Sony Xperia U review: a little slice of Android that punches above its weight

Sony Xperia U review

There's an oft-used idiom about small packages, which frequently doesn't apply to the world of technology. That's to say that a diminished form factor often doesn't bring the "best things" with it. For example, Sony's NXT family members, revealed between CES and MWC, gifted consumers with the choice of three new handsets: the Xperia P, S and U. The last one in that list is by far the smallest, and in congruence with the general trend of mobile technology, the most lightly armored.

However, we're not ones to make assumptions, and heaven forbid we pre-judge something based on size alone. We're as willing to be surprised as anyone, and the new baby of the Sony bunch is as likely a candidate as any to throw us a curveball. Our initial impressions in Barcelona were largely positive, so this review -- as the firm says on its marketing material for the phone -- is all about (the Xperia) U.

Continue reading Sony Xperia U review: a little slice of Android that punches above its weight

Sony Xperia U review: a little slice of Android that punches above its weight originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jun 2012 14:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft Aims For Angry Birds With New ... - Virtual Pets Forum

Angry Birds is interesting but I don't think it deserves the hype..

It's like all the previous similar games but with an App spin to it...

Plus levels, achievements, but we've seen those before yeah?

I only played it a few times then got bored, went onto something else more exciting.

Let's see how they deliver!!

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Watch Venus cross sun for last time in your life

LIVE VIDEO ? Watch NASA TV's live coverage of the Venus transit. This picture, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows the planet just as it was crossing the edge of the sun's disk.

By Alan Boyle

We have contact! For the last time in 105 years, Earthlings and astronauts watched the planet Venus creep across the surface of the sun during a nearly seven-hour transit.

The prime viewing zone takes in most of the Americas, the Pacific and Asia, as shown on the map below. But even if you're not in the transit zone itself, you can get in on the action over the Internet, thanks to NASA and more than a dozen other webcasters. Pictures and videos are streaming in, from around the globe as well as from the orbiting International Space Station:


Venus passes across the sun during an event that won't be seen again until 2117. NBC's Mike Taibbi reports.

Don Pettit / NASA

This is one of the first pictures of a transit of Venus taken by an astronaut in outer space. NASA astronaut Don Pettit snapped the picture through a solar filter from the International Space Station. Check Johnson Space Center's Flickr gallery for more views from space.

NASA via Reuters

An extreme ultraviolet picture of the sun from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the planet Venus in transit, as well as dramatic swirls of solar activity.

Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images

Venus can be seen at top right, beginning to cross the face of the sun, in a picture of the transit taken from Manhattan's West Side.

Andrew Burton / Getty Images

New Yorkers observe the last-in-a-lifetime transit of Venus from the High Line park.

NASA / SDO via Reuters

The planet Venus begins its six-hour-plus journey across the face of the sun, as seen in a close-up from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Andy Clark / Reuters

Astronomer Raminder Samra tries to get the view of Venus crossing the Sun using a shadow on a piece of paper and the telescope at the MacMillan Southam Observatory in Vancouver, British Columbia. Unfortunately, cloud cover prevented a proper view of celestial event.

Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images

Clouds partially obscure the sun during the transit of Venus, as seen from New York's Riverside Park.

Submitted by Robert Wetzel / UGC

Robert Wetzel sent in this picture of the Venus transit from San Diego, using msnbc.com's FirstPerson photo-sharing tool. The picture was taken using a Celestron G5 telescope and a Nikon D300 camera with a solar filter. Focal length is approximately 1875mm.

The first scientific observation of a Venus transit took place in 1639, and there have been five other transits to watch between then and now. Because of the orbital mechanics of our solar system, Venus can be seen crossing the sun's disk from Earth in pairs of occurrences separated by eight years. There are gaps of either 105.5 or 121.5 years between one pair and the next. One transit took place in 2004, and this is the second event in the pair. The next transit won't be seen until the year 2117?? thus, this is the last event of its kind that anyone alive today is likely to see.

There's more than science involved here: Sue Ah Chim, a researcher at the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute in South Korea, told The Associated Press that he hoped the transit would lead people to see life from a larger perspective and "not get caught up in their small, everyday problems."

"When you think about it from the context of the universe, 105 years is a very short period of time, and the earth is only a small, pale blue spot," he said.

At Los Angeles' Griffith Observatory, Jamie Jetton and her two nephews from Arizona, aged 6 and 11, sported sun-viewing glasses as the followed the transit. "It's an experience," she told AP. "It's something we'll talk about for the rest of our lives."

Scientifically speaking, the most important moments come as Venus crosses the edge of the sun's disk. That's when the sunlight refracted by Venus' atmosphere can be most easily detected ? revealing the atmosphere's chemical signature. Astronomers eventually hope to use a similar technique to analyze the atmosphere of planets passing across alien suns, so this transit provides a good practice run for the technique. Even the Hubble Space Telescope is trying out the method, by checking the characteristics of the sunlight reflected by the moon during the transit.

If you want to see the transit yourself, make sure you do it safely?? either by using appropriate protective eyewear or indirect observation methods such as a pinhole camera. There may be special events planned today by your local astronomy club, science center or observatory. Do not gaze at the sun without proper protection. Sunglasses won't do the trick, no matter how many you pile onto your face. Get the details from this safety guide.

The safest and surest way to see the transit is on the Web. So check out this list of webcasts, and check back for updates as the transit continues.

  • NASA TV?and?NASA EDGE at Mauna Kea:?The Hawaii show starts at 5:45 p.m. ET.
  • Exploratorium:?The San Francisco science center's seasoned webcast team will be webcasting from Mauna Loa, Hawaii, starting at 6 p.m. ET.
  • Univ. of North Dakota SEMS (in Alaska):?UND's Tim Young says the road show and the chat will start cooking from Alaska at 5:45 p.m. ET. "It is one of two locations in the U.S. that will see the whole transit," he told me via email. "The other is Hawaii, and other groups are webcasting from there."
  • Slooh Space Camera:?Slooh starts its rock-solid webcast at 5:30 p.m. ET, featuring a dozen or more video feeds from Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Arizona, New Mexico and other locales.
  • Universe Today:?Live shots from around the world with?commentary?from Bad Astronomer Phil Plait, Pamela Gay and other celebrity guests.
  • Astronomers Without Borders:?This show will be webcast from California's Mount Wilson Observatory.
  • Coca-Cola Space Science Center:?Columbus State University's science center in Georgia is offering pictures from the home base in Columbus, Ga., as well as from Utah, Mongolia and Australia. The webcast gets started at 5:30 p.m. ET.
  • Mount Lemmon SkyCenter:?The University of Arizona's astronomy center starts webcasting at 5 p.m. ET.
  • Appalachian State University:?The view from one of the Rankin Science Observatory's 11-inch telescopes will be streamed from Boone, N.C., during a?public viewing event.
  • Planet Hunters:?The exoplanet-searchers will be carrying a webcast courtesy of the?GLORIA Project, with live updates from Norway, Australia and Japan starting at 6:04 p.m. ET.
  • Bareket Observatory:?The webcast from Israel starts at 10:33 p.m. ET, which is around sun-up at the site.
  • Kwasan Observatory:?Watch a Japanese webcast from Kyoto.?
  • Sky Watchers Association of North Bengal:?SWAN's webcast from?India?gets under way at around 7:12 p.m. ET.?
  • European Space Agency:?ESA's Venus Transit Monitor will be transmitting images from Norway and Australia. Check out ESA's?Transit of Venus blog?for more.
  • And still more...?NASA's Venus Transit website links to more webcasts, as does?Space.com?and?Sky and Telescope.

More about the transit:

More places for pictures:

Update for 11:35 a.m. ET: I initially wrote that Pettit's groundbreaking pictures were "the first pictures of a transit of Venus taken from outer space," but Facebook friend Jarin Udom pointed out that several sun-watching probes, including NASA's mighty Solar Dynamics Observatory, have taken plenty of such pictures previously. So it's more accurate to say these were the first pictures taken by a photographer in outer space.


Got pictures? Use the FirstPerson photo upload tool?to share your transit photos with us. They may show up in a gallery today or on Wednesday.

Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

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MyReviewsNow.net Welcomes Accounting Software Affiliate Partner ...

Las Vegas, NV -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/04/2012 -- MyReviewsNow.net, a popular virtual mall that lets people shop from home for the Internet?s hottest products and services, announced that it has welcomed affiliate partner Intuit to its Small Business Portal.

Intuit?s accounting software solutions, including TurboTax and Quicken, are trusted by small business customers around the world. They make everything from invoicing to filing taxes to managing finances easier and more efficient.

Plus, small business customers can try Quickbooks online free for 30 days, so they can personally discover the advantages, features and benefits. They can also determine which version of Quickbooks online is best for them: Simple Start; Essentials; Plus; Online Essential with Payroll; or Online Plus with Payroll.

?MyReviewsNow.net is extremely pleased to welcome Intuit to our family of small business affiliate partners,? commented an Affiliate Relationship Spokesperson from MyReviewsNow.net. ?Intuit?s accounting software solutions are ideal for small and home business customers, and with their 30 day free trial offer, there?s absolutely no risk.?

Small and home business customers who want to benefit from Intuit?s popular accounting software and financial management solutions can visit MyReviewsNow.net?s Small Business Portal. Access to MyReviewsNow.net is free, and there?s no registration.

For more information or media inquiries, contact Lina Andrade at info@myreviewsnow.net. Press release issued by SEOChampion.com.

About MyReviewsNow.net
A virtual shopping mall of services, products and publications available online, MyReviewsNow.net is a business directory that sets itself apart from similar sites by offering both professional reviews and customer testimonials on the Internet?s hottest offerings in a fun, simple format that is easy for visitors to shop and enjoy.

About SEO Champion
SEO Champion was started in 1999 and is owner operated by Michael Rotkin, SEO Specialist for over 17 years. Michael Rotkin?s goal for his clients is to ?own? keyword placements for the top 3 slots organically, so that his clients can earn a

higher return on investment from their advertising dollars. Rotkin realizes the value of SEO over Pay-Per-Click campaigns, where click-throughs are generally more expensive and harder to convert into sales. SEOChampion?s intense work ethic can be seen in daily and weekly reports that show progress through organic keyword gain. This effort is the reason his SEO firm has been able to build a loyal client base for many years. Learn more at SEO Champion. MyReviewsNow.net, a popular virtual mall that lets people shop from home for the Internet?s hottest products and services, announced that it has welcomed affiliate partner Intuit to its Small Business Portal.

Intuit?s accounting software solutions, including TurboTax and Quicken, are trusted by small business customers around the world. They make everything from invoicing to filing taxes to managing finances easier and more efficient.

Plus, small business customers can try Quickbooks online free for 30 days, so they can personally discover the advantages, features and benefits. They can also determine which version of Quickbooks online is best for them: Simple Start; Essentials; Plus; Online Essential with Payroll; or Online Plus with Payroll.

?MyReviewsNow.net is extremely pleased to welcome Intuit to our family of small business affiliate partners,? commented an Affiliate Relationship Spokesperson from MyReviewsNow.net. ?Intuit?s accounting software solutions are ideal for small and home business customers, and with their 30 day free trial offer, there?s absolutely no risk.?

Small and home business customers who want to benefit from Intuit?s popular accounting software and financial management solutions can visit MyReviewsNow.net?s Small Business Portal. Access to MyReviewsNow.net is free, and there?s no registration.

For more information or media inquiries, contact Lina Andrade at info@myreviewsnow.net. Press release issued by SEOChampion.com.

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Queen's 60-year celebrations wind down, husband ill

LONDON (Reuters) - Four days of nationwide celebrations during which millions of people have turned out to mark Queen Elizabeth's 60 years on the throne conclude on Tuesday with a church service and carriage procession through central London.

The 86-year-old British monarch will cut a lonely figure as the Diamond Jubilee draws to a close, however, after her husband of 64 years, Prince Philip, was taken to hospital on Monday with a bladder infection.

The 90-year-old will be kept under observation for a few days in a move the palace said was "precautionary", but it takes some of the gloss of what is widely seen as a triumphant jubilee that has cemented the queen's popularity in Britain.

A million people gathered for a spectacular 1,000-vessel pageant on the River Thames on Sunday and hundreds of thousands more packed the wide, red road leading to Buckingham Palace on Monday for a concert featuring Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder.

Millions more attended street parties up and down the country despite generally inclement weather.

In a tribute to his mother delivered from the concert stage late on Monday, heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles sought to sum up public affection for a monarch who is a symbol of stability at a time of economic gloom and political disillusionment.

"As a nation this is our opportunity to thank you and my father for always being there for us, for inspiring us with your selfless duty and service and for making us proud to be British, proud at a time when I know how many of our fellow countrymen are suffering such hardship and difficulties."

His speech was followed by the national anthem and a spectacular fireworks display in front of the sumptuous 775-room palace illuminated with a giant Union Jack flag.

POMP AND PAGEANTRY

Tuesday's events will be more typical of the formal displays of pomp and glittering ceremony for which British royalty is known across the globe.

They begin with the queen, head of state of 16 countries, attending a thanksgiving service in her honor at London's St Paul's Cathedral along with senior members of the royal family.

The spiritual leader of the Anglican church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, will deliver the sermon while Prime Minister David Cameron will give a reading to pay tribute to the queen who came to the throne aged 25 in 1952.

Afterwards the royals will attend receptions at two of the City of London's grandest buildings, Mansion House and the Guildhall, before a diamond jubilee lunch at Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the Houses of Parliament.

The queen will then lead a carriage procession back to Buckingham Palace in a 1902 State Landau as military bands play and a 60-gun salute is fired.

Charles, his two sons Prince Harry and Prince William with his wife Kate will follow behind in royal carriages.

The jubilee celebrations end with the royal family making an appearance on the balcony of the palace, with a fly-past by modern and former Royal Air Force aircraft.

So far, the long weekend dedicated to the diamond jubilee has been a success story for the monarchy, their media team and Elizabeth personally.

Polls suggest the crown and the queen herself are more popular than they have been for decades, with one suggesting the hereditary monarch was considered far less out of touch with her people than Cameron and his ministers.

Meanwhile the younger generation of royals, especially William, Harry and Kate, have become the darlings of the British press, once notoriously hostile to the monarchy as it threatened to implode in the 1990s following marital infidelities and the death of Charles's hugely popular first wife, Princess Diana.

Republicans have been vocal in their opposition during the jubilee but have drawn few obvious signs of public backing, although they hope that apathy to the royals felt by some could turn to hostility when the queen is gone and the less popular Charles becomes king.

If nothing else, commentators said the royals had once again provided Britons, suffering through deep public spending cuts and rising unemployment, with an excuse for a party.

"The world has been reminded that, whatever the weather, nobody does pageantry quite like Britain," said an editorial in the Daily Mail newspaper, which prides itself on being the voice of middle-class Britain.

"Long may it continue. And long may the Queen continue to reign."

(Editing by Christopher Wilson)

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Access To Timely Mental Health a Big Problem in Ottawa, Canada

This blog post has been optimized using Keyword Winner

?

Certainly we don't have a perfect mental health system in the US. I pray and hope that it never gets to something like this.

The pressures of everyday life have definitely shot up depression cases, so we definitely need to have a mental health system that works.

I suffered from depresseion, severe depression, for many years? I know how demoralizing it can be when everythng seems hopeless.?

?

"By Shelley Page, Ottawa Citizen June 4, 2012 In Ottawa, the city that's been diagnosed as the "depression capital of Canada," the wait time to be assessed for a mood disorder at the city's marquee mental health treatment centre has now grown to one ?"
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/Mental%2Bhealth%2Bwait%2Btimes%2Bgrow%2By...

If you struggle with depression, please get help asap. ?My heart goes out to the people in Canada who are suffering and cannot get timely help.?sad

?
?

Tags: Mental Health News, everyday life, Mood disorder, mental health system, ottawa canada
-->

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Scientists identify mechanism for regulating plant oil production

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 4-Jun-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Karen McNulty Walsh
kmcnulty@bnl.gov
631-344-8350
DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory

Findings suggest ways to increase oil production for biofuels and industrial processes

UPTON, NY - Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified key elements in the biochemical mechanism plants use to limit the production of fatty acids. The results suggest ways scientists might target those biochemical pathways to increase the production of plant oils as a renewable resource for biofuels and industrial processes.

"Now that we understand how this system operates - how plants 'know' when they've made enough oil and how they slow down production - we can look for ways to break the feedback loop so they keep making more oil," said Brookhaven biochemist John Shanklin, leader of the group publishing the work in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of June 4, 2012.

Similar biochemical feedback loops regulate a wide range of metabolic processes in living things. They work similar to the way a thermostat maintains a relatively constant temperature in your home: When it gets too warm, the heating system turns off until the temperature falls to the set point, at which time it turns on again.

"There were hints that such a feedback system might exist for plant oil production," said Shanklin, who credits Carl Andre - a former postdoctoral research fellow now working at BASF Plant Science in North Carolina - with designing and carrying out the intricate biochemical detective work that uncovered the details.

"It's very difficult to work on developing oil seeds because they are very tiny," Shanklin explained. So the scientists performed their biochemical tests using a plant embryo cell culture to simulate what goes on in the seeds.

With assistance from the Radiotracer Chemistry and Biological Imaging group at Brookhaven (http://www.bnl.gov/medical/RCIBI/), Andre synthesized "labeled" forms of the fatty acids that occur as intermediates along the metabolic pathway that leads to oil production. He fed these, one at a time, to the plant cell cultures, measuring the labeled metabolites with the help of analytic chemist Richard Haslam of Rothamsted Research in the UK. They also looked to see which added intermediates would inhibit oil production.

Andre's work pointed to a fatty acid that occurs fairly late in the production process, coupled to a carrier protein (essential to making the oily substance soluble in water), as the key intermediate that puts the brakes on oil production. It's the first "desaturated" fatty acid - the first one with a double bond between two of the carbon atoms, formed after all 18 carbon atoms are added to the chain.

Then, knowing that this intermediate somehow sent the "slow-down" signal, the team sought to determine its "target" - how it actually inhibits oil synthesis. They knew from other biochemical feedback loops that the likely target would be an enzyme early in the synthesis pathway. But they wanted to figure out exactly which one.

To do this, they monitored the production process by labeling the intermediates one at a time with a radioactive form of carbon while also feeding the cells an excess of the "slow-down" signaling fatty acid. If the label from the intermediate ended up in the oil product, the "slow-down" signal had to have its effect prior to that step.

The first two experiments gave them the answer: When they labeled the first compound in the synthesis pathway, which is acetate, very little labeled carbon ended up in the oil and oil production was strongly reduced. But if they fed the second compound, labeled malonate, the labeled carbon quickly entered the oil.

"From these findings we concluded that the accumulation of the first desaturated fatty acid in the synthesis process inhibits the enzyme that operates at the first step, which converts acetate to malonate," Shanklin said. "That enzyme is Acetyl-CoA carboxylase, or ACCase."

The next step was to make extracts of the tissue culture and directly measure ACCase activity in the test tube. Addition of the suspected slow-down signal provided independent proof that both the signal and target of the signal were correctly identified.

To establish that this feedback mechanism operates in seeds and is not just a weird quirk of the cell-culture setup, the scientists isolated developing canola embryos to test the process. "It worked precisely the same way," Shanklin said.

With the details of the oil production feedback mechanism in hand, Shanklin's team is now exploring how they might interfere with the process, including biochemical schemes to keep the "slow-down" signaling metabolite from accumulating, ways to block its effects on ACCase, and more.

"If we can interrupt this process, we hope to fool the cells so they won't be able to gauge how much oil they have made and will make more," Shanklin said.

###

This research was funded by the DOE Office of Science and Bayer CropScience.

DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit: http://science.energy.gov/.>

One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE's Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by the Research Foundation of State University of New York on behalf of Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.

Visit Brookhaven Lab's electronic newsroom for links, news archives, graphics, and more at http://www.bnl.gov/newsroom , or follow Brookhaven Lab on Twitter, http://twitter.com/BrookhavenLab .


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 4-Jun-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Karen McNulty Walsh
kmcnulty@bnl.gov
631-344-8350
DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory

Findings suggest ways to increase oil production for biofuels and industrial processes

UPTON, NY - Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified key elements in the biochemical mechanism plants use to limit the production of fatty acids. The results suggest ways scientists might target those biochemical pathways to increase the production of plant oils as a renewable resource for biofuels and industrial processes.

"Now that we understand how this system operates - how plants 'know' when they've made enough oil and how they slow down production - we can look for ways to break the feedback loop so they keep making more oil," said Brookhaven biochemist John Shanklin, leader of the group publishing the work in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of June 4, 2012.

Similar biochemical feedback loops regulate a wide range of metabolic processes in living things. They work similar to the way a thermostat maintains a relatively constant temperature in your home: When it gets too warm, the heating system turns off until the temperature falls to the set point, at which time it turns on again.

"There were hints that such a feedback system might exist for plant oil production," said Shanklin, who credits Carl Andre - a former postdoctoral research fellow now working at BASF Plant Science in North Carolina - with designing and carrying out the intricate biochemical detective work that uncovered the details.

"It's very difficult to work on developing oil seeds because they are very tiny," Shanklin explained. So the scientists performed their biochemical tests using a plant embryo cell culture to simulate what goes on in the seeds.

With assistance from the Radiotracer Chemistry and Biological Imaging group at Brookhaven (http://www.bnl.gov/medical/RCIBI/), Andre synthesized "labeled" forms of the fatty acids that occur as intermediates along the metabolic pathway that leads to oil production. He fed these, one at a time, to the plant cell cultures, measuring the labeled metabolites with the help of analytic chemist Richard Haslam of Rothamsted Research in the UK. They also looked to see which added intermediates would inhibit oil production.

Andre's work pointed to a fatty acid that occurs fairly late in the production process, coupled to a carrier protein (essential to making the oily substance soluble in water), as the key intermediate that puts the brakes on oil production. It's the first "desaturated" fatty acid - the first one with a double bond between two of the carbon atoms, formed after all 18 carbon atoms are added to the chain.

Then, knowing that this intermediate somehow sent the "slow-down" signal, the team sought to determine its "target" - how it actually inhibits oil synthesis. They knew from other biochemical feedback loops that the likely target would be an enzyme early in the synthesis pathway. But they wanted to figure out exactly which one.

To do this, they monitored the production process by labeling the intermediates one at a time with a radioactive form of carbon while also feeding the cells an excess of the "slow-down" signaling fatty acid. If the label from the intermediate ended up in the oil product, the "slow-down" signal had to have its effect prior to that step.

The first two experiments gave them the answer: When they labeled the first compound in the synthesis pathway, which is acetate, very little labeled carbon ended up in the oil and oil production was strongly reduced. But if they fed the second compound, labeled malonate, the labeled carbon quickly entered the oil.

"From these findings we concluded that the accumulation of the first desaturated fatty acid in the synthesis process inhibits the enzyme that operates at the first step, which converts acetate to malonate," Shanklin said. "That enzyme is Acetyl-CoA carboxylase, or ACCase."

The next step was to make extracts of the tissue culture and directly measure ACCase activity in the test tube. Addition of the suspected slow-down signal provided independent proof that both the signal and target of the signal were correctly identified.

To establish that this feedback mechanism operates in seeds and is not just a weird quirk of the cell-culture setup, the scientists isolated developing canola embryos to test the process. "It worked precisely the same way," Shanklin said.

With the details of the oil production feedback mechanism in hand, Shanklin's team is now exploring how they might interfere with the process, including biochemical schemes to keep the "slow-down" signaling metabolite from accumulating, ways to block its effects on ACCase, and more.

"If we can interrupt this process, we hope to fool the cells so they won't be able to gauge how much oil they have made and will make more," Shanklin said.

###

This research was funded by the DOE Office of Science and Bayer CropScience.

DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit: http://science.energy.gov/.>

One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE's Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by the Research Foundation of State University of New York on behalf of Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.

Visit Brookhaven Lab's electronic newsroom for links, news archives, graphics, and more at http://www.bnl.gov/newsroom , or follow Brookhaven Lab on Twitter, http://twitter.com/BrookhavenLab .


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


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Local golf pro Salito wins tournament in Mass.

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- Ralph Salito, head PGA professional of the Club at River Oaks in Sherman and honorary president of the Connecticut Section PGA, took first place in the Walter Lowell PGA Tournament at the Orchards Golf Club on May 29 with a total of 26 points in the stableford event. Salito is a 2012 candidate for secretary of the PGA of America.

In the stableford contest, first place was taken by the team of Tim Gavronski, Salito, Steve Madison and Eric Schomske with a total of 77 points.

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Food-and-Drink:Cooking-Tips from EzineArticles.com - Typepad

Food-and-Drink:Cooking-Tips from EzineArticles.com

EzineArticles.com is Trusted By Millions as The Source For Quality Original Articles

Read the rest of this Article Here...

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