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Category Archives: Transhuman News

DNA link in 2002 sex attack on girl

Posted: February 17, 2014 at 11:44 am

A 32-year-old man is on trial in Invercargill after DNA linked him to an alleged burglary and indecent assault on a 7-year-old girl eight years after the incident.

Hayden John Dallas Matchett has pleaded not guilty to indecently assaulting a girl aged under 12 and burglary of the house where the incident occurred at Te Anau on March 8, 2002.

The trial, in the Invercargill District Court, began yesterday before Judge Michael Turner, with an opening address from Crown solicitor Mary-Jane Thomas.

Thomas told the court Matchett was questioned by police after DNA from a baseball cap left at the crime scene matched his eight years after the incident.

About 3.40am on March 8, 2002, the complainant, who was staying at a friend's house, was asleep in bed when a man entered the house through a closed laundry door.

The man went into the bedroom where the girl was sleeping, knelt down beside the bed and indecently assaulted her, Thomas said.

The girl, who is now a young woman, woke up and told him to go away and within a short time he left. No-one other than the 7-year-old had seen the man, she said.

Police were contacted and in the bedroom they found a blue Nike cap, she said.

The cap was examined at the time by ESR for DNA and a blood stain and cellular material was found. There was no DNA match in the system, she said.

Police conducted a widespread inquiry after the girl gave them a description of a man with spiky blonde hair, but no arrest was made, she said.

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DNA link in 2002 sex attack on girl

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No DNA link in Mellory murder

Posted: at 11:44 am

Forensic scientists were unable to find a DNA link between Mauha Fawcett and the woman he is alleged to have killed, a court has heard.

Police have accused the 26-year-old of joining in with the violent murder of Christchurch prostitute Mellory Manning at a Mongrel Mob gang house on December 18, 2008.

Ms Manning's badly beaten body was found floating in the Avon River early the next morning and was subject to intense forensic examination.

Giving evidence at Fawcett's trial in the Christchurch High Court this morning, forensic scientist Jayshree Patel said four DNA profiles were found on or about Ms Manning's body.

Three profiles were found in a swab of Ms Manning's genitals; the first linked to Ms Manning, the second an unidentified man dubbed 'Male B', while the third was too weak to determine a gender.

DNA samples taken from underneath her fingernails revealed a fourth DNA profile, matching a client who had used Ms Manning's services the night before.

However, Ms Patel went on to confirm that none of the DNA profiles matched Fawcett, who was categorised as 'Male Z'. His DNA was also not found at alleged scene of the murder on Galbraith Ave. Scientists have been unable to determine who the 'Male B' profile belongs to, whilepolice have not ruled out the possibility that Ms Manning had sex with an unregistered client on the night of her murder.

Further testing found Ms Manning's DNA on a knife off Dallington Tce, which had been located upstream from where her body was discovered.

Ms Patel said the DNA profile, taken from the inside handle of the weapon, was 110 times more likely to have come from Ms Manning than anyone else.

While she could not confirm how the DNA was transferred, she said she could not rule out the possibility the knife came into contact with Ms Manning's bloodstained body.

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No DNA link in Mellory murder

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Finding Hope in Whole Genome Sequencing: Retta Beery at TEDxYouth@SanDiego 2013 – Video

Posted: at 11:44 am

Finding Hope in Whole Genome Sequencing: Retta Beery at TEDxYouth@SanDiego 2013
Retta Beery #39;s twins, Noah and Alexis, were born with a neurologic disorder. Through research and advocacy, Retta discovered that her twins were misdiagnosed ...

By: TEDxYouth

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Oxford Nanopore unveils portable genome sequencer MinION

Posted: at 11:44 am

2 hours ago by Bob Yirka This diagram shows a protein nanopore set in an electrically resistant membrane bilayer. An ionic current is passed through the nanopore by setting a voltage across this membrane. Credit: Oxford Nanopore Technologies

(Phys.org) U.K. based Oxford Nanopore Technologies has made good on a promise made two years ago to produce an inexpensive genome sequencer that is based on nanopore technology. David Jaffe, with the Broad Institute reported to an audience at the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology meeting in Florida last week that he has been asked by Oxford Nanopore to try out the new the device, called the MinION, and has found it to be promising.

Oxford Nanopore Technologies created a stir in the biological sciences world in 2012 when representatives for the company announced that its research team had successfully created a sequencing device based on nanopore technology and that an inexpensive prototype would be delivered to researchers outside the company soon thereafter. The company apparently ran into difficulty ramping up its pore technology and had to find some alternative materialsthus the two year delay.

Nanopore sequencing is where single strands of DNA are pulled through a poreas each base pair passes through the pore its conductivity is measuredinformation that can be used for identification by a computer. The advantage of this approach is that at least in principle, any strand length can be sequenced.

The MinION isn't for sale yetat this time the company is making prototypes available to a select few notables in the genome sequencing fieldeach will have to pony up $1000 as a down-payment for the honor. The device plugs into a port on a computer, which does the processing. Along with the device, which has been compared to the size of a pack of gum, Oxford Nanopore Technologies will send along DNA samples that researchers can use to learn how to use the new deviceafter that, they can sequence anything they want. In testing strands of two types of bacterial DNA sent to him, Jaffe reports having mixed results long stretches of data were obtained correctly in some cases, but in others there were some errors. In order to assemble the entire genome of a type of bacteria, for example, he had to also use a sequencing device made by another company. He noted that he is optimistic about the device, however, as reps from Oxford Nanopore have assured him that error rates can be reduced using certain techniques even as improvements to the device are being worked out back at the lab.

If the error rates using the MinION can be reduced to a practical level, the device could mark a turning point in gemone sequencing as it would be a device that could be carried and used for fieldwork. And though the cost of such a device has not been announced, Oxford Nanopore has repeatedly used terms such as inexpensive and affordable to describe it, indicating it will cost much less than other sequencing devices currently on the marker, once it's ready for sale.

Explore further: The gene sequencing that everyone can afford in future

More information: http://www.nanoporetech.com

2014 Phys.org

(PhysOrg.com) -- Oxford University spinoff company, Oxford Nonopore has announced at this years Advances in Genome Biology and Technology conference in Florida, two new machines for sequencing genes. ...

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Oxford Nanopore unveils portable genome sequencer MinION

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Growing inequalities will undo significant health gains – UN Report

Posted: at 11:43 am

General News of Sunday, 16 February 2014

Source: GNA

The United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Beyond 2014 Report says growing inequalities will undo significant gains in health and longevity made over the past 20 years.

The Report highlights the fact that development gains from the past 20 years could be sustained, unless governments tackled the inequalities that hurt the poorest and most marginalized.

It noted that achievements over the ensuing 20 years had been remarkable, including gains in womens equality, population health and life expectancy, educational attainment, and human rights protection systems, with an estimated one billion people moving out of extreme poverty.

The Report said, fears of population growth that were already abating in 1994, had continued to ease, and the expansion of human capability and opportunity, especially for women, which had led to economic development, had been accompanied by the continued decline in the population growth rate from 1.52 per cent per year in 1990-1995 to 1.15 in 2010-2015.

The ICPD Beyond 2014 Global Report is the culmination of a landmark UN review of progress, gaps, challenges and emerging issues in relation to the ICPD Programme of Action.

It gathers data from 176 member states, alongside inputs from civil society and comprehensive academic research.

To sustain these gains, the Report, which was launched in New York by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, argues that governments must pass and enforce laws to protect the poorest and most marginalized, including adolescent girls and women affected by violence as well as rural populations.

The document also underlines that the number of people living in extreme poverty in developing countries has fallen dramatically from 47 per cent in 1990 to 22 per cent in 2010, but many of the estimated one billion people living in the 50-60 poorest countries would stagnate as the rest of the world gets richer.

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Growing inequalities will undo significant health gains - UN Report

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Cures For Eczema – And Finding Yours – Video

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Cures For Eczema - And Finding Yours
Eczema and What You Need to Know About It http://www.VanishEczema.net The term Eczema is a medical term which is commonly used to describe a skin condition. In most cases, this skin condition...

By: najtinajtkeepur buttholetight

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Cures For Eczema - And Finding Yours - Video