On the Move Systems today announced that it is discussing a potential joint venture project with an innovative freight-booking technology company. The company believes this initiative could revolutionize the way truckers and shippers do business.

OMVS has been focusing its efforts on introducing a new era with its game-changing “Uber-for-Trucking” shared economy platform that will allow haulers to connect via an online, on-demand app to improve operations, scheduling, routing and optimization. The potential joint venture partner is established on the brokerage side of the business, providing innovative online booking solutions that help shippers consistently obtain the best rates for their freight.

“Both parties bring solid, complementary synergies to the table that will enable each to become even stronger by banding together,” stated OMVS CEO Robert Wilson. “While we’re still early in the process, we’ve already identified many areas of commonality where we can help one another and, more importantly, several opportunities for growth and expansion that we might not be able to realize working apart. The joint venture we are currently discussing has some exciting possibilities for not only the companies, but for investors as well. We’re excited to see what the future holds.”

A recent Frost & Sullivan report predicted trucking will soon see an Uber-style transformation, where online, on-demand apps like the ones used by the prospective joint venture parties will play a major role in logistics operations and revenue-generation.

For more information on OMVS, please visit www.onthemovesystems.com

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In July, Texas Rare Earth Resources Corp. made headlines when it entered into a joint venture agreement with K-Technologies, Inc. to develop, refine and market K-Tech’s continuous ion exchange (CIX) and continuous ion chromatography (CIC) technologies for the extraction of rare earth elements from native ores. With these techniques, TRER set a goal of vastly improving upon the simplicity and efficiency of rare earth processing in order to become more competitive with Chinese operations, which currently dominate the global rare earth market. In just over two months, TRER was able to successfully leverage this immense potential to secure a research contract with the Department of Defense’s largest logistics combat support division, the United States Defense Logistics Agency (DLA).

“Texas Rare Earth Resources is committed to developing a reliable source of critical rare earths here in the United States, as well as an effective means to separate them,” Dan Gorski, chief executive officer of TRER, stated in a news release. “We welcome the opportunity of demonstrating to the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency our ability to produce specific high-purity rare earth oxides they have selected using our CIX/CIC process.”

As part of this project, TRER, in conjunction with its joint venture partner, will conduct research to demonstrate its ability to separate and refine a collection of high-purity rare earth oxides – including yttrium, ytterbium and a third oxide which is not being publicly disclosed. The feedstock for the contract will come from TRER’s Round Top deposit near El Paso, Texas. For the DLA, which focuses primarily on resource management and security, a reliable domestic supply of these valuable rare earth resources – which are currently being produced almost exclusively in China – likely represents a top-priority objective.

For prospective shareholders, the DLA contract could represent a turning point in TRER’s efforts to promote sustainable growth. Potential benefits stemming from this arrangement include an immediate influx of capital with which to fund ongoing research and the distinct possibility of a long-term partnership between TRER and the DLA following the successful completion of the initial deal. MiningWealth highlighted this potential in a thorough analysis of TRER’s recent announcement. In particular, the article stressed the substantial financial benefits resulting from the DLA contract for TRER shareholders – including funding of research that would have otherwise been funded through stock issuance. To read the full analysis, visit http://miningwealth.com/trers-dla-contract-is-a-big-deal/.

Assuming certain milestones are met, conventional wisdom suggests that this initial DLA contract could foreshadow a lucrative long-term partnership. Since the contract falls directly within TRER’s unique wheelhouse, milestones should be achievable within short intervals, potentially carving out a clear path toward full-scale production. Anthony Marchese, chairman of the TRER board of directors, summed up the significance of this opportunity in a recent news release.

“This is a first step toward restoring a U.S. rare earths supply chain,” Marchese noted.

For more information, visit www.trer.com

Publicly available data compiled by FARE (Food Allergy Research and Education) indicates that upwards of 15 million Americans suffer from some form of food allergy, many of whom are at risk from potentially going into life-threatening anaphylactic shock as a result of consuming the wrong thing. In an interview this May, director of the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy Research at Stanford University, Dr. Kari Nadeau, stated that the number of Americans suffering from food allergies was likely much higher, suggesting that the U.S. now has close to around 18 million people who suffer from food allergies of some kind.

The same is true across the pond in Europe, where a similar incident rate figure compounds an alarming rise in hospitalizations among children due to severe food reactions, the number of which has jumped seven-fold in the past decade according to the EAACI (European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology). The same kind of rise in incident rates among kids is occurring in the U.S., where during 2013 alone CDC data indicated that from the period between 1997 and 2011 food allergies in children increased as much as 50 percent. Also in 2013, JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) put the total annual food allergy-related healthcare cost per child at around $4,184, giving us a $24.8 billion figure nationwide, on an incident rate of one in every thirteen kids.

Needless to say, for millions of Americans, grocery shopping can be like walking through an allergen-containing product minefield. That is why mobile app developer, ContentChecked Holdings, Inc., has created its family of powerful shopping aides, including its eponymous flagship app, ContentChecked. The ContentChecked app is driven by a robust, constantly growing database of high-fidelity product data, covering 70 percent or more of all conventional U.S. products. A database full of rigorously analyzed food manufacturer data, vetted by a dedicated team of nutritional experts, and backed up by algorithmically-driven, on-the-fly dietary needs solutions that are tailored to the individual user. However, the most compelling aspect of this app might be the tight feedback loop with the user base itself, in that it allows for direct user-submitted product reviews to be performed and those entries added to the database. This feedback loop enables the database to grow organically, yet retain the rigorous standards of administration by top experts in nutrition.

Along the same lines as ContentChecked, CNCK has developed similar apps, customized to meet niche and not-so-niche market demographics. With apps like MigraineChecked and VeganChecked (slated for late 2015), as well as SugarChecked, an app to help what was roughly half the population in just 2012 that is either diabetic or prediabetic (National Diabetes Statistics Report, 2014), CNCK is at the forefront of a user-driven revolution in retail, powered by the rise of m-commerce. Given that diabetes alone is one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the U.S., the idea of a simple to use, intuitive and intelligent app, which was designed to help users quickly avoid products that contain high levels of refined sugars, is a real life saver in today’s increasingly hectic, mobile-centric world. The global smartphone market saw 11.6 year-over-year growth for second quarter 2015 in terms of units shipped, with 337.2 million smartphones hitting the streets, the second highest quarterly total on record according to IDC’s (International Data Corporation) July report. Putting the power in the hands of busy shoppers to quickly and easily check products against a database they can trust, is the kind of thing whose advent can potentially make huge waves in the retail space.

One of the best usability features of these apps is that anyone can use them, and thus shop for friends or loved ones that have food allergies with considerable ease. The time and effort saved by being able to simply have your smartphone signed in to the app with a user, or group of user’s allergies set, and then briefly point the camera at the barcode on a given product in order to trigger an automatic information page showing whether or not the product’s content is safe, changes everything when it comes to shopping for people with food allergies. That same information page which shows what allergens are present or not, allows users to also rate the product, or quickly browse a list of similar, alternative products that do not contain allergens.

This is also a superb way for manufacturers to showcase their products to what is an obviously growing demographic of people with food allergies, especially when you consider that 65 percent of children born to parents with food allergies will themselves inherit those same allergies. Seems like a pretty safe bet that demand for these apps won’t be going anywhere for the foreseeable future, and as more adults and kids develop food allergies, diabetes, migraines, or simply want to find organic vegan produce, the overall utility of and user base for such apps will only increase. These are just the first fruits from CNCK as well, and the company is dedicated to providing similarly unique, helpful mobile experiences that cater to other target markets, and which are amenable to the application of this same vetted product database technology.

The company has the vision to work at establishing itself long-term as the trusted go-to source for consumers or food buyers who are looking to maintain a clean and healthy product supply, leveraging a technology and approach that applies equally well to eating categories such as veganism, kosher or non-GMO, as it does to the task of seamlessly filtering allergen-containing foods, or those high in refined sugars. Providing user-customized search capability that extends to the brick and mortar product isle via mobile is an excellent business strategy for CNCK, and as it becomes clearer and clearer to manufacturers and advertisers that consumer-driven search fidelity is the supercharger of commerce, the search platform itself stands to become the billboard, with many of the associated benefits accruing to CNCK.

To take a closer look, visit www.contentchecked.com

Fresh Promise Foods widened its Harvest Soul Organic Chewable Juice line earlier this month when it unveiled two new flavors at the 2015 Natural Products Expo East, and the reception to this point has been reportedly positive. Despite the rapidly evolving landscape of the natural beverage industry, FPFI is firmly positioned to benefit from the marketability of its innovative product line.

“[Juice companies] are starting to evolve into having to have something else be a value add to their product or point of differentiation,” John Craven, chief executive officer of BevNET, stated in a video round up following the expo. “We have some that are adding probiotics and there are a couple of chewable ones… So far, I like what I see, and the response is definitely pretty positive.”

In recent years, innovative juice products have reinvigorated the market and spurred tremendous growth. According to a report by the LA Times, the cold-pressed juice segment, which features juices extracted without the use of heat, is currently valued at $100 million. The industry has also, traditionally, maintained a relatively low barrier of entry, with more than two-thirds of the juice market attributed to independent brands. However, all indications point to a shift away from this trend in the coming years, as larger beverage companies look to capitalize on the popularity of these healthy soft drink alternatives by establishing larger footholds in the market.

The first step toward this anticipated shift took place earlier this year, when cold-pressed juice producer Suja Life LLC announced a minority investment deal with The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO). Following this $90 million investment, the global beverage powerhouse will begin distributing Suja products through its expansive distribution network, effectively limiting the ability of startups and independent beverage companies in the cold-pressed juice segment to gain traction on a nationwide basis.

FPFI remains in a favorable position to promote growth in the coming months by leaning on the unique benefits of the Harvest Soul Organic Chewable Juice product line – including the use of blended, chewable juices and the addition of healthy probiotics. In fact, the Suja deal could have a positive impact on FPFI’s market potential moving forward.

“That valuation [of Suja] is something that will probably spur additional investment in beverage companies,” continued Craven.

To view BevNET’s full review of the 2015 Natural Products Expo East, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MWE5ez67LU

For more information, visit www.harvestsoul.com

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In a recent interview with QualityStocks, Henryk Dabrowski, chairman and chief executive officer of Alternet Systems, Inc. (OTCQB: ALYI), described the company’s 2014 sale of majority-owned subsidiary Utiba Americas as a turning point in its efforts to reinvent its business. Since then, Alternet has refined its focus toward two high-growth opportunities in an effort to promote maximized value for shareholders while establishing a sustainable foothold in potentially expansive payment markets.

“Alternet in 2016 will effectively have launched two lines of business, which are solutions for the payment processing industry,” Dabrowski stated during the interview. “We will also have launched our suite of solutions for the data analytics space where we will be targeting markets in the U.S. and Latin America.”

Because of the rapidly expanding demand for big data analytics solutions, the company’s upcoming venture into the big data industry is particularly intriguing. According to reports by the International Data Corporation, the big data technology and services market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 26.4 percent through 2018, which is about six times larger than the growth rate of the overall information technology market. At this pace, the market for big data services will surpass $41.5 billion in less than four years.

While this expected growth is certainly noteworthy, the biggest benefit for Alternet likely lies in the current distribution of market share throughout the industry. While tech giants such as HP (NYSE: HPQ), SAP (NYSE: SAP) and GE (NYSE: GE) have certainly thrown their hats into the big data ring, the market has maintained a relatively low barrier of entry for firms with innovative solutions addressing niche demands. Splunk, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK) is one example of a startup in the big data field that, through a dedication to innovation and improved user experience, has grabbed a significant portion of the market while achieving a 115 percent increase in gross profit in just two years.

Since 2014, the Alternet management team, under the experienced leadership of Dabrowski, has effectively executed a shift from previous technologies to viable, high-growth market opportunities. Keep the company on radar as it focuses on making progress toward the launch of its new business lines in the coming months, giving it an opportunity to promote rapid and sustainable growth.

For more information, visit www.alternetsystems.com

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ENGlobal’s core business is energy-related project delivery solutions. The automation segment is focused on integrated services geared for design, fabrication and implementation of advanced automation, control, instrumentation and process analytical systems. Within ENG’s Automation Engineering vertical is the company’s General Automation Services offering. The company builds shareholder value in many ways. General Automation Services is vital to this effort.

General services covers project management, construction coordination and construction management of automation projects. These projects typically involve DCS migrations, plant re-instrumentations and expansions, and instrument, electrical and control system installation. Additional automation services include loop check, commissioning and start-up support of process control, power distribution and generation, analytical and EPA regulated systems. Comprehensive system troubleshooting is often required at all junctures of an automation project including after a system has been in place for two or more years.

The company employs a staff that possesses the experience to deliver many services for a wide range of automation and control system applications. These services include an exhaustive list of tasks connected with automation and control systems. ENG deploys a team to manage an automation project from conception through start-up and optimization.

ENGlobal is positioned to deliver engineering and project services to the energy sector in the United States and around the world. ENG’s two business segments include Engineering and Automation. The automation segment delivers services for designing, fabricating and implementing advanced automation, instrumentation control and process analytical systems. The engineering component consults on the development and execution of projects where professional engineering and construction management are vital. The company’s Government Services group offers design, engineering, installation and operation to the public sector and facilities around the world. An additional tier of expertise comes in the way of installation and maintenance of automation and instrumentation systems for the U.S. Defense industry on a global scale.

ENG’s corporate headquarters are in Houston, Texas. Houston is also home for the company’s Engineering and Construction / Automation Engineering and Automation Integration and Fabrication facility. Engineering and Construction facilities are located in Denver, Colorado, Mobile, Alabama and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

For more information on the company, visit www.ENGlobal.com

Lingo Media, an EdTech company providing innovative online and print-based technologies and solutions, this morning reported that its subsidiary, ELL Technologies Ltd., and eDistribution SAS, an online education services distribution company in Colombia, have secured a multi-million dollar language learning software development contract in Colombia. The agreement positions both parties to significantly increase learning and professional opportunities for as many as 7 million citizens in Colombia.

eDistribution has selected ELL Technologies to provide a full suite of digital education resources to the National Training Service (“SENA”), a Colombian national public institution focused on the development of education as means to foster employment.

Per the terms agreement, ELL Technologies, in partnership with eDistribution, is currently developing lessons, learning objects and digital resources which SENA will implement into its learning management system. By gaining the ability to pick, choose and adapt learning programs and their components, educators can supplement, complement and enhance their coursework and in-class training.

“SENA has taken a most progressive and innovative approach to learning English and other languages by structuring their program to fit the many different learning environments and requirements to further establish Colombia as a truly bilingual nation,” Gali Bar-Ziv, president and CEO of ELL Technologies, stated in the news release. “We are very excited to deliver the digital learning content and user experience to Latin America’s leading educational institute, positively impacting language education and employment opportunities in Colombia and throughout Latin America.”

Laura Victoria Zabala J., eDistribution´s CEO, noted the importance of multilingualism in Latin America, as well as on a global scale.

“Multilingualism has become a real necessity in our interconnected and globalized world,” she stated. “Through this partnership, eDistribution and ELL Technologies will provide the most technologically advanced and expansive digital content library of all the eLearning programs to be used in Colombia, and will be an example for educators and governments throughout Latin America to establish new educational standards.”

Mario Javier Rincón Triana, special and institutional project coordinator for SENA, explained how the agreement is of particular importance for his organization.

“In the context of Colombia, SENA aims at the improvement of foreign language levels of the Colombian people and SENA’s bilingualism project is particularly important since it has become necessary to boost both the quality and the competence of our learners,” he said.
Finally, the use of digital content has become SENA’s benchmark in the implementation of best practices in the teaching and learning of foreign languages.”

For more information, visit www.lingomedia.com

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International Stem Cell Corp., a biotechnology company developing novel stem cell-based therapies, announced that its scientific team has developed a robust innovative technology to generate functional articular cartilage from the patient’s own skin or adipose tissue to treat osteoarthritis. ISCO believes this technology may allow the company to provide relief to patients suffering from osteoarthritic knee joints, as well as to those with shoulder joints and intervertebral spinal disk osteoarthritis.

Ruslan Semechkin, ISCO’s chief scientific officer, stated, “While we are working on obtaining regulatory approval for the Parkinson’s disease treatment in Australia, as well as in the US, we are also pursuing a number of other therapeutic indications including osteoarthritis, which can potentially be treated with the patient’s own cells.”

Even though osteoarthritis is prevalent in our society, there is a lack of an effective treatment for this disease. Developing and successfully testing a scalable system that permits the generation of functional human cartilage tissue with superior mechanical properties is a significant accomplishment. The capacity to provide greater stability than other tissue that is currently available for the treatment of osteoarthritis is even more impressive.

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease characterized by progressive erosion of the articular cartilage. Although osteoarthritis can damage any joint in the body, the disorder most commonly affects joints in the hands, knees, hips and spine. The erosion of articular cartilage leads to joint pain, stiffness, and impaired mobility. According to the Arthritis foundation osteoarthritis affects over 27 million Americans with an estimated medical costs of as much as $65 billion.

For more information on the company, visit www.internationalstemcell.com

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Avant Diagnostics, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is a medical diagnostic company specializing in large panel biomarker screening. OvaDx is the company’s first test, a sophisticated microarray-based way to detect pre-symptomatic ovarian cancer by measuring the activation of the immune system in blood samples in response to early stage ovarian tumor cell development.

Identifying the variations of specific genes in the genome is an expanding objective of genetic research, since variations are what define individual characteristics, including disease states or a statistical propensity for disease. Early detection of disease can provide options for earlier treatments that may improve the patient’s chances of survival, as well as their quality of life. It could also mean significant cost savings by avoiding expensive late stage disease treatments.

OvaDx is an advanced microarray-based diagnostic test that measures the activation of the immune system in response to ovarian tumor cell development. It’s the market’s first large-panel screening test for ovarian cancer, and can be used as an elective screen for women seeking greater wellness, and for screening women at elevated risk for ovarian cancer. OvaDx has indicated a high sensitivity and specificity for all types and stages of ovarian cancer, including stage IA-IV borderline serous, clear cell, endometrioid, mixed epithelial, mucinous, serous and ovarian adenocarcinoma. Clinicians will appreciate the following features of OvaDx:

• High sensitivity and specificity for all types and stages of ovarian cancer
• Identifies stage I, II, III and IV disease markers in patient samples
• Detects stage IA disease markers with ~80% sensitivity and 100% Specificity
• Multi-plexed microarray assay reads approximately 100 proteomic biomarkers
• Proteomic panel provides definitive real-time test results
• Microarray format reduces serum requirement to 0.1-0.25 ml per sample run
• Arrayit Diagnostics, Inc. blood cards can also be used for sample collection
• Fluorescence detection ensures high signal detectivity
• Test controls eliminate experimental false positives and false negatives
• High-throughput format scales to any number of patient samples
• Automated process permits large-scale (e.g. 1,000,000 sample+) screening
• Supplement OVA1® and other multi-analyte tests
• Supplement genetic tests including BRCA1 and BRCA2
• Screen patient sera from breast, cervical, uterine and other cancer patients
• Test samples from patients with ovarian cysts and other benign conditions

Avant recently announced the start of calibration testing in preparation for the OvaDx validation study, to be used in support of a pre-submission package for the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration).

For more information on the company, visit https://avantdiagnostics.wordpress.com/

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With energy prices continuing to fall in recent months toward six-year lows, oil and gas exploration and production companies are scrambling to find cost savings in order to remain competitive. Throughout the first half of 2015, EOG Resources, Inc. (NYSE: EOG) shifted its focus toward capital efficiency in order to better position itself to be successful in a lower commodity price environment, and other major North American producers, such as Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) and Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA) highlighted similar strategies in their most recent financial updates.

Despite these efforts to cut costs, environmental pressures remain at an all-time high, forcing major players in the oil and gas industry to address current market conditions in a cost-effective, environmentally conscious manner. Galenfeha, Inc. (OTC: GLFH), through the recent release of its innovative iWaV system, is addressing this demand while potentially revolutionizing the oil and gas chemical injection marketplace.

In a conventional reservoir, oil producers can typically expect to extract approximately 15 percent of hydrocarbons through conventional recovery techniques, which leaves about 85 percent that can’t be recovered without the use of more complex recovery methods. Chemical injection is one of the three primary techniques used in these enhanced oil recovery efforts. Using this technique, various chemicals are injected into reservoirs in order to aid in the mobility of oil deposits and reduce surface tension. Although chemical injection has proven to be highly effective, it is also particularly expensive. Traditionally, oil producers utilizing a chemical injection program have been forced to address maintenance onsite, which creates a costly, labor-intensive and potentially dangerous necessity that can seriously hamper financial performance.

Galenfeha’s iWaV is an open and powerful system that enables complete control of an entire chemical injection program through existing SCADA infrastructure. Following implementation of the iWaV system, oil producers gain access to a range of useful features designed to minimize the financial impact of one of the single highest expenses of operating a well site.

“We are proud to introduce Galenfeha’s groundbreaking iWaV system,” Lucien Marioneaux, Jr., president and chief executive officer of Galenfeha, stated in a news release. “This new development demonstrates our company’s commitment to provide the oil and gas industry with state-of-the-art and environmentally conscious products.”

As the current lower commodity price environment sends oil and gas firms in search of new solutions to cut costs and improve performance, Galenfeha is in a favorable position to capitalize on its groundbreaking iWaV platform. Offering complete, remote control of costly chemical injection programs at an attractive price point, the company expects the iWaV system to make serious waves in the oil and gas industry in the months to come.

Take a closer look at the company by visiting www.galenfeha.com

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