DUBLIN, Ireland, February 18 /PRNewswire/ --

- Novartis Venture Fund, Fountain Healthcare Partners, Inventages Venture Capital and Seroba Kernel Life Sciences Invests in Opsona Therapeutics Series B Financing

- Proceeds Will Advance Lead Compound Targeting Inflammatory Diseases into Clinical Development

- Opsona Opens Facility in Switzerland to Complement Dublin Team

WESTFORD, Massachusetts and STAINES, England, February 18 /PRNewswire/ --

- Sonus Networks Part Of PathFinder Programme To Foster Interoperability

Sonus Networks (Nasdaq: SONS), a market leader in IP communications infrastructure, today announced that its solutions for wireless carriers have been certified as part of PathFinder, the GSMA-managed service operated by NeuStar. The PathFinder initiative is dedicated to the simple delivery of IP-based services to fixed and mobile networks, reducing the cost and complexity of providing innovative new services.

BARCELONA, Spain, February 18 /PRNewswire/ --

Integrated Telecom Solutions, Inc. (ITS), a Dallas based mobile solutions company, has added a new solution to its portfolio. The new solution is called Mirrored Subscription Service and is targeted at mobile operators. Mirrored Subscription Service (MSS) makes it possible for a mobile operator to offer prepay service subscriptions to in-bound roamers without the need for them to change their existing SIM cards. This service is beneficial to both business and private subscribers, and is especially beneficial to subscribers who frequently travel outside their home network.

The Paleontologist community in China and around the world are all aflutter over a recent find in the Erlian Basin of Inner Mongolia. Known more for its heavy oil potential and favorite export - pollution, northeastern China is the preferred stomping ground for the savvy petroleum geologist.

PHILADELPHIA and LONDON, February 18 /PRNewswire/ --

- Report Examines Recent Developments at Major Patenting Authorities Worldwide

The Healthcare and Science business of Thomson Reuters today released its 2009 Patent Focus Report. Authored by Joff Wild, editor of Intellectual Asset Management magazine, and published in the Thomson Reuters KnowledgeLink(SM) eNewsletter, this report explores recent activities at each of the world's major patenting authorities (USA, Europe, Japan, China and India). The report is available free at http://go.thomsonreuters.com/pfr2009.

Coastal erosion has more than doubled in Alaska – up to 45 feet per year – in a 5-year period between 2002 and 2007 along a 40-mile stretch of the Beaufort Sea, according to a U.S. Geological Survey(USGS) study that says average annual erosion rates along this part of the Beaufort Sea climbed from historical levels of about 20 feet per year between the mid-1950s and late-1970s, to 28 feet per year between the late-1970s and early 2000s, to a rate of 45 feet per year between 2002 and 2007.

Self-control is one of our most cherished values; we applaud those with the discipline to regulate their appetites and actions and we try hard to instill this virtue in our children.   But is it possible that willpower can sometimes be an obstacle rather than a means to happiness and harmony?

Yes, say Tufts University psychologists Evan Apfelbaum and Samuel Sommers, who were intrigued by the notion that too much self-control may have a downside and that relinquishing some power might be paradoxically tonic, both for individuals and for society.

Globally, tropical trees in undisturbed forest are absorbing nearly a fifth of the CO2 released by burning fossil fuels, according to a 40-year study of African tropical forests published in Nature.

The researchers says that remaining tropical forests remove a massive 4.8 billion tons of CO2 emissions from the atmosphere each year. This includes a previously unknown carbon sink in Africa, mopping up 1.2 billion tons of CO2 each year.  The African tropical forests – one third of the world's total tropical forest – has trapped an extra 0.6 tons of carbon per year in each hectare of intact African forest, they state.

Evidence of star birth within a cloud of primordial gas has given astronomers a glimpse of a previously unknown mode of galaxy formation. The cloud, known as the Leo Ring, appears to lack the dark matter and heavy elements normally found in galaxies today. The unexpected discovery comes thanks to instruments aboard NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) spacecraft which are sensitive to the ultraviolet radiation emitted by newly formed stars.

A congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council finds serious deficiencies in the nation's forensic science system and calls for major reforms and new research. Rigorous and mandatory certification programs for forensic scientists are currently lacking, the report says, as are strong standards and protocols for analyzing and reporting on evidence. And there is a dearth of peer-reviewed, published studies establishing the scientific bases and reliability of many forensic methods. Moreover, many forensic science labs are underfunded, understaffed, and have no effective oversight.