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George Stallworth and Ashley Thornton bring accounting and customer service expertise to the growing nonprofit.

(St. Louis, Mo., March 26, 2026) Child Care Aware of Missouri (CCAMO) recently welcomed two new team members as the nonprofit continues to strengthen operations and enhance support for families and child care providers across the state.

George Stallworth has joined CCAMO as Accounting Specialist, managing a range of accounting and financial activities. He will ensure the accuracy of financial reporting while supporting the organization’s budgeting and fiscal management processes. Stallworth brings extensive experience from roles with the Salvation Army and Advantage 2000. A U.S. Navy Logistics Specialist School graduate, he holds a Bachelor of Science degrees in both Accountancy and Business Administration from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Ashley Thornton has been named Assistant Director of Customer Service Experiences, a newly created position designed to lead day-to-day call center operations and provide strategic direction for CCAMO’s offsite customer support team. Thornton previously served as a Call Center Supervisor for Keefe Group. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychological Sciences from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

“We are thrilled to welcome George and Ashley to our growing team,” said CCAMO CEO Robin Phillips. “Their expertise in accounting and customer service strengthens our ability to serve families, child care providers, and community partners with excellence. Each brings a passion for helping others and a commitment to our mission of ensuring that every child in Missouri has access to quality care.”

Founded in 1999, CCAMO is a statewide nonprofit that focuses on a comprehensive early childhood education experience through impactful programs and partnerships. The organization’s services include workforce development, child care business supports, advocacy and policy work, and its new Child Care Keeps Missouri Working, a regional campaign offering concierge solutions to businesses undergoing employee recruitment and retention challenges due to the overwhelming shortage of quality child care options. For more information, call (314) 535-1458 or visit www.mochildcareaware.org.

15-minute pretreatment enables recovery of metals and graphite from spent lithium-ion batteries

HOUSTON, TX (March 26, 2026) – Critical minerals such as those used in lithium-ion batteries come in limited supply and are concentrated in specific regions around the world. Securing a reliable supply of these materials is a priority for governments worldwide, yet most spent batteries end up in landfills, leeching toxic chemicals into the environment.

“Recycling waste batteries is the most practical solution for tackling this strained supply chain, but studies show that that happens with less than 10% of battery waste,” said Gautam Chandrasekhar, a doctoral student in the materials science and nanoengineering department at Rice University who is a first author on a study pioneering a new battery recycling method.

The researchers used a brief microwave-induced plasma treatment to recover nearly all of the valuable metals in battery waste using room-temperature, comparatively mild solvents, including citric acid. The process also regenerated graphite — the main material in a battery’s anode.

“With plasma pretreatment, almost 95% of metals, including lithium, can be recovered from battery black mass using nothing harsher than the acid found in a lemon,” said Chandrasekhar, who is part of Pulickel Ajayan’s research group at Rice.

Current recycling protocols involve shredding battery waste down to a substance known as black mass, which contains minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, manganese, aluminum and more. Processing black mass for mineral extraction typically requires energy-intensive industrial processes involving high temperatures and strong acids, and recovery rates are uneven.

“Industrial battery recycling processes in use today have very low metal extraction efficiency and focus mostly on the cathode,” said Xiang Zhang, assistant research professor at Rice and a co-first author on the study.

Lithium can be particularly difficult to capture efficiently, and graphite — which makes up roughly 22% of the battery’s weight — is rarely returned to batteries because it gets damaged during conventional recycling processes.

“This is one of the most important things to note regarding battery recycling: As the single most voluminous component in lithium-ion batteries, graphite remains almost irreplaceable as anode in widespread commercial battery applications,” said Sohini Bhattacharyya, a research scientist in the Ajayan group who is a corresponding author on the study.

Bhattacharyya said the goal of the research was to develop a one-step pretreatment process for battery recycling that could be added onto existing industrial processes to improve efficiency and reduce environmental impacts while recovering “all critical materials, including graphite.”

“We hypothesized that using microwave-induced plasma to break down the metal oxide particles as a pretreatment step would make their hydrometallurgical recovery in weaker acids easier,” Bhattacharyya said.

To test their hypothesis, the team used a custom microwave plasma reactor built by Zhang. After exposing black mass to microwave-induced plasma — an energized gas of charged particles — for 15 minutes, more than 90% of all metals were recovered in a citric acid bath at room temperature, while lithium was selectively recovered in water. Moreover, the treatment was found to remove residues and structural defects that accumulate on graphite during battery use.

“The recovered graphite shows excellent performance as an anode when reintroduced in a battery,” Chandrasekhar said.

The technology has been patented, and the team is moving toward commercialization. Early technoeconomic analysis suggests the process could outperform current industrial methods, particularly by recovering graphite in a form suitable for reuse in batteries.

“This is a breakthrough methodology for recovering all critical minerals from battery black mass with minimal chemical and energy usage,” said Ajayan, Rice’s Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor of Engineering and professor of materials science and nanoengineering.

The report highlights a broader shift towards more connected manufacturing systems 

PORTO, Portugal, 25.03.2026 – Critical Manufacturing, the Industrial Operations Platform company that unites execution, connectivity, analytics and trusted AI, and a subsidiary of ASMPT, has been named a Representative Vendor in the Gartner Market Guide for Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). The report points to the continued shift in manufacturing systems toward more connected and data-driven models as operational requirements grow, with increasing focus on the role of AI and more open, interoperable approaches to managing production systems.

According to Gartner, MES remains central to digital manufacturing, with vendors evolving their offerings to meet changing business and production needs, including greater emphasis on integration, flexibility, and platform-based capabilities.

Francisco Almada Lobo, CEO and Co-founder of Critical Manufacturing, said, “We are pleased to be recognized in the Gartner Market Guide for MES. In our opinion this reflects our continued focus on helping manufacturers succeed in highly demanding and regulated industries now and in the future. We continue to evolve our solution embedding the latest technologies such as AI on a strong foundation that manufacturers can trust to make digital transformation effective and profitable.”

As manufacturing becomes more intricate, organizations are placing greater emphasis on how their systems improve visibility, coordination, and decision-making. Critical Manufacturing addresses these needs through its Industrial Operations Platform approach, where MES serves as the execution core within a broader framework that brings together production, data, and intelligence.

“Manufacturing is no longer just about controlling processes on the shopfloor. It is about turning production data into meaningful, timely decisions that improve performance across the entire operation,” added Almada Lobo. “We are seeing a clear shift away from isolated systems toward environments where execution, data, and intelligence continuously inform each other. That is what enables manufacturers to respond faster, operate with greater clarity, and remain competitive in increasingly complex markets.”

Within this approach, MES plays a central role in capturing and contextualizing manufacturing data, which is then linked with analytics and enterprise systems to create a continuous flow of information between the shopfloor and business decision-makers.

Critical Manufacturing continues to advance its solution for high-tech industries such as semiconductors, electronics, medical devices and life sciences, and industrial equipment. Recent enhancements include improved batch management with lot matching, resource cluster services for multi-chamber equipment, and more detailed labor tracking at the activity level. Additional capabilities such as flexible BOM management, advanced substrate mapping, and smart barcode scanning further strengthen control and traceability across manufacturing processes.

The platform has also been extended with improvements to line clearance and maintenance management for reusable spare parts, alongside new reporting capabilities through tools such as Grafana and Stimulsoft. The introduction of Unified Namespace streaming via MQTT, combined with a centralized enterprise data platform, provides broader visibility across multiple sites.

At the same time, Critical Manufacturing is advancing its AI roadmap through initiatives spanning machine learning and generative AI to more advanced autonomous systems. These capabilities are embedded within the MES and data platform to enable contextual understanding, predictive insights, and more efficient workflows for both operators and decision-makers.

The report also encourages manufacturers to assess how MES solutions will meet future needs, including integration with other systems, responsiveness to changing processes, and the ability to scale across sites. For organizations operating in complex sectors, selecting solutions aligned with specific operational requirements can help reduce implementation effort while preserving long-term flexibility.

With customers across APAC, EMEA, and North America, Critical Manufacturing works with manufacturers in sectors where traceability, quality, and responsiveness are essential. By bringing together MES, data, analytics, and AI within a unified platform, the company helps manufacturers build more resilient, transparent, agile and future-ready operations.

Gartner disclaimer

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Gartner is a trademark of Gartner, Inc., and/or its affiliates.

Aviator Airport Alliance, the largest independent ground handling provider in the Nordics and part of Avia Solutions Group, has joined Swedavia’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) procurement initiative, resulting in a significant reduction in emissions from its business travel.

Through this initiative, Aviator Sweden has reduced approximately 50% of emissions from its business travel in 2025.

“As part of our continued climate efforts, we at Aviator Sweden have invested in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) through Swedavia’s recently completed SAF auction,” said Jonas Brundin, Managing Director of Aviator Sweden. “Investing in SAF is a concrete way for us to contribute to the development of more sustainable aviation – something we see as essential for the future of transportation.”

Sustainable Aviation Fuel can reduce lifecycle CO₂e by up to 80% compared to conventional jet fuel and can be used within existing aircraft and infrastructure. This approach reduces emissions at the source, rather than relying solely on traditional offsetting.

Starting from December 1, 2025, Aviator Sweden’s own ground handling operations are fully fossil-free. The SAF investment marks a further step in extending emission reduction efforts beyond direct operations and supports Aviator’s broader ambition to achieve carbon-neutral ground handling by 2030.

New Delhi, Mar 25: In a significant initiative by NABARD New Delhi Regional Office to strengthen district‑level credit planning, the Potential Linked Credit Plan (PLP) 2026–27 for North East Delhi was formally unveiled by Shri Ajay Kumar, IAS, DM–North East Delhi, at the DCC/DLRC meeting on 25 March 2026.

The event was graced by Shri Kamlesh Kumar, IAS, Addl. DM-Northeast Delhi, and attended by Shri Anupam Maity, LDO, RBI, Shri Rohit Kumar, LDM, Punjab National Bank, other senior officials from RBI, representatives from various banks, SULM, and officials from government departments.

DDM (North East Delhi) from NABARD – Ms. Anita Meena highlighted that the total credit potential for Priority Sectors in North East Delhi is estimated at ₹1,295.04 crore for 2026–27. She noted that despite rapid urbanization and a declining agricultural base, the district has considerable scope for targeted financial interventions, especially in MSME financing, green and renewable energy, digital financial inclusion, and support to urban livelihoods.

As part of the programme, the district also celebrated International Women’s Day with the theme “Give to Gain”, recognizing the contribution of Self‑Help Group (SHG) women. A brief felicitation event was organized showcasing the achievements of SHGs in entrepreneurship, digital adoption, and community leadership.

Shri Ajay Kumar, IAS, DM Northeast Delhi appreciated NABARD’s efforts in preparing a comprehensive credit planning document and urged banks to improve PSL performance and expand formal credit access to underserved communities. He called for closer coordination among all stakeholders to promote inclusive, gender‑responsive, and sustainable development in the district.

COMAU AND REIS ROBOTICS SIGN A COOPERATION AGREEMENT TO PURSUE ADVANCED AUTOMATION PROJECTS ACROSS MULTIPLE INDUSTRIES

Stuttgart, March 25, 2026 – Comau and Reis Robotics have signed a cooperation agreement aimed at jointly developing and delivering advanced automation products and solutions for multiple industrial sectors through a coordinated technical and commercial approach.

The agreement signed today by Comau and Reis Robotics, respectively Italian and German companies, testifies to the strength of the European technology framework in advanced industrial development. The initiative brings together the complementary expertise and experience of both companies to design and deliver integrated complex systems that improve efficiency, flexibility, and scalability, with the initial focus on sectors such as shipbuilding, intralogistics, giga casting, battery production, heavy industry and critical infrastructure, among others.

The cooperation combines Reis Robotics’ proprietary control technology, and multi-process automation with Comau’s global industrial footprint and advanced automated solutions and robotics portfolio. A further element of the agreement sees Comau and Reis Robotics working together to identify and develop additional market segments and technical applications where their combined expertise can generate value.

“Working together with Reis Robotics is an important element in our diversification strategy and a further demonstration of our pledge to bring advanced automation technologies to new sectors and applications,” emphasized Pietro Gorlier, CEO of Comau. “The synergy that comes from uniting our shared expertise, allows us to pro-actively meet the evolving needs of the market,  where automation is becoming an increasingly key factor, and to strengthen our presence in Germany in particular, which represents a key market for us.”

“The cooperation with Comau represents a strategically important step in strengthening our international business and expanding our capabilities in key industrial sectors,” said Uwe Eich, Managing Director of Reis Robotics. “By combining our expertise in system integration and automation with Comau’s global reach, we are well positioned to deliver efficient and scalable solutions to our customers.”