SAN RAMON, California, January 30 /PRNewswire/ --

- Public Availability of ZigBee Technology Foreshadows New Products Available From ZigBee Members This Year

The ZigBee Alliance, a global ecosystem of companies creating wireless solutions for use in energy management, commercial and consumer applications, today announced the public availability of the latest version of the ZigBee Specification and the certification of the newest ZigBee Golden Unit platforms which implement the ZigBee PRO Feature Set.

A new International Standard from the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) will help designers of audio-video and information technology equipment - such as laptops, mobile phones and TVs - to make the best decisions on energy efficiency and reducing environmental impact at the start of the design and development process.

The standard - IEC 62075 - makes designers consider the entire life cycle of a product - from the materials and energy used in its manufacturing, to its efficiency when switched on or in standby mode, through to the safe disposal of the product at the end of its life.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery, which is used to treat Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders, is now being studied for its potential to treat a variety of conditions. For example, DBS of the hypothalamus has been used to treat cluster headaches and aggressiveness in humans, and stimulating this area influences feeding behavior in animals.

A new study in the Annals of Neurology found that hypothalamic DBS performed in the treatment of a patient with morbid obesity unexpectedly evoked detailed autobiographical memories.

VICTOR, New York, January 30 /PRNewswire/ --

Kirtas Technologies, the leader in quality, high-speed, nondestructive book digitization, today announced the opening of a European subsidiary to capture and better service the considerable growth potential for book digitization in Europe.

Kirtas Europe, B.V., is located in Southeast Amsterdam and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kirtas Technologies. Beginning 1 February, the office will provide systems and service support to resellers, agents and end users providing mass digitization in the European market.

LONDON, January 30 /PRNewswire/ -- ICIS pricing (http://www.icis.com/pricing), the global market pricing and intelligence service for the oil and chemical industries, and Chemease (http://www.chemease.com), a subsidiary of CBI China, China's domestic commodity market information leader, have joined forces to launch weekly English language pricing reports covering the Chinese market.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), scientists have discovered that cocaine-related images trigger the emotional centers of the brains of patients addicted to drugs, even when the subjects are unaware they’ve seen anything - and the regions of the brain activated by drug images overlapped substantially with those activated by sexual ones.

A team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, led by Dr. Anna Rose Childress and Dr. Charles O’Brien, showed cocaine patients photos of drug-related cues like crack pipes and chunks of cocaine. The images flashed by in just 33 milliseconds - so quickly that the patients were not consciously aware of seeing them.

SHANGHAI, China, January 30 /PRNewswire/ --

For most people, the name “E. coli” is synonymous with food poisoning and product recalls, but a professor in Texas A&M University’s chemical engineering department envisions the bacteria as a future source of energy, helping to power our cars, homes and more.

By genetically modifying the bacteria, Thomas Wood, a professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, has “tweaked” a strain of E. coli so that it produces substantial amounts of hydrogen. Specifically, Wood’s strain produces 140 times more hydrogen than is created in a naturally occurring process, according to an article in “Microbial Biotechnology,” detailing his research.

After using a previous equation to pair parenting styles with a parenting method book, I thought it might be fun to use a similar format to pair political ideas with a candidate.

The following equation is as non-partisan as I could possibly make it, and does more to measure and define your personal opinion than to choose candidates in the abstract. The crux, of course, is nailing down politicians' beliefs enough to accurately chart their numbers (though letting your bias, beliefs and opinions peek through this equation is as telling as the eventual result, itself).

First, order the following traits or political issues according to how central they are to the candidate’s message, or at least how important you think they should be in their central message ; 1 through 7 with 1 being most important and 7 least.

BRASILIA, Brazil, January 30 /PRNewswire/ --

Brasil Telecom Participacoes S.A. (BOVESPA: BRTP3/BRTP4; NYSE: BRP) registered recurring EBITDA of R$980.1 million in the 4Q07, 18.1% higher than the 4Q06. Brasil Telecom's consolidated quarterly EBITDA totaled R$ 902.3 million, accompanied by a consolidated EBITDA margin of 31.4%, versus R$ 947.1 million and 34.6%, respectively, in the 4Q06. Consolidated net revenue totaled R$2,876.1 million in the 4Q07, 4.9% up on the 4Q06, and Brasil Telecom recorded 4Q07 net income of R$ 205.6 million, equivalent to R$ 0.5673 per share.