Predicting climate change depends on many factors not properly included in current forecasting models, such as how the major polar ice caps will move in the event of melting around their edges. This in turn requires greater understanding of the processes at work when ice is under stress, influencing how it flows and moves.

The immediate objective is to model the flow of ice sheets and glaciers more accurately, leading in turn to better future predictions of global ice cover for use in climate modeling and forecasting.

Researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London, say they are on the way to making true on-demand video games a reality.

The research is part of an EU funded project, Games@Large, which aims to develop the delivery of video games anytime, anywhere, and on any device, finding ways to enable consumer electronics devices such as set-top boxes and mobile phones to serve as easy-to-use gaming platforms.

It is hoped that this will facilitate more convenient game play options, encouraging uptake by new users who would not usually sit in front of a computer or buy a console. So Grandma could be playing scrabble with Aunt Doris online via her set top box and remote control.

In general, domesticated food plants have larger fruits, heads of grain, tubers, etc, because this is one of the characteristics that early hunter-gatherers chose when foraging for food and later planting it.

Domesticated tomatoes can be up to 1000 times larger than their wild relatives but how did they get so big? While tomatoes have long been bred for shape, texture, flavor and nutrient composition, but it has been difficult to study these traits in tomatoes, because many of them are the result of many genes acting together.

These genes are often located in close proximity on chromosomal regions called loci, and regions with groups of genes that influence a particular trait are called quantitative trait loci (QTLs). When a trait is influenced by one gene, it is much simpler to study, but quantitative traits, like skin and eye color in humans or fruit size in tomatoes, cannot be easily defined just by crossing different individuals.

OXFORD, England, June 27 /PRNewswire/ --

- t+ Clinical Showcase Their mPRO Solution

t+ Clinical launch a mobile phone based mPRO (mobile patient recorded outcomes) solution at the 44th annual meeting of the Drug Information Association in Boston USA, 22nd to 26th June 2008.

t+ Clinical is an electronic patient reported outcome solution that runs over the worlds largest data infrastructure. Using a unique mobile phone based data capture solution, t+ Clinical are able to offer fast rollout within days of a finalised study, combined with real time analysis of primary outcomes.

LONDON, June 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Following a breakdown in negotiations today 2,000 members of Unite based at Sellafield will vote on whether to take strike action over pay.

The maintenance and operations staff represented by Unite have rejected a pay offer worth 2% on pay with an extra potential 2% efficiency bonus. Unite and Prospect will be preparing to co-ordinate the ballots between the two unions.

Unite Regional officer Alan Westnedge, said:

"This offer falls way below our members expectations. We have no other alternative other than to ballot for industrial action. This is a pay cut in real terms and our members are already struggling to keep up with rising household bills and energy costs."

Contact Ciaran Naidoo +44(0)7768-931-315.

LONDON, June 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Physician experts at the British Association of Urological Surgeons' (BAUS) annual meeting this week heard how discussions with NICE have opened the way for patients with prostate cancer to have continued access to cryotherapy - a promising therapy threatened by earlier NICE guidance published in February.

At a session discussing the NICE Clinical Guideline on Prostate Cancer, urologists reiterated their concern that its recommendations will harm survival rates. In the UK, prostate cancer survival rates are below the European average.

HANOVER, Germany and VIENNA, June 27 /PRNewswire/ --

- Hybrid and Electric Vehicles Gaining Recognition Worldwide

- Automotive Supplier Continental Presents Results of an Unprecedented Study

- Increasing Fuel Prices are Driving a Change in Thinking

- Approximately Half of all Drivers Would Like an Emission-Free, Battery-Powered Car for Urban Traffic

- Consumer Acceptance of Hybrid Vehicles is Increasing Internationally - Especially When Government Incentives are Offered

- Nearly Two-Thirds of Motorists Travel on Short Routes and/or in Urban Traffic, Providing Significant Potential for Hybrid Vehicles

WASHINGTON, June 27 /PRNewswire/ --

- ICANN Solution to Domain Tasting is a Half Measure that Will do Little To Eliminate Tasting or Offer Protections to Internet Users

The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA), a coalition comprised of 11 globally recognized brand-name companies, would like to recognize ICANN's solution to the problem of "tasting" as a partial success.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070724/DCTU006LOGO )

ICANN recently put forth a proposal to address tasting due in large part to CADNA's championing of this issue and because of objective research and analysis of the proposed solutions conducted by the coalition. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that the proposed solution will adequately address domain name tasting.

Almonds, as well as being high in vitamin E and other minerals, are also thought to have other health benefits, such as reducing cholesterol. Recently published work by the Institute of Food Research has identified potential prebiotic properties of almonds that could help improve our digestive health by increasing levels of beneficial gut bacteria.

Our digestive system maintains large population of bacteria that live in the colon. Prebiotics are non-digestible parts of foods that these bacteria can use to fuel their growth and activity. These 'good' bacteria form part of our body's defence against harmful bacteria and play a role in the development of body's immune system. The prebiotics work by stimulating the growth of these bacteria. However, in order to get to where they are needed prebiotics must be able to get through the upper part of the intestine without being digested or absorbed by the body.

Ground-breaking technology that will enable biologists to identify and monitor large numbers of endangered animals, from butterflies to whales, without being captured, will be shown to the public for the first time at this year's Royal Society Summer Science exhibition [30 June to 3 July].

Scientists at the University of Bristol, working on Robben Island in South Africa, have devised an intelligent, visual surveillance system that can be integrated into wildlife habitats as a non-intrusive means of capturing detailed and reliable data on the population dynamics and social behaviour of endangered species.

The research advances techniques that originated in computer vision and human biometrics in order to help field biology and to better understand and conserve endangered species, in particular, the African penguin (Spheniscus demersus).