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Friday, October 21, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Galaxy Nexus Specs Leak Just Ahead of Tonight's Launch [Galaxy Nexus]
Fla. woman shocked by $200,000 cell phone bill (AP)
MIAMI ? A South Florida woman got a shock when she opened a recent cell phone bill: she owed $201,000.
It was no mistake.
Celina Aarons has her two deaf-mute brothers on her plan. They communicate by texting and use their phones to watch videos. Normally, that's not a problem. Aarons has the appropriate data plan and her bill is about $175.
But her brothers spent two weeks in Canada and Aarons never changed to an international plan. Her brothers sent over 2,000 texts and also downloaded videos, sometimes racking up $2,000 in data charges.
T-Mobile told Aarons the bill was correct. She called Miami TV station WSVN, which contacted T-Mobile. The station reports ( http://bit.ly/qTMjTw) that T-Mobile cut Aarons' bill to $2,500 and gave her six months to pay.
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Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Oil prices tumble as stock market pulls back (AP)
NEW YORK ? Oil prices tumbled more than 2 percent Wednesday, as stock markets fell and government data showed a U.S. economy that remains weak.
The Federal Reserve's "Beige Book" showed only a slight increase in consumer spending last month while the economy expanded modestly in the Fed's 12 bank regions. And while home builders started new projects at the fastest rate in almost a year and a half, the pace remained far below what economists consider strong.
A weak economy means less demand for oil.
Benchmark crude fell $2.24, or 2.5 percent, to end the day at $86.29 per barrel in New York. Brent crude fell $2.76, or 2.5 percent, to finish at $108.39 in London. Prices dropped just before trading ended for the day, as stocks headed lower.
Indexes turned lower in the afternoon on reports of an impasse in talks to resolve Europe's debt crisis.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 72 points, or 0.6 percent, to close at 11,505. The S&P 500 fell 16, or 1.3 percent, to 1,210. The Nasdaq slid 53, or 2 percent, to 2,604. Technology stocks closed lower after a rare earnings miss by Apple.
Oil supplies unexpectedly dropped by 4.7 million barrels last week, according to The Energy Information Administration. But it wasn't because the U.S. is using more crude. Rather, refineries imported less oil, gasoline and other fuels because demand fell.
Gasoline supplies fell by 3.3 million barrels. Refineries are slowing production to conduct regular maintenance work.
At the pump, gasoline prices rose 1.5 cents to a national average of $3.474 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. Gasoline prices have increased almost every day for nearly two weeks, rising to record levels for this time of year.
In other energy trading, heating oil was down 4.65 cents to end at $2.9812 per gallon. Gasoline futures fell 7.54 cents to finish $2.6715 per gallon. Natural gas rose 3.3 cents to end at $3.586 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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Tuesday, October 18, 2011
East Jerusalem Jewish housing plan clears hurdle (AP)
JERUSALEM ? A plan for settling thousands more Jews in a strategic part of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem has quietly cleared a key bureaucratic hurdle, threatening to cut a link between Jerusalem and the West Bank and endanger already slim peace prospects.
The proposed Givat Hamatos development would complete a Jewish band around a part of east Jerusalem, the Palestinians' hoped-for capital, complicating any future partition of the city.
"This is a game changer," Daniel Seidemann, a Jerusalem expert, said of Givat Hamatos. While relatively small in size, "this is a mega-settlement in terms of impact," he added.
The plan calls for about 2,600 apartments, including about 1,800 for Givat Hamatos and 800 for an expansion of Beit Safafa, an adjacent Palestinian neighborhood, Seidemann said. Construction could begin by the second half of 2012, he said.
Because of Israel's construction of a half-ring of Jewish enclaves in east Jerusalem, only a few land corridors are left its core Arab neighborhoods and the West Bank. Givat Hamatos would cut off one of the key remaining ones ? cutting off the area of Beit Safafa from the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
The new building plan drew condemnation over the weekend from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. The U.N. and EU, along with the U.S. and Russia, make up the Quartet of Mideast mediators, who hope to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Quartet envoys are set to meet next week in the region to nudge the two sides back to the table, but prospects are were dim before, and even more so now.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will not return to talks as long as Israel keeps building on territory it captured in the 1967 war, and Palestinian officials said the plans for Givat Hamatos reinforced that decision.
"It's another slap in the face of all those international efforts being made toward the resumption of a meaningful political process," Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told The Associated Press on Monday. "It's not only damaging to our own interests, it's damaging to all those who have a vested interest in a two-state solution," referring to a Palestinian state next to Israel.
In any future peace deal, guidelines first established by former U.S. President Bill Clinton a decade ago would likely still apply to a partition of Jerusalem ? Arab neighborhoods to Palestine and Jewish neighborhoods to Israel. Such arrangements would be complex, likely requiring the construction of bridges and tunnels to create contiguity between disjointed Arab and Jewish areas.
Both Israel and the Palestinians accepted the concept at the time, but peace talks broke down over other issues.
The Palestinians, along with the international community, make no distinction between construction for Jews in the West Bank and in the occupied sector of Jerusalem. Israel annexed east Jerusalem ? plus a swath of West Bank land around it ? after the 1967 war and since then has settled 200,000 Jews in a ring of new developments around the Arab core.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while offering to negotiate the terms of a Palestinian state, opposes a partition of Jerusalem. His ruling coalition is dominated by hard-liners and supporters of settlement.
In a reflection of their power, the Netanyahu government last week decided to set up a task force to review West Bank land ownership, possibly creating a way to legalize dozens of unauthorized settlement outposts on lands until now regarded as private Palestinian property.
And last Tuesday, Jerusalem city officials also deposited the Givat Hamatos plan for a 60-day public review period. Court appeals could delay the process for a few more months, but construction could start within a year, according to the Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now, calling last week's decision the final planning stage.
Jerusalem municipal spokesman Stephan Miller said more steps have to be taken before construction can begin, but declined to give details. The plan could also be canceled at the government level.
Israelis insist the post-1967 housing developments are mere "Jewish neighborhoods," a term sounding benign and residential. The Palestinians, along with officials from the United Nations, the European Union and others, refer to them as settlements, a word which, in the shorthand of the conflict, implies illegitimacy.
Semantics aside, the world community overwhelmingly opposes the east Jerusalem construction ? and it is a red line for the Palestinians who consider the eastern part of the city as their capital.
About half a million Israelis already live on occupied land, including the 200,000 in areas Israel annexed to Jewish west Jerusalem. The annexed lands include the original east Jerusalem, which under Jordanian rule was a hilly hamlet of some six square kilometers (2.5 square miles), as well another 64 square kilometers of the West Bank.
Givat Hamatos would be the first new Jewish settlement ? or neighborhood ? to be built in east Jerusalem since the Har Homa enclave was started in 1997. It could hardly come at a more delicate time: last month the Palestinians asked the United Nations Security council to recognize a Palestinian state encompassing the West Bank, Gaza, and east Jerusalem.
Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, said she "deplored" the latest Israeli decision and urged the government to halt the project, citing concern it would cut off Arab Jerusalem off from Bethlehem. Both Ashton and Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. chief, reiterated that Israeli settlement activity in east Jerusalem is contrary to international law.
Israel has argued that east Jerusalem should not be considered occupied because it has extended citizenship rights to its Arab residents, although only several thousand of the city's quarter million Arab residents have taken advantage of this. The international community has not recognized Israel's annexations.
Israel claims Geneva Conventions forbidding colonization of occupied land should not apply because the West Bank and Gaza exist in sovereignty limbo ? no longer claimed by Jordan and Egypt, who ruled them before 1967, while the Palestinians have never had a state.
Miller, the Jerusalem city spokesman, said anyone could move into apartments there. But Jerusalem's newer housing developments have effectively been segregated by the acquiescence of all concerned ? although in recent years, some Palestinians have moved into Jewish neighborhoods because of housing shortages in Arab areas.
___
Associated Press writer Daniella Cheslow in Jerusalem contributed reporting.
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Genomic sequence and comparison of 2 macaques reveal new insights into biomedical research
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Public release date: 17-Oct-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Jia Liu
liujia@genomics.cn
Beijing Genomics Institute
October 17th, 2011, Shenzhen, China The South China Center for Innovative Pharmaceuticals, Sun Yat-Sen University, and BGI, the world's largest genomic organization, announced that they were among the research organizations from China, US and UK comprising an international research group that completed the genome sequence and comparison of two non-human primate animal models - Chinese rhesus macaque and cynomolgus. The study is published today online in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
This study marks an important milestone in macaque genome research and plays an important role in the better understanding of genetic differences among macaque monkeys. It also reveals new insights into the evolutionary history of the macaque genome, human disease research and drug discovery. "We believe these insights will generate great interest among geneticists, medical scientists and clinical researchers worldwide and facilitate the effective use of non-human primate models in medical research." said Prof. Guangmei Yan, the co-leading author of the study and Senior Consultant of The South China Center for Innovative Pharmaceuticals.
Macaques are the most extensively used non-human primates in biomedical research. They have contributed to pre-clinical studies all over the world, including the discovery of vaccines, drug development and behavioral research. Indian rhesus macaque, in particular, has been used for more than half century in pre-clinical research. However, India banned the export of all macaques in 1978, leading to the current shortage of resource for pre-clinical research.
Facing this problem, scientists have been gradually paying more attention on other macaque species/subspecies for a suitable alternative animal model, particularly on the Chinese rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta lasiota) and the cynomolgus/crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis). "In order to select the most relevant non-human primate model in a study, it is important for researchers to understand the genetic variation and inter-species differences among macaque species as well as the genetic diversity between macaques and human." said Dr. Guojie Zhang, the co-leading author of the study and Director of Genomic Evolution and Comparison Centre at BGI..
In this study, the team sequenced the genomes of a female Chinese rhesus macaque (CR) and a female cynomolgus (CE) by the whole-genome shotgun strategy on BGI's next-generations sequencing platform. The genome size of CR and CE is about 2.84 Gb and 2.85 Gb, respectively. Using the genomic data, the researchers also compared the two genomes with the previously sequenced Indian rhesus macaque (IR) and explored the abundant genetic heterogeneity among the three macaques. They found there were over 20 million single-nucleotide differences and 740,827 indel events in the three macaque species, which will provide abundant genetic heterogeneity for use in future biomedical analysis and application. It is important to note that a large number of genetic differences were shared between at least two macaques. The divergence rate of CE/IR (40%) was higher than that of CR/IR (31%) and CR/CE (34%).
In addition, the divergence pattern between CR, CE and IR also suggested the occurrence of ancient introgression from CR to CE over an extended period of evolutionary time. 217 strong selective sweep regions were identified with reduced variability between the three macaque species, implying that some genes in macaques may experience positive selection in evolution. "Genome sequence and comparison of CR and CE confirmed that introgressive hybridization probably played an important role in the formation of the genome of the extant mainland-origin cynomolgus macaque. Thus, the CE could be a useful model for exploring gene interchanges between primate species, and the consequent role of this process in primate evolution and speciation." added Dr. Zhang
Another interesting finding is that some specific genes in macaques display a high degree of sequence similarity with human disease gene orthologues and drug targets. This demonstrated the prominent use of macaques in biomedical research. To study the orthologues of human druggable protein domains in macaques and to create a resource for the therapeutic exploitation of the 'druggable genome'; the team screened the macaque orthologues for currently known drug domains. Almost all of the druggable orthologues can be detected in the three-macaque species/subspecies, indicating that these animal models are likely to be functionally equivalent. However, in very few cases, macaques exhibit differences with respect to human.
"We are excited about all the findings in the study, especially those with great biomedical interests. For instance, macaques have protective immunity against human retrovirus, HIV-1 virus, but are easily infected by SIV virus. TRIM5? protein in macaques can lead to anti-infection of HIV-1, whereas TRIM5? in human does not have the same effect. Variations of TRIM5, a gene encoding TRIM5? were observed at different frequency in the macaque population, and this may be the key hereditary factor for the ability to protect against HIV-1 infection among individual macaques." added Dr. Zhang.
Adding to the efforts in the genomic studies of macaques, earlier this month BGI has released the first monkey exome sequencing platform based on next-generation sequencing technology and the monkey exome capturing array (MECA) (http://en.genomics.cn/navigation/show_news.action?newsContent.id=8929). MECA is a proprietary exome capture array designed by BGI for capturing the entire monkey exome. The combination of this revolutionary array and BGI's high-throughput sequencing technology not only can simplify the workflow of exome sequencing experiments, but also improve cost-effectiveness and turnaround time.
###
About BGI
BGI was founded in Beijing, China on September 9th, 1999 with the mission of being a premier scientific partner to the global research community. The goal of BGI is to make leading-edge genomic science highly accessible through its investment in infrastructure that leverages the best available technology, economies of scale, and expert bioinformatics resources. BGI, and its affiliates, BGI Americas and BGI Europe, have established partnerships and collaborations with leading academic and government research institutions as well as global biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, supporting a variety of disease, agricultural, environmental, and related applications.
BGI has established a proven track record of excellence, delivering results with high efficiency and accuracy for innovative, high-profile research which has generated over 170 publications in top-tier journals such as Nature and Science. These accomplishments include sequencing one percent of the human genome for the International Human Genome Project, contributing 10 percent to the International Human HapMap Project, carrying out research to combat SARS and German deadly E. coli, playing a key role in the Sino-British Chicken Genome Project, and completing the sequence of the rice genome, the silkworm genome, the first Asian diploid genome, the potato genome, and, most recently, 1,000 genomes and human Gut metagenome.
For more information about BGI, please visit www.genomics.cn or www.bgisequence.com
Contact Information:
Guangmei Yan
Senior Consultant of the South China Center for Innovative Pharmaceuticals
Professor of Sun Yat-Sen University
ygm@mail.sysu.edu.cn
Guojie Zhang
Director of Genomic Evolution and Comparison Centre
BGI
zhanggj@genomics.cn
www.genomics.cn
Bicheng Yang
Public Communication Officer
BGI
+86-755-82639701
yangbicheng@genomics.cn
www.genomics.cn
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 17-Oct-2011[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Jia Liu
liujia@genomics.cn
Beijing Genomics Institute
October 17th, 2011, Shenzhen, China The South China Center for Innovative Pharmaceuticals, Sun Yat-Sen University, and BGI, the world's largest genomic organization, announced that they were among the research organizations from China, US and UK comprising an international research group that completed the genome sequence and comparison of two non-human primate animal models - Chinese rhesus macaque and cynomolgus. The study is published today online in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
This study marks an important milestone in macaque genome research and plays an important role in the better understanding of genetic differences among macaque monkeys. It also reveals new insights into the evolutionary history of the macaque genome, human disease research and drug discovery. "We believe these insights will generate great interest among geneticists, medical scientists and clinical researchers worldwide and facilitate the effective use of non-human primate models in medical research." said Prof. Guangmei Yan, the co-leading author of the study and Senior Consultant of The South China Center for Innovative Pharmaceuticals.
Macaques are the most extensively used non-human primates in biomedical research. They have contributed to pre-clinical studies all over the world, including the discovery of vaccines, drug development and behavioral research. Indian rhesus macaque, in particular, has been used for more than half century in pre-clinical research. However, India banned the export of all macaques in 1978, leading to the current shortage of resource for pre-clinical research.
Facing this problem, scientists have been gradually paying more attention on other macaque species/subspecies for a suitable alternative animal model, particularly on the Chinese rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta lasiota) and the cynomolgus/crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis). "In order to select the most relevant non-human primate model in a study, it is important for researchers to understand the genetic variation and inter-species differences among macaque species as well as the genetic diversity between macaques and human." said Dr. Guojie Zhang, the co-leading author of the study and Director of Genomic Evolution and Comparison Centre at BGI..
In this study, the team sequenced the genomes of a female Chinese rhesus macaque (CR) and a female cynomolgus (CE) by the whole-genome shotgun strategy on BGI's next-generations sequencing platform. The genome size of CR and CE is about 2.84 Gb and 2.85 Gb, respectively. Using the genomic data, the researchers also compared the two genomes with the previously sequenced Indian rhesus macaque (IR) and explored the abundant genetic heterogeneity among the three macaques. They found there were over 20 million single-nucleotide differences and 740,827 indel events in the three macaque species, which will provide abundant genetic heterogeneity for use in future biomedical analysis and application. It is important to note that a large number of genetic differences were shared between at least two macaques. The divergence rate of CE/IR (40%) was higher than that of CR/IR (31%) and CR/CE (34%).
In addition, the divergence pattern between CR, CE and IR also suggested the occurrence of ancient introgression from CR to CE over an extended period of evolutionary time. 217 strong selective sweep regions were identified with reduced variability between the three macaque species, implying that some genes in macaques may experience positive selection in evolution. "Genome sequence and comparison of CR and CE confirmed that introgressive hybridization probably played an important role in the formation of the genome of the extant mainland-origin cynomolgus macaque. Thus, the CE could be a useful model for exploring gene interchanges between primate species, and the consequent role of this process in primate evolution and speciation." added Dr. Zhang
Another interesting finding is that some specific genes in macaques display a high degree of sequence similarity with human disease gene orthologues and drug targets. This demonstrated the prominent use of macaques in biomedical research. To study the orthologues of human druggable protein domains in macaques and to create a resource for the therapeutic exploitation of the 'druggable genome'; the team screened the macaque orthologues for currently known drug domains. Almost all of the druggable orthologues can be detected in the three-macaque species/subspecies, indicating that these animal models are likely to be functionally equivalent. However, in very few cases, macaques exhibit differences with respect to human.
"We are excited about all the findings in the study, especially those with great biomedical interests. For instance, macaques have protective immunity against human retrovirus, HIV-1 virus, but are easily infected by SIV virus. TRIM5? protein in macaques can lead to anti-infection of HIV-1, whereas TRIM5? in human does not have the same effect. Variations of TRIM5, a gene encoding TRIM5? were observed at different frequency in the macaque population, and this may be the key hereditary factor for the ability to protect against HIV-1 infection among individual macaques." added Dr. Zhang.
Adding to the efforts in the genomic studies of macaques, earlier this month BGI has released the first monkey exome sequencing platform based on next-generation sequencing technology and the monkey exome capturing array (MECA) (http://en.genomics.cn/navigation/show_news.action?newsContent.id=8929). MECA is a proprietary exome capture array designed by BGI for capturing the entire monkey exome. The combination of this revolutionary array and BGI's high-throughput sequencing technology not only can simplify the workflow of exome sequencing experiments, but also improve cost-effectiveness and turnaround time.
###
About BGI
BGI was founded in Beijing, China on September 9th, 1999 with the mission of being a premier scientific partner to the global research community. The goal of BGI is to make leading-edge genomic science highly accessible through its investment in infrastructure that leverages the best available technology, economies of scale, and expert bioinformatics resources. BGI, and its affiliates, BGI Americas and BGI Europe, have established partnerships and collaborations with leading academic and government research institutions as well as global biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, supporting a variety of disease, agricultural, environmental, and related applications.
BGI has established a proven track record of excellence, delivering results with high efficiency and accuracy for innovative, high-profile research which has generated over 170 publications in top-tier journals such as Nature and Science. These accomplishments include sequencing one percent of the human genome for the International Human Genome Project, contributing 10 percent to the International Human HapMap Project, carrying out research to combat SARS and German deadly E. coli, playing a key role in the Sino-British Chicken Genome Project, and completing the sequence of the rice genome, the silkworm genome, the first Asian diploid genome, the potato genome, and, most recently, 1,000 genomes and human Gut metagenome.
For more information about BGI, please visit www.genomics.cn or www.bgisequence.com
Contact Information:
Guangmei Yan
Senior Consultant of the South China Center for Innovative Pharmaceuticals
Professor of Sun Yat-Sen University
ygm@mail.sysu.edu.cn
Guojie Zhang
Director of Genomic Evolution and Comparison Centre
BGI
zhanggj@genomics.cn
www.genomics.cn
Bicheng Yang
Public Communication Officer
BGI
+86-755-82639701
yangbicheng@genomics.cn
www.genomics.cn
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/bgi-gsa101711.php
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