CIRCOR International, Inc.: Designer and Manufacturer of Highly Engineered Products

The highly engineered products and valves that are designed and manufactured by CIRCOR International, Inc. continue to be used in various critical applications. The company continues to operate through its two reporting segments: Energy and Aerospace & Defense.

The Energy segment of the business continues to support the upstream oil and gas markets. It provides engineered integrated flow control solutions that are critical in maintaining the activities in the industry. Its Aerospace & Defense segment provides landing gear systems, control systems, actuation systems and sub-systems that are utilized in both commercial and military aircrafts. As an international venture, the company continues to provide its products and services to more than 7,000 customers around the world. The operations of the company cover more than 100 countries.

CIRCOR International, Inc. is one of the components of the Wilshire 5000 Index. It is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange.

Century Aluminum: Leading Supplier of Aluminum Products

Century Aluminum is one of the leading producers and suppliers of aluminum in the world. This American company continues to function as a holding company to several brand names that continue to produce high-purity, standard grade and value-adding aluminum products. As a global venture, the company is capable of producing roughly 1.03 million metric tonnes of aluminum per year.

It is in Chicago, Illinois that the business holds its headquarters. Through its strategic acquisition of plants and other facilities, the company is now capable of supporting the global markets while lowering their operating costs. Throughout its 17-year history, the company has acquired several assets, including facilities and manufacturing sites in Hawesville, Kentucky, Mt. Holly, South Carolina, Ravenswood, West Virginia, Sebree, Kentucky, Helguvik, Iceland and in Grundartangi, Iceland. Their facility in Hawesville is their largest operation in the United States.

In order to be highly competitive in the international markets, Century Aluminum has diversified their offerings and now has interests in carbon anode and cathode manufacturing. They have a 150,000 tonne facility located in Vlissingen, the Netherlands and interests in Baisie Haohai Carbon Co., Ltd. which is located in Guangxi, Zhuang, China. By continuously investing, acquiring and constructing new facilities, the business ensures the rapid expansion of the company.

Incorporated in 1981, Century Aluminum Company continues to serve as the parent business to companies like Nordural ehf (Nordural), Century Aluminum of West Virginia, Inc. (CAWV), Berkeley Aluminum, Inc, (Berkeley), and the Century Aluminum Sebree (Century Sebree). The formation of the company started with Glencore International creating the business as a holding business for heir aluminum-producing asset. Now publicly traded on the NASDAQ (CENX), the company is still partly owned by Glencore.

With the production capacity of the business, Century Aluminum Corporation is positioned to become one of the leading supplier of aluminium in the world. As of, they have more than 1,300 employees working for all of its businesses.

CareFusion: Promoting Safety and Reducing Health Care Cost

CareFusion’s products and services are used worldwide. The existence of the company is strongly anchored in the mission of lowering the cost of health care services while improving safety within the hospital facilities.

There are more than 16,650 associates that the company employs around the globe. The company’s offerings are categorized under two areas: prevention of health care-associated infections and reducing medication errors. The company is the name behind the innovations like the Pyxis automated dispensing and patient identification systems, Alaris IV pumps and several series of respiratory products and ventilators. Additionally, they also manufacture several surgical instruments that assist interventional medicine.

Headquartered in San Diego, California, the company continues to trade its common stocks on the New York Stock Exchange. Its shares are marketed using the symbol CFN. The business continues to compete in the Medical Technology industry. In October 2014, the company was acquired by Becton Dickson for $12.2 billion.

California First National Bank: A National Bank

California First National Bank is an FDIC-insured national bank that continues to function as a subsidiary of California First National Bancorp. Together with its sister company, California First Leasing Corporation, the business provides a wide array of financial services. Compared to other financial companies, the business strongly underscores their usage of the latest technology to conduct their transactions.

The company works with companies, corporations, social organizations, individual depositors and even with educational institutes. In addition to the common banking services offered by the business, they also offer leasing and financing capital assets. California First National Bank specializes in financing high-technology capital assets. It was in 1977 that the business started and it continues to serve the entire state of California. It was reported that as of the end of their 2013 fiscal year, the company already has assets amounting to more than half a billion.

California First National Bank continues to take advantage of the power of the internet and their highly secured networks to provide superior banking experience. Because consumers no longer have to walk their way to a physical bank, they can do banking anytime they want to. The ultimate convenience and exceptional customer service remain to be the two selling points of the company. It is through the internet that the company gets to communicate with their customers. With this feature, they are giving their customers the mobility and ease of doing banking with them.

Because the company doesn’t operate a physical bank, they are able to save on the cost of operating one. This saving is then passed on to their consumers through lower interest rates in loans and financing services and higher rates on deposits and savings accounts. The rates offered by the business are much higher and lower compared to their competitors. It is in Irvine, California that the company holds its headquarters.

Bovie Medical Corporation: Manufacturer of Electrosurgical Instruments

Electrosurgical products are used in virtually all hospitals around the world. One of the leading manufacturers of these instruments is Bovie Medical Corporation. Headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, the company continues to market its products globally.

The business carries several brand names that leveraged from the invention and breakthrough of Dr. Harvey Cushing and Dr. William T. Bovie in 1926. Through the years, the company has expanded its offerings to further assist in surgical procedures. Bovie Medical Corporation is the owner and operator of the brand names ICON, IDS, Aaron and Bovie. In addition to the electrosurgical products offered by the company, they also have several medical products that are marketed to hospitals, surgery centers and physician’s offices around the world.

The company was formerly known as An-Con Genetics, Inc. before it made its name change in 1998. It is now traded publicly on the New York Stock Exchange, using the symbol BVX.

Bioanalytical Systems, Inc.: Providing Contract Research Services and Research Products

On several occasions, companies do not have the right resources to continue their research undertakings. With the lack of analytical instruments and drug discovery tools, these companies often outsource their development and discovery challenges. One of the companies that readily accepts these works is Bioanalytical Systems, Inc.

Incorporated in July 1975, the company is listed as a global provider of these research services. It continues to support the life sciences industry and offers its products and services to biotechnology, academic, pharmaceutical and government organizations. The business ceaselessly simplifies the undertakings of these companies and provides them the support they need to complete their research projects. Bioanalytical Systems, Inc. also referred to as BASi supports both the preclinical and clinical development needs of researchers around the world. Their main customers are those scientists who are engaged in drug metabolism studies, basic research, analytical chemistry, clinical trials, pharmacokinetics and drug safety evaluation.

The operations of the company are divided into two major business segments: contract research and research products. Their contract research offers a wide array of services that cover formulation development, screening and pharmacological testing, quality control and preclinical safety testing. These services are primarily carried out in their facility in West Lafayette, Indiana. It is also in this facility that they manufacture some of the research products they sell. Additionally, the majority of the research and development of the business is done here. The other facility of the company is located in Evansville, Indiana. The research products offered by the company include sampling systems, physiology monitoring tools, electrochemistry instrument platforms, liquid chromatography and several other accessories.

In 1997, the company made its initial public offering. Today, it continues to trade publicly on the NASDAQ where its common stocks are marketed under the ticker symbol BASI. It was between the 1990s and 2000s that the company experienced significant growth through the series of acquisitions it has made.

uAttend: Tracking Attendance from the Cloud

Human resources departments everywhere have been trying to find the best way to track their employees’ attendance, but have had to make do with the technology that was available in the market. Biometric time trackers are very useful, but the system in the back end does not provide real-time information which can be a problem in many cases. uAttend, a company that manufactures attendance and time tracking systems has come up with a solution for this dilemma.

What sets uAttend apart from its competitors is its use of cloud computing to provide human resources personnel with accurate, real-time information regarding their employees’ attendance and time records. Another advantage of cloud-based systems is that there is no need to install or continuously update expensive and complicated time and attendance management software because all of the computing is done on the cloud.

The uAttend system is built especially for small businesses, but medium-sized enterprises can also benefit from it because it enables the human resources team to monitor several different sites from just one computer terminal.

VisionQuest 20/20: On a Mission to Improve Children’s Vision

Statistics show that 1 in every 4 children has some form of vision deficit. While most of them are easily treated when caught early on, many of these kids are not aware that they’re experiencing vision problems which can cause a delay in detection. In some cases, these issues with vision can lead to bigger problems such as partial blindness.

VisionQuest 20/20, a non-profit organization founded in 2003, aims to solve this problem by providing tools for early vision deficit detection and establishing a vision screening program across the United States of America. The organization, originally called The Amblyopia Foundation of America, has developed an accurate vision deficit screening system called EyeSpy 20/20. The system is designed for kids and does not feel like an eye exam at all because it comes in the form of a video game. The eye exam checks for depth perception, visual acuity, and color vision while the child wearing special glasses plays a game for 2-3 minutes. The organization chose schools as the best place to begin the implementation of their screening program because it is where the most number of children congregate, eliminating the need to invite parents to bring their kids in for screening.

VisionQuest 20/20 was founded by pediatric ophthalmologist James W. O'Neil, MD and computer and Richard Tirendi, a computer and electrical engineer – both of whom have had been professionally and personally impacted by vision deficits and disorders. O’Neil has been using computers and the internet to diagnose visual disorders in his young patients and thought that the same technology can be applied to create a standardized screening program that can detect a number of visual problems in school children across the country. He came up with EyeSpy 20/20 with the help of Tirendi who himself had temporarily lost his vision as a child due to an insect bite.

Avalon Holdings Corp: A Recreational and Waste Management Company

Registered as a waste management company, Avalon Holdings Corporation also maintains golf courses and other recreational facilities. The company was created in 1998 and continues to offer its services to numerous customers across the United States.

The waste management services offered by the business are utilized by companies thriving in the industrial, municipal, commercial and governmental sectors. Their services cover both disposal of both hazardous and non-hazardous wastes. These waste management services are carried out by the company’s three operating subsidiaries: American Waste Management Services, Inc., American Construction Supply, Inc. an American Landfill Management, Inc. Under their Golf and Related Operations, the company owns and operates three properties, namely Buhl Golf Course, Squaw Creek Golf Course and Avalon Lakes Golf Course.

It is in Warren, Ohio that the company holds its corporate office. The business is traded publicly on the New York Stock Exchange, under the ticker symbol AWX. As of, the business employs more than 370 full time associates.