Science Education & Policy

MOSCOW, January 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Mechel OAO (NYSE: MTL), one of the leading Russian mining and metals companies, announces the appointment of Andrey Deineko as its Steel Division Director. Andrey Deineko (54) will be in charge of developing Mechel's steel segment, carrying out operational management, planning, and controlling operations of Mechel's steel assets. "We are very pleased that such a high level professional, who obtained an education in metallurgy and has extensive experience in various scientific, commercial, production, and government agencies, will join our team as our…

PUERTOLLANO, Spain and MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, January 15 /PRNewswire/ -- - Castilla-La Mancha Site is Major Milestone in Commercialization of Concentrator Photovoltaics SolFocus, designer and manufacturer of solar energy solutions including concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) systems, intelligent tracking systems, and solar thermal technology, and Spain's Institute of Concentration Photovoltaics Systems (ISFOC) today announced the installation of the first CPV array in the ISFOC's 3 MW project in Castilla-LaMancha. This is the first 200kW of the .5MW that SolFocus will install over the next…

LONDON, January 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Perenco has completed the acquisition of Barrett Resources (Peru) LLC, a company holding oil and gas licences in Peru. The principal asset of Barrett, which will in future be known as Perenco Peru Limited, is its 100% interest in the licence contract for Block 67 in the Maranon Basin. Block 67 contains the Paiche, Dorado and Pirana Fields which together hold estimated 2P resources of over 300 million barrels. When the development is completed it is estimated that these fields will have potential to produce up to 100,000 barrels of oil per day. The Plan of…

New research from Vanderbilt University states that the brain processes aggression as a reward, similar to the way it processes sex and food, and this may help explain a propensity to fight and struggle or perhaps the enjoyment of violent sports like boxing. “Aggression occurs among virtually all vertebrates and is necessary to get and keep important resources such as mates, territory and food,” Craig Kennedy, professor of special education and pediatrics, said. “We have found that the ‘reward pathway’ in the brain becomes engaged in response to an aggressive event and that dopamine is…

BURLINGTON, Massachusetts, January 14 /PRNewswire/ -- SunGard (http://www.sungard.com) today announced that Financial-i magazine has named SunGard's Phase3 (http://www.sungard.com/phase3) the most innovative brokerage securities processing system in the magazine's "Leaders in Innovation Awards" for the second consecutive year. Financial-i selected winners in conjunction with leading analyst firms and consultants in the industry, based on product innovations that have shaped the delivery of business solutions in wholesale transaction banking over the last 12 months. Vendor winners were chosen…

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, January 14 /PRNewswire/ -- - National University of Singapore President is Widely Recognized Global Leader in Academic and Corporate Scientific Research After an extensive international search among top academic research leaders, His Excellency Minister Ali Ibrahim Al-Naimi, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia and Chairman of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Board of Trustees, today aannounced that Professor Choo Fong Shih will be the Founding President of KAUST, the new world-class, graduate-level scientific…

HOUSTON, January 14 /PRNewswire/ -- - Expert Faculty to Present Updates on the Latest Neuroscience Research and Clinical Treatments The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, renowned institutions from Houston's Texas Medical Center, announced the first Neuroscience Frontiers Conference, which will take place at the Grand Hyatt in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), on January 21, 2008. The event will offer a forum for the exchange of the latest neuroscience developments and therapies among faculty at both institutions and leading researchers and…

TORONTO, Canada, January 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Comprehensive Care International (CCI), is pleased to announce the appointment of Jarvis L. Hoult, B.A., M.H.A., CHE as Vice President of Projects. Mr. Hoult is a senior health care executive with 30 years experience creating profound change within the global health care arena. Mr. Hoult will be responsible for designing and overseeing the execution of strategies to support CCI's growing international client base, ensuring success in the knowledge transfer of healthcare practices and healthcare technology. After 20 years in senior management…

An international study of 20,000 people found seven new genes that influence blood cholesterol levels, a major factor in heart disease, and confirmed 11 other genes previously thought to influence cholesterol. The international study led by researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health set out to identify or confirm genetic variants that influence lipid levels, and secondly, to see if those variants were linked to the decreased or increased risk of heart disease. The results may lead the medical community to rethink the role of HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad…

The new journal Evolution: Education and Outreach is now available online and free to download. My contribution to the first issue is "Evolution as fact, theory, and path". Feel free to distribute this and any other papers from the journal as widely as you like, but please link to the journal website rather than re-posting papers. There are now several available articles that discuss this important subject: Evolution as fact, theory, and path (T. Ryan Gregory) Evolution as fact and theory (Stephen Jay Gould) Evolution: fact and theory (Richard E. Lenski) Evolution is a fact and a theory (…