Daily Archives: October 10, 2012

DNA from two home-invasion robbery suspects who allegedly stole a truck and then got into a fatal hit-and-run crash will be pivotal evidence in their trial, which started Tuesday, the prosecutor said.

Curtis Travis, 35, and Stephen Stowers, 24, both of Fresno, are on trial for murder, robbery and hit-and-run in the death of Heliodoro Anthony Ruvalcaba, 50, of Fresno, who was killed in January 2011.

Ruvalcaba was on his way home from his janitorial job when he was struck by a truck that Travis and Stowers allegedly stole minutes earlier.

The pair had been at a friend's apartment at 4111 N. Blythe Ave. about 1 a.m. on Jan. 5, 2011.

A short time later, they forced their way into another apartment at the complex, taking a laptop computer, two cellphones, $10 and keys to the resident's pickup, police reports state.

David Ruiz testified Tuesday that he was asleep in the apartment with his wife and two children when Travis and Stowers entered by breaking a window.

After hearing the noise, he went into his living room to investigate and was ordered by the two men to hand over his keys, cash, laptop computer and cellphones. Ruiz said he did so because he feared for the lives of his wife and daughters.

Ruiz described the men as light-skinned and dark-skinned, and he identified Travis as the man who made most of the demands. He could not positively identify Stowers. Travis is white and Stowers is black.

The pair left in Ruiz's 1994 Chevrolet Silverado, running two red lights before speeding about 60 mph eastbound on Ashlan Avenue near Highway 99, police said.

Travis, reportedly the driver, ran red lights at Ashlan and the Highway 99 offramp and hit Ruvalcaba's northbound 1998 Ford Taurus, killing him, police said.

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DNA links Fresno robbery suspects to fatal crash

A DNA match made this year on items recovered at the scene of 2005 homicide in Brentwood has led Prince Georges County police to charge one man in connection with the fatal stabbing, officials said Wednesday.

Marcus Levi Brown, 41, was arrested Tuesday afternoon in the District and will be charged with second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of Reginald Bruce Taborn, a 49-year-old National Institutes of Health employee found dead on the floor of his apartment on May 17, 2005.

The match that led to the Mr. Browns arrest was made this year after Mr. Browns DNA was entered into the FBIs DNA database of convicted offenders, said Capt. Joseph Hoffman, of the police departments homicide unit. DNA evidence was originally recovered from the scene of the homicide from several items in close proximity to the victim, Capt. Hoffman said. A confirmation DNA sample was analyzed by Prince Georges County officials and also produced a match, he said.

It was not immediately clear what criminal conviction led to Mr. Browns DNA being entered into the FBI database. Officers found Taborn dead in his apartment, located on the 3300 block of Buchanan Street, after they were called to check on his welfare when he failed to show up to work, according to police reports at the time. No weapon was recovered from the scene, Capt. Hoffman said.

Taborn was last seen alive on May 15, 2005, the same day that witnesses reported hearing mens voices yelling at the apartment, Capt. Hoffman said. There was no forced entry to Taborns apartment and police investigators believe the two men knew one another.

Homicide detectives have interviewed Mr. Brown about Taborns death, but Capt. Hoffman declined to discuss anything said during interviews.

D.C. court records show Mr. Brown is currently being held in the District where he was detained as a fugitive. He will be officially charged with second-degree murder once he is extradited to Prince Georges County, according to police.

Contact information for relatives of Mr. Brown could not be immediately located and no attorney is listed as representing him in D.C. court records.

Copyright 2012 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

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DNA IDs suspect in 2005 murder

A new analysis confirms the widely held suspicion that DNA from dinosaurs and ancient insects trapped in amber cannot be recovered to make a 'Jurassic Park'-style theme park

By Matt Kaplan and Nature magazine

Palaeogeneticist Morten Allentoft used the bones of extinct moa birds to calculate the half-life of DNA. Image: M. Mhl

Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...

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From Nature magazine

Few researchers have given credence to claims that samples of dinosaur DNA have survived to the present day, but no one knew just how long it would take for genetic material to fall apart. Now, a study of fossils found in New Zealand is laying the matter to rest and putting paid to hopes of cloning a Tyrannosaurus rex.

After cell death, enzymes start to break down the bonds between the nucleotides that form the backbone of DNA, and micro-organisms speed the decay. In the long run, however, reactions with water are thought to be responsible for most bond degradation. Groundwater is almost ubiquitous, so DNA in buried bone samples should, in theory, degrade at a set rate.

Determining that rate has been difficult because it is rare to find large sets of DNA-containing fossils with which to make meaningful comparisons. To make matters worse, variable environmental conditions such as temperature, degree of microbial attack and oxygenation alter the speed of the decay process.

But palaeogeneticists led by Morten Allentoft at the University of Copenhagen and Michael Bunce at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, examined 158 DNA-containing leg bones belonging to three species of extinct giant birds called moa. The bones, which were between 600 and 8,000 years old, had been recovered from three sites within 5 kilometres of each other, with nearly identical preservation conditions including a temperature of 13.1 C. The findings are published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

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Dinos' DNA Demise: Genetic Material Has a 521-Year Half-Life

Reconstructing dinosaurs from ancient DNA has been dealt a blow with a new study finding genetic material can only last 1 million years.

An international team of researchers reached the finding after analysing DNA extracted from bones of the extinct New Zealand moa.

They found that while short fragments of DNA could possibly survive up to 1 million years, sequences of 30 base pairs or more would only have a half-life of around 158,000 years under certain conditions.

Lead author Dr Morten Allentoft from Murdoch University's Ancient DNA lab in Perth says their results contradict earlier studies which claimed to have extracted DNA fragments several hundred base pairs long from dinosaur bones and preserved insects, claims which underpinned the storyline of the 1993 movieJurassic Park.

"What we show here with the decay rate of DNA is that this is never going to be possible," Dr Allentoft said.

"It may be that you can have extremely short fragments of DNA, only a few base pairs that persist for maybe a million years, maybe even longer."

Dr Allentoft says the earlier findings may have been due to contamination with human DNA.

Rate of decay

The latest study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, also establishes a DNA decay rate which could help identify specimens likely to yield useful genetic material.

It might also one day enable DNA to be used to date bones and teeth or even be used for forensic investigation of human remains.

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DNA dating study kills off Jurassic Park

BOCA RATON, FL--(Marketwire - Oct 10, 2012) - DNA Brands, Inc. ( OTCBB : DNAX ), makers of the great tasting DNA Energy Drink, a favorite of the action sports community and its enthusiastic followers, announced today it is re-branding its entire line of DNA Energy Drinks to be able to reach a greater portion of the ever-growing energy drink market.

Darren Marks, President of DNA Brand, Inc., stated, "The one comment we hear over and over is that energy drinks don't taste good. We were previously selected as the best tasting energy drink by an independent international World Beverage Competition. We intend to get this fact out to the energy drink consumer. Our current graphics were primarily geared to the action sports community. Although we will continue to pursue these same customers, we will do it with new and innovative products geared to better communicate the brand's core identity while appealing to a much broader demographic; active consumers from every walk of life. We are confident that this rebranding will enable us to better position ourselves in a category that continues to re-invent itself and grow at a rapid pace. Energy drink sales increased 17.2% in 2011, the highest growth rate since 2007." In conjunction with the re-branding, Jeff Jonke has been promoted to the Company's Executive Vice-President and General Manger. He will be the driving force behind this new and exciting time for DNA Brands, Inc.

About DNA Brands, Inc.

DNA BRANDS, makers of DNA Energy Drink, the award-winning, best-tasting energy drink at the 2010 World Beverage Competition, is a proprietary blend of quality ingredients in four flavors: Citrus, Lemon Lime, Sugar Free Citrus and CRANRAZBERRY. DNA can be found at independent retailers throughout the state of Florida, as well as national retailers including Walgreens, Race Trac and Circle K. Distribution is primarily through Grass Roots Beverage, the Company's wholly owned subsidiary and select Miller and Anheuser-Bush distributors in select markets.

DNA is a proud sponsor of many action sport teams. True to its action sports roots, DNA BRANDS, INC. has earned national recognition through its sponsorship of the DNA Energy Drink/Jeff Ward Racing team where it competes on a world-class level in Supercross and Motocross, reaching millions of fans. DNA Energy Drink can also be found in other action sports such as Surfing, BMX, Wakeboarding and Skateboarding and its athletes are recognized stars in their own right.

For more information about DNA Energy Drink, its athletes and sponsorships, please visit http://www.dnabrandsusa.com or contact: Darren M. Marks, President (954) 970 3826 darren@dnaenergydrink.com

Safe Harbor Forward-Looking Statements

To the extent that statements in this press release are not strictly historical, including statements as to revenue projections, business strategy, outlook, objectives, future milestones, plans, intentions, goals, future financial conditions, future collaboration agreements, the success of the Company's development, events conditioned on stockholder or other approval, or otherwise as to future events, such statements are forward-looking, and are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made.

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DNA Brands to Re-Brand and Undertake New Marketing Campaign

In "Jurassic Park," scientists extract 80-million-year-old dino DNA from the bellies of mosquitoes trapped in amber. Researchers may never be able to extract genetic material that old and bring a T. rex back to life, but a new study suggests DNA can survive in fossils longer than previously believed.

The oldest DNA samples ever recovered are from insects and plants in ice cores in Greenland up to 800,000 years old. But researchers had not been able to determine the oldest possible DNA they could get from the fossil record because DNA's rate of decay had remained a mystery.

Now scientists in Australia report they've been able to estimate this rate based on a comparison of DNA from 158 fossilized leg bones from three species of the moa, an extinct group of flightless birds that once lived in New Zealand. The bones date between 600 and 8,000 years old and importantly all come from the same region.

Temperatures, oxygenation and other environmental factors make it difficult to detect a basic rate of degradation, researcher Mike Bunce, from Murdoch University's Ancient DNA lab in Perth, explained in a statement.

"The moa bones however have allowed us to study the comparative DNA degradation because they come from different ages from a region where they have all experienced the same environmental conditions," Bunce said.

Based on this study, Bunce and his team put DNA's half-life at 521 years, meaning half of the DNA bonds would be broken down 521 years after death, and half of the remaining bonds would be decayed another 521 years after that, and so on. This rate is 400 times slower than simulation experiments predicted, the researchers said, and it would mean that under ideal conditions, all the DNA bonds would be completely destroyed in bone after about 6.8 million years.

"If the decay rate is accurate then we predict that DNA fragments of sufficient length will preserve in frozen fossil bone of around one million years in age," Bunce said.

But he cautioned that more research is needed to examine the other variables in the breakdown of DNA.

"Other factors that impact on DNA preservation include storage time following excavation, soil chemistry and even the time of year when the animal died," Bunce said in a statement. "We hope to refine predictions of DNA survival by more accurately mapping how DNA fragments decay across the globe."

The study was published Oct. 10 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

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'Jurassic Park' May Be Impossible, But Dino DNA Lasts Longer Than Thought