LAS VEGAS, March 31 /PRNewswire/ --

- The World's Longest Off-Road Race, from June 12th to 28th Ends at the Great Wall of China -

Vanguard Integrity Professionals CEO, CTO and founder, Ronn Bailey, today announced that he will be the only U.S. driver entering the first TransOrientale Rally from St. Petersburg, Russia to Beijing, China -- more than 10,000 km in 17 days -- June 12 to June 28, 2008.

AIDS may partly be the consequence of an evolutionary accident, said Professor Frank Kirchhoff from the University of Ulm in Germany. at the Society for General Microbiology’s 162nd meeting being held this week at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

“AIDS is a deadly disease in people that is caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). But similar viruses such as simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), which infects monkeys, usually don’t cause disease in their natural monkey hosts,” says Kirchhoff.

Previous studies have established that one of the key differences between the way HIV-1 behaves in humans and closely related SIVs behave in monkeys is that when humans are infected with HIV-1 the immune system becomes highly stimulated. This means critical defence cells called helper T cells are continuously activated and die more quickly than usual.

MUNICH, Germany, March 31 /PRNewswire/ --

- Eco-Friendly Off Grid Lighting for Developing Countries

Here's a myth many men are happy has been debunked - contrary to popular thinking about the need for hours of sexual activity, a survey of U.S. and Canadian sex therapists says satisfactory sexual intercourse for couples lasts from 3 to 13 minutes.

Penn State Erie researchers Eric Corty and Jenay Guardiani conducted a survey of 50 full members of the Society for Sex Therapy and Research, which include psychologists, physicians, social workers, marriage/family therapists and nurses who have collectively seen thousands of patients over several decades.

Thirty-four, or 68 percent, of the group responded and rated a range of time amounts for sexual intercourse, from penetration of the vagina by the penis until ejaculation, that they considered adequate, desirable, too short and too long.

CALGARY, Canada, March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- First Calgary Petroleums Ltd.'s ("FCP", "the Company", "First Calgary") management team and chairman of the Board, Gar Emerson, are currently on a three-country tour meeting with shareholders to discuss the progress made in bringing the company into first production in 2010, its strategic plans for growth, and highlighting the strength and expertise of the management team, led by President and CEO Mr. Richard Anderson.

First Calgary has also embarked on an advertising campaign designed to help communicate this message. The advertisements appeared on Saturday, March 29 and today, Monday, March 31, in the Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald, Toronto Star, National Post and Globe and Mail.

Common sense says that we are happier when we get more money to spend on ourselves. At least, that’s what passes for commonsense in modern capitalistic societies, from the United States to China.  Indeed, when Elizabeth Dunn and colleagues at the University of British Columbia and at Harvard Business School asked a bunch of their students (the usual subjects in social science studies), that’s exactly what they found: students thought they would be happier getting $20 than $5, and that they would be happier spending the money on themselves than on others.

Turns out, the students were spectacularly wrong.

Research over the past several years has steadily contradicted the capitalistic assumption about human nature. For instance, it is well known that there is only a weak correlation between income level and self-reported happiness across the globe, with the relationship plateauing (meaning that additional money does not increase happiness) at surprisingly low levels of income. And yet, people keep playing the lottery, or its white collar equivalent, the stock market. Why?

CHICAGO, March 31 /PRNewswire/ --

- Data Expands Body of Evidence in High Risk Population Using IVUS, a Unique Marker for Coronary Atherosclerosis

New data from a clinical trial using intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) technology found that in patients living with type 2 diabetes, ACTOS(R) (pioglitazone HCl) reduced the atherosclerotic burden in the coronary arteries compared to the sulphonylurea glimepiride, and prevented progression compared to baseline.

Less than three months after forecasters announced the beginning of a new solar cycle (cycle 24), that has been changed. Solar Cycle 23 is still kicking.

Last week, three sunspots appeared and their magnetic polarity says they are all old cycle spots. ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) Project Scientist Bernhard Fleck says, “If cycle 24 had already begun, the magnetic polarity of the spots would be reversed.”

Two solar cycles? At the same time?

It sounds strange but it is normal. Around the time of solar minimum - which is now - old-cycle spots and new-cycle spots frequently intermingle. Eventually Cycle 23 will fade to zero, giving way in full to Solar Cycle 24, but not yet.

Plants, crops and trees naturally absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) during photosynthesis and then pump surplus carbon through their roots into the earth around them. In most soils, this carbon can escape back to the atmosphere or enters groundwater.

Knowing this, a team from Newcastle University aims to design soils that can remove carbon from the atmosphere, permanently and cost-effectively using soils containing calcium-bearing silicates.

Calcium silicates are minerals that occur naturally in many different rocks and also in artificial materials such as concrete.

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia, March 31 /PRNewswire/ --

- ASCD Middle East is first organization of its kind to provide educators in the region with tailored professional development and capacity building

The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) announced the formation of ASCD Middle East. Sharing ASCD's mission and vision, ASCD Middle East will provide professional development and capacity building to the region's educators -- school administrators, officers of regional ministries of education, university professors, and classroom teachers, among others -- and will ensure that ASCD resources and programs are accessible and aligned with the needs of local educators.