Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Garmin Monterra handheld GPS runs Android, ships in Q3 for $650

Garmin's featurepacked Monterra handheld GPS runs Android, ships in Q3 for $650

This technically isn't Garmin's first foray into Android territory, but it could prove to be one of the most successful. The navigation company's just introduced Monterra, a dedicated handheld GPS running a TBA version of Android. Basic specs are in line with what you'd expect from a mid-range smartphone, including a 4-inch touchscreen, an 8-megapixel camera with flash and geotag support, 1080p video capture, 6GB of internal storage and microSD expansion. Naturally, the display is optimized for outdoor use -- it's transflective, so you only need to use the LED backlight in low light, letting you conserve power during daytime river treks and sunlit hikes.

The device is ruggedized, with an IPX7 waterproof rating, and can run on either a rechargeable battery pack (included) or AA batteries. It includes WiFi, ANT+, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC, a built-in FM radio with NOAA weather and SAME alerts, dual-band GPS and GLONASS receiver, a 3-axis compass with accelerometer and gyro, a UV sensor for monitoring the sun's intensity and a barometric altimeter, which can report altitude and predict weather based on pressure shifts. There's also a handful of preinstalled apps designed to take advantage of this plethora of connectivity, including Europe PeakFinder, or you can download favorites from Google Play -- anything from farming aids to efficiency trackers can utilize many of Monterra's bundled sensors. The device is expected to ship in Q3, and should run you about $650 in the US or £600 in the UK.

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Source: Garmin

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/24/garmin-monterra-android-gps/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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The Great American Nerdvel: Progress Report (Unqualified Offerings)

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From the Editor's Desk: Welcome to summer

Android Central

Has anyone come up with a way — short of moving to Sweden — that does something about that awful coating of sweat you get when you talk on the phone in the summer? I'm asking for a friend. OK, Bluetooth would be an answer, I guess, but who wants to be that guy?

Somehow, we're nearly through with June, and into July. (Yes, again.) Is it possible this has been one of the busiest years since I started doing this job full-time? Might well be, and we're not even covering things like the Xbox One (which I've preordered and will figure out why later) and the PlayStation 4. Insanity. Awesome insanity.

So, fresh off taking a break from this column for a week, some things I think I think. (With apologies to Peter King.)

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/4Gl1-ANuGU0/story01.htm

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Monday, June 24, 2013

Biking With Growlers Just Got Easier

Biking With Growlers Just Got Easier

There are always problems when you're trying to balance a lot of stuff on a bike. It either all in bags on the handlebars, or in one of your arms or in a backpack. It messes with your center of gravity. But at least with these Growler Cages you can transport your growlers (as you often do) from point A to point B without having to worry about anything.

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/1SoUXFXKzMA/biking-with-growlers-just-got-easier-551868474

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PFT: NFL rookies get harsh truth at symposium

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Reggie Williams, the Jaguars? first-round pick in 2004, was among the final cuts of the CFL?s Toronto Argonauts on Saturday.

Williams, 30, signed with the Argonauts on May 29. According to the Canadian QMI Agency wire service, Williams had a one-handed TD catch in the Argonauts? final preseason game Thursday vs. Montreal.

While Reggie Williams? stint in Toronto has ended, another former Jaguars receiver is very much a key part of the Argonauts? 2013 plans.

In fact, this ex-Jaguar is the CFL?s top best player in the estimation of TSN and sportswriters across Canada.

Chad Owens, a sixth-round pick of Jacksonville in 2005, was voted the CFL?s best player?on Friday.

Owens, 31, was the CFL?s Most Outstanding Player in 2012 after catching 94 passes for 1,328 yards and six TDs for the Grey Cup-champion Argos. Moreover, he set a league record for all-purpose yards.

Owens could never quite stick with the Jaguars, who released him in January 2008. But he stuck with professional football. He played Arena ball for a year, then landed on the Montreal Alouettes? practice roster for much of 2009. The next year, the Als traded him to Toronto, and he has been a key contributor since.

For former NFL players, making a?CFL roster is easier said than done. There are just eight CFL teams, and the Canadian game is different than the NFL game, with the wider field one example.

Given that Reggie Williams hasn?t been on an NFL roster since 2010, lasting until Toronto?s final cuts may signal he?s retained some professional-caliber skill. That?s one silver lining. Another may well be the success of his former Jaguars teammate, who?s authored quite the impressive career revival in Canada.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/06/22/rookie-symposium-message-most-of-you-will-be-gone-in-three-years/related/

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Student sues high school over Facebook bikini photo | The Daily ...

A former Georgia high school student has filed a lawsuit claiming that a school administrator impermissibly showed an image of her in a bikini to hundreds of local parents and students, reports Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB-TV.

Chelsea Chaney, who is now a freshman at the University of Georgia, said the photo was taken on a family vacation when she was 17 years old. It shows her in a two-piece bikini next to a cardboard cutout of legendary rapper Snoop Dogg.

Chaney?posted the photo on her Facebook page, believing that only people she had accepted as Facebook friends (and, of course, their friends) would be able to see it.

The director of technology at Starr?s Mill High School then decided to show the image during a well-attended district-wide seminar focused on the long-term dangers of social media.

In the seminar, which allegedly occurred when Chaney was a student at the school and a minor, the caption of Chaney?s bikini-clad photo was allegedly: ?Once it?s there, it?s there to stay.?

?I was embarrassed. I was horrified,? Chaney told a WSB-TV reporter. ?It never crossed my mind that it would ever ? that this would ever happen to me.?

The school official allegedly failed to obtain ? or, apparently, even try to obtain ? Chaney?s or her parents? permission.

The unnamed school official did later apologize, in writing, explaining that the image had been ?randomly chosen.?

Chaney did not accept the apology. She also remains skeptical of the motive.

?I just don?t think it was random,? she said. ?It wasn?t my main picture. You had to go looking through it.?

Pete Wellborn, an attorney now representing Chaney and her family, told the ABC affiliate that he has filed a lawsuit on her behalf for $2 million, alleging that the school district violated federal law, state law and Chaney?s constitutional rights.

Wellborn maintains that a person does not cede rights to others by posting images on Internet sites such as Facebook.

?Their idea that putting something on Facebook gives them a license to steal it and carte blanche to do with it what they did is wrong ethically, it?s wrong morally and it?s absolutely wrong legally,? the attorney argued.

?I just don?t want this to happen to another student,? Chaney added, according to the station.

The school district denied legal liability but otherwise declined to comment on the litigation.

Follow Eric on Twitter?and send education-related story tips to?erico@dailycaller.com.

Source: http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/22/student-sues-school-district-for-2-million-over-facebook-bikini-photo/

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Sunday, June 23, 2013

NY congressman says Bravo show promotes bigotry

NEW YORK (AP) ? A suburban New York congressman who represents the area where Bravo films its series "Princesses: Long Island" says the show is "the most objectionable thing I've ever seen on television" and promotes stereotyping of Jews.

The network should show a disclaimer before every episode to say there's nothing real about the nonfiction show, said Rep. Steve Israel, a New York Democrat.

Bravo said Friday the new series has averaged just over 1 million viewers over three airings on Sunday nights, which is considered a very successful start. "Princesses: Long Island" is reminiscent of MTV's "Jersey Shore" in focusing on a small subculture, in this case six young, unmarried women who are generally of comfortable means with plenty of idle time.

One of the women, Ashlee White, is nearly 30 and lives at home where her parents cook her food and do her laundry. She's looking for Mr. Right, but has high standards. "I'm Jewish, I'm American and I'm a princess," White said.

"I initially thought it was all in good fun," Israel said. "But 20 minutes into the show, I realized that promoting anti-Semitic stereotypes isn't that fun. It's one of the most objectionable things I've ever seen on television, and there are a lot of objectionable things on television."

Jodi Davis, a Bravo spokeswoman, said the show is "about six women who are young, educated, single and Jewish living in Long Island, and is not meant to represent all Jewish women or other residents of Long Island."

Israel said he's not encouraging Bravo to take the show off the air, but would like a statement like Davis' shown on the air. She had no immediate comment on whether Bravo would be able to or want to do that.

"Princesses: Long Island" has already had one incident that compelled an apology. White was quoted in one episode as calling the Long Island community of Freeport a "ghetto" in a cellphone conversation with her father, who advised her to roll up her car windows.

White, in a Bravo blog post, later apologized, saying she had been "stressed, overwhelmed and not thinking" when she said that.

Israel, a former president of the Institute on the Holocaust and the Law who once worked for the American Jewish Congress, said the show "leads viewers to believe that this is what being Jewish is all about, that if you're Jewish and live on Long Island, you're narcissistic, you are all about money and that a Shabbat dinner is all about drinking and fighting," he said.

The congressman, who also wrote about the show on The Huffington Post, said he wasn't concerned that speaking out publicly would encourage more people to watch it.

"Silence never works," he said.

____

EDITOR'S NOTE ? David Bauder can be reached at dbauder@ap.org or on Twitter @dbauder. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/david-bauder.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ny-congressman-says-bravo-show-promotes-bigotry-191856429.html

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Obama to speak at event designed to lobby Congress on policy initiatives (Washington Bureau)

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Solitary mutation destroys key 'window' of brain development

June 21, 2013 ? Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have shown in animal models that brain damage caused by the loss of a single copy of a gene during very early childhood development can cause a lifetime of behavioral and intellectual problems.

The study, published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience, sheds new light on the early development of neural circuits in the cortex, the part of the brain responsible for functions such as sensory perception, planning and decision-making.

The research also pinpoints the mechanism responsible for the disruption of what are known as "windows of plasticity" that contribute to the refinement of the neural connections that broadly shape brain development and the maturing of perception, language, and cognitive abilities.

The key to normal development of these abilities is that the neural connections in the brain cortex -- the synapses -- mature at the right time.

In an earlier study, the team, led by TSRI Associate Professor Gavin Rumbaugh, found that in mice missing a single copy of the vital gene, certain synapses develop prematurely within the first few weeks after birth. This accelerated maturation dramatically expands the process known as "excitability" -- how often brain cells fire -- in the hippocampus, a part of the brain critical for memory. The delicate balance between excitability and inhibition is especially critical during early developmental periods. However, it remained a mystery how early maturation of brain circuits could lead to lifelong cognitive and behavioral problems.

The current study shows in mice that the interruption of the synapse-regulating gene known as SYNGAP1 -- which can cause a devastating form of intellectual disability and increase the risk for developing autism in humans -- induces early functional maturation of neural connections in two areas of the cortex. The influence of this disruption is widespread throughout the developing brain and appears to degrade the duration of these critical windows of plasticity.

"In this study, we were able to directly connect early maturation of synapses to the loss of an important plasticity window in the cortex," Rumbaugh said. "Early maturation of synapses appears to make the brain less plastic at critical times in development. Children with these mutations appear to have brains that were built incorrectly from the ground up."

The accelerated maturation also appeared to occur surprisingly early in the developing cortex. That, Rumbaugh added, would correspond to the first two years of a child's life, when the brain is expanding rapidly. "Our goal now is to figure out a way to prevent the damage caused by SYNGAP1 mutations. We would be more likely to help that child if we could intervene very early on -- before the mutation has done its damage," he said.

This work was supported by the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (grant R01NS064079), the National Institute for Mental Health (grant R01MH096847) and the National Institute for Drug Abuse (grants R01 DA034116 and R03 DA033499).

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/HqGc67zj44g/130621095320.htm

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Saturday, June 22, 2013

FAVI Bluetooth PC / Tablet Keyboard and Presenter with Laser Pointer Review

The FAVI Bluetooth PC / Tablet Keyboard and Presenter with Laser Pointer?(yes, that is the actual product name) is a handy little Bluetooth keyboard with integrated touchpad and laser pointer. I guess FAVI couldn’t work Touchpad into the name. It includes some dedicated Android keys, some dedicated presentation keys, a laser pointer, and just about [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/06/21/favi-bluetooth-pc-tablet-keyboard-and-presenter-with-laser-pointer-review/

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Sony teases new smartwatch announcement for next week

Sony teases new smartwatch announcement for next week,

Sony's got us waiting on a super-sized Xperia smartphone, but it could have a new wearable to show Mobile Asia Expo attendees in Shanghai next week. In recent days, its Sony Xperia account has been tweeting cryptically about its existing Smartwatch, the demand for smart devices and (well, it is Sony) the company's portable tech heritage. Sony is set to host a Shanghai-based media event on Tuesday next week, and we'll be there to cover it.

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Via: Xperia Blog

Source: Sony Xperia (Twitter) (1), (2)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/21/sony-teases-new-smartwatch/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Friday, June 21, 2013

Gandolfini remembered as fighter for vets

Celebs

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James Gandolfini, who rose to fame as Tony Soprano on ?The Sopranos,? loved playing the complicated mobster. It is likely the role he?ll be most remembered for after his unexpected passing on June 19.

But as much fame and recognition as the role brought him, he was at heart a blue-collared guy who seemed just as proud of his HBO projects that involved bringing attention to the plight of veterans: 2007's "Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq" and 2010's "Wartorn: 1861-2010."

Image: "Wartorn 1861-2010"

HBO

James Gandolfini speaks to Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli in "Wartorn 1861-2010."

?Alive Day Memories,? which he both hosted and executive produced, took a look at wounded soldiers and the physical and emotional cost of the Iraq War.

?Coming right on the heels of ?The Sopranos? controversial season finale, this showed such a different and impassioned side of James Gandolfini: so soft-spoken and careful in his sensitive interviews with grievously wounded veterans. If anyone ever doubted that the actor was a world removed from the conflicted brute he played so brilliantly on TV, this documentary reinforced the ?gentle giant? side of his personality,? Matt Roush, senior TV critic for TV Guide, told NBC News. ?He obviously admired and respected these men and women and felt it a privilege to let them tell their stories through him. Hard to imagine a better use of one's celebrity and clout than getting the home network (to whom he stayed remarkably loyal, and vice versa) to expose this project to a wide audience.?

Gandolfini, who was never a fan of answering questions from throngs of reporters, set aside his own feelings and attended the Television Critics Association?s 2007 summer press tour to promote the project.

?I went to Iraq because I was playing this tough guy on TV, and I guess I wanted to go meet a few real ones. I was angry about the lack of attention that was being paid,? Gandolfini told reporters. ?I thought it was the least I could do.?

Gandolfini made the trip to Iraq two years before filming the documentary. Of the trip, he said, ?I met a lot of people and I met the soldiers. And then I came home and it was like, there?s nothing here (on TV about the impact of the war on soldiers). What?s going on? (HBO) came to me and I said, ?Yeah. Whatever I can do.??

Sheila Nevins, the president of HBO Documentary Films, explained to reporters at the press tour that the network had wanted to do a documentary about veterans of the Iraq War. ?We knew this was not an easy thing to watch, and it was not something necessarily that we could get people to watch,? she added.

But she knew that with Gandolfini on board, viewers would tune in. ?We spent a day with him at Walter Reed, watching him go from bed to bed and mother to mother,? she said. ?I knew I actually had a way possibly to make people watch these young men and women who were coming home.?

During the panel, the actor made sure the focus stayed on the wounded warriors who were there sharing the stage with him, deflecting any questions about himself and redirecting back to the subjects of the documentary.

?It?s not about me,? he told reporters when asked about how the project impacted him. ?I?m not trying to be antagonistic in any way, but I?d like the questions directed towards other things besides how it changed me, you know what I?m saying? Let?s have a different question.?

The veterans involved in the documentary praised him for being a good listener and setting aside his own star status to put their stories front and center. Not only that, they said the star was anything but a celebrity when he worked with them.

?You weren?t talking to Tony Soprano,? veteran Jay Wilkerson, who is featured in the documentary, said of speaking with the actor for the film. ?You were talking to this man who cared about us and our stories. He listened, really listened to what we had to say.?

?He made me feel like I was open to say anything and everything I wanted to say, and I had no boundaries,? the vet also said. ?And that?s what I was never able to do in Iraq. I was always told not to do that. He made it possible. And so I opened my mouth and spoke, and it was exactly what happened, word for word.?

Veteran Jonathan Bartlett, who lost his legs in the war, said the actor seemed a bit intimidating when they first met, but after they started talking, Gandolfini listened.

"There?s a lot of people, when you try to talk about this? stuff, it?s not something they want to hear about," Barlett told reporters at press tour. "We?re? talking about the way I died, talking about the way my legs? were torn off, talking about the way I almost lost my eye, ?talking about the way my dreams were shattered, and the man ?I thought I was is still living in me and he?s blown to ?crap. That?s hard to articulate. We sat, we got? comfortable, and we just let it all out, and that?s very,? very nice."

After the presentation, Gandolfini kept his own dislike for talking to member of the press at bay for the greater good of promoting the project. At an HBO party that hot July night, reporters instructed by their editors to get something from Gandolfini about the controversial ?Sopranos? series final that aired the month before tried breaching the wall with zero success. Gandolfini was tossing back appletinis and talked only about the veterans surrounding him.

When one reporter he was familiar with slipped in a ?Sopranos? question during a more indepth interview, instead of getting angry, he broke into a smile. Then he laughed and put his arms around the writer and whispered in her ear.

?That was a really good one, and almost makes me want to answer, but all this isn?t about me. It?s about them,? said Gandolfini.

Everyone thought the reporter had gotten a scoop. And she did: confirmation that Gandolfini cared more about the people in the documentary than in exploiting the opportunity to get more publicity out of his higher profile role.

A rare thing indeed in Hollywood.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/entertainment/gandolfini-known-tv-mobster-remembered-fighter-veterans-6C10394822

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Sunday, June 16, 2013

Mapping translation sites in the human genome

June 16, 2013 ? Because of their central importance to biology, proteins have been the focus of intense research, particularly the manner in which they are produced from genetically coded templates -- a process commonly known as translation. While the general mechanism of translation has been understood for some time, protein synthesis can initiate by more than one mechanism. One of the least well understood mechanisms is known as cap-independent translation.

Now, John Chaput and his colleagues at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute have produced the first genome-wide investigation of cap-independent translation, identifying thousands of mRNA sequences that act as Translation Enhancing Elements (TEEs), which are RNA sequences upstream of the coding region that help recruit the ribosome to the translation start site.

The new study outlines a technique for mining whole genomes for sequences that initiate cap-independent translation within the vastness of the genome.

The research has important implications for the fundamental understanding of translation in living systems, as well as intriguing potential in the biomedical arena. (Many viral pathogens are known to use cap-independent translation to hijack and redirect cellular mechanisms to translate viral proteins.)

The lead author of the study is Brian P. Wellensiek, a senior scientist in Biodesign's Center for Evolutionary Medicine and Informatics. The group's results appear in the current issue of the journal Nature Methods.

During most protein synthesis in eukaryotic cells, cap-dependent translation dominates. The process begins after DNA is first transcribed into mRNA, with the aid of an enzyme polymerase. mRNA now forms the coded template from which the translated proteins will be generated. The mRNA code consists of sequences made from 4 nucleic acids, A, C, G & U, with each 3-letter grouping (known as a codon), corresponding to one amino acid in the protein being synthesized.

A key component in the translation process is the ribosome, which migrates along the single stranded mRNA, reading the codons as it goes. Before it can do this however, it must locate a special structure at the 5' end of the mRNA strand known as the cap. In normal cap-dependent translation, the ribosome is recruited to the 5' end of mRNA via a specialized cap-binding complex.

Cap-independent translation allows the ribosome to begin reading the mRNA message without having to first locate the 5' cap structure. Cap-independent translation occurs in eukaryotic cells during normal processes including mitosis and apoptosis (or programmed cell death). It is also a feature in many forms of viral translation, where the viral transcript is able to recruit the ribosome and co-opt its function to preferentially translate viral RNA.

In the current study, Chaput designed an in vitro selection strategy to identify human genome sequences that initiate cap-independent translation. The technique is able to select candidates from a pool of trillions of genomic fragments. Once a set of sequences was identified as translation enhancing elements, they were shown to function effectively in both cell-free and cellular translation systems.

As Chaput explains, most research on cap-independent translation has been conducted using RNA fragments derived from viruses. "These RNA molecules will fold into shapes that appear to mimic some of the initiation factors that that you would find in eukaryotic translation," he says. More recently, similar RNA molecules have been identified in cellular systems, though the sequences tend to be much shorter and function in a different manner.

Chaput's method of studying such sequences on a genome-wide scale involves first generating a DNA library of the entire human genome. Using enzymes, the genome is cut into random fragments of around 200 base pairs each. These sequences are then transcribed into mRNA.

Applying a technique known as mRNA display, the fragments are tagged in specific way, such that amino acid sequences resulting from successful translation events remain bound to the mRNA fragments that generated them. "Essentially, what we're doing is taking a library of human mRNA and tagging those sequences that act as translation enhancing elements," Chaput says. Those sequences bearing an attached peptide affinity tag can then be separated out from the remaining untranslated sequences, reverse transcribed, amplified using PCR technology and subjected to subsequent rounds of selection.

The sequences were later mapped onto the human genome. As expected, the complete library of sequences used at the start of the experiments mapped fairly evenly across the genome. But the sequences selected via mRNA display as translation enhancing elements tended to cluster in non-coding regions of the genome. The authors speculate that such sequences may have been evolutionarily selected against, as they have the potential to disrupt normal cap-dependent translation.

Roughly 20 percent of the translation enhancing elements functioned as internal ribosomal initiation sites, again turning up primarily in non-coding genomic regions. The origin of these sequences remains mysterious. It is conceivable that they were surreptitiously brought on board as a result of human interaction with different types of viruses.

Once Chaput's group had acquired a library of 250 distinct translation enhancing elements through selection using mRNA display, the sequences were screened for translation enhancing activity, which was quantified using a light based assay employing a luciferase reporter molecule.

By measuring levels of luciferase, the enhancement of each sequence could be assessed relative to background noise, with the better translation enhancing elements displaying 50-100 fold enhancement (and some as much as 1000-fold enhancement). The next step was to determine which of these sequences could function as internal ribosomal initiation sites.

To do this, the same 250 sequences were inserted into a vector bearing a hairpin structure. As Chaput explains: "If the ribosome latched onto the 5' end, it would hit that hairpin and would fall off. However if the ribosome skipped the hairpin and recognized the sequence on the other side of the hairpin independently and translated it, that's an indication that the sequence is functioning as an internal ribosomal initiation site." Both assays (for translation enhancement and internal ribosomal initiation) were validated under cell-free conditions and in human cells, using a vaccinia virus vector.

A study of this scope is possible thanks to innovative techniques for in vitro selection (such as mRNA display), as well as a revolutionary technology permitting massively parallel RNA sequencing (known as deep sequencing), which provides unprecedented speed and read accuracy.

Much remains to be learned about atypical translation processes. The mechanism of action for translation enhancing elements is still obscure, particularly in the case of internal ribosomal initiation sites. Similarly, the particular gene products that may result from cap-independent translation have yet to be identified and characterized.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/giXLkqwIWhM/130616155211.htm

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Officials: NSA programs broke plots in 20 nations

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Top U.S. intelligence officials said Saturday that information gleaned from two controversial data-collection programs run by the National Security Agency thwarted potential terrorist plots in the U.S. and more than 20 other countries ? and that gathered data is destroyed every five years.

Last year, fewer than 300 phone numbers were checked against the database of millions of U.S. phone records gathered daily by the NSA in one of the programs, the intelligence officials said in arguing that the programs are far less sweeping than their detractors allege.

No other new details about the plots or the countries involved were part of the newly declassified information released to Congress on Saturday and made public by the Senate Intelligence Committee. Intelligence officials said they are working to declassify the dozens of plots NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander said were disrupted, to show Americans the value of the programs, but that they want to make sure they don't inadvertently reveal parts of the U.S. counterterrorism playbook in the process.

The release of information follows a bruising week for U.S. intelligence officials who testified on Capitol Hill, defending programs that were unknown to the public ? and some lawmakers ? until they were revealed by a series of media stories in The Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers, leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who remains in hiding in Hong Kong.

The disclosures have sparked debate and legal action against the Obama administration by privacy activists who say the data collection goes far beyond what was intended when expanded counterterrorism measures were authorized by Congress after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Intelligence officials said Saturday that both NSA programs are reviewed every 90 days by the secret court authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Under the program, the records, showing things like time and length of call, can only be examined for suspected connections to terrorism, they said.

The officials offered more detail on how the phone records program helped the NSA stop a 2009 al-Qaida plot to blow up New York City subways. They say the program helped them track a co-conspirator of al-Qaida operative Najibullah Zazi ? though it's not clear why the FBI needed the NSA to investigate Zazi's phone records because the FBI would have had the authority to gather records of Zazi's phone calls after identifying him as a suspect, rather than relying on the sweeping collection program.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/officials-nsa-programs-broke-plots-20-nations-233703820.html

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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Planning decision saves four English oaks and lets Leeds family ...

Councillors were faced with a planning conundrum - how to save four English oaks and give a young family a home.

But members of the plans panel north and east came up with a solution that could let both grow side-by-side.

Applicant James Marshall was told yesterday that a two storey side extension could not be built at his home on Penlands Crescent in Colton as it would affect the protected trees. He said his family had outgrown the house after five years there.

Leeds City Council tree specialist Richard Lapish said the buildings foundations were likely to put pressure on the roots.

However in a bid to save the trees and help the family, members of the plans panel agreed an extension to the front of the property could be the way forward.

A previous application to do exactly that was turned down in 2011, but members said such a development would not affect neighbours as the Marshalls lived on a corner plot in a cul-de-sac. The decision was deferred and delegated to planning officers, who were asked to find a positive way forward.

Coun Andrew McKenna (Lab, Garforth and Swillington) said: ?The applicant?s got a young family and we ought to be looking at it much more sympathetically.?

Coun Colin Campbell (Lib Dem, Otley and Yeadon) said: ?These trees are good for another 100 or 150 years.?

Source: http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/top-stories/planning-decision-saves-four-english-oaks-and-lets-leeds-family-expand-home-1-5769726

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Context crucial when it comes to mutations in genetic evolution

June 13, 2013 ? With mutations, it turns out that context can be everything in determining whether or not they are beneficial to their evolutionary fate.

According to the traditional view among biologists, a central tenet of evolutionary biology has been that the evolutionary fates of new mutations depend on whether their effects are good, bad or inconsequential with respect to reproductive success. Central to this view is that "good" mutations are always good and lead to reproductive success, while "bad" mutations are always bad and will be quickly weeded out of the gene pool. However, new research led by evolutionary biologist Jay Storz of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has found that whether a given mutation is good or bad is often determined by other mutations associated with it. In other words, genetic evolution is context-dependent.

In a study to be published in the June 14 issue of Science, Storz and colleagues at UNL and Aarhus University in Denmark report that an individual mutation can be beneficial if it occurs in combination with certain other mutations, but the same mutation can detrimental to the organism if it occurs in other combinations.

The researchers studied mutations that alter the function of hemoglobin, the protein in charge of transporting oxygen in the blood. Physiologists have long known that many high-altitude animals have evolved hemoglobins with high affinities for oxygen, which can enhance oxygen uptake in thin air. Earlier research by Storz's group on populations of North American deer mice that are native to high and low altitudes had found that the high-altitude mice had evolved hemoglobins with an increased oxygen-binding affinity -- and that this difference is attributable to the combined effects of genetic mutations at 12 different sites in the hemoglobin protein.

For the discovery reported in Science, the researchers used a technique called "protein engineering" to synthesize hemoglobin proteins that contained each of the naturally occurring mutations in all possible multi-site combinations.

"By measuring the oxygen-binding properties of these engineered hemoglobins, we discovered that the same individual mutations produced an increased oxygen-affinity in some combinations and they produced a decreased oxygen-affinity in other combinations. Their effects are completely context-dependent," said Storz, an associate professor of biological sciences.

"One of the important implications is that if there are interactions between mutations, then some mutational pathways of evolution may be more accessible than others. The evolutionary fate of a new mutation will depend critically on which other mutations have already occurred. The order in which mutations occur can determine whether evolution is more likely to follow some pathways rather than others. Evolution may follow certain pathways just because certain interactions may be negative, other interactions may be positive. These kinds of interaction effects determine what mutational pathways are open and available for evolution."

Storz's collaborators on the Science paper include Hideaki Moriyama, an associate professor of biological sciences at UNL, and two other researchers in Storz's lab, postdoctoral researcher Chandrasekhar Natarajan and graduate student Noriko Inoguchi; and Roy E. Weber and Angela Fago of Aarhus.

The research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health-National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Science Foundation in the United States, and the Science Faculty, Aarhus University, in Denmark.

It's the fifth time in five years that Storz's research has been published one of the major international interdisciplinary journals. Science is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/H970gjL5N3Y/130613142829.htm

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