Health Insurance Information

Best Health Plans is a U.S. News & World Report link which ranks hospitals and health insurance plans and provides much information as well. Some of the links at the page include:

What If Your Health Insurer Won't Pay?

Equal Coverage for Mental-Health Care

and

How Much Should Patients Pay for Medical Care?

Health insurance is a major concern to both employees and their employers.

Detecting Hazardous Conditions

Laurus Systems, Inc. supplies radiation detection devices of interest to medical imagary enterprises, the nuclear industry and the military. Products include dosimeters, air sampling equipment, chemical detection equipment and software. The company is located in Ellicott City, Maryland.

IRS Services

I receive a newsletter from the IRS that sometimes contains useful information. The following arrived in one of the mailings. The information is likely to be useful to many. Quoting from the e-mail content:

Ten Reasons to Visit IRS.gov

1. Get answers 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Whether you need a form or have tax questions, IRS.gov has a wealth of information. IRS.gov is accessible all day, every day for individuals, businesses and tax-exempt organizations.

2. Get tax forms and publications. You can view, download and order tax forms and publications any hour of the day or night.

3. Find out all about electronic filing. You can e-file from the comfort of your home 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. E-file is fast, easy and free for some taxpayers.

4. Request a payment agreement. Paying your taxes in full and on time avoids unnecessary penalties and interest. However, if you cannot pay your balance in full you can use the Online Payment Agreement Application to request an installment agreement.

5. Find out how to make payments electronically. You can authorize an electronic funds withdrawal, use a credit or debit card or enroll in the U.S. Treasury’s Electronic Federal Tax Payment System. Electronic payment options are convenient, safe and secure methods for paying taxes.

6. Check the status of your tax refund. Whether you opted for direct deposit or asked IRS to mail you a check, you can check the status of your refund through “Where’s my Refund?” on our secure Web site.

7. Calculate the right amount of withholding on your W-4. The IRS Withholding Calculator will help you ensure that you don’t have too much or too little income tax withheld from your pay.

8. Find out if you qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit. EITC is a refundable tax credit for people who work but don’t earn much. Find out if you are eligible by answering some questions and providing basic income information using the EITC Assistant.

9. Search for charities. Search Publication 78, Cumulative List of Organizations, to find out if an organization is exempt from federal taxation and, if so, how much of your contributions to that organization are tax deductible.

10. Get information about careers at the IRS. No matter what your professional specialty, the IRS can offer you a variety of full-time career or seasonal job opportunities.

MEMS Pressure Sensor for Oceanographic Applications

Design of a High Performance MEMS Pressure Sensor Array with Signal Conditioning Unit for Oceanographic Applications is a paper authored by C. Roy Chaudhuri, V. Natarajan, P. Chatterjee, S. Gangopadhyay, V. Sreeramamurthy, and H. Saha. It appears in the Sensors & Transducers Journal, Vol. 98, Issue 11, November 2008, pp. 83-95. It presents a design for a high performance MEMS pressure sensor array which would have a signal conditioning unit. It is intended for oceanographic purposes.

Ocean measurement parameters include salinity, temperature and pressure which up to now have been measured using research vessels or remote operating vehicles. Limitations of such vehicles include restriction to local environmental variables at a point in time. Discontinuity has been problematic for these approaches. Overcoming these limitations is anticipated through the use of miniaturized and inexpensive tools enabling continuous and accurate readings at ocean depths. The readings could furnish data about changes in ocean currents and coral growth.

The authors propose a design of a "piezoresistive pressure sensor array with separate bulk micromachined diaphragms of different dimensions on the same substrate for sensing a wide range of pressure with improved resolution and linearity." The paper goes into quite a bit of technical detail which includes multiple diagrams, graphs and mathematical expressions. The authors conclude by noting that the overall design has a high resolution advantage with the benefit of low power consumption. Its silicon based MEMS structure allows for miniaturization and integration. Ease of packaging for oceanographic uses was pointed to as another advantage.

Government Grants

Grants.gov can be a useful site to businesses and individuals. Quoting the website:

Grants are not benefits or entitlements. A federal grant is an award of financial assistance from a federal agency to a recipient to carry out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law of the United States. Federal grants are not federal assistance or loans to individuals.

To view the site map go here.

To search for grant opportunities go here.

To apply for grants go here.

Professional Writing Services

An Overview of Genres delineates different types of writing services offered by freelance writers. The services are many and varied. They include copywriting, which is marketing oriented, content writing, which entails writing for web sites, blogging, technical writing on behalf of businesses, ghost writing, journalism, speech writing and also writing grant proposals, which is intended to get funding. The better known forms of writing- book authorship, essays and poetry- add to the variety although they are less likely to be offered as services to businesses.

Here's a site offering professionally prepared fliers.

Akron Biotech

Akron Biotech is a company located in Boca Raton, Florida. The company provides contract manufacturing services, animal serum and biological reagents used in immunological and cellular biology research and development.

International Trade Sites

Alibaba

B2B Trade Holding

BR Trade Holding

B2B Web Sites

Capital Funding Solutions

Centre for International Trade

Commercial News USA

Corporate Funding Partners

Eximclub

Export Intermediaries

Global Business Forum

Global Export Import Directory

Global Net Solutions

Global Trade Tutorial

International Business Import Export Help Center

International Business Training

International Trade Administration

International Trade Basics

Small Business Administration

The Export Yellow Pages

The Federation of International Trade Associations

Trade and Supply Chain

Trade Information Center

Trade Mafia

USA Export Import

CSA International

This organization provides product testing and certification services.

Suppliers

BEI Industrial Products

H Visas

Cap Count for H-1B and H-2B Workers for Fiscal Year 2009 is an informative news item about H visas published at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website. H visas are temporary visas permitting aliens to work in the United States. H visas are sub-categorized into H-1B, H-1B1, H-2B and H-3 classes.

As the article states H-1B enables certain fashion models engineers, computer programmers, architects, accountants, doctors and college professors to enter the U.S. and work within these fields. There is a limit of 65,000 allowed to enter each year with H-1B visas. Quoting from the site:

The H-2B visa category allows U.S. employers in industries with peak load, seasonal or intermittent needs to augment their existing labor force with temporary workers. The H-2B visa category also allows U.S. employers to augment their existing labor force when necessary due to a one-time occurrence which necessitates a temporary increase in workers. Typically, H-2B workers fill labor needs in occupational areas such as construction, health care, landscaping, lumber, manufacturing, food service/processing, and resort/hospitality services.

H visas are intended to benefit the U.S. economy by making it possible for businesses to get needed workers.