Monthly Archives: August 2021

Everybody wants their own Pep Guardiola. Everybody wants to find a former player, steeped in the traditions of the club, who can bring great success, preferably by using products of the academy. But the problem with geniuses is that there arent many of them about.

Its also the problem of clubs: for all the talk of identities and DNA, very few of them actually have a cogent philosophy that binds first team to youth sides, or at least not one that has been in place for long enough to turn out a player who can return almost two decades after their debut to find an academy still turning out players shaped by the same prevailing idea.

Understanding the DNA of the club often seems to be little more than a euphemism for being popular enough with the fans to stave off criticism for a while. It worked for Frank Lampard at Chelsea, where some fans continue to insist he should have been given more time despite the profound improvement under Thomas Tuchel, and it has fostered a belief in progress at Old Trafford under Ole Gunnar Solskjr, despite their inconsistency. But the return of fans to the Emirates on Sunday for Arsenals game against Chelsea will be a major test of how much goodwill Mikel Arteta has in reserve.

Whether any club with top-four aspirations should be appointing a manager without experience is debatable: Guardiolas are extremely rare. But that caveat aside, Arteta seemed a reasonable bet. He had been a notably intelligent player and had served an apprenticeship under Guardiola, for whom he was far more than a cone-distributor or a yes-man. But Sunday will mark 20 months since he took the job and, 86 games into his Arsenal managerial career, its still hard to work out whether there has been any progress.

In part thats because the Arsenal job is clearly a difficult one. This is a club that has been in decline for the past 15 years. Having invested heavily in a vast new stadium, Arsenal opened it to discover that the world had changed: what actually determines a clubs financial level is less the size of their ground, or the revenue-generating capacity of its corporate facilities, than having the backing of an oligarch or a state. Instead, Arsenal ended up being sold to an absentee owner whose priority appears to be keeping things ticking over to draw a dividend rather than winning trophies.

At the same time, an ageing manager lingered too long and the club sank into decadence, both in terms of its structures and its mentality. Attempts to impose a more modern methodology have been, to put it kindly, unconvincing. Its not just the amount of money thats been spent, its what its been spent on.

How were Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Mesut zil and Nicolas Pp, before this summer Arsenals four most expensive signings, ever supposed to play together? How is Pp the joint 20th most expensive signing of all time (and why was he signed rather than Wilfried Zaha, who seems to have been the initial priority)? Has the 130m spent this summer made them any better?

Ben White, bought for 50m in the summer, is a fine footballing defender who thrived in a back three at Brighton. But play him as one of a central defensive pair, as Arsenal did at Brentford last Friday, and his aerial shortcomings (only 51% of aerials won over his career, which is low for a central defender; Harry Maguire, for instance, wins 72%, or James Tarkowski 69%) become problematic.

Edu, the sporting director, had spoken of an unprecedented summer, and in the sense Arsenal have stopped giving big contracts to thirtysomethings and started signing under-23s with a resale value, perhaps it is. But beyond a focus on youth, it remains hard to discern a coherent strategy. How is this group of players supposed to be playing? However difficult the circumstances, though, the fact remains that Arteta has a lower win percentage than Unai Emery did when he was sacked.

The clock is beginning to tick, with reports this week suggesting the club will assess his position in December, when he will have been in the job two years. Would Emery have worked out, given more time and better circumstances? Its hard to know; he is clearly a good manager at B+ Spanish clubs; outside La Liga, his record is mixed.

Which doesnt mean Arteta is necessarily doing a bad job, but neither is he necessarily doing a good one. He often seems an intense, isolated figure, but then that is often the way after a poor result. Success has many parents but even the orphanage is trying to distance itself from that limp defeat at Brentford.

What made that game so frustrating for Arsenal was that they had finished last season so well, with five straight league wins. But the same had been true a year earlier, as they beat Liverpool in the Premier League and Manchester City and Chelsea in winning the FA Cup, only for that momentum to be lost with a run of two wins in 12 in the league from the end of September.

After the slick interplay and the sense of young talent blossoming in May, to open with a defeat like last Fridays, lacking not only in quality and cohesiveness but also in fight, felt a huge setback even if the absence of key players offers some mitigation. Arsenals next league game after Chelsea is Manchester City away. Its quite possible they could play well and still be bottom of the table on no points by the international break.

That then really would be a test of how much credit Arteta has among Arsenal fans. The problem for any new manager is that when things go wrong, there is no store of experience on which to draw. Gaining that experience of difficulty at Arsenal presumably isnt what anybody had in mind.

Will it come good for Arteta, and if so in how long? Will he survive the December assessment? Has there been progress? The problem is the chaotic circumstances make it almost impossible to tell.

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Another defeat and Mikel Artetas Arsenal DNA may not be enough to save his job - The Guardian

MASS. - A forensic anthropologist, a senator, and a missing child advocate: three women from very different backgrounds, but all equally fighting for passage of a familial DNA bill that is making its way through the state legislature.

If passed, Bill S.1595 would add cutting edge technology to the crime solving arsenal of state law enforcement.

When DNA is discovered at a crime scene today, it is run through the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) in order to find a match. The system is comprised of DNA samples from four different sources or indices: convicted offenders, past crime scene samples, unidentified human remains, and DNA from missing persons directly from the person or through a family member in order to locate the missing individual.

In instances when no direct match to the criminal is made through CODIS, the proposed bill would allow law enforcement to run another CODIS search, one that looks for relatives of the perpetrator. The search would only look at relatives already in CODIS meaning that they fit one of the four criteria. By looking at the familial DNA of parents and siblings in CODIS, detectives would be able to have another investigative tool in which they could identify and catch murders, rapists, and other violent offenders.

Heather Bish wrote the familial DNA bill in hopes of using the technology to solve her sisters murder case as well as hundreds of others. Her teenage sister, Molly Bish, disappeared from her lifeguard post at Comins Pond in Warren in 2000 and was later found murdered. An unidentified man with a mustache and driving a white car was last seen at the crime scene and always a suspect in the case.

I have been working on this familial DNA bill for about two years now and it was with the intent that it would lead us to this person in the white car, Bish said.

Familial DNA is currently being used in 14 other states and the accuracy of the technology has yielded impressive results.

Its never convicted anyone wrongfully and, in fact, the Innocence Project in Michigan uses it to exonerate people, Bish said.

While Massachusetts is known for being the forerunner of technological innovation, Bish says that state labs have policies that have not been updated to allow the use of these new technologies.

So, I am proposing this little, sort of safeguards and guidelines in order to do this testing, Bish said. That really is all the bill is. It is the how, and the who does what, and the safeguard to keep those privacy concerns safe.

From TikTok videos focused on bringing public attention to the bill, to making phone calls and meeting with legislators throughout Massachusetts, Bish is determined to pass the law in order to provide law enforcement with a vital investigative tool. She encourages the public to call their local legislators and advocate that they help pass Bill S. 1595 in the legislature.

It just really gets the bad guy. It hasnt been thrown out in court, and it hasnt been wrong," Bish said. It is what I think are called one of those no-brainer legislations.

After years of working with the Bish family and supporting their missing children advocacy, Senator Anne Gobi became involved with Bill S. 1595 when Heather Bish reached out to her.

Originally, the bill was filed late in the previous legislative session, but the pandemic struck which stopped the bill in its tracks. As a result, the bill was refined and strengthened by the Forensic Science Oversight Board and was refiled in late March. The bill is currently in the Public Safety Committee with a hearing date expected sometime in the fall.

This is a proven science, Sen. Gobi said. Were saying use this proven science. Lets give [the victims families] resolution and get the bad guys off the street.

Dr. Ann Marie Mires, director of the Molly Bish Center and Forensic Criminology at Anna Maria College, was appointed by Gov. Charlie Baker to the Forensic Science Oversight Board which reviewed the familial DNA bill.

This bill opens up another avenue in these old, unresolved crimes where no leads or databases have established a suspect, Dr. Mires said.

Presently, forensic labs cannot run familial DNA because it is not in the state statute. The bill would open this pathway for testing.

While this testing capability could provide meaningful answers for law enforcement and victims families, Dr. Mires described the importance of this system being highly regulated which is also outlined in the bill.

Dr. Mires said that running familial DNA would only be used as a last resort for violent, unresolved crimes only after searches for direct DNA matches had already been run through the four indices in CODIS.

Once familial DNA narrows down a suspect, prosecutors must still establish probable cause through means, motive, and opportunity in order to use the name and seek an indictment, she explained.

Dr. Mires said, Thats the beauty of what we are trying to do: A) educate the public B) bring in this robust technology under very prescribed conditions C) protect public safety.

Read more:
Familial DNA Bill Aims to Find Answers to Unsolved Cases - This Week In Worcester

The enormousness of the global sea has, over ages of exploration, made the appraisals of prime inhabitants more like rough sketches than detailed portraits.

Now, scientists have devised a precise way of detecting one of the oceans more exotic creatures. Estimates of its global abundance, they say, will likely soar.

The organisms are known as ctenophores. While looking superficially like jellyfish, they have no stingers and none of the usual body pulsations and rhythms that power jellyfish. Instead, what moves them through seawater are pulsating rows of feathery cilia. The tiny hairlike bundles resemble the teeth of a comb, giving the creatures their other name: comb jellies.

Undulations of the cilia let the creatures glide forward to sweep up prey and particulate matter. Adults range in size from a few inches to a few feet. Ctenophores live throughout the worlds oceans, from the abyss to the sunlit zone. Some 200 species have been identified. Most are bioluminescent. Typically, the colors of their lights are bluish or greenish, often shimmering or iridescent.

Four scientists have introduced a new way of identifying ctenophores in a paper that was published online last month and is soon to appear in Molecular Ecology Resources, a monthly journal. Steven H.D. Haddock, a co-author at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California, said the team worked on the problem for about five years and drew on a wide array of specimens gathered over decades. He said the advance will give much-needed precision for biologists seeking to learn the true dimensions of oceanic life.

If used widely, Dr. Haddock said, the method could result in the number of known species of ctenophores rising from 200 to around 600 and possibly as high as 800.

Its like fingerprinting, Dr. Haddock said of the technique in an interview. Its one of the next big things in assessing who lives in the ocean.

The new method applies a powerful new means of animal identification to the world of ctenophore research. Its known as environmental DNA sampling. Instead of directly observing or testing an organism, it collects and analyzes snippets of DNA that all creatures shed in their environment. From such castaways as hair, skin and mucus, scientists compare the environmental samples of genetic code to DNA libraries, seeking matches and identifications.

The procedure has already been used for other identifications. For instance, it has helped disclose the hidden presence of critically endangered organisms, including an aquatic insect known as the scarce yellow sally stonefly. Researchers also used it to demonstrate that Scotlands famous Loch Ness was filled with eel DNA more than anything monstrous.

But before these analytic tools could be applied to ctenophores, advances were required. Dr. Haddocks team designed a battery of new molecular probes that made it possible to perform deeper DNA interrogations.

Its like being able to read a new language, he said.

In a series of tests, the results let them identify 72 ctenophore species via their genetic signatures some five times more than had been reported in earlier databases and GenBank, a library of genetic codes from thousands of organisms that the National Institutes of Health maintain.

The precise tools, the scientists say, will let researchers look with new precision on the DNA sequences they recover from the wilds and better understand the true diversity of marine life. And that, in turn, will aid global conservation, fishery management and the assessment of such things as the impact of climate change on ocean biodiversity.

Ctenophores are largely overlooked in diversity studies because most are too fragile to sample with trawl nets, Dr. Haddock said. With this study, were trying to overcome that and give people a chance to appreciate just how special and diverse these creatures are.

Original post:
Taking the Pulse of the Oceans Comb Jellies - The New York Times

(AP)

It is arguably the most valuable thing a sex offender has to offer their DNA. Thats why those required to register as sex offenders are also required to submit a DNA sample.

But, as Washington State Attorney General Bob Fergusons office found out, hundreds of registered sex offenders in the state are skipping out on those orders, potentially leaving the public at risk.

This has been a long standing effort in my office to collect this DNA from serious criminal offenders throughout our state. And remarkably, there are many hundreds, if not thousands of individuals who have not provided that DNA, which is so critical, of course, for capturing bad guys, solving crimes, and getting accountability for victims all across our state, explained Ferguson, referencing his lawfully owed DNA project.

Washington AGs new website shines in massive rape kit backlog effort

Ferguson, whose office has played a pivotal role in rape kit reforms in our state, received a $2.5 million grant in 2019 from the Justice Department to fund the project.

We were very involved in recent years in solving the backlog of untested rape kits, so were using grant funds for that purpose, Ferguson explained.

Right now, in Washington state, what we discovered was more than 600 registered sex offenders did not provide that DNA that is legally required, Ferguson said. And these are individuals, out of all the individuals out there in our state, who most certainly you want to have their DNA in the system.

The team was able to first identify the 635 sex offenders who failed to provide samples. Then, as law enforcement that partnered with the AGs office did the boots on the ground work, they determined DNA for roughly 250 of the people on the list could not be collected because they had either died, or had moved out of the area and their whereabouts were unknown.

At the same time, Ferguson says they were able to collect 345 DNA samples from these offenders and get them into the national database, Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).

Its a database of DNA. And so if, for example, they go to that database and see if they get a match with the DNA from the crime scene, explained Ferguson, calling it a vital tool to solving murders, rapes, and other serious crimes. But it does more than that.

That CODIS database is only as good as the information you put into it, he explained. And so we discovered we had more than 600 registered sex offenders in our state, whose DNA had never gone into that database, which is truly outrageous. But it is critically important to solve crimes and to get accountability. And, frankly, to assist victims of crimes so the perpetrators are held accountable.

And, really, this cuts both ways having a good database because DNA [can] be input that can actually help solve crimes where someone is accused of a crime they didnt commit, Ferguson explained. And having a good database means that person maybe escaped the penalty. They shouldnt suffer because theyre actually innocent. So it cuts both ways in solving crimes, but also making sure innocent people dont get convicted.

A handful of jurisdictions still need to collect the DNA on their respective lists, with Snohomish County having the most outstanding (45). The county collected just half of the total 100 DNA samples it needed to collect from offenders.

KIRO Radios request for an ETA on completion or details on any challenges in collecting those DNA samples was unanswered.

What we need are two things, one, to finish this project to collect the DNA of all these registered sex offenders, Ferguson said. And number two, to create a system moving forward so we dont create this backlog. We dont want to create a system that allows research centers to ignore their legal obligation to provide DNA.

See more here:
Washington AGs office IDs hundreds of sex offenders who failed to give up DNA - MyNorthwest.com