RIKEN BioResource Center to provide seeds of model cereal plant

Public release date: 5-Apr-2013
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Contact: Juliette Savin
pr@riken.jp
81-048-462-1225
RIKEN

Seeds of the model cereal plant Brachypodium distachyon are now available at the RIKEN BioResource Center (BRC) in Japan, the second bioresource facility to provide seeds of this important model plant to the international scientific community.

Brachypodium distachyon belongs to the Poaceae family of monocot plants, which comprises temperate grasses and cereals and constitutes one of the most economically important plant families in the modern world.

Brachypodium distachyon is the first of the grass subfamily Pooideae to have a sequenced genome and it is widely used as a model plant for structural and functional genomic studies of grasses and cereals.

The seeds made available at BRC are of the Bd21 line, the standard line used in the sequencing project. In addition to the seeds, BRC will provide the scientific community with the technology needed for the cultivation and genetic alteration of Bd21.

"The BRC Brachypodium distachyon seed bank is the first of the kind in Asia. Our Bd21 seeds will be of particular interest to Asian scientists who can use it to generate transgenic plants and study monocot genes of agronomic interest." Explains Dr. Kobayashi, Head of the Experimental Plant Division.

The Bd21 Brachypodium distachyon line is an important addition to BRC's wide variety of bioresources, which already include human specimens, mice, the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, cell lines, genes and microorganisms.

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Since its establishment in 2001, the RIKEN BioResource Center has acted as a core bioresource facility for researchers through the collection, preservation and distribution of bioresources. Through these activities, the BRC supports studies in a broad range of fields, from basic research to the treatment of disease, health promotion, food production and environmental conservation.

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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: 5-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Juliette Savin
pr@riken.jp
81-048-462-1225
RIKEN

Seeds of the model cereal plant Brachypodium distachyon are now available at the RIKEN BioResource Center (BRC) in Japan, the second bioresource facility to provide seeds of this important model plant to the international scientific community.

Brachypodium distachyon belongs to the Poaceae family of monocot plants, which comprises temperate grasses and cereals and constitutes one of the most economically important plant families in the modern world.

Brachypodium distachyon is the first of the grass subfamily Pooideae to have a sequenced genome and it is widely used as a model plant for structural and functional genomic studies of grasses and cereals.

The seeds made available at BRC are of the Bd21 line, the standard line used in the sequencing project. In addition to the seeds, BRC will provide the scientific community with the technology needed for the cultivation and genetic alteration of Bd21.

"The BRC Brachypodium distachyon seed bank is the first of the kind in Asia. Our Bd21 seeds will be of particular interest to Asian scientists who can use it to generate transgenic plants and study monocot genes of agronomic interest." Explains Dr. Kobayashi, Head of the Experimental Plant Division.

The Bd21 Brachypodium distachyon line is an important addition to BRC's wide variety of bioresources, which already include human specimens, mice, the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, cell lines, genes and microorganisms.

###

Since its establishment in 2001, the RIKEN BioResource Center has acted as a core bioresource facility for researchers through the collection, preservation and distribution of bioresources. Through these activities, the BRC supports studies in a broad range of fields, from basic research to the treatment of disease, health promotion, food production and environmental conservation.

---

[ | 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/2013-04/r-rbc040513.php

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Laws, rumors have ammo flying off store shelves

FILE--In this Feb. 21, 2007 file photo, Bruce Martindale takes aim as he competes in a weekly air gun league in Troy, N.Y. Martindale, who normally uses a .22-caliber, has cut back on practice because ammunition is in short supply. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)

FILE--In this Feb. 21, 2007 file photo, Bruce Martindale takes aim as he competes in a weekly air gun league in Troy, N.Y. Martindale, who normally uses a .22-caliber, has cut back on practice because ammunition is in short supply. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) ? Gun enthusiasts fearful of new weapon controls and alarmed by rumors of government hoarding are buying bullets practically by the bushel, making it hard for stores nationwide to keep shelves stocked and even putting a pinch on some local law enforcement departments.

At a 24-hour Walmart in suburban Albany, the ammunition cabinet was three-fourths empty this week; sales clerks said customers must arrive before 9 the morning after a delivery to get what they want. A few miles away, Dick's Sporting Goods puts up a red rope after ammunition deliveries so buyers can line up early to get a number, averting races up the escalator to the gun counter. Both stores are limiting ammunition purchases to three boxes a day.

In mid-January, two days after New York became the first state to toughen laws post-Newtown, hunter and target shooter Mark Smith spent $250 to stockpile ammunition, including $43 for a brick of 500 .22-caliber bullets, commonly used for target shooting and hunting small game.

"I had a feeling there was going to be a huge ammunition shortage," said Smith, browsing shotgun shells this week at Dick's. "Especially .22s. It's probably the most popular round out there."

Likewise, the .223 ammunition used in popular semi-automatic rifles is hard to find.

At Hunter's Haven, a strip-mall gun shop in the farming community of Rolesville, N.C., north of Raleigh, clerk Dean Turnage said ammunition is going out "as fast as we can get it in," even though new gun controls are not on the state's agenda.

The run started in November with President Barack Obama's re-election, followed by the mass shooting in December of children in Newtown, Conn., which led the president to launch an effort to strengthen federal gun controls and several states to tighten their laws.

Connecticut on Thursday became the latest to crack down as the governor signed a measure ? effective immediately ? that adds more than 100 firearms to the state's assault weapons ban, creates a dangerous weapon offender registry and institutes eligibility rules for ammunition purchases.

Hours before the law took effect, hundreds of customers streamed out of Hoffman's Gun Center in Newington with guns and boxes of ammunition.

"The bad guys are going to get guns," said John Power, 56, of Bristol, arguing the new law would not stop a troubled gunman.

The nation's 100 million firearms owners are driving the market for some 10 billion rounds annually, with demand and gun purchases both increasing the past several months, driven partly by fear that tougher laws will restrict the ability to buy firearms, said Lawrence Keane, whose National Shooting Sports Foundation is based in Newtown.

"There's a concern by firearms owners that this administration will pursue bans on products, bans on ammunition. ... It's not limited geographically to New York or anywhere else. It is nationwide," he said.

Some government critics attributed shortages to federal purchases of bullets, accusing officials of trying to hoard a billion rounds and disarm the populace.

"Department of Homeland Security and the federal government itself is buying up ammunition and components at such a rate, it's causing artificial shortage of supplies for the regular consumer," said Jesse Alday, a state corrections officer who was buying a couple of boxes of primers at Hunter's Haven.

"They're buying it up as fast as they can, for reasons they're not officially willing to admit or go into. ... They're not willing to come up with any answers as to the reasons behind why they have enough ammunition on the U.S., on our own home soil, to wage a 25-year war," he said. "That's kind of strange."

Keane, whose group includes manufacturers, said the reports of massive federal purchases were not true.

The government routinely buys products in bulk to reduce costs, and Homeland Security has said the latest purchases are no different.

Last year, the department put out bids for a total of about 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition over the next five years. The rounds are to be used for training, routine weapons qualification exercises and normal duty by various department agencies.

On a smaller scale, some local law enforcement agencies are also having problems getting ammo.

Jennifer Donnals, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol, said the agency was still waiting on rifle and shotgun ammunition ordered in November.

In Phoenix, the Police Department has stopped providing officers with 100 rounds of ammunition per month for practice. Sgt. Trent Crump said 10 to 15 percent of the department's 3,000 officers, who are assigned .40-caliber and .45-caliber handguns, had taken advantage of the ammunition for practice shooting.

In January, police chiefs in central Texas said they were having trouble arming their officers because of shortages of assault rifles and ammunition.

The major U.S. manufacturers are running shifts around the clock to try to meet increased demand, Keane said. The foundation projected $1.5 billion from ammunition sales in 2011 and $2.8 billion from gun sales, totals that more than doubled in a decade.

Stockpiling has also been fueled by false online rumors, such as one that purports a coming nickel tax on each bullet, which would triple the cost of a .22-caliber cartridge, said Hans Farnung, president of Beikirch's Ammunition, a retailer and wholesaler in Rochester, N.Y., that sells in seven states.

"I don't want to call them doomsdayers, but people get on these blogs on the Internet and they drive people's fears," he said. "They do not want to wait around and see."

The tax rumor was fueled by proposals in Connecticut, California and Illinois that haven't advanced.

This isn't the first U.S. run on ammunition. Walmart's Kory Lundberg said the retail chain previously rationed in 2009, the year Obama entered the White House. However, sportsmen and tradesmen say the current shortages are nationwide, and the worst they've seen.

New York's law will require ammunition sellers to register and buyers to undergo a background check starting Jan. 15, 2014. Richard Aborn, president of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, said the run on guns and ammunition isn't surprising and is fueled by "gross exaggerations," when reasonable discussion is what's needed.

Bruce Martindale, a champion marksman from upstate New York who normally uses .22-caliber rimfire ammunition, said it's now hard for him to get anything, partly because online retailers are reluctant to ship to New York and risk running afoul of its new law.

"I can't buy supplies anywhere," he said. Like many competitors, he has cut back on practice but says he doesn't see a public safety concern.

"This is legitimate gun owners buying," he said. "I don't think criminals are stockpiling."

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Michael Melia in Hartford, Conn., Kristin M. Hall in Nashville, Tenn., Alicia Caldwell in Washington, D.C., A. Breed in Rolesville, N.C., and Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-04-Ammunition%20Frenzy/id-4b23bc2f03f4443f9b2dd074a1985280

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10 Things to Know for Today

Soldiers of the U.S. Army 23rd chemical battalion wear gas masks while attending a demonstration of their equipment during a ceremony to recognize the battalion's official return to the 2nd Infantry Division based in South Korea at Camp Stanley in Uijeongbu, north of Seoul, Thursday, April 4, 2013. The 23rd chemical battalion left South Korea in 2004 and returned with some 350 soldiers in Jan. 2013. The battalion will provide nuclear, biological and chemical detection, equipment decontamination and consequence management assistance to support U.S. and South Korean military forces. North Korea warned Thursday that its military has been cleared to attack the U.S. using "smaller, lighter and diversified" nuclear weapons, while the U.S. said it will strengthen regional protection by deploying a missile defense system to Guam. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Soldiers of the U.S. Army 23rd chemical battalion wear gas masks while attending a demonstration of their equipment during a ceremony to recognize the battalion's official return to the 2nd Infantry Division based in South Korea at Camp Stanley in Uijeongbu, north of Seoul, Thursday, April 4, 2013. The 23rd chemical battalion left South Korea in 2004 and returned with some 350 soldiers in Jan. 2013. The battalion will provide nuclear, biological and chemical detection, equipment decontamination and consequence management assistance to support U.S. and South Korean military forces. North Korea warned Thursday that its military has been cleared to attack the U.S. using "smaller, lighter and diversified" nuclear weapons, while the U.S. said it will strengthen regional protection by deploying a missile defense system to Guam. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Tug boats tow the Carnival cruise ship Triumph into the middle of the Mobile River Wednesday April 3, 2013 in Mobile, Ala. The ship broke its moorings Wednesday at BAE Shipyard. Carnival Cruise Lines says a crippled cruise ship that tore loose from the Alabama dock where it's being repaired is secure and has been moved to a terminal. (AP Photo/AL.com, Bill Starling)

In this photo taken on March 18, 2013, patients sit in a sauna room at the Scientology health center of Vietnam Association of Agent Orange Victims in Thai Binh city, Vietnam. The center runs a 25-day health program which, as well as massive consumption of vitamins, includes four-hour sauna sessions and a morning run. While there is no medical evidence that the treatment at the center is effective, Vietnamese authorities are supporting it as a way of relieving some of the suffering of the between 2 and 4 million people suffering from illnesses linked to exposure to Agent Orange during the war. (AP Photo/Na Son Nguyen)

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:

1. NORTH KOREA THREATENS NUKE ATTACK ON U.S.

North Korea moved a missile to its east coast after warning it could use "diversified" nuclear weapons. The U.S. deployed an advanced missile defense system to Guam.

2. CONN. PASSES TOUGH GUN LAWS AFTER SCHOOL MASSACRE

The bill going to the governor today adds more than 100 firearms to the assault weapons ban and creates a registry for dangerous offenders.

3. 2 MORE SOUGHT IN PRISON CHIEF'S DEATH

Colorado authorities say the men belong to the same white supremacist gang as Evan Ebel, a suspect in the death of the corrections chief.

4. WARNING SIGNS ABOUT EX-RUTGERS COACH

Mike Rice once knocked out of one of his father's teeth while playing basketball and a former assistant said he was "crazed" about the game.

5.OBAMA'S WALLET GETS THINNER

As a way to share the sacrifice of federal workers, he's going to return 5 percent of his presidential pay.

6. INFAMOUS CRUISE SHIP CORRALLED

The Carnival cruise liner that stranded thousands of passengers for days was torn from its moorings by strong winds.

7. WHAT VIETNAMESE VETS SEE IN SCIENTOLOGY

Veterans exposed to Agent Orange are trying a 25-day vitamin and sauna regime promoted by the church.

8. THE MOST EXPENSIVE DISEASE

Alzheimer's costs up to $215 billion a year to manage, mostly on care to get the afflicted through daily routines.

9. THE PHONE FACEBOOK LIKES

The HTC smartphone being introduced today has new Android technology that deeply integrates the social network.

10. WHY NBC WENT FOR FALLON

The AP's David Bauder says 62-year-old Jay Leno has been around for a long time, while 38-year-old Fallon is up and coming. NBC also gets to move 'Tonight' back to New York.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-04-10-Things-to-Know-Today/id-84a1cc4711e04d1ea5aa4a5a4d090461

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Tiny octopus-like microorganisms named after science fiction monsters

Apr. 2, 2013 ? University of British Columbia researchers have discovered two new symbionts living in the gut of termites, and taken the unusual step of naming them after fictional monsters created by American horror author HP Lovecraft.

The single-cell protists, Cthulhu macrofasciculumque and Cthylla microfasciculumque, help termites digest wood. The researchers decided to name them after monstrous cosmic entities featured in Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos as an ode to the sometimes strange and fascinating world of the microbe.

"When we first saw them under the microscope they had this unique motion, it looked almost like an octopus swimming," says UBC researcher Erick James, lead author of the paper describing the new protists, published in the online journal PLoS ONE.

The octopus-like movements and appearance of both protists reminded James of the horrid Cthulhu and Cthylla, and the little protists were baptized after the two monsters. Cthulhu is often depicted as a giant, octopus-like entity with wings. Cthylla is his daughter, and has a similar appearance.

Most of the larger protists living in termites have already been identified, but Cthulhu and Cthylla are very small -- they are in the range of 10 to 20 microns, while the bigger protists are around 50 to 150 microns -- and had passed unnoticed until now. But although tiny, the protists and their brethren have a big impact, much like their fictional namesakes.

"The huge diversity of microbial organisms is a completely untapped resource," says James. "Studying protists can tell us about the evolution of organisms. Some protists cause diseases, but others live in symbiotic relationships, like these flagellates in the intestines of termites."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of British Columbia, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Erick R. James, Noriko Okamoto, Fabien Burki, Rudolf H. Scheffrahn, Patrick J. Keeling. Cthulhu Macrofasciculumque n. g., n. sp. and Cthylla Microfasciculumque n. g., n. sp., a Newly Identified Lineage of Parabasalian Termite Symbionts. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (3): e58509 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058509

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/q-JUNFq0cXU/130403092702.htm

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As World Meat Consumption Grows, US Appetite Wanes (Voice Of America)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/296507400?client_source=feed&format=rss

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In my attempt to purchase investment properties why ... - Zillow Real ...

Many markets have heated up, so you are going to find the better properties going under contract quickly. This is especially true if you're "searching" for property on the MLS.

Although we're seeing tightening inventories as well, our turnkey properties are not listed on the MLS so will always have a selection

As an investor and a broker I hear this every day, but if you'd like to contact me I can try to help you out. (Or just visit out website.)

Continued success,

Marco Santarelli
Norada Real Estate Investments

Source: http://www.zillow.com/advice-thread/In-my-attempt-to-purchase-investment-properties-why-does-it-seem-like-I-am-always-one-step-behind/486056/

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Mobile Technology Upgrades ? (Mostly) Waterproof iPhone ...

Technology ? is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other.
C. P. Snow, New York Times, 15 March 1971

One thing that beats me when I think about smartphones like Apple and Android, is the typical user?s reluctance to purchase Apps and equipment for it. Sure, after paying a few hundred bucks for the device (immediately or in contract rates), it is normal to be reluctant to pay even more for it. But on the other hand ? if you have already paid so much for it, why limit its uses when you have it?

Besides Apps, one of the best things you can purchase is ? in my opinion ? a waterproof casing. Some time ago I bought the necessary equipment to make my iPhone waterproof ? at least in principle. There are different cases that should make it waterproof, after looking around I tried Lifeproof^(R).

As the rest of the site, this is without warranty. But due to the possible negative consequences, I repeat it explicitly: It worked for me (so far), but there are other reports on Amazon (seems bimodal, many love it, many hate it). I am guessing this is due to difference between actual and perfect-use failure rates when it comes to using the case. Here a mistake might cost you your device. Do this at your own risk!

I hope I never find out whether it survives when it is completely immersed in water. But so far, it survived more than one jogging trip through rain and snow ? while being strapped to my upper arm, exposed to the elements.

My jogging equipment: An iPhone 4 with a Lifeproof case and armband. The H20 earplugs are waterproof and are wound around the Buff headwear (worn around the neck while jogging). This keeps the motion of the earplug cable to a minimum.

But it?s not only good for jogging. The case allows me to use my iPhone to capture ideas in the rain. If I am walking to work, I can take it out and jot down ideas no matter whether it?s raining or not, and no matter whether I use an umbrella or not. It has more or less replaced my paper notebook, and in many ways, I prefer to capture most ideas digitally.

So, if you are using a digital device to capture your ideas, think about how you can make it more resistant and get more out of it.

Source: http://www.organizingcreativity.com/2013/03/mobile-technology-upgrades-mostly-waterproof-iphone/

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