Researchers writing in PMC Physics B have found that the rate at which electrons lose energy to carbon monoxide is greater than that to carbon dioxide at higher levels in the atmospheres of both Mars and Venus.

This finding contributes to the body of knowledge required for modelling of the atmospheres of Mars and Venus, which in turn provides an opportunity to validate the techniques used in modelling of more complicated atmospheres such as that of Earth.

Solar energy is both absorbed in atmospheres and eventually emitted to space by processes at the atomic level. These complicated processes need to be parameterised so that huge numbers of individual interactions can be included in models. Modelling of the atmospheres of other planets is useful because the techniques can be developed and tested on different environments, which are not complicated by biological or human activity.

Vivid colors, flowing silk ribbons, and glittering bits of mirrors - the Vikings dressed with considerably more panache than we previously thought. The men were especially vain, and the women dressed provocatively, but with the advent of Christianity, fashions changed, according to Swedish archeologist Annika Larsson.

"They combined oriental features with Nordic styles. Their clothing was designed to be shown off indoors around the fire," says textile researcher Annika Larsson, whose research at Uppsala University presents a new picture of the Viking Age.

She has studied textile finds from the Lake Mälaren Valley, the area that includes Stockholm and Uppsala and was one of the central regions in Scandinavia during the Viking Age.

BALTIMORE, February 25 /PRNewswire/ --

Public health professionals argue changes are needed in health systems to scale up HIV prevention with a goal of averting 7 million HIV infections by 2010.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080225/NYFNSP04 )

Major strides are needed to reach this goal envisioned by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs helps professionals with integrated HIV prevention information at http://www.hivandsrh.org. The Center uses communication to improve health.

SEOUL, Korea, February 25 /PRNewswire/ --

Present society is a global society. In the middle of the development of information technology that has demolished barriers among nations, we can easily encounter foreign languages through movies, resources, documents and the Internet.

However, most people are not able to use practical foreign languages such as listening and speaking in spite of the long term studies.

We can not utilize foreign languages unless we spend time only for studying foreign languages. Furthermore, it is inevitable to forget foreign languages if we do not maintain studying them.

Recently, http://tt4you.com has been drawing attention from people which helps people use foreign languages on a daily basis.

WEYBRIDGE, Surrey, February 25 /PRNewswire/ --

- With Photo

- Findings Reveal Excessive Water Wastage in British Homes - Be Water Wise With Ariel

An overwhelming majority of the British public fail to recognise water saving as a pressing environmental issue, according to a new report released today by Ariel laundry detergent and Waterwise - the UK's leading authority on water efficiency. The report has prompted the launch of the nationwide 'Be Water Wise with Ariel' campaign, fronted by property designer Wayne Hemingway MBE and welcomed by Minister for the Environment, Phil Woolas(1), to rally the nation to help protect one of its most precious resources.

If you've ever had a severe asthma attack or gone into premature labor, there is a good chance you were given the drug terbutaline. Terbutaline can relax your involuntary smooth muscle when it's causing problems: in constricted airways during an asthma attack, or in the uterus during contractions. But if you've taken terbutaline, you've probably also noticed another effect: it can induce a pounding, racing heartbeat. How can one drug produce such opposite effects - relaxing smooth muscle in some parts of your body, while making your cardiac muscle work harder?

The answer is that terbutaline switches on a common information-processing module, called a signaling pathway, which gets used over and over in different cells to perform very different jobs. This information-processing module can be plugged into different cell types, where it will transmit signals from the environment outside the cell to the inside where the information is processed and acted upon. Because our cells use a common set of information-processing modules to carry out so many different jobs, it's easy for drugs that act on these modules to produce a wide range of side-effects.

If you are reading this, chances are that you live in a city – one, perhaps, on its way to becoming a megacity with a population that exceeds 10 million or more. If not, you and most of the world’s population soon will be, according to global population demographics projections.

“When we think of global change, images of melting ice caps and pasture replacing tropic rainforest come to mind,” Arizona State University ecologist Nancy Grimm says. “What drives these changes? In fact, much of the current environmental impact originates in cities, and with demographic transition to city life the urban footprint is likely to continue to grow.”

Applying organic fertilizers, such as those resulting from composting, to agricultural land could increase the amount of carbon stored in these soils and contribute significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, according to new research published in a special issue of Waste Management & Research.

Carbon sequestration in soil has been recognized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the European Commission as one of the possible measures through which greenhouse gas emissions can be mitigated.

As thousands flock to ‘Fairtrade Fortnight’ events all over Britain, Free Trade Nation, a new book by Professor Frank Trentmann, Director of the Economic and Social Research Council-funded Cultures of Consumption programme, shows that ethical consumerism was already flourishing over a century ago.

Then, it was Free Trade that brought millions of Britons onto the streets, promoting peace, justice and democracy.

‘Today, Free Trade is often viewed as the new slavery,’ says Professor Trentmann. ‘Look at the anti-globalisation demonstrations at the WTO and G8 summits. People see Fairtrade as the way to peace and justice. Fairtrade is cool, even sexy, and attracts widespread support from eco-warriors to rock stars. But what people don’t know is that Free Trade was once an equally popular movement, and similarly seen as the path to democracy.’

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, February 24 /PRNewswire/ --

Story Highlights - Captaris unveils new capture, imaging and routing technologies - Special training on Fax over IP solutions and on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server will be offered to all attendees - AIIM ECM Practitioner certification training hosted in parallel to the event