SAN FRANCISCO Cheap Air Force 1 Low UK , March 19 (Xinhua) -- Researchers at University of California, Berkeley have discovered that bacteria can repurpose a commonplace enzyme and use it as a scaffold on which to assemble iron atoms into tiny magnets.
With miniature magnets within themselves, the so-called magnetotactic bacteria are the ones able to navigate their environment using Earth's magnetic field as a reference.
Arash Komeili, an associate professor of plant and microbial biology Cheap Air Force 1 High Womens UK , and his colleagues at UC Berkeley initially found the repurposing of a deactivated enzyme in one species, Magnetospririllum magneticum.
However, when the researchers looked throughout the three largest families of magnetotactic bacteria, they found independent occurrences of the same story.
"We really thought that something this unusual would have evolved only once Cheap Air Force 1 High Mens UK ," said graduate student David Hershey. "That just isn't the case. It really just cements how unusual this process is."
A key feature of building magnetic particles is a protease - an enzyme that chews up proteins for recycling - that is deactivated.
The findings, based on X-ray crystallographic images and reported in this week's issue of the journal PLOS Biology, suggest that the scaffold protein, called MamO Cheap Air Force 1 High UK , may guide iron atoms into position in the magnetite crystal lattice.
It demonstrates how evolution uses existing molecules for new functions.
The process for animals to build minerals is known as biomineralization. Magnetotactic bacteria, for example, snatch iron atoms and assemble them into magnetic nanoparticles, or tiny crystals of the mineral magnetite Cheap Air Force 1 Flyknit Low Womens UK , that connect with their nervous system.
"We would like to know how minerals are built in nature since they constitute a fundamental survival strategy for many organisms," Komeili said.
Knowing what is going on with bacteria, researchers may one day use the tricks to build unique magnetic minerals in a test tube that are otherwise not possible.
UNITED NATIONS, March 31 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday expressed his shock over latest allegations of sexual abuse by international forces in the Central African Republic (CAR) as new information surfaced on such crimes committed between 2013 and 2015 by UN and non-UN personnel.
A UN delegation was sent to the CAR to gather more information on new allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told a daily briefing that so far 108 alleged victims have been interviewed in the area. "The vast majority of the cases unfortunately do involve minors Cheap Air Force 1 Flyknit Low Mens UK ," he noted.
Ban said in a statement that he was shocked to the core by the allegations and that focus should be given to women and young children who have been "traumatized in the worst imaginable way."
Code Blue, a campaign of the civil society group AIDS-Free World aiming to end impunity for UN peacekeeping personnel, published on its website that 98 girls in a province of CAR reported to the UN that they had been sexually abused by international peacekeepers.
Moreover, the group said three girls told a UN human rights officer that they were tied up and undressed inside a camp by a military commander from the Sangaris force Cheap Air Force 1 Flyknit Low UK , the French military intervention in CAR, and forced to be involved in bestiality.
The Sangaris force was operating under the authorization of the Security Council but not under UN command.
"The exact number and nature of these extremely troubling allegations are still being determined," said Dujarric. "Allegations made against the French Sangaris forces in the same area are also being investigated."
The UN Security Council urged Thursday full and urgent investigations into these allegations and said "those responsible should be held accountable."
Ismael Abraao Gaspar Martins, Ambassador of Angola and president of the Security Council in March Cheap Air Force 1 Deconstruct UK , told reporters here that the French authorities said they will investigate into the allegations and will report to the Council.
On March 11, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to take strong action to combat the problem of sexual exploitation and abuse committed by peacekeepers since the United Nations has been under mounting pressure as the allegations against peacekeepers continue to surface.
The resolution requests UN Secretary-General to replace all military and police unit of a troop or police contributing country in UN peacekeeping operations if the country has not taken appropriate actions to investigate their personnel or hold perpetrators accountable.
Earlier this month, the UN published a report saying the total number of allegations received of sexual abuse in the UN system in 2015 was 99. Among them 69 took place in countries where?? peacekeeping operations and 22 were in CAR.
"These crimes only fester in silence," said Ban Cheap Air Force 1 Black White UK , while stressing that member states "who alone have the power to discipline their forces with consequences" must take actions.
UN General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft said on Thursday he is appalled by allegations by "the very people meant to protect civilians and vulnerable populations in conflict and post conflict situations," while the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, called the latest allegations as "sickening."
The General Assembly president also said he is going to hold an informal hearing in the 193-member General Assembly on this matter.
On Wednesday Cheap Air Force 1 Black Mid UK , the UN Department of Field Support formally notified the permanent UN missions of all 193 member states of the establishment of the "Trust Fund in Support of Victims of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse", urging them to consider voluntary financial contributions.
"The contributions will be used to provide medical, legal and psycho-social assistance to victims and children born as a result of sexual exploita