Feliz Natal!

Themes n Wallpapers

These are from the "Wizards of the Coast" website:

Red Dragon Wallpaper 1

Red Dragon Wallpaper 2


Click this picture for 3 windows themes.



Multi-Dragon Wallpaper



Black dragon Wallpaper



Dragon Wallpaper

Good to be back... =D

The Dog and Its Genome

This week marks the dog days of science, when the publication of a new book, The Dog and Its Genome, coincides with a series of dog genome articles in Genome Research and a high-quality draft sequence of the dog genome in Nature.

"It’s an exciting time to be working on the dog genome," said Ewen Kirkness, of The Institute for Genomic Research, via e-mail.

"Canine genetics has entered a period of unprecedented growth and discovery," as Elaine Ostrander and Francis Galibert wrote in their foreword to The Dog and Its Genome. "The dog is now set to take its rightful place as a valued system for genetic studies along with the mouse, rat, and several insect species."

Gordon Lark's research uncovers the power of a single region of a chromosome to change several aspects of skeletal shape; Ewen Kirkness and Wei Wang found a type of variation that may be responsible for differences between breeds; and Chris Ponting and Caleb Webber identified genetic "hot spots" where chromosomes are likely to break. All of these were observed in dogs, but discoveries in our canine friends may have crucial implications for understanding the human genome.

Lark, of the University of Utah, was bribed into researching dog genetics. He had previously studied quantitative genetics in soy beans and only briefly thought about extending his results to the animal kingdom. Then, a Portuguese Water Dog breeder gave him a free dog, and dug up genealogical information on another 5,000, with the hope that he'd study dog genetics. It worked.

The principal investigator in two studies published in Genome Research, Lark exclusively studies Portuguese Water Dogs. He said they make for good subjects because the entire breed descends from a mere 30 ancestors.

In both of his studies, Lark compared DNA and skeletal structure to determine correspondences between regions of the genome and aspects of the skeleton. He then observed how changes in these regions alter a dog's shape and size.

The first paper concerns why female dogs are smaller than males. Through his comparison of genes and phenotype, Lark concluded that all dogs tend to get larger, but in females this process is inhibited. In males, the inhibition is, itself, inhibited, so males grow more than females.

In the second paper, Lark details 40 markers that are responsible for determining skeletal size. From this work, he concluded that single markers control multiple, related skeletal traits.

"It turns out that the shape of the head and the shape of the limb bones are connected by a single region of the chromosome, and this makes sort of functional sense," Lark said, noting that a fast dog, such as a greyhound, will want to have a small head, pointy nose and long legs, whereas a strong dog, such as a pit bull, will want to have a massive jaw and short, thick legs.

Lark said the greatest benefit of his technique lies in its medical applications. Dogs suffer from many diseases common to humans, including diabetes, hemophilia and autoimmune diseases. If we can take quantitative measurements that correspond to these diseases and compare those to genetic markers, we can find the genetic roots of the disorders.

"Initially, dog diseases were studied by waiting until the genetic cause of a human disease was discovered and seeing how that applied to dogs," he said. "But now, with the dog genome sequenced, it's really highly probable that we can discover the cause of a disease in a dogs and apply it to a human."

Ewen Kirkness and Wei Wang of The Institute for Genomic Research used a similar technique to compare the genome of a boxer to that of a poodle. The genome of Shadow, the poodle, was sequenced in 2003. Tasha, the boxer, had her genome sequenced in 2004 (she's the main subject of this week's Nature paper on the dog genome).

The researchers aligned the two genomes and noted variations between the nearly identical sequences. Past studies comparing dog genomes have focused on either single base differences or numbers of repeated bases. Kirkness said his study used a newly identified type of genomic variation that is rare in humans but common in dogs. SINE elements, which consist of about 200 base pairs, can be found at any of 20,000 locations on the dog genome. Their presence or absence at these spots accounts for many of the differences between dogs, Kirkness said.

"The results of our SINE study indicate a major source of genomic variation in the canine genome, that differs from what we currently know of other mammalian genomes," he said via e-mail. "We can speculate that this type of variation may contribute to the plasticity of the dog genome that has permitted the breeding of a species with such an unusually large range of shapes, sizes and behaviors."

Chris Ponting and Caleb Webber of Oxford University have an article in Genome Research detailing their comparison of the dog genome with the human genome. Dogs have 78 chromosomes, whereas humans only have 46. Ponting said the dog's recent ancestors had a mere 42 chromosomes. He and Webber set out to find how these chromosomes break.

"The dog genome sequence presented us with an exciting opportunity to study
how, over aeons of time, chromosomes have broken apart and then been stuck
back together in different arrangements," Ponting said via email. "We know that much rearrangement of its chromosomes has occurred in the past 60 million years."

By comparing the canine and human genomes with complex computer programs, the researchers found particular types of DNA sequences, which they call "hot spots," tend to break more frequently. Ponting said these hot spots contain many more G and C base pairs than they do A and T base pairs. They also found that hot spots are prone to mutations that change these letters.

"The discovery of these hot spots means that we can now predict how
chromosomes break and what the consequences of breakage might be," he said. "This is important because breakage of human chromosomes is known to cause leukemia and other cancers."

Gordon Lark, of Portuguese Water Dog fame, said dog genetics will not only bring medical advances for canines, the actual process of studying dogs will help researchers develop ethical standards for human genetic study.

"In almost every respect they mimic human genetics," he said. "You don't own the dogs, they're out there with their owners. Dogs are considered by most people very much like you consider your children. So you can't hurt them; you can't do bad things ethically. You have to practice pretty much the ethical and moral constraints that are applied to humans.

Seed

Nem de propósito :-)

O Studio Ghibli filma The Earthsea Trilogy (Quartet? ahhhhhhh)

Calendário 2006

Aqui fica um belíssimo calendário tendo como fundo Dragões (tava-se mesmo a ver; só podia; óbvio né?!; és sempre a mesma coisa; qualquer dia até começa a enjoar; outra vez...)! Pois claro que sim! Fica aqui o link para depois clicar lá no pdf e sacá-lo bonitinho! É um verdadeiro mimo. Enjoy!

Mas o que é isto?

Tigres, leões e outras espécies protegidas, como linces e lobos brancos, estavam a ser abatidos a tiro em Badajoz, muito perto da fronteira com Portugal.

Eram safaris ilegais para milionários, organizados por uma rede que está a ser desmantelada pela Guardia Civil. Numa operação que ainda não terminou. Feras africanas a 100 quilómetros da fronteira.

Nesta herdade da província de Badajoz, a Guardia Civil encontrou um leão e dois tigres, um deles morto a tiro. Compravam os animais em jardins zoológicos para mais tarde organizar caçadas ilegais, um negócio milionário. Por enquanto, há sete detidos.

Na aldeia vizinha, há tempo que os 700 habitantes ouviam rumores sobre actividades suspeitas, abates de lobos brancos e linces, duas das espécies mais protegidas da Península Ibérica. As cabeças eram oferecidas como troféus e os corpos queimados para não deixar rasto.

A vedação, electrificada e muito alta, chamou a atenção do Serviço de Protecção da Natureza. Dizem que por um lobo branco pagava-se 30 mil euros, cerca de seis mil contos.

O tráfico de fauna protegida está a aumentar em Espanha, só no ano passado foram recuperados mais de 1.800 animais ameaçados, a maior parte répteis.

Via SIC Online, onde há um filme para ver, mas não me atrevo,
e , sempre extraordinário!

E a propósito de intercâmbios...

Será que fomos mesmo os primeiros??? NÃO!

Não, não se trata de mais uma teoria da conspiração. Pura realidade apenas. Este é um dos livros mais interessantes sobre o tema da exploração marítima, do conhecimento de novos mundos e contacto com novas culturas.

Sim, foram os chineses provavelmente os primeiros, se bem que existem nomes e mapas como Piris Reis, mas já um século depois dos chineses. Mas provavelmente existem relatos e mapas anteriores a 1421(eu já os vi por aí), ano em que os chineses decidiram dar uma "voltinha" ao mundo e cartografá-lo com uma precisão fantástica.

Fica a recomendação do livro para quem acha o tema interessante, e também o site do autor Gavin Menzies, antigo almirante da marinha britânica, com resmas de informação.

Intercâmbios Culturais Antigos

Museus Smithsonian organizam exposição com temática lusa

A Smithsonian Institution vai organizar, em 2007, uma exposição em Washington que reflectirá o encontro de várias culturas mundiais com as rotas das caravelas portuguesas, anunciou o conselheiro cultural da Embaixada de Portugal naquela cidade, Manuel Silva Pereira.

De acordo com Manuel Silva Pereira, a exposição terá essencialmente seis núcleos temáticos: Portugal, África Ocidental (Benim, Serra Leoa, Congo), Brasil, Oceano Índico (Persia, Gujarat, Goa, Ceilão), China (Macau) e Japão.

«As viagens dos portugueses criaram uma revolução nos contactos entre os povos e a passagem dos portugueses por reinos de África e Ásia e, mais tarde, pela vastidão do Brasil esteve na origem de um intercâmbio cultural sem precedentes que levou à criação de peças de arte altamente originais e belas», disse o conselheiro sobre a exposição.

O evento, que tem o nome provisório de «Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th and 17th Centuries», vai juntar, entre Junho e Setembro de 2007, em quatro museus da Smithsonian, mais de 300 peças de arte procedentes de museus espalhados por vários continentes.

Segundo Manuel Silva Pereira, entre os museus portugueses, a maior contribuição sairá do Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga.

No Museum for African Art da Smithsonian estarão patentes as peças relativas ao encontro com culturas africanas, a Freer Gallery albergará a parte relativa ao Japão e países do Oceano Índico, enquanto a Arthur M. Sackler Gallery receberá a parte relativa à China e a International Gallery as peças que têm a ver mais directamente com Portugal e o Brasil.

As peças a expor estão a ser seleccionadas pelos curadores Jay Levenson, director de programas internacionais do Museum of Moderna Art (MOMA), de Nova Iorque, Gauvin Alexander Bailey, da Clark University, do estado de Massachusetts, EUA, e Jean-Michel Massing, da Cambridge University, Reino Unido.

Kenneth Maxwell, da Harvard University, Diogo Ramada Curto, do Europen University Institute, Florença, Itália, e Nuno Vassallo e Silva, director-adjunto do serviço de museologia da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian completam a lista dos curadores.

A exposição, que representa um investimento na ordem dos três milhões de dólares (cerca de 2.500 milhões de euros), tem o apoio do Ministério da Cultura português, do Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros, através do Instituto Camões, da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, da Fundação Luso-Americana para o Desenvolvimento (FLAD) e da Fundação Oriente.

«Encompassing the Globe: Portugal and the World in the 16th and 17th Centuries» será a quarta grande exposição de temática portuguesa a estar patente na capital norte- americana nos últimos 14 anos.

Diário Digital/ Lusa