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This post is about trying to do all the right things in the context of evolving with thoughtful planning, it is about coming of age with knowledge of who oneself is, who ''we'' are, how we will cope, how we will continue together, perhaps with newer staff, newer members of our communities small and large, how we plan to accommodate, to provide for, to build upon our knowledge towards better and safer conditions, all while we gently caress each other with delicate respect for each other and remembering how lucky we are to have life, breath, air to breathe. Considering building on new worlds where our bodies have not had much time to adapt to what could become the difference between our races survival and it's continuing emancipation from the dark places where perhaps we once lurked shivering scarred and seemingly futile among the billions, perhaps trillions of years that it was before we evolved to this stage...
Let us be humble with life and awe in its respect for our fragile bodies, let us save grace for our father who's art is in heaven...
Tracy Chapman / Baby can I hold you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJimv-2YFZY
Math Professor Illuminates Cellular Basis of Neural Impulse Transmission
(Nov. 6, 2010) — A new mathematical model shows that the calcium current through an N-type channel is larger than calcium channels that are not involved in synaptic transmission, contrary to the currently accepted channel conductance hierarchy.
NJIT Associate Professor Victor Matveev, PhD, in the department of mathematical sciences, was part of a research team that published the study in Nature Neuroscience.
Leading the project, Elise Stanley, PhD, a senior scientist at the Toronto Western Research Institute, said that Matveev's mathematical modeling showed that calcium influx through a single N-type calcium channel is sufficient to trigger the fusion of a secretory vesicle located 25 nm from the channel.
Explained Stanley: "These findings may help to explain why nature evolved this new family of channels, permitting an efficient transmitter release mechanism with a modular molecular organization. Our next objective will be to determine how this exquisitely organized 'molecular machine' plays a role in synaptic modulation which is critical for memory and behavior modification." Since transmitter release is involved in virtually every aspect of nervous system function, these results have a broad impact for the understanding of normal brain processing and central and peripheral nervous system disorders.
The results of this work showed that the calcium current through an N-type channel was larger in comparison to calcium channels that are not involved in synaptic transmission, contrary to the currently accepted channel conductance hierarchy.
Furthermore, the authors' modeling work showed that the current through a single open N-type calcium channel may be sufficient to enable neurotransmitter release. These results demonstrate the degree to which N-type calcium channel properties are adapted for their role in synaptic transmission, and also shed light on the highly localized nature of intra-synaptic calcium signaling.
Matveev's research focuses on computational neuroscience, primarily on biophysical modeling and numerical simulations of synaptic function and its mechanisms. He uses analytical methods and computational techniques, from stochastic modeling to numerical solution of partial and ordinary differential equations.
Matveev collaborates with experimental neurophysiologists, and develops models to explain and fit the experimental data. His current projects include the study of the mechanisms of short-term synaptic facilitation and other calcium-dependent processes involved in neurotransmitter secretion, and the modeling of presynaptic calcium diffusion and buffering.
To facilitate his research, Matveev also has been working on the development of a software application designed for solving the reaction-diffusion equation arising in the study of intracellular calcium dynamics ("Calcium Calculator").
Duran Duran / The reflex
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eotbo-DsPTo&feature=related
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I believe that sportsman will play a terrific part of the evolution equation for the development of off planetary physiological research and monitoring activities, pushing the body to it's perimeters of athleticism will be a vital part of learning how different habitats will effect the human body in the immediate and the long term future with observations showing obvious body functions to be responsive to particular atmospheric conditions for particular types of sports and body movement, and aswell showing potential weakness's for afflictions to the body caused by differing inertial stress factors.
Aussies plan referendum on Aboriginal recognition
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia's government plans to hold a referendum within three years on whether to amend its constitution to acknowledge the Aborigines as the first Australians, the prime minister said Monday.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the time was now right to amend the constitution to acknowledge that "the first people of our nation have a unique and special place" because such a referendum has broad support in parliament. Parliament needs to endorse proposals to hold referendums.
One of the first acts undertaken by the Labor government after its 2007 parliament election victory was to formally apologize to Aborigines for injustices during the more than 200 years since British colonists arrived.
An expert panel including Aborigines will soon be appointed and report to the government next year on the wording of the referendum. The vote will take place before or during the next general election in late 2013, she said.
"Support this widespread across the parliament means we have a once-in-50-years opportunity for our country," Gillard told reporters.
Australians are reluctant to change their constitution and only eight of the 44 referendums that have been voted on since 1901 have succeeded.
A referendum was defeated in 1999 that would that would have added a preamble to the constitution honoring Aborigines as "the nation's first people for their deep kinship with their lands and for their ancient and continuing cultures which enrich the life of our country."
Larissa Behrendt, an Aboriginal professor at Sydney's University of Technology, predicted that Aborigines will argue for indigenous rights to be entrenched in the text of the constitution rather than a symbolic acknowledgment in a preamble.
"The danger is that if you put the question up about constitutional protection of indigenous people and it fails, it sends a very bad message to the Aboriginal community and what is supposed to be an act of recognition of the special place of Aboriginal people in Australian society becomes a further insult," she said.
It will be vital to be able to scout all terrain regularly for adverse conditions and anomalies, alien life could exist as invisible entities solid and gaseous on an unknown spectrum, but, could obviously be a very real territorial defender with abilities unknown to human activity, aliens of yellow, red and blue could all be invisible to our infra red and ultra violet spectrum. It is no cowards world the world of investment...
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Bruce Springsteen / Born in the U.S.A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZD4ezDbbu4
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Predictive Power of Dairy Cattle Methane Models Insufficient to Provide Sound Environmental Advice, Study Finds
(Nov. 5, 2010) — Canadian and Dutch researchers have shown that current equations to predict methane production of cows are inaccurate. Sound mitigation options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of dairy farms require a significant improvement of current methane equations, according to a study of the Dutch-Canadian team in the journal Global Change Biology.
The researchers, from University of Guelph and University of Manitoba (Canada) and Wageningen University & Research centre (the Netherlands), compared the observed methane production of cows with that predicted by nine different methane equations that are applied in whole farm greenhouse gas models. "The prediction accuracy of these equations is small, and the equations are not suitable to quantify methane production of cows," says Dr Jan Dijkstra, senior researcher worker at Wageningen University and adjunct professor at University of Guelph. "The predictive power of methane equations will have to be markedly improved if such whole farm models are used for sound decisions by governments to reduce environmental impact of dairying."
On a global basis, according to the FAO livestock is responsible for some 18% of all greenhouse gases emitted. Methane is the most important greenhouse gas on a dairy farm.The FAO estimates that about 52% of all greenhouse gases from the dairy sector is in the form of methane. Several whole-farm models are available that predict the total amount of greenhouse gases (the sum of CO2, CH4 en N2O) of dairy farms. Such whole-farm models are applied to make an inventory of total greenhouse gas emission on farm, and to estimate the effect of management changes (changes in breeding, nutrition, etc.) on greenhouse gas emissions. Methane is the single most important element in such estimates. Methane is 25 times more potent than CO2. Hence, the accuracy of estimation of total greenhouse gas emissions of whole-farm models largely depends on the accuracy of the prediction of methane emitted per cow.
The research team compiled a large dataset of actual observations on methane emissions of dairy cattle. The observations were largely derived from respiration chamber experiments, in which methane produced in the gut of the cow is accurately determined. These observations were used to evaluate the predictive power of equations to predict methane production.
The prediction accuracy of all equations was low. The equations hardly account for the effect of dietary composition on enteric methane production. Most equations do not use any dietary information at all, but estimate methane production based on feed intake or milk production. For example, the widely used IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) equation that predicts methane production based on energy intake of the cow, cannot distinguish the effect of a higher energy intake on methane due to a rise in feed intake level, from that due to a rise in dietary fat content at the same feed intake level. However, a higher feed intake will increase methane production, whereas a rise in dietary fat content will decrease methane production.
From the analysis, it also appears that the variation in predicted methane production is far smaller that the variation in actually observed methane production. Consequently, the methane equations do not fully represent the range of effects of dietary changes on enteric methane production of cows.
The research team concluded that the low prediction accuracy and poor prediction of variation in observed values may introduce substantial error into inventories of GHG emissions and lead to incorrect mitigation recommendations. For sound inventories and mitigation recommendations, much better methane predictions are required. At present, the researchers are actively developing more detailed and accurate models that predict methane production, based on the fermentation processes in the gastro-intestinal tract of cows.
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It would certainly be as challenging to colonise food on other planets as humans, not much has been shown of research regarding food growth off planet, and even the recent 'space beer' that has been tested for it's potency and taste in low earth orbit has not had the 'yeast' tested for adverse disorders. Hopefully the ingredients of space food and drink will be tested inside the consumers stomach for general effects and condition, but, to grow the ingredients off planet and use them in civilian food and drink will require another complete set of tests and research.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33In9SHWDHI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48QuBPL8dPg&feature=related
RELEASE : 10-295
NASA'S Fermi Telescope Discovers Giant Structure In Our Galaxy
WASHINGTON -- NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has unveiled a previously unseen structure centered in the Milky Way. The feature spans 50,000 light-years and may be the remnant of an eruption from a supersized black hole at the center of our galaxy.
"What we see are two gamma-ray-emitting bubbles that extend 25,000 light-years north and south of the galactic center," said Doug Finkbeiner, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., who first recognized the feature. "We don't fully understand their nature or origin."
The structure spans more than half of the visible sky, from the constellation Virgo to the constellation Grus, and it may be millions of years old. A paper about the findings has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.
Finkbeiner and Harvard graduate students Meng Su and Tracy Slatyer discovered the bubbles by processing publicly available data from Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT). The LAT is the most sensitive and highest-resolution gamma-ray detector ever launched. Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of light.
Other astronomers studying gamma rays hadn't detected the bubbles partly because of a fog of gamma rays that appears throughout the sky. The fog happens when particles moving near the speed of light interact with light and interstellar gas in the Milky Way. The LAT team constantly refines models to uncover new gamma-ray sources obscured by this so-called diffuse emission. By using various estimates of the fog, Finkbeiner and his colleagues were able to isolate it from the LAT data and unveil the giant bubbles.
Scientists now are conducting more analyses to better understand how the never-before-seen structure was formed. The bubble emissions are much more energetic than the gamma-ray fog seen elsewhere in the Milky Way. The bubbles also appear to have well-defined edges. The structure's shape and emissions suggest it was formed as a result of a large and relatively rapid energy release -- the source of which remains a mystery.
One possibility includes a particle jet from the supermassive black hole at the galactic center. In many other galaxies, astronomers see fast particle jets powered by matter falling toward a central black hole. While there is no evidence the Milky Way's black hole has such a jet today, it may have in the past. The bubbles also may have formed as a result of gas outflows from a burst of star formation, perhaps the one that produced many massive star clusters in the Milky Way's center several million years ago.
"In other galaxies, we see that starbursts can drive enormous gas outflows," said David Spergel, a scientist at Princeton University in New Jersey. "Whatever the energy source behind these huge bubbles may be, it is connected to many deep questions in astrophysics."
Hints of the bubbles appear in earlier spacecraft data. X-ray observations from the German-led Roentgen Satellite suggested subtle evidence for bubble edges close to the galactic center, or in the same orientation as the Milky Way. NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe detected an excess of radio signals at the position of the gamma-ray bubbles.
The Fermi LAT team also revealed Tuesday the instrument's best picture of the gamma-ray sky, the result of two years of data collection.
"Fermi scans the entire sky every three hours, and as the mission continues and our exposure deepens, we see the extreme universe in progressively greater detail," said Julie McEnery, Fermi project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
NASA's Fermi is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the United States.
"Since its launch in June 2008, Fermi repeatedly has proven itself to be a frontier facility, giving us new insights ranging from the nature of space-time to the first observations of a gamma-ray nova," said Jon Morse, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "These latest discoveries continue to demonstrate Fermi's outstanding performance."
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Air Science 40 Webinar: Linking Individual PM Pollutants with Specific Health Risks
Wednesday, November 10, 2010 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM EST
Webinar Registration
Air Science 40: Five Years of Progress in Particulate Matter Research
Please join the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Harvard University PM Research Center in the third presentation of a seven- part series of Webinars on air quality and particulate matter research. The webinars are part of a 40-year celebration of air research at EPA.
Speakers: John Godleski, M.D., associate director, will present "Toxicological Evaluation of Realistic Emission Source Aerosols (TERESA) Studies" and Joel Schwartz, Ph.D., lead investigator, will present "Particle Pollution and the Elderly."
The Harvard PM Center conducted research on the biological and chemical causes of health effects, the sources and types of pollution that are associated with adverse health effects, and which people are at the highest risk. Scientists focused on cardiovascular health through traffic studies, including exposures from tunnels, and studies with local, elderly veterans. Researchers also explored various cardiovascular aspects of disease including blood pressure, heart rate, blood vessel narrowing, and inflammatory indicators. Pollution particles containing certain chemicals and particle sizes were linked to increased health effects. Center scientists have also shown that particles that have spent time in the atmosphere and traffic particles could be more toxic.
For more information on EPA's Air Science 40 Webinar series, please visit:
http://www.epa.gov/airscience/seminar-calendar.htm
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/830375998
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New Player in Innate Immunity? Class of Biomolecules Triggered in Response to Respiratory Virus Infection
(Nov. 7, 2010) — For the first time, scientists have discovered that a poorly understood class of RNA produced in a mammal's cells during a respiratory virus attack may affect the outcome of the infection. Their findings are reported in mBio, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
RNA (ribonucleic acid) contains information transcribed from the cell's instruction manual, its DNA. The best known of these RNAs translate sections of DNA code into building blocks for proteins.
Most studies of how animals' cells respond to virus infection typically look at protein-coding genes, which produce germ-fighting or inflammation-producing substances. However, mammalian cells also transcribe thousands of other RNAs that don't code for proteins.
"The role of most of these non-protein-coding RNAs remains an enigma," noted lead author of the study Dr. Xinxia Peng, a computational research scientist in the Department of Microbiology, University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine in Seattle. Dr. Michael Katze, UW professor of microbiology, directed the project. Katze heads the Center for Systems and Translational Research on Infectious Disease (STRIDE).
"Some attention," Katze said, "has been given to small RNAs, like microRNAs, in host-virus interactions, but now it's becoming apparent that many long-non-protein coding RNAs -- bigger than 200 nucleotides -- are also biologically important."
Researchers are learning that long non-protein-coding RNAs have a wide variety of functions. A few examples are modifying chromosomes, regulating genes, influencing cell structure, and serving as precursors for small RNAs and microRNAs, which are involved in virus-host interactions.
The library of RNA transcripts inside of a cell is called its transcriptome, and is a reflection of gene activity. Many different RNAs can be read from a single gene. That is why a transcriptome contains much more complex instructions than seems possible from the DNA code. Unlike the genome, the transcriptome varies in different types of cells in the body and in accordance with ever-changing conditions inside and outside the cell. Peng recalled, "There were intensive discussions about what value the new whole-transcriptome analysis would add to our understanding of viral pathogenesis. After several exploratory analyses, we realized that many long non-protein coding RNAs also responded to SARS virus infection. We were so excited. The response had just been overlooked by people."
"People have not seriously looked at these long-non-protein coding RNAs during viral infection," Peng noted, "because so little is known about these RNAs in general and this type of RNA can't be monitored easily with typical technologies." Katze and his research team were able to use highly advanced technologies, namely next generation sequencing, to perform a whole-transcriptome analysis of the host response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) infection. The study was conducted in four strains of mice, some more susceptible to this virus or to the flu virus than others.
Through a comprehensive computational analysis of the data, the researchers observed that virus infection triggered about 500 long non-protein coding RNAs transcribed from known locations on the genome and about 1,000 from previously unspecified genomic regions.
"Using this approach," Katze noted, "we demonstrated that virus infection alters the expression of numerous long non-protein coding RNAs. These findings suggest that these RNAs may be a new class of regulatory molecules that play a role in determining the outcome of infection." The long non-protein coding RNAs may be helping to manage the infected animal's response to the virus, including the basic, first-line defense against infection -- the animal's innate, or inborn, immunity.
Another important finding was that the strains of more susceptible mice had a common profile showing distinct rates of genetic activity. This profile contained unique "signatures" of non-protein coding RNA activity. These signatures were associated with lethal infection. Test-tube studies show that more that 40 percent of the long non-coding RNAs and genomic regions activated in a SARS infection were also activated in response to both influenza virus infection and interferon treatment.
This finding further pointed to a signature profile associated with pathogenicity -- the power of a virus-host interaction to cause disease.
"The relevance of long-non-protein coding RNAs to viral infections has not been systematically studied," said Dr. Paulene Quigley, program manager of the STRIDE center. " But now, with our ability to do whole-transcriptome analysis using next generation sequencing, we can systematically catalog and compare these long non-protein coding RNA in response to infection. What we are finding is very promising for infectious disease research."
These results, to the best of the scientists' knowledge, are the first to clearly demonstrate the widespread production and activation of long non-coding RNAs in response to virus infection. Their success opens new avenues for investigating the roles of long-non-protein coding RNAs in innate immunity to infection.
Exactly how the long-non-protein coding RNAs perform these functions is not yet known. It's possible that they might interact with protein complexes that modify gene expression during a viral infection. They might also modulate the host's response by regulating neighboring protein-coding genes.
"The functions of non-protein coding RNAs remain largely unexplored, but we now have the tools to study them," Katze said. "Such studies are critical, because non-protein coding RNAs may represent a whole new class of innate immunity signaling molecules, interferon-dependent regulators, or modulators of the host response during viral infection. They could also be a new class of biomarkers for infectious disease and for diagnostics development. Identifying similar profiles in response to lethal respiratory infections may even provide clues into the 'high-path' viral infection, one of the holy grails of virology. That's a big deal any way you slice it."
Highly pathogenic viruses causing life-threatening illnesses, like SARS or West Nile or pandemic flu, continue to emerge. Looking forward, a detailed knowledge of non-protein coding RNA regulation and function likely will be necessary for a full understanding of how viruses cause disease and how the body defends against or succumbs to viruses.
The work was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Department of Human Services, (Pacific Northwest Regional Centers of Excellence).
http://www.altitude-ai.com/default2.htm
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Obviously the science that will be done in low earth orbit [leo] will be significant to the development path of our race, it will be a basic introduction to the medical scientific procedures and standards that will be neccessary for quick response emergency vaccines, airborne virus's that sweep into our atmosphere from outer space, ground infectious diseases caused by climate change, regional conditions and flood water fevers and pneumonia epidemics. We are very lucky to have the standards we have today in our world and each and every day more and more people realise and join the fight to drive back danger of sickness from our world, hopefully, with some real commitment and hard work we will not only completely win the war against disease and all forms of disease on our planet and the affliction that arrive with changing seasons, but, we will have an excellent comprehension of what awaits us when we start to populate other planets, moons, asteroids, comets, meteors and planetoids.
A programme to defeat asthma affliction would be an excellent module for an exercise that could be given perhaps, 3 months to eradicate.
an excerpt from an asthma research paper]
''Any discussion of asthma must take into account the recent increase in its prevalence. Since approximately 1980, the frequency of this disorder has almost doubled. As a result of this “epidemic,” asthma now affects approximately 8–10% of the population in the US, is the leading cause of hospitalization among children less than 15 years of age, and costs society billions of dollars annually''...
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Listening to this brilliant song first will help inspire...
Tracy Chapman / Talking about a revolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVKLmpALMFc&feature=related
http://www.jci.org/articles/view/17748
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Similarly speaking food allegies will be significant dangers on reconnaiscence and planetary exploration and could present serious dangers if they react with atmospheric conditions not researched.
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Canned Food Seals in BPA
The chemical has been linked to all sorts of health concerns, including heart disease, cancers, and developmental problems.
Mon Nov 8, 2010 06:00 AM ET
THE GIST
Canned foods may be a source of BPA exposure, along with packaged foods.
The amount of BPA in grocery store foods varies from product to product, but overall levels are very small.
Scientists still don't know how much BPA is too much, or how it interacts with other chemicals in our food.
Canned foods had the highest levels of the chemical. Foods packaged in plastic also showed traces of the chemical.
There are traces of the worrisome chemical BPA in a wide variety of canned foods from supermarket shelves, found a new study. BPA is also present in products packaged in plastic and in one sample from the deli counter.
The study, which was the first to measure levels of BPA in grocery store foods in the United States, suggests that food -- especially canned food -- might be one major route that BPA uses to get into our bodies.
The chemical, also known as bisphenol A, has been linked to all sorts of health concerns, including heart disease, cancers, and developmental problems. One new study linked higher levels of BPA exposure with lower levels of sperm in men.
The amounts of BPA found in the food samples were far lower than recommended limits, but that shouldn't necessarily offer much comfort, said lead researcher Arnold Schecter, a public health physician at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Dallas.
People eat a variety of foods that may be contaminated with the chemical, he pointed out. We get exposed to BPA from a number of sources (including, according to recent research, cash register receipts). Some scientists think that recommended limits should be five times lower than they are now.
What's more, BPA isn't the only chemical of concern found in our food supply. There might be hundreds of toxic chemicals in our meals, Schecter said, and experts don't know enough about how all these chemicals interact to affect our health.
"The so-called safe levels of acceptable daily intake are derived as though there are no other chemicals present, and that's not true," he said. "I do not feel comfortable with finding these levels of BPA in U.S. food."
"I'm not happy," he added, "that we found BPA in so many foods."
For industrial purposes, BPA is a useful chemical that makes plastics strong and lightweight for use in water bottles, DVDs, electronics and many other products. BPA is also a major ingredient in epoxy resins, which among other uses, help extend the shelf life of canned foods.The chemical is so ubiquitous that nationwide studies have found it in the bodies of the majority of Americans tested.
To investigate the link between canned foods and BPA exposure, Schecter and colleagues gathered more than 30 types of products from grocery stores in Dallas, and took up to three samples from each kind of product.
Out of 105 total samples, their analyses found detectable levels of BPA in 63 of them, the team reported in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, including three out of eight samples of cat and dog food.
Canned foods had the highest levels of the chemical, with Del Monte Fresh Cut Green Beans at the top of the list, followed by three types of Progresso soups.
Smaller amounts of the chemical showed up in a plastic container of Chef Boyardee Spaghetti and Meatballs, canned Enfamil infant formula, and Chicken of the Sea Chunk Light Tuna in Water. A variety of canned vegetable juices, fruit juices and soups also had traces of BPA.
There was no detectable BPA in Similac infant formula, Bumble Bee Chunk Light Tuna in Water, Chef Boyardee Mac and Cheese, or Hunt's 100% Natural Tomato Paste. Canned pineapple, some soups, and a few other products also came up negative.
The researchers couldn't find any patterns in BPA levels by food type or brand. They did not contact companies to ask about their packaging methods.
To follow up, Schecter said, his team has tested a wider range of products. They expect results to come in over the next few months.
Overall, levels of BPA were low, even in the products that had the greatest amounts. To reach what the U.S. Environmental Protection agency considers the maximum daily intake of BPA, for example, a 155-pound adult would have to eat more than 140 cans of green beans. A 45-pound child would have to eat more than 40 cans.
Still, experts say, the fact that BPA is in our food at all is enough to warrant a closer look -- both at other kinds of food and the levels we consider safe, said John Meeker, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor.
"Even if the levels are considered low, there are multiple sources of BPA and you don't just eat one thing in a day," Meeker said. "There are a number of animal studies suggesting that there are health effects at lower levels than those thought to be acceptable. That's consistent with a number of new human studies related to health outcomes."
If you're concerned about BPA, Meeker said, you might want to choose fresh foods over canned versions. To limit pesticides as well, organic is also better. But both steps cost more, and that's a roadblock for many consumers.
Schecter emphasizes the need for manufacturers to find BPA-free canning methods. For now, Eden Organic may be the only U.S.-based food company that claims to can their beans without the chemical -- though Schecter is not sure if that has been independently verified, and Eden's cans are significantly more expensive than generic brands.
National health agencies, Schecter added, need to step up with better oversight.
"To the best of our knowledge, there is no government agency that does regular screening of our food for toxic chemicals," he said. "If these were to be done, we might detect patterns which would help us to decrease the numbers and levels of toxic chemicals in American food."
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The concern for modern space craft builders will not just be food storage space, it will be the standard of protection the food receives from element contamination while travelling through sectors of differing atmospheric composition. I personally could not go to work with any dead animals aboard the craft or any materials that have used animal hide. While we still consider the detriment of osteoperosis in space it would be good scientific practice to test and monitor material and material space.
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http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/11/02/349210/new-lower-airspace-regime-comes-into-force-in-russia.html
The stylistics / People make the world go round
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GcaFRDTKrE
Obviously planetary conditions could tell us much about previous animal occupation and potential acclimatising areas for 'sites of special scientific interest'.
Perhaps spicy food would not be ideal for long journeys on space paths to planets, moons and planetoids.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eSyO1bVVP0
salt climbs out of plastic glass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHhRQKxWXEo&feature=related
tea cup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gch83XNs6x8&feature=related
snail infection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWB_COSUXMw&feature=rec-LGOUT-real_rev-rn-5r-6-HM
It would be terrific to see some of the multi billion pound fast food companies invest in research for the future of our food sources and food in space.
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Chromosome Imbalances Lead to Predictable Plant Defects
(Nov. 4, 2010) — Physical defects in plants can be predicted based on chromosome imbalances, a finding that may shed light on how the addition or deletion of genes and the organization of the genome affects organisms, according to a study involving a Purdue University researcher.
The findings identify easily measured characteristics that vary with imbalances of specific chromosomes, said Brian Dilkes, a Purdue assistant professor of horticulture. Understanding why and how those imbalances result in certain characteristics could open the door to correcting those defects in not only plants, but also in animals and humans.
A classic example in humans is in Down syndrome, which is caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21.
"The ability of an organism to replicate and pass on all its genes is incredibly important," Dilkes said. "What we've found is that genes are sensitive to their dose relative to the rest of the genome. When that balance is disrupted, the organisms fail."
In plants, an imbalance in chromosome number can cause defects in stems, leaves, flowers and other physical features. Understanding how those imbalances cause changes could allow scientists to manipulate plant traits to increase biomass for fuels or other purposes.
"By learning the rules, we can predict the outcome of adding or deleting a gene from an organism," Dilkes said. "We see predictable physical consequences for variation in chromosome dosages. This problem is tractable."
Dilkes, a co-author of the findings released in the early online version of the journal Genetics, was part of a team as a project scientist at the University of California-Davis Genome Center that studied chromosome dosage in the research plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The team used naturally occurring and laboratory-created plants with multiple copies of each chromosome, called polyploids, and then crossed them to create aneuploids, or plants with an irregular number of chromosomes.
The aneuploids, which had either an excess or deficiency of a chromosome, were tested to see which chromosomes were deficient or excessive. Those plants were then phenotyped, recording their physical characteristics. The phenotypes and chromosome imbalances were compared, and it became clear that more or less of particular chromosomes corresponded to specific phenotypic characteristics.
Plants with excess chromosome 1 and a deficiency of chromosome 3 had increased stem diameter, for example. To test the finding, plants were created that had both an excess of chromosome 1 and were deficient in chromosome 3, and stem diameter grew as predicted.
In a surprising turn, the team found that chromosomal imbalance resulted in abnormal traits expressed in its offspring. Plants with a normal number of chromosomes that were descended from plants with chromosome imbalances should have been normal but still displayed abnormal characteristics.
"Something about those chromosomes is different," Dilkes said. "We have no idea what that something is, but it suggests there are multigenerational consequences to changes in chromosome dosage. The DNA sequence says these plants should be perfectly normal, but they are not."
Dilkes said future research would focus on chromosome imbalances in crop plants such as corn and trying to understand how the excess or deficiency of a gene leads to a particular phenotypic characteristic.
Smokey Robinson / Tears of a clown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2E_RSJAhYU&feature=related/
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This post is about trying to do all the right things in the context of evolving with thoughtful planning, it is about coming of age with knowledge of who oneself is, who ''we'' are, how we will cope, how we will continue together, perhaps with newer staff, newer members of our communities small and large, how we plan to accommodate, to provide for, to build upon our knowledge towards better and safer conditions, all while we gently caress each other with delicate respect for each other and remembering how lucky we are to have life, breath, air to breathe. Considering building on new worlds where our bodies have not had much time to adapt to what could become the difference between our races survival and it's continuing emancipation from the dark places where perhaps we once lurked shivering scarred and seemingly futile among the billions, perhaps trillions of years that it was before we evolved to this stage...
Let us be humble with life and awe in its respect for our fragile bodies, let us save grace for our father who's art is in heaven...
Tracy Chapman / Baby can I hold you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJimv-2YFZY
Math Professor Illuminates Cellular Basis of Neural Impulse Transmission
(Nov. 6, 2010) — A new mathematical model shows that the calcium current through an N-type channel is larger than calcium channels that are not involved in synaptic transmission, contrary to the currently accepted channel conductance hierarchy.
NJIT Associate Professor Victor Matveev, PhD, in the department of mathematical sciences, was part of a research team that published the study in Nature Neuroscience.
Leading the project, Elise Stanley, PhD, a senior scientist at the Toronto Western Research Institute, said that Matveev's mathematical modeling showed that calcium influx through a single N-type calcium channel is sufficient to trigger the fusion of a secretory vesicle located 25 nm from the channel.
Explained Stanley: "These findings may help to explain why nature evolved this new family of channels, permitting an efficient transmitter release mechanism with a modular molecular organization. Our next objective will be to determine how this exquisitely organized 'molecular machine' plays a role in synaptic modulation which is critical for memory and behavior modification." Since transmitter release is involved in virtually every aspect of nervous system function, these results have a broad impact for the understanding of normal brain processing and central and peripheral nervous system disorders.
The results of this work showed that the calcium current through an N-type channel was larger in comparison to calcium channels that are not involved in synaptic transmission, contrary to the currently accepted channel conductance hierarchy.
Furthermore, the authors' modeling work showed that the current through a single open N-type calcium channel may be sufficient to enable neurotransmitter release. These results demonstrate the degree to which N-type calcium channel properties are adapted for their role in synaptic transmission, and also shed light on the highly localized nature of intra-synaptic calcium signaling.
Matveev's research focuses on computational neuroscience, primarily on biophysical modeling and numerical simulations of synaptic function and its mechanisms. He uses analytical methods and computational techniques, from stochastic modeling to numerical solution of partial and ordinary differential equations.
Matveev collaborates with experimental neurophysiologists, and develops models to explain and fit the experimental data. His current projects include the study of the mechanisms of short-term synaptic facilitation and other calcium-dependent processes involved in neurotransmitter secretion, and the modeling of presynaptic calcium diffusion and buffering.
To facilitate his research, Matveev also has been working on the development of a software application designed for solving the reaction-diffusion equation arising in the study of intracellular calcium dynamics ("Calcium Calculator").
Duran Duran / The reflex
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eotbo-DsPTo&feature=related
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I believe that sportsman will play a terrific part of the evolution equation for the development of off planetary physiological research and monitoring activities, pushing the body to it's perimeters of athleticism will be a vital part of learning how different habitats will effect the human body in the immediate and the long term future with observations showing obvious body functions to be responsive to particular atmospheric conditions for particular types of sports and body movement, and aswell showing potential weakness's for afflictions to the body caused by differing inertial stress factors.
Aussies plan referendum on Aboriginal recognition
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia's government plans to hold a referendum within three years on whether to amend its constitution to acknowledge the Aborigines as the first Australians, the prime minister said Monday.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the time was now right to amend the constitution to acknowledge that "the first people of our nation have a unique and special place" because such a referendum has broad support in parliament. Parliament needs to endorse proposals to hold referendums.
One of the first acts undertaken by the Labor government after its 2007 parliament election victory was to formally apologize to Aborigines for injustices during the more than 200 years since British colonists arrived.
An expert panel including Aborigines will soon be appointed and report to the government next year on the wording of the referendum. The vote will take place before or during the next general election in late 2013, she said.
"Support this widespread across the parliament means we have a once-in-50-years opportunity for our country," Gillard told reporters.
Australians are reluctant to change their constitution and only eight of the 44 referendums that have been voted on since 1901 have succeeded.
A referendum was defeated in 1999 that would that would have added a preamble to the constitution honoring Aborigines as "the nation's first people for their deep kinship with their lands and for their ancient and continuing cultures which enrich the life of our country."
Larissa Behrendt, an Aboriginal professor at Sydney's University of Technology, predicted that Aborigines will argue for indigenous rights to be entrenched in the text of the constitution rather than a symbolic acknowledgment in a preamble.
"The danger is that if you put the question up about constitutional protection of indigenous people and it fails, it sends a very bad message to the Aboriginal community and what is supposed to be an act of recognition of the special place of Aboriginal people in Australian society becomes a further insult," she said.
It will be vital to be able to scout all terrain regularly for adverse conditions and anomalies, alien life could exist as invisible entities solid and gaseous on an unknown spectrum, but, could obviously be a very real territorial defender with abilities unknown to human activity, aliens of yellow, red and blue could all be invisible to our infra red and ultra violet spectrum. It is no cowards world the world of investment...
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Bruce Springsteen / Born in the U.S.A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZD4ezDbbu4
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Predictive Power of Dairy Cattle Methane Models Insufficient to Provide Sound Environmental Advice, Study Finds
(Nov. 5, 2010) — Canadian and Dutch researchers have shown that current equations to predict methane production of cows are inaccurate. Sound mitigation options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of dairy farms require a significant improvement of current methane equations, according to a study of the Dutch-Canadian team in the journal Global Change Biology.
The researchers, from University of Guelph and University of Manitoba (Canada) and Wageningen University & Research centre (the Netherlands), compared the observed methane production of cows with that predicted by nine different methane equations that are applied in whole farm greenhouse gas models. "The prediction accuracy of these equations is small, and the equations are not suitable to quantify methane production of cows," says Dr Jan Dijkstra, senior researcher worker at Wageningen University and adjunct professor at University of Guelph. "The predictive power of methane equations will have to be markedly improved if such whole farm models are used for sound decisions by governments to reduce environmental impact of dairying."
On a global basis, according to the FAO livestock is responsible for some 18% of all greenhouse gases emitted. Methane is the most important greenhouse gas on a dairy farm.The FAO estimates that about 52% of all greenhouse gases from the dairy sector is in the form of methane. Several whole-farm models are available that predict the total amount of greenhouse gases (the sum of CO2, CH4 en N2O) of dairy farms. Such whole-farm models are applied to make an inventory of total greenhouse gas emission on farm, and to estimate the effect of management changes (changes in breeding, nutrition, etc.) on greenhouse gas emissions. Methane is the single most important element in such estimates. Methane is 25 times more potent than CO2. Hence, the accuracy of estimation of total greenhouse gas emissions of whole-farm models largely depends on the accuracy of the prediction of methane emitted per cow.
The research team compiled a large dataset of actual observations on methane emissions of dairy cattle. The observations were largely derived from respiration chamber experiments, in which methane produced in the gut of the cow is accurately determined. These observations were used to evaluate the predictive power of equations to predict methane production.
The prediction accuracy of all equations was low. The equations hardly account for the effect of dietary composition on enteric methane production. Most equations do not use any dietary information at all, but estimate methane production based on feed intake or milk production. For example, the widely used IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) equation that predicts methane production based on energy intake of the cow, cannot distinguish the effect of a higher energy intake on methane due to a rise in feed intake level, from that due to a rise in dietary fat content at the same feed intake level. However, a higher feed intake will increase methane production, whereas a rise in dietary fat content will decrease methane production.
From the analysis, it also appears that the variation in predicted methane production is far smaller that the variation in actually observed methane production. Consequently, the methane equations do not fully represent the range of effects of dietary changes on enteric methane production of cows.
The research team concluded that the low prediction accuracy and poor prediction of variation in observed values may introduce substantial error into inventories of GHG emissions and lead to incorrect mitigation recommendations. For sound inventories and mitigation recommendations, much better methane predictions are required. At present, the researchers are actively developing more detailed and accurate models that predict methane production, based on the fermentation processes in the gastro-intestinal tract of cows.
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It would certainly be as challenging to colonise food on other planets as humans, not much has been shown of research regarding food growth off planet, and even the recent 'space beer' that has been tested for it's potency and taste in low earth orbit has not had the 'yeast' tested for adverse disorders. Hopefully the ingredients of space food and drink will be tested inside the consumers stomach for general effects and condition, but, to grow the ingredients off planet and use them in civilian food and drink will require another complete set of tests and research.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33In9SHWDHI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48QuBPL8dPg&feature=related
RELEASE : 10-295
NASA'S Fermi Telescope Discovers Giant Structure In Our Galaxy
WASHINGTON -- NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has unveiled a previously unseen structure centered in the Milky Way. The feature spans 50,000 light-years and may be the remnant of an eruption from a supersized black hole at the center of our galaxy.
"What we see are two gamma-ray-emitting bubbles that extend 25,000 light-years north and south of the galactic center," said Doug Finkbeiner, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., who first recognized the feature. "We don't fully understand their nature or origin."
The structure spans more than half of the visible sky, from the constellation Virgo to the constellation Grus, and it may be millions of years old. A paper about the findings has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.
Finkbeiner and Harvard graduate students Meng Su and Tracy Slatyer discovered the bubbles by processing publicly available data from Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT). The LAT is the most sensitive and highest-resolution gamma-ray detector ever launched. Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of light.
Other astronomers studying gamma rays hadn't detected the bubbles partly because of a fog of gamma rays that appears throughout the sky. The fog happens when particles moving near the speed of light interact with light and interstellar gas in the Milky Way. The LAT team constantly refines models to uncover new gamma-ray sources obscured by this so-called diffuse emission. By using various estimates of the fog, Finkbeiner and his colleagues were able to isolate it from the LAT data and unveil the giant bubbles.
Scientists now are conducting more analyses to better understand how the never-before-seen structure was formed. The bubble emissions are much more energetic than the gamma-ray fog seen elsewhere in the Milky Way. The bubbles also appear to have well-defined edges. The structure's shape and emissions suggest it was formed as a result of a large and relatively rapid energy release -- the source of which remains a mystery.
One possibility includes a particle jet from the supermassive black hole at the galactic center. In many other galaxies, astronomers see fast particle jets powered by matter falling toward a central black hole. While there is no evidence the Milky Way's black hole has such a jet today, it may have in the past. The bubbles also may have formed as a result of gas outflows from a burst of star formation, perhaps the one that produced many massive star clusters in the Milky Way's center several million years ago.
"In other galaxies, we see that starbursts can drive enormous gas outflows," said David Spergel, a scientist at Princeton University in New Jersey. "Whatever the energy source behind these huge bubbles may be, it is connected to many deep questions in astrophysics."
Hints of the bubbles appear in earlier spacecraft data. X-ray observations from the German-led Roentgen Satellite suggested subtle evidence for bubble edges close to the galactic center, or in the same orientation as the Milky Way. NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe detected an excess of radio signals at the position of the gamma-ray bubbles.
The Fermi LAT team also revealed Tuesday the instrument's best picture of the gamma-ray sky, the result of two years of data collection.
"Fermi scans the entire sky every three hours, and as the mission continues and our exposure deepens, we see the extreme universe in progressively greater detail," said Julie McEnery, Fermi project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
NASA's Fermi is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the United States.
"Since its launch in June 2008, Fermi repeatedly has proven itself to be a frontier facility, giving us new insights ranging from the nature of space-time to the first observations of a gamma-ray nova," said Jon Morse, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "These latest discoveries continue to demonstrate Fermi's outstanding performance."
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Air Science 40 Webinar: Linking Individual PM Pollutants with Specific Health Risks
Wednesday, November 10, 2010 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM EST
Webinar Registration
Air Science 40: Five Years of Progress in Particulate Matter Research
Please join the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Harvard University PM Research Center in the third presentation of a seven- part series of Webinars on air quality and particulate matter research. The webinars are part of a 40-year celebration of air research at EPA.
Speakers: John Godleski, M.D., associate director, will present "Toxicological Evaluation of Realistic Emission Source Aerosols (TERESA) Studies" and Joel Schwartz, Ph.D., lead investigator, will present "Particle Pollution and the Elderly."
The Harvard PM Center conducted research on the biological and chemical causes of health effects, the sources and types of pollution that are associated with adverse health effects, and which people are at the highest risk. Scientists focused on cardiovascular health through traffic studies, including exposures from tunnels, and studies with local, elderly veterans. Researchers also explored various cardiovascular aspects of disease including blood pressure, heart rate, blood vessel narrowing, and inflammatory indicators. Pollution particles containing certain chemicals and particle sizes were linked to increased health effects. Center scientists have also shown that particles that have spent time in the atmosphere and traffic particles could be more toxic.
For more information on EPA's Air Science 40 Webinar series, please visit:
http://www.epa.gov/airscience/seminar-calendar.htm
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/830375998
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New Player in Innate Immunity? Class of Biomolecules Triggered in Response to Respiratory Virus Infection
(Nov. 7, 2010) — For the first time, scientists have discovered that a poorly understood class of RNA produced in a mammal's cells during a respiratory virus attack may affect the outcome of the infection. Their findings are reported in mBio, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
RNA (ribonucleic acid) contains information transcribed from the cell's instruction manual, its DNA. The best known of these RNAs translate sections of DNA code into building blocks for proteins.
Most studies of how animals' cells respond to virus infection typically look at protein-coding genes, which produce germ-fighting or inflammation-producing substances. However, mammalian cells also transcribe thousands of other RNAs that don't code for proteins.
"The role of most of these non-protein-coding RNAs remains an enigma," noted lead author of the study Dr. Xinxia Peng, a computational research scientist in the Department of Microbiology, University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine in Seattle. Dr. Michael Katze, UW professor of microbiology, directed the project. Katze heads the Center for Systems and Translational Research on Infectious Disease (STRIDE).
"Some attention," Katze said, "has been given to small RNAs, like microRNAs, in host-virus interactions, but now it's becoming apparent that many long-non-protein coding RNAs -- bigger than 200 nucleotides -- are also biologically important."
Researchers are learning that long non-protein-coding RNAs have a wide variety of functions. A few examples are modifying chromosomes, regulating genes, influencing cell structure, and serving as precursors for small RNAs and microRNAs, which are involved in virus-host interactions.
The library of RNA transcripts inside of a cell is called its transcriptome, and is a reflection of gene activity. Many different RNAs can be read from a single gene. That is why a transcriptome contains much more complex instructions than seems possible from the DNA code. Unlike the genome, the transcriptome varies in different types of cells in the body and in accordance with ever-changing conditions inside and outside the cell. Peng recalled, "There were intensive discussions about what value the new whole-transcriptome analysis would add to our understanding of viral pathogenesis. After several exploratory analyses, we realized that many long non-protein coding RNAs also responded to SARS virus infection. We were so excited. The response had just been overlooked by people."
"People have not seriously looked at these long-non-protein coding RNAs during viral infection," Peng noted, "because so little is known about these RNAs in general and this type of RNA can't be monitored easily with typical technologies." Katze and his research team were able to use highly advanced technologies, namely next generation sequencing, to perform a whole-transcriptome analysis of the host response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) infection. The study was conducted in four strains of mice, some more susceptible to this virus or to the flu virus than others.
Through a comprehensive computational analysis of the data, the researchers observed that virus infection triggered about 500 long non-protein coding RNAs transcribed from known locations on the genome and about 1,000 from previously unspecified genomic regions.
"Using this approach," Katze noted, "we demonstrated that virus infection alters the expression of numerous long non-protein coding RNAs. These findings suggest that these RNAs may be a new class of regulatory molecules that play a role in determining the outcome of infection." The long non-protein coding RNAs may be helping to manage the infected animal's response to the virus, including the basic, first-line defense against infection -- the animal's innate, or inborn, immunity.
Another important finding was that the strains of more susceptible mice had a common profile showing distinct rates of genetic activity. This profile contained unique "signatures" of non-protein coding RNA activity. These signatures were associated with lethal infection. Test-tube studies show that more that 40 percent of the long non-coding RNAs and genomic regions activated in a SARS infection were also activated in response to both influenza virus infection and interferon treatment.
This finding further pointed to a signature profile associated with pathogenicity -- the power of a virus-host interaction to cause disease.
"The relevance of long-non-protein coding RNAs to viral infections has not been systematically studied," said Dr. Paulene Quigley, program manager of the STRIDE center. " But now, with our ability to do whole-transcriptome analysis using next generation sequencing, we can systematically catalog and compare these long non-protein coding RNA in response to infection. What we are finding is very promising for infectious disease research."
These results, to the best of the scientists' knowledge, are the first to clearly demonstrate the widespread production and activation of long non-coding RNAs in response to virus infection. Their success opens new avenues for investigating the roles of long-non-protein coding RNAs in innate immunity to infection.
Exactly how the long-non-protein coding RNAs perform these functions is not yet known. It's possible that they might interact with protein complexes that modify gene expression during a viral infection. They might also modulate the host's response by regulating neighboring protein-coding genes.
"The functions of non-protein coding RNAs remain largely unexplored, but we now have the tools to study them," Katze said. "Such studies are critical, because non-protein coding RNAs may represent a whole new class of innate immunity signaling molecules, interferon-dependent regulators, or modulators of the host response during viral infection. They could also be a new class of biomarkers for infectious disease and for diagnostics development. Identifying similar profiles in response to lethal respiratory infections may even provide clues into the 'high-path' viral infection, one of the holy grails of virology. That's a big deal any way you slice it."
Highly pathogenic viruses causing life-threatening illnesses, like SARS or West Nile or pandemic flu, continue to emerge. Looking forward, a detailed knowledge of non-protein coding RNA regulation and function likely will be necessary for a full understanding of how viruses cause disease and how the body defends against or succumbs to viruses.
The work was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Department of Human Services, (Pacific Northwest Regional Centers of Excellence).
http://www.altitude-ai.com/default2.htm
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Obviously the science that will be done in low earth orbit [leo] will be significant to the development path of our race, it will be a basic introduction to the medical scientific procedures and standards that will be neccessary for quick response emergency vaccines, airborne virus's that sweep into our atmosphere from outer space, ground infectious diseases caused by climate change, regional conditions and flood water fevers and pneumonia epidemics. We are very lucky to have the standards we have today in our world and each and every day more and more people realise and join the fight to drive back danger of sickness from our world, hopefully, with some real commitment and hard work we will not only completely win the war against disease and all forms of disease on our planet and the affliction that arrive with changing seasons, but, we will have an excellent comprehension of what awaits us when we start to populate other planets, moons, asteroids, comets, meteors and planetoids.
A programme to defeat asthma affliction would be an excellent module for an exercise that could be given perhaps, 3 months to eradicate.
an excerpt from an asthma research paper]
''Any discussion of asthma must take into account the recent increase in its prevalence. Since approximately 1980, the frequency of this disorder has almost doubled. As a result of this “epidemic,” asthma now affects approximately 8–10% of the population in the US, is the leading cause of hospitalization among children less than 15 years of age, and costs society billions of dollars annually''...
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Listening to this brilliant song first will help inspire...
Tracy Chapman / Talking about a revolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVKLmpALMFc&feature=related
http://www.jci.org/articles/view/17748
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Similarly speaking food allegies will be significant dangers on reconnaiscence and planetary exploration and could present serious dangers if they react with atmospheric conditions not researched.
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Canned Food Seals in BPA
The chemical has been linked to all sorts of health concerns, including heart disease, cancers, and developmental problems.
Mon Nov 8, 2010 06:00 AM ET
THE GIST
Canned foods may be a source of BPA exposure, along with packaged foods.
The amount of BPA in grocery store foods varies from product to product, but overall levels are very small.
Scientists still don't know how much BPA is too much, or how it interacts with other chemicals in our food.
Canned foods had the highest levels of the chemical. Foods packaged in plastic also showed traces of the chemical.
There are traces of the worrisome chemical BPA in a wide variety of canned foods from supermarket shelves, found a new study. BPA is also present in products packaged in plastic and in one sample from the deli counter.
The study, which was the first to measure levels of BPA in grocery store foods in the United States, suggests that food -- especially canned food -- might be one major route that BPA uses to get into our bodies.
The chemical, also known as bisphenol A, has been linked to all sorts of health concerns, including heart disease, cancers, and developmental problems. One new study linked higher levels of BPA exposure with lower levels of sperm in men.
The amounts of BPA found in the food samples were far lower than recommended limits, but that shouldn't necessarily offer much comfort, said lead researcher Arnold Schecter, a public health physician at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Dallas.
People eat a variety of foods that may be contaminated with the chemical, he pointed out. We get exposed to BPA from a number of sources (including, according to recent research, cash register receipts). Some scientists think that recommended limits should be five times lower than they are now.
What's more, BPA isn't the only chemical of concern found in our food supply. There might be hundreds of toxic chemicals in our meals, Schecter said, and experts don't know enough about how all these chemicals interact to affect our health.
"The so-called safe levels of acceptable daily intake are derived as though there are no other chemicals present, and that's not true," he said. "I do not feel comfortable with finding these levels of BPA in U.S. food."
"I'm not happy," he added, "that we found BPA in so many foods."
For industrial purposes, BPA is a useful chemical that makes plastics strong and lightweight for use in water bottles, DVDs, electronics and many other products. BPA is also a major ingredient in epoxy resins, which among other uses, help extend the shelf life of canned foods.The chemical is so ubiquitous that nationwide studies have found it in the bodies of the majority of Americans tested.
To investigate the link between canned foods and BPA exposure, Schecter and colleagues gathered more than 30 types of products from grocery stores in Dallas, and took up to three samples from each kind of product.
Out of 105 total samples, their analyses found detectable levels of BPA in 63 of them, the team reported in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, including three out of eight samples of cat and dog food.
Canned foods had the highest levels of the chemical, with Del Monte Fresh Cut Green Beans at the top of the list, followed by three types of Progresso soups.
Smaller amounts of the chemical showed up in a plastic container of Chef Boyardee Spaghetti and Meatballs, canned Enfamil infant formula, and Chicken of the Sea Chunk Light Tuna in Water. A variety of canned vegetable juices, fruit juices and soups also had traces of BPA.
There was no detectable BPA in Similac infant formula, Bumble Bee Chunk Light Tuna in Water, Chef Boyardee Mac and Cheese, or Hunt's 100% Natural Tomato Paste. Canned pineapple, some soups, and a few other products also came up negative.
The researchers couldn't find any patterns in BPA levels by food type or brand. They did not contact companies to ask about their packaging methods.
To follow up, Schecter said, his team has tested a wider range of products. They expect results to come in over the next few months.
Overall, levels of BPA were low, even in the products that had the greatest amounts. To reach what the U.S. Environmental Protection agency considers the maximum daily intake of BPA, for example, a 155-pound adult would have to eat more than 140 cans of green beans. A 45-pound child would have to eat more than 40 cans.
Still, experts say, the fact that BPA is in our food at all is enough to warrant a closer look -- both at other kinds of food and the levels we consider safe, said John Meeker, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor.
"Even if the levels are considered low, there are multiple sources of BPA and you don't just eat one thing in a day," Meeker said. "There are a number of animal studies suggesting that there are health effects at lower levels than those thought to be acceptable. That's consistent with a number of new human studies related to health outcomes."
If you're concerned about BPA, Meeker said, you might want to choose fresh foods over canned versions. To limit pesticides as well, organic is also better. But both steps cost more, and that's a roadblock for many consumers.
Schecter emphasizes the need for manufacturers to find BPA-free canning methods. For now, Eden Organic may be the only U.S.-based food company that claims to can their beans without the chemical -- though Schecter is not sure if that has been independently verified, and Eden's cans are significantly more expensive than generic brands.
National health agencies, Schecter added, need to step up with better oversight.
"To the best of our knowledge, there is no government agency that does regular screening of our food for toxic chemicals," he said. "If these were to be done, we might detect patterns which would help us to decrease the numbers and levels of toxic chemicals in American food."
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The concern for modern space craft builders will not just be food storage space, it will be the standard of protection the food receives from element contamination while travelling through sectors of differing atmospheric composition. I personally could not go to work with any dead animals aboard the craft or any materials that have used animal hide. While we still consider the detriment of osteoperosis in space it would be good scientific practice to test and monitor material and material space.
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http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/11/02/349210/new-lower-airspace-regime-comes-into-force-in-russia.html
The stylistics / People make the world go round
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GcaFRDTKrE
Obviously planetary conditions could tell us much about previous animal occupation and potential acclimatising areas for 'sites of special scientific interest'.
Perhaps spicy food would not be ideal for long journeys on space paths to planets, moons and planetoids.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eSyO1bVVP0
salt climbs out of plastic glass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHhRQKxWXEo&feature=related
tea cup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gch83XNs6x8&feature=related
snail infection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWB_COSUXMw&feature=rec-LGOUT-real_rev-rn-5r-6-HM
It would be terrific to see some of the multi billion pound fast food companies invest in research for the future of our food sources and food in space.
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Chromosome Imbalances Lead to Predictable Plant Defects
(Nov. 4, 2010) — Physical defects in plants can be predicted based on chromosome imbalances, a finding that may shed light on how the addition or deletion of genes and the organization of the genome affects organisms, according to a study involving a Purdue University researcher.
The findings identify easily measured characteristics that vary with imbalances of specific chromosomes, said Brian Dilkes, a Purdue assistant professor of horticulture. Understanding why and how those imbalances result in certain characteristics could open the door to correcting those defects in not only plants, but also in animals and humans.
A classic example in humans is in Down syndrome, which is caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21.
"The ability of an organism to replicate and pass on all its genes is incredibly important," Dilkes said. "What we've found is that genes are sensitive to their dose relative to the rest of the genome. When that balance is disrupted, the organisms fail."
In plants, an imbalance in chromosome number can cause defects in stems, leaves, flowers and other physical features. Understanding how those imbalances cause changes could allow scientists to manipulate plant traits to increase biomass for fuels or other purposes.
"By learning the rules, we can predict the outcome of adding or deleting a gene from an organism," Dilkes said. "We see predictable physical consequences for variation in chromosome dosages. This problem is tractable."
Dilkes, a co-author of the findings released in the early online version of the journal Genetics, was part of a team as a project scientist at the University of California-Davis Genome Center that studied chromosome dosage in the research plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The team used naturally occurring and laboratory-created plants with multiple copies of each chromosome, called polyploids, and then crossed them to create aneuploids, or plants with an irregular number of chromosomes.
The aneuploids, which had either an excess or deficiency of a chromosome, were tested to see which chromosomes were deficient or excessive. Those plants were then phenotyped, recording their physical characteristics. The phenotypes and chromosome imbalances were compared, and it became clear that more or less of particular chromosomes corresponded to specific phenotypic characteristics.
Plants with excess chromosome 1 and a deficiency of chromosome 3 had increased stem diameter, for example. To test the finding, plants were created that had both an excess of chromosome 1 and were deficient in chromosome 3, and stem diameter grew as predicted.
In a surprising turn, the team found that chromosomal imbalance resulted in abnormal traits expressed in its offspring. Plants with a normal number of chromosomes that were descended from plants with chromosome imbalances should have been normal but still displayed abnormal characteristics.
"Something about those chromosomes is different," Dilkes said. "We have no idea what that something is, but it suggests there are multigenerational consequences to changes in chromosome dosage. The DNA sequence says these plants should be perfectly normal, but they are not."
Dilkes said future research would focus on chromosome imbalances in crop plants such as corn and trying to understand how the excess or deficiency of a gene leads to a particular phenotypic characteristic.
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