DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, May 9 /PRNewswire/ --

- Sheikh Mohammed Pledges Grant of Emergency Aid through Dubai Cares

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the U.A.E. and Ruler of Dubai, announced the emergency provision of 200 temporary structures to be used as schools and shelter to support the victims of Cyclone Nargis. Myanmar has accepted Dubai's donation. The official death toll currently stands at 22,000, with figures expected to reach the 100,000-mark.

Following the announcement, officials from Dubai Cares loaded 200 large tents into an aircraft to be delivered immediately to Myanmar and made operational as temporary schools and shelter within 48 hours.

There has been considerable interest in the publication of the platypus genome, which is good. Unfortunately, much of the reporting has been distorted, which is bad. However, rather than picking on the press, I want to focus on an example from the scientific literature where a misconception about evolutionary relationships seems to creep in and generate confusion. Consider the following line, from a soon to be published paper about platypus sex chromosomes (Veyrunes et al. 2008).

As the most basal mammal group, the egg-laying monotremes are ideal for determining how the therian XY system evolved.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 9 /PRNewswire/ --

GPS Industries, Inc. (GPSI) (OTC Bulletin Board: GPSN), the only provider of Wi-Fi powered, advertising enhanced GPS systems for golf facilities, resorts and residential communities, announces that it has increased the borrowing capacity under its Loan Agreement with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 9 /PRNewswire/ --

GPS Industries, Inc. (GPSI) (OTC Bulletin Board: GPSN), the only provider of Wi-Fi powered, advertising enhanced GPS systems for golf facilities, resorts and residential communities, announces that it has signed a Master Supply Agreement ("MSA") for sales in China with GPSi Asia, our exclusive Asian distributor.

As a result of continued emergence of the China market, GPSI and GPSi Asia have agreed to terms whereby GPSi Asia will purchase 15 or more systems or up to 1,750 Inforemer HD Mobile Display Units ("MDU"). In accordance with the MSA, GPSi Asia has advanced an initial deposit to GPSI to initiate production of the first 5 systems and to obtain preferred pricing.

LONDON, May 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Eisai Limited, the licence holder of Aricept(R) (donepezil hydrochloride) and Pfizer Limited, its co-promotion partner, announced today that the Court of Appeal has released its decision on the consequential issues arising from Court of Appeal's recent ruling that the process by which the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) decided to restrict anti-dementia medicines for newly diagnosed patients with mild Alzheimer's disease was procedurally unfair. The decision today will now be reflected in a Court order.

The Court has decided that

Stem cells, the body's wonder tool, are extremely versatile. They can develop in 220 different ways, transforming themselves into a correspondingly diverse range of specialized body cells.

Biologists and medical scientists plan to make use of this differentiation ability to selectively harvest cardiac, skin or nerve cells for the treatment of different diseases. However, the stem cell culture techniques practiced today are not very efficient. What proportion of a mass of stem cells is transformed into which body cells? And in what conditions?

“We need devices that keep doing the same thing and thus deliver statistically reliable data,” says Professor Günter Fuhr, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT in St. Ingbert.

Being obese can increase the risk of Alzheimer’s Disease by as much as 80 percent, according to a study in the May issue of Obesity Reviews. But it's not just weight gain that poses a risk. People who are underweight also have an elevated risk of dementia, unlike people who are normal weight or overweight.

US researchers carried out a detailed review of 10 international studies published since 1995, covering just over 37,000 people, including 2,534 with various forms of dementia. Subjects were aged between 40 and 80 years when the studies started, with follow-up periods ranging from three to 36 years.

The review, which included studies from the USA, France, Finland, Sweden and Japan, also included a sophisticated meta-analysis of seven of the studies, published between 2003 and 2007 with a follow-up period of at least five years.

The Antennae Galaxies, located in the constellation of Corvus (the Crow), are among the closest known merging galaxies. The two galaxies, also known as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, began interacting a few hundred million years ago, creating one of the most impressive sights in the night sky. They are considered by scientists as the archetypal merging galaxy system and are used as a standard against which to validate theories about galaxy evolution.

Scientists using Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 to observe individual stars spawned by the colossal cosmic collision in the Antennae Galaxies have reached a surprising conclusion - the Antennae are much closer than previously believed, 45 million light-years instead of the previous best estimate of 65 million light-years.

Photosynthesis is of great interest outside biology, specifically in the energy industry. Using photosynthesis, green plants are able to harvest energy from sunlight and convert it to chemical energy at an energy transfer efficiency rate of approximately 97 percent and if scientists can create artificial versions of photosynthesis, the dream of solar power as the ultimate green and renewable source of electrical energy could be realized.

However, a potential pitfall for any sunlight-harvesting system is that if the system becomes overloaded with absorbed solar energy, it most likely will suffer some form of damage. Plants solve this problem on a daily basis with a photo-protective mechanism called energy-quenching. Excess energy, detected by changes in pH levels, is safely dissipated from one molecular system to another, where it can then be routed down relatively harmless chemical reaction pathways.

In a study of the molecular mechanisms by which plants protect themselves from oxidation damage should they absorb too much sunlight during photosynthesis, a team of researchers has discovered a molecular “dimmer switch” that helps control the flow of solar energy moving through the system of light harvesting proteins. This discovery holds important implications for the future design of artificial photosynthesis systems that could provide the world with a sustainable and secure source of energy.

LONDON, May 9 /PRNewswire/ --

- A New Video Tutorial Website Enabling Music Making Enthusiasts of all Abilities to Develop Their Skills has Been Launched Today

SonicAcademy.com is a new web portal for anyone interested in music production, particularly in the use of software driven music systems.

Providing worldwide support for aspiring musicians DJ's and producers, SonicAcademy.com offers step by step video tutorials on the latest software and hardware products, combining an ethos of high production values with features, news and reviews as well as an online community where people can meet, learn from and share knowledge with other music makers.