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January 1, 2001 P EC Solutions Inc. has opened a San Diego Office, which will serve as home base for PEC’s employees supporting the new EDS-led Navy-Marine Corps Intranet program in San Diego, as well as other PEC business initiatives on the West Coast.The NMCI program is the largest federal information technology contract in history, valued at more than $6.9 billion. Other PEC activities under NMCI include engineering and management support for the transition, information assurance, and operations components of the program. Dave Karlgaard, PEC president and CEO, says that "this new West Coast facility –- added to our offices in San Antonio, Denver, and Baltimore –- will help our company establish a national presence and grow its business to include state and local government and private sector clients in these new regions." PEC's newest office is located at 2810 Camino Del Rio South, Ste. 101. The company is headquartered in Fairfax County, Va. *** J et Source in Carlsbad continues its plan for growth by expanding it’s outside sales force and naming two new charter managers.Jose Chapa is the new charter manager of inside sales. Chapa comes to Jet Source from EAL, in Chino, where he was in charge of charter operations. He has more than 15 years of aviation experience and 1,500 hours of flight time Robyn Soerries is the new charter sales manager. Soerries is a relative newcomer to aviation and brings an excellent track record of generating new business prospects. Scott Hall is the avionics sales manager. Hall comes to Jet Source after a year of traveling the Southwest for EDMO Distributors. Mike Forner has been promoted from charter manger to the newly created position of managed aircraft service. In his new role, Forner will handle the evaluation, acquisition, and management of Jet Source's Managed Aircraft Program. Kelly Tellez has made the move from the front desk where she was the coordinator of flight support and now assumes the role of FBO sales. Her new duties include short and long term contracts for available hangar space within Jet Source's 100,000 square feet of hangars. Lori Thomas has transitioned from her charter dispatch duties and is the new position of charter operations manager with the duties of retail charter operations "Our evaluation of various markets has enabled us to increase our sales team with the expectation of generating business in these non conventional market places," says Dave Barker, CFO and g.m.of Jet Source. "We know there are potential customers who do not fully understand the practicality of chartering a jet aircraft or the benefits of a full aircraft management program. By adding these key people to the Jet Source team, we have the added ability to go out and educate the consumer on the services we provide and increase our sales potential." *** C oleman College named Katherine L. McIlwain director of distance education, and Marianne Liszkay director of the master’s program.The college also announced two new associate professors, Fulgencia "Jo Jo" Quimpo, and Edward F. Abbott. McIlwain holds a master’s degree in management and a bachelor’s degree in business and management from University of Redlands. Liszkay holds three degrees in linguistics, a doctorate and master’s degree from University of California, San Diego and a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Berkeley. Abbott holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in computer information science from Coleman College. Quimpo has a master’s degree in information systems from Coleman College and a bachelor’s degree in economics from University of the Philippines. *** A merican Fire Retardant Corp. has been awarded two new contracts valued at more than $100,000.The successful bids were for the Lake Ridge Tennis Club in Reno, Nev., and for Buchanan Corp. in Denver, Colo. "With these two newly awarded contracts, we are very pleased to see the AFRC name spreading throughout the contractor's industry," says Stephen Owens, president of the San Diego-based company. "Our goal is to have representation in every major city in the country with satellite offices strategically placed to accommodate the mobilization of our crews in a costly manner." *** A t least 10 million Americans at high risk for type 2 diabetes can sharply lower their chances of getting the disease with diet and exercise, reports the findings of a major clinical trial announced at the National Institutes of Health by Tommy G. Thompson, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary.UCSD was one of 27 sites participating in the clinical trial. The UCSD Diabetes Prevention Program, located at the Whittier Institute in La Jolla, enrolled 160 San Diegans in the three-year study that enrolled 3,234 overweight individuals with impaired glucose tolerance, a condition that often precedes diabetes. The same study found that treatment with the oral diabetes drug metformin (Glucophage) also reduces diabetes risk, though less dramatically, in people at high risk for type 2 diabetes. On the advice of the national Diabetes Prevention Program's external monitoring board, the trial ended a year early because the data had clearly answered the main research question regarding the effectiveness of medication, diet and exercise in preventing diabetes. "In view of the rapidly rising rates of obesity and diabetes in America, this good news couldn’t come at a better time," says Thompson. "So many of our health problems can be avoided through diet, exercise and making sure we take care of ourselves. By promoting healthy lifestyles, we can improve the quality of life for all Americans, and reduce health care costs dramatically." Participants randomly assigned to intensive lifestyle intervention reduced their risk of getting type 2 diabetes by 58 percent. On average, this group maintained their physical activity at 30 minutes per day, usually with walking or other moderate intensity exercise, and lost 5 percent to 7 percent of their body weight. Participants randomized to treatment with metformin reduced their risk of getting type 2 diabetes by 31 percent. Smaller studies in China and Finland have shown that diet and exercise can delay type 2 diabetes in at-risk people, but the DPP is the first major trial to show that diet and exercise can effectively delay diabetes in a diverse American population of overweight people with impaired glucose tolerance. "Every year a person can live free of diabetes means an added year of life free of the suffering, disability and the medical costs incurred by this disease," says Dr. Jerrold Olefsky, director of the UCSD portion of the study. "The Diabetes Prevention Program findings represent a major step toward the goal of containing and ultimately reversing the epidemic of type 2 diabetes in this country." Of the 3,234 participants in the DPP trial, 45 percent are from minority groups that suffer disproportionately from type 2 diabetes: African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders and American Indians. The trial also recruited other groups known to be at higher risk for type 2 diabetes, including individuals age 60 and older, who have a nearly 20 percent prevalence of diabetes, reducing the development of diabetes by 71 percent. Metformin was also effective in men and women and in all the ethnic groups, but was relatively ineffective in the older volunteers and in those who were less overweight," says Dr. David Nathan, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and the DPP national study chairman. DPP participants ranged from age 25 to 85, with an average age of 51. Upon entry to the study, all had impaired glucose tolerance as measured by an oral glucose tolerance test, and all were overweight, with an average body mass index of 34. About 29 percent of the DPP standard group developed diabetes during the average follow-up period of three years. In contrast, 14 percent of the diet and exercise arm and 22 percent of the metformin arm developed diabetes. Volunteers in the diet and exercise arm achieved the study goal, on average a 7 percent — or 15 pound — weight loss, in the first year and generally sustained a 5 percent total loss for the study's duration. Participants in the lifestyle intervention arm received training in diet, exercise (most chose walking), and behavior modification skills. Can the interventions prevent diabetes altogether? "We simply don’t know how long, beyond the three-year period diabetes can be delayed," Nathan says. "We hope to follow the DPP population to learn how long the interventions are effective." The researchers will analyze the data to determine whether the interventions reduced cardiovascular disease and arteriosclerosis, major causes of death in people with type 2 diabetes. Click Below to View Previous Daily Business Reports |
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