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Thursday, February 21, 2013

Nuclear monitors detected meteor explosion

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization

Seventeen infrasound stations in the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization's network detected the infrasonic waves from the meteor that broke up over Russia's Ural mountains on Friday.

By Leonard David
Space.com

A far-flung system of detectors that make up a Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty network made its largest ever detection when a meteor exploded over Russia?s Ural mountains last week.

The Vienna, Austria-based Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) runs the International Monitoring System made up of infrasound stations. Infrasound is low-frequency sound with a range of less than 10 Hertz. Humans cannot hear the low-frequency waves that were emitted by the meteor blast over Russia on Friday, but they were recorded by the CTBTO?s network of sensors as they traveled across continents.

When the space rock detonated, the blast was detected by 17 infrasound stations in the CTBTO?s network that track atomic blasts across Earth. The furthest station to record the sub-audible sound was some 9,320 miles (15,000 kilometers) away in Antarctica.

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization

This graphic depicts the sources of infrasound signals that can be detected by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization's listening stations.

Huge infrasound event
Prior to the Russian meteor event, the largest infrasound event registered by 15 stations in the CTBTO?s network was the October 2009 meteor explosion (called a bolide) over Sulawesi, Indonesia. [See video of the intense meteor explosion]

In a CTBTO statement discussing the Russian bolide, Pierrick Mialle, an acoustic scientist for the group, said:? "We saw straight away that the event would be huge, in the same order as the Sulawesi event from 2009. The observations are some of the largest that CTBTO's infrasound stations have detected."

The Russian meteor blast picked up by the detectors is not a single explosion, Mialle said. Rather, it is burning, traveling faster than the speed of sound. "That's how we distinguish it from mining blasts or volcanic eruptions," he said.

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization

Visual representation of the infrasound waves and computer attributes by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization's International Data Center, made from fireball data recorded by a CTBTO station in Kazakhstan.

Mialle said that scientists around the world will be using the CTBTO's data to better gauge the object's breakup and discern more about the object's final altitude, energy released and how the meteor disintegrated.

Micropressure changes
There are currently 45 infrasound stations in the CTBTO's network that measure micropressure changes in the atmosphere generated by infrasonic waves. Infrasound is one of the technologies used in the CTBTO?s network of sensors to monitor the globe for violations of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty that bans all nuclear explosions.

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization Infrasound station IS21, on Marquesas Islands, France.

Infrasound has been used as part of the CTBTO's tools to detect atomic blasts since April 2001 when the first station came online in Germany. Data from the stations is sent in near real time to Vienna, Austria, for analysis at the CTBTO?s headquarters. Both the raw and analyzed data are provided to all member states of the CTBTO.

CTBTO member states have spent $1 billion on setting up the CTBTO verification regime.

Just days before the meteor explosion over Russia, the CTBTO's seismic network detected a seismic event in North Korea. That event on Feb. 12 measured 4.9 in magnitude. Later that morning, North Korean officials announced that the country had conducted a nuclear test. The event was registered by 94 seismic stations and two infrasound stations in the CTBTO's network.

Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is former director of research for the National Commission on Space and a past editor-in-chief of the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines. He has written for Space.com since 1999.

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/19/17020959-nuclear-monitors-detected-russia-meteor-explosion?lite

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Obama to apply fresh pressure on Republicans to avoid cuts (reuters)

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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

When it comes to genetic code, researchers prove optimum isn't always best

Feb. 18, 2013 ? Imagine two steel springs identical in look and composition but that perform differently because each was tempered at a different rate.

A team of researchers including a Texas A&M University molecular biologist has shown that concept -- that the speed of creation affects performance -- applies to how a protein they studied impacts an organism's circadian clock function. This discovery provides new insights into the significance of the genetic code for controlling the rates at which critically important proteins are synthesized, and could lead to better understanding of cancers and other diseases.

"Living organisms' inner clocks are like Swiss watches with precisely manufactured spring mechanisms," said Matthew Sachs, a professor in the Texas A&M Department of Biology. "For example, if you fast-temper a critical spring, the watch may be unable to keep time, as opposed to slow-tempering it. It's not just about the composition of the components, such as which alloy is used. It's about the manner in which the components are made. Our research says the genetic code is important for determining both composition and fabrication rate for a central component of the circadian clock, and that the fabrication rate also is critical. And that's essentially a discovery."

The research was selected for Advanced Online Publication (AOP) in the journal Nature.

The team, which is led by Yi Liu, a researcher in the Department of Physiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, was perplexed when it found a paradoxical result years ago: that optimizing the use of codons (a sequence of three nucleotides that form a unit of genetic code in a DNA or RNA molecule) specifying an essential biological clock component actually abolished the organism's circadian rhythms.

The group's research indicates that the protein in the fungal genus Neurospora they studied, frequency, performs better when the genetic code specifying it has non-optimal codon usage, as is normally found. However, when the genetic code is deliberately altered so that codon usage is optimized, clock function is lost. The reason for this is that non-optimal codon usage slows translation of the genetic code into protein, allotting the frequency protein the necessary time to achieve its optimal protein structure. The team's results also demonstrate that genetic codons do more than simply determine the amino acid sequence of a protein as previously thought: They also affect how much protein can be made as well as the functional quality of that protein.

"We found that less is more, in many cases," Liu said.

Because many genetic diseases are the result of improperly functioning proteins, Sachs says knowledge about how proteins are made and why they have impaired functions is critical to understanding almost all diseases.

"Understanding gene expression is crucial for understanding cancer and other diseases, because ultimately many of these processes involve either mutations of genes or altered expression of genes," said Sachs, who was asked by Liu to help on the research because of his translational expertise in Neurospora.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Texas A&M University.

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

Journal Reference:

Mian Zhou, Jinhu Guo, Joonseok Cha, Michael Chae, She Chen, Jose M. Barral, Matthew S. Sachs, Yi Liu. Non-optimal codon usage affects expression, structure and function of clock protein FRQ. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature11833

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/xMlp5uWaK2g/130219121457.htm

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'Deceptive Affection' May Actually Keep Relationships Going | Psych ...

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on February 18, 2013

Deceptive Affection May Actually Keep Relationships Going Now that Valentine?s Day is over, the sobering reality is that the days that follow February 14 are associated with a spike in relationship breakups.

This behavior may be explained by a new study that suggests affectionate behavior is not all that is seems.

?Gestures such as hand-holding, kissing and cuddling could be indicators that your partner is mad at you,? said DePaul University?s Sean Horan, Ph.D., an assistant professor of relational communication.

In the study, Horan examined how and why deceptive affectionate behavior occurs. Deceptive affection means that an individual in a romantic relationship chooses to express affection he or she does not actually feel.

Remarkably, this behavior is relatively common. Horan and co-researcher Melanie Booth-Butterfield, Ph.D., discovered that non-married individuals expressed deceptive affection about three times a week to romantic partners.

?Couples use deceptive affection because they feel negatively about their partner and want to save face, avoid embarrassing their partner or sidestep a situation that may land them in hot water,? said Horan.

Examples of this kind of deception include lying about one?s own feelings or feelings about a partner and expressing affection instead of negative feelings, the researchers said.

One participant confessed she didn?t want to hug or cuddle her boyfriend because she was in a bad mood but did so anyway.

Another told his girlfriend he loved her to get off the phone faster so he could watch a basketball game. And when one woman?s boyfriend asked if she liked his new haircut, she lied and said she did, in order to spare his feelings.

Couples use verbal and non-verbal affection in hopes that a sweet caress or profession of love will mask their true feelings, according to the study.

Despite the harmful connotations, Horan argues this isn?t necessarily negative behavior.

?Using affection to lie appears to be a regular activity in romantic relationships that most people don?t seem to mind,? he said. ?In fact, deceptive affection might actually help maintain a relationship.?

The study is forthcoming the journal Communication Quarterly.

Source: DePaul University

APA Reference
Nauert PhD, R. (2013). ?Deceptive Affection? May Actually Keep Relationships Going. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 20, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/02/18/deceptive-affection-may-actually-keep-relationships-going/51720.html

Source: http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/02/18/deceptive-affection-may-actually-keep-relationships-going/51720.html

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After tiff, Obama calls GOP senators to talk immigration

After a public squabble over whether President Obama was in communication with Congress on immigration reform, Mr. Obama today called three key Republican senators to discuss the matter.

Mr. Obama called Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; John McCain, R-Ariz.; and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the White House said in a statement, "to discuss their shared commitment to bipartisan, commonsense immigration reform and to commend the Senators for the bipartisan progress that continues to be made by the Gang of 8 on this important issue."

Graham, McCain and Rubio are three of the four Republican senators working with four Democratic senators to craft immigration reform legislation. Mr. Obama did not speak to the fourth Republican, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., because he is traveling today, but the White House said the president looks forward to speaking with him in the near future.

The White House said the president's phone calls today "build on conversations that have taken place at the staff level."

In a White House briefing earlier today, senior administration officials said "Gang of 8" staff had met at least five times in recent weeks with the White House policy and legislative affairs staff. Rubio's office, however, disputed that claim.

"We've never discussed immigration policy with anyone from the White House," Rubio's spokesman Alex Conant said. "The Administration has sent some agency officials to brief staff at the bipartisan group meetings, but they've never asked for our input. (And, frankly, we've never asked for theirs.) We've never received a call or email from [Mr. Obama's chief domestic policy adviser] Cecilia Munoz or anyone else at the White House asking for our input as they draft their bill."

Republicans contend that if the Obama administration is serious about drafting its own immigration reform proposals, they should be seeking at least some input from the GOP.

Today's phone calls may have at least temporarily improved the White House's relationship with Congress. Conant said on Twitter today that "@MarcoRubio appreciated @BarackObama's call to discuss immigration tonight. Rubio said he feels good about ongoing negotiations in Senate."

Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsGamecore/~3/1wzBicN-NOM/

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