LEEDS, England, September 29 /PRNewswire/ --

- With Photo

Masternaut Three X is celebrating having been named as one of the UK's fastest growing technology companies for the second year running. The Leeds-based vehicle tracking and mobile resource management company was ranked 43 in the 2008 Tech Track 100 league table that was recently published in the Sunday Times, up an impressive 20 places on their 2007 listing. The annual Sunday Times Tech Track 100, sponsored by Microsoft, Barclays Commercial and BDO Stoy Hayward, ranks Britain's fastest growing private technology companies based on sales growth over the last two years.

GENEVA, Switzerland, September 29 /PRNewswire/ --

- Award Highlights Successful Global HR Approach During Company Integration

Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, announced today that it has won the prestigious "Human Capital Leadership Award" 2008 for "Strategic HR Leadership" by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). The division's Human Resources (HR) department was recognized for its critical leadership role during the integration of the former Serono with the Merck Ethicals pharmaceuticals division, and in driving the organization's performance and reputation while supporting strategic goals through superior employee relations.

LONDON, September 29 /PRNewswire/ --

- Partnership to create a new forum for short films at the world's biggest communications industry event

The GSMA, the global trade group for the mobile industry, and Mofilm, a pioneer of short films for mobile and on-line distribution, today announced the first Global Mobile Film Festival at the Mobile World Congress in 2009, with an official 'call for films' to international film-makers today.

HATBORO, Pennsylvania and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, September 29 /PRNewswire/ --

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tuebingen, Germany, have reported the completion of the first genomes of wild strains of the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana as part of the 1001 Genomes Project.

The entire genomes of two individuals of this species, one from Ireland, the other from Japan, have now been compared in great detail. They were found to be astonishingly different from each other, as Detlef Weigel and his colleagues write in Genome Research.

This study marks the starting point of the 1001 Genomes Project, in which a total of thousand and one individuals of the same species will be sequenced. The scientists aim at correlating the genetic differences between the different strains with variation in the speed of plant growth and their resistance against infectious germs. These strategies could then also be applied to crop plants or trees.

Economic globalization and liberalization have been blamed for numerous social ills over the last two decades, including a sharp rise in interethnic violence in countries all over the world. Not so, say the results of a study conducted by researchers from McGill University and published in the current issue of International Studies Quarterly.

According to Dr. Stephen Saideman and former student David Steinberg, the more government intervention there is in the local economy, the more likely inter-ethnic violence and rebellion becomes. Conversely, the more economically open a society is, the less likely such violence becomes.

Tourism on Antarctica is increasing and that can form a threat for the vulnerable South Pole area. Research from Maastricht University provides a possible solution: market the visitor rights to the highest bidder.

Tourism in Antarctica has grown dramatically. In 1985, just a few thousand people visited the area but in the season 2007/2008 more than 40,000 did. A number of parties are concerned about the effects of this rapid growth with respect to safety, the environment, the scale of tourism and the lack of financial resources for monitoring and enforcement purposes.

They also have doubts about how this growth can be reconciled with the basic principles of the Antarctic Treaty System ATS.

QINGDAO, China, September 29 /PRNewswire/ --

- Recognition as a Global Company Increases

- Clients More Confident in Haier

Haier, the world's fourth largest white goods manufacturer, closed with success its sponsorship of the Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and is on track to reach its goal of becoming a truly global brand.

WALTHAM, Massachusetts, September 29 /PRNewswire/ --

- Emerging Nonstimulant Drugs Will Earn Less Than 15 Percent Share of the ADHD Market in 2017, According to a New Report from Decision Resources

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that Shire's recently launched stimulant Vyvanse will become only the third blockbuster in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), helping to ensure that Shire's impressive ADHD portfolio will dominate this market through 2017.