ZUG, Switzerland, February 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Swiss Hawk AG announces today that it will adjust its business model and focus on major investments made during 2007 in the environmental sector.

Due to the performance of EDG AG in Frankfurt the Swiss Hawk management has decided to follow the EDG strategy and to invest solely in environmental technologies and projects.

Collaboration is a requirement for the advancement of modern science. Researchers cannot be expert at everything and must specialize to make a unique contribution. But if coordinating research within a group is challenging, effective collaboration between groups is even more so. There is often a strong temptation for research units to treat each other like black boxes. There is some logic to this - the point of having a collaborator is to distribute the responsibility of tasks in a project. If I get involved with every detail of my collaborator's work I may as well do the work within my own group. But problems can arise because of unstated assumptions between groups.

Michael Barton has posted a brief essay on Open Notebook Science on his research web site:

As you might expect from the name, Open Notebook Science (ONS) has similarities with Open Source Software. The clearest likeness between the two, is the belief that by sharing and collaborating, more can be achieved than through secrecy and competition.

BARCELONA, February 8 /PRNewswire/ --

- NXP Software's Unique LifeVibes(TM) MixDJ Helps Create a Party Atmosphere Anytime and Anywhere

NXP Software is demonstrating its LifeVibes MixDJ software at the Mobile World Congress 2008. MixDJ brings a new experience to mobile phones and music players. With its automatic professional DJ-style mixing, it can help create a party atmosphere anytime and anywhere, and device makers can offer distinctive functionality designed to increase the appeal of music on mobile phones and players. Moreover, thanks to NXP Software's experience in optimized solutions for mobile multimedia, MixDJ targets most embedded platforms.

LONDON, February 8 /PRNewswire/ --

- Wide Success in Energy Risk's Annual Rankings

GFI Group, Inc (Nasdaq: GFIG) has been named top commodity broker in Energy Risk magazine's annual rankings.

In the results, released today, GFI was also named number one in the following individual categories: UK/Europe Oil products (ultra-low sulphur diesel); Electricity: overall, France and Belgium; Gold: spot and forwards; Silver: options and forwards; Platinum and Palladium spot and options; Nickel and Zinc options and dry freight FFAs.

US-based Amerex, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GFI, was placed first in 14 of the 16 North American natural gas and electricity categories.

SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS, France, February 8 /PRNewswire/ -- 3Roam announces the first microwave router to provide the WiMAX backhaul market with fiber like capabilities over the air. With 3Roam's MicrowaveRouter proven protocols such as IP/MPLS, already deployed in most operators' core networks, can now be extended to the backhaul network for enhancing quality of service and network availability.

By integrating microwave radio capabilities with full IP protocols, the 3Roam's MicrowaveRouter includes everything required for a complete backhaul network in areas where fiber is not available and too expensive to deploy.

PARIS, February 8 /PRNewswire/ -- For the Fourth Quarter 2007

- Revenues of Euro 5.23 billion, up 20% sequentially and 18% year-over-year

- Adjusted(2) operating income(1) of Euro 303 million or 5.8 % of revenues

- Adjusted net loss (group share) of Euro (48) million or Euro (0.02) per diluted share, including an impairment charge of Euro (81) million

- Reported net loss (group share) of Euro (2.58) billion or Euro (1.14) per diluted share, including an impairment charge of Euro (2.52) billion

For the Full Year 2007

- Revenues of Euro 17.79 billion, down 2.5% at current rate, up 2.1% at constant rate

- Adjusted(2) operating income(1) of Euro 110 million or 0.6 % of revenues

PALO ALTO, California, February 8 /PRNewswire/ --

Facebook today announced the first step in a broad plan to internationalize the site with translation into Spanish. German and French versions of Facebook are expected in the coming weeks. Nearly 1,500 Spanish-speaking users on Facebook chose to be part of the effort and translated the site from English to Spanish in less than four weeks.

Current users who want to view Facebook in Spanish can change their language preference from their account settings. Beginning on Monday, Feb. 11, any person who goes to http://www.facebook.com from a Spanish-speaking country will see the site in Spanish. Facebook currently has more than 2.8 million active users in Latin America and Spain.

The Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) has released an upgraded version of the IMG/M metagenome data management and analysis system, providing tools for analyzing the functional capability of microbial communities based on their metagenome DNA sequence in the context of reference isolate genomes.

The new version includes five additional metagenome datasets generated from microbial community samples that were the subject of recently published studies, including the metagenomic and functional analysis of termite hindgut microbiota (Nature 450, 560-565, 22 November 2007) and the single cell genetic analysis of TM7, a rare and uncultivated microbe from the human mouth (PNAS, July 17, 2007, vol. 104, no. 29, 11889-11894).

Anyone who has conducted field research knows that the very process of collecting data alters the system that you are studying. As you walk across a field, forest or stream to collect data, your footfalls trample vegetation, they compact the soil, they scrape algae off the rocks. Survey work usually involves a single visit to a site - as long as you avoid sampling from the areas you have trampled, it’s usually pretty safe to assume that your presence is unlikely to have affected the data that you have collected. Permanent plots are a different matter - because these plots are repeatedly sampled, there is cumulative damage. In larger plots, permanent trails may be established within plots.

Since we can’t avoid these effects, the real question is whether the effects are significant. Ecological systems are inherently heterogeneous. Does the effect of disturbance fall within the range of natural variability within the sample? That’s what really matters when it comes to data collection. In a forthcoming paper in the journal Biotropica, Liza Comita and Gregory Goldsmith “sought to quantify the significance and spatial extent of research trail impacts on the structure and dynamics of the seedling layer in the 50-ha permanent forest dynamics plot on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama”.