Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Engineered corn's vitamin boost

A genetically modified (GM) corn fortified with three vitamins has been created by European researchers.

The modifications make the growing corn, or maize, produce large amounts of beta carotene and precursors of vitamin C and folic acid.

The development marks the first time any plant has been engineered to make more than one vitamin.

The creators argue the corn could help improve diets in poorer nations, but anti-GM campaigners are sceptical.

Doctored diet

Reported in the PNAS journal, the research details how the South African white corn was created.

The team, led by Dr Paul Christou from Spain's University of Lleida, transferred genes into immature embryos of a variety known as M37W.

The embryos were bombarded with metal particles coated with chunks of DNA that, if taken up by the embryo, would alter its internal biochemical processes to make it produce the vitamins.

Subsequent analysis of sample plants grown from the genetically modified seeds showed that the corn was indeed successfully manipulated into producing the vitamins.

The changes induced in the corn also persisted through a couple of generations of the plants, wrote the researchers.

The yield of vitamins "vastly exceeds" any produced by conventional plant breeding methods wrote Dr Christou and his colleagues, from universities in Spain and in Germany, in their paper.

Producing a plant that contains three vitamins could help those in poorer nations who subsist on one food and rarely eat a balanced diet, the scientists said.

Before now plants have been produced that are fortified with one vitamin. However, added the researchers, wide use of such plants might alleviate one deficiency and do nothing about the others.

By contrast, wrote the researchers, those eating 100-200g of the fortified corn would get almost all their recommended daily intake of vitamin A, and folic acid and 20% of the ascorbate they need.

Dr Christou told BBC News: "Our research is humanitarian in nature and targets impoverished people in developing countries. This specific project is targeted towards sub-Saharan Africa."

He added: "Our funding is exclusively from public sources so we are not encumbered by any commercial constraints."

Dr Christou said the success of the lab work was pushing the team to start field trials. Initial trials will be held in the US in 2010.

He said: "Once this is done we will be able to have enough data to try in Africa.

"We will soon embark on animal studies to generate efficacy and safety data, which will be required at some point," he added.

'Expensive technofixes'

Prof Johnathan Napier, research leader at the UK's Rothamsted Research Institute, said the work by Dr Christou and colleagues was similar to that done on "golden rice" but produced a crop with much higher levels of vitamin A.

He added that farmers and agriculturists had for centuries bred crops that resisted particular diseases, were easier to harvest or produced greater yields.

"With the advent of more advanced technologies we can select for less obvious traits that are more important like nutrition," he said.

However, he said, moving from the lab to the field and then to wide-scale use could take time.

"The approval process is rigorous and long-winded," he said. "But it's important to make sure that the technology works, is stable and is evaluated as well as possible."

Clare Oxborrow from campaign group Friends of the Earth sounded a note of caution about genetically modified crops.

Ms Oxborrow said it was "virtually impossible" to contain GM crops and to be sure that all the people eating them were getting the correct dose of what they had been modified to make.

She added people who lacked access to a balanced diet often lacked access to almost all foods, so simply fortifying staples would not solve their problems.

Rather than opt for "expensive, untested and potentially risky GM technofixes", she said "research efforts would be better placed ensuring that people are able to grow, or otherwise have access to, a diverse range of foods that will give many other health benefits."

Ms Oxborrow said golden rice, fortified with vitamin A, had been available for many years but was still not widely used or commercialised.

She said: "Supporting families to grow green leafy vegetables in their communities can ensure sufficient levels of vitamin A, as well as a host of other nutrients and vitamins that a narrow GM fix would not even begin to solve."

'Too late' to contain swine flu !!!

WHO Assistant Director General Keiji Fukuda said countries should now focus on mitigating the effects of the virus.

The WHO has raised its alert level from three to four, two steps short of declaring a full pandemic.

Mexico earlier said it believed 149 people had now died from the swine flu, though only 20 cases are confirmed.

The US, Canada, Spain and Britain have confirmed milder versions.

'Not inevitable'

The WHO's decision to raise the alert level to four came after an emergency meeting of experts, brought forward by a day because of concerns over the outbreak.


Level four means the virus is showing a sustained ability to pass from human to human, and is able to cause community-level outbreaks.

"What this can really be interpreted as is a significant step towards pandemic influenza. But also, it is a phase that says we are not there yet," Mr Fukuda said.

"In other words, at this time we think we have taken a step in that direction, but a pandemic is not considered inevitable."

He said the virus had become too widespread to make containment a feasible option, and said countries must focus on trying to put measures in place to protect the population.

He also stressed that the experts did not recommend closing borders or restricting travel. "With the virus being widespread... closing borders or restricting travel really has very little effects in stopping the movement of this virus," he said.

The first batches of a swine flu vaccine could be ready between four to six months, but it will take several more months to produce large quantities of it, Mr Fukuda said.

Health experts say the virus comes from the same strain that causes seasonal outbreaks in humans. But they say this newly-detected version contains genetic material from versions of flu which usually affect pigs and birds.

Mexico deaths

Earlier, Mexico's Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said the suspected death toll from swine flu had now risen from just over 100 to 149. Of that number, 20 have been confirmed as swine flu.

All of those who had died were aged between 20 and 50, he said. Infections among young healthy adults was a characteristic of past pandemics.

"We're in the decisive moment of the crisis, the number [of deaths] will continue rising," Mr Codova told a news conference.

He said the first suspected case of swine flu occurred in the southern state of Oaxaca.

He said nearly 2,000 people had been hospitalised since the first case of swine flu was reported on 13 April, but half had now been allowed home.

Schools nationwide are to remain closed until 6 May as the country attempts to grapple with the outbreak.

In almost all swine flu cases outside Mexico, people have been only mildly ill and have made a full recovery.

SWINE FLU:

*Swine flu is a respiratory disease thought to spread through coughing and sneezing.
*Symptoms mimic those of normal flu.
* Good hygiene like using a tissue and washing hands thoroughly can help reduce transmission.

SPREAD OF VIRUS:
Mexico: 20 confirmed cases (149 suspected deaths)
United States: 40 confirmed cases
Canada: 6 confirmed cases
UK: 2 confirmed cases
Spain: 1 confirmed case
Israel, Brazil, Guatemala, Peru, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea: Suspected cases being tested


A disc that can store 500 gigabytes (GB) of data, equivalent to 100 DVDs, has been unveiled by General Electric.


The micro-holographic disc, which is the same size as existing DVD discs, is aimed at the archive industry.

But the company believes it can eventually be used in the consumer market place and home players.

Blu-ray discs, which are used to store high definition movies and games, can currently hold between 25GB and 50GB.

Micro-holographic discs can store more data than DVDs or Blu-ray because they store information on the disc in three dimensions, rather than just pits on the surface of the disc

The challenge for this area of technology has been to increase the reflectivity of the holograms that are stored on the discs so that players can be used to both read and write to the discs.

Brian Lawrence, who leads GE's Holographic Storage said on the GE Research blog: "Very recently, the team at GE has made dramatic improvements in the materials enabling significant increases in the amount of light that can be reflected by the holograms.
The world of camera phones was hit by the 8MP fever a while ago. We have already seen the INNOV8 from Samsung, which we really liked, even though it was expensive. We have also seen Sony Ericsson's 8MP camera phone- the C905. The phone was impressive but a bit overpriced, and still is, even after a 5k price cut.

The 8MP camera that we are reviewing today is yet again from Samsung and is called the Pixon M8800, and seems to be more of a multimedia phone. So let's see what it has to offer and whether it is a better 8MP camera phone compared to the others.

* Slim and lightweight, video format support, good camera (single shot and video), good audio, TV-Out, widgets, smooth and simple interface

* Poor Battery life, partial multi-tasking, poor bundle, no Wi-Fi, no GPS

Friday, April 24, 2009

Friday, April 17, 2009

LG Viewty 2 Images Leaked....





The new Viewty GC 900, which will be called the Viewty Smart is an 8-megapixel cameraphone and features a 3-inch touchscreen display. As expected, it comes with LG's 3D S-Class user interface. It is capable of video recording at 720x480 resolution, has GPS, Wi-Fi and HSDPA as connectivity options. Oh, and did i tell you about the 32Gb of storage space?


Android 1.5 SDK Showcases New Android UI Changes








After the announcment of the new SDK ofAndroid OS, here is some more juicy information on the all-important UI changes that will be seen in the new version of Android.

A lot of effort seems to a have gone into updating and fine-tuning the user interface with the check boxes, buttons and other components getting a new look.

The images are from the Android Developers Blog as the new version still has a long way to go before being seen on mainstream devices.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Check Out Samsung S800 TouchScreen Phone !

The S8800 will be sporting an updated version of Samsung's famed TouchWiz interface. This is not a smartphone and will run the generic Samsung OS. It sports a 3.1-inch, 480 x 800 pixel AMOLED screen. As for other features, this will be a Quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE phone with Dual band UMTS connectivity (900/2100 MHz). Then there is Wi-Fi, A-GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, a well-equipped media player, a much-needed 3.5mm headset jack, and 2GB of memory (expandable). The camera is a 5 megapixel unit.

There are two other devices in the offing, which will be sporting the new TouchWiz UI. However, they are smartphones running unspecified OS as of now. We will need to wait for more details on these.

Monday, April 13, 2009

With somali pirates !!

Abdul Hassan carries a rocket-propelled grenade near a small boat with some of his crew. This pirate group, called the Central Regional Coast Guard, was formed three years ago, has 350 men in its ranks and about 100 speedboats

In 2008, the group attacked 29 ships, earning $10m (£6m). Abdul Hassan, who pocketed $350,000, arrived with a small crew on a beach near Hobyo, on the border between Galmudug and Puntland states, before going on an attack to another ship


Abdul Hassan, 39, is nicknamed "the one who never sleeps"


















On Wednesday October 29 2008, the Somalian president gave the greenlight for foreign troops to attack pirates within Somalian territory. In response, pirates are getting ready for the fight. A convoy of five trucks, each carrying five boats, goes through Galcayo on its way to Hobyo to supply the pirates

This Hobyo Branch store in Galkayo is supplying the pirates with food, drink and cigarettes. They call the owner to order what they need; then a truck goes from Galkayo to Hobyo with the items and sells them to the pirates for twice the normal price, partly contributing the country's inflation

From Hobyo's beach, three different ships captured by the pirates can be seen. The one pictured is Japanese, and was attacked in September. The ship and its crew will remain there until the end of the negotiations between the pirates and the ship's insurance company. The Ukrainian ship MV Faina is also nearby, but is too far out to sea to be seen from the beach


Courtesy : Photographer Veronique de Viguerie.

Somali pirates !!!

This handout photo shows Somali pirates hijacking the MV Faina, a cargo ship owned and operated by Kaalbye Shipping Ukraine on September 25, 2008. The pirates ultimately released the MV Faina and its cargo of 33 Soviet-era T-72 tanks plus other weapons on February 5, 2009 following a ransom payment of $3.2 million, a local man who helped negotiate the deal said. (REUTERS/U.S. Naval Forces Central Command Public Affairs/Handout/Files)


In this photo released by the United States Navy, Somali pirates holding the merchant vessel MV Faina stand on the deck of the ship after a U.S. Navy request to check on the health and welfare of the ship's crew in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia. (AP Photo/U.S.Navy, Petty Officer Jason Zalasky)



The crew of the hijacked Ukrainian merchant vessel MV Faina stand on the deck, under the watch of armed Somali pirates on November 9 after a US Navy request to check on their health and welfare, at sea off the coast of Somalia. (HO/AFP/Getty Images)





A rusty Kalashnikov assault rifle, confiscated from pirates detained by German navy from frigate Rheinland-Pfalz in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia's coast on March 3, 2009, in this picture made available on March 4, 2009. The German navy detained nine people on March 3, 2009 after they tried to attack a German merchant ship, German media reported. (REUTERS/Bundeswehr

In this undated photo released by the French Defense Ministry on Saturday, April 11, 2009, armed pirates and their hostages are seen aboard the French yacht "Tanit", off the coast of Somalia. They've been described as "noble heros" by sympathetic Somalis, denounced as criminals by critics. But the adjective most used to describe the men holding an American captain off the Horn of Africa is "pirate," a word that conjures images of sword-wielding swashbucklers romanticized by Hollywood. The 21st century reality of ragged Somali fishermen armed with rocket launchers, GPS systems and satellite phones, though, is a far cry from that. (AP Photo/ECPAD-French Defense Ministry)


FILE - In this Nov. 21, 2008 file photo, Somali pirates held by Puntland police forces, sit in Bassaso, Somalia. They've been described as "noble heros" by sympathetic Somalis, denounced as criminals by critics. But the adjective most used to describe the men holding an American captain off the Horn of Africa is "pirate," a word that conjures images of sword-wielding swashbucklers romanticized by Hollywood. The 21st century reality of ragged Somali fishermen armed with rocket launchers, GPS systems and satellite phones, though, is a far cry from that. (AP Photo/File)


FILE - In this this file photo released by the Greek navy on April 1, 2009, a navy commando is seen detaining a speedboat with suspected Somali pirates tied up alongside a Greek frigate in the Gulf of Aden after a failed attack on a Norwegian cargo ship. They've been described as "noble heros" by sympathetic Somalis, denounced as criminals by critics. But the adjective most used to describe the men holding an American captain off the Horn of Africa is "pirate," a word that conjures images of sword-wielding swashbucklers romanticized by Hollywood. The 21st century reality of ragged Somali fishermen armed with rocket launchers, GPS systems and satellite phones, though, is a far cry from that. (AP Photo/ Greek Navy, File)

Truth about somali pirates !!!

In 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since – and the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country's food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.

Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.

Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: "Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury – you name it." Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to "dispose" of cheaply. When I asked Mr Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: "Nothing. There has been no clean-up, no compensation, and no prevention."

At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia's seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish stocks by overexploitation – and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m-worth of tuna, shrimp, and lobster are being stolen every year by illegal trawlers. The local fishermen are now starving. Mohammed Hussein, a fisherman in the town of Marka 100km south of Mogadishu, told Reuters: "If nothing is done, there soon won't be much fish left in our coastal waters."

This is the context in which the "pirates" have emerged. Somalian fishermen took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least levy a "tax" on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia – and ordinary Somalis agree. The independent Somalian news site WardheerNews found 70 per cent "strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence".

No, this doesn't make hostage-taking justifiable, and yes, some are clearly just gangsters – especially those who have held up World Food Programme supplies. But in a telephone interview, one of the pirate leaders, Sugule Ali: "We don't consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our seas." William Scott would understand.

Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our toxic waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? We won't act on those crimes – the only sane solution to this problem – but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit-corridor for 20 per cent of the world's oil supply, we swiftly send in the gunboats.