LONDON, December 2 /PRNewswire/ --

The 2008 Frost Sullivan South Africa Biofuel Feedstock Market Share Advancement Award is presented to Rainbow Nation Renewable Fuels (RNRF). The company is building the biggest soybean processing facility in Africa, a particularly strategic choice of location since South Africa has the greatest demand for biofuels in Southern Africa. This, together with its coherent, growth-focused strategy will support the expansion of the company's market share in the biofuels market.

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WASHINGTON, December 2 /PRNewswire/ --

Population Services International (PSI) is launching a new comprehensive project that could dramatically reduce the number of African children dying every year from malaria. The program will provide free artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACT) given by local community health workers to poor children suspected of having malaria. This quick-response approach to treatment will be monitored to determine if it reduces the number of African children dying from malaria. It is estimated that this program will avert half a million malaria cases and 11,000 child deaths in each of the four pilot areas.

Researchers have discovered that DNA damage decreases a cell's ability to regulate which genes are turned on and off in particular settings. This mechanism, which applies both to fungus and to us, might represent a universal culprit for aging. 

"This is the first potentially fundamental, root cause of aging that we've found," says Harvard Medical School professor of pathology David Sinclair. "There may very well be others, but our finding that aging in a simple yeast cell is directly relevant to aging in mammals comes as a surprise."  

Their findings appear in the November 28 issue of the journal Cell. 

Converting forests or fields to biofuel crops can increase or decrease greenhouse gas emissions, depending on where – and which – biofuel crops are used according to researchers at University of Illinois. 

Scientists analyzed data from dozens of studies to determine how planting new biofuel crops can influence the carbon content of the soil. Their findings appear this month in the journal Global Change Biology Bioenergy.

Most plastics are based on petroleum. A bio-plastic that consists of one hundred percent renewable raw materials helps to conserve this resource. Researchers have now optimized the plastic in such a way that it is even suitable for products such as Nativity figurines.

Toys have to put up with a lot of rough treatment: They are sucked by small children, bitten with milk teeth, dragged along behind bobby cars, and every now and then they have to survive a rainy night outdoors. Whatever happens, it is vital that the material does not release any softeners or heavy metals that could endanger children.

Researchers at Purdue University have developed a technique that uses a laser and holograms to precisely position numerous tiny particles within seconds, representing a potential new tool to analyze biological samples or create devices using nanoassembly.

The technique, called rapid electrokinetic patterning, is a potential alternative to existing technologies because the patterns can be more quickly and easily changed, said mechanical engineering doctoral student Stuart J. Williams.

The phrase "empty nest" can conjure up images of sad and lonely parents sitting at home, twiddling their thumbs, waiting for their children to call or visit. However, a new study, reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that an empty nest may have beneficial effects on the parents' marriage.

University of California, Berkeley psychologists Sara M. Gorchoff, Oliver P. John and Ravenna Helson tracked the marital satisfaction of a group of women over 18 years, from the time they were in their 40s to when they were in their early 60s.

COPENHAGEN, December 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Milestone Systems has been recognized again as the global market leader for IP video surveillance software. IMS Research has published a new report that identifies Milestone as having the highest world market share in the category of software-only vendors of open platform network video management solutions.

WALTHAM, Massachusetts, December 2 /PRNewswire/ --

- '2008 Credit Technology Innovation Awards' Recognize Leading Developments in the Use of Technology for the Buy- and Sell-Side in the Global Credit Markets during 2008

Lewtan Technologies, Inc., provider of asset-backed securities surveillance data, analytics, software, and content for the global securitisation industry, today announced that it has won the Technology Innovation Award bestowed by Credit magazine. The Technology Innovation Award recognizes Lewtan's innovation in financial markets technology and continues to solidify its leadership position in the global market.

The news coming out of the recent, and much trumpeted, Vatican-sponsored conference on evolution isn’t that good, according to a brief article that appeared in Science magazine on November 14. Molecular biologist John Abelson commented on the most controversial figure at the conference, Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn: “He believes there are gaps in evolution and [that] God acts in those gaps.” Oh boy, not the “gap theory” again?