News Briefs (March 6, 2006)

The Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology (IEST) announced that the deadline for submissions of papers and tutorials for 53rd annual Reliability & Maintainability Symposium (RAMS) is April 17, 2006. The symposium will be held in Orlando, Fla., in January 2007. The theme of the 2007 RAMS is "Reliability and Maintainability in the New Frontier." For more information about topics and procedures for submitting abstracts, visit: www.rams.org/call. . . . Keithley Instruments Inc., a Cleveland, Ohio, maker of electrical test instruments and systems, has published the fifth edition of its Switching Handbook, which covers the fundamentals of the switching function in test-and-measurement applications and reviews common switching mistakes. To request a free copy of the 190-page handbook, call (888) 534-8453 or visit: www.keithley.com/pr/030. . . Waters Corp., a Milford, Mass.-based provider of analytical instrumentation, and Thermo Electron Corp. of Waltham announced they will collaborate to provide better integration and connectivity between the Waters Acquity Ultra Performance LC system and Thermo's mass spectrometers, including the Finnigan TSQ Quantum, LTQ linear ion trap, LTQ FT hybrid linear trap/Fourier Transform ICR and LTQ Orbitrap hybrid mass spectrometer. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.