Think an octopus is just an invertebrate mollusk with a brain that contains fewer nerve cells and a much simpler anatomical organization than that of vertebrate brains? Well, you're right, and that's what makes them important for learning studies.

Octopuses and other related creatures, known as cephalopods, are considered to be the most intelligent invertebrates because they have relatively large brains and they can be trained for various learning and memory tasks, says Dr. Benny Hochner of the Department of Neurobiology at the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Their behavior repertoire and learning and memory abilities are even comparable in their complexity to those of advanced vertebrates, which makes them ideal to tackle one of the most interesting questions in modern neuroscience - how the brain stores and recalls memories.

Researchers have long known that type-2 diabetes and depression often go hand in hand. However, it's been unclear which condition develops first in patients who end up with both. Now, a new study led by Johns Hopkins doctors suggests that this chicken-and-egg problem has a dual answer: Patients with depression have an increased risk of developing type-2 diabetes, and patients with type-2 diabetes have an increased risk of developing depression.

For the study, published in the June 18 Journal of the American Medical Association, diabetes expert Sherita Hill Golden, M.D., M.H.S., and her colleagues took advantage of data generated by the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), which examined risk factors for atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, in an ethnically diverse group of 6,814 men and women between ages 45 to 84. Participants in the MESA study identified themselves when they enrolled as white, black, Hispanic or Chinese.

JERUSALEM and NEEDHAM, Massachusetts, June 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Oridion Systems Ltd. - (SWX: ORIDN) Significant findings from numerous medical research projects demonstrating the clinical benefit of end-tidal CO2 (EtCO2) monitoring using Microstream(R) capnography technology, were recently presented at medical congresses in the United States and Europe.

During Digestive Disease Week (DDW) in San Diego, California, Dr. Vargo, of the Cleveland Clinic, presented a blinded study that analyzed 122 randomized patients and showed that Microstream(R) capnography "significantly reduces the proportion of patients with hypoxemia, major hypoxemia, apnea and oxygen requirements during ERCP (Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography) and EUS (Endoscopic ultrasound).

Meningiomas are tumors of the brain and nervous system and they account for 20% of all brain tumors. Doctors have a problem discriminating between the four different subtypes of meningiomas due to three key problems:

* The work can be painstakingly slow requiring up to two hours of analysis and expert consideration of a full "slide" of information.

* The finest histopathologists (tumor specialists) can at times come up with completely contradictory findings based on slight variations in their method of analysis.

* Currently the slides that specialists examine contain a few million pixels of data and the task of tumour diagnosis is painstakingly slow already. This problem is quite literally growing as medical equipment is coming out that can produce slides with hundreds of millions pixel resolution.

Clearly doctors would welcome any technological support which could speed up this process, use more of the information available and allow them time to diagnose and treat many more patients.

That convergence of media, telecommunication, information technology and consumer electronics you've been hearing about? Mostly hype, says new research from Cass Business School, London, and it's now over.

All that's left is a focus on exploiting the business opportunities created by the digital revolution, they say.

Dr Gianvito Lanzolla, Senior Lecturer in Strategy at Cass, suggests that because the revolutionary conceptual shifts from analogue to digital technology took place in 2003 – 2004, with a focus on first mover advantage and innovations, subsequent developments within digital technologies are adjustments rather than major changes.

A hernia is produced when the content of the abdominal cavity protrudes through a weakened natural orifice of the abdominal wall such as the inguinal canal, the umbilical area, the epigastrium or a previous incision in the abdomen such as from a surgical operation. The hernia manifests itself as a bulging lump since the internal lining of the abdomen protrudes in what is called a hernial sac that shrinks or grows depending on the effort exerted by the affected individual.

Hernias are more frequent in the groin or navel areas and in the area of an old surgical scar, and they never improve or disappear naturally; on the contrary, they tend to grow. Not only painful but unaesthetic too, hernias can produce complications such as bowel obstructions and strangulations.

HONG KONG, June 17 /PRNewswire/ --

- ".Asia" Hot-or-Not Contest First Weekly Prize Winning Domain: resorts.asia GMA2008.Asia Attracts Millions of Hits, Drives ".Asia" Adoption

DotAsia Organisation announced today total registration for ".Asia" domains are expected to exceed a quarter of a million by the end of the first quarter after its public launch. Proceeds from the ".Asia" Sunrise and Landrush auctions have already exceeded US$3M and rising, demonstrating strong demand and growth value for ".Asia" domains.

A new study published today in Annals of Internal Medicine has good news for coffee drinkers: Regular coffee drinking (up to 6 cups per day) is not associated with increased deaths in either men or women. In fact, both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee consumption is associated with a somewhat smaller rate of death from heart disease.

Women consuming two to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day had a 25 percent lower risk of death from heart disease during the follow-up period (which lasted from 1980 to 2004 and involved 84,214 women) as compared with non-consumers, and an 18 percent lower risk of death caused by something other than cancer or heart disease as compared with non-consumers during follow-up. For men, this level of consumption was associated with neither a higher nor a lower risk of death during the follow-up period (which lasted from 1986 to 2004 and involved 41,736 men).

PAVIA, Italy, June 16 /PRNewswire/ --

- New International Design Center to Focus on Analog Semiconductor Devices

Marvell (Nasdaq: MRVL), a leader in storage, communications and consumer silicon solutions, announced the official grand opening of its analog semiconductor design center in Pavia, Italy. The grand opening celebration and ceremony was held at the new facility on June 16.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070411/SFW034LOGO)

LONDON, June 17 /PRNewswire/ --

Unite members at the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) are to go on a continuous overtime ban from today (Tuesday 17th June) with a full day of strike action planned for Friday 20th June.

Administrative staff were forced to ballot for strike action when management failed to secure a salary settlement that should have been paid from 1st April 2008.

EIS came back with a final offer of a five-year pay deal which didn't even match the retail price index.

Tony Trench, Unite Regional Official said:

"Unite has tried everything to get EIS to sit down and discuss this situation properly but even with the overtime ban they are still not prepared to talk.

LONDON, June 17 /PRNewswire/ --