Chemical engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have investigated supercritical methanol as a method of converting chicken fat into biodiesel fuel. The new study also successfully converted tall oil fatty acid, a major by-product of the wood-pulping process, into biodiesel at a yield of greater than 90 percent, significantly advancing efforts to develop commercially viable fuel out of plentiful, accessible and low-cost feedstocks and other agricultural by-products.

“Major oil companies are already examining biodiesel as an alternative to petroleum,” said R.E. “Buddy” Babcock, professor of chemical engineering.

Mathematicians from the University of Exeter say they have solved the mystery of traffic jams by developing a model to show how major delays occur on our roads, with no apparent cause.

Many traffic jams leave drivers baffled as they finally reach the end of a delay only to find no visible cause for their delay. Now, a team of mathematicians state they have found the answer and published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society.

The team developed a mathematical model to show the impact of unexpected events. Their model revealed that slowing down below a critical speed when reacting to such an event, a driver would force the car behind to slow down further and the next car back to reduce its speed further still.

NEW YORK and LONDON, December 19 /PRNewswire/ --

- Strategic Partnership Expands Linkstorm's Reach in European Market

Advertising technology company Linkstorm is ramping up its sales effort in the European online advertising business thanks to a new partnership with GMW Media, Ltd., a United Kingdom-based independent online media sales house.

GMW Media was founded in 2005 by Mark Wright, a veteran in online sales who has worked for companies such as Rivals.net, Sports.com, Teamtalk Media and Sportinglife. The company offers Linkstorm an extended sales team with local market know-how and contacts, thus raising Linkstorm's visibility with GMW's fast-growing network of advertisers and publishers.

PHILADELPHIA and LONDON, December 19 /PRNewswire/ --

- Award Winners were Chosen for Leading Innovation Through Technology in all Aspects of Scientific Literature and Patent Publications

Thomson Scientific, part of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC) and leading provider of information solutions to the worldwide research and business communities, today announced the winners of the 2007 Innovation Award, recognizing leadership in technology as it relates to all aspects of scientific literature and patent publications in India.

ALZENAU, Germany and CHERNOBYL, Ukraine, December 19 /PRNewswire/ -- NUKEM Technologies GmbH, Alzenau has handed over the Engineered Near Surface Disposal Facility at Chernobyl to the customer SSE Technocenter on 19 December 2007. By doing so, NUKEM as the first Western company, has successfully completed a plant for the treatment of radioactive waste on location Chernobyl up to the handover to the customer.

In the Engineered Near Surface Disposal Facility, short-life radioactive wastes accumulated in the nuclear power plant Chernobyl are stored following prior conditioning. The repository is situated 17 kilometres away from the power plant at the location VEKTOR within the 30-km zone.

SANTA CLARA, California, December 19 /PRNewswire/ --

- Marvell PXA 300 Application Processor Delivers Both Outstanding Multimedia and Optimal Business Applications Functionality

Marvell, (Nasdaq: MRVL), a leader in storage, communications, and consumer silicon solutions, and Samsung, announced the availability of the Samsung SPH-M4650 PDA phone with the Marvell(R) PXA 300 application processor running on Korea's LG Telecom network. The Marvell PXA 300 application processor enables high-end graphics, gaming, and multimedia capabilities for the Samsung SPH-M4650 as well as delivering optimal business applications while consuming ultra-low levels of power. The Samsung SPH-M4650 runs on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional operating system.

AMSTERDAM, December 19 /PRNewswire/ --

- FDA Offers Special Protocol Assessment for Reviroc

Kiadis Pharma announced today that it has successfully completed an End of Phase II meeting for Reviroc with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Reviroc is under development for elimination of cancer cells from an autologous graft in bone marrow transplantations for end-stage blood cancer patients. The FDA agreed that the data from the completed phase II clinical Reviroc trial is sufficient to support the start of a phase III study. The FDA offered Kiadis Pharma its Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) procedure allowing Kiadis Pharma to work directly with the FDA to optimize the clinical design of the trial.

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pennsylvania, December 19 /PRNewswire/ --

- High levels of Type III von Willebrand Disease, a serious, hereditary bleeding disorder, found in region

A new study of twins indicates that the genetic foundation for the brain’s ability to recognize faces and places is much stronger than for other objects, such as words. The results, which appear in the December 19 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, are some of the first evidence demonstrating the role of genetics in assigning these functions to specific regions of the brain.

“We are social animals who have specialized circuitry for faces and places,” says Arthur W. Toga, PhD, director of the Laboratory of NeuroImaging at UCLA School of Medicine. “Some people are better at recognizing faces and places, and this study provides evidence that it is partially determined by genetics.”