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Green New Deal - What Does It Mean For Investors And Industry?

Green New Deal - What Does It Mean For Investors And Industry?

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

LONDON, February 4 /PRNewswire/ -- President Obama is backing a green stimulus package with $150bn of investment in low-carbon infrastructure to create jobs and combat climate change. While on the other side of the Atlantic, on a smaller scale UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also espoused a green new deal to promote eco-friendly transport and renewables to boost employment.

So will investors follow the politicians' lead and put their money into climate change solutions - or will last year's relatively poor returns and the recession turn a green new deal into a pipe dream?

Telefonica Brings Telegent's Mobile TV Feature To Peru With ZTE I766 Handset

Telefonica Brings Telegent's Mobile TV Feature To Peru With ZTE I766 Handset

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

SUNNYVALE, California, February 4 /PRNewswire/ --

- Movistar-branded ZTE handset enables Peru consumers to view live, over-the-air TV programming on their handset, anytime, anywhere

Telegent Systems, the company that makes television mobile with its high-performance single-chip mobile TV solutions, together with Telefonica Moviles Peru, today announced that Telefonica has included the ZTE i766, a handset with a live TV feature enabled by Telegent, in its handset lineup. The handset, branded with Telefonica's Movistar logo, is available in all Telefonica retail outlets for 499 soles in prepaid mode.

AVIVA - Announcement Of 2008 Long-Term Savings New Business And Move To MCEV Reporting

AVIVA - Announcement Of 2008 Long-Term Savings New Business And Move To MCEV Reporting

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

LONDON, February 4 /PRNewswire/ -- AVIVA, the UK insurance group, will today be hosting a live presentation outlining full-year 2008 long-term savings new business figures plus the move from EEV to MCEV reporting.

Speakers at the event will include Andrew Moss, Aviva CEO, Philip Scott, Aviva CFO, Nic Nicandrou, FD Norwich Union Life, Tim Harris, Chief Financial Officer, Europe, and David Rogers, Aviva Chief Accounting Officer.

The live video webcast will be available on http://w3.cantos.com/aviva at 1000GMT with an on-demand replay available later in the day.

It's free to view. All you need to do is register at http://www.cantos.com.

Record Results Continue As Market Demand Grows For Varicent SPM

Record Results Continue As Market Demand Grows For Varicent SPM

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

TORONTO, February 4 /PRNewswire/ --

- Varicent entrenches leadership in sales performance management

Varicent Software, an innovator and provider of incentive compensation management (ICM) and sales performance management (SPM) solutions, continues to build on its momentum as a leader in the quickly evolving SPM market.

Remarkable revenue growth in 2008 was fueled by record customer demand, with notable companies including Getty Images, Smith and Nephew, Shaw Industries, Time Customer Service, Farmers Insurance, Nexient Learning, Gexa Energy, Manpower and more realizing the potential and value of Varicent SPM.

Mobile Phone Is An Excellent Assistant But A Bad Master - Does A New Application Black White Guard From CMI Technologies Help To Decrease A Number Of Divorces?

Mobile Phone Is An Excellent Assistant But A Bad Master - Does A New Application Black White Guard From CMI Technologies Help To Decrease A Number Of Divorces?

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

PRAGUE, Czech Republic, February 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Company CMI Technologies Ltd. (http://www.cmit.cz), has launched a new useful application for Nokia mobile phones, called Black White Guard.

The mobile phone is an excellent assistant, but it can also change a quiet life of many people into hell. It only takes a small inobservance and intimate information from SMS or data about intimate phone calls can get into unauthorized hands and cause a nuisance. According to psychologists SMS are the most common reason of conjugal infidelity disclosure. Also in politics, SMS have played their role. But in any case, it is not just conjugal infidelity or politics.

Bluegiga Provides Health Device Profile For Its Bluetooth OEM Modules

Bluegiga Provides Health Device Profile For Its Bluetooth OEM Modules

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

CONTINUA WINTER SUMMIT and TOKYO, February 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Bluegiga announced today that its OEM Bluetooth modules are now available with Bluetooth Health Device Profile (HDP). The Health Device profile is integrated into Bluegiga's iWRAP firmware, running inside the Bluegiga module, significantly simplifying and reducing the need for engineering and testing time for any type of health or medical device.

PR Newswire Appoints Ninan Chacko Chief Executive Officer

PR Newswire Appoints Ninan Chacko Chief Executive Officer

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

NEW YORK, February 4 /PRNewswire/ --

- Charles Gregson announces planned retirement at end of 2009; will remain at PR Newswire to transition role through end of March

Experienced leader in the distribution and technology industry, Ninan Chacko, is set to take the helm at PR Newswire with the planned retirement of Chief Executive Officer Charles Gregson, the company announced today.

To view the Multimedia News Release, go to: http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/prnewswire/36921/

(http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090204/NY66595)

Agendia's Breast Cancer Test MammaPrint(R) Standard Of Care At Netherlands Cancer Institute - AVL

Agendia's Breast Cancer Test MammaPrint(R) Standard Of Care At Netherlands Cancer Institute - AVL

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

HUNTINGTON BEACH, California and AMSTERDAM, February 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Agendia, a world leader in molecular cancer diagnostics, today announced that its signature breast cancer test MammaPrint(R) will be offered as standard of care for all eligible early stage breast cancer patients at the Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital (NKI-AVL). The NKI-AVL believes MammaPrint provides better guidance for decisions regarding adjuvant therapy. As one of the participating centers in the MINDACT trial NKI-AVL is already offering MammaPrint to patients and will continue to do so. In future, however, NKI-AVL will also make MammaPrint available to patients who fall outside MINDACT's inclusion criteria.

EHosting DataFort Awarded Record Of Three ISO Certifications In 12 Months

EHosting DataFort Awarded Record Of Three ISO Certifications In 12 Months

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

DUBAI, February 4 /PRNewswire/ --

- Accreditations in Assurance, Best Practice and Data Security

eHosting DataFort, the region's leading IT Outsourcing and Advisory services provider, today announced it has obtained three International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certifications - ISO9001: 2008, ISO 20000:2005 and ISO 27001:2005.

The three global standard accreditations were awarded to EHDF by the British Standards Institution (BSI) and Det Norske Veritas (DNV) confirming the entity as the only company in the entire Middle East region to have achieved this in a 12 month period.

Alcatel-Lucent : Fourth Quarter 2008: Solid Operational Performance

Alcatel-Lucent : Fourth Quarter 2008: Solid Operational Performance

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

PARIS, February 4 /PRNewswire/ --

- Bottom Line Impacted by Substantial Impairment Charge

AboutAnywhere.com Responds To Backlash Of Outraged Travel Agents Regarding Objective To Eradicate Commissions In Hotel Industry

AboutAnywhere.com Responds To Backlash Of Outraged Travel Agents Regarding Objective To Eradicate Commissions In Hotel Industry

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

MIAMI, February 4 /PRNewswire/ --

- AboutAnywhere.com reinforces and supports the continued need for the traditional travel agency, the one-on-one customer service it provides and its incomparable expertise in the travel industry.

With the emergence of the virtual or Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) came speculation and concern over the death of the brick and mortar travel agency community. Such a metaphoric death would leave many travel agents without employment and the travel industry without an integral part of its foundational infrastructure.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090108/CLTH010LOGO )

Titanoboa - Titanic Boa Fossil From Colombia Is World's Largest Snake

Titanoboa - Titanic Boa Fossil From Colombia Is World's Largest Snake

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

Excavations in Colombia co-organized by Carlos Jaramillo, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and Jonathan Bloch, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the University of Florida's Florida Museum of Natural History, have unearthed fossil remains of a new snake species they named Titanoboa cerrejonensis. 

Surrounded by huge trucks extracting coal from Cerrejon, one of the world's largest open-pit mines, researchers discovered fossilized bones of super-sized snakes and their prey, crocodiles and turtles, in the Cerrejon Formation, along with fossilized plant material from the oldest known rainforest in the Americas, which flourished at the site 58-60 million years ago.
What Funny Faces Can Tell Us About Schizophrenia

What Funny Faces Can Tell Us About Schizophrenia

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

As many as 2.4 million Americans have schizophrenia so a late or incorrect diagnosis and the lack of effective treatment options can destroy a sufferer's quality of life. Schizophrenia usually emerges between the ages of 18 and 30 but diagnosis before the disease manifests itself could be the key to developing more successful treatments, says Prof. Talma Hendler, of Tel Aviv University's Department of Psychology.



Until now, detecting mental illness before symptoms appear has been nearly impossible. Building on her groundbreaking work on facial recognition and brain imaging, Prof. Hendler is hoping to make early diagnosis a reality by identifying the physical markers of mental illness — particularly schizophrenia — inside the brain.
How The Influenza Virus Hijacks Human Cells

How The Influenza Virus Hijacks Human Cells

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

Influenza is and remains a disease to reckon with. Seasonal epidemics around the world kill several hundred thousand people every year. In the light of looming pandemics if bird flu strains develop the ability to infect humans easily, new drugs and vaccines are desperately sought. Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the joint Unit of Virus Host-Cell Interaction (UVHCI) of EMBL, the University Joseph Fourier (UJF) and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), in Grenoble, France, have now precisely defined an important drug target in influenza. In this week's Nature they publish a high-resolution image of a crucial protein domain that allows the virus to hijack human cells and multiply in them.
Found: Master Gene Behind Blood Vessel Development, Say Researchers

Found: Master Gene Behind Blood Vessel Development, Say Researchers

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

University of Minnesota researchers say they have identified the "master gene" behind blood vessel development.  Using genetically engineered mice, researchers with the University of Minnesota Medical School's Lillehei Heart Institute were able to identify a protein, Nkx2-5, which activates a certain gene, and in turn, determines the fate of a group of cells in a developing embryo. 

Better understanding of how this gene operates in the early stages of development may help researchers find better treatments for heart disease and cancer. 
Earliest Evidence For Animal Life Pushed Back To 635 Million Years Ago

Earliest Evidence For Animal Life Pushed Back To 635 Million Years Ago

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

An international research team of scientists from UC Riverside, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Geoscience Australia, the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, the California Institute of Technology and the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom has found the oldest evidence for animals in the fossil record.

The researchers examined sedimentary rocks in south Oman, and found an anomalously high amount of distinctive steroids that date back to 635 million years ago, to around the end of the last immense ice age. The steroids are produced by sponges – one of the simplest forms of multicellular animals.
Fragile X Granule Could Lead To New Autism Treatment

Fragile X Granule Could Lead To New Autism Treatment

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

Autism affects as many as 1.5 million Americans, and the number is increasing, according to the Autism Society of America. It is estimated that 1 in 150 births involve children with some form of autism.

Autism can be caused by a variety of genetic factors, but a new Brown University study focused on one particular area — the Fragile X protein. If that protein is mutated, it leads to Fragile X syndrome, which causes mental retardation and is often accompanied by autism.
Breast Cancer Risk Declines After Postmenopausal Combined Hormone Therapy Stops - Study

Breast Cancer Risk Declines After Postmenopausal Combined Hormone Therapy Stops - Study

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

Women who stopped taking the postmenopausal hormone combination of estrogen plus progestin experienced a marked decline in breast cancer risk which was unrelated to mammography utilization change, according to a study from the Women's Health Initiative led by a Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed) investigator that was published today in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Breast cancer in the United States began to decline in 2003, after the Women's Health Initiative's initial findings that combined hormone therapy was related to higher risk of breast cancer and heart problems.
Jhdm2a Gene A New Target For Treating Obesity With Drugs

Jhdm2a Gene A New Target For Treating Obesity With Drugs

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine say they have discovered a gene that when mutated causes obesity by dampening the body's ability to burn energy while leaving appetite unaffected. 

The new research could potentially lead to new pharmacologic approaches to treating obesity in humans that do not target the brain, according to study senior author Yi Zhang, Ph.D., Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and professor of biochemistry and biophysics in the UNC School of Medicine. Zhang is also a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. 
What A New Fossil Tells Us About New Zealand's Watery Past

What A New Fossil Tells Us About New Zealand's Watery Past

Feb 04 2009 | comment(s)

Show Me The Science Month Day 8

A tuatara may look like an iguana, but it's a reptile in a category all its own. Tuataras are most closely related to lizards and snakes, but in some ways they are oddballs among reptiles, with unique characteristics among reptiles, like their affinity for cool weather, their nocturnal lifestyle, a third eye on top of the skull, and vertebrae that more closely resemble those of fish and amphibians than reptiles. Male tuataras also have another odd feature - they lack a certain member, which means their reproductive behavior differs from other lizards.


Image courtesy of the Wikipedia Commons