SINGAPORE (AP) ? Four Chinese immigrant bus drivers accused of inciting the city-state's first labor strike in 26 years have been granted bail in a case that highlighted growing social friction caused by an influx of foreign labor.
A fifth Chinese driver has already been sentenced to six weeks in prison even though prosecutors said he was not an instigator of the strike, which was called to demand equitable pay.
Walking off the job in protest is almost unheard of in Singapore, and the swift prosecution following the Nov. 26-27 strike was a clear sign that the government of this strictly-enforced country will not brook any disobedience from its work force.
Three of the men who appeared in court on Thursday were allowed a bail of 10,000 Singapore dollars ($8,200). A fourth driver, He Jun Liang, who faces an additional charge of making an online post in Mandarin, was given a bail of S$20,000 ($16,400).
It is not clear if they will be able to raise the money to get out of detention before their case resumes on Dec. 12.
A Chinese embassy official who was present at the hearing declined to comment on the cases.
If found guilty, all four men face up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $2,000.
The four drivers and the fifth already in jail were among 171 Chinese bus drivers of a state transport company who went on strike in protest at being paid nearly a quarter less than their Malaysian colleagues. The labor action disrupted about 5 percent of the city-state's bus services.
Singapore requires essential service workers to give 14 days' notice of a strike. The last strike in the country was in 1986 by shipyard workers.
The government revoked the work permits of 29 other drivers and deported them to China. The remaining drivers in the group were issued warnings, and will be allowed to remain and work in Singapore.
Authorities say a police investigation found that the strike was premeditated and that the drivers were absent from work without reason. The bus company's chief Desmond Kuek has said that the Chinese drivers' salary was fair. He said the Chinese were paid less than the Malaysians because the company bore their expenses for transport, accommodation and utilities.
Singapore relies on hundreds of thousands of immigrants from countries such as Indonesia, Bangladesh, China, Malaysia and Myanmar to work as maids, construction workers, waiters, garbage collectors and at other jobs deemed unappealing to many locals.
But the massive influx of foreigners has created much resentment among locals who see them as undisciplined and noisy. They also blame the foreigners for the overcrowding that has put pressure on infrastructure, and for raising housing prices because of bigger demand on limited supply.
The case has not caused any diplomatic rift between Singapore and China, a major trading partner. But activists in Hong Kong staged a protest outside the Singapore consulate on Wednesday.
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Tim Cook says Scott Forstall and John Browett are no longer at Apple because he wanted to increase the company's collaboration.
Forstall created iOS, the mobile software that runs iPads and iPhones. He was one of the most important people at Apple. Browett was a new hire, running the retail operations.
In an interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Cook explains why they were forced out of the company by saying it was due to "my deep belief that collaboration is essential for innovation."
Cook clarifies a bit more by saying:
You look at what we are great at. There are many things. But the one thing we do, which I think no one else does, is integrate hardware, software, and services in such a way that most consumers begin to not differentiate anymore.
So how do we keep doing that and keep taking it to an even higher level? You have to be an A-plus at collaboration.
He then talks about Jony Ive leading the look of the hardware as well as the look of the software. And Craig Federighi leading the OSX and iOS teams, which need to work seamlessly. And then Bob Mansfield taking over wireless and silicon technologies, which are growing at Apple.
Sounds sort of blah, as an answer, but then answering a question about Jony Ive, Cook reveals something a bit more specific, saying:
But the thing that ties us all is we?re brought together by values. We want to do the right thing. We want to be honest and straightforward. We admit when we?re wrong and have the courage to change.
And there can?t be politics. I despise politics. There is no room for it in a company. My life is going to be way too short to deal with that. No bureaucracy. We want this fast-moving, agile company where there are no politics, no agendas.
Let's break that into pieces.
Forstall reportedly refused to sign an apology for Apple Maps. Cook wants people to admit when they're wrong and have the courage to change. Refusing to sign an apology means you can't admit when you're wrong.
Then there's the "I despise politics" bit. Forstall was also a reportedly political manager, taking credit for other people's work, pushing people aside.
So, add it all up and you get a decent picture about why Forstall was out. He wouldn't collaborate with other people at the company, he was political, and he couldn't admit when he was wrong.
Dr. Chez F. Cristiano has designed a Transformation Model of Human Resources: As a Full Strategic Business Partner to help organizations become more efficient and competitive by transforming their HR/HRM Department. Personnel Departments have changed their name over the years to the HR or HRM Department, but a majority of them have not transformed to become a full strategic business partner within their respective organizations. Many HR/HRM Departments have remained mainly in an administrative and legal role.
If HR/HRM Departments are to become a full strategic business partner, their overall focus needs to shift away from just an administrative role to an overall strategy, development, and financial role for their entire organization. The name of Human Resources can also evolve as well to reflect it?s new contribution to something like the Human Resource Strategy & Development (HRSD).
In order to have full support and focus for Human Resource Strategy & Development (HRSD), a Chief of HRSD should be created. The person who fills this position will need to be a leader who will be able to embrace the importance of HRSD as a full strategic business partner in their organization. The Chief of HRSD will be responsible for selecting a leadership team that will help with the transformation. Depending on the size of the organization, the leadership team can select project teams to help with the future innovation, strategy, and implementation of organizational projects.
Strategy and development (like creativity & innovation) should be an ongoing process, in order to optimize individuals, teams, and the organization as a whole. Larger organizations can have HRSD leadership teams looking at the overall picture and providing guidance and support to the project teams under them.
Engagement is about having a positive attitude that is characterized by high energy, dedication, and satisfaction. Engaged employees are highly invested in the overall success of their organization. They have a higher level of overall well-being, absent less from work, far less likely to leave an organization, and are able to avoid burnout by establishing balance and stability in their life. Organizations that raise their employee engagement also see much higher rates of client satisfaction. Employee surveys should be electronically administered on a yearly basis to help determine the projects needed to boost engagement. Higher engagement levels results in cost savings and higher productivity and profitability; thus it is a win-win situation for the organization and employees and customers.
As a full strategic business partner, the HRSD will fully utilize organizational development programs and become a senior partner in the overall strategy and finances of an organization. Change is not always easy, even positive change. It is important to strive to be creative, flexible, and open-minded when making any type of changes.
New optical tweezers trap specimens just a few nanometers acrossPublic release date: 4-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Andrew Myers admyers@stanford.edu 650-736-2245 Stanford School of Engineering
Stanford researchers have found a new way to trap particles smaller than 10 nanometers
To grasp and move microscopic objects, such as bacteria and the components of living cells, scientists can harness the power of concentrated light to manipulate them without ever physically touching them.
Now, doctoral student Amr Saleh and Assistant Professor Jennifer Dionne, researchers at the Stanford School of Engineering, have designed an innovative light aperture that allows them to optically trap smaller objects than ever before potentially just a few atoms in size.
The process of optical trapping or optical tweezing, as it is often known involves sculpting a beam of light into a narrow point that produces a strong electromagnetic field. The beam attracts tiny objects and traps them in place, just like a pair of tweezers.
Unfortunately, there are natural limits to the technique. The process breaks down for objects significantly smaller than the wavelength of light. Therefore, optical tweezers cannot grasp super-small objects like individual proteins, which are only a couple of nanometers in diameter.
Saleh and Dionne have shown theoretically that light passed through their novel aperture would stably trap objects as small as 2 nanometers. The design was published in the journal Nano Letters, and Saleh is now building a working prototype of the microscopic device.
Agonies of scale
As a materials scientist, Jennifer Dionne imagined an optical tool that would help her precisely move molecular building blocks into new configurations. "Optical tweezers seemed like a really cool way of assembling new materials," she said. Dionne is the paper's senior author.
Unfortunately, existing optical tweezers are not adept at handling these tiny building blocks. "It's been a known for several decades that trapping nano-sized objects with light would be challenging," said Dionne.
The problem is inherent to the light beam itself. Optical trapping typically uses light in the visible spectrum (with wavelengths between 400 and 700 nanometers) so that scientist can actually see the specimen as they manipulate it.
Due to a physical constraint called the diffraction limit of light, the smallest space in which optical tweezing can trap a particle is approximately half the wavelength of the light beam. In the visible spectrum this would be about 200 nanometers half the shortest visible wavelength of 400 nanometers.
Thus, if the specimen in question is only 2 nanometers wide the size of a typical protein trapping it in a space of 200 nanometers allows only very loose control at best. Scale-wise, it is akin to guiding a minnow with 20-meter-wide fishing net.
Additionally, the optical force that light can exert on an object diminishes as the objects get smaller. "If you want to trap something very small, you need a tremendous amount of power, which will burn your specimen before you can trap it," Saleh said.
Some researchers get around this problem by attaching the specimen to a much larger object that can be dragged around with light. Dionne noted, however, that important molecules like insulin or glucose might behave quite differently when attached to giant anchors than they would on their own. To isolate and move a tiny object without frying it, the researchers needed a way around the limitations of conventional optical trapping.
The promise of plasmonics
Dionne says that the most promising method of moving tiny particles with light relies on plasmonics, a technology that takes advantage of the optical and electronic properties of metals. A strong conductor like silver or gold holds its electrons weakly, giving them freedom to move around near the metal's surface.
When light waves interact with these mobile electrons, they move in what Dionne describes as "a very well-defined, intricate dance," scattering and sculpting the light into electromagnetic waves called plasmon-polaritons. These oscillations have a very short wavelength compared to visible light, enabling them to trap small specimens more tightly.
Dionne and Saleh applied plasmonic principles to design a new aperture that focuses light more effectively. The aperture is structured much like the coaxial cables that transmit television signals, Saleh said. A nanoscale tube of silver is coated in a thin layer of silicon dioxide, and those two layers are wrapped in a second outer layer of silver. When light shines through the silicon dioxide ring, it creates plasmons at the interface where the silver and silicon dioxide meet. The plasmons travel along aperture and emerge on the other end as a powerful, concentrated beam of light.
The Stanford device is not the first plasmonic trap, but it promises to trap the smallest specimens recorded to date. Saleh and Dionne have theoretically shown that their design can trap particles as small as 2 nanometers. With further improvements, their design could even be used to optically trap molecules even smaller.
An optical multi-tool
As nanoscale tools go, this new optical trap would be quite a versatile gadget. While the researchers first envisioned it in the context of materials science, its potential applications span many other fields including biology, pharmacology, and genomics.
Dionne said she would first like to trap a single protein, and try to unravel its twisted structure using visible light alone. Dionne points out that the beam of light could also be used to exert a strong pulling force on stem cells, which has been shown to change how the these important building blocks differentiate into various kinds of cells. Saleh, on the other hand, is particularly excited about moving and stacking tiny particles to explore their attractive forces and create new, "bottom-up" materials and devices.
All this is down the road, however. In the meantime, Saleh is working on turning the design into reality. He hopes to have a prototype by early 2013.
###
Funding for this research was provided by a Stanford Terman fellowship, an AFOSR Young Investigator Grant and a NSF Career Award.
This article was written by Kelly Servick, a science-writing intern for the Stanford University School of Engineering.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
New optical tweezers trap specimens just a few nanometers acrossPublic release date: 4-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Andrew Myers admyers@stanford.edu 650-736-2245 Stanford School of Engineering
Stanford researchers have found a new way to trap particles smaller than 10 nanometers
To grasp and move microscopic objects, such as bacteria and the components of living cells, scientists can harness the power of concentrated light to manipulate them without ever physically touching them.
Now, doctoral student Amr Saleh and Assistant Professor Jennifer Dionne, researchers at the Stanford School of Engineering, have designed an innovative light aperture that allows them to optically trap smaller objects than ever before potentially just a few atoms in size.
The process of optical trapping or optical tweezing, as it is often known involves sculpting a beam of light into a narrow point that produces a strong electromagnetic field. The beam attracts tiny objects and traps them in place, just like a pair of tweezers.
Unfortunately, there are natural limits to the technique. The process breaks down for objects significantly smaller than the wavelength of light. Therefore, optical tweezers cannot grasp super-small objects like individual proteins, which are only a couple of nanometers in diameter.
Saleh and Dionne have shown theoretically that light passed through their novel aperture would stably trap objects as small as 2 nanometers. The design was published in the journal Nano Letters, and Saleh is now building a working prototype of the microscopic device.
Agonies of scale
As a materials scientist, Jennifer Dionne imagined an optical tool that would help her precisely move molecular building blocks into new configurations. "Optical tweezers seemed like a really cool way of assembling new materials," she said. Dionne is the paper's senior author.
Unfortunately, existing optical tweezers are not adept at handling these tiny building blocks. "It's been a known for several decades that trapping nano-sized objects with light would be challenging," said Dionne.
The problem is inherent to the light beam itself. Optical trapping typically uses light in the visible spectrum (with wavelengths between 400 and 700 nanometers) so that scientist can actually see the specimen as they manipulate it.
Due to a physical constraint called the diffraction limit of light, the smallest space in which optical tweezing can trap a particle is approximately half the wavelength of the light beam. In the visible spectrum this would be about 200 nanometers half the shortest visible wavelength of 400 nanometers.
Thus, if the specimen in question is only 2 nanometers wide the size of a typical protein trapping it in a space of 200 nanometers allows only very loose control at best. Scale-wise, it is akin to guiding a minnow with 20-meter-wide fishing net.
Additionally, the optical force that light can exert on an object diminishes as the objects get smaller. "If you want to trap something very small, you need a tremendous amount of power, which will burn your specimen before you can trap it," Saleh said.
Some researchers get around this problem by attaching the specimen to a much larger object that can be dragged around with light. Dionne noted, however, that important molecules like insulin or glucose might behave quite differently when attached to giant anchors than they would on their own. To isolate and move a tiny object without frying it, the researchers needed a way around the limitations of conventional optical trapping.
The promise of plasmonics
Dionne says that the most promising method of moving tiny particles with light relies on plasmonics, a technology that takes advantage of the optical and electronic properties of metals. A strong conductor like silver or gold holds its electrons weakly, giving them freedom to move around near the metal's surface.
When light waves interact with these mobile electrons, they move in what Dionne describes as "a very well-defined, intricate dance," scattering and sculpting the light into electromagnetic waves called plasmon-polaritons. These oscillations have a very short wavelength compared to visible light, enabling them to trap small specimens more tightly.
Dionne and Saleh applied plasmonic principles to design a new aperture that focuses light more effectively. The aperture is structured much like the coaxial cables that transmit television signals, Saleh said. A nanoscale tube of silver is coated in a thin layer of silicon dioxide, and those two layers are wrapped in a second outer layer of silver. When light shines through the silicon dioxide ring, it creates plasmons at the interface where the silver and silicon dioxide meet. The plasmons travel along aperture and emerge on the other end as a powerful, concentrated beam of light.
The Stanford device is not the first plasmonic trap, but it promises to trap the smallest specimens recorded to date. Saleh and Dionne have theoretically shown that their design can trap particles as small as 2 nanometers. With further improvements, their design could even be used to optically trap molecules even smaller.
An optical multi-tool
As nanoscale tools go, this new optical trap would be quite a versatile gadget. While the researchers first envisioned it in the context of materials science, its potential applications span many other fields including biology, pharmacology, and genomics.
Dionne said she would first like to trap a single protein, and try to unravel its twisted structure using visible light alone. Dionne points out that the beam of light could also be used to exert a strong pulling force on stem cells, which has been shown to change how the these important building blocks differentiate into various kinds of cells. Saleh, on the other hand, is particularly excited about moving and stacking tiny particles to explore their attractive forces and create new, "bottom-up" materials and devices.
All this is down the road, however. In the meantime, Saleh is working on turning the design into reality. He hopes to have a prototype by early 2013.
###
Funding for this research was provided by a Stanford Terman fellowship, an AFOSR Young Investigator Grant and a NSF Career Award.
This article was written by Kelly Servick, a science-writing intern for the Stanford University School of Engineering.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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