Hurricane Isaac to hit New Orleans, making landfall soon

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Hurricane Isaac gathered strength as it bore down on New Orleans on Tuesday, bringing high winds and soaking rains that will pose the first major test to the city's multibillion-dollar flood protections, seven years after Katrina devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Hundreds of U.S. Army National Guard troops took up strategic positions around New Orleans, preparation meant to avoid the chaos seen in the days and weeks after Katrina in August 2005.

Isaac's storm surge poses a major test of the so-called Crescent City's new flood-control systems and reinforced levees that failed in 2005, leaving parts of the city underwater. Forecasts from the U.S. National Hurricane Center showed the storm coming ashore in the Mississippi Delta late on Tuesday, possibly taking direct aim at New Orleans.

"Many parts of the state could see 24 to 38 hours of tropical storm-force winds," Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal told a news conference. "We're going to see a lot of downed trees and power lines," he said. "We need people to stay safe."

Brandishing automatic assault rifles to ward off any threat of looting, the troops in military vehicles took up positions on mostly deserted streets. Their arrival came as driving rain and stiff winds battered the city's famous tourist district, The French Quarter, and its boarded-up storefronts. White-capped waves formed in Lake Pontchartrain.

Earlier, the Army Corps of Engineers closed for the first time the massive new floodgate on the largest storm-surge barrier in the world, at Lake Borgne, east of New Orleans.

In other preparations, oil production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico nearly ground to a halt, and ports and coastal refineries curtailed operations as Isaac neared.

At 5 p.m. CDT (2200 GMT), the Hurricane Center said Isaac was centered about 105 miles southeast of New Orleans with top sustained winds of 80 miles per hour.

The storm, becoming better organized as it nears land, was traveling at a relatively slow 8 mph. That pace is a concern for people in its path since slow-moving cyclones can bring higher rainfall totals.

Isaac was about 370 miles wide and due to make landfall at the mouth of the Mississippi River within the hour.

Heavy rains and big storm surges were also forecast for parts of Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

Isaac spared Tampa, Florida, where the Republican National Convention began on Monday. But it forced party leaders to revamp their schedule. They may have to make further revisions so as not to be seen celebrating Mitt Romney's presidential nomination while Gulf Coast residents struggle through the storm.

President Barack Obama urged Gulf Coast residents to take cover and heed warning, saying, Now was "not the time to tempt fate." He issued emergency declarations for Louisiana and Mississippi earlier this week because of Isaac.

Isaac had New Orleans in its sights as the city is still recovering from Katrina, which swept across it on August 29, 2005, killing more than 1,800 people and causing billions of dollars of damage.

MULTIBILLION-DOLLAR DEFENSE

After Katrina, the Corps of Engineers built a $14.5 billion flood defense system of walls, floodgates, levees and pumps designed to protect the city against a massive tidal surge like the one that swamped New Orleans in Katrina's wake.

The floodgate that closed on Tuesday is 26 feet high and 1.8 miles long. It was designed to prevent the Industrial Canal from breaching its walls, as it did in 2005, inundating the Lower Ninth Ward, Gentilly and New Orleans East neighborhoods, and St. Bernard Parish.

Most of the Lower Ninth, still scarred by the devastation of Katrina, was deserted on Tuesday. Residents who hadn't evacuated were unloading water, food and fuel from their cars and trucks to take into their homes.

"We've got all kinds of eats and treats," Arthur Anderson, 61, who was trapped in the attic of his house during Katrina before he escaped by boat.

Authorities have urged thousands of residents in low-lying areas to leave, warning that the storm could flood towns and cities in Mississippi and Alabama, as well as Louisiana, with a storm surge of up to 12 feet.

Rainfall accumulations, potentially totaling as much as 20 inches in some areas, could also trigger widespread flooding. Customers in Louisiana's coastal parishes were already without power.

Isaac was not forecast to strengthen beyond a Category 1 hurricane, the lowest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. Its top projected winds were about 80 mph. While that would be well below the intensity of Katrina, which was a Category 3 storm, the size of Isaac's slow-moving system has forecasters predicting widespread flooding.

"It's going to take till the weekend before this gets out of the southeastern states," Hurricane Center Director Rick Knabb told reporters on a conference call Tuesday afternoon.

In the French Quarter, most businesses were closed and boarded up on Tuesday, while a handful of workers piled sandbags along doorways. Police and military vehicles were parked throughout the neighborhood.

One tourist left in the district was Craig Drees, an accountant from Russells Point, Ohio.

"It's a little eerie how quiet it is," said Drees, standing on a street corner with a few friends. "But it seems like the city is taking this very seriously and will be working to keep people safe."

U.S. ENERGY OUTPUT DISRUPTED

With more than 90 percent of offshore U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil production shut in and nearly half of natural gas output offline, energy companies along the Gulf Coast refining center braced for the storm's impact, shuttering some plants and running others at reduced rates ahead of Isaac's landfall.

Intense hurricanes such as Katrina -- which took out 4.5 million barrels per day of refining capacity at one point -- have flooded refineries, keeping them closed for extended periods and reducing fuel supplies.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimated that about 12 percent of the Gulf Coast's refining capacity had gone offline. Louisiana usually processes more than 3 million barrels per day of crude into products like gasoline.

Although no damage to offshore installation had been reported, some energy experts said the sweeping disruption of oil production, refineries and key import terminals could make it more likely the U.S. government would release oil supplies from its nearly 696-million-barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

A release, which had previously been under consideration, is still on the table, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Tuesday.

Even with Isaac's disruptions to production, international benchmark Brent crude traded down slightly to $112 a barrel on Tuesday.

Isaac killed at least 23 people and caused significant flooding and damage in Haiti and the Dominican Republic before skirting the southern tip of Florida on Sunday.

(Additional reporting by Tom Brown, Jane Sutton, David Adams and Kevin Gray in Miami, Ben Gruber and Kathy Finn in New Orleans, Emily Le Coz in Tupelo, Missisippi, Kristen Hays, Erwin Seba and Chris Baltimore in Houston and Verna Gates in Alabama; Writing by Tom Brown and Anna Driver; Editing by Bill Trott, Eric Beech and Philip Barbara)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/isaac-menaces-u-gulf-coast-7-years-katrina-002643193.html

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Arctic ice shrinks to record low ( video)

Arctic sea ice has shrunk to the lowest levels since record-keeping began in 1979. Scientists say the new measurements indicate a fundamental change in the Arctic's sea ice coverage. ?

By Kim Murphy,?Los Angeles Times (MCT) / August 28, 2012

Sea ice in the Chukchi Sea, on July 20, 2011. Sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk to the lowest levels ever recorded, report scientists.

NASA/Kathryn Hansen

Enlarge

Here at the top of the world, the news that?Arctic?sea ice has reached a new low ? the smallest footprint since satellites began measuring it three decades ago ? is not much of a surprise.

Skip to next paragraph

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'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // --> The arctic ice cap is melting at a rapid rate and may shrink to its lowest-ever level within weeks as temperatures continue to rise. Al Jazeera's Nick Clark joined an expedition travelling deep into the Arctic Circle to Qaanaaq, in Greenland.

The?Arctic?seas off the Alaska coast have been increasingly ice-free in recent years. On Monday, the gray, wind-driven surf churned vigorously along the northern coast, with no sign of ice anywhere under the low, fog-shrouded skies.

But it has been a strange summer here. Until a few weeks ago, there was more ice spread across the near-shore waters of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas than anyone can remember for the last several years ? a curse for the engineers waiting to begin plumbing oil wells into the sea floor, but a blessing for Inupiat hunters, who have had an unusually easy time catching seals from ice floes close to home.

?It really seemed kind of like it was back in the days when the ice was like it used to be,? said Nayuk Leavitt, a Barrow resident who works on one of Shell Alaska?s oil spill response crews.

But the late-lingering near-shore ice in Alaska, now in full retreat, was not representative of what is going on most everywhere else in a gradually melting?Arctic, scientists say. The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado announced that?Arctic?sea ice had shrunk to 1.58 million square miles, the lowest expanse recorded since satellites began taking measurements in 1979.

That breaks a record of 1.61 million square miles set in 2007, and the shrinkage appears to be continuing: Ice is expected to keep melting through September.

Scientists said previous warm years had started a pattern of a melting of the multiyear ice that historically has clung to the poles. The newly thinner ice that remained from last year melted even easier this year ? although temperatures weren?t necessarily warmer. The phenomenon is probably feeding on itself, scientists say.

?In the context of what?s happened in the last several years and throughout the satellite record, it?s an indication that the?Arctic?sea ice cover is fundamentally changing,? Walt Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center told reporters in a conference call.

Although the late-lingering ice was a factor in delaying the start of the first offshore drilling here in more than two decades, Shell officials say the ice now has retreated to more than 20 miles north of the company?s primary drilling target, on the Berger prospect in the Chukchi Sea ? which itself is about 70 miles offshore.

The first of Shell?s drilling rigs, the Discoverer, is scheduled to arrive in the Chukchi Sea later this week. The other, the Kulluk, is halfway on its journey to the Beaufort Sea.

Permanent anchors have already been installed at both drilling locations to allow for the reduced target of drilling two complete wells this season, Shell spokesman Curtis Smith said in an interview here.

Shell has asked the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to consider extending by 18 days the Sept. 24 deadline under which the company was supposed to have completed drilling in the Chukchi Sea, where the relatively remote location requires an early wind-up to ensure there is time to address any problems that occur before the onset of winter ice.

But Shell?s own ocean ice experts say their latest modeling makes them fairly confident that ice is not likely to close in around the Chukchi drilling site until mid-November.

The company has been spending $4.5 million a year on ice studies, assembling a team of scientists whose expertise rivals or exceeds that of the National Weather Service.

They have documented a pattern of ice movements over the last 10 years that show predictable open ocean conditions in the Chukchi Sea until November every year, Shell?s chief scientist, Michael Macrander, told the Los Angeles Times.

He said 2006 is the year that most resembles the patterns seen this year: a winter of cold temperatures and heavy ice, in which the sea ice extended far south into the Bering Strait, followed by a very late melt-off in the summer. That year, like this one, saw factors such as warm surface temperatures and favorable winds that drove the ice, once it was beginning to clear, relatively far out to sea, he said.

?Once it cleared, it cleared significantly, and stayed clear until early November,? he said. ?And the pattern we?re seeing now is very, very similar.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/0jJNuB-o2nw/Arctic-ice-shrinks-to-record-low-video

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Sporting KC loses Bunbury for season to hurt knee

By DAVE SKRETTA

AP Sports Writer

Associated Press Sports

updated 5:46 p.m. ET Aug. 27, 2012

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) - Sporting Kansas City will have to chase an Eastern Conference championship without forward Teal Bunbury, who will miss the remainder of the season after tearing ligaments in his left knee during a draw with the New York Red Bulls.

The team announced the extent of the injury Monday, one day after Bunbury was hurt while leaping to make a pass to Kei Kamara for Sporting KC's only goal of the game. Bunbury crashed to the turf and held his knee, but played several more minutes before he was substituted out.

The team initially called the injury a sprain, but coach Peter Vermes said that Bunbury would undergo an MRI exam on Monday. That's when the extent of the injury was revealed.

Bunbury tore the ACL and damaged the LCL in his knee. Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Scott Luallin is scheduled to perform surgery on Friday, and Bunbury is expected to miss six to eight months.

"The injury is extremely unfortunate, but Teal has a great attitude and he will be back stronger than ever," Vermes said in a statement issued by the team.

Bunbury is a big reason why Sporting KC (14-7-5) leads the East by two points over the Red Bulls with eight games remaining in the regular season.

The former fourth overall draft pick is tied with C.J. Sapong for second on the team with five goals, and he also has one assist in 22 regular season games. He trails only Kamara, the team's leading scorer, and Graham Zusi for the most shots on goal.

Bunbury led Sporting KC with 11 goals in MLS competition last season.

The knee injury will also rule Bunbury out of potential international duty. He debuted for the U.S. men's national team in November 2010, and has played several games since, assisting on Zusi's winning goal in a game against Panama in January.

The U.S. resumes World Cup qualifying at Jamaica on Sept. 7, and is scheduled to play at Sporting KC's Livestrong Sporting Park against Guatemala on Oct. 16.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Sporting KC loses Bunbury for season to hurt knee

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) - Sporting Kansas City will have to chase an Eastern Conference championship without forward Teal Bunbury, who will miss the remainder of the season after tearing ligaments in his left knee during a draw with the New York Red Bulls.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/48807069/ns/sports-soccer/

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Sleep learning is possible: Associations formed when asleep remained intact when awake

ScienceDaily (Aug. 26, 2012) ? Is sleep learning possible? A new Weizmann Institute study appearing August 26 in Nature Neuroscience has found that if certain odors are presented after tones during sleep, people will start sniffing when they hear the tones alone -- even when no odor is present -- both during sleep and, later, when awake. In other words, people can learn new information while they sleep, and this can unconsciously modify their waking behavior.

Sleep-learning experiments are notoriously difficult to conduct. For one thing, one must be sure that the subjects are actually asleep and stay that way during the "lessons." The most rigorous trials of verbal sleep learning have failed to show any new knowledge taking root. While more and more research has demonstrated the importance of sleep for learning and memory consolidation, none had managed to show actual learning of new information taking place in an adult brain during sleep.

Prof. Noam Sobel and research student Anat Arzi, together with Sobel's group in the Institute's Neurobiology Department in collaboration with researchers from Loewenstein Hospital and the Academic College of Tel Aviv -- Jaffa, chose to experiment with a type of conditioning that involves exposing subjects to a tone followed by an odor, so that they soon exhibit a similar response to the tone as they would to the odor. The pairing of tones and odors presented several advantages. Neither wakes the sleeper (in fact, certain odors can promote sound sleep), yet the brain processes them and even reacts during slumber. Moreover, the sense of smell holds a unique non-verbal measure that can be observed -- namely sniffing. The researchers found that, in the case of smelling, the sleeping brain acts much as it does when awake: We inhale deeply when we smell a pleasant aroma but stop our inhalation short when assaulted by a bad smell. This variation in sniffing could be recorded whether the subjects were asleep or awake. Finally, this type of conditioning, while it may appear to be quite simple, is associated with some higher brain areas -- including the hippocampus, which is involved in memory formation.

In the experiments, the subjects slept in a special lab while their sleep state was continuously monitored. (Waking up during the conditioning -- even for a moment -- disqualified the results.) As they slept, a tone was played, followed by an odor -- either pleasant or unpleasant. Then another tone was played, followed by an odor at the opposite end of the pleasantness scale. Over the course of the night, the associations were partially reinforced, so that the subject was exposed to just the tones as well. The sleeping volunteers reacted to the tones alone as if the associated odor were still present -- by either sniffing deeply or taking shallow breaths.

The next day, the now awake subjects again heard the tones alone -- with no accompanying odor. Although they had no conscious recollection of listening to them during the night, their breathing patterns told a different story. When exposed to tones that had been paired with pleasant odors, they sniffed deeply, while the second tones -- those associated with bad smells -- provoked short, shallow sniffs.

The team then asked whether this type of learning is tied to a particular phase of sleep. In a second experiment, they divided the sleep cycles into rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep, and then induced the conditioning during only one phase or the other. Surprisingly, they found that the learned response was more pronounced during the REM phase, but the transfer of the association from sleep to waking was evident only when learning took place during the non-REM phase. Sobel and Arzi suggest that during REM sleep we may be more open to influence from the stimuli in our surroundings, but so-called "dream amnesia" -- which makes us forget most of our dreams -- may operate on any conditioning occurring in that stage of sleep. In contrast, non-REM sleep is the phase that is important for memory consolidation, so it might also play a role in this form of sleep-learning.

Although Sobel's lab studies the sense of smell, Arzi intends to continue investigating brain processing in altered states of consciousness such as sleep and coma. "Now that we know that some kind of sleep learning is possible," says Arzi, "we want to find where the limits lie -- what information can be learned during sleep and what information cannot."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Weizmann Institute of Science, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Anat Arzi, Limor Shedlesky, Mor Ben-Shaul, Khitam Nasser, Arie Oksenberg, Ilana S Hairston, Noam Sobel. Humans can learn new information during sleep. Nature Neuroscience, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nn.3193

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/~3/oKadFYDhpNg/120826143531.htm

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Web Development and Internet Marketing to Help Business Grow ...

Website design has become the keyword nowadays. Every business needs a lots of publicity because there is inflexible competition. With the coming of the Internet age, it has therefore become essential to use all the offered tools of marketing, just like blogs, websites, articles and even video and social networking sites. If your clients are an online business, the need for net based marketing solutions is increased. The best policy would be to hire a professional Search engine optimization or search engine Optimization Company which may offer a wide range of net related marketing services, similar to web designing, e-commerce answer, lead generation, corporate identification, link building and much more. When any such decision can be taken, it must be recalled that there are plenty of fake websites out there, which can be run by spammers who will be just running a rip-off. These people often deceive those looking for Search engine marketing support. Again, there are lots of web marketing companies that employ what is commonly called black hat marketing strategies, like meta data and spin posting. These are usually considered unethical. Besides, repeating and mirror putting up is also not deemed acceptable as per common or international specifications. Because your ultimate aim will be to get your website as much publicity and coverage as possible, on the major search engines like Google, you must ensure that the company that you simply hire for Search engine optimisation purposes does not utilize any black cap or unethical ways of marketing for your website or company. This could truly negatively affect your current corporate identity. In fact, it could even result in the termination of your record and visibility inside major search engines like Google which immediately strike along any such unethical internet sites. There are plenty of acceptable means of improving the chances of good results in business, whether you are inside New York or Miami or Chicago, while all you would need is Web design Miami, Website design New York or Web page design Chicago. You should check the backdrop and profile in the SEO company you are hiring. Hopefully, the company will also provide some of it?s portfolio, as an example of exactly what the company has done pertaining to other companies.

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You can even try to find an SEO company that may look after your online business New York business. Whichever be the type of organization or business you possess, there are several time-tested marketing strategies, which will certainly increase traffic to your website thus bring more potential customers at your doorstep. As an illustration, most of the Web design Arkansas companies will be making use of techniques like improving the graphics and simple look of your internet site, by adding better images, colors, backgrounds as well as other special features such as analytics or data to help you keep track of who?s visiting your website as well as from which source. In addition to, these SEO firms also specialize in creating targeted or niche customer set for anyone. This can be done by using email lists and social networking sites. By aggressive article marketing which back-link to your website and then importing these articles to the top article directory sites can do a world of difference to your business.

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Source: http://usafreelistings.com/web-development-and-internet-marketing-to-help-business-grow/

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Top German central banker opposes ECB bond buying

(AP) ? Germany's top central banker has repeated his opposition to the European Central Bank intervening in bond markets to lower borrowing costs for indebted governments such as Spain and Italy, saying governments might get too used to the outside help.

Bundesbank head Jens Weidmann said in Monday's edition of Der Spiegel magazine that governments could become dependent on such help rather than fixing their finances. He said "we should not underestimate the danger that central bank financing can be as addictive as a drug."

Weidmann, who sits on the the ECB governing council, also said that the risk of losses on those bonds would ultimately be borne by eurozone taxpayers. Elected parliaments, not central banks, should make such decisions, he said.

He argued that buying bonds would also be too close to using the central bank's monetary powers to support government finances, which the EU treaty forbids the bank to do.

European Central Bank head Mario Draghi has said the bank may buy government bonds if troubled governments first ask for help from the eurozone bailout fund. Bond purchases drive up the prices of bonds, and bring down their interest yields, since price and yield move in opposite directions.

The ECB would make purchases only after the country involved agreed to a list of conditions aimed at reducing its deficits and debts. It would buy the bonds together with the eurozone bailout fund.

Spain and Italy have faced elevated costs to borrow because investors fear they may not pay back all their debts. Yet they must frequently borrow on bond markets to pay off old bonds that are coming due, or face default. High borrowing costs are what forced Greece, Portugal and Ireland to seek bailout loans from other eurozone countries.

Weidmann has only one seat on the ECB's 23-member governing council, and was identified by Draghi as the lone dissenter in the plan to buy bonds. He has added influence, however, because the Bundesbank's strict position is supported by many legislators, economists and voters in Germany, the eurozone's largest economy. Chancellor Angela Merkel, however, appears open to the bond purchase plan, along with the other German member of the ECB's council, Joerg Asmussen.

Draghi has in the past shown a willingness to overrule the Bundesbank's objections, but loud protests from such an influential member could complicate any bond market interventions, as markets might think the ECB was not solidly behind its effort.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-08-27-European%20Central%20Bank/id-aec58a28d3774a5daa0adce4e43a8432

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Recent transactions by major Facebook investors

Major investors of public companies are required to disclose when they buy and sell stock. A few have done so for Facebook Inc. in recent days, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission:

? Monday: Disclosure that Peter Thiel, a member of Facebook's board, sold about 20 million shares at $19.27 to $20.69 each on Aug. 16 and 17. That amounted to nearly $400 million. Thiel is managing partner at The Founders Fund and a co-founder of PayPal. He had been subject to a lock-up period restricting sale of those shares until Aug. 16. As one of Facebook's initial investors, he first invested $500,000 in the company in 2004. He sold 16.8 million shares in the company's May initial public offering for about $640 million. With the most recent sales, Thiel has now sold most of his stake in the company.

? Tuesday: Disclosure that Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz shed 450,000 shares on Aug. 17, 20 and 21 for $18.79 to $20.08 each. Proceeds came out to nearly $9 million. Moskovitz was CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Harvard roommate when they founded Facebook in 2004. He left Facebook in 2008 and started Asana, whose software helps manage projects. Moskovitz, who did not sell any stock in Facebook's IPO, still owns more than 133 million shares. Based on the filing, he could sell 7 million more shares he converted from Class B to Class A.

Source: http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Recent-transactions-by-major-Facebook-investors-3807935.php

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Underground solution to starving rice plants

ScienceDaily (Aug. 22, 2012) ? Scientists have pinpointed a gene that enables rice plants to produce around 20% more grain by increasing uptake of phosphorus, an important, but limited, plant nutrient.

The discovery unlocks the potential to improve the food security of rice farmers with the lowest value phosphorus-deficient land allowing them to grow more rice to add to global production, and earn more.

The gene -- called PSTOL1 which stands for Phosphorus Starvation Tolerance -- helps rice grow a larger, better root system and thereby access more phosphorus. Farmers can apply phosphorus fertilizers to increase productivity but on problem soils phosphorus is often locked in the soil and unavailable to plants.

Also, phosphorus fertilizer is often unaffordable to poor farmers. Adding to the problem is that phosphorus is a non-renewable natural resource and rock phosphate reserves -- the source of most phosphorus fertilizers -- are running out.

"For many years we have searched for genes that improve phosphorus uptake," said Dr. Sigrid Heuer, senior scientist at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and leader of the team that published the discovery in Nature.

"We've known for a long time that the traditional rice variety Kasalath from India has a set of genes that helps rice grow well in soils low in phosphorus," she added.

Kasalath's superior performance under phosphorus deficiency was initially discovered by Dr. Matthias Wissuwa from the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences. He then started collaborating with IRRI and shared the DNA information of Kasalath. The current research was supported and facilitated by the CGIAR Generation Challenge Program.

"We have now hit the jackpot and found PSTOL1, the major gene responsible for improved phosphorus uptake and understand how it works," Heuer said.

According to Dr. Wricha Tyagi at the School of Crop Improvement at the Central Agricultural University in the Indian state of Meghalaya, knowledge of the exact gene will be critical for future breeding programs suited to Eastern and North-Eastern -- parts of India where rice productivity is less than 40% of the national average due to acidic soil and poor availability of phosphorus.

The discovery of the PSTOL1 gene means that rice breeders will be able to breed new rice varieties faster and more easily, and with 100% certainty their new rice will have the gene.

Dr. Joko Prasetiyono, of the Institute for Agricultural Biotechnology and Genetic Resources Research and Development in Indonesia, is breeding rice plants with the PSTOL1 gene. The plants are not genetically modified just bred using smart modern breeding techniques.

"In field tests in Indonesia and the Philippines, rice with the PSTOL1 gene produced about 20% more grain than rice without the gene," said Heuer.

"In our pot experiments," she added, "when we use soil that is really low in phosphorus, we see yield increases of 60% and more, suggesting it will be very effective in soils low in phosphorus such as in upland rice fields that are not irrigated and where farmers are often very poor."

The PSTOL1 gene is also being tested in rice varieties for the more productive irrigated rice-growing areas and initial results show that the plants grow a better root system and have higher production too. This means it could help farmers in these areas reduce their fertilizer use and expenditure without compromising productivity.

The discovery also demonstrates the importance of conserving the genetic diversity of traditional crop varieties such as Kasalath. IRRI conserves more than 114,000 different types of rice in the International Rice Genebank.

The group of rice (the aus-type) that Kasalath is part of is also the source of the submergence tolerance gene, which IRRI has used to breed submergence-tolerant (Sub1) rice varieties that are being widely adopted across Asia.

New rice varieties with the enhanced capacity to take up phosphorus may be available within a few years to farmers.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by International Rice Research Institute.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Rico Gamuyao, Joong Hyoun Chin, Juan Pariasca-Tanaka, Paolo Pesaresi, Sheryl Catausan, Cheryl Dalid, Inez Slamet-Loedin, Evelyn Mae Tecson-Mendoza, Matthias Wissuwa, Sigrid Heuer. The protein kinase Pstol1 from traditional rice confers tolerance of phosphorus deficiency. Nature, 2012; 488 (7412): 535 DOI: 10.1038/nature11346

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/~3/POQ7tttR1d8/120823113124.htm

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Govt. gene sleuths stop superbug that killed 6

In this photo taken Aug. 21, 2012, Dr. Tara Palmore, deputy hospital epidemiologist at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, left, and Dr. Julie Segre, a geneticist with the National Human Genome Research Institute, pose at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md. Last year a deadly superbug spread through the nation's leading research hospital, killing six patients before it could be stopped. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health hospital in Bethesda, Md., scrubbed with bleach, locked down patients and even ripped out plumbing. In the end, it took gene detectives analyzing the germ's DNA to trace it to its source. It came from a New York City patient who was admitted for a medical study. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this photo taken Aug. 21, 2012, Dr. Tara Palmore, deputy hospital epidemiologist at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, left, and Dr. Julie Segre, a geneticist with the National Human Genome Research Institute, pose at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md. Last year a deadly superbug spread through the nation's leading research hospital, killing six patients before it could be stopped. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health hospital in Bethesda, Md., scrubbed with bleach, locked down patients and even ripped out plumbing. In the end, it took gene detectives analyzing the germ's DNA to trace it to its source. It came from a New York City patient who was admitted for a medical study. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

In this photo taken Aug. 21, 2012, Dr. Tara Palmore, deputy hospital epidemiologist at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, left, and Dr. Julie Segre, a geneticist with the National Human Genome Research Institute, pose at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md. Last year a deadly superbug spread through the nation's leading research hospital, killing six patients before it could be stopped. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health hospital in Bethesda, Md., scrubbed with bleach, locked down patients and even ripped out plumbing. In the end, it took gene detectives analyzing the germ's DNA to trace it to its source. It came from a New York City patient who was admitted for a medical study. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

(AP) ? Over six frightening months, a deadly germ untreatable by most antibiotics spread in the nation's leading research hospital. Pretty soon, a patient a week was catching the bug. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health locked down patients, cleaned with bleach, even ripped out plumbing ? and still the germ persisted.

By the end, 18 people harbored the dangerous germ, and six died of bloodstream infections from it. Another five made it through the outbreak only to die from the diseases that brought them to NIH's world-famous campus in the first place.

It took gene detectives teasing apart the bacteria's DNA to solve the germ's wily spread, a CSI-like saga with lessons for hospitals everywhere as they struggle to contain the growing threat of superbugs.

It all stemmed from a single patient carrying a fairly new superbug known as KPC ? Klebsiella pneumoniae that resists treatment by one of the last lines of defense, antibiotics called carbapenems.

"We never want this to happen again," said Dr. Tara Palmore, deputy hospital epidemiologist at the NIH Clinical Center.

Infections at health care facilities are one of the nation's leading causes of preventable death, claiming an estimated 99,000 lives a year. They're something of a silent killer, as hospitals fearful of lawsuits don't like to publicly reveal when they outfox infection control ? yet no hospital is immune.

Wednesday, government researchers published an unusually candid account of last year's outbreak, with some advice: Fast sequencing of a germ's genome, its full DNA, may be essential. It can reveal how drug-resistant bacteria are spreading so that doctors can protect other patients.

"This is not an easy story to tell," said Dr. Julie Segre, a senior investigator at NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute. She led the genetic sleuthing that found the bug hiding in sink drains and, most chilling, even in a ventilator that had been cleaned with bleach.

Infection-control specialists at other hospitals called this detailed anatomy of an outbreak, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, important to share.

"They were able to demonstrate that this sneaky little bug was able to stay alive and get transmitted in ways they hadn't quite predicted before they had the detailed genetic information," said Dr. Sara Cosgrove, associate hospital epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University. "It's very revealing."

"Absolutely this could happen in any hospital," said Dr. Deverick Anderson, co-director of a Duke University infection control network that advises smaller community hospitals.

"This is really exciting stuff, cutting-edge technology, to try and better understand how these infections get spread," he added. That in turn may lead to new protections, important because "there's something that's very, very wrong about going to a hospital and becoming more ill."

Normally, the Klebsiella bacteria live in human intestines and don't harm people with healthy immune systems. But the multidrug-resistant strain named KPC has emerged over the past decade to become a fast-growing threat in intensive care units, spreading easily between very ill people and killing half of those it sickens. Worse, people can carry KPC without symptoms unless the germs slip into the urinary tract or bloodstream ? theirs or the person's in the next bed ? through a catheter or surgical wound.

The 243-bed NIH Clinical Center, in Washington's suburbs, is a unique hospital, only treating people enrolled in government research studies.

So on June 13, 2011, a research nurse carefully checked the medical records as a New York City hospital transferred a study participant who had become critically ill with a rare lung disease. The nurse found that the patient had KPC as well.

The woman went into strict isolation: Everyone entering her room donned a protective gown and gloves and rigorously washed their hands. Her medical equipment got special decontamination. All other patients in the ICU had their throats and groins tested regularly to see if the bug was spreading.

All seemed OK. The woman recovered, and went home on July 15.

Fast forward three weeks. Now a man with cancer has KPC despite never crossing paths with Patient No. 1. Ten days later, a woman with an immune disease fell ill, too. Both died of the infection.

Did they arrive carrying their own KPC bacteria, or did that first patient's germ somehow escape into the hospital? Standard tests couldn't tell. Segre, the geneticist, turned to DNA.

As bacteria multiply, mistakes appear and are repaired in their genetic code. Sequencing that genome allowed Segre to follow differences in single genetic letters like a trail of the germ's transmission and evolution.

Sure enough, the KPC originated from the New York patient despite NIH's precautions. Testing bacteria from the 17 additional patients who ultimately caught it shows the KPC was transmitted three separate times from Patient No. 1, and then spread more widely.

Even this sophisticated technology couldn't prove exactly how transmission occurred. But it turns out that Patient 3 had been in the ICU at the same time as the New York woman and really was the next infected, silently carrying the bug longer before becoming sick. That was enough time for Patient 3's infection to spread to Patient 2, who just got sick faster.

Meanwhile, NIH was making big changes. All the ICU patients underwent more invasive testing, using rectal swabs, to check for silent germ carriers. A new wall created a separate ICU to house them. Doctors, nurses, even janitors assigned there could work nowhere else, and monitors were paid to make sure everyone followed infection-control rules.

Yet a patient a week was either becoming infected or found to be a silent carrier of the same KPC strain.

"Honestly, we were very scared at that point," Segre recalled.

Test after test never found the bug on hospital workers' hands. Tainted objects like the ventilator couldn't be ruled out ? but NIH adopted more complex and expensive decontamination, using robot-like machines to spray germ-killing hydrogen peroxide into the tiniest of crevices in all affected rooms and equipment.

Still, November brought more bad news: The outbreak strain had escaped the ICU, as two patients who'd never been there now were carrying it. A new isolation room was built, and all 200-plus patients in the hospital started undergoing rectal testing.

The outbreak now is over, the last carrier found in December. But NIH isn't dropping its guard. The isolation room remains, used every time one of the seven outbreak survivors returns to the hospital for their ongoing research studies ? because they still carry the strain. Those rectal tests continue, hospital-wide once a month, to be sure no new KPC strain sneaks in.

Bacterial sequencing is becoming fast and cheap enough for most large hospitals to use during tough outbreaks, said Dr. Lance Peterson, microbiology and infectious disease director at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, Ill.

But another lesson is how much it takes to guard against these bugs sneaking in in the first place. Peterson said his hospital does weekly rectal testing of every ICU patient as a precaution.

"There's better technology becoming available for your hospital to prevent these bacteria from spreading, and this is what you should expect from your hospital," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-08-22-Superbug%20Outbreak/id-fd8e18278280424dbe0bd9977c01dce1

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