Researchers at Duke, Caltech, Stanford and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have developed a living system using genetically altered bacteria that they believe can provide new insights into how the population levels of prey influence the levels of predators, and vice-versa.

The Duke experiment is an example of a synthetic gene circuit, where researchers load new "programming" into bacteria to make them perform new functions. Such re-programmed bacteria could see a wide variety of applications in medicine, environmental cleanup and biocomputing. In this particular Duke study, researchers rewrote the software of the common bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli.) to form a mutually dependent living circuit of predator and prey.

The bacterial predators don't actually eat the prey, however. The two populations control each others' suicide rates.

You already knew that eastern and western cultures regard many aspects of every day life differently but researchers from Canada, Japan and Amsterdam say that eastern and western cultures even assess situations differently based on the perception of emotions they see.

Across two studies, participants viewed images consisting of one center model and four background models. The researchers manipulated the facial emotion (happy, angry, sad) in the center or the background models and asked the participants to determine the dominant emotion of the center figure.

The majority of Japanese participants (72%) reported that their judgments of the center person’s emotions were influenced by the emotions of the background figures, while most North Americans (also 72%) reported no influence by the background figures at all.

In January, Skyhook Wireless Inc. announced that Apple would use Skyhook’s WiFi Positioning System (WPS) for its popular Map applications. The WPS database contains information on access points throughout the world. Skyhook itself provides most of the data in the database, with users contributing via direct entries to the database, and requests for localization.

ETH Zurich Professor Srdjan Capkun of the Department of Computer Science and his team of researchers analysed the security of Skyhook’s positioning system. The team’s results demonstrate the vulnerability of Skyhook’s and similar public WLAN positioning systems to location spoofing attacks.

ASCOT, England, April 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Therakos, Inc., a pioneer for more than 20 years in immune cell therapy, announced receipt of a CE Mark in Europe for THERAKOS(TM) CELLEX(TM) Photopheresis System, a therapy for the treatment of patients with immune-mediated diseases such as acute or chronic graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). THERAKOS(TM) CELLEX(TM) Photopheresis System is the next generation in a product line that offers the only validated, automated and integrated systems that are CE Marked to perform extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP).

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080414/300639)

LONDON, April 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading UK law firm, Olswang, has deployed Solcara SolSearch to provide a comprehensive legal search tool to service the information management needs of its team of 600 staff. SolSearch creates a speedy one-stop search for all internal and internet-based content, simultaneously accessing free-to-air and subscription-based Internet search sources.

Amanda Mckenzie, Information Services Manager at Olswang said:

LONDON, April 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Over 98 per cent of cyclists may be putting themselves at financial risk because they do not have specialist insurance that offers third party cover, according to the Environmental Transport Association.

The recent 83 per cent increase in London cycling reflects a two-wheeled renaissance in urban areas, but most cyclists seem unaware that if they are involved in an accident that causes damage to a person or property, they can find themselves facing a claim for compensation.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 14 /PRNewswire/ --

- Keynotes from Virgin Group and Germany's Dr. Hermann Scheer

The Cleantech Group(TM), LLC, founders of the cleantech investment category, announced today that more than 400 investors, entrepreneurs, corporate leaders and policymakers from the rapidly developing cleantech investment marketplace will convene in Brussels, Belgium from 28-30 April 2008 for Cleantech Forum(R) XVII, Europe's leading global investment forum.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080109/AQW116LOGO)

HAIFA, Israel, April 14 /PRNewswire/ -- ES Vascular Ltd. announced today that it has received a CE Mark approval for its Open Aortic Stapler (OAS) system for mechanical suturing technology of aortic synthetic grafts during open repair of AAA and other aortic reconstructions, enabling commercialization of the device in most European countries. Based on its proprietary stapling technology, the OAS stapler is a unique device that enables one shot stapling of synthetic grafts to aorta in open repair of abdominal and thoracic aneurysmal and occlusive disease, replacing lengthy and cumbersome manual suturing in these major procedures.

Varanus komodoensis, the fearsome Komodo dragon, is the world's largest living lizard and, with 60 razor-sharp serrated teeth, can take on very large animal prey.

A new international study has revealed how it can be such an efficient killing machine despite having a wimpy bite and a featherweight skull - clever engineering.

The Komodo dragon grows to an average length of two to three meters and weighing around 70 kilograms. The reptile's unusual size is attributed to island gigantism, since there are no other carnivorous mammals to fill the niche on the islands where they live. As a result of their size, these lizards are apex predators, dominating the ecosystems in which they live.

TAIPEI, Taiwan, April 14 /PRNewswire/ --

Accton Technology (TAIEX: 2345) is proud to announce the availability of its Internet radio modules, integrating WiFi, Ethernet, and multimedia capabilities into one module. This enables radio and audio equipment manufacturers to upgrade their devices to support multimedia and Internet radio functions an electronic BOM cost approaching USD15 (note) per module.