Mosquito genetic complexity may take a bite out of efforts to control malaria

Apr. 1, 2013 ? A surprising research discovery in mosquitoes could affect future prospects for malaria control. A team of scientists from West Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom found that the mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, which was thought to be splitting into two completely new species, may actually have a more complex range of forms due to frequent inter-mating. The resulting hybrids may have implications for insecticide resistance and malaria parasite infectivity.

The study published in the April 2013 issue of the journal Genetics, documents substantial amounts of hybridization among two separate mosquito types in a large area spanning four countries in sub-Saharan western Africa.

"Our research shows that Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes, which are responsible for most cases of malaria in Africa, are more genetically complex than we thought due to interbreeding," said David J. Conway, Ph.D., one of the researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom, and the Medical Research Council Unit in The Gambia. "Mosquitoes are very good at evolving quickly and this information will help us use existing control methods appropriately and consider possible new tools that will further malaria control efforts in Africa."

The scientists collected mosquitoes from houses located within 100 kilometers of the Atlantic coast in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, and Republic of Guinea. They characterized the mosquitoes' DNA to identify the proportions of each major type, "M," "S," and hybrid "M/S" forms. Pools of each of the forms of mosquitoes from representative sites were analyzed for genome-wide genetic profiles revealing that the genomes, which are known to be different between the forms, are not different in these areas. That is, the genetic variation that exists is shared between the forms, as if they were a single species.

"Mosquito-borne illnesses can be a death sentence in developing nations," said Mark Johnston, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Genetics. "It is crucial that we understand the genetic architecture of mosquito populations so we can develop ways to safeguard people from malaria. This research reveals some of the difficulty of eradicating this disease."

The genome-wide SNP array was supported by joint funding from several sources including Burroughs Wellcome Fund Request 1008238, the Broad Institute Director's Fund, Harvard School of Public Health Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases under direction of D.F. Wirth, Wellcome Trust Programme Grant 077229/Z/05/Z to F.C. Kafatos and G.K. Christophides, and the DeLuca Professorship from Boston College to MATM. This work was enabled by funding from the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and FNIH/Gates Grand Challenges in Global Health to the MRC Unit in The Gambia.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Genetics Society of America, via Newswise.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. D. C. Nwakanma, D. E. Neafsey, M. Jawara, M. Adiamoh, E. Lund, A. Rodrigues, K. M. Loua, L. Konate, N. Sy, I. Dia, T. S. Awolola, M. A. T. Muskavitch, D. J. Conway. Breakdown in the Process of Incipient Speciation in Anopheles gambiae. Genetics, 2013; DOI: 10.1534/genetics.112.148718

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/health_medicine/genes/~3/sZHdWD7jad8/130401100704.htm

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Exxon cleans up Arkansas oil spill; Keystone plan assailed

By Kristen Hays and Matthew Robinson

(Reuters) - Exxon Mobil on Sunday continued cleanup of a pipeline spill that spewed thousands of barrels of heavy Canadian crude in Arkansas as opponents of oil sands development latched on to the incident to attack plans to build the Keystone XL line.

Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers said on Sunday that crews had yet to excavate the area around the pipeline breach, a needed step before the company can estimate how long repairs will take and when the line might restart.

"I can't speculate on when it will happen," Jeffers said. "Excavation is necessary as part of an investigation to determine the cause of the incident."

Exxon's Pegasus pipeline, which can carry more than 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from Patoka, Illinois to Nederland, Texas, was shut after the leak was discovered late Friday afternoon in a subdivision near the town of Mayflower. The leak forced the evacuation of 22 homes.

Exxon also had no specific estimate of how much crude oil had spilled, but the company said 12,000 barrels of oil and water had been recovered - up from 4,500 barrels on Saturday. The company did not say how much of the total was oil and how much was water.

Allen Dodson, Faulkner County judge who is the top executive for the county where the spill occurred, told Reuters in an interview on Sunday that the smell of crude was less potent on Sunday as cleanup efforts continued, saying it was weaker than the smell of fresh asphalt laid on a road.

"The freestanding oil on the street has been removed. It's still damp with oil, it's tacky, like it is before we do an asphalt overlay," he said.

Exxon said it staged the response to handle 10,000 barrels of oil "to ensure adequate resources are in place."

Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) also were on site to investigate the spill.

Fifteen vacuum trucks remained on the scene for cleanup, and 33 storage tanks were deployed to temporarily store the oil.

The pipeline was carrying Canadian Wabasca Heavy crude at the time of the leak. An oil spill of more than 1,000 barrels into a Wisconsin field from an Enbridge Inc pipeline last summer kept that line shuttered for around 11 days.

The 848-mile pipeline used to transport crude oil from Texas to Illinois. In 2006 Exxon reversed it to move crude from Illinois to Texas in response to growing Canadian oil production and the ability of U.S. Gulf Coast refineries to process heavy crude.

The Arkansas spill drew fast reaction from opponents of the 800,000 bpd Keystone XL pipeline, which also would carry heavy crude from Canada's tar sands to the Gulf Coast refining hub.

Environmentalists have expressed concerns about the impact of developing the oil sands and say the crude is more corrosive to pipelines than conventional oil. On Wednesday, a train carrying Canadian crude derailed in Minnesota, spilling 15,000 gallons of oil.

"Whether it's the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, or ... (the) mess in Arkansas, Americans are realizing that transporting large amounts of this corrosive and polluting fuel is a bad deal for American taxpayers and for our environment," said Representative Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat.

Supporters of Keystone XL and oil sands development say the vast Canadian reserves can help drive down fuel costs in the United States. A report from the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, put together by oil and gas consultancy Penspen, argued diluted bitumen is no more corrosive than other heavy crude.

A year ago Exxon won a court appeal to charge market rates on the Pegasus line, or rates that are not capped and that can change along with market conditions without prior approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

That decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. said the Pegasus pipeline is now the "primary avenue" to move Canadian crude oil to the Gulf Coast. The ruling also said Exxon moves about 66,000 barrels per day on the line.

Last week PHMSA proposed that Exxon pay a $1.7 million fine over pipeline safety violations stemming from a July 2011 oil spill from its Silvertip pipeline in the Yellowstone River. The line, which carries 40,000 barrels per day in Montana, leaked about 1,500 barrels of crude after heavy flooding in the area.

Exxon has 30 days from the March 25 order to contest those violations.

According to PHMSA, the U.S. has 2.3 million miles of pipelines.

CLEANUP

Exxon said that by 3 a.m. Saturday there was no additional oil spilling from the pipeline and that trucks had been brought in to assist with the cleanup. Images from local media showed crude oil snaking along a suburban street and spewed across lawns.

Twenty-two homes in the affected subdivision remained evacuated on Sunday, though Mayflower police were providing escorts for residents to temporarily return to retrieve personal items.

Jeffers said a couple of homes "appear to have small amounts of oil on their foundations," but he had no information on damage estimates or claims. Exxon had established a claims hotline for affected residents and said about 50 claims had been made so far.

Dodson said oil that made it to the street went into storm drains that eventually lead to a cove connected to nearby Lake Conway, known as a fishing lake stocked with bass, catfish, bream and crappie.

He said local responders that included firemen, city employees, county road crews, police quickly built dikes of dirt and rock to block culverts along that path that stopped crude from fouling the lake.

"We were just in the nick of time," he said.

Exxon later deployed 3,600 feet of boom near the lake as a precaution.

Dodson said crude also got into several homeowners' yards, which will take longer to clean up.

"We've just gotten used to having pipelines go through cities and counties, and you hope something like this doesn't happen. My heart goes out to all of the people personally impacted," Dodson said.

(Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Bernard Orr, and Chris Reese)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exxon-shuts-oil-pipeline-major-pipeline-spill-arkansas-010122537--finance.html

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Are There Really Two Republican Parties? And If So, Why? (Powerlineblog)

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Italy's president declines to resign, will stay to deal with crisis

By Giselda Vagnoni

ROME (Reuters) - Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Saturday ruled out standing down early to make way for new parliamentary elections, following the failure of attempts to form a government this week.

Napolitano, whose term ends on May 15, spoke after news reports suggested he might resign to get around constitutional provisions which prevent a president dissolving parliament and calling elections in the final months of his mandate.

The 87-year-old told reporters he would continue his efforts to break the deadlock since inconclusive elections last month that left no group able to form a government.

"I will continue until the last day of my mandate to do as my sense of national responsibility suggests, without hiding from the country the difficulties that I am still facing," he told reporters at his Quirinale palace.

He said he would ask two small groups of experts to formulate proposals for institutional and social and economic reforms that could be supported by all political parties.

But he acknowledged that he had limited scope to force the divided parties to find a way out of political situation that he said was "frozen between irreconcilable positions".

Napolitano met leaders of the main parties on Friday to try to find a way out of the stalemate, which has created deep uncertainty just as the Cyprus banking crisis has revived fears about the stability of the euro zone.

However with all of the three main groups in parliament clinging to entrenched positions that have prevented a majority being formed in parliament, hopes of a solution that would prevent the need to go back to the polls have faded.

Center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani, whose party controls the lower house but does not have a majority in the Senate, failed to win enough support to form a government from any of the other parties during a week of talks.

He rejected demands by center-right leader Silvio Berlusconi for a cross-party coalition deal that would give the scandal-plagued former prime minister a share in power and the right to decide Napolitano's successor.

Both Berlusconi's group and the populist 5-Star Movement led by ex-comic Beppe Grillo have also ruled out a new technocrat government like the one led by outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti, blocking what appears to be the only other option.

IRRECONCILABLE

With investors mindful of the 2011 debt crisis that brought down Berlusconi's last government, the gridlock has fed worries about Italy's ability to confront an economic crisis that has fuelled rising social tensions and disillusion with its political class.

Napolitano's pledge to stay on appears to rule out the threat of a power vacuum with weeks of uncertainty until new elections, which would have to be called within 70 days of parliament being dissolved.

He stressed that Prime Minister Mario Monti retained full authority at the head of a caretaker administration until a new government can be formed.

Whether or not that can happen, parliament will soon have to begin preparations to vote for a new president either to oversee the first steps of a new government or early elections.

The election of the head of state, by a joint sitting of parliament and representatives from the regions, is likely to cause another bitter fight between the three main blocs which have become increasingly hostile to each other since the election.

A person close to the situation told Reuters on Saturday that Napolitano had considered resigning and the apparently coordinated leak of his thinking to newspapers may have been a move to increase pressure on the parties to secure a deal.

With bond markets closed for the Easter break, investors have been left on the sidelines but a poorly received auction of mid- and long-term debt last week underlined the danger if the crisis drags on.

Italy has been in deep recession for more than a year, with record unemployment, especially among the young and a 2-trillion-euro ($2.6-trillion) public debt that is dangerously exposed to swings on international bond markets.

Economy Minister Vittorio Grilli, responding to questions about market rumors of a ratings downgrade, told reporters on Thursday he had no knowledge of any imminent decision by Moody's to cut Italy's sovereign debt rating.

Moody's already rates Italy only two notches above "junk" grade, partly due to the uncertain political outlook.

(Writing by James Mackenzie; editing by Barry Moody)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italy-president-could-resign-allow-election-source-083108238--business.html

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Central African Republic leader takes five ministries in caretaker government

Attention, unemployed copyeditors: Macy's may soon have a job opening for you. The department store giant mailed a catalog to customers earlier this month which mistakenly offered a $1,500 sterling silver and 14-karat gold necklace for just $47. The heading: "SUPER BUY." The actual sale price was supposed to be $479, but Macy's printed the [...]

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/central-african-republic-leader-takes-five-ministries-caretaker-191216514.html

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Kenya mostly calm after vote ruling; minor clashes in west

By Edmund Blair and Hezron Ochiel

NAIROBI/KISUMU, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenyan police clashed on Sunday with a few dozen protesters angry at a court's confirmation of Uhuru Kenyatta as president-elect, but the unrest was minor compared with the nationwide bloodshed after the last disputed election.

There was little sign of violence beyond Kisumu, a city in the west of Kenya where there is strong backing for Prime Minister Raila Odinga, loser in the presidential election. Kisumu and other regions were devastated by deadly riots after the vote in 2007.

Even in Kisumu, where two people were killed by gunfire and shops were looted on Saturday after the Supreme Court declared Kenyatta had won in a fair race, most areas had cooled down on Sunday and the latest trouble was limited to the outskirts.

Many Kenyans had said they were determined to avoid a repeat of the violence five years ago that killed more than 1,200 people and hammered east Africa's biggest economy.

Kenyans said the calmer atmosphere this time was in part because of far greater trust in the reformed judiciary that ruled on the disputed March 4 vote, and also because Odinga was swift to fully accept the verdict despite his disappointment.

"Our leader has conceded defeat, who are we to take to the streets?" said Elijah Onyango, 27, delivery man in Kisumu.

"Life has to continue with or without Raila. We are just poor citizens who must struggle to put food on the table."

The peaceful voting and an orderly legal challenge has helped restore Kenya's image as one of Africa's most stable democracies. Western states were anxious that cool heads prevail in their ally in the regional fight against militant Islam.

As in past ballots, tribal loyalties tended to trump political ideology at the ballot box. Odinga, a Luo, and Kenyatta, from the largest Kikuyu tribe, relied heavily on their ethnic supporters. But tensions between rival groups has not so far boiled over in the way it did after the 2007 vote.

THE HAGUE DETERRENT

Kenyatta's indictment in the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, based on charges he helped organize violent gangs after the last election, may have swollen the turnout for him and running mate William Ruto, also charged.

"It certainly helped Kenyatta and Ruto," said one European diplomat in Nairobi, but added: "The presence of the court is major deterrent to any politician who otherwise may have been tempted to hire some youths to get into a big fight."

That was echoed by Boniface Odhiambo, a 33-year-old who sells mattresses in Kisumu. "Politicians have realized that inciting people to violence will land them in The Hague and nobody wants to go there," he said.

Kenyatta and Ruto have both denied the charges and promised to clear their names.

Western states have said the charges will complicate relations because of their policy of having only "essential contacts" with indictees.

But diplomats said there could be latitude in how to define "essential contacts" if Kenyatta and his deputy continued to cooperate with the court. Western nations, including the United States, congratulated him on his victory.

The White House welcomed Kenya's "commitment to uphold its international obligations, including those with respect to international justice", a reference to comments along those lines made by Kenyatta in his victory speech on March 9.

JUSTICE

The unrest in Kisumu appeared to reflect spontaneous anger among Odinga supporters, worried they might be marginalized by a Kenyatta government. Traditionally, Kenyans expect elected rulers to put their own ethnic group first.

"They have stolen our votes and are now killing us," shouted one protester in Sunday's clashes. "We want justice for our leader. The courts were corrupted to rule in their favor."

Police fired tear gas at dozens of stone-throwing youths in a Kisumu suburb. But other areas of the city had largely calmed down.

Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's founding president and whose family controls a vast business empire, promised in a televised address after the ruling to work for all Kenyans, including those who challenged the validity of his election.

"I want to assure Kenyans that our government will be as inclusive as possible and will reflect the face of our great country," he told the nation.

Many Kenyans in places that were flashpoints five years ago, such as Kibera slum in Nairobi, or other Odinga strongholds such as Mombasa, said they wanted to move on.

"People were tired. Life had already gone back to normal since the election," said Brian Kiogora, 32, a restaurant owner in Mombasa. "Emotions were much lower, so violence was most unlikely, even with the outcome of the petition."

(Additional reporting by Joseph Akwiri in Mombasa; writing by Edmund Blair; editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kenya-mostly-calm-vote-ruling-minor-clashes-west-102824031.html

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Scientists Scooped Out Virus Guts to Make a Sterile, Zombified Vaccine

Vaccines beef up your immune system by giving it a little taste of a weak—but still alive—version of diseases. Now researchers in the UK have developed an alternative approach: rip out a virus's insides and let your body crush its hollow husk. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/xPixb_YyLrU/scientists-scooped-out-virus-guts-to-make-a-sterile-zombified-vaccine

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