UTRECHT, The Netherlands, January 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- Plans to Invest Over 200 Million Euros in 42MW Italian Solar Project Announced

Econcern, leading sustainable energy solutions company, has announced plans to install 42MW of solar capacity in Puglia, southern Italy. Project Trullo will start with the construction of seven 1MW solar parks early in 2009; the parks are expected to be in operation by 2010.

The company is tapping into the huge growth potential of the Italian solar market.

Once complete Project Trullo will add 15% to Italy's 280MW solar power generation capacity currently installed(1). Econcern has ambitions to increase its Italian solar assets portfolio to at least 50MW and is currently reviewing other potential projects.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, January 15 /PRNewswire/ --

Africa is currently experiencing acute power shortages due to a lack of investment in new capacities and the growing economies in the region. This erratic supply of power is already threatening to stifle the economic gains made in the past decade.

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In Nigeria alone, power failures are estimated to cost approximately US$1 million per year. Large industrial manufacturers are the most affected by the unreliable power supply and many industrial power consumers have resorted to using diesel generator sets as prime power supply and the national grid as back up.

LONDON, January 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- Virgin Active Survey Confirms Exercise Beats the Winter Blues

One in 10 Brits admits to feeling depressed every day, according to a new survey by Virgin Active, the UK's premier health club chain and research company Tick Box.

MUMBAI, January 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- Global Learning Solutions Provider, Tata Interactive Systems Entered 2009 on a Positive Note, Continuing its Positive Growth Trend and Acquiring Major New Clients in Europe and North America.

Amidst the global slowdown that has impacted bottom lines across sectors worldwide, learning leader Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) continued its positive run in all its markets globally. TIS even acquired several major corporations as its clients in the European and North America regions.

The unique planetary nebula NGC 2818 is nested inside the open star cluster NGC 2818A. Both the cluster and the nebula reside 10,400 light-years (3.2 kiloparsecs) away, in the southern constellation Pyxis, also called the Compass.

NGC 2818 is one of very few planetary nebulae in our galaxy located within an open cluster. Open clusters, in general, are loosely bound and they disperse over hundreds of millions of years. Stars that form planetary nebulae typically live for billions of years. Hence, it is rare that an open cluster survives long enough for one of its members to form a planetary nebula. This open cluster is particularly ancient, estimated to be nearly one billion years old.

Massive stars, those up to 120 times the mass of our sun, should blow away the clouds of gas and dust that instead feed their growth.   Despite outward-flowing radiation pressure that exceeds the gravitational force pulling material inward, these huge stars get bigger, which hasn't made a lot of sense.  Until now.

Using 3-D radiation hydrodynamics simulations, a group of researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of California, Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley, discovered that these massive stars also tend to occur in binary or multiple star systems.

CHARENTON-LE-PONT, France, January 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Essilor International announced today that its US subsidiary, EOA Holding Co. Inc., has signed a share purchase agreement whereby it has offered to acquire the entire capital of Signet Armorlite, a manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses. The agreement is subject to certain standard conditions precedent, including approval by competition authorities in Signet Armorlite's main host countries. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the first half of the year.

JERUSALEM and NEEDHAM, Massachusetts, January 15 /PRNewswire/ --

- Oridion Microstream(R) Technology to be Incorporated Into Market Leader's Patient-Controlled Analgesia (PCA) Device

JERUSALEM and NEEDHAM, Massachusetts, January 15 /PRNewswire/ --

Oridion Systems Ltd. (SIX Swiss Exchange: ORIDN) today announced an agreement with a global healthcare company that is a market leader in medication infusion systems. Under this agreement, Oridion's Capnostream(TM) carbon dioxide (CO2) monitor using Microstream(R) capnography technology will be incorporated into a PCA infusion device at a future date, allowing hospital patients to control the flow of their pain medication within specified limits.

Rats whose mothers were fed alcohol during pregnancy are more attracted to the smell of liquor during puberty, say researchers writing in Behavioral and Brain Functions.  They say rats exposed during gestation find the smell of alcohol on another rat’s breath during adolescence more attractive than animals with no prior fetal exposure.

Free-range chickens are more prone to disease than chickens kept in cages, according to a study published in Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica.  This also applies to all chickens kept in litter-based housing systems.

Researchers led by Oddvar Fossum, at the National Veterinary Institute in Sweden, noted that during the switch in housing from battery cages to enriched cages and litter-based systems, including free-range, there was an increase in the number of chickens dying. During the study, the authors compared the causes of deaths in flocks of chickens kept in different types of housing across Sweden.