Daily Archives: February 23, 2013

Space Station Astronauts Hangout with Earthlings (and Universe Today!)

Posted: February 23, 2013 at 1:45 pm

by Nancy Atkinson on February 22, 2013

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Its not often that people on Earth get to hangout with astronauts in space, but today NASA held the first-ever Google Plus Hangout from the International Space Station. It was a live event, and if you arent familiar yet with G+ Hangouts (you really should be by now!) they allow people to chat face-to-face while thousands more can tune in to watch the conversation live on Google+ or YouTube. NASA took questions live from Twitter and G+, but they also took questions submitted previously via You Tube, and we were proud to see that Frasers question that he submitted via You Tube was included in the Hangout! You can see the question and astronaut Chris Hadfields reply at about 42:00 in the video above. Fraser asked how being on the ISS and the special conditions it has (microgravity, harsh exposures, distant objects, weird lighting ) affect photography and as you know we feature A LOT of ISS photography here on UT.

Hadfield said photography from orbit is quite complex, but the weird part about it is that space is so incredibly black and dark. The difficulty is having the dark background of space against the brightness of Earth and trying to balanace that. The advantage is being able to use the really big lenses and have them be weightless no tripod needed!.

The best part is, Hadfield added, even though we are not photographers by trade, we have really good professional photographers as trainers and a vantage point that is absolutely unparallelled.

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield uses a camera to photograph the topography of a point on Earth from a window in the Cupola of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

Tagged as: Google Plus, Live broadcasts, Space Station

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Space Station Astronauts Hangout with Earthlings (and Universe Today!)

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Space station's orbit is readjusted

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Published: Feb. 22, 2013 at 1:51 PM

MOSCOW, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- The engines of a Russian space freighter docked with the International Space Station were fired to readjust the station's orbit Friday, officials said.

"The space freighter's engines were started as scheduled, at 14:34 Moscow time [5:34 a.m. EST]. As a result of the maneuver, the ISS orbit was raised by approximately 1 kilometer," a Roscosmos spokesman told RIA Novosti.

After the readjustment the space station's mean orbital altitude stood at 254.6 miles, the space agency said.

Adjustments to the station's orbit are carried out regularly to compensate for Earth's gravity because the space station loses an average 300 feet of altitude each day.

The adjustments also facilitate the docking and undocking of spacecraft, and are sometimes conducted to dodge space debris.

Friday's readjustment was to create the best conditions for the undocking of a Soyuz TMA-06M manned spacecraft that will return Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin and U.S. NASA astronaut Kevin Ford to Earth March 15.

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Space station's orbit is readjusted

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PSADNA Graded Cut Signatures MANTLE, AARON, MAYS

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PSADNA Graded Cut Signatures MANTLE, AARON, MAYS MORE!
PSA/DNA Graded cut signatures!! Thoughts About our videos? Leave a comment to help us improve! Most Acquired from Ebay. Like! Subscribe! Comment!

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PSADNA Graded Cut Signatures MANTLE, AARON, MAYS

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21 Apostolic DNA part 2, Recorded 4-1-12 – Video

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21 Apostolic DNA part 2, Recorded 4-1-12
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20 Apostolic DNA, Recorded 4-1-12 – Video

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20 Apostolic DNA, Recorded 4-1-12
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20 Apostolic DNA, Recorded 4-1-12 - Video

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Birds Eye recalls UK products after horse DNA find in Belgium

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Frozen food maker Birds Eye on Friday said it would withdraw some products in Britain and Ireland after it found traces of horse DNA in one of its ready meals sold in Belgium.

"Regrettably, we have found one product, chili con carne, produced for us by Frigilunch N.V. and sold in Belgium, that has tested positive for horse DNA at 2 percent," Birds Eye said in a statement.

"As a precautionary measure in the UK and Ireland we will withdraw all other products produced by the same supplier, namely traditional spaghetti bolognese (340g), shepherd's pie (400g) and beef lasagne (400g)."

Birds Eye, which is owned by Pinnacle Foods in North America and by private equity group Permira in Europe, said it would also immediately withdraw the chili con carne product from sale in Belgium.

The discovery of horse meat in food labeled as beef has triggered product recalls and damaged confidence in Europe's vast and complex food industry. The scandal erupted last month when tests carried out in Ireland revealed that some beef products also contained horse meat.

Birds Eye added that the withdrawn products would not be replaced on supermarkets shelves until it had completed an investigation into the issue and had complete confidence in Frigilunch N.V.

It said tests showed its beef burgers, beef pies and beef platters sold in Britain and Ireland did not contain horse DNA.

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Md. DNA Law In Front Of SCOTUS Aided 43 Cases

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By JESSICA GRESKO Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) A Maryland DNA law being challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court helped lead to 43 convictions over the past four years, but state data shows the majority of the convictions could eventually have happened even without the new law.

For years, Maryland required people convicted of serious crimes to provide a DNA sample. The sample, taken from a swab of saliva, was then compared against a database of DNA evidence from crime scenes, and some old cases were able to be solved. Maryland changed its law in 2009, however, so that people had to provide the saliva sample when they were arrested on charges of committing certain violent crimes before going to trial.

The change is at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court case being argued Tuesday. Opponents say the law violates a persons constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. But supporters of the law, including Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley and Attorney General Douglas Gansler, say taking DNA from arrestees is an important law enforcement tool used by 27 other states and the federal government. They say it is no more invasive than taking a persons fingerprints.

Law enforcement has been taking fingerprints forever, Gansler said in a telephone interview Friday.

The state has now taken more than 33,000 DNA samples as a result of the expansion. Those samples have led to 73 arrests and 43 convictions, with sentences ranging from probation to life in prison. The majority of the convictions were for burglary or theft; seven were for rape or sex offenses.

But 29 of the convictions could have happened even if Maryland hadnt extended its law to arrestees, according to state data. Thats because those people were ultimately convicted of the offense for which their DNA was taken. Their DNA would have been collected even under the old law, though law enforcement would have had to wait until after their conviction.

For example, William Edward Burton III was arrested after being accused of attempted murder and rape. Officials took DNA and matched it to a rape that happened in Massachusetts from 1995. But because Burton ultimately pleaded guilty in the first case, his DNA would have been collected and would have ultimately led officials to the Massachusetts rape.

The attorney who prosecuted Burtons case, Elizabeth Ireland, said taking DNA from arrestees is still important because many cases dont end like Burtons.

Not all arrestees are convicted, especially when its a crime like a rape. Rape is one of the most under-reported and under-charged crimes, said Ireland, who also prosecuted the case that is before the Supreme Court.

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Md. DNA Law In Front Of SCOTUS Aided 43 Cases

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Italy finds no trace of horse DNA in Nestle mince meals

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ROME/ZURICH (Reuters) - Italy's Health Ministry said on Saturday that tests had found no trace of horse DNA in minced beef meals by Swiss food giant Nestle that were removed from sale on Monday.

Nestle removed the ready-made beef ravioli and tortellini sold under its Buitoni brand from shelves in Italy and Spain and halted production of the meals after its own tests had found more than 1 percent horse DNA in the products.

Italian authorities seized 26 tons of affected beef products on Thursday after Nestle withdrew the meals - the latest company to become embroiled in the scandal that has highlighted the complexities of Europe's food chain.

"No trace of horse DNA has been found in Nestle cooked and frozen minced beef," the ministry said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear what the outcome was of the tests of the food seized in Spain.

The Italian tests were carried out on beef products that had been stored at the Safim plant near Turin, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, Italy also ordered the seizure on Saturday of about 6 tons of frozen beef lasagne made by Italian group PRIMIA after tests showed the presence of horse meat, an official with Italy's NAS, a police unit that monitors health and safety standards, told Reuters.

A Nestle spokesman welcomed the ministry's decision to release its products.

"We are happy the ministry's tests came back negative," spokesman Chris Hogg said in an email to Reuters.

"Our focus now though is on restarting production of these products today and tomorrow with a new supplier, using beef we have tested to ensure it contains no horse DNA."

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Protein Function on a Genome – Analysis of Molecular Networks – Video

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Protein Function on a Genome - Analysis of Molecular Networks
Understanding Protein Function on a Genome - scale through the Analysis of Molecular Networks

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Solid-State Sequencer Debuts at Genome Conference

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Nabsyss technology could provide the positional accuracy missing from current DNA sequencing methods.

Nabsys, a DNA technology startup, showed off today its solid-state gene sequencing machine at the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology conference in Marco Island, Florida. The company says that later this year it will begin selling its machine, which will allow researchers to determine the structural organization of long stretches of DNA. This differs from most existing sequencing methods, which read DNA in short snippets that are later stitched together by software. The new system will, at first, complement existing methods, but it could eventually offer cheaper and faster sequencing than other approaches.

Understanding the overall order of DNA sequence on a chromosome is important for studying disease and treating patients, but this big picture can be difficult to get because of the short-snippet approach of most sequencing. Because these methods cannot always figure out how to arrange long repetitive sequences, they can fail to recognize missing sequences, additional sequences, or repeated sequences, all of which can lead to disease.

If you encounter these [repetitive] regions in traditional sequencing where DNA is chopped up, it is very hard to know how many times it was repeated, says Jens Gundlach, a physicist who heads the University of Washingtons Nanopore Physics Lab.

Oncology, in particular, could benefit from Nabsyss approach because the genomic changes that occur in cancer cells often include large, structural rearrangements. In a tumor, you need to characterize the mixture of [genetic variation] in your sample at different length scales, says Barrett Bready, CEO of Nabsys.

There are other technologies that can provide the kind of long-range mapping information that Nabsys promises. Opgen, for example, has developed a technique that visually measures the length of DNA in between known sequences (see A Map of the Whole Genome Tracks Outbreaks), but the optical technique cant provide the resolution that the Nabsys technology promises. Groups such as Oxford Nanopore (see Nanopore Sequencing), which introduced its technology a year ago at the same conference, and Gundlachs lab are developing nanopore technologies as another method for getting long sequences, but so far no nanopore technology has made it to the market. These systems use a biological pore as the site of DNA analysis, which limits the speed at which DNA can be read.

Nabsyss technology also passes DNA through a pore, but instead of the protein pore approach that Oxford Nanopore and others are taking, Nabsys uses a pore cut into a solid-state chip. According to the journalBiotechniques, Oxford Nanopores system can process DNA at a maximum rate of 400 bases per second. Nabsys claims its system can read up to a million nucleotides per second. Such speed could be critical in clinical settings, where fast diagnoses are needed to make treatment choices.

The Providence, Rhode Island-based company uses premade short stretches of DNA called probes that can be detected on Nabsyss chip when bound to a single molecule of DNA under study. Each probe consists of a short combination of the four DNA bases that will stick to matching sections of the larger DNA under study. The Nabsys technology detects where a probe is bound by watching an electric current change as the DNA complex snakes through a pore on the solid-state chip. Thousands of probes of different combinations of letters would be needed to map the whole genome. But by combining the position of many probes of different DNA sequences, the company can re-create a map of long stretches of DNA.

The Nabsys technology isnt a DNA reader per se, says Gundlach. Its a more complex process to look for certain regions on a piece of DNA, he says, that is complementary to the existing sequencing techniques and helps them in providing contiguity.

The company will initially focus on being a complementary technology to existing next-generation sequencers, but its technology can provide full-sequence information if more probes are used to analyze a sample.

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