Late Jan 2009 papers

Here are some interest papers.

Telomeres: Splicing uncoupled, Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10(2):86 (February 2009).

Gene expression: Common sense and antisense, Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10(2):87 (February 2009).

mRNA decay: Cutting in the middle, Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10(2):90 (February 2009).

MicroRNAs: key regulators of stem cells, Vamsi K. Gangaraju & Haifan Lin, Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10(2):116 (February 2009).
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding RNAs that bind to the 3? untranslated region of target mRNAs to repress their translation and stability. Recently, miRNAs have been shown to regulate stem cell fate and behaviour by fine-tuning the protein levels of factors that are required for their function.

Biogenesis of small RNAs in animals, V. Narry Kim, Jinju Han & Mikiko C. Siomi, Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10(2):126 (February 2009).
Recent progress in high-throughput sequencing has uncovered an astounding landscape of small RNAs in eukaryotic cells. Various small RNAs can be classified into three classes based on their biogenesis mechanism and the type of Argonaute protein that they are associated with.

Repression of the floral transition via histone H2B monoubiquitination, Xiaofeng Gu, Danhua Jiang, Yuqi Wang, Andreas Bachmair and Yuehui He, The Plant Journal 57(3):522 - 533.

Neurobiology: Scent slides away, Nature 457:361 (22 January 2009). A Research Highlights for following paper:
A 3′UTR Pumilio-Binding Element Directs Translational Activation in Olfactory Sensory Neurons, Julia A. Kaye, Natalie C. Rose, Brett Goldsworthy, Andrei Goga and Noelle D. L'Etoile, Neuron 61(1):57–79 (2009).

RNA silencing, Nature 457(7228):395–433 (Jan 2009).
In the past decade, the idea that RNA is just a passive carrier of information has been overturned. Small non-coding RNA molecules are now known to be important regulators of gene expression and genome integrity. With recent technological advances, the molecular mechanisms of these RNA silencing pathways are becoming clearly defined, and their components are now being tested in clinical trials.

Orgenic Food: BOOK REVIEWED
- Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics and the Future of Food, Jonathan Gressel, Nature Genetics 41:137 (2009).

A supersized list of obesity genes, Marten Hofker & Cisca Wijmenga, Nature Genetics 41:139 - 140 (2009).
Obesity genetics is making progress, as evidenced by the recent discovery of 15 new loci associated with body mass index. The function of the likely candidate genes in associated regions suggests a key role for the hypothalamus in the genetics of weight control.

Hair lost in translation, Lorin Weiner & Janice L Brissette, Nature Genetics 41:141 - 142 (2009)
A new study identifies mutations in the HR gene as the cause of Marie Unna hereditary hypotrichosis (MUHH). The mutations seem to disrupt an unusual leader sequence–based mechanism of translational repression, making MUHH the first example of a disease linked to this form of repression.

In humans and mice, the hairless (HR) transcription factor is essential for maintaining hair, but not for making it.

Large histone H3 lysine 9 dimethylated chromatin blocks distinguish differentiated from embryonic stem cells, Bo Wen, Hao Wu, Yoichi Shinkai, Rafael A Irizarry & Andrew P Feinberg, Nature Genetics 41:246 - 250 (2009).
Higher eukaryotes must adapt a totipotent genome to specialized cell types with stable but limited functions. One potential mechanism for lineage restriction is changes in chromatin, and differentiation-related chromatin changes have been observed for individual genes.

Evolutionary genomics: A positive becomes a negative, Laurence D. Hurst, Nature 457:543-544 (29 January 2009).
Which human genes have been hotspots for positive selection? Analyses of the top candidates reveal, not genes subject to such selection, but genes that have probably been subject to biased DNA repair.

Here is the Editor's Summary: Sorghum genome: drought tolerance in the genes Nature 457 (29 January 2009) for following 2 papers.
The Sorghum bicolor genome sequence is published this week. Sorghum is a cereal grown widely as food, animal feed, fibre and fuel. Tolerant to hot, dry conditions, it is a staple for large populations in the West African Sahel region. Comparisons of the genome with those of maize and rice shed light on the evolution of grasses and of C4 photosynthesis, which is particularly efficient at assimilating carbon at high temperatures. In addition, protein coding genes and miRNAs that could contribute to sorghum's drought tolerance may also be found. Sorghum yield improvement has lagged behind that of other crops and the availability of the genome sequence could provide a vital boost to work on its improvement.

Plant genomics: Sorghum in sequence, Takuji Sasaki & Baltazar A. Antonio, Nature 457:547-548 (29 January 2009).

The Sorghum bicolor genome and the diversification of grasses, Nature 457:551-556 (29 January 2009).

Photoactive channels obey stoplights, Amy Donner, Nature Methods 6:120 (2009).
Kinetically bi-stable channelrhodopsin-2 variants enable sensitive, step-like and reversible photoexcitability in neurons.

Red lights, camera, photoactivation! Samuel T Hess, Nature Methods 6, 124 - 125 (2009).
Two groups present new photoactivatable fluorescent proteins that will be useful for super-resolution fluorescence microscopy.
(1) Photoactivatable mCherry for high-resolution two-color fluorescence microscopy, Fedor V Subach, George H Patterson, Suliana Manley, Jennifer M Gillette, Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz & Vladislav V Verkhusha, Nature Methods 6:153 - 159 (2009).
(2) A bright and photostable photoconvertible fluorescent protein, Sean A McKinney, Christopher S Murphy, Kristin L Hazelwood, Michael W Davidson & Loren L Looger, Nature Methods 6, 131 - 133 (2009).

NEUROSCIENCE: Fingerprints Enhance the Sense of Touch, Science 323(5914):572 - 573 (30 January 2009).
Some scientists have argued that the tiny ridges on our fingertips improve our grip on slippery objects; others have suggested that they improve our sense of touch. Online in Science this week, a team of physicists presents circumstantial evidence for the latter theory.

PLANT GENETICS: How Sorghum Withstands Heat and Drought, Science 323(5914):573 (30 January 2009).
Analysis of the genome sequence of sorghum has revealed clues about how this crop plant, a major cereal in many parts of the developing world that is also an important source of U.S. biofuel, toughs out subpar growing conditions.

PLANT SCIENCE: Pores in Place, F. D. Sack and J.-G. Chen, Science 323(5914):592 - 593 (30 January 2009).
Signals that control plant cell division and fate also control epidermal pore development and gas exchange.

OXIDATIVE STRESS 3 is a chromatin-associated factor involved in tolerance to heavy metals and oxidative stress, Robert Blanvillain, Jong Heon Kim, Shimei Wu, Amparo Lima, David W. Ow, The Plant Journal 57(4):654 - 665.

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Electrical Usage

Our landlord told us on Thursday that the electrical bill has been triple. The energy company is Origin and sends electrical bill quarterly. The landlord said that it costs $300-400 AUD for every bill usually. This bill is about $1000 AUD. Average daily usage is 65 KWH.

We were very surprised. How could that be? Our landlord asked us how often we use our portable AC because they think that the only different between these 3 months period to previous one is that we bought an AC.

We bought our AC on Nov. 22, 2008. We picked a smaller one to save energy. Its power consumption is 830 watts per hour. We care about our environment very much, so we only turn the AC on 1 hour when it is hot (>30 oC) and humid (>80% RH). Basically we try to use fan and only use AC about 2-10 hours per week. We have discussed with our landlord about this triple usage issue and we both agree that we should try to figure out what's going on.

In order to understand how much we use, we started to monitor the electrical meter and our energy usage since last night during this 3 days holiday.

(note) Definition:
Basic usage: energy usage when no family member at home
Non-basic usage: extra energy usage than basic usage when at least one of family member at home
Basic usage + non-basic usage = usage (i.e. regular daily usage)

Based on following records we know that (1) our portable AC uses less than 1 KW per hour, (2) the basic usage for landlord plus us during sleep time without light is 0.4 - 0.5 KW per hour, (3) rice cooker, microwave, and stove all use quite amount of electricity, maybe similar to AC, and (4) our notebooks do not use much energy.
(5) Landlord's usage + our usage = 1.096623 Kw/hr = 26.31896 Kw/day
(6) Landlord's usage + our basic usage = 0.918517 Kw/hr = 22.04441 Kw/day
(7) Landlord's basic usage + our usage = 0.677686 Kw/hr = 16.26446 Kw/day
(8) Our non-basic usage = 4.274555 Kw/day
(9) Landlord's non-basic usage = 10.0545 Kw/day
(10) Landlord's basic usage + our basic usage = 11.98991 Kw/day

Date	Time	Duration	Meter	Usage	Activities
Jan. 2009
Jan. 23	7:10 pm	...	48288.5	...	...
Jan. 23	8:35 pm	1 hr 25 min	48290.6	1.4824	85 min AC, TV, 1 PC, basic landlord's with night light
Jan. 23	9:35 pm	60 min	48292.1	1.5000	35 min AC, 1 PC, landlord's' usage
Jan. 23	10:35 pm	60 min	48294.1	2.000	Cook dinner (stove), 1 PC, landlord's usage
Jan. 24	9:54 am	11 hrs 19 min	48301.1	0.6167	1 PC 2hrs, 1 hr AC, landlord's usage
Jan. 24	12:15 pm	2 hrs 21 min	48302.1	0.4255	1 PC, microwave 4 min for breakfast, landlord's usage
Jan. 24	1:50 pm	1 hr 35 min	48303.8	1.0737	1 PC, cooking for lunch (rice cooker, stove), landlord's usage
Jan. 24	5:00 pm	3 hrs 10 min	48307.7	1.2316	1 PC, 1 hr AC, basic landlord's
Jan. 24	8:30 pm	3 hrs 30 min	48309.1	0.4000	1 PC, basic landlord's
Jan. 24	11:08 pm	2 hrs 38 min	48312.7	1.3671	1 PC, 0.5 hr AC, cooking (stove), basic landlord's
Jan. 25	9:52 am	10 hrs 44 min	48317.6	0.4565	1 PC 4 hrs, basic landlord's
Jan. 25	11:52 am	2 hrs	48320.5	1.4500	2 PC, microwave 3'45", basic landlord's
Jan. 25	4:02 pm	4 hrs 10 min	48322.8	0.5520	2 PC, rice cooker 10 min, AC 1.8 hrs, basic landlord's
Jan. 25	6:26 pm	2 hrs 24 min	48323.5	0.2917	basic landlord's
Jan. 25	8:05 pm	1 hr 39 min	48324.3	0.4848	2 PC, basic landlord's
Jan. 26	6:09 pm	22 hr 4 min	48350.9	1.2054	2 PC 7 hrs, TV 3 hrs, landlords' usage
Feb. 15	12:27 pm	19 days 18 hr 18 min	48865.2	1.084335	our and landlords' usage
Feb. 21	11:37 am	5 days 11 hr 50 min	49015.6	1.140834	our and landlords' usage
Feb. 28	1:30 am	6 days 12 hr 53 min	49159.7	0.918517	landlords' usage

Read more!

Yogurt Maker

We almost finished up our breakfast, quick cook oats, this morning, so we went to Coles to buy one more pack for tomorrow's breakfast. We like Yoplaid yogurt, so we check its price every time we go to supermarket.

We did the same thing today and found that it is still $4.99 without any discount. We were a little bit sad and kept looking around in the store. EasiYo yogurt powder caught our eyes. We read its package to see how to make it. Then we realized that we need to get a container which can maintain in a certain temperature to culture those bacteria. We have studied on this before and gave up the idea for homemade yogurt because we don't have that kind of container or thermo-incubator to maintain the temperature.

After seeing this EasiYo yogurt maker, we would like to give it a try and hope that we can have a way to maintain the temperature and eat homemade yogurt in the future.

We tried its powder tonight and will try to use those homemade yogurt receipts on web to do it in the future. Hope the EasiYo Yogurt Maker can serve as a good thermo-incubator.

======= Test results =======
1. Jan 23, 2009: After 8 hours incubation, the yogurt looks solid and we put it into fridge. It taste good with oat as our breakfast, but the flavor is a little bit too strong to eat yogurt only, but it tastes good to eat with quick cooking oats.

2. Jan 26, 2009: After finishing the first 1L, we tried to make 2nd one.
1 and 1/3 cups of pwd milk
1/3 cup of sugar
1 Tablespoon of left-over Easiyo yogurt
Add water to 1L, then follow the instruction. It works well at 9 hours. I feel it is too sweet, but my husband thinks it is about right. Yes, we can make yogurt easily in the future.

3. Feb 7, 2009: After using left-over yogurt to make it twice, we tried to make 4th one with 2 TBS Easiyo sachets.
1 and 1/3 cups of skim pwd milk
1/3 cup of sugar
2 Tablespoon of Easiyo yogurt sachets

Add water to 1L, then follow the instruction. Well it works, but it took 36 hours and replaced with hot water every 12 hours. Maybe the amount of bacteria in 2 TBS is not enough or maybe it is because skim pwd milk?

(note) 1 cup =250 mL:
1 and 1/3 cup pwd milk ~= 320 mL = 130 g pwd milk
1/3 cup sugar ~= 80 mL sugar = 115 g sugar

======= Receipts on web ================
Easiyo? Share Here!

You can get low fat sachets.

Theres also a recipe for a homemade yogurt intead of using the sachets.

1 and 1/3 cups of pwd milk
1/3 cup of sugar
2 tbs of an Easiyo sachet (seal it and keep using it till you finish the sachet)
A dash of vanilla extract or essence

leave for at least 12 hours

___________________________

Or

2.5 cups water
1.cup skim milk powder
1 Tabspoon yoghurt (one that is already made, doesnt matter what brand)

OR
1 and 1/2 cup milk powder
1/3 cup sugar
vanillia essence

top up with water and do as per normal
==================
Anyone making their own yogurt?

The following recipe has worked each and every time and NEVER failed:
Preparation time:

Vanilla Yoghurt

1 and 1/3 cups powdered milk (I use Aldi or Woolworths full cream)
1/3 cup white or castor sugar
1 teaspoon Queens Vanilla Extract
2 tablespoons of starter using the easiyo sachet( natural/plain/low fat any of them will work)

Before going to bed, put all of the above into the easiyo jar, 1/2 fill with cold tap water,shake until sugar looks dissolved, top up with more tap water. Put into the easiyo thermos, with boiling water to the top of the red insert (as per easiyo instructions) overnight. In cooler weather I wrap with a towel or tea towel as well. In the morning put into the fridge. You can add fruit before serving.
I find you get at least 1/2 dozen batches from one easiyo sachet. I keep the rest of the easiyo satchel wraped up tightly and then put into an air tight container or in the crisper in the fridge, to keep it fresh.

Soy yoghurt Easiyo recipe:
Note: It might need some tweaking with regards to the gelatine/agar agar to get the right consistency for your family.
2 tbspn water
2 tbspn gelatine or agar agar
500 ml vanilla soymilk (if you can find one free of nasties) or 500ml Failsafe soymilk with 6-8 drops pure vanilla essence and 1/3 cup sugar.
1 tbspn starter soy yoghurt (yoghurt you've bought from shops)
Place water in Easiyo jar with gelatine/agar agar and microwave 30 seconds. Stir to dissolve gelatine. Add soy milk (at room temperature) and starter yoghurt. Shake until well mixed. Leave in Easiyo thermos overnight as per instructions. Refrigerate in the morning (minimum 8 hours).
I have found a soy yoghurt that is preservative free here: www.soyganics.com.au/soygurt.html#
It's called Soygurt and is made by an S.A company called Soyganics. They say IGA, Foodland, some health food stores, some Coles & Woolies carry it.
============================
Homemade Yoghurt by Crystal Miller

- 8 cups milk, cow or goat (I raise Nubian goats and use my own goat milk most often, but have made lots of yogurt with ordinary milk from the store)
- 1/3 cup powdered milk (this is optional but will make a thicker yogurt)
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup, optional for sweetened yogurt
- 1/2 cup starter yogurt
Before you begin wash 2 quart-sized canning jars. If you want to use 4 pint-sized jars instead that would be fine too. Have the metal rings and lids ready to cover the jars when you are done.

Pour your milk into a large cooking pot. Heat the milk up to 185 degrees. Allow the milk to cool down to 110 degrees. The cooling can take a long time. If you want to speed the process up fill your sink with cold water and place the pot of hot milk in the water and stir and stir. The temperature drops fairly quickly this way, so make sure to have your thermometer handy to keep checking.

After you reach 110 degrees add the remaining ingredients and stir until everything is dissolved very well. Pour this mixture into your ready and waiting jars. Put the lids on and put them into what ever place you are planning to incubate and culture them. Leave them there for 10 to 12 hours. Try not to disturb the jars to much. When the yogurt is firm it is time to remove them and put them in the refrigerator to get nice and cold. Usually 12 to 24 hours. If you make and incubate the yogurt during the day it can refrigerate overnight and be ready for breakfast the next day.

If you would like flavored yogurt, just add fresh cut up fruit or a little bit of flavored jam when you are serving your yogurt.

Crystal Miller is a mother of 8 children and enjoys her God given role as wife, homemaker and mother! She has a homemaking and country living web site called The Family Homestead and has a free monthly newsletter called Homestead Happenings.

Deb's Homemade Yogurt (oven style) - Alternative method of yogurt making

Makes 1/2 gallon
1/2 gallon milk (I use fat free)
2 cups instant dry milk powder
1 cup sugar or your choice of sweetener
1 Tablespoon good vanilla (I use Mexican)
1 6-8 oz. container yogurt with active cultures (first batch after that save some of your own)
Thermometer
Large, heavy, pot
Electric stove with light or gas stove with non-auto pilot light. Can also use a heating pad/towel/and box to cover)

Place milk in pot and add dry milk powder. Stir well.

Heat milk to 180 degrees, stirring now and then so bottom doesn't burn

Fill sink with ice cold water and place pot insde sink, Add sugar and stir well. Cool down to 110-115 degrees. Add vanilla. Add yogurt and stir well.

Fill containers of your choice and seal. ( I use jelly canning jars) Place on cookie sheet or heat proof tray.

Heat oven to 110-115 and turn off. Turn on oven light.

Place yogurt in oven on upper rack and check oven periodically to make sure it stays between 110-115.

Yogurt will be "done" in 4-6 hours but you can let it incubate for up to 12 depending on how tart you like it and how much beneficial bacteria you wish it to have.

Serve plain or with any kind of fruit. Suggestions: Top with sliced bananas, peach or cherry pie filling, or stir in plain vanilla.

================
How Can I Make Homemade Yogurt?

The first step in making homemade yogurt is warming and sterilizing the milk. Heat milk in a large, thick pot to 180-185 degrees Fahrenheit (82-85 degrees Celsius), stirring frequently to heat it evenly and prevent scalding. Next, allow the milk to cool to 112 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius), and then add a culture. The best culture for homemade yogurt is a batch of plain store bought yogurt, as long as the container says “active cultures” or “live cultures.” Add two tablespoons of yogurt for every quart of milk, stirring the mixture evenly and then pouring it into sterilized containers. Incubate the yogurt containers, holding the temperature between 105-122 degrees Fahrenheit (41-49 degrees Celsius), and do not disturb them. The longer the yogurt incubates, the thicker and tangier it will be.

After approximately eight hours of incubation, the homemade yogurt will be finished, and can be refrigerated for up to two weeks before use. Make sure to set aside a jar to use as a starter for another batch, and use a fresh container of commercial yogurt every five or six batches so that you do not exhaust your culture. If the yogurt smells strange or develops discolorations, discard it. Contaminants can work their way into yogurt even in a very clean kitchen, and it is better to be safe than sorry.

=============
Make your own yogurt

4 cups (1 quart) milk
1/2 cup powdered milk (optional)
1/2 cup "live culture" yogurt or other dried starter (it'll tell you how much to use)

1. Stirring slowly, heat the milk (and powdered milk, if you like thick yogurt) in a double-boiler or (very carefully, so as not to scorch) on your stove, to 180°F for one minute; remove from heat and cool to 115°F. To cool more quickly, place the boiler/pan you're using in a bath of cool water and stir.

2. Once down to 115°F, add the live cultures or starter, as well as the sweetener, if you desire, and give it a good stir and pour the mixture into smaller containers; mason jars work well for this.

3. Now comes the tricky part: you need to keep the mixture at 110°F for the next 4-to-6 hours; drop much below that, and the bacteria won't be warm enough to do their job, anywhere higher than about 110°F will kill them, and leave you with not much more than boiled milk.

This can be done several ways: in your oven, on the very lowest setting, in a bath of warm water (to help the heat from varying too much)-and some people report being able to achieve 110°F with just the warm bath and the oven light on-or in a very well-insulated cooler.

4. Pour hot water (115°F) into a cooler, put your jars of almost-yogurt in there, and shut the lid, checking every now and then that the internal temperature is still 110°F or so, and replace the warm water as necessary. No matter which method you choose, take care to keep the temperature as close to 110°F as possible.

5. Your yogurt is done when it's firmed up (though it'll come together a bit more as it cools). Once done, refrigerate your new yogurt and enjoy, ad nauseum. Add fresh fruit just before you eat it, for maximum freshness, and rejoice that you'll never have to buy yogurt at the store again.

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The Contender

We watched the movie "The Contender (2000, USA)" tonight. Gee! I do not want to have anything to do with politician. They are liar, liar, and liar. No matter which side they are, no matter who they are.

The Contender (2000) is a political thriller starring Gary Oldman, Joan Allen, Jeff Bridges and Christian Slater. The film was directed by Rod Lurie and focuses on a U.S. Democratic President (played by Bridges) and the events surrounding his appointment of a new Vice President (Allen).


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Mid Jan 2009 papers

Some interested papers.

Begging bowls: The biotech sector needs government support, not blank checks, Nature Biotech 27(1):1 (January 2009).

Biotech sector ponders potential 'bloodbath', Peter Mitchell, Nature Biotech 27(1):3-5 (January 2009).

Plant genomics land big prizes, Emily Waltz, Nature Biotech 27(1):5 (January 2009).

Biotech's green gold? Emily Waltz, Nature Biotech 27(1):15-18 (January 2009).
Algae have long been touted as a rich and ubiquitous source of renewable fuel but thus far have failed to be economically competitive with other sources of energy. Could new advances change that? Emily Waltz investigates.

The E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes, AtUBC1 and AtUBC2, play redundant roles and are involved in activation of FLC expression and repression of flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana, Lin Xu, Rozenn Ménard, Alexandre Berr, Jörg Fuchs, Valérie Cognat, Denise Meyer, Wen-Hui Shen, The Plant Journal 57(2):279-288 (2009).

CLIMATE CHANGE: Higher Temperatures Seen Reducing Global Harvests, Science 323(5911):193 (January 2009).
In a paper appearing on page 240 of this week's issue of Science, researchers apply 23 global climate models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to estimate end-of-century temperatures. Their conclusions with regard to agriculture are sobering.

DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY: Histone Cross-Talk in Stem Cells, Edwin Smith and Ali Shilatifard, Science 323(5911):221-222 (January 2009).
Summary: Specificity of gene regulation in stem cells may occur at the level of ubiquitin signaling to chromatin.

Historical Warnings of Future Food Insecurity with Unprecedented Seasonal Heat, David. S. Battisti and Rosamond L. Naylor, Science 323(5911):240-244 (January 2009).
By analogy with past examples, higher growing season temperatures and extreme heat will cause major disruptions to global agriculture.

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Wash and Wax

After driving several hundreds Km and camping in National parks, our baby Colt was covered with many dead bugs, dirt, and tree tars. It is time to clean it up.

We bought 6 pieces of microfiber towels in K-Mart on Jan 4, 2009, 1 bottle of Polyglaz Bug & Tar Remover and 1 bottle of Turtlemax Polish Ice in Jan 8, 2009 evening in Super Cheap Auto. We were lazy on Saturday and did not do anything. The temperature and weather was nice yesterday (Jan 11, 2009), so we decided to return the beauty to our Colt.

We used dish detergent to wash several times to remove most dirt and dead bugs, but detergent is useless to those tars. We used dry towel to dry up the surface and then it is time with Bug & Tar Remover. Most small tars are easy, they only required to apply it once or twice. But there was one spot was really big, it was about 3 cm diameter and 1 - 2 mm thick. Sigh! We have spent about 40 - 60 minutes and applied about 40 - 50 times. Finally it was removed, but we could see that there is some marks left on the surface which suggested that this tar spot might come from 2 drops from the tree at that night. My husband polished the car twice while I was struggle with that huge tree tar. After 3 hours hard working, our Colt is shinning now.

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Brown Rice

We used to mix white rice and brown rice in 1:1 ratio. The higher fiber content in brown rice make us excrete smoothly. We did not find >2 kg brown rice sold in Australia supermarket, so we ate straight white rice for a while.

The bad thing is that we start to have some excretion problem recently. We decided to buy 2 bags of 1.5 kg brown rice and mix with 5-7 kg white rice in last weekend. After several meals with white+brown rices, my excretion problem is gone today.

======================
Brown rice (or "hulled rice") is unmilled or partly milled rice, a kind of whole grain. A natural grain that remains unbleached. It has a mild nutty flavor, is chewier than white rice and becomes rancid more quickly, but is far more nutritious. Any rice, including sticky rice, long-grain rice, or short-grain rice, may be eaten as brown rice.


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2007 Tourist hot spots for Brits

Ha! It looks like that British love the landscape of Australia. There are 3 must-see sights in top 10.

Brits left cold by top tourist hot spots, 16 August 2007 by Easier.com

The Eiffel Tower and Stonehenge are the tourist 'hotspots' that leave the most Brits cold, according to research by Virgin Travel Insurance that reveals the most disappointing sights at home and abroad.

Virgin Travel Insurance’s ten most disappointing sights

Overseas
1. The Eiffel Tower, UK
2. The Louvre (Mona Lisa), France
3. Times Square, USA
4. Las Ramblas, Spain
5. Statue of Liberty, USA
6. Spanish Steps, Rome
7. The White House, USA
8. The Pyramids, Egypt
9. The Brandenburg Gate
10. The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy

UK
1. Stonehenge
2. Angel of the North
3. Blackpool Tower
4. Lands’ End
5. Princess Diana Memorial Fountain
6. The London Eye
7. Brighton Pier
8. Buckingham Palace
9. White Cliffs of Dover
10. Big Ben

Virgin Travel Insurance’s top ten must-see sights

Overseas
1. The Treasury at Petra, Jordan
2. The Grand Canal, Venice, Italy
3. The Masai Mara, Kenya
4. Sydney Harbour Bridge, Australia
5. Taroko Gorge, Taiwan
6. Kings Canyon, Northern Territory, Australia
7. Cappadoccia caves, Turkey
8. Lake Titicaca, Peru and Bolivia
9. Cable Beach, Broome, Western Australia
10. Jungfraujoch, Switzerland

UK
1. Alnwick Castle, Northumberland
2. Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, County Antrim
3. The Royal Crescent, Bath
4. Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Southwark, London
5. The Backs, Cambridge
6. Holkham Bay, Norfolk
7. Lyme Regis and the Jurassic Coast
8. Tate St Ives
9. Isle of Skye, Scotland
10. The Eden Project

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Junk Food

I told my husband that I miss the life in the US. What do I miss most?

The convenient supermarket and department stores: Many of them are opened 16-24 hours per day. Goods are cheaper and more brands/varieties.

The better bank and credit card company: No annual fee but with more benefits and rebate program for credit card. Less or no fee but with more services provided by bank.

The better food: Many varieties of delicious and cheaper ice cream, especially the chocolate and coffee taste. Cheaper Coca Cola which is necessary soft drink for baked chicken or fried potato chip. Gee! I think that I miss those junk food in US very much.

I think the most unbearable thing in here is the poor quality and variety of ice cream. Basically, there are only plain vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate ice cream in the Australia supermarket. You can find more than 40 different taste in US supermarket, such as Edy's, Blue Bunny, American Choice, Turkey Hill, Greens, ... Ice cream and chocolate are my favorites. I remember I was vegetarian for several years due to animal rights. I did not eat any animal product in that time including milk and egg. The only thing that I could not resist in that time was ice cream.

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Early Jan 2009 papers

Here is some interest papers.

Circadian Clock Proteins LHY and CCA1 Regulate SVP Protein Accumulation to
Control Flowering in Arabidopsis, Sumire Fujiwara, Atsushi Oda, Riichiro Yoshida, Kanae Niinuma, Kana Miyata, Yusuke Tomozoe, Takeomi Tajima, Mayu Nakagawa, Kounosuke Hayashi, George Coupland, and Tsuyoshi Mizoguchi, Plant Cell 20:2960-2971 (2008).
The authors show that LHY and CCA1 control flowering time in continuous light in a GIGANTEA-CONSTANS independent manner. This involves interactions with the clock gene ELF3 and two MADS box proteins, SHORT VEGETATIVE PHASE and FLOWERING LOCUS C, which together act to coordinate the circadian clock and flowering time in Arabidopsis.

Special Feature: Method of the Year: Method of the Year 2008, Nature Methods 6(1):1 (January 2009).
With its tremendous potential for understanding cellular biology now poised to become a reality, super-resolution fluorescence microscopy is our choice for Method of the Year.

Maturing interactions, Nature Methods 6(1):2 (January 2009).
The maturation of large-scale protein-protein interaction methodologies calls for improved methods to assess performance and data quality.

Targeted translational profiling, Nicole Rusk, Nature Methods 6(1):7 (January 2009).
Tagging ribosomes in a cell type–specific way allows the isolation of mRNAs that are being translated in these cells.

Quantitative mass spectrometry, Allison Doerr, Nature Methods 6(1):34 (January 2009).
Quantitative mass spectrometry–based proteomics is now being applied on a large scale to address interesting biological questions.

High-throughput screening: designer screens, Nathan Blow, ature Methods 6(1):105 - 108 (January 2009).
Some researchers say an eighty-year-old statistical method can make setting up and analyzing high-throughput screens and large-scale experiments faster and more efficient. So why are more biologists not flocking to use this tool?

CORAL REEFS: Calcification Rates Drop in Australian Reefs, Elizabeth Pennisi, Science 323(5910):27 (2 January 2009).
A large-scale study in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, reported on page 116 (Declining Coral Calcification on the Great Barrier Reef, Glenn De'ath, Janice M. Lough, and Katharina E. Fabricius, Science 323(5910):116) of this week's issue of Science, has revealed that the rate at which corals absorb calcium from seawater to calcify their hard skeletons has declined precipitously in the past 20 years, slowing coral growth.

Coastal eutrophication: Whether N and/or P should be abated depends on the dynamic mass balance, Andreas C. Bryhn1 and Lars Håkanson, PNAS 106(1):E3 (January 6, 2009).
Whether nitrogen (N) and/or phosphorus (P) should be abated to counteract coastal eutrophication remains controversial. System-wide lake experiments presented in PNAS have shown that P control was essential for dampening algal blooms whereas N control only strengthened the competitive advantage of cyanobacteria and increased fixation of dissolved N2 from the atmosphere.

Reply to Bryhn and Håkanson: Models for the Baltic agree with our experiments and observations in lakes, D. W. Schindlera,1 and R. E. Heckyb, PNAS 106(1):E4 (January 6, 2009).
As Bryhn and Håkanson state (1), their mass-balance modeling yields results that agree with our observations (2) based on a long-term lake experiment and a recovery in part of the Baltic resulting from phosphorus control (3). Other recent papers (4) also support our conclusion that phosphorus control deserves a second look in coastal systems, at least those containing brackish water. As the authors (1) point out, control of nitrogen in runoff could be costly enough to cripple agriculture in some areas. We agree with them that until ecosystem-scale evidence is obtained, "N abatement is a very expensive shot in the dark that may favor cyanobacteria instead of the water quality."

Increasing Crop Productivity to Meet Global Needs for Feed, Food, and Fuel, Michael D. Edgerton, Plant Physiol. 149:7-13 (2009).

Translational Biology: From Arabidopsis Flowers to Grass Inflorescence Architecture, Beth E. Thompson and Sarah Hake, Plant Physiol. 149:38-45 (2009).

Hormonal Regulation of Branching in Grasses, Paula McSteen, Plant Physiol. 149:46-55 (2009).

Mechanisms of Floral Induction in Grasses: Something Borrowed, Something New, Joseph Colasanti and Viktoriya Coneva, Plant Physiol. 149:56-62 (2009).

Poaceae Genomes: Going from Unattainable to Becoming a Model Clade for Comparative Plant Genomics, C. Robin Buell, Plant Physiol. 149:111-116 (2009).

Synergy of Two Reference Genomes for the Grass Family, Joachim Messing, Plant Physiol. 149:117-124 (2009).

Comparative Genomics of Grasses Promises a Bountiful Harvest, Andrew H. Paterson, John E. Bowers, Frank A. Feltus, Haibao Tang, Lifeng Lin, and Xiyin Wang, Plant Physiol. 149:125-131 (2009).

Genomic and Genetic Database Resources for the Grasses, Kevin L. Childs, Plant Physiol. 149:132-136 (2009).

Foxtail Millet: A Sequence-Driven Grass Model System, Andrew N. Doust, Elizabeth A. Kellogg, Katrien M. Devos, and Jeffrey L. Bennetzen, Plant Physiol. 149:137-141 (2009).

Cereal Germplasm Resources, Martin M. Sachs, Plant Physiol. 149:148-151 (2009).

Resources for Virus-Induced Gene Silencing in the Grasses, Steven R. Scofield and Richard S. Nelson, Plant Physiol. 149:152-157 (2009).

GRASSIUS: A Platform for Comparative Regulatory Genomics across the Grasses, Alper Yilmaz, Milton Y. Nishiyama, Jr., Bernardo Garcia Fuentes, Glaucia Mendes Souza, Daniel Janies, John Gray, and Erich Grotewold, Plant Physiol. 149:171-180 (2009).

Genome-Wide Analysis of MIKCC-Type MADS Box Genes in Grapevine, Jose Diaz-Riquelme, Diego Lijavetzky, Jose M. Martinez-Zapater, and Maria Jose Carmona, Plant Physiol. 149:354-369 (2009).

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Happy New Year!!

Countdown with my husband, watch the fireworks in Sydney on TV.

Happy New Year to everyone.

May God bless you.

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