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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Primitive fish with butt fins shows evolution's quirks

Robert Sansom

The Euphanerops sported bizarre fins below its anus, revealing some of the odd turns evolution took on the path to vertebrate evolution.

By Tia Ghose, LiveScience

A 370-milion-year-old, primitive fish sported a weird pair of fins just below its anus, new research shows.

The strange appendages, detailed Tuesday in the journal Biology Letters, were found on an ancient jawless fish called Euphanerops longaevus that lived around the time that jawless fishes like lampreys split off from jawed vertebrates, which include everything from sharks to humans.

"What's weird about this organism is that it had a paired anal fin. It's unique ? no other known fossil or modern fish is known to have that disposition," said study co-author Robert Sansom, a paleontologist at the University of Manchester in the U.K.

The findings suggest that early in primitive vertebrates' history, evolution experimented with a number of wacky body plans, only some of which survived, Sansom told LiveScience. [Image Gallery: The Freakiest Looking Fish]

Early fish
The Euphanerops fish were 3.9 inches long and looked somewhat like modern-day eels. The specimens were unearthed in a fossil bed in Miguasha, Quebec, decades ago, and were stored in collections in the National History Museum in London and the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Miguasha, in Quebec.

Previously, researchers weren't sure exactly what to make of the creatures' weird fins. Some thought the anal appendages might actually have been displaced from another part of the animal's body in the fossilization process.

Early body plan
The researchers weren't convinced of the displacement explanation. By comparing the 3-D surfaces of the fossil under a microscope, the team concluded that the fin pair was actually located below the anus on the living creature. Though it's not clear exactly how the fins were used, the fins most likely helped the fish get around, Sansom said.

The fossil dates to a critical period of vertebrate evolution: Jawed and jawless vertebrates diverged roughly around this time. Eventually jawed fish developed paired fins (but not anal fins) that evolved to become arms and legs. In fact, the same genes code for shark fins and human limbs.

The discovery changes the view of how fishes were evolving at this time, Sansom said.

"Rather than gradual acquisition of complex characteristics, maybe there was a bit more experimentation and odd acquisitions," he said.

Specialized trait?
The finding of paired anal fins is "beautifully illustrated," said Michael Coates, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Chicago, who was not involved in the study.

"It might just be the first vestige, it might be some kind of precursor to generating paired fins" that are commonly seen throughout jawed vertebrates, Coates told LiveScience.

But it's also possible they were a specialized trait that only Euphanerops possessed, not reflective of the evolutionary history of jawed vertebrates as a whole, Coates said.

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter @tiaghose.?Follow?LiveScience@livescience,Facebook?&Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2a87e1a4/l/0Lscience0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C0A90C1767680A60Eprimitive0Efish0Ewith0Ebutt0Efins0Eshows0Eevolutions0Equirks0Dlite/story01.htm

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Hammad Memon attorneys seek second extension for mental health ...

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Hammad Memon's attorneys have asked for a second extension in filing the defense's mental health evaluation of the teen whose murder trial is set for June.
The mental state of Memon is expected to be a key piece of the defense's case as Memon, 17, faces a murder charge in the killing of his Discovery Middle School classmate Todd Brown on Feb. 5, 2010. Both Memon and Brown were 14 at the time of the shooting.
The mental health evaluation was due last week but Madison County Circuit Judge Karen Hall granted an extension until Monday following a defense request.
Memon's Birmingham-based attorney James Parkman filed a second extension request today. asking that the court allow the report to be submitted Wednesday.
In making today's request Parkman said Dr. Paul O'Leary was in a car accident Sunday. There was no mention in the court filing if O'Leary,? a Birmingham-based psychiatrist, was injured.
Court records did not indicate if Hall had granted the motion.
Memon's trial is set for June 17.
His attorneys have indicated he will be pursuing an insanity defense, that at the time of the shooting his mental condition did not allow him to appreciate the nature and wrongfulness of his actions.

Source: http://blog.al.com/breaking/2013/04/hammad_memon_attorneys_ask_for.html

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Manipulating calcium accumulation in blood vessels may provide a new way to treat heart disease

Apr. 9, 2013 ? Hardening of the arteries, or atherosclerosis, is the primary cause of heart disease. It is caused by calcium accumulation in the blood vessels, which leads to arteries becoming narrow and stiff, obstructing blood flow and leading to heart complications. Although many risk factors for atherosclerosis have been identified, the cause is not known and there is currently no way to reverse it once it sets in. In a new study published 9th April in the open access journal PLOS Biology, researchers have characterized the cells responsible for driving this calcium build-up in vessel walls.

The process of calcium accumulation in blood vessels resembles bone formation and involves maintaining a balance between bone-forming cells called osteoblasts and bone-destroying cells called osteoclasts. In the new study, Hyo-Soo Kim and colleagues characterize the origin of a population of vascular calcifying progenitor cells, and the potential of these cells to differentiate into different cell types.

"We show that vascular calcifying progenitor cells in the artery have the potential to become either osteoblasts or osteoclasts," said Dr Kim of Seoul National University. "And a certain chemical can push these cells towards becoming osteoclasts, which leads to the softening of the blood vessels."

The researchers sorted cells from the aortas of mice into two groups. Both groups originated from bone marrow and expressed a cell surface protein, called Sca-1, but only one group expressed another cell surface protein called PDGFR?. They found that the cells which only expressed Sca-1 could become either osteoblasts or osteoclasts, whereas the cells which expressed both Sca-1 and PDGFR? were committed to an osteoblastic lineage.

The team then treated the cells with a protein called PPAR?, which is known to promote the formation of osteoclasts and inhibit the formation of osteoblasts. When treated with PPAR?, only Sca-1 expressed cells preferentially differentiated into osteoclast-like cells. Furthermore, in vivo study demonstrated that, while bidirectional cells that were injected into mouse models of atherosclerosis increased the severity of calcium build-up in arteries, cells that were then treated with a drug activating PPAR? markedly decreased this effect and even reversed the calcification.

"These findings suggest that a subtype of calcifying progenitor cells offer a new therapeutic target for the prevention of calcification," said Dr Kim. "This opens up the possibility of new drug development to inhibit the hardening of the arteries, and thereby reduce the risk of heart disease."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.

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

Journal Reference:

Hyun-Ju Cho, Hyun-Jai Cho, Ho-Jae Lee, Myung-Kang Song, Ji-Yun Seo, Yeon-Hee Bae, Ju-Young Kim, Hae-Young Lee, Whal Lee, Bon-Kwon Koo, Byung-Hee Oh, Young-Bae Park, Hyo-Soo Kim. Vascular Calcifying Progenitor Cells Possess Bidirectional Differentiation Potentials. PLoS Biology, 2013; 11 (4): e1001534 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001534

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/top_news/top_health/~3/xo9b2VM5-30/130409173500.htm

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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Facebook tweaks Android phones to build new 'Home'

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013. Zuckerberg says the company is not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is introducing a new experience for Android phones. The idea behind the new Home service is to bring content right to you, rather than require people to check apps on the device. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg walks at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Thursday, April 4, 2013. Zuckerberg says the company is not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is introducing a new experience for Android phones. The idea behind the new Home service is to bring content right to you, rather than require people to check apps on the device. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) ? With its new "Home" on Android gadgets, Facebook is trying to prove that a company doesn't have to make a smartphone or operating system to define how people interact with mobile technology. The audacious move will provide further insights into how pervasive Facebook has become, testing whether people want to be greeted with content from the social network every time they look at their phones.

When people start downloading the Home software upon its April 12 release in the U.S., Facebook will become the new hub of their Android smartphones.

Switch on your phone and you'll see friends' photos, overlaid by status updates, links and eventually, advertisements in Facebook's quest to bring in more revenue and restore its stock price to where it stood when the company went public nearly 11 months ago.

About 80 percent of what currently appears within a Facebook user's News Feed will automatically be transferred into the "cover feed" of the Home service. For instance, a sibling's status update might be featured prominently on the phone's home screen when it's unlocked. Swipe a finger and there might be a photo posted by one of your best friends. Want to like what you see? Just tap on the home screen twice. Comments can be posted directly from the home screen, too.

If other friends happen to send you a message, their Facebook photo will pop up as a notification.

Other Facebook features, such as video, will be added to Home in future months. A Home version for Android-powered tablet computers also will be coming later this year.

Once they have had their fill of what Facebook is feeding them on the Home service, users can just swipe a finger on the screen to get to all the standard Android apps to listen to music, watch videos or send email.

At first, Home will only work on some Android devices, including HTC Corp.'s One X and One X Plus and Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 2. For now, Home isn't compatible with the Nexus phone designed by Google, a fierce Facebook rival whose pliable Android software is being modified to accommodate the new service.

A phone from HTC that comes pre-loaded with Home will be available starting April 12, with AT&T Inc. as the carrier. The HTC First will sell for $99.99 with a two-year data plan from AT&T.

Home is debuting after several years of speculation that Facebook intended to make its own phone or mobile operating system to drive more traffic to its social network. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the speculation never made sense to him because he believes a company-produced phone might only end up in the hands of 10 million to 20 million people. The Home service gives Facebook a chance to take control of the main screen of every phone running on Android, the leading mobile operating system. In the U.S. alone, about 64 million people will be relying on Android-driven phones this year, estimated the research firm eMarketer.

"Just building a phone isn't enough for Facebook," Zuckerberg said Thursday during Home's unveiling at the company's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters.

The idea behind the software is to bring Facebook content right to users' home screens, rather than requiring them to check various apps to see what their friends are up to, or to chat. Down the line, Facebook will integrate its existing camera app and other features. Though cameras and calls won't be built into the initial version of Home, Zuckerberg promised the software will be updated at least once a month to add more features and fix bugs.

"Home" comes amid rapid growth in the number of people who access Facebook from phones and tablet computers. Of the social network's 1.06 billion monthly users, 680 million log in using a mobile gadget. As a result, the money Facebook makes from mobile advertising is also growing. Taking over the entire screen of smartphones and, eventually, tablet computers will provide Facebook for a larger canvas for selling mobile ads.

Zuckerberg, already a multibillionaire, didn't dwell on Home's moneymaking potential Thursday. Instead, he depicted the software as a noble attempt to put a higher priority on personal relationships than utilitarian apps.

"Why do we need to go into all the apps in the first place to see what is going on with the people we care about," he asked.

"We think this is the best version of Facebook there is," he said.

That statement implies that using Facebook on Apple's iPhone and other smartphones may become a less enriching experience. Apple Inc., which rigidly controls how apps work on the operating system built for the iPhone and iPad, has ingrained more Facebook features into the most recent versions of its mobile software.

Apple had no immediate comment about Home.

Zuckerberg said users can have an experience on Android phones unavailable on other platforms because Google makes the software available on an open-source basis. That allows phone manufacturers and software developers to adapt it to their needs.

Recognizing that text messaging is one of the most important tasks on a mobile phone, Facebook programmed Home to include a feature called "chat heads." This lets users communicate with their friends directly from their home screens ? without opening a separate app.

"What Facebook wants is to put itself at the front of the Android user experience for as many Facebook users as possible and make Facebook more elemental to their customers' experience," said Forrester analyst Charles Golvin.

While the Home service probably makes sense for Facebook, Golvin believes the company is overestimating "the extent to which this is something their users want."

"I'm sure there are people out there whose lives revolve around their social network and for them it makes sense to have it front and center," Golvin said. "But this doesn't describe the majority of consumers."

Google Inc. is among the companies hoping that Golvin is correct. The Internet search leader gives away its Android software for free, in the hope that it will steer phone users to ads sold by Google. With Home, Facebook will be muscling its way in between Android users and Google, creating an opportunity for Facebook to seize the advertising advantage.

This is not the first time a big Internet company has co-opted Android: Amazon.com's Kindle Fire tablets run a version of Android that strips out all Google services, replacing them with Amazon's equivalents. Google responded by releasing its own tablet to compete against the Kindle Fire last year.

The mobile advertising market is growing quickly, thanks in large part to Facebook and Twitter, which also entered the space in 2012. EMarketer expects U.S. mobile ad spending to grow 77 percent this year to $7.29 billion, from $4.11 billion last year.

Facebook, meanwhile, is expected to reel in $1.53 billion in worldwide mobile ad revenue this year according to eMarketer, up from $470.7 million last year.

Facebook's stock rose 82 cents, or 3.1 percent, to close Thursday at $27.07. That's 29 percent below its initial public offering price of $38. Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor's 500 index has surged by 20 percent since Facebook's rocky debut.

___

Barbara Ortutay reported from New York. AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson contributed to this story from New York.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-04-05-US-TEC-Facebook-Mobile/id-f78b8723e9b746c5ab51eba38c6333c3

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A Woman Robbed a Bank with a Can of Spaghetti Sauce

Of all the food related items or household goods that you could use to pretend to be a bomb, spaghetti sauce has to be pretty low on the list. Not to a 60-year-old woman near Detroit though, she used spaghetti sauce to rob an entire bank. And she got away. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/6DCBXMErmpM/a-woman-robbed-a-bank-with-a-can-of-spaghetti-sauce

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Monday, April 8, 2013

North Korea laborers do not report for work at Kaesong: report

With all this talk about the cord-cutting masses no longer wanting to subsidize TV channels they don't watch, it's a little surprising that one of the oldest, most widely available forms of TV is waning: over-the-air broadcast TV. Despite its attractive price of $0 per month and billions of advertising revenue, nobody ? including the broadcast networks, the tech companies that are out to disrupt them, and the cord-cutters and cord-nevers who hate cable ? is very enthusiastic about antennas. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-laborers-not-report-kaesong-report-232336118.html

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Letter: Here's a solution to gang problem | Amarillo Globe-News

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Source: http://amarillo.com/opinion/letters-editor/2013-04-07/letter-heres-solution-gang-problem

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