LAS VEGAS - Hands be damned. Bart Palaszewski thought he may have broken his hands, but when he had the chance to pound out Tyson Griffin, he went for broke.
Palaszewski scored a vicious knockout of Griffin at the 2:45 mark of the first round at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. The former WEC fighter was a plus-260 underdog.
Griffin is now 1-1 back down at featherweight. The 28-year-old climb near the top of the mountain at lightweight with a close loss to Sean Sherk at UFC 90. Since then, his career has been derailed by weight issues, injuries and bad knockouts.
Tonight, we witnessed another low. Griffin and Palaszewski circled for the first few minutes. Palasszewski was effective with the jab and few front kicks. Griffin tried to counter with the overhand right.
Palaszewski landed a left hook that changed the fight with 2:30 left and backed it up with another left that sent Griffin bouncing to his knees. Griffin bounced up and Palaszewski hopped on him. He unloaded 18 straight punches. Several right hands softened him up before another right got Griffin to drop his hands. Palaszewski landed a three-punch combos that included two hard lefts. Griffin went down and was out of it.
ROME (Reuters) ? Italy's borrowing costs jumped to record levels Friday, underlining its vulnerability at the heart of the euro zone debt crisis and skepticism about whether the struggling government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi can deliver vital reforms.
The 6.06 percent yield paid at an auction of 10-year bonds was the highest since the launch of the euro and not far from the level reached just before the European Central Bank intervened in August to cap Rome's borrowing costs by buying Italian paper.
Italy, the euro zone's third largest economy, is once more at the center of the debt crisis, with fears growing that its borrowing costs could rise to levels that overwhelm the capacity of the bloc to provide support amid chronic political instability in Rome.
Berlusconi, tainted by scandal and repeatedly at odds with his coalition allies, has promised European partners a package of measures to spur Italy's stagnant economy and cut its towering public debt, but he has failed to convince markets made skeptical by his repeated failure to deliver reforms.
European leaders welcomed a letter of intent on planned reforms delivered by Berlusconi to meet a deadline at a summit this week but emphasized that the measures must now be implemented.
"The interest rates that they are paying are punitive," said Monument Securities strategist Marc Oswald. "As far as Italy goes, it is still the bete-noire of the whole euro zone problem."
"They are still going to carry on having to pay higher yields unless they come up with reform plans and implement them. But anyone who expresses an optimistic opinion about that is probably looking through rose-tainted glasses," he added.
France and Germany have expressed open exasperation at a succession of unfulfilled reform promises by Berlusconi and fear the crisis in Italy could spark a wider emergency that would threaten the very existence of the single currency.
REFORM DELAYS
Even if a weakened government manages to pass the difficult reforms Berlusconi has promised, most would not come into force until the middle of next year. Markets are unlikely to remain patient during such a long delay.
Speaking after Wednesday's European summit, French President Nicolas Sarkozy highlighted fears that the crisis could jump from Greece to the much bigger Italian economy.
"If we had allowed Greece to fall, and the speculation shifted on to attack Italy, the markets would then have said we will allow Italy fall too, and that would be the end of the euro," he said in a television interview.
As Italy sinks deeper into the debt crisis, tensions in Berlusconi's government have grown sharply, leading to widespread speculation in the press and even among members of his own party that the government will fall soon, leading to elections in 2012, a year ahead of schedule.
Berlusconi, whose approval ratings have been torpedoed by a mix of scandal and mounting economic and political problems, rejected speculation that he could be forced to go to early elections. He promised to press on with the promised reforms.
Berlusconi said his alliance remained solid with the pro-devolution Northern League party, whose leader Umberto Bossi has expressed open skepticism about the survival of the coalition.
"There is an absolute need for political stability and Bossi thinks exactly the same way I do. The pact we have with the League has never been up for discussion," Berlusconi said.
"No credible political alternative exists."
This week the League rejected plans to hike the pension age to 67, leading to tense late-night negotiations before a compromise was patched up in time to take to a summit in Brussels last Wednesday.
Berlusconi said the package of measures presented in Brussels was welcomed by EU partners.
But the proposals, including an increase in the pension age, rules making it easier to lay off staff and provisions to place civil servants in special redundancy schemes, have raised fierce opposition from unions and skepticism about whether they will ever be implemented.
In the increasingly murky environment of Italian politics, there has been speculation that the package is part of a deal between Berlusconi and Bossi to take the government to the end of the year before triggering new elections in the spring.
Friday, Berlusconi dismissed any suggestion of a pact to go to the polls before the scheduled date in 2013 and said an election campaign in the middle of the crisis would be "very seriously damaging to Italy."
(Additional reporting by Marius Zaharia in London and Brian Love in Paris; Editing by Barry Moody)
ASUNCION (Reuters) ? Spain and Portugal said on Saturday the euro zone's debt crisis is a global problem, calling on the United States and other G20 powers to help contain the fallout.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero urged the G20 countries least affected by the crisis to provide "urgent stimulus plans" to shield the global economy.
Europe's debt crisis looks set to dominate the summit of Group of 20 leading economies in France from November 3-4.
The gathering in Cannes will take place a week after euro zone leaders reached a deal to recapitalize their banks, boost the firepower of a euro zone rescue fund and impose hefty losses on holders of Greek debt.
"We hope these deals, together with those made by the G20 next weekend ... restore the confidence needed to keep the economy moving," Zapatero told leaders at the Ibero-American summit in Paraguay.
"I hope they will rise to the challenge next week. The United States has a role, the Federal Reserve has a role, all the central banks of big countries have their role -- of course, China, India, Brazil, the Europeans and Japan," he said during a news conference.
"The G20's response has two key elements. Firstly, those of us who have been working to consolidate our fiscal position cannot change course. But those countries that have the margin to incentivize economic activity have to adopt urgent stimulus plans. If not, the global economy will be affected."
In the last 18 months, Zapatero has made cuts and implemented reforms to show Spain is serious about fiscal discipline and to avoid a sell-off in its debt on concerns it would need a Greek-style bailout.
Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho told leaders gathered in Asuncion the "crisis was not just European."
"This is a global crisis," said. "It's a crisis that calls on all of us, whether in Europe, in Latin America or any other continent."
A source from the Portuguese delegation said Passos Coelho asked Mexican President Felipe Calderon to tell fellow G20 members that Washington should help resolve the crisis "by boosting trade and also with financial help."
"The European Union has already responded to the crisis. It hopes to find in the G20 setting a global response to a crisis that is systemic and global," the source added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Financial markets rallied strongly this week after European leaders hammered out the crisis deal, although analysts quickly warned that details of the rescue could still take weeks or even months to work out.
Ready for more dollars and cents earnings news? It's Samsung's turn, and when it comes to phones the news couldn't be better, where it notched an operating profit of $2.3 billion on record sales. Unfortunately, other parts of its massive business selling displays, memory chips, appliances, and more weren't as profitable, leading a quarterly profit of $3.8 billion, down 13% from the same period last year. We'll wait for a press release in English for more details, for now you can paw through bar graphs and figures in the accompanying slides.
Update: Now with English language press included after the break.
Rob Kardashian is standing up for sister Kim, who tabloids are suggesting is having trouble in her marriage to basketball star Kris Humphries.
?My sister is completely happy, my family?s never been happier,? Rob told Access Hollywood as he rehearsed the tango with partner Cheryl Burke for Monday?s ?Dancing with the Stars.? ?She just got married so she should be happy.?
VIEW THE PHOTOS: ?Dancing With The Stars? Season 13: Week 6 ? Broadway
Rob insisted that the tabloid attention on Kim?s marriage doesn?t bother him.
?Not really, ?cause that?s the world that we live in,? he said. ?It?s all about trying to break up newlyweds or trying to create drama over nothing. That?s just media and like I said, the world we live in, and we have never listened to those comments or else you?re gonna drive yourself crazy and break up your own marriage.?
VIEW THE PHOTOS: ?Dancing With The Stars? Season 13: Week 3 Highlights
Not focusing on tabloids, Rob is concentrating hard on improving his ballroom skills.
?It?s kinda shocking that we?re still here, to me,? he said. ?I definitely didn?t expect that going into the competition, but now that we are here [this] definitely has given me that confidence and I just want [to] like improve even more and try and get to the top spot,? he said.
Rob hopes to improve, but he has no plans to pull a Maks and go shirtless in the ballroom.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: ?Dancing With The Stars? Season 13: Week 4 Highlights
?Never,? he told Access. ?I?m not even the type to take my shirt off.?
Should Kim's brother defend her marriage, or just keep quiet? Tell us on Facebook.
Copyright 2011 by NBC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
FORT HOOD, Texas ? A military judge is considering requests to provide a jury consultant and pre-trial publicity expert to the Fort Hood shooting suspect's defense team.
Maj. Nidal Hasan's attorneys told the judge Thursday that they need the experts' help because their client faces a possible death sentence if convicted. They say a jury consultant will help ensure that the military jury also will consider a life prison sentence.
Military prosecutors have asked the judge to deny both requests, saying they're unnecessary expenses.
The judge didn't say when he'll decide on the defense motions.
Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the November 2009 shootings at the Texas Army post.
(Reuters) ? Just when you thought filling up your car could not hurt any more, researchers may have found another reason to avoid touching the gas pump: germs.
Gas pump handles turned out to be the filthiest surface that Americans encounter on the way to work, according to a study released on Tuesday by Kimberly-Clark Professional, a unit of personal hygiene giant Kimberly-Clark Corp.
A team of hygienists swabbed hundreds of surfaces around six U.S. cities to see what everyday objects are breeding grounds for the worst bacteria and viruses.
The top offenders, following gas pumps, were handles on public mailboxes, escalator rails and ATM buttons.
Closely following on the filthiest list were parking meters and kiosks, crosswalk buttons and buttons on vending machines in shopping malls.
"It comes down to the fact that nobody cleans the things that you're going to touch on a daily basis," said Dr. Kelly Arehart, program leader of Kimberly-Clark's Healthy Workplace Project.
Testers analyzed swabs of the surfaces for levels of adenosine triphosphate, which signals the presence of animal, vegetable, bacteria, yeast or mold cells, and the high levels found suggest they can be transmitting illness, researchers said.
Swabs were taken in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and Philadelphia.
Arehart's colleague Brad Reynolds said germs from people's hands can transfer seven times before leaving the skin. People should wash their hands as soon as they get to work, he said.
(Reporting by Alina Selyukh in Washington; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
ATLANTA (Reuters) Atlanta police early on Wednesday evicted dozens of protesters from a downtown park and arrested 53 people who refused to leave the demonstration against economic inequality.
Police entered Woodruff Park just after midnight following two warnings to demonstrators that they would have to leave, Mayor Kasim Reed said in a statement. He called the demonstrators "increasingly aggressive" but said the arrests were made without incident.
The action came as authorities around the country begin to lose patience with the protests, now in their second month. Demonstrators scuffled with police in Oakland on Tuesday evening after their camp near city hall was cleared out.
Atlanta demonstrators had been camping in the park for nearly three weeks. Reed last week said the protesters could stay in the park at least until November 7, but said he changed his mind last weekend after the protesters tried to hold a concert without plans for adequate security or crowd control. The mayor said he had other safety concerns as the number of tents in the park increased to more than 75.
"Last week, demonstrators inserted wire hangers into electrical sockets to create additional power sources," Reed said in his statement. "A number of other fire code violations occurred, including repeated storage of propane heaters and twenty-gallon propane tanks inside tents."
Among those arrested on Wednesday was a Georgia state senator, Vincent Fort, protesters said in a news release. The group vowed to continue its protest with an anti-war march Wednesday in downtown Atlanta.
Sara Amis, a spokeswoman for Occupy Atlanta, said Wednesday the encampment was safe.
"I think that was manufactured," she said when asked about the mayor's concerns over the safety of the demonstrators.
The protest was the Atlanta version of the movement launched more than a month ago as Occupy Wall Street in New York.
The protests focus on anger over government bailouts of big banks, persistent high unemployment and economic inequality. They have sprung up across the United States and in other countries.
Hundreds of demonstrators have been arrested in New York since the protests began. There have also been numerous arrests in other cities.
We've seen Japan's magic flying ball before, but this is the demo where the fumbly bumbly spheroid finally won my heart. The device could be used for reconnaissance, search and rescue, or as the world's greatest pi?ata. Also: it's adorable. More »
When Jack Ma, chairman of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group, announced last month that he wanted to buy Yahoo! ? which itself owns 40 percent of Alibaba ? he touched off a frenzy of tire-kicking by entities ranging from private equity firms to?Microsoft. Media outlets including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have cited unnamed sources who say Microsoft is in talks with a consortium of investors including private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, but it's not the only tech giant?eyeing Yahoo. Microsoft's archrival Google?also is reported by those same publications to be exploring strategic options, although the word at this point is unofficial and informal.
(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
Google doesn't actually want Yahoo, says Scott Kessler, Internet equity analyst at S&P Capital IQ. The company just doesn't want Microsoft, with its rival Bing search engine, to get its hands on any Yahoo assets that could threaten Google's search dominance.
"The fact that you have a player potentially like Microsoft means that Google at least needs to get involved at some level, if for no other reasons to know what's going on," he says. "Google is inclined to get involved because they're concerned about Microsoft having a place in this process and potentially having a lot to say about Yahoo's future."
Reports of Google's interest could?be a strategic advantage for Yahoo, since it would likely?drive up the eventual price. Of course, Google wouldn't mind driving up the price for any acquisition Microsoft might make.
Even if Google wanted to acquire any part of Yahoo outright, such a deal would be unlikely to?pass muster with antitrust regulators, analysts say. Google and Yahoo?tried to form an advertising partnership in 2008 and?abandoned the effort after getting strong signals that the Department of Justice would work to block?the deal. Regulators would be more likely to look favorably on a Yahoo-Microsoft partnership, which is what worries Google ? another reason for the company to get involved.
While Yahoo's content and user base might be an attractive addition to Google, which previously acquired YouTube, Kessler thinks it's unlikely that Google would try to buy Yahoo assets like Flickr on a piecemeal basis. Google's end game would be monetization of the user traffic via advertising sales, so a takeover of any part of Yahoo's core business would run into the same antitrust objections Google has experienced before, he said.
If Google does have a genuine interest in Yahoo, it has a couple of options. Google might view Yahoo's Alibaba connection as a way into the Asian market. "I could see a scenario where Google is maybe more interested in some of the other assets like the international investments in Japan and China," Kessler says. Despite a years-long, often politically fraught effort, Google has failed to establish much of a presence in China, so this could be an opportunity to grow there.
Ironically, Google does have a business interest in keeping Yahoo healthy. Like the Joker to Google's Batman, having a slightly less powerful rival establishes a kind of equilibrium. Kessler points out that when Apple was on the ropes shortly after reinstating Steve Jobs in what was viewed at the time as a last-ditch effort to turn the company around, Microsoft made a substantial investment in its smaller rival. Without Yahoo, Google would face even greater legal challenges to its market dominance.
LONDON ? The inmates are locked up, but where's the key?
A British prison union official says a Birmingham Prison officer's set of keys has gone missing and now every lock at the country's largest prison must now be replaced.
Terry Fullerton of the Prison Officers Association said Friday he's been told the set went missing a couple days ago and an investigation is underway.
He says the keys could have been stolen and copied.
Birmingham Prison became the first U.K. prison to be privatized when security firm G4S took it over this month.
G4S says it doesn't comment on security but that contingency measures are in place.
It's unclear whether the some 1,400 inmates are currently being held in their cells or elsewhere.
This photo provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections shows Alabama death row inmate Christopher Johnson, who has been executed for killing his infant son in February 2005, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011 at Holman Prison in Atmore, Ala. (AP Photo/Alabama Department of Corrections)
This photo provided by the Alabama Department of Corrections shows Alabama death row inmate Christopher Johnson, who has been executed for killing his infant son in February 2005, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011 at Holman Prison in Atmore, Ala. (AP Photo/Alabama Department of Corrections)
ATMORE, Alabama (AP) ? An Alabama man has been executed for killing his infant son in February 2005, declaring as his only last words, "Game over."
Authorities say Christopher Johnson was pronounced dead at 6:25 p.m. local time Thursday after receiving a lethal injection at Holman prison in Atmore, the same community where the crime occurred.
Johnson, 38, was convicted in the death of his 6-month-old son, Elias Ocean Johnson. He testified at trial he beat and suffocated his son because he hated his wife and didn't want to be near the mother of their child.
Johnson was the sixth person executed in Alabama this year and the fourth to die since the state changed one of the drugs in its lethal injection from sodium thiopental to pentobarbital ? owing to a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental.
BEIJING ? China says the Dalai Lama's support for Buddhist clerics who set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule is a type of terrorism in disguise.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu on Wednesday condemned the recent immolations by Tibetans in western China and said that the Dalai Lama is glorifying the cases, inciting more people to commit suicide.
Nine clerics ? eight monks and a nun ? have set themselves on fire since March over tightening restrictions on religious practice and heavy-handed policing in Aba, a traditionally Tibetan region under Chinese control.
To honor the clerics, the Dalai Lama fasted and led prayers Wednesday in the Indian town where he lives in exile.
ANKARA, Turkey?? Turkish security forces said they had killed 15 Kurdish militants and they also reportedly launched an incursion inside Iraq Wednesday, after Kurdish rebels killed 26 Turkish soldiers and wounded 22 others in multiple attacks along the border.
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Turkish President Abdullah Gul said revenge would be "very great" for the attacks in southeastern Turkey.
"No one should forget this, those that inflict this pain on us will endure far greater pain. Those that think they will weaken our state with these attacks or think they will bring our state into line, they will see that the revenge for these attacks will be very great and they will endure it many times over," Gul told reporters in Istanbul.
Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and its Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu both cancelled foreign trips after the attacks, the deadliest strike on Turkish security forces in 18 years, Al Arabiya reported. Al Arabiya, citing the AFP, said that the PKK killed 33 unarmed soldiers in Bingol province in 1993.
The Kurdish rebels, who are fighting for autonomy in Turkey's southeast, staged simultaneous attacks on military outposts and police stations near the border towns of Cukurca and Yuksekova early Wednesday.
The attacks left 26 soldiers dead and 22 others wounded, the Interior Ministry announced. It was the deadliest Kurdish rebel attack since 1992, according to a tally by NTV television.
Warplane strike bases
In response, Turkish warplanes and artillery units, positioned just inside Turkey, struck Kurdish rebel bases across the border in response, NTV said.
NTV, without citing sources, also said Turkish troops penetrated as deep as 2.5 miles into Iraq and helicopters were ferrying commandos across the border in what appeared to be a cross-border offensive limited in scope for now.
Turkey last staged a major ground offensive against Iraq in early 2008.
Turkish authorities did not immediately confirm the incursion but the chief of the military as well as interior and defense ministers rushed to the border area.
Kurdish rebel group the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, said clashes were taking place in two separate areas close to the mountainous Iraqi-Turkish border.
"We have been clashing with the Turkish forces in two areas since around 3 a.m. today," Dostdar Hamo, a spokesman for the rebel group, said by telephone.
Turkey last week pressured Iraq to move to eradicate the rebel bases in northern Iraq, saying its "patience is running out" in the face of rebel attacks directed at Turkey from Iraqi soil.
Around 100 Kurdish rebels were believed to have participated in the attacks, according to the state-run TRT television. The rebels fled to northern Iraq after the attacks as the military shelled their escape routes, NTV said.
Rebels intensify attacks
The rebels have lately intensified their attacks in the country's Kurdish-dominated southeast, killing dozens of members of the country's security force and at least 18 civilians since mid-July.
On Tuesday, a roadside bomb blast killed five policemen and three civilians, including a 4-year-old girl.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984 as Kurdish politicians pushed for greater cultural and political rights for Kurds, who make up around 20 percent of Turkey's 74 million people, such as the right to education in the mother tongue ? a demand that the Turkish government fears could deepen the ethnic divide in the country.
The government has taken steps toward wider Kurdish-language education by allowing Kurdish-language institutes and private Kurdish courses as well as Kurdish television broadcasts. But it won't permit lower-level education in Kurdish.
The European Union, which Turkey is striving to join, has pushed the Turkish government to grant more rights to the Kurds. But EU countries also have urged Kurdish lawmakers to distance themselves from the rebel group, which is considered a terrorist group by the U.S. and the EU.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
LONDON ? British police in riot gear on Wednesday used sledgehammers to clear the way for the eviction of a community of Irish Travelers from a site where they have lived illegally for more than a decade.
A large force of police and bailiffs faced resistance from residents and supporters who threw objects or struggled with officers at the Dale Farm site, 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of London. One mobile home was set on fire as police moved in and several protesters chained themselves to barricades with bicycle locks in a bid to slow down the evictions.
Essex Police said two protesters were Tasered and one person arrested and that police officers had been attacked with rocks and other missiles as they tried to enter the site.
The conflict over the settlement has simmered since 2001, when Travelers bought and settled on a former scrap yard next to a legal Travelers' site.
The local authority says it's a simple planning issue ? the 86 families lack permission to pitch homes on the land. The Travelers, a traditionally nomadic group similar to, but ethnically distinct from, Gypsy or Roma people, call it ethnic cleansing ? the latest chapter in a centuries-old story of mistrust between nomads and British society.
"We are being dragged out of the only homes we have in this world," said Kathleen McCarthy, a Dale Farm resident. "We will do our best to stay but it looks like we have no hope."
Lily Hayes, who identified herself as a human rights observer, accused the police of using unnecessary force. Authorities said the violence was coming from the Travelers and their supporters.
"The premeditated and organized scenes of violence that we have already seen with protesters throwing rocks and bricks, threatening police with iron bars and setting fire to a caravan are shocking," said Tony Ball, leader of Basildon Council, the local authority.
"These are utterly disgraceful scenes and demonstrate the fact some so-called supporters were always intent on violence," Ball said.
There are estimated to be between 15,000 and 30,000 Irish Travelers in Britain, where they are recognized as a distinct ethnic minority by the government.
The legal battle over Dale Farm dragged on for years, through eviction orders and last-minute reprieves, until the Travelers lost a final appeal last week.
Traveler evictions are common across Britain, but few are as high-profile as Dale Farm. Oscar-winning actress and political activist Vanessa Redgrave came to the community's support, and the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged authorities to find "a peaceful and appropriate solution" to the crisis.
Ciliary beating of Platynereis gives insights into an ancestral state of nervous system evolution
This release is available in German.
As planktonic organisms the larvae of the marine annelid Platynereis swim freely in the open water. They move by activity of their cilia, thousands of tiny hair-like structures forming a band along the larval body and beating coordinately. With changing environmental conditions the larvae swim upward and downward to their appropriate water depth. Scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tbingen, Germany have now identified some signalling substances in the larval nervous system regulating swimming depth of the larvae. These substances influence the ciliary beating and thus hold the larvae in the preferred water depth. The scientists discovered a very simple circuitry of nerve cells underlying this regulation, reflecting an early evolutionary state of the nervous system.
The locomotory system of many animals is muscle based. However, small marine animals often move by cilia. This type of locomotion is more ancient in evolution than muscle-based locomotion and very common in marine plankton. Besides the annelid larvae, the larvae of many marine invertebrates are part of this plankton, for example larvae of snails, sea shells and starfish.
"Not much is known about how the nervous systems of the marine plankton regulate ciliary beating, since the locomotion of intensely explored model organisms like the fruit fly is based on muscles," says Gspr Jkely. Together with his team at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology and in cooperation with Thomas A. Mnch at the Centre for Integrative Neuroscience in Tbingen, he has examined in detail the nervous system of marine annelid larvae of Platynereis dumerilii.
The ciliary band of Platynereis larvae serves as a swimming motor in the seawater: When cilia beat fast and continuously, larvae swim upward, and when cilia cease beating, the larvae sink. These larvae sense different environmental conditions, e.g. they react to changes in temperature, light and food supply, and alter their movement in the water column accordingly.
In order to gain insight into the regulation of this behaviour, the Tbingen scientists analysed the genes of Platynereis. They discovered several neuronal signalling substances, so-called neuropeptides in their Platynereis gene databases. Moreover, the scientists found that these neuropeptides are produced in single sensory nerve cells of the larva and are released directly at the ciliary band. The scientists concluded that these nerve cells send the sensory information directly on to the cilia. Some of these neuropeptides influence over cilia beating frequency, others act on the frequency of cilia holdups as well. By means of the neuropeptides, the scientists could control the up and down movement of freely swimming larvae and change their swimming depth in the water column deliberately.
"We have discovered that the responsible nervous circuitries are built in an unusually simple way. The sensory nerve cells have motor function at the same time, that is, they send the motion impulse directly to the ciliary band," says Markus Conzelmann from the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, first author of the study. Such simple circuitries are not known from the regulation of muscle-based locomotion. "We were astonished to find not only one neuropeptide as part of such a simple circuitry, but eleven different ones."
According to the scientists this discovery gives insights into the form and function of nerve systems in an early stage of evolution. Moreover, the results could be interesting for other fields of marine biology: "We now have a suitable model to further explore the regulation of swimming depth in marine plankton. Since the swimming behaviour of plankton is crucial for the survival and prevalence of thousands of marine animal species, our research results could be relevant for marine ecology," explains Gspr Jkely. In his future research he wants to reveal how single nerve cells process the different sensory information from water pressure, temperature or salinity.
###
Original Publication:
Markus Conzelmann, Sarah-Lena Offenburger, Albina Asadulina, Timea Keller, Thomas A. Mnch and Gspr Jkely: Neuropeptides regulate swimming depth of Platynereis larvae. PNAS, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1109085108
Printable images can be obtained at the Public Relations Office of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology. Please send a proof upon publication.
The Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology conducts basic research in the fields of biochemistry, genetics and evolutionary biology. It employs about 325 people and is located at the Max Planck Campus in Tbingen. The Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology is one of 80 research institutes that the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science maintains in Germany.
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Ciliary beating of Platynereis gives insights into an ancestral state of nervous system evolution
This release is available in German.
As planktonic organisms the larvae of the marine annelid Platynereis swim freely in the open water. They move by activity of their cilia, thousands of tiny hair-like structures forming a band along the larval body and beating coordinately. With changing environmental conditions the larvae swim upward and downward to their appropriate water depth. Scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tbingen, Germany have now identified some signalling substances in the larval nervous system regulating swimming depth of the larvae. These substances influence the ciliary beating and thus hold the larvae in the preferred water depth. The scientists discovered a very simple circuitry of nerve cells underlying this regulation, reflecting an early evolutionary state of the nervous system.
The locomotory system of many animals is muscle based. However, small marine animals often move by cilia. This type of locomotion is more ancient in evolution than muscle-based locomotion and very common in marine plankton. Besides the annelid larvae, the larvae of many marine invertebrates are part of this plankton, for example larvae of snails, sea shells and starfish.
"Not much is known about how the nervous systems of the marine plankton regulate ciliary beating, since the locomotion of intensely explored model organisms like the fruit fly is based on muscles," says Gspr Jkely. Together with his team at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology and in cooperation with Thomas A. Mnch at the Centre for Integrative Neuroscience in Tbingen, he has examined in detail the nervous system of marine annelid larvae of Platynereis dumerilii.
The ciliary band of Platynereis larvae serves as a swimming motor in the seawater: When cilia beat fast and continuously, larvae swim upward, and when cilia cease beating, the larvae sink. These larvae sense different environmental conditions, e.g. they react to changes in temperature, light and food supply, and alter their movement in the water column accordingly.
In order to gain insight into the regulation of this behaviour, the Tbingen scientists analysed the genes of Platynereis. They discovered several neuronal signalling substances, so-called neuropeptides in their Platynereis gene databases. Moreover, the scientists found that these neuropeptides are produced in single sensory nerve cells of the larva and are released directly at the ciliary band. The scientists concluded that these nerve cells send the sensory information directly on to the cilia. Some of these neuropeptides influence over cilia beating frequency, others act on the frequency of cilia holdups as well. By means of the neuropeptides, the scientists could control the up and down movement of freely swimming larvae and change their swimming depth in the water column deliberately.
"We have discovered that the responsible nervous circuitries are built in an unusually simple way. The sensory nerve cells have motor function at the same time, that is, they send the motion impulse directly to the ciliary band," says Markus Conzelmann from the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, first author of the study. Such simple circuitries are not known from the regulation of muscle-based locomotion. "We were astonished to find not only one neuropeptide as part of such a simple circuitry, but eleven different ones."
According to the scientists this discovery gives insights into the form and function of nerve systems in an early stage of evolution. Moreover, the results could be interesting for other fields of marine biology: "We now have a suitable model to further explore the regulation of swimming depth in marine plankton. Since the swimming behaviour of plankton is crucial for the survival and prevalence of thousands of marine animal species, our research results could be relevant for marine ecology," explains Gspr Jkely. In his future research he wants to reveal how single nerve cells process the different sensory information from water pressure, temperature or salinity.
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Original Publication:
Markus Conzelmann, Sarah-Lena Offenburger, Albina Asadulina, Timea Keller, Thomas A. Mnch and Gspr Jkely: Neuropeptides regulate swimming depth of Platynereis larvae. PNAS, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1109085108
Printable images can be obtained at the Public Relations Office of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology. Please send a proof upon publication.
The Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology conducts basic research in the fields of biochemistry, genetics and evolutionary biology. It employs about 325 people and is located at the Max Planck Campus in Tbingen. The Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology is one of 80 research institutes that the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science maintains in Germany.
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KIBLER, Ark.?? In a year when severe drought scorched the Southwest, a hurricane drowned crops in the East, and river flooding swamped farms in the Midwest, one of the worst places to be a farmer may be just west of the Mississippi River.
Not only have Arkansas and Louisiana experienced both drought and flooding, but in some cases, so have individual farmers in those states. The cost of the bad weather could reach $1 billion.
Jerry Gill estimated he lost $100,000. Flooding submerged the 150 acres where he usually plants corn and soybeans about 150 miles northwest of Little Rock. Then the drought dried up the pastures his cattle graze. At one point, Gill resorted to running a hose from his house so the skinny animals would have enough to drink.
"It's tough to grow anything when the temperature's 114," said Gill, 64, of Kibler.
Flooding alone caused more than $500 million in losses in Arkansas, and tallies from the drought and other bouts of bad weather aren't available yet, the state's farm bureau said. In Louisiana, flooding and drought resulted in an estimated $440 million in losses and increased production costs, according to the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center.
The damage is significant given that the two states typically produce more than 60 percent of the nation's rice. Arkansas, the nation's leading rice grower, lost about 300,000 acres this year to flooding, mostly from rivers. That's about 10 percent of the total U.S. production, the farm bureau said.
All of the two states were declared primary agricultural disaster areas. The only other state designated as such was tiny Rhode Island, whose farmers were swamped by Tropical Storm Irene. In other states, some counties were declared primary disaster areas and then neighboring counties also got benefits.
In a letter to Arkansas' governor, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack noted the state had been hit by one thing after the next, including "hail, high winds, flooding, widespread drought, and excessive heat." Louisiana suffered much of the same ? plus Tropical Storm Lee.
James Bingham knows about hard times. Water from the St. Francis floodway wiped out more than 1,200 of the 1,700 acres of rice, soybeans and corn he'd planted near Payneway, Ark., and in surrounding Poinsett County.
He managed to salvage about 100 acres of rice and 400 acres of corn and then planted 2,300 acres of soybeans since it was too late to grow anything else. Temperatures soared into the 90s, and within weeks, he was struggling to keep his fields irrigated.
"We couldn't keep it wet," said Bingham, 66. "We'd just water it, turn around and water it again."
Extra watering kept his soybeans going, but saving what was left of his rice was a fight. The crop needs to be covered with about 2 inches of water to grow well, and Bingham and other farmers rang up hefty water bills as they tried to keep the plants sated.
"It's probably the most expensive crop that any of us have ever raised," he said.
Jeff Rutledge, a farmer in Newport, Ark., agreed. He said he borrowed more money than ever before after flooding and drought devastated hundreds of acres of his 3,500-acre farm.
"This is the most expensive year I've had," he said. "All the extra watering we had to do, the replanting, the spraying (for insects), the increased fuel costs."
Flooding from the White and Cache rivers ruined 700 acres of his rice and grain sorghum this spring. He saved about 200 acres of rice and replanted another 500 acres ? plus soybeans. When the drought struck, the 37-year-old had to shell out for more water to keep his plants from withering in the relentless heat.
He's harvesting his rice now and said it doesn't look like the effort was worth it. He's counting on the soybeans he'll harvest in the coming weeks to save him from some of his debt.
"If we were depending upon our rice crop, we'd be in trouble," Rutledge said.
Ted Glaser, 64, didn't do much better with corn and soybeans. He lost 1,000 acres in May when the Morganza spillway, which diverts water from the Mississippi River, flooded. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the spillway after snow melt and rain sent a torrent of water into the river.
But elsewhere on his 3,300 acres near Oscar, La., Glaser fought drought and severe heat.
"One side of the levee was flooded," he said. "And everything outside the spillway was burning up."
Some soybeans never came up and "what came up burnt," he said. He figures he'll be lucky to get 35 bushels an acre this year, when he usually gets 60.
Back in Arkansas, Gill never planted soybeans after heavy rain and flooding drowned the corn he put in the ground and left his fields looking like the deep end of a swimming pool.
"Then, from one day to the next, the rain shut off and there was no more," he said.
In two months, June and July, less than an inch of rain fell Fort Smith, the closest place where precise records are kept, the National Weather Service said. The only thing in Gill's fields now are fuzzy green caterpillars, beetles and waist-high weeds.
"None of which there's a market for," Gill said.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Within Temptation in concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon. \n\nPhoto copyright Rui M. Leal / PR Photos.
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Within Temptation in concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon. \n\nPhoto copyright Rui M. Leal / PR Photos.
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Within Temptation in concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon. \n\nPhoto copyright Rui M. Leal / PR Photos.
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Within Temptation in concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon. \n\nPhoto copyright Rui M. Leal / PR Photos.
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Within Temptation in concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon. \n\nPhoto copyright Rui M. Leal / PR Photos.
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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10/12/2011 - Within Temptation - Within Temptation in Concert at Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon - October 12, 2011 - Coliseu dos Recreios - Lisbon, Portugal ? Rui M. Leal / PR Photos
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Public release date: 18-Oct-2011
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