Category Archives: Genetic Engineering

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

3-Apr-2014

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, April 3, 2014Nearly 7% of Americans married between 2005-2012 met on social networking sites. How those couples compare to couples who met through other types of online meetings or the "old-fashioned" way in terms of age, race, frequency of Internet use, and other factors is explored in an article in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website.

In "First Comes Social Networking, Then Comes Marriage? Characteristics of Americans Married 2005-2012 Who Met Through Social Networking Sites," Jeffrey Hall, PhD, University of Kansas, Lawrence, describes the characteristics that are more common among recently married individuals who met online via social networking sites (SNS).

"Facebook use grew dramatically during the 2005-2012 time period studied," says Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCB, BCN, Editor-in-Chief of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, from the Interactive Media Institute, San Diego, CA. "It will be useful to continue to observe how these trends change as various groups of individuals become more frequent users of SNS," says Dr. Wiederhold.

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About the Journal

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking is a peer-reviewed journal published monthly online with Open Access options and in print that explores the psychological and social issues surrounding the Internet and interactive technologies, plus cybertherapy and rehabilitation. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website.

About the Publisher

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Which couples who meet on social networking sites are most likely to marry?

A set of prehistoric footprints, said to show meat-eating dinosaurs hunting vegetarian dinos, has just been recreated in a detailed 3-D model.

The frozen-in-time event, dated to at least 112 million years ago, happened at what is now the Paluxy River site in Dinosaur Valley State Park near the town of Glen Rose, Texas just southwest of Fort Worth.

The chase involved 20 to 30-foot-long predatory dinosaurs going after 30 to 50-foot-long dinosaur prey. While paleontologists arent yet certain of the species, Acrocanthosaurus (aka High-spined Lizard) is considered the likely hunter and Pleurocoelus (a hefty and impressively huge plant eater) the hunted.

Could These 10 Animals Be Resurrected?

It looks like one or more big predatory dinosaurs was stalking a herd of about 12 sauropods before the hunters went in for the kill.Some have suggested the tracks show one or more dinosaurs dying, since the footprints of young sauropods (the plant eaters) appear to trail off.

The chase scene has been known for some years. Unfortunately, after American paleontologist Roland Bird originally excavated the preserved footprints in 1940, researchers removed the tracks from their original location, divided them into blocks and transported them to various locations around the world.

Bird had documented the original site with photos and maps, but since that excavation, portions of the tracks have been lost. Peter Falkingham of the Royal Veterinary College, along with colleagues James Farlow and Karl Bates, decided to recreate the full set of dinosaur footprints.

When we first set out to map the Paluxy Rivertrack, creating an accurate 3-D model of the site required use of a large, heavy laser scanner that cost tens of thousands of pounds and was prone to failure especially in the extreme heat in Texas, Falkingham said in a press release.

Chicken from Hell Was a Fowl-Looking Dinosaur

They switched to a process called photogrammetry, which uses multiple digital photographs to generate a 3-D model. The process matches features between images and calculates relative camera positions. The researchers were even able to incorporate some of the original photos taken by Bird.

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Deadly Dinosaur Chase Reconstructed

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

3-Apr-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ruehle kruehle@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, April 3, 2014In many recent incidents of premeditated mass shooting the perpetrators have been male and dressed in black, and may share other characteristics that could be used to identify potential shooters before they commit acts of mass violence. Risk factors related to the antihero, dark-knight persona adopted by these individuals are explored in an article in Violence and Gender, a new peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Violence and Gender website at http://www.liebertpub.com/vio.

In the article "Costuming, Misogyny, and Objectification as Risk Factors in Targeted Violence," Brian Van Brunt, EdD and W. Scott Lewis, The NCHERM Group, LLC (Malvern, PA), suggest reasons why persons who commit mass shootings are drawn to dark popular culture imagery, how these cultural factors may contribute to the violence, and what risk factors could be useful to law enforcement and behavioral investigation teams seeking to identify individuals who might be preparing for an attack.

"'Objectification' of victims and 'costuming' are specific offender behaviors that will give threat assessment teams throughout the world greater insights into the motivation of mass shooters and just how ceremonial their preparations are," says Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Violence and Gender and Senior FBI Profiler/Criminal Investigative Analyst (ret.). "The value of this information in being able to identify these offenders beforehand based on their behavior so that we can prevent future acts of mass murder is very significant."

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About the Journal

Violence and Gender is the only peer-reviewed journal focusing on the understanding, prediction, and prevention of acts of violence. Through research papers, roundtable discussions, case studies, and other original content, the Journal critically examines biological, genetic, behavioral, psychological, racial, ethnic, and cultural factors as they relate to the gender of perpetrators of violence. Led by Editor-in-Chief Mary Ellen O'Toole, PhD, Forensic Behavioral Consultant and Senior FBI Profiler/Criminal Investigative Analyst (ret.), Violence and Gender explores the difficult issues that are vital to threat assessment and prevention of the epidemic of violence. Violence and Gender is published quarterly online with Open Access options and in print, and is the official journal of The Avielle Foundation.

About the Publisher

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Dress and behavior of mass shooters as factors to predict and prevent future attacks

From buying organic to gluten-free, consumers seem to be more interested than ever in the ways their food is produced.

This spring, legislators in more than 20 states will consider proposals to mandate special labeling of genetically modified foods, to give shoppers one more bit of information.

Critics say genetically modified foods might be unsafe, but even if they are not, consumers have a right to know what is in what they eat.

So, why not tell people if the ingredients in their cupcakes and cereal have been engineered, and let them decide what to buy?

This may sound reasonable and seem to reflect how our choice-driven marketplace works. But, it reflects a deep misunderstanding about what genetic engineering actually is and how it compares to the changes we have been making to crop plants for thousands of years.

For starters, nearly every food on grocery store shelves has been modified by human hands at the genetic level. In the agriculture world, its called breeding. And, as many of us learned in high school biology class, breeding alters a plants genes so it expresses new traits.

This may be as simple as a new color or flavor, or even resistance to pests and plant diseases.

And, whether we use genetic engineering or more conventional techniques, breeding can mean just tweaking the genes already inside a plant or introducing entirely new ones.

The primary thing that makes genetic engineering unique is the power and precision it gives us to make those changes and then test for safety afterward. It has also given us food that is both safer for our families and better for the environment.

Plants with a built-in resistance to chewing insects, for example, have allowed farmers to use millions of gallons less pesticide every year.

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GMO foods have caused nary a sniffle, sneeze or bellyache

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

1-Apr-2014

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 x2156 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, April 1, 2014 -- Rare, very small embryonic-like stem cells (VSELs) isolated from human adult tissues could provide a new source for developing regenerative therapies to repair complex tissues damaged by disease or trauma. The ability of these most-primitive, multipotent stem cells to differentiate into bone, neurons, connective tissue, and other cell types, and the proper criteria for identifying and isolating VSELs, are described in two articles in Stem Cells and Development, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The articles are available on the Stem Cells and Development website.

Russ Taichman and coauthors, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and NeoStem (New York, NY), implanted human VSELs into the cavity created by a cranial wound and provided the first demonstration that they could generate tissue structures containing multiple cell types. Their work is presented in "Human and Murine Very Small Embryonic-Like (VSEL) Cells Represent Multipotent Tissue Progenitors, In Vitro and In Vivo."

Malwina Suszynska et al., University of Louisville, KY, and Pomeranian Medical University (Szczecin) and Jagiellonian University (Krakow), Poland, explore the challenges in isolating these rare stem cells and the importance of not confusing VSELs with other types of embryonic or reprogrammed adult pluripotent stem cells, or with monopotent adult stem cells. In the Issues in Development article "The Proper Criteria for Identification and Sorting of Very Small Embryonic-Like Stem Cells (VSELs), and Some Nomenclature Issues," the authors present the most current descriptions and terminology for characterizing VSELs.

"I find the data presented by the Taichman group to be compelling and challenging. However, the current debate as to the significance of the body of publications concerning VSELs can only be resolved by a cooperative investigation across laboratories using identical methodologies and source materials," says Editor-in-Chief Graham C. Parker, PhD, The Carman and Ann Adams Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI.

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About the Journal

Stem Cells and Development is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published 24 times per year in print and online. The Journal is dedicated to communication and objective analysis of developments in the biology, characteristics, and therapeutic utility of stem cells, especially those of the hematopoietic system. Complete tables of content and a free sample issue may be viewed on the Stem Cells and Development website.

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First evidence that very small embryonic-like stem cells

Genetic Engineering by Nopparat
Genetic Engineering present by Nopparat Chartmontree (Mind) Biology major@Phetchaburi Rajabhat University Smile Bio ... ^^

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Genetic Engineering by Nopparat - Video

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Microbiologists from Trinity College Dublin have discovered that an identical protein is used differently by two species of bacteria to help them cope with distinct types of environmental stress. The discovery reveals an extraordinary level of versatility in the way different genes are 'switched on' in bacteria, which in turn helps to explain how they evolve so quickly.

The microbiologists showed that the same protein, called 'OmpR, which is responsible for binding to specific sections of DNA, governs the way a large cohort of genes function in both a human-friendly strain of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and in the potentially deadly Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium).

In E. coli, OmpR is central to the ability of the bacterium to survive sudden stress caused by water moving in and out of its cells due to changing external conditions. In S. Typhimurium, however, OmpR is a key regulator of a series of actions that enable individual bacteria to respond to and survive acid stress. Such conditions are experienced, for example, in the hostile environment found in the bacteria-destroying vacuoles of macrophages, which are cells of the immune system that Salmonella can defeat using specialist pathogenic genes.

The microbiologists identified all the OmpR binding sites in the chromosomes of both species and investigated the features that attracted OmpR to them. The sites were rich in the DNA bases adenine (A) and thymine (T), which bind to one another to help form the classic double helix structure associated with DNA.

Importantly, the DNA of S. Typhimurium alters its shape after a bacterium is exposed to acid. This change in shape, called DNA relaxation, enhances the attractiveness of the OmpR binding sites for the OmpR protein. The same relaxation does not occur in E. coli.

Professor and Head of Microbiology at Trinity, Charles Dorman, said: "This work shows that DNA is not a passive partner when genes are switched on, but that it is an active and dynamic participant in the process. And, among the many OmpR targets possessed by S. Typhimurium that are not present in E. coli are the genes that make Salmonella pathogenic, and problematic for people."

Scientists believe that the pathogenic genes were acquired through horizontal gene transfer. This process is mediated by direct contact between bacteria, by special viruses called bacteriophages, or by direct uptake of DNA from the environment. The transfer essentially represents the passing of DNA's all-important codes between individuals, and is often associated with the development and evolution of antibiotic resistance.

The scientists suspect that this DNA code sharing occurred after Salmonella and E. coli separated from their last common ancestor, earlier in the two species' unique evolutionary journeys, which is why the pathogenic genes are not present in E. coli. The DNA sequences of these genes confirm that they are very rich in A and T bases, which is a key characteristic they share with the OmpR binding sites.

Functionally, this means that these genes have the appropriate structural profile for rapid interaction with the OmpR DNA binding protein, which regulates when, and to what degree, they are 'switched on'. This profile, coupled with the DNA relaxation that accompanies acid stress in Salmonella, may have allowed OmpR to 'tame' these imported genes and embed them in the acid stress response of Salmonella bacteria.

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Versatility in genetic expression aids rapid microbial evolution

GMOs What You Need To Know - Dr. Michael Hansen, PhD
Mike has been sharing his scientific expertise with Consumers Union for more than 20 years. A biologist and ecologist who did his Ph.D. in the techniques of ...

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GMOs What You Need To Know - Dr. Michael Hansen, PhD - Video

Can You Genetically Enhance Yourself?
FOLLOW me to asapSCIENCE: http://bit.ly/1oevXDm SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/1gAEtTd ***CLICK "SHOW MORE" FOR LINKS*** An Introduction to Genetic Engineering (TE...

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Can You Genetically Enhance Yourself? - Video

BRITISH SCIENTISTS CLONE DINOSAUR
Scientists at Liverpool #39;s John Moore University have successfully cloned a dinosaur, a spokesman from the university said yesterday. The dinosaur, a baby Apa...

By: nouvelles

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BRITISH SCIENTISTS CLONE DINOSAUR - Video