MOSCOW, January 24 /PRNewswire/ --

Mechel OAO (NYSE: MTL), one of the leading Russian mining and metals companies, announces the appointment of Mukhamed Tsikanov as its Senior Vice President on Economics and Management.

Previously, Mr. Tsikanov (52) was Acting General Director of Mechel's Yakutugol OJSHC subsidiary. In his new position, Mr. Tsikanov will be responsible for the strategic development of Mechel OAO's economic and management organization, management accounts policies and planning, and implementation of internal management and control systems.

TEL AVIV, Israel, January 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- Company Solves Enterprise Level Development Complexities and Security Challenges of AJAX by Providing an Open Source Solution With no Client Dependency and Proven Reductions in Development Time of Over 80%

Visual WebGui, developer of the AJAX enterprise application development and deployment platform, today announces the availability of their enhanced browser-based solution.

Scientists have discovered that mice genetically engineered to lack the VGLUT3 protein in the brain have profound deafness and seizures. The finding suggests a pathway for exploring the hereditary causes of deafness and epilepsy in humans.

More broadly, the discovery provides an entry point for gaining new insight into the role of glutamate, the chemical messenger carried by the protein, says the team, led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco. Glutamate is involved in virtually every brain function, including sensory perception, learning and memory.

The missing protein is a particular “vesicular neurotransmitter transporter,” a machine within nerve cells that ferries chemical messengers, or “neurotransmitters,” from the fluid-filled cytoplasm into vesicles that are positioned at the tips of nerve cells and serve to release neurotransmitters onto neighboring cells. Transporters and neurotransmitters work together to make possible essentially all neural communication in the brain.

HERTEN, Germany, January 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Aqua Society GmbH has concluded a strategic sales agreement with Switzerland's Prescience AG to cover not only the Middle East but also Turkey, Australia and Britain. Prescience is located in Baar in the canton of Zug, and has additional sales offices in Europe and Saudi Arabia. It represents European technology firms aiming at the global marketing of innovative products in the fields of water and energy. Both partners regard the implementation of the AHC (aqua, heat, cold) container developed by Aqua Society as especially promising for the numerous coastal building projects in the Gulf states.

Has substantial progress been made in computers that can see like humans? Not as much as thought, according to MIT researchers. They say recent results are misleading because the tests being used are stacked in favor of computers.

Computer vision is important for applications ranging from “intelligent” cars to visual prosthetics for the blind. Recent computational models show apparently impressive progress, boasting 60% success rates in classifying natural photographic image sets.

HEERLEN, The Netherlands, January 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- EUR 170 Billion Available for Balanced Energy Mix

The government should use the revenues from the sale of natural gas to speed up the changeover to clean, renewable forms of energy. In doing so it will choose even more explicitly in favour of reducing CO2 emissions. The transition to sustainable energy will also make the Netherlands less dependent on politically unstable regions such as Russia and the Middle East, which are currently the key suppliers of oil and gas.

ROCHDALE, England, January 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- With Photo

Summary: Wireless CCTV's new covert "one box" solution is an innovative, completely autonomous mobile surveillance device that can be instantly deployed, even in the harshest of operating conditions.

Wireless CCTV launches its most autonomous mobile surveillance solution to date, which can be instantly deployed for covert operations. The military style case and connectors are fully waterproof which means the equipment can even be buried underground and still function at optimum levels.

ATLANTA and LONDON, January 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- Demonstration of ongoing commitment to innovation was key to award selection

S1 Enterprise, a division of S1 Corporation (Nasdaq: SONE) and a leading provider of multichannel financial services software, today announced that the company has been named as one of Financial-i magazine's "Leaders in Innovation" Award winners for 2007 in the category of Trade Finance. The innovation award, presented to S1 in December 2007, acknowledges the S1 Trade Finance solution's ability to solve specific business issues.

SINGAPORE, January 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) Awards Certification to SingTel

Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) today announced the certification of its suite of business Ethernet services by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), the international standards-setting authority on Carrier Ethernet services.

SingTel's MEF Certification is the first of its kind in ASEAN, and is poised to set new standards for the delivery of carrier grade Ethernet services in the region.