ATLANTA, December 18 /PRNewswire/ --

- Universal Event Monitor for SOA integrates new applications with Enterprise Systems Management

Stonebranch(R), Inc., (www.stonebranch.com) the innovation leader in Enterprise Systems Management, today announced the launch of Universal Event Monitor for SOA(TM), a component of its Universal Solutions Suite(TM) that simplifies workload integration by providing a standardized interface between Internet and message-based applications and existing system management tools.

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Effects of climate change and global warming, although currently shrouded in mystery may soon be more clearly explained thanks to a new microbial ecosystem model built by researchers at MIT.

The study is based on microscopic ‘planktonic’ marine organisms, so small that 500,000 of them could fit on the head of a pin. The MIT ecosystem, smaller than a stick of chewing gum, is the first ecosystem model to show how microscopic plankton live and collect food, serving as the base of the aquatic food chain. Their work, published in the January issue of American Naturalist, may lead to better understanding of these tiny marine organisms and their impact on global climate change.

TURNHOUT, Belgium, December 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The Gut and Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics (APT) articles, together with the first paper on the pivotal Phase III data in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in May, 2008 complete the publication of the full pivotal Phase III data set on prucalopride. A data set that confirms the effectiveness and safety of treatment with prucalopride for patients with chronic constipation for whom laxatives do not provide adequate relief.

LONDON, December 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The decision to appoint 24 more full-time specialist community nurses in Barking and Dagenham has been hailed as 'a massive leap forward in public health for the East London borough', Unite the Union has said.

Unite, the largest union in the country, said the decision by the Barking and Dagenham Primary Care Trust (PCT) goes a long way to reverse the health visitor vacancy rate running at 45% in one of the capital's most deprived boroughs.

Unite, which embraces the Community Practitioners' and Health Visitors' Association (CPHVA), has been strongly campaigning for the creation for new jobs against the backdrop of a health visiting workforce coping with individual caseloads of up to nearly 4,000 children.

SAN FRANCISCO, December 18 /PRNewswire/ -- An humanitarian effort to fight world hunger, protect endangered species and counter global warming has been sidelined for the holidays - and beyond - because of a legal challenge filed by Apple Inc.

The online game Glupod had been scheduled to debut November 29 - in time for the Christmas season. Instead, Glupod has been put on hold indefinitely because of Apple's claim that the use of pod in the game's name violates a number of Apple trademark registrations.

In development for more than two years, Glupod is the first online video game that would allow players to turn in-game winnings into food for starving people in developing countries, help for endangered species and to help global warming.

LONDON, December 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Top-level research institutions in the UK and Israel will collaborate, thanks to a bold new initiative of Weizmann UK.

The programme - entitled Making Connections - will bring together scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel with their counterparts from the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London (ICL) and University College London (UCL).

The timing of the project's launch is only too significant as it comes amid continuing attempts to impose an academic boycott on Israeli institutions. Indeed, the UCU (UK Union for Higher Education) has just announced that it is ending its academic boycott of Israel.

Asymmetry is crucial for the heart proper functioning, and now, scientists from the Institute Gulbenkian of Science in Portugal and Harvard University, have discovered that a family of genes, called Nodal, is crucial determining this asymmetry by controlling the speed and direction of the heart muscle cells during embryonic development.

The finding, by helping to understand how the heart develops, is a step closer to intervention and is of particular importance if we consider that problems in heart asymmetry are the main cause of heart congenital diseases that can affect as much as 8 out of 1000 newborns. The research appears in a special December issue of the journal Development Dynamics 1 dedicated to left-right asymmetry development.

HONG KONG, December 18 /PRNewswire/ --

- Convergence of wireless power technologies inspires global alliance promoting universal solution and electronic convenience worldwide

A new global initiative to drive convenience in electronics charging was launched at the first Wireless Power Consortium conference at Hong Kong Science Park today.

The Consortium's eight members include ConvenientPower Limited, Fulton Innovation LLC, Logitech SA, National Semiconductor Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics N.V., Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd., Shenzhen Sang Fei Consumer Communications Co. Ltd. and Texas Instruments Incorporated.

A LARGE, GROWING PROBLEM

FRANKFURT, Germany, December 18 /PRNewswire/ --

- Major Development Contribution Through Sustainable and Environmentally Sound Electricity Generation. Project to Avoid Some 340,000 Tonnes of CO2 p.a.

- Around EUR 180 Million Financed Through KfW Entwicklungsbank

For the first time, researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have successfully pushed nature beyond its limits by genetically modifying Escherichia coli, a bacterium often associated with food poisoning, to produce unusually long-chain alcohols essential in the creation of biofuels. 

"Previously, we were able to synthesize long-chain alcohols containing five carbon atoms," said James Liao, UCLA professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering. "We stopped at five carbons at the time because that was what could be naturally achieved. Alcohols were never synthesized beyond five carbons. Now, we've figured out a way to engineer proteins for a whole new pathway in E. coli to produce longer-chain alcohols with up to eight carbon atoms."