HOUSTON, March 12 /PRNewswire/ --

Endeavour International Corporation (Amex: END) (LSE: ENDV) today reported that discretionary cash flow in 2007 increased nearly ten-fold to US$113.0 million from US$10.7 million in 2006. Revenue for 2007 increased 225% to US$176.1 million compared to US$54.1 million in 2006, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Adjusted EBITDA) increased to US$124.1 million in 2007 from US$9.2 million in 2006.

The productivity and biodiversity of an ecosystem is significantly affected by the rate at which organisms move between different parts of the ecosystem, according to new research. Ecologists and conservationists hope to use this knowledge to develop strategies to ensure that conservation areas are highly productive and rich in biodiversity.

The study in Nature(1) used a lab-based artificial ecosystem of communities of bacteria to examine what happens when the bacteria move around and evolve to live in different parts of the ecosystem over the course of hundreds of generations. The scientists measured the effect this dispersal of species has on the productivity and biodiversity of the ecosystem over all.

On Sept. 15, 2007, an object hurtled through the sky and crashed near the village of Carancas in Peru. Scientists dispatched to the site found a gaping hole in the ground.

Peter Schultz, professor of geological sciences at Brown University and an expert in extraterrestrial impacts, went to Peru to learn more and he presented the findings from his travels at the 39th annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in League City, Texas.

What Schultz and his team revealed: The object that slammed into a dry riverbed in Peru was a meteorite, and it left a 49-foot-wide crater. Soil ejected from the point of impact was found nearly four football fields away.

Developmental biologists at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) say they have gained new understanding of how digits grow and why each digit is different from the others.

Though the research was done on chick digits, it may have implications for humans born with a genetic condition known as bradydactyly, or stubby fingers and toes.

Despite decades of research, the biological basis of depression is unknown, and the molecular and cellular targets of antidepressant treatment remain elusive, although it is likely that these drugs have one or more primary targets.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have discovered that a change in the location of a protein in the brain could serve as a biomarker for depression, allowing a simple, rapid, laboratory test to identify patients with depression and to determine whether a particular antidepressant therapy will provide a successful response.

Though they perch far apart on the avian family tree, birds with the ability to learn songs use similar brain structures to sing their tunes. Neurobiologists at Duke University Medical Center now have an explanation for this puzzling likeness.

In all three groups of birds with vocal learning abilities – songbirds, parrots and hummingbirds – the brain structures for singing and learning to sing are embedded in areas controlling movement, the researchers discovered. The team also found that areas in charge of movement share many functional similarities with the brain areas for singing. This suggests that the brain pathways used for vocal learning evolved out of the brain pathways used for motor control.

Bipolar Disorder (BPD or manic-depressive illness) is one of the most serious of all mental disorders, affecting millions of individuals worldwide. Affected individuals alternate between states of deep depression and mania. While depression is characterized by persistent and long-term sadness or despair, mania is a mental state characterized by great excitement, flight of ideas, a decreased need for sleep, and, sometimes, uncontrollable behavior, hallucinations, or delusions.

BPD likely arises from the complex interaction of multiple genes and environmental factors. Unlike some brain diseases, no single gene has been implicated in BPD.

Cocaine addicts often suffer a downward emotional spiral that is a key to their craving and chronic relapse. While researchers have developed animal models of the reward of cocaine, they have not been able to model this emotional impact until now.

Regina Carelli and colleagues report experiments with rats in which they have mimicked the negative affect of cocaine addiction and even how it drives greater cocaine use. They said their animal model could enable better understanding of the emotional motivations of cocaine addiction and how to ameliorate them.

LONDON, March 12 /PRNewswire/ --

- With Photo.

Cigarettes are set to be hit with another rise in tobacco duty during today's Budget. The Budget announcement coincides with the 25th annual No Smoking Day, which takes place today (12 March).

To mark the event, the No Smoking Day charity has released new research showing almost one in five smokers plan to stop today(i). Studies show the rising cost of smoking is proving a key factor in triggering quit attempts.

This year's campaign, The Great No Smoking Day Challenge, sees events taking place across the UK, with local stop smoking services, employers, GPs and others providing support and advice to those that are ready to stop.

Notes to editors

WASHINGTON, March 11 /PRNewswire/ --

The chairman of the US House Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee told a Platts Energy Podium event in Washington on Tuesday that he supports a greenhouse gases (GHG) cap-and-trade system that would provide nearly all emission credits for free to electric utilities, oil refineries and other industrial operations.

Representative Rick Boucher, Democrat-Virginia, said he believes the US should model its GHG control law on the country's successful acid rain program that is designed to cut national sulfur dioxide emissions from electric utilities through a cap-and-trade system.