Grant aims to assist brain-injury monitor
Fayetteville-based SFC Fluidics Inc. has been awarded a $1.5 million grant to further develop its technology to detect traumatic brain injuries.
The company received the Phase 2 research grant from the National Institutes of Health, according to a news release.
The MD Analyzer is located at the patient’s bedside, monitors biochemicals that can indicate whether the patient’s condition is improving or getting worse and reports results every 10 minutes, allowing doctors to respond rapidly to changes, according to the company. Current technology is bulky, tends to be located in a laboratory and takes several hours to deliver results.
The company is also developing a 10-minute blood test that will help with the triage of patients suffering from concussions.
SFC Fluidics is a VIC Technology Venture Development portfolio company.
Fayetteville-based VIC has 12 portfolio companies in fields including nanotechnology, cancer diagnostics, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.
- John Magsam
Shaver Foods obtains U.S. prison contracts
Shaver Foods Inc., the Fayetteville-based low-cost institutional food distribution service, won three contracts with the U.S. Justice Department’s Federal Bureau of Prisons.
On Dec. 18, the Federal Bureau of Prisons Federal Correctional Complex in Beaumont, Texas, awarded Shaver Foods $472,000 to supply the prison with kosher bran flakes cereal.
The kosher product is intended for consumption by the entire inmate population at FCC Beaumont, said Andre Thomas, the prison’s public information officer.
All kosher items offered must be certified by one of the nine nationally accepted orthodox kosher certification agencies and include a letter of certification from that agency. Shaver Foods included its letter with the bid, Thomas said.
As of Thursday, there were 5,781 inmates at FCC Beaumont.
Shaver Foods was awarded two other federal food contracts: one for $63,000 for the facility in Texas and another for $44,000 for a prison in Williamsburg, S.C.
- Tina Parker
11 stocks advance, but state index falls
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, dropped 0.76 to 332.70 Friday.
Eleven stocks advanced and six declined.
Arkansas Best rose 2.4 percent in heavy volume.
Deltic Timber fell 1.3 percent in average trading.
For the week, 10 stocks rose and seven dropped.
USA Truck was up 6.2 percent for the week.
Deltic Timber lost 6.5 percent for the week.
Volume for the index Friday was 20.9 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 27 on 01/11/2014