WEVELGEM, Belgium, January 17 /PRNewswire/ --

- With Photo

The Slim Form Patch, a diet patch containing algae extracts, has beaten the more traditional slimming methods in the slimming test on TV channel CBS. The patch technology has now reached the slimming industry. During the test one man lost 11.4 kg in four weeks. If you go to http://www.slimformpatch.eu you can see how the Slim Form Patch won the competition.

A gigantic palm that flowers itself to death and exists as part of an entirely unique genus has been discovered in Madagascar. The mystery palm has a huge trunk which towers over 18m high and fan leaves which are 5m in diameter - among the largest known in flowering plants. This is the most massive palm ever to be found in Madagascar. It's so large it can be seen on Google Earth.

PHILADELPHIA and LONDON, January 17 /PRNewswire/ --

- Leading Research University is First in China to Purchase 100 Years of Web Of Science Comprehensive Backfile and Cited Reference Data

Thomson Scientific, part of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC) and leading provider of information solutions to the worldwide research and business communities, today announced that Century of Science(TM) has been purchased by Peking University in China. Century of Science expands Web of Science with the most important scientific bibliographic and cited reference data covering the period from 1900 to 1944.

“We are blessed to have each other to depend on. If you have to go through something bad like cancer, you’re glad to have a friend to go through it with,” said one of two brothers from Savannah, Georgia recovering from robotic prostate cancer surgery.

The two siblings flew to The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York to have lifesaving surgery on the same day this week. Dr. David B. Samadi, M.D., Chief of Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery in the Department of Urology at Mount Sinai successfully performed the robotic prostate cancer surgeries on the siblings one after another on Monday, January 14th, 2008.

On January 14, 2008, more than three decades after the third Mariner 10 flyby, the last spacecraft visit of Mercury, MESSENGER passed 200 kilometers above Mercury's surface. Extensive scientific observations were executed during this flyby encounter, including imaging a large portion of Mercury's surface that has never before been seen by a spacecraft.

CARLSBAD, California, January 17 /PRNewswire/ --

Ablation Frontiers, Inc., a privately-held medical device company, announced today a successful series of catheter ablations using the company's Tip-Versatile Ablation Catheter(TM) (T-VAC). Dr. Vince Paul of the St. Peter's Hospital in Chertsey, United Kingdom is one of three leading European sites that have been evaluating this new multi-electrode linear ablation catheter since November 2007. He performed four ablation procedures for atrial flutter, a potentially dangerous irregular heart rhythm.

MAIDENHEAD, England, January 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Wyeth (WYE) today announced data from a Phase 3 study which showed that Enbrel significantly reduces the symptoms and signs of plaque psoriasis in children and adolescents with the disease.(1) This study was published in the January 17, 2008, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

The trial - the first time any biological treatment has been tested in children and adolescents with plaque psoriasis - showed 57% of patients on etanercept for 12 weeks achieved the 'gold-standard' in improvement compared to 11% of patients who received the placebo.(1) An application for use of Enbrel in managing psoriasis in children and adolescents has been submitted by Wyeth to the European Medicines Authority and is under review.

A newly discovered parasite so dramatically transforms its host, an ant, that the ant comes to resemble a juicy red berry, ripe for picking, according to a report accepted for publication in The American Naturalist. This is the first example of fruit mimicry caused by a parasite, the co-authors say.

Presumably, the dramatic change in appearance and behavior tricks birds into eating infected ants - parasites and all - so that the bird can spread the parasite in its feces.

GAITHERSBURG, Maryland, January 16 /PRNewswire/ --

- With 2008 underway, Patton enters 25th year of communications equipment manufacturing

Patton Electronics -- the leader in business and carrier-class network access, connectivity, and Voice-over-IP equipment -- has entered their 25th year of designing, manufacturing, and marketing datacom and telecom equipment.

Having incorporated on 1 January 1984, Patton will mark their silver anniversary on 1 January 2009.

The Sigourney Community School District in southeast Iowa, has been using one of the country's first hybrid school buses since Jan. 3. And they're pretty excited about it.

Dan Taghon, director of transportation and driver, said the V-8 diesel engine and electric motor gave him plenty of acceleration. “It has quite a bit of get up and go,” he said. “You push the pedal and it takes right off.”

Advanced Energy, a nonprofit corporation based in Raleigh, N.C., led the effort to bring the country’s first 19 hybrid school buses to school districts in 11 states.

Researchers at Iowa State’s Center for Transportation Research and Education worked with Advanced Energy for more than two years to bring the hybrid buses to Iowa.