Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have compiled a large catalog of gravitational lenses in the distant universe. The catalog contains 67 new gravitationally lensed galaxy images found around massive elliptical and lenticular-shaped galaxies. This sample demonstrates the rich diversity of strong gravitational lenses. If this sample is representative, there would be nearly half a million similar gravitational lenses over the whole sky.

The lenses come from a recently completed, large set of observations as part of a huge project to survey a single 1.6-square-degree field of sky (nine times the area of the full Moon) with several space-based and Earth-based observatories.

In people affected by acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome it may often be observed a rise of cutaneous emergencies, whose impact spans from 25% in asyntomatic subjects to 100% in the case of very evident AIDS.

The frequency and the atypic nature of these emergencies gives a highlighted role to the dermatologist, characterizing the early diagnosis of cutaneous pathologies as the qualifying moment in the analysis of AIDS affected patient.

As the starting moment in the HIV-positive subject examination, search for injuries referable to Kaposi's sarcoma, especially at the mucous level (pharinx wounds are evident in 10 to 50% of total cases).

CALGARY, Canada, February 22 /PRNewswire/ -- THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES, SOUTH AFRICA, AUSTRALIA, JAPAN OR ANY JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE SAME WOULD BE UNLAWFUL. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS NOT AN OFFER OF SECURITIES IN THE UNITED STATES, SOUTH AFRICA, AUSTRALIA, JAPAN OR ANY JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE SAME WOULD BE UNLAWFUL.

LAKE WORTH, Florida, February 22 /PRNewswire/ --

Graphic Security Systems Corporation (GSSC) and 3M have signed a reseller agreement that grants 3M worldwide nonexclusive sales rights to offer GSSC's proprietary Scrambled Indicia technology within the passport and ID markets. The two companies had achieved technical compatibility between 3M travel document readers and the Scrambled Indicia technology some two years ago. That brought enhanced image security to ePassports and travel documents, and gave document authenticators additional verification capabilities.

While current-generation solar cell technologies are too expensive and inefficient for wide-scale commercial applications, the demands of United States energy needs are spurring new advancements in improving solar cell efficiency.

A team of Northwestern University researchers has developed a new anode coating strategy that significantly enhances the efficiency of solar energy power conversion. Their paper about the work focuses on “engineering” organic material-electrode interfaces in bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells.

Introduction: Bioterrorism is the utilization of microorganisms or toxins in order to produce a disease and/or death in human beings, animals or plants. Different from conventional weaponry, relatively economic means are used that allow the elimination of living beings without destroying the surrounding atmosphere.

The most probably method for spread of bioweapons is aerial transmission, continuing into water supplies and food. The CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta) has subdivided into three categories the aggressiveness of "Bioweapons".

Category A comprises:

The raging eruption of dust and water from the south pole of Enceladus, Saturn's sixth-largest moon, has intrigued scientists ever since the Cassini spacecraft provided dramatic images of the phenomenon.

Physicist Nikolai Brilliantov from the University of Leicester and colleagues in Germany, have revealed why the dust particles in the plume emerge more slowly than the water vapour escaping from the moon's icy crust.

Enceladus orbits in Saturn's outermost "E" ring. It is one of only three outer solar system bodies that produce active eruptions of dust and water vapour.

GREENWICH, Connecticut, HOUSTON, LONDON and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, February 22 /PRNewswire/ --

- With Photo

- Partnership to Help Strengthen CHC's Growth Mission as Largest Helicopter Services Company

CHC Helicopter Corporation ("CHC") (NYSE: FLI; TSX: FLY.A and FLY.B), the world's largest provider of helicopter services to the global offshore oil and gas industry, and First Reserve Corporation, the leading private equity firm that specializes in the energy industry, today announced that a fund managed by First Reserve has entered into an agreement to acquire CHC.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080222/NYF026 )

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, February 22 /PRNewswire/ --

Concentric Medical, Inc., the global leader in devices for clot removal in ischemic stroke patients, today announced that results from the use of its Merci Retrieval System(TM) were featured and discussed in seventeen separate presentations at the International Stroke Conference held in New Orleans, Louisiana, February 20-22, 2008. Positive clinical and economic results from the use of the Merci Retrieval System in patients suffering from acute ischemic stroke were discussed during five main podium presentations and more than 12 poster sessions over the three-day conference, which had more than 3,500 people in attendance.

Kava has been used in ceremonies and for recreational and social purposes in the South Pacific since ancient times, much like alcohol, tea or coffee is in other societies today.

In the 1980s other medicinal uses for kava began to emerge and it was marketed in herbal form as a natural way to treat conditions such as anxiety, insomnia, tension and restlessness, particularly in Europe and North America.

More recently, evidence began to emerge about the adverse affect kava could have on the liver and serious concerns about the dangers of kava and the effects on the liver have resulted in regulatory agencies, such as the US Food and Drug Administration and Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration, banning or restricting the sale of kava and kava products.