Malcolm. J. Fraser, Jr. Ph.D. earned his Ph.D from Ohio State University and performed postdoctoral research at Penn State University and Texas A&M University. At the Texan University, he played a key role in developing the genetic expression system which is now a widely used methodology for producing organic molecules, including pharmaceuticals, on an industrial scale.

Randy Lewis, Ph.D received his B.S. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology, and his M.S. in chemistry and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Lewis, internationally renowned for his work on spider silk, is the named inventor of a number of patents relating to spider silk polymers. He currently heads the Lewis Laboratory within the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of Wyoming. The study of spider silk polymers and their underlying genetics is a major focus of Dr. Lewis’s research.

Donald

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One of the ways companies experience revenue growth is by buying other companies. For the 3rd Quarter 2008, Deep Down, Inc. reaped the fruit of this strategy as its revenues shot up from its acquisitions of Mako Technologies, LLC and Flotation Technologies, Inc. For the 3 month period ending September 30, 2008, gross revenue was $11.7 million, compared with $6.8 million for the same period in 2007. The purchases of Mako and Flotation Technologies accounted for $8.5 million, or 73%, of Deep Down’s 3rd Quarter revenues.

The purchases of Mako and Floatation Technologies also gave Deep Down’s gross profit a boost. For the quarter, gross profit came in at $5.3 million, as compared to $1.3 million for the 3rd quarter of 2007, an increase of $4.0 million. Mako and Flotation Technologies were the driving force on this increase while Deep Down’s older service lines

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Sunrise Solar Corp. (SSRL) announces a new management appointment, adding Jim T. Kesaris who will immediately help with internal auditing and financial control procedures. For 15 years Kesaris has held senior management positions in a variety of companies from start-up to multi-billion. Most recently he was senior vice president and chief financial officer at USE Credit Union in San Diego, with $850 million in assets.

At Sunrise Solar he will join the company’s board of directors and establish new Audit and Compensation committees.

“Financial and operational excellence is a large part of the critical foundation for building a scalable, profitable business,” said Eddie Austin, Jr., SSRL Chairman and CEO. “With Jim’s experience leading financial and operations teams and his proven track record, I’m confident he will help secure Sunrise Solar as a major player in the rapidly expanding worldwide solar industry.”

Austin said Sunrise Solar has worked in recent months on a sustainable

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Hedge Fund ActivismCorporations & Activist Hedge FundsThe Conference Board Working Group on Hedge Fund Activism has released its final recommendations for those corporations and institutional investors that may find themselves involved in an activism campaign mounted by hedge funds.The recommendations were formulated by a heterogeneous group of high-level corporate and investor representatives, instituted under the auspices of The Conference Board Governance Center. They include guidelines on monitoring securities holdings, responding to requests for change, ensuring voting integrity, and overseeing hedge fund management. Working Group members include:• Major pension funds and asset management firms, including TIAA-CREF, Florida State Board of Administration, and Barclays;• Corporations at the forefront of corporate governance developments, including Pfizer, American Express, and The Coca-Cola Company; and• Industry associations and service providers such as Managed Funds Association, the National Investor Relations Institute, ISS-RiskMetrics Group, Standard ...

There are only a few global-minded investors I really listen to when it comes to gaining insight on the markets. Most of today’s money managers are too mainstream and remain obsessed with beating their benchmarks. What a waste of time. My favorite market seers in Europe include Marc Faber and Felix Zulauf.

I’ve been following Felix Zulauf’s career for about 15 years. In 1990, he founded Zulauf Asset Management AG in Zug, Switzerland. He currently manages money for global investors in the Zulauf Europe Fund, which is actually profiting during this disastrous year. Zulauf was bearish starting in 2006 and positioned his funds accordingly.

The ‘Soft’ Depression

Zulauf believes we’re entering a soft economic depression. If not for the government’s backstops on October 13 to prevent further stock and credit market seizures, a depression would have followed. Zualauf is convinced the markets would have crashed.

His prediction of a severe recession will take the

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Stock picks in the 10/17 issue were made by

ken fisher:

http://trackthepros.com/stocks/category/26

John Rogers, Jr.:

http://trackthepros.com/stocks/category/30

Jim Oberweis:

http://trackthepros.com/stocks/category/107

Alex Slusky, of Vector Capital:

http://trackthepros.com/stocks/category/1844

      

SCBT Financial (SCBT) is a bank holding company operating in North and South Carolina. SCBT provides retail and commercial banking services, mortgage lending services, trust and investment services, and consumer finance loans, along with traditional banking services such as checking and savings accounts. The company also offers credit cards and home equity lines of credit, as well as alternative investment products like annuities and mutual funds. As of the end of 2007, SCBT had 50 financial centers in 16 South Carolina counties and one in North Carolina.

During a time when the international credit crisis has afflicted many major financial institutions, SCBT has emerged relatively unscathed and in sound financial health. The company had almost $22 million in net income in 2007 and has $105 million in cash on hand. Last year, SCBT entered the North Carolina market via its acquisition of TSB Financial. The purchase netted $193 million in assets

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Tri-Star Holdings, Inc., (TSHL.PK), a newly-formed, diverse holding company based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, was founded with the primary goal of identifying and investing in undervalued companies and technologies with exceptional return potential. The company looks for opportunities that, with the proper funding and support, can generate significantly increased revenues.

Tri-Star is currently forming TriStar Gold to take advantage of precious metals mining opportunities, and has recently begun development of its first gold mine, Lucky Linda #1 in Nevada. The investment is based upon reports from core sample assays taken from various locations on the company’s 160-acre claim, indicating gold concentrations as high as 10 ounces per ton. A secondary round of testing supports the company’s earlier reports on gold and platinum reserves.

Tri-Star is already working on refining operations for the site, and is purchasing a water gravity recovery system from Aero Mining Technologies to process up to 15 tons of

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viastockadvisors

Small cap growth stock expert Jim Oberweis, Jr. sees potential opportunity in CardioNet, a maker of cardiac monitoring systems. Here’s a look from The Oberweis Report.

Track Jim’s picks at:

http://trackthepros.com/stocks/category/1428

“CardioNet is a provider of a cardiac monitoring system that is focused on the diagnosis and monitoring of cardiac arrhythmias, or heart rhythm disorders, and provides continuous, heartbeat-by- heartbeat monitoring of a patient outside a hospital or care center.

“The company’s CardioNet System is a proprietary and portable patient monitoring platform that incorporates a wireless data transmission network, internally developed software, FDA-cleared algorithms and medical devices, and a 24-hour digital monitoring service center.

“When the monitor detects an arrhythmic event, it automatically transmits the ECG to the CardioNet Monitoring Center, even in the absence of symptoms noticed by the patient and without patient involvement.

“Since the commercial introduction of the CardioNet System in January 2003, physicians have enrolled over 133,000 patients.

“In the

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Optical Cable Corporation (NASD: OCCF), a manufacturer and marketer of a broad range of fiber optic cables for high-bandwidth transmission of data, video and audio communications over moderate distances, recently announced its financial results from the third fiscal quarter and the nine months ended July 31, 2008. The company’s shares declined earlier this week after Optical Cable released that third quarter of fiscal year 2008 net income decreased to $482,000, or $0.08 per basic and diluted share, compared to $538,000, or $0.09 per basic and diluted share, for the same period last year.

Net sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2008 increased 40.4 percent to $16.4 million compared to net sales of $11.7 million for the same period one year earlier. Quarterly gross profit margin increased to 42.0 percent during the third quarter of fiscal 2008 compared to 40.2 percent for the corresponding period last year, which excludes the impact

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