PITTSBURGH, December 7 /PRNewswire/ --

Vocollect, Inc., the world leader in Voice-Directed Work, today announced that it has named co-founder, chairman and chief operating officer Roger Byford as the company's new chief executive officer. Byford assumes the role effective today, succeeding Jack LeVan, who is leaving the company. Byford will remain chairman of Vocollect's board of directors. The company said that it will not seek a replacement for the role of chief operating officer.

FUZHOU, China, December 7 /PRNewswire/ --

- The Firm Warlords and the Online Game Warlords Online will be Shown Simultaneously

The first domestic online game (Warlords Online) based on the film of the same name, which is jointly produced by NetDragon (NetDragon Websoft Inc. (SEHK GEM 8288)) and Central Motion Picture Corp., will be tested officially for the first time on December 13. China's traditional recreational industry and emerging digital recreational industry will greet the first annual show of a landmark work, and it will become another important milestone in the development of China's recreational industry.

PARIS, December 7 /PRNewswire/ -- At the prize-giving ceremony for the UJJEF 21st "Communication and Enterprise" Annual Contest, on Thursday 29th November at Cirque d'Hiver-Bouglione in Paris, prizes were awarded for companies' most innovative communication strategies. SPIE was nominated in the e-communication category for its virtual library.

Constituting a vector for the Group image and a user-friendly tool benefiting from media convergence, the SPIE virtual library offers a new way of consulting and optimising the content of publications (brochures, activity reports, magazines, etc.) for uses both on-line (Internet, Intranet, Extranet) and off-line (interactive terminals, digital printing, etc.).

When paper becomes interactive

WAALWIJK, The Netherlands, December 7 /PRNewswire/ -- DOCdata N.V. today announces that DOCdata (UK) e-Holding Limited has increased their interest of 76% in the issued share capital of Braywood Holdings Limited in Witney (UK) with 9.6% to 85.6%. This share transaction results from the agreement with one of the three minority shareholders on the sale of his full remaining share interest in Braywood Holdings Limited, after he had resigned from his service with Braywood. The transaction deviates from the option agreement signed in November 2006, by which DOCdata would acquire over the four year period from 2007 to 2010 the remaining 24% of the issued share capital in four equal tranches of 6% each year from the minority shareholders.

LONDON, December 7 /PRNewswire/ -- David Brennan, AstraZeneca CEO, and senior management from AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) (NYSE: AZN) and MedImmune discuss opportunities in the biologics field, R&D and portfolio progress plus the Group's current focus and priorities. Video interviews and transcripts are available now on http://www.cantos.com.

It's free to view. All you need to do is register at http://www.cantos.com.

Cantos.com is an online financial website featuring in-depth interviews, documentaries and webcasts with senior company executives addressing the critical issues facing their businesses. If you would like to contact us, please email enquiries@cantos.com or phone +44-207-936-1333.

DUSSELDORF, Germany, December 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kythera Award, founded in 2001 by the author and artist Gabriele Henkel, is awarded annually to particularly deserving artists with respect to cultural exchange between Germany and the Latin countries of Europe. The former recipients are publisher Klaus Wagenbach, film director Patrice Chéreau, conductor Claudio Abbado, architect Renzo Piano as well as art historian Dr. Sylvia Ferino in the K.H.M. in Vienna.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil and AMSTERDAM, December 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Petrobras and Avantium announced today that they have started a research collaboration for the development of new catalysts for emerging technologies within Petrobras, Brazil's largest energy company.

Avantium specializes in experimental methodologies that enable scientists to conduct parallel experiments on a very small scale and at a very high speed. This increases productivity and allows scientists to explore and compare very large numbers of experimental conditions and catalytic materials. Statistical techniques are applied to direct the experimental program into the most promising areas and to extract knowledge from the data that can be used to optimize industrial processes.

Although most scientists believe tuberculosis emerged only several thousand years ago, new research from The University of Texas at Austin reveals the most ancient evidence of the disease has been found in a 500,000-year-old human fossil from Turkey.

The discovery of the new specimen of the human species, Homo erectus, suggests support for the theory that dark-skinned people who migrate northward from low, tropical latitudes produce less vitamin D, which can adversely affect the immune system as well as the skeleton.

John Kappelman, professor of anthropology at The University of Texas at Austin, is part of an international team of researchers from the United States, Turkey and Germany who have published their findings in the Dec.

BERLIN, December 7 /PRNewswire/ --

CONNECTIONS(TM) Europe has finished following three full days of interactive panels with top international executives discussing new business models and growth opportunities in the digital living markets.

Parks Associates, in partnership with CEA(R), hosted CONNECTIONS(TM) Europe on December 4-6, 2007, at the Adlon Kempinski, Berlin, Germany. Sponsors included IBM, io-homecontrol, Radialpoint, AwoX, Casero Inc., Design of Systems on Silicon, Intamac Systems Ltd, Invest in Germany, NDS, Netineo, NXP Semiconductors, SiConnect, Thomson, Yitran Communications Ltd., Zensys Inc., Macrovision, SmartLabs, Inc., Smart Design, and Universal Electronics.

Until recently, a student solving a calculus problem, a physicist modeling a galaxy or a mathematician studying a complex equation had to use powerful computer programs that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. But an open-source tool based at the University of Washington won first prize in the scientific software division of Les Trophées du Libre, an international competition for free software.

The tool, called Sage, faced initial skepticism from the mathematics and education communities.

"I've had a surprisingly large number of people tell me that something like Sage couldn't be done – that it just wasn't possible," said William Stein, associate professor of mathematics and lead developer of the tool. "I'm hearing that less now."