Voicing anguish over a painful choice, many of the British MPs voting Wednesday to start the Brexit process said they were bowing to popular will, but feared history would judge them harshly.
Russia has arrested two senior FSB cybersecurity officials and a top anti-hacking expert on suspicion of committing treason linked to the United States, a lawyer involved with the case said Wednesday.
French rightwing candidate Francois Fillon battled to save his scandal-hit presidential bid on Wednesday as grim new polling numbers and party colleagues increased pressure on him to step aside.
Ed Husic is known to some as 'the minister for basketball', to others as the first federal MP sworn in on the Quran. He became the first ever Muslim frontbencher under Kevin Rudd. What next for an outspoken Gen Xer with a friend on the wrong side of parliament?
In the wake of recent carnage at a Quebec City mosque, the Canadian province's popular conservative talk radio hosts have come under fire for allegedly spreading intolerance and hate.
An animal reserve in the Netherlands is having apes respond to images of their fellow creatures on a tablet, a programme dubbed 'Tinder for orangutans' by the Dutch press.
Evan Gough posted: "In 1996, something remarkable happened at NASA. Twin brothers Mark and Scott Kelly were accepted into NASA; Mark as a shuttle pilot, and Scott into technical operations on the ground, at least initially. Eventually, both brothers became astronauts. They a"
In 1996, something remarkable happened at NASA. Twin brothers Mark and Scott Kelly were accepted into NASA; Mark as a shuttle pilot, and Scott into technical operations on the ground, at least initially. Eventually, both brothers became astronauts. They are the only siblings to have both been in space.
Whether it was intentional or not, having twin brothers gave NASA an important opportunity. They could use one twin as a control group, and send the other on a prolonged mission into space. That allowed NASA to carry out important research on the effects of space travel on the human body.
In March 2016, Scott Kelly returned from a year long (340 days) mission aboard the International Space Station, while his brother Mark stayed on Earth. Genetic samples were taken from each brother before and after Scott's time aboard the ISS. Now, NASA has released the preliminary results of this unprecedented opportunity.
Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly of NASA is seen after returning to Ellington Field, Thursday, March 3, 2016 in Houston, Texas after his return to Earth the previous day. Kelly and Flight Engineers Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos landed in their Soyuz TMA-18M capsule in Kazakhstan on March 1 (Eastern time).
NASA's Human Research Program did the study, and the results were released at their Investigator's Workshop on the week of January 23rd. The theme of that workshop was A New Dawn: Enabling Human Space Exploration. Though the studies are on-going, these initial results are interesting.
Omics
Mike Snyder, who is the Integrated Omics investigator, reported his findings. He found an altered level of lipids in Scott, the flight twin, which indicates inflammation. He also found increased 3-indolepropionic (IPA) in Mark, the ground twin. IPA is a potential brain antioxidant therapeutic, and also helps maintain normal insulin levels, to stabilize blood sugar after meals.
Telomeres and Telomerase
Telomeres and Telomerase are part of the chromosomal system in the human body. Susan Bailey reported that for Scott, the flight twin, the length of his white blood cell's telomeres increased while in space. Typically, they decrease as a person ages. Once on Earth, they began to shorten again.
Telomerase, an enzyme that repairs telomeres, increased in both brothers in November, which could be related to a stressful family event at that time.
The Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly of NASA and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, March 2, 2016. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Cognitive Performance in Spaceflight
Mathias Basner is studying Cognitive Performance in Spaceflight, especially the difference in cognition between a 12-month mission and a six-month mission. Though he found a slight decrease in speed and accuracy after the mission, he found no real difference in cognition between 6 month and 12 month missions.
Biochemistry
Scott Smith's investigation into biochemistry showed a decrease in bone density during the second half of Scott's mission. Scott also had increased levels of a biochemical marker for inflammation once he returned to Earth.
Microbiome in the Gastro-Intestinal Tract
Fred Turek reported preliminary results of his investigation into the bacteria in the GI (microbiome) tract that help digestion. There were many differences in the twins' biomes, but that was expected because of their different diets and environments. There were interesting differences in Scott's biome between his time in space and his time on the ground. The ratio between two dominant bacterial groups shifted during his flight time compared to his ground time.
Immunome Studies
Emmanuel Mignot investigated changes in the bodies of both twins before and after a flu vaccine was given. Both twins showed increased levels of T-cell receptors after the vaccine, which was the expected immune response.
Genome Sequencing
Chris Mason is performing Genome Sequencing on the DNA and RNA contained within the twins' white blood cells with his investigation. RNA sequencing showed that over 200,000 RNA molecules were expressed differently between the twins. Mason will look closer to see if a "space gene" could have been activated while Scott was in space.
Epigenomics
Andy Feinberg studies how the environment regulates our gene expression, which is known as epigenomics. Scott's white blood cell DNA showed decreased levels of chemical modification while in flight, and a return to normal once back on Earth. The same level in Mark (the ground twin) increased midway through the study, but then returned to normal. There was variability between the twins, called epigenetic noise. This noise was higher in Scott during his spaceflight, and returned to baseline levels once back on Earth. This could indicate that some genes are more sensitive to the changing environment of spaceflight than others.
There's a lot more research required to truly understand these results. Once they're looked at in coordination with other physiological, psychological, and technological investigations, the picture will become clearer. Later in 2017, there will be a joint publication of further results, as well as individual research papers.
NASA's goal is to make space travel safer for astronauts, and to make missions more effective and efficient. With all the talk of missions to Mars in the next decade, these results are arriving at the perfect time.
Bianca Paiva reports on the scene for Agência Brasil
Brazil's Defense Minister Raul Jungmann and his Colombian counterpart Luiz Carlos Villegas announced joint measures on the combat against cross-border crimes.Bianca Paiva
Brazil's Defense Minister Raul Jungmann and his Colombian counterpart Luiz Carlos Villegas announced joint measures on the combat against cross-border crimes. The plan includes efforts targeting illegal immigration and mining and integrated intelligence.
“This intelligence is to take place all the way from Brazil's and Colombia's border stations up to the highest level in Brasília, in ministerial terms. We should therefore have an unobstructed, continuous, integrated daily traffic of information between Brazil and Colombia on our common concerns,” Jungmann said after a ministerial meeting held Tuesday (Jan. 31) in Manaus, capital city of Amazonas—one of Brazil's states that share national borders with Colombia. Also at the meeting were Armed Forces commandants from both countries.
Another commitment made by the ministers is that of bridging security “gaps” in the approximately 1,500 km of national borders between the two countries.
“We need to find a way to arrange ourselves and work together so that the gaps on these frontiers can be filled up—a task to be carried out alternately by Brazil and Colombia. It's a way to distribute the efforts and collaborate, since there are no conditions for a total blockage, as most of the borders are either water frontiers or in wooded and sparsely populated areas. In fact, this distribution shows how much we're willing to apply it in different countries,” he said.
Demining
Jungmann said that Brazil is to expand its cooperation work with Colombia in deactivating and removing land mines planted by guerrilla groups, a process known as demining. The Colombian authorities, in turn, agreed to share data on the delivery of weapons as a result of the peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Villegas believes the actions unveiled aim to send a message to “all delinquents as well as the criminal organizations active in both countries that the authorities are more closely united than ever and eager to share data that make it possible to dismantle such groups.”
Brazil's and Colombia's defense ministers further announced that a new meeting will be held in four months with a view to monitor the progress of the plans. The idea is to have representatives from both nations' Defense, Foreign, and Justice Ministries.
During the meeting, Raul Jungmann conferred a decoration to Minister Villegas as a way to acknowledge and show gratitude for the support from the Colombian Army in the airplane crash involving football team Chapecoense.
Deputy Speaker of the House Fadli Zon (FOTO ANTARA / Hafiz Mubarak A.)
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Vice Chairman of the House of Representatives Fadli Zon expects the implementation of the election simultaneously in 101 regions on February 15. can be managed well and no cheating.
"Election will be well, smooth, secure, and democratic, if there is no fraud," said Fadli Zon in the MPR / DPR / DPD RI, Wednesday.
According to Fadli Zon, from the information it receives from both internal Gerindra, of the Government and of the Commission as the organizer of the election, that holding the elections simultaneously in 2017 was ready, even though there are still some deficiencies.
Gerindra Party Deputy Chairman is highlighted, about the permanent voters list (DPT), there are still weaknesses.
He warned, the Commission can accommodate if there are people who should have the right to vote but are not registered in DPT.
When asked about the potential for conflict, Fadli said simultaneous election will not be a conflict, if the implementation is completely in accordance with the principles of the election, which is a direct, public, free, confidential, as well as honest and fair.
"Honest and fair from all parties, both from the organizers of the election and of the pairs of candidates and campaign team," he said.
Fadli Zon hoped that all oihak can perform their duties and functions as possible, so that the simultaneous implementation of the elections in 2017 really smooth, safe and democratic.
Delhi: The Union Budget 2017-18 has come as a mixed bag for the energy sector. While Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has retained the government’s focus on rural electrification, renewable energy and a push for the oil and gas industry, there were no major provisions for other crucial areas of thermal power, wind, hydro and nuclear energy.
Key announcements:
One of the major energy related announcements in today’s budget was the merger of Indian state oil companies to create a global behemoth. Jaitley said the government will create an integrated public sector ‘oil major’ which will be able to match the performance of international and domestic private sector oil and gas companies.
The FM also announced a reduction in basic customs duty for liquefied natural gas (LNG) to 2.5 per cent from 5 per cent. He also said two additional strategic crude oil reserves will be created at Chandikhole in Odisha and Bikaner in Rajasthan to ramp up domestic reserves to 15 MT.
Significantly, this budget also maintains the last year’s allocation for the oil ministry’s flagship scheme to provide LPG connections to poor households at Rs 2,500 crore. Also, in an indication of things to come, Jaitley identified the ongoing rise in global crude oil prices as one of the key three factors that will be major challenges for the emerging economies, including India.
This year’s budget also attempts to maintain focus on rural electrification flowing from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision. Jaitley said India was confident of meeting its 100 per cent rural electrification target by May 2018 and allocated a sum of Rs 4,814 crore to its flagship scheme Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana.
On the front of renewable energy, the FM said the government would add 20,000 Megawatt by taking up the second phase of solar park development in the country. Stressing on the government’s seriousness to focus more on solar energy, he said around 7,000 railway stations would be fed through solar power in the medium term and work has already begun in that respect in 300 stations.
Major misses
While the government maintained its push for the renewable sector, the lack of any relief provision for private thermal generators struggling with huge investments stuck for want of long term PPAs left a part of the domestic industry disappointed. There was not even a mention on thermal power and coal apart from Jaitley’s announcement on rural electrification.
The Economic Survey, released on Jan 31, had pointed out to the difficulties being faced by the private power generation sector due to falling tariffs. The survey said private firms were reeling under cost-overrun pressure and PLFs and tariffs in the short-term market are not likely to rise in the near term.
The industry had expected some, if not major, relief in terms of corporate tax and minimum alternate tax (MAT) for the power sector. But there was no such mention in the FM’s budget speech. Thermal power producers had also expected some relief in terms of the Rs 400 per tonne clean energy cess that was imposed last year.
Experts also flagged the lack of major provisions for hydro or nuclear energy. The wind power sector had also hoped for a revision of the generation based incentive (GBI) for wind generators which is expiring on 31 March. The oil and gas industry had also demanded a revision of the high crude oil cess -- another demand that remained unheeded in this budget.
Overall, experts said the budget was a mixed bag for the energy sector. Research and ratings agency ICRA said the budget has several favourable proposals such as creation of two more strategic oil reserves projects, reduction in basic customs duty (BCD) on LNG and creation of an integrated oil PSU major. “The creation of additional strategic oil reserves will boost the energy security of the nation. Reduction in BCD on LNG will make LNG more affordable to end users. This is a credit positive for existing regasification terminal owners such as PLL, GAIL and Shell India,” ICRA said in a statement.
Experts also said the idea of creation of an integrated oil major is laudable as it will strengthen the business and financial risk profile of the combined entity but integration issues, especially on the HR side, will e key challenges. Globally, the concept of stated-owned oil majors is a well established one, which confers advantages to the stakeholders.
