Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda speaks during a debate by 10-party leaders for the upcoming lower house elections, in Tokyo Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012. Japan's parliamentary election is scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda speaks during a debate by 10-party leaders for the upcoming lower house elections, in Tokyo Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012. Japan's parliamentary election is scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
TOKYO (AP) ? Japan unleashed yet another barrage of stimulus at its stagnant economy on Friday as debate over how to revive growth heated up ahead of a general election widely expected to deal a severe blow to the ruling Democratic Party.
Fresh data for October showed an uptick in industrial output from the month before, the first increase in four months, but little else in the way of encouragement.
The opposition Liberal Democratic Party, which is pushing for more aggressive action to spur growth, is widely expected to make major gains in a Dec. 16 general election.
The latest stimulus package approved by the Japanese Cabinet, totaling 880.3 billion yen ($10.7 billion), is earmarked mainly for spending on social programs, employment creation and support for small and medium-size enterprises. It is expected to add 0.2 percent to Japan's economic growth rate and to help create about 80,000 jobs, the Cabinet said.
The total size is not enough to really boost GDP, especially for early next year," said Junko Nishioka, an economist at RBS Japan Securities. "It is not enough to change the mood of business activity."
The economy shrank an annualized 3.5 percent in July-September, and many economists say they expect a further contraction in the current quarter, which would land Japan in its fifth recession in 15 years.
LDP leader Shinzo Abe contends much stronger action is needed to help pull the economy out of the doldrums and has urged that the central bank move more aggressively to end deflation, which has hindered growth for much of the past two decades.
Abe and Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda were due to face off later Friday in a policy debate. Even if Noda's party does lose its parliamentary majority in the election, the LDP would likely have to forge a coalition in order to take power.
Both parties have pushed the Bank of Japan for stronger action to boost growth, with Abe urging that the central bank be held responsible for meeting an inflation target of at least 2 percent. Such calls worry many in Japan who fear the LDP might undermine the central bank's autonomy and further erode the country's already weakening fiscal health.
Industrial output rose 1.8 percent in October from September, though it fell 4.3 percent from a year earlier. Consumer prices were flat at 0 percent, but that was an improvement over the previous month's minus 0.1 percent.
Still, the better-than-expected industrial production data suggest the downturn could be bottoming out late this year, helped by a stronger U.S. economy, said Nishioka of RBS Japan.
"The main driver of the recovery is overseas demand, though there is still a downside risk from China," she said.
October brought no improvement in labor conditions, with unemployment unchanged at 4.2 percent and the ratio of jobs available falling to 80 per 100 jobseekers from 81 the month before.
Tensions over a territorial dispute with China have bitten into exports that already were limping due to weak global growth and the prolonged strength of the Japanese yen against other currencies, which makes them relatively expensive in overseas markets.
Meanwhile, the consumer demand that is a major driver of growth has remained anemic: Retail sales fell 1.2 percent in October from a year earlier, the government reported Thursday. A slight improvement in seasonally adjusted terms was mainly due to rising prices for food and energy, thanks to rising electricity rates and gas prices.
Weak spending on cars and consumer appliances suggests consumer sentiment is weakening due to worries over job prospects, Capital Economics said in a research note. It argued in favor of longer-term structural reforms to nurture growth, given Japan's massive government debt, which is more than twice the country's gross domestic product.
"Although this is an age-old tactic for winning votes, we think it won't do Japan any favors in the medium term," it said. Growth is becoming increasingly reliant on government support. Further stimulus could reduce the private sector's ability to pick up the slack in the future."
To finance the stimulus package, the government is dipping into its reserve fund. The government released a smaller package of 422.6 billion yen ($5.1 billion) in October in an effort to stave off recession.
Tiny algae shed light on photosynthesis as a dynamic propertyPublic release date: 28-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Gilbert degilbert@lbl.gov 925-296-5643 DOE/Joint Genome Institute
One of the first chemical reactions children learn is the recipe for photosynthesis, combining carbon dioxide, water and solar energy to produce organic compounds. Many of the world's most important photosynthetic eukaryotes such as plants did not develop the ability to combine these ingredients themselves. Rather, they got their light-harnessing organelles -- chloroplasts -- indirectly by stealing them from other organisms. In some instances, this has resulted in algae with multiple, distinct genomes, the evolutionary equivalent of a "turducken*."
Chloroplasts originally evolved from photosynthetic bacteria by primary endosymbiosis, in which a bacterium or other prokaryote is engulfed by a eukaryotic host. The chloroplasts of red and green algae have subsequently come to reside within other, previously non-photosynthetic eukaryotes by secondary endosymbiosis. Such events have contributed to the global diversity of photosynthetic organisms that play a crucial role in regulating and maintaining the global carbon cycle. In most organisms that acquired photosynthesis by this mechanism, the nucleus from the ingested algal cell has disappeared, but in some cases it persists as a residual organelle known as a nucleomorph. Such organisms have four distinct genomes.
To better understand the process of secondary endosymbiosis and why nucleomorphs persist in some organisms, an international team composed of 73 researchers at 27 institutions, including the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), collaborated to sequence and analyze the genomes and transcriptomes (the expressed genes) of two tiny algae. The team led by John Archibald of Canada's Dalhousie University published their findings on the algae Bigelowellia natans and Guillardia theta online November 29, 2012 in Nature.
Archibald compared these algae to Russian nesting dolls with "sophisticated sub-cellular protein-targeting machinery" and four genomes derived from the two eukaryotes that merged over time. Approximately 50 percent of the genes in both genomes are 'unique' with no obvious counterpart in other organisms," he added. "This indicates just how different they are from characterized species."
DOE JGI Fungal Genomics Program head Igor Grigoriev called B. natans and G. theta "living fossils" because of the remnant nucleomorph. He added that algae are relevant to the Department of Energy Office of Science research portfolio for their potential applications in the fields of bioenergy and environment, noting that the DOE JGI has published over 75 percent of the publicly available algal genomes. "Iterations of endosymbiosis have led to a global diversity of these primary producers. Sequencing these two algae, the first cryptophyte and the first chlorarachniophyte sequenced, helped us to fill in the gaps in the Eukaryotic Tree of Life, and obtain additional references for better understanding of eukaryotic evolution."
Archibald said that "G. theta and B. natans both possess a surprisingly complex suite of enzymes involved in carbon metabolism, and thus represent a useful resource for scientists engaged in both basic and applied research, including photosynthesis, sub-cellular trafficking and biofuels development."
The DOE JGI sequenced the genomes of B. natans (95 million nucleotides or bases: Mb) and G. theta (87 Mb) from single cell isolates provided by Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences as part of the 2007 Community Sequencing Program portfolio. In addition, the transcriptomes were sequenced separately by the National Center for Genome Resources in New Mexico. Among the team's findings is an answer to the question of why nucleomorphs still exist.
"The reason for the persistence of nucleomorphs in both organisms appears to be surprisingly simple: they are no longer able to transfer their DNA to the host cell nucleus by the process of endosymbiotic gene transfer," said Archibald. Unlike most other secondarily photosynthetic eukaryotes in which the endosymbiont's genetic matter has completely migrated over to the host, in cryptophytes and chlorarachniophytes the nucleus and chloroplast from the engulfed algae remain partitioned off from the host cell. "As a consequence," he added," genetic and biochemical mosaicism is rampant in G. theta and B. natans."
Both researchers highlighted the unexpected finding of alternative splicing in B. natans. Grigoriev noted that the phenomenon is one typical for higher eukaryotes, and Archibald added that the levels "greatly exceed that seen in the model plant Arabidopsis and on par with the human cerebral cortex, unprecedented and truly remarkable for a unicellular organism. This challenges the paradigm that complex alternative splicing is a phenomenon limited to sophisticated multicellular organisms."
"The evolution of chloroplasts, the photosynthetic compartments of plants and algal cells, is complex but has had a profound effect on our planet," said Chris Howe, Professor of Plant and Microbial Biochemistry at Cambridge University in England. "This paper gives us fascinating insights into how host and nucleomorph genomes have been remodeled during evolution. As well as providing a goldmine of information on the general biology of these organisms, the paper shows us that the nucleomorph genomes have probably persisted simply because the mechanism for transfer of genes to the nucleus was closed off, rather than because nucleomorphs had to be retained as separate entities. The paper also shows us that the evolutionary history of the nucleomorph-containing organisms was even more complex than we thought, with evidence for genes from many different sources in their nuclei. Overall, it has provided important insights into the fundamental processes of cell symbiosis and genome reshaping that have produced some of the most important organisms we see today."
###
*a seasonal dish that consists of a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck, which itself is stuffed into a deboned turkey.
The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, supported by the DOE Office of Science, is committed to advancing genomics in support of DOE missions related to clean energy generation and environmental characterization and cleanup. DOE JGI, headquartered in Walnut Creek, Calif., provides integrated high-throughput sequencing and computational analysis that enable systems-based scientific approaches to these challenges. Follow @doe_jgi on Twitter.
DOE's Office of Science is the largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Tiny algae shed light on photosynthesis as a dynamic propertyPublic release date: 28-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Gilbert degilbert@lbl.gov 925-296-5643 DOE/Joint Genome Institute
One of the first chemical reactions children learn is the recipe for photosynthesis, combining carbon dioxide, water and solar energy to produce organic compounds. Many of the world's most important photosynthetic eukaryotes such as plants did not develop the ability to combine these ingredients themselves. Rather, they got their light-harnessing organelles -- chloroplasts -- indirectly by stealing them from other organisms. In some instances, this has resulted in algae with multiple, distinct genomes, the evolutionary equivalent of a "turducken*."
Chloroplasts originally evolved from photosynthetic bacteria by primary endosymbiosis, in which a bacterium or other prokaryote is engulfed by a eukaryotic host. The chloroplasts of red and green algae have subsequently come to reside within other, previously non-photosynthetic eukaryotes by secondary endosymbiosis. Such events have contributed to the global diversity of photosynthetic organisms that play a crucial role in regulating and maintaining the global carbon cycle. In most organisms that acquired photosynthesis by this mechanism, the nucleus from the ingested algal cell has disappeared, but in some cases it persists as a residual organelle known as a nucleomorph. Such organisms have four distinct genomes.
To better understand the process of secondary endosymbiosis and why nucleomorphs persist in some organisms, an international team composed of 73 researchers at 27 institutions, including the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI), collaborated to sequence and analyze the genomes and transcriptomes (the expressed genes) of two tiny algae. The team led by John Archibald of Canada's Dalhousie University published their findings on the algae Bigelowellia natans and Guillardia theta online November 29, 2012 in Nature.
Archibald compared these algae to Russian nesting dolls with "sophisticated sub-cellular protein-targeting machinery" and four genomes derived from the two eukaryotes that merged over time. Approximately 50 percent of the genes in both genomes are 'unique' with no obvious counterpart in other organisms," he added. "This indicates just how different they are from characterized species."
DOE JGI Fungal Genomics Program head Igor Grigoriev called B. natans and G. theta "living fossils" because of the remnant nucleomorph. He added that algae are relevant to the Department of Energy Office of Science research portfolio for their potential applications in the fields of bioenergy and environment, noting that the DOE JGI has published over 75 percent of the publicly available algal genomes. "Iterations of endosymbiosis have led to a global diversity of these primary producers. Sequencing these two algae, the first cryptophyte and the first chlorarachniophyte sequenced, helped us to fill in the gaps in the Eukaryotic Tree of Life, and obtain additional references for better understanding of eukaryotic evolution."
Archibald said that "G. theta and B. natans both possess a surprisingly complex suite of enzymes involved in carbon metabolism, and thus represent a useful resource for scientists engaged in both basic and applied research, including photosynthesis, sub-cellular trafficking and biofuels development."
The DOE JGI sequenced the genomes of B. natans (95 million nucleotides or bases: Mb) and G. theta (87 Mb) from single cell isolates provided by Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences as part of the 2007 Community Sequencing Program portfolio. In addition, the transcriptomes were sequenced separately by the National Center for Genome Resources in New Mexico. Among the team's findings is an answer to the question of why nucleomorphs still exist.
"The reason for the persistence of nucleomorphs in both organisms appears to be surprisingly simple: they are no longer able to transfer their DNA to the host cell nucleus by the process of endosymbiotic gene transfer," said Archibald. Unlike most other secondarily photosynthetic eukaryotes in which the endosymbiont's genetic matter has completely migrated over to the host, in cryptophytes and chlorarachniophytes the nucleus and chloroplast from the engulfed algae remain partitioned off from the host cell. "As a consequence," he added," genetic and biochemical mosaicism is rampant in G. theta and B. natans."
Both researchers highlighted the unexpected finding of alternative splicing in B. natans. Grigoriev noted that the phenomenon is one typical for higher eukaryotes, and Archibald added that the levels "greatly exceed that seen in the model plant Arabidopsis and on par with the human cerebral cortex, unprecedented and truly remarkable for a unicellular organism. This challenges the paradigm that complex alternative splicing is a phenomenon limited to sophisticated multicellular organisms."
"The evolution of chloroplasts, the photosynthetic compartments of plants and algal cells, is complex but has had a profound effect on our planet," said Chris Howe, Professor of Plant and Microbial Biochemistry at Cambridge University in England. "This paper gives us fascinating insights into how host and nucleomorph genomes have been remodeled during evolution. As well as providing a goldmine of information on the general biology of these organisms, the paper shows us that the nucleomorph genomes have probably persisted simply because the mechanism for transfer of genes to the nucleus was closed off, rather than because nucleomorphs had to be retained as separate entities. The paper also shows us that the evolutionary history of the nucleomorph-containing organisms was even more complex than we thought, with evidence for genes from many different sources in their nuclei. Overall, it has provided important insights into the fundamental processes of cell symbiosis and genome reshaping that have produced some of the most important organisms we see today."
###
*a seasonal dish that consists of a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck, which itself is stuffed into a deboned turkey.
The U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, supported by the DOE Office of Science, is committed to advancing genomics in support of DOE missions related to clean energy generation and environmental characterization and cleanup. DOE JGI, headquartered in Walnut Creek, Calif., provides integrated high-throughput sequencing and computational analysis that enable systems-based scientific approaches to these challenges. Follow @doe_jgi on Twitter.
DOE's Office of Science is the largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
DOHA, Qatar - A court in Qatar sentenced a poet to life in prison on Thursday for incitement to overthrow the government and criticizing the ruling emir, his lawyer said.
In his poetry, Muhammad Ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami praised the Arab Spring revolts that have toppled dictators in four Arab countries since early last year and criticized Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.
Qatar has backed uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world.
'Miscarriage of justice' Ajami, 36, who was not present in court, has been jailed in solitary confinement for almost a year. He has not seen his family during that time, according to his lawyer Nagib al-Naimi.
"This is a tremendous miscarriage of justice," Naimi told Reuters after the verdict, adding that he would appeal.
Ajami faced charges of "inciting the overthrow of the ruling regime", which carries the death penalty. Qatar's penal code provides sentences of five years in prison for criticising the country's ruler.
Qatar, a close U.S. ally and major oil and gas producer in the Gulf with a large American military base, has escaped the unrest engulfing other parts of the Arab world.
Doha finances and hosts the pan-Arab satellite TV network al-Jazeera, which has assiduously covered the Arab revolts, though it gave scant coverage to an uprising last year in neighboring Bahrain - ruled by a related Gulf Arab monarchy.
Self-censorship The Qatari government has backed the armed revolt in Syria, a successful NATO-backed armed uprising in Libya, and street protests that ousted rulers in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen.
Wissam Nassar / Pool via Reuters, file
The Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani speaks during a visit to the Islamic University in Gaza City on Oct. 23.
But freedom of expression is tightly controlled in the small Gulf state, with self-censorship prevalent among national newspapers and other media outlets. Qatar has no organized political opposition.
In October, Human Rights Watch criticized what it said was a double standard on freedom of expression in Qatar and urged the emir not to approve a draft media law penalising criticism of the Gulf emirate and its neighbors.?
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FILE - In this Dec. 31, 1996 file photo, Dick Clark broadcasts during New Year's festivities from Times Square in New York. ABC is turning its first New Year's Eve without Dick Clark in four decades partly into a celebration of the show biz impresario's life. Clark, who originated the annual ?New Year's Rockin' Eve? special in 1971, died at age 82 in April 18, 2012. Fergie and Jenny McCarthy will be hosts of a two-hour tribute to Clark that will air at 8 p.m. ET on New Year's Eve. ABC said Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012, that Ryan Seacrest will host the countdown show from Times Square, with Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen, Neon Trees, Flo Rida and Pitbull among the musical guests. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)
FILE - In this Dec. 31, 1996 file photo, Dick Clark broadcasts during New Year's festivities from Times Square in New York. ABC is turning its first New Year's Eve without Dick Clark in four decades partly into a celebration of the show biz impresario's life. Clark, who originated the annual ?New Year's Rockin' Eve? special in 1971, died at age 82 in April 18, 2012. Fergie and Jenny McCarthy will be hosts of a two-hour tribute to Clark that will air at 8 p.m. ET on New Year's Eve. ABC said Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012, that Ryan Seacrest will host the countdown show from Times Square, with Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen, Neon Trees, Flo Rida and Pitbull among the musical guests. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)
NEW YORK (AP) ? ABC is turning its first New Year's Eve without Dick Clark in four decades partly into a celebration of the showbiz impresario's life.
Clark, who did the first annual "New Year's Rockin' Eve" special on ABC in 1972, died at age 82 in April. Fergie and Jenny McCarthy will be hosts of a two-hour tribute to Clark that will air at 8 p.m. ET on New Year's Eve.
ABC said Wednesday that Ryan Seacrest will host the countdown show from Times Square, with Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen, Neon Trees, Flo Rida and Pitbull among the musical guests. Seacrest hosted the past few years with Clark making short appearances. A stroke had diminished Clark's communications skills.
Al Green, Helen Reddy and Three Dog Night performed at Clark's first New Year's special.
Rdio's done a pretty decent job at often keeping its desktop and mobile apps updated with fresh features. With that in mind, the streaming service has just pushed out v2.0 of its iOS application, which includes a novel and very sleek design that, as you can see above, brings an all-new navigation bar, as well as the addition of a unified player to make syncing across multiple devices easier and a remote control feature to let folks tinker with other Rdio apps. Of course, this new version (2.0.0, to be precise) is compatible with the usual iOS suspects (iPod touch, iPhone and iPad) -- and, better yet, you can grab the updated app now directly from your Cupertino device or via the source link below.
VIVAlog - Buat kamu yang masih ingin ikut lomba blog "Enjoy Jakarta", kesempatan untuk mengikutinya masih terbuka. Pengiriman blog masih ditunggu hingga tanggal 4 Desember 2012.
Jadi, buat kamu yang punya pengalaman unik dan menarik saat berwisata ke Kota Tua, Ancol, Pulau Seribu, Ragunan, atau juga mungkin sekadar berbelanja ke sejumlah mal, masih bisa menuliskannya lalu diikutkan dalam lomba blog?ini di VIVAlog (platform agregator blog di Portal VIVA.co.id). Lomba ini merupakan kerjasama antara VIVAlog dengan Dinas Pariwisata dan Kebudayaan Pemda DKI Jakarta.
Oh ya, sekadar mengingatkan, di lomba ini kamu dapat mengambil salah satu dari delapan sub tema, yakni Wisata Kuliner,?Wisata Budaya/Heritage,?Wisata Malam,?Wisata Belanja,?Wisata Bahari,?Wisata Liburan,?Wisata Spa, dan?Wisata Golf.
Berdasarkan sub tema itu, kamu bisa mengupas dari berbagai sisi. Misalnya: lokasinya, fasilitasnya, keunikannya, atau aspek lainnya. Agar lebih menarik, jangan lupa sertakan foto-foto destinasi yang kamu pilih.?
Lomba blog ini menyediakan berbagai hadiah menarik: laptop Macbook untuk juara pertama, iPad untuk juara kedua, dan Samsung Galaxy Note untuk juara ketiga.?
Tunggu apa lagi? Silakan klik tautan ini untuk mengikuti lombanya. Untuk?bahan tulisannya, bisa juga diklik di sini.
Belum ada komentar untuk ditampilkan pada artikel ini.
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Public release date: 28-Nov-2012
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