

This, even though the social stigma currently attached to the job of a financial adviser clashes with my introverted personality.

In the meantime, it seems I'm caught in a perennial waiting game.

I send resumes and cover letters, then wait to hear from the human resource personnel. I take screening and personality tests, then wait for the actual job interview, where I wait again for the inevitable but dreaded question: 'What is the reason for your unemployment gap?'

Call it a Catch-22 for fresh graduates: we don't have the experience needed for the job, but how can we prove ourselves if we cannot get anyone to hire us in the first place?

The market, having shifted from a seller's market to a buyer's market in the months before I graduated, does not look set to improve - quite the contrary, in fact.

Come this July, the graduating class of undergraduates from the three local universities will be unleashed into the job market, and competition might well intensify.

This influx is one more concern, especially for those like me.

I read sociology, considered a general degree, which I had thought would offer me considerable options in the working world.

After all, my peers who opted out of the honours track and hence graduated a year earlier than I did are all working in very different professions: sales, teaching, banking, communications and even airspace management, to name but a few.

But it seems my repeated tries are telling me otherwise.

While I do not disparage the discipline for which I have much respect, I do in hindsight wonder if it was prudent for me to have chosen my major out of interest rather than practical reasons.

Now, I am dejected, and at times worried that the woes of my unemployed status will spill over into other areas of my life.

Wallowing in self-misery, however, is not a solution.

In the meantime, I have chosen to give tuition, which has been a really rewarding experience.

As my students grow and improve, I find myself with more assignments coming my way. Even more, I am determined to keep my chin up, though I still long for the day when I can be truly proud of that graduation portrait of mine silently residing in the living room.

The writer, 25, graduated from NUS last year with a degree in sociology. He is currently giving tuition while applying feverishly for a job.




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Currently, I am reading and understanding this paper: Electric field distribution on knife-edge field emitters.





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