Since Deloitte started producing their Back-to-School survey in 2009, online has hovered around the 17% to 20% mark with shoppers. It was the eighth most popular place to look for clothes, school supplies and needed tech but not anymore. This year, online claimed the third place spot with 36% of parents saying they plan to hit the internet for deals this year.
?
Specialty clothing stores are also up in popularity while Dollar Stores took a significant hit. The move away from discount stores doesn?t mean that people are willing to spend more. They plan on spending more, but they don?t see it as a choice. 34% said they expect to spend more because prices are higher than last year and ? here?s a sad fact ? because school supply budgets have been slashed leaving it up to parents to make up the difference.
In order to get afford back-to-school items 68% of parents said they?d have to give up buying items for themselves.? 35% of parents said they plan to reuse items from last years. That?s up from 20% in 2012.
Digital Gets an A
Not only are consumers turning to the internet for deals, 78% of smartphone owners say they?ll turn to their phones for help. What are they looking for? The best price (66%) and discounts (60%) ? numbers that are also up over last year.
More parents are also checking social media for promotions as well as reviews and recommendations. (67% up from only 39% in 2012.)
Back-to-School Budgets Get a D
Parents with kids in K-12 say they expect to spend an average of $428 per child on back-to-school items. Think that?s bad? Parents of college student are shelling out up to $1,000 per child. On top of that, they expect their kids to contribute another 50% to buy books, clothes and dorm room necessities.
For this group, shopping the sales is an absolute necessity. Parents of college students will spend even more time looking for reviews and recommendations online (76%), searching for promotions (67%) and browsing products (61%.)
73% say they plan to do more of their shopping online this year, but half would prefer to buy online and pick-up in-store so they get items right away.
Want to learn more? Download Deloitte?s ?Back-to-School? and ?Back-to-College? surveys and findings for free at: www.deloitte.com/us/2013BackToSchoolSurvey.
In 1988, Mahmoud Salam Saliman Abu Harabish and Adam Ibrahim Juma?a-Juma?a decided to firebomb a bus of Israeli civilians.
The result was gruesome. A 26-year old school teacher, Rachel Weiss, was incinerated, along with her three young children, who ranged from three years old to 9-months. An Israeli soldier who came to their rescue also died as result of the attack.
Thanks to Secretary of State John Kerry?s nimble negotiating skills, Harabish and Juma?a-Juma?a will reportedly be among the 104 violent Palestinian terrorists released from Israeli prisons in stages as a goodwill gesture by the Jewish state in advance of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that are set to begin Monday in Washington, D.C.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not have likely agreed to such a ?goodwill gesture? without American pressure. One would presume that the prime minister wants to be on good terms with the Obama administration in the event Israel is forced to take the difficult decision to attack Iran?s nuclear program. So Netanyahu will yield to the delusions of America?s top diplomat in the hopes that it will buy his country some brownie points for the greater battle potentially on the horizon.
But the whole process begs a question: why does Israel need to release over one hundred violent killers in order to get the Palestinians to come to the table to talk peace? Shouldn?t the prospect of peace be enough to bring the Palestinians to the negotiating table?
That conundrum alone should be enough to make Kerry question whether now is the right time to pursue peace talks.
It has become increasingly clear that America doesn?t have its sharpest mind running State. Kerry is putting his time, energy and the prestige of the United States into Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations when the leader representing the Palestinian side, Mahmoud Abbas, doesn?t even control all the territory he is supposed to be negotiating on behalf of.
And Kerry is doing this at a time when the Middle East is on fire. Even if Kerry were to somehow defy the laws of reason and succeed, not a single one of the significant fires raging in the Middle East would be put out. Not the turmoil in Egypt. Not the civil war in Syria. Not Iran?s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Not the sectarian violence in Iraq. Not the terrorist threat from Yemen. Not any of it.
This is not to say Israeli-Palestinian peace isn?t worth anything. It is. That?s why Israel has time and again, especially since 2000, offered much in the pursuit of peace, only to be rebuffed by the Palestinians. This doesn?t mean peace will never come to Israelis and Palestinians. But it surely won?t come as long as a terrorist group whose charter calls for the extermination of Jews is in power in part of the territory under Palestinian control.
Kerry may be hoping for a Nobel Peace Prize, but his efforts will succeed only in freeing Palestinian terrorists with blood on their hands from prison. If he gets something more, it will just be more bloodshed, thanks to him raising the prospect of a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians when no hope for such an outcome currently exists.
Had she lived, Weiss would be in her 50s today. Her children ? Rafael, Netanel and Efraim ? would be in their mid to late 20s, like me. Who knows what they would have contributed to society had their lives not been cruelly and unmercifully snuffed out.
If releasing 104 violent Palestinian terrorists from prison would help bring about a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, I would be for it, even if it would be tough to stomach.
But it won?t do that. It won?t do anything, other then mock justice.
Hello! Anyone here a fan of the virtual band Gorillaz? Yes? Might I interest you in a Gorillaz roleplay centred around the virtual characters and their backstories?
I don't have a plot, per se, to further tempt you, but I would really like to roleplay phase 3, either during Plastic Beach or the aftermath, when they're living in Wobble Street. Of course, I'm open to the previous phases as well, however I find phase 3 to have the most interesting story, with so many questions left unanswered, just waiting to be explored, and with that cliffhanger, I'd like to see where they will go next.
I would also like to play Noodle, so of course, I'm looking for 2D, Russel and/or Murdoc (in particular) first and foremost, but I can and will play others as well as/instead of. I'm very strict when it comes to OCs on the other hand, but if you think you can persuade me, I'll consider it. Good luck, though!
As a warning, since I've the most popular pairing in this fandom is Murdocx2D, if you would like to involve romance somewhere down the line, please be aware that I won't do slash, yaoi/yuri, mxm/fxf, whatever you want to call it. Apart from that, I'm game for just about any pairing you can think of. Crack pairings are my speciality. Keep in mind though, that romance isn't required, so don't feel put off by this.
Lastly, I just want to stress that I'm looking for literate roleplayers (advanced would be even better!), and I am only looking for one on one roleplays for now. If there is enough interest however, I may consider creating a group, as long as I don't think it will fall through. I will roleplay here in threads or PMs, via email (and maybe IMs), and any social networking or blogging site (I already have a Noodle RP blog on Tumblr set up, if anyone would like the link).
So, if I haven't been too picky, is anyone interested? Feel free to let me know here or via PMs.
Source: www.abeautifulmess.com --- Saturday, July 27, 2013 These are the last Wedding portraits, taken right after our ceremony. We got married at my grandmother's cabin. It's way out in the country. There's a small pond with a floating dock that we got married on. We had a row of canoes that some (adverterous) guests sat in during the ceremony. So we also grabbed a few photos of us in the canoes and then in the fields around her cabin. I know what you're probably wondering and the answer is yes, we did find a few ticks on us afterward (gross!). But I will cherish these photos forever, so I guess it was worth it. I really feel like these more than any of our other portraits capture the crazy, giddy high we felt after officially tying the knot. These are some of my first moments as a Mrs.Some of our friends were driving past (headed to the reception which was back in town) as we were grabbing these last portraits. We, of course, played it cool. :) All portraits by: Arrow & AppleInstagram photo by @abbyewebster ...
Venture capitalist Tim Draper launched his own university for entrepreneurs in downtown San Mateo, California earlier this year, according to?Lauren Hepler of Silicon Valley Business Journal.
The Draper University of Heroes offers education programs for entrepreneurs of all ages. Now, Draper University announced that it is introducing an online school for aspiring entrepreneurs from around the world.
The university is expanding its programs in response to the growing demand from entrepreneurs who are unable to attend the exclusive boarding school. Draper University said it will launch the first session of its online school from September 30, 2013, through November 15, 2013.
The online school will run in tandem with the existing boarding school and is now accepting applications from entrepreneurial students.
The school provides an outstanding opportunity for anyone unable to attend the Draper University boarding school to have access to Draper University?s extensive catalog of industry speakers and cutting-edge curriculum.
Online school students are required to spend 20 hours each week on their studies. There are no separate courses for online students; online school students will be offered the same courses that the university offers to its boarding school students.
Draper University?s courses cover business basics and startup strategies using ?experiential hands on methods unique to Draper University.? The classes include both individual assignments and teamwork projects based on interest, geography, and background.
The university allows students to learn about business, management and marketing skills that will serve them in their path to realizing successful startups. According to Draper University?s website, experts and mentors will help every student to create a company, and the student will be taught how they can pitch for funding from Silicon Valley venture capitals.
Draper University is offering an introductory session at a discounted rate of $399 for the 7- week session. However, the price will increase for following sessions, according to the university.
?I?m thrilled about the launch of the Draper University online school. Online education is here, it?s real and it should be an integral part of any educational institution. We are changing the lives of so many more aspiring entrepreneurs by addressing their global needs with our disruptive, groundbreaking curriculum,? stated Tim Draper, founder of Draper University and co-founder of DFJ Venture Fund.
Fall session applications for both the online school and boarding school are due August 5, 2013.
Once enrolled, students will hear from about 50 speakers on different topics, ranging from the future of energy to viral marketing, rural survival skills like suturing or building a fire, yoga, cooking and painting, according to?Silicon Valley Business Journal.
In February 2013, San Mateo?s city council approved Draper University of Heroes. The university was officially opened April 17, 2013, in a three-building site, anchored by the historic Benjamin Franklin Hotel in downtown San Mateo.
Draper decided to launch his own university after his pilot program in 2012 summer resulted in four funded startups.
We should've known this was coming after Google and Netflix informed us back at CES they were working on their AirPlay competitor, the DIAL wireless streaming protocol. Today, with the revelation of the new Chromecast HDMI dongle, you'll be able to stream more content more easily to your home's biggest screen -- all for just 35 bucks. We got to check out the Chromecast at today's Google event, so join us, won't you, for our full impressions.
As noted during the announcement, the dongle itself is a mere two inches long, with a bulbous circular end opposite the necessary HDMI port. It's got white Chrome branding printed on one side and the requisite FCC info on the other. While we take no issue with the shape itself, we're concerned that flared-out end might take up the space of two HDMI ports despite it needing only one to operate. Regardless, it's a solid little thing, constructed of black plastic and jammed with the 2.4GHz wireless radio needed to talk with tablets and phones. There's no battery inside, however, which is why the dongle also comes with a micro-USB cable and an outlet adapter to provide it the juice it needs to keep the music and videos flowing.
In practice, the act of throwing video from your phone using the YouTube or Netflix apps is dead simple, and anyone familiar with the mechanics of YouTube's "send to TV" feature will be right at home. In speaking with a Chromecast product manager, he was quick to point out that, while the underlying technology for Chromecast and send to TV isn't dissimilar, isn't not the same, either; the major difference is that Chromecast has been built to scale and integrate with other services. During our brief demo, the system was able to send videos from both a Nexus 4 and an iPhone 5 with only a couple seconds delay before the requested content appeared on screen. Once a video was playing, the handsets could be used for other purposes or put into standby mode with nary a hiccup on the TV. In short, Chromecast works as advertised, and we're looking forward to seeing the new content partner using the service. Content is king, and more is always better, right?
If you watched Google's San Francisco presentation today and felt a little left out when only U.S. carrier support was mentioned for the new Nexus 7, fear not. Google's official spec sheet for the upcoming 7-inch tablet confirms that a European LTE-compatible SKU will be offered, with support for a whopping seven bands.
The spec sheet shows support for 800, 850, 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100 and 2600 MHz in Europe — that's bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 20. That septa-band LTE support means you're well-equipped to use any current or future 4G networks in Europe. In addition, you've got HSPA+ on travel-friendly 850, 900, 1900 and 2100 MHz bands, as well as AWS (1700/2100).
The U.S. model, of course, comes with unlocked Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile LTE support.
...I never ever ever thought that any of this would happen. I was a stay at home mom 3 years ago and I wanted to create a place for everyone to feel comfortable, no pressure, no judging, a studio that was unlike any other place and not just a studio but a destination of intoxicating energy through music, smell, design, fashion...I always said at the ballet studio, if everyone likes the workout, just wait til I create a place for all to feel good whether you were having a shitty day or just needed a release. I wanted to create a place was a total piece of me.... BEING IN THE dark was number one! Darkness. My insecurities slip away in the dark and without mirrors I felt comfortable..I didn't have to worry about being judged...YES I still am the same person except I have become more humble, more thankful and a lot stronger and I have grown so much wiser...with that said it is an honor to have each and everyone of you who believe in me and my passion on the mat and off... I am thankful that TGM was asked to be apart of the 10tv Health and Fitness Expo back in February this year and I am forever thankful to Andrea Cambern who believed in me 2 years ago! I miss her dearly and she was a huge supporter of TGM and what I created! I am so gracious to all of you who spread the word daily and the Facebook love last week alone, 3700 percent increase in traffic on just one page!!! Yes I do the analytics and it is beyond amazing to me.... I can not describe the gift you have given me...acceptance of me. Yes I am high energy, fiery and fierce and the ultimate fighter of what I believe in. The TGM ?workout has evolved and so have I personally, as a 40 year old single mom! It has not been easy but I get to share my passion daily and that is because all of you BELIEVE!!!!!! I would do it all over again because every ounce of me is TGM...no its not my job, I can not leave it at the door when I get home nor will I ever again. It is my other half and to have all of you behind me in the studio, at the convention center and in simply in spirit makes me so fucking proud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PLEASE PLEASE JOIN US!!!! THIS SATURDAY AND OR SUNDAY!!!!!
So with all of that said...we are TGM'ing (just not in the studio and not a full class) (PLEASE GET YOUR FREE PASS, PASSES AT THE STUDIO THIS WEEK!!!) JUST COME AND have fun!!!!!! we will do what we can and please feel no pressure! Your support and energy is what I am most excited about.
The more TGM Tracey Gardner Method supporters the bigger the party! AND Please don't be nervous...I promise to make it fun!!!!
So you know...this is what goes on...(more details later tomorrow!)
We are on the main stage at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, downtown, both days noon Saturday and 2 pm Sunday! We will be sending out all details (where to park, what time to arrive, where we will meet etc) in the next couple of days via email so please email your current email ASAP! Tracey.tgm@gmail.com and what day you plan on coming....or both! IMPORTANT HEADS UP...I assume everyone knows this and sorry I am told you don't...sorry :(!!!!!!! It is NOT going to be dark like TGM, NOT going to be hot and yes many people will be watching us, and it is good energy and our favorite playlist... I want as many of you on that stage as possible to share the TGM love. If you don't want to be on stage that is totally fine! Wear your TGM gear and hang in the crowd! We are demonstrating, I will guide you like a class except lots of TGM Essentials and ?and I am random as you all know! I can't plan what will happen on stage except many TGM Essential moves, and remember there is no such thing as PERFECT IN TGM land !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVER!!!!!! Expect lots of hollow hovers, dives etc and yes I want you to modify too!!! AGAIN... As you all know the real Tracey Gardner Method TGM can't truly be experienced unless they are in a TGM studio so I will be setting the ambiance, explaining to the crowd (yes I will be speaking for about 45 min) so don't you worry about anything bc I will lead you! not gonna lie, I am nervous myself but it will be so ok! Bring your mats please! Towels and honestly you might not even break a sweat! Seriously your love and support is what makes this so a gift and we will be emailing you specifics by Thursday!!!
WEDNESDAY!!!!!!!! SCHEDULE!!!!!!!!!!! So I will see you for a double WEDNESDAY I am excited to teach the 930 am and the 730 pm! No 5 pm Wednesday this week!
The cast of "Sons of Anarchy" have some fun on the Comic-Con red carpet
"Sons of Anarchy" shut down Comic-Con Sunday with its now customary panel in Hall H. And as usual, the SAMCRO gang did not disappoint.
Before the cast and creator even took the stage, the audience was treated to two video clips teasing what's ahead for season six. In a word: mayhem!
Tara (Maggie Siff) punches out a fellow prisoner, Jax (Charlie Hunnam) and Clay (Ron Perlman) brawl, Otto (showrunner Kurt Sutter) targets another victim, Chibs punches Juice (so deserved), Nero (Jimmy Smits) shoots somebody else.
Here are other spoilers from season six ? which picks up a few days after the season five finale ? we gleaned from the panel and press room interviews.
Jax's journey: "I think that he hadn't anticipated quite how difficult it was going to be to lead," Hunnam said at the panel. "Can he be the leader of this outlaw organization and still be a loving father and devoted father?" Specifically, he told reporters, "Is he destined to become Clay or is he destined to become John Teller?"
Tara's journey: "Staying alive ? that's my challenge this year," Siff told reporters. "Tara starts out in prison ... but then there's a trial (that will determine) whether or not she goes back to prison. ... She's trying to keep her children safe and give them a way out of the life."
"Last season she made the decision to jump off and be in the (SAMCRO) world, and we saw the consequences of that," said Sutter. "This season will be her dealing with that. Can she make the adjustments emotionally that Gemma was ultimately able to make? And if not, what does that mean for her and Jax and her kids? Tara's arc will be pivotal this season in terms of seeing the rhythm of the show as far as the family dynamic goes."
"Her tactics become more and more like Gemma's," Siff said. "You see her able to play within the rules of this world, but her intention is still to get out. So it's simultaneously who she's always been and this darker side of herself that's really emerged."
Tara vs. Gemma: "You'll see a very adversarial relationship between Tara and Gemma (Katey Sagal) this season," Siffer added, "mostly because my main focus is really about getting my kids out of Charming ? and Gemma's main focus in the world is making sure her son and her grandchildren never leave this club. ... They're working in direct opposition to each other this season, so it's not going to be a pretty relationship."
"That relationship bounces around a lot," noted Sagal, teasing that "certain things will intensify" next season.
Unser (Dayton Callie) also plays a role in the fierce femmes' dispute. "Gemma loves him; she will always love him," Sagal told us. "There will be a shift in that relationship, however."
Siff elaborated: "Unser becomes a real ally to (Tara). She spends the first part of this season really collecting allies ... but I think the most surprising is Unser, because he's always been a real compatriot of Gemma's."
Tig vs. Jax: "This season (Tig is) back on the leash ? and it's Charlie's leash," revealed Kim Coates. "He's mixed up, sad (and) ruthless. ... It's absolute mayhem this year. ... Everybody is fighting for every scrap of something before we all fall into the abyss as a club."
Clay in exile: "Season six is Clay knowing that there's no more leveraging," Perlman said. "He's worn out all his choices and he's completely at the mercy of other forces."
On a very personal level, the actor admitted, "I feel like I've lost everything. As Ron the actor playing Clay, I used to hang with the boys, be at the table and be on rides, and be Gemma's old man, and (now) I'm off in Siberia. I'm a complete exile; I'm completely alone. ... It's very uncomfortable when you sign on to do a show and you sit at that table and you're part of this family, and not only part of it but a very vital part of it. ... It's been uncomfortable since season four for me. Very uncomfortable. I'm not playing the guy I signed on to play. ... I don't like being as hated as I've become on the show."
Power of the gavel: Perlman believes that "what Kurt ultimately wants to do ... when all the dust has settled (is) to have exposed all the facets of power: why you aspire to it, what is the price once you get it, what it does to your inside once you have it, how desperately you try to hold onto it and what you're willing to do, and what ultimately will happen when you become obsessed with retaining power at all costs. ... With Clay you get to see the ultimate price of flying too close to the sun."
Like other leaders, Hunnam said, "I think that Jax struggles with ... listening to the people around (him). You're supposed to be the representative of the masses, (but) when you have a lot of decisions to make and a lot at stake on a lot of those decisions, it's just very easy to say, 'Well, I know from my heart this is the right thing to do so I'm not gonna put it up for a vote.' But I also think that he inherited a total disaster from Clay ... (If Jax) had been making those decisions from the beginning they, wouldn't have been involved in in the first place, you know?"
Series finale: "I don't have it written in my head," Sutter told us about "SOA's" last hurrah, "but I kind of know how I want it to end." Still, he noted, "I'm always sort of surprised at where it goes and what happens, which is part of the fun." But he told the Comic-Con audience to expect a "big pool of blood" in the very last scene.
The show's star, however, doesn't want to know "where (Jax is) headed or how it's all going to end for him" ? especially because Sutter has been known to change his mind. "I'll be galloping toward a fundamental beat and then (have to) recalibrate. ... So I'm just really engaged in the present of Jax's journey."
"Sons of Anarchy" debuts Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 10 p.m. on FX.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan must raise its sales tax rate next year as scheduled to show it is serious about fixing up its tattered finances, the finance minister said on Tuesday as the government upgraded its view of the economy and said deflation was easing.
The sales tax is due to rise to 8 percent from 5 percent next April, and then increase to 10 percent in October 2015. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he will decide later this year whether to go ahead with the increase, citing concerns it could weaken the economy.
Finance Minister Taro Aso said delaying the increase would go against commitments made to the G20 group of developed and developing nations that Japan would fix its finances, and said the government could take steps to mitigate any economic impact.
"We need to consider an extra budget. It's better to moderate economic fluctuations (from the tax hike)," Aso told a media conference after a cabinet meeting.
Earlier, the government upgraded its view on the economy for a third straight month, saying deflation was easing and growth was picking up due to massive monetary fiscal stimulus.
Still, plenty of work is needed to repair public finances.
Japan's public debt is the largest among major industrialized nations at more than twice the size of its 500 trillion yen ($5 trillion) economy, and the sales tax hike is considered a test of the government's commitment to reform.
WAIT FOR GDP DATA
Abe, whose ruling bloc won a big victory in Sunday's upper house election, has vowed to push ahead with tough reforms but could face resistance from some in his party.
Some aides and lawmakers are worried the tax rise would weaken the world's third-largest economy just as it appears on the path to end 15 years on deflation. First-quarter data showed Japan was the fastest-growing major economy in the world.
Abe has indicated he would decide on the tax rise in autumn. Aso said the final decision should be based on revised April-June GDP figures released in September, rather than preliminary data due on August 12.
A government report on the long-term fiscal outlook said reforms were essential to maintain market confidence and ensure a sustainable recovery. It also noted that raising sales taxes in Europe did not necessarily damage growth.
In its economic report for July, the government upgraded its assessment of capital spending, factory output and business sentiment, and said there were signs of strength in exports and consumer spending.
"The economy is steadily picking up and it shows some movement towards a self-sustainable recovery," the Cabinet Office said. "Recent price developments indicate that deflation is easing." ($1 = 100.3950 Japanese yen)
(Additional reporting by Leika Kihara, Editing by John Mair)
WOODS HOLE, Mass.How a group of animals can abandon sex, yet produce more than 460 species over evolutionary time, became a little less mysterious this week with the publication of the complete genome of a bdelloid rotifer (Adineta vaga) in the journal Nature.
Rather than the standard way of using sexual reproduction to weed out harmful mutations to its DNA, this tiny aquatic animal appears to have adopted other strategies to maintain lineages over millennia that aren't burdened by genetic damage or killed off altogether, says David Mark Welch of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole.
Mark Welch and his MBL colleague, Irina Arkhipova, are the U.S. leads on the international project to sequence the rotifer genome and analyze what it reveals.
Neither males nor meiosis (cell division to produce sperm or eggs) have ever been observed in a bdelloid rotifer. Instead, the unfertilized eggs just divide to produce offspring. This reproductive strategy, which for most animals would be an evolutionary dead end, is borne out by the rotifer's genome, the structure of which "is completely consistent with what you would expect to see with a long-term absence of meiosis," Mark Welch says.
"It's hard to prove a negative, and we can never say there is no chance the rotifer is ever having sex. But it would have to be some kind of crazy meiosis," Mark Welch says.
In most animal species, alternative forms of the same gene (alleles) are found in the same spot on two different chromosomesone from the mother, one from the fatherwhich pair during meiosis, and segregate into new sperm and egg cells. In the bdelloid genome, gene copies either don't match up positionally along chromosome pairs or are located on the same chromosome. This means the alleles would not be able to pair up normally during meiosis and segregate evenly into new sperm and egg cells.
If bdelloids are not having sex, how can they avoid the accumulation of deleterious mutations or generate new diversity? The bdelloid genome shows evidence for other ways of maintaining healthy genes and viable lineages. One is gene conversion, in which one allele replaces another through DNA repair mechanisms or other strategies. The other is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), the transfer of DNA from one organism to another, which is common among microbes yet rarely seen in animals. At least 8 percent of the rotifer's genes, more than in any other animal, are likely to have been acquired by HGT.
"In general, animal germ lines are fairly well protected from acquiring DNA from external sources," Arkhipova says. Bdelloids are unusual, though, in that they can completely dry up (desiccate) for weeks or months at a time, and then spring back to life when water becomes available. During their desiccation phases, their DNA breaks up into many pieces. "When they rehydrate, this might be an opportunity for foreign DNA fragments from ingested bacteria, fungi, or microalgae to transfer into the rotifer genome," Arkhipova says.
More significantly, this may also be a chance for the rotifer to incorporate genes from other rotifers. This would be quite useful if it needed to pick up genes to repair damaged ones through gene conversion, the authors suggest. "In this way, the processes of mutation and DNA repair mimic some aspects of sex," Mark Welch says.
Another striking finding in the bdelloid rotifer genome was the extremely low number of transposons, "pieces of DNA sometimes called 'genetic parasites' that are capable of moving around the genome and causing harmful mutations," Arkhipova says. While about 50 percent of the mammalian genome is transposons, they constitute only about 3 percent of the bdelloid genome, "and their proliferative capacity appears to be severely limited," Arkhipova says. This affords the rotifer a layer of protection from mutations that most animals don't enjoy. "We are interested in dissecting this multi-layered genome defense system in our future studies," she says.
###
Other MBL members of the 40-member international A. vaga sequencing consortium, which was led by the French national sequencing center Genoscope, are Bette Hecox-Lea, a graduate student in the Mark Welch laboratory, and Eugene Gladyshev, Fernando Rodriguez, and Irina Yushenova, postdoctoral fellows in the Arkhipova laboratory.
Citation:
Flot JF, et al (2013) Genomic evidence for ameiotic evolution in the bdelloid rotifer Adineta vaga. Nature 10.1038/nature12326
The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery and improving the human condition through research and education in biology, biomedicine, and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.
[ | 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.
How to survive without sex: Rotifer genome reveals its strategiesPublic release date: 22-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
WOODS HOLE, Mass.How a group of animals can abandon sex, yet produce more than 460 species over evolutionary time, became a little less mysterious this week with the publication of the complete genome of a bdelloid rotifer (Adineta vaga) in the journal Nature.
Rather than the standard way of using sexual reproduction to weed out harmful mutations to its DNA, this tiny aquatic animal appears to have adopted other strategies to maintain lineages over millennia that aren't burdened by genetic damage or killed off altogether, says David Mark Welch of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole.
Mark Welch and his MBL colleague, Irina Arkhipova, are the U.S. leads on the international project to sequence the rotifer genome and analyze what it reveals.
Neither males nor meiosis (cell division to produce sperm or eggs) have ever been observed in a bdelloid rotifer. Instead, the unfertilized eggs just divide to produce offspring. This reproductive strategy, which for most animals would be an evolutionary dead end, is borne out by the rotifer's genome, the structure of which "is completely consistent with what you would expect to see with a long-term absence of meiosis," Mark Welch says.
"It's hard to prove a negative, and we can never say there is no chance the rotifer is ever having sex. But it would have to be some kind of crazy meiosis," Mark Welch says.
In most animal species, alternative forms of the same gene (alleles) are found in the same spot on two different chromosomesone from the mother, one from the fatherwhich pair during meiosis, and segregate into new sperm and egg cells. In the bdelloid genome, gene copies either don't match up positionally along chromosome pairs or are located on the same chromosome. This means the alleles would not be able to pair up normally during meiosis and segregate evenly into new sperm and egg cells.
If bdelloids are not having sex, how can they avoid the accumulation of deleterious mutations or generate new diversity? The bdelloid genome shows evidence for other ways of maintaining healthy genes and viable lineages. One is gene conversion, in which one allele replaces another through DNA repair mechanisms or other strategies. The other is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), the transfer of DNA from one organism to another, which is common among microbes yet rarely seen in animals. At least 8 percent of the rotifer's genes, more than in any other animal, are likely to have been acquired by HGT.
"In general, animal germ lines are fairly well protected from acquiring DNA from external sources," Arkhipova says. Bdelloids are unusual, though, in that they can completely dry up (desiccate) for weeks or months at a time, and then spring back to life when water becomes available. During their desiccation phases, their DNA breaks up into many pieces. "When they rehydrate, this might be an opportunity for foreign DNA fragments from ingested bacteria, fungi, or microalgae to transfer into the rotifer genome," Arkhipova says.
More significantly, this may also be a chance for the rotifer to incorporate genes from other rotifers. This would be quite useful if it needed to pick up genes to repair damaged ones through gene conversion, the authors suggest. "In this way, the processes of mutation and DNA repair mimic some aspects of sex," Mark Welch says.
Another striking finding in the bdelloid rotifer genome was the extremely low number of transposons, "pieces of DNA sometimes called 'genetic parasites' that are capable of moving around the genome and causing harmful mutations," Arkhipova says. While about 50 percent of the mammalian genome is transposons, they constitute only about 3 percent of the bdelloid genome, "and their proliferative capacity appears to be severely limited," Arkhipova says. This affords the rotifer a layer of protection from mutations that most animals don't enjoy. "We are interested in dissecting this multi-layered genome defense system in our future studies," she says.
###
Other MBL members of the 40-member international A. vaga sequencing consortium, which was led by the French national sequencing center Genoscope, are Bette Hecox-Lea, a graduate student in the Mark Welch laboratory, and Eugene Gladyshev, Fernando Rodriguez, and Irina Yushenova, postdoctoral fellows in the Arkhipova laboratory.
Citation:
Flot JF, et al (2013) Genomic evidence for ameiotic evolution in the bdelloid rotifer Adineta vaga. Nature 10.1038/nature12326
The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery and improving the human condition through research and education in biology, biomedicine, and environmental science. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.
[ | 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.
Female journalists took to Twitter to thank the woman who many said helped shatter the perception that political journalism was a profession only suited for bourbon-quaffing men.Copper Season 2 Episode 5Copper Season 2 Episode 5Copper Season 2 Episode 5Copper Season 2 Episode 5Falling Skies Season 3 Episode 8Falling Skies Season 3 Episode 8Falling Skies Season 3 Episode 8Falling Skies Season 3 Episode 8Falling Skies Season 3 Episode 8Falling Skies Season 3 Episode 8?Helen Thomas made it possible for all of us who followed: woman pioneer journalist broke barriers died today,? tweeted NBC News? Andrea Mitchell.Falling Skies Season 3 Episode 8The Venture Bros. Season 5 Episode 8The Venture Bros. Season 5 Episode 8Tia & Tamera Season 3 Episode 2Tia & Tamera Season 3 Episode 2Tia & Tamera Season 3 Episode 2Tia & Tamera Season 3 Episode 2Sister Wives Season 4 Episode 1Sister Wives Season 4 Episode 1Sister Wives Season 4 Episode 1?Any woman who has had the privilege of sitting in the front row of the White House briefing room owes huge debt of gratitude to Helen Thomas,? tweeted Julie Pace, White House correspondent for the Associated Press.Sister Wives Season 4 Episode 1The Killing Season 3 Episode 9The Killing Season 3 Episode 9The Killing Season 3 Episode 9The Killing Season 3 Episode 9Skins (UK) Season 7 Episode 4Skins (UK) Season 7 Episode 4Skins (UK) Season 7 Episode 4Skins (UK) Season 7 Episode 4Adventure Time Season 5 Episode 28?RIP Helen Thomas - died this morning at 92. Amazing trail blazer, fearless journalist and friend & mentor to so many women reporter,? Judy Woodruff, host of PBS Newshour, tweeted.Adventure Time Season 5 Episode 28Adventure Time Season 5 Episode 28Breaking Amish Season 2 Episode 1Breaking Amish Season 2 Episode 1City Girl Diaries Episode 1City Girl Diaries Episode 1City Girl Diaries Episode 1High School USA! Episode 1High School USA! Episode 1Tattoo Rescue Episode 1Thomas was also remembered fondly by those who faced her brash style of questioning in the White House briefing room.Tattoo Rescue Episode 1Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta Season 2 Episode 14Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta Season 2 Episode 14Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta Season 2 Episode 14Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta Season 2 Episode 14Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta Season 2 Episode 14Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta Season 2 Episode 14Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta Season 2 Episode 14Whodunnit? Episode 5Whodunnit? Episode 5?Rest in peace, Helen Thomas. First day I ever took the podium she came to encourage me,? tweeted Dana Perino, who served as press secretary to President George W. Bush.Naked and Afraid Episode 5Naked and Afraid Episode 5Naked and Afraid Episode 5The Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 5 Episode 8The Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 5 Episode 8The Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 5 Episode 8The Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 5 Episode 8Top Hooker Episode 8Top Hooker Episode 8
I?m writing a Kung Fu Panda fanfic and I need to make the emperor some sort of animal, because there are no humans in the KFP universe. What are some Chinese sacred animals that I could use as the emperor? Thanks!
4 Answers
Well the panda is so darling and so embodies the spirit of China that it escapes being barbecued. Sadly, it?s not faring so well on the habitat destruction side of things, though. The dragon, the suanni and the P?xi? are sacred because they don?t exist in China and by not existing have cleverly avoided being barbecued.
I don?t know if it?s considered sacred, but the Chinese do have a thing for tigers. It?s been in their stories and poetry for centuries and is associated with goodness and bravery. Warriors were, and are still often likened to the tiger, and I do believe that a branch of kung fu is called ??Tiger Claw Kung Fu. (the kind of kung fu that involves a lot of grabs and limb twisting I think)
Broken promises infuriate the most loyal of the president?s base
By Sen. Rand Paul
July 19, 2013
?If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.?
? President Obama, July 2009
As the details of Obamacare become more known, Americans become more concerned, and for good reason. President Obama promised that if you were happy with your health care, you could keep it. As with so many other government promises, this, too, turns out to be an empty one.
Even people you think would be solid Obama supporters are waking up to the more damaging aspects of the Affordable Care Act.
The Teamsters and two other major unions sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi this week, writing: ?When you and the president sought our support for the Affordable Care Act, you pledged that if we liked the health plans we have now, we could keep them. Sadly, that promise is under threat.?
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Most of the time, it takes decades of accumulating genetic errors for a tumor to develop. While this explains the general occurrence of cancer in adults, it leaves a gap in understanding of the cause of pediatric tumors.
Arizona State University president Michael Crow does not want Phoenix-based Grand Canyon University to be able to move up to Division I sports.
Things are heating up in the Pac-12 Conference and Grand Canyon University isn?t even officially in the NCAA Division I yet.
The Pac-12 university presidents ? including Arizona State University President Michael Crow ? have made it very clear they don?t want GCU in their division ? not because they?re threatened by GCU?s basketball team, but because it?s a for-profit university.
I got a chance to talk to Crow today about why he doesn?t want GCU in NCAA Division I sports.
?It has nothing to do with me personally,? he said. ?We wish GCU all the success they can possibly have. We need more people educating students.?
But it?s a matter of where a university?s investments go, he said.
?We are making investments in athletes to gain return to the university,? Crow said. ?They are focused on raising their stock price and improving their dividend and using their sports team to be able to do that.?
Brian Mueller, president and CEO of GCU, said that couldn?t be further from the truth. As a publicly traded company, GCU investors don?t make money through dividends, but rather on the appreciation of the company?s stock price, he said.
?In budgetary planning, we know that we will lose money on our athletic programs,? Mueller said. ?Similarly, we also lose money on our first growing and very diverse fine arts program. But the athletic programs and fine arts programs are designed to provide a high-quality educational experience for the athletes and performers as well as contribute to the overall vibrancy of campus life.?
It also helps to build the brand, said Trace Urdan, senior analyst for Wells Fargo Securities who tracks GCU?s stock.
Angela Gonzales covers health, biotech and education.
Around the world, hundreds of millions of Muslims are fasting from sunrise to sunset. The Muslim holy month of Ramadan began last week and continues until Aug. 7. That's 30 days of avoiding food and drink all day. But in many families, someone still has to prepare a hearty, and sometimes festive, dinner every night.
"Ramadan is a big change in routine," says Jehad Outteneh, a Palestinian in Jerusalem who shops and cooks for her family of eight.
I followed Jehad one day to learn her tricks, and her recipes. We started at the vegetable stand just a few steps inside old Jerusalem's Damascus Gate.
Today, as on many days, she buys bright red tomatoes and small cucumbers ? the standard base for a Middle Eastern salad ? plus mint, cilantro and lemons to spice it up. Today she adds lettuce for a second salad, a touch of festivity for tonight's dinner. It's the second week of Ramadan, and the fast is broken daily at sundown by a special dinner, the iftar.
That's still several hours away.
"During Ramadan you feel the food has a different taste because you wait so long to eat," Jehad says.
Jehad always seems to be smiling. She was born in Jerusalem's Old City, above the maze of small alleyways crowded with tourists, pilgrims and residents. And she and her husband, Hattim, raised six children in an apartment here that, amazingly, shuts out the din. She shops for food every day and knows almost all the merchants.
The rest of Jehad's shopping list for tonight's supper: chicken, cauliflower and rice for the main dish, maqluba. Walnuts, sweet cheese and pancakes for qatayef, a dessert dumpling and traditional Ramadan treat. She buys a couple of bottles of soft drinks to supplement a chilled homemade carob drink in the fridge at home.
By the time she lugs all her bags home, it's 5:30.
"I'm hungry," she says. "And really thirsty."
But it's another couple of hours until sundown. Time to cook.
Jehad chose maqluba for tonight's dinner because it's quick and the family loves it. She can't taste as she goes, of course, but it doesn't matter. She's cooked this dish hundreds of times, the way her mother taught her long ago.
"I only cook what my mother cooked," she says. She never looks at recipes; she says she wouldn't need one for Palestinian food.
She manages to prepare food despite hunger pangs by focusing on the spirit of Ramadan. "It's all for God," she says. "All day I try to do good."
Jehad's family drifts in and out as she boils chicken, fries cauliflower, twists the stems off the mint and cilantro bunches. Her daughter Amani, 20, helps chop tomatoes, but says she couldn't do much else as she has no clue how to cook. Her younger sister learned when she got engaged, and Amani expects to do the same.
Hiba, 21, pouring yogurt into bowls, accidentally licks a bit off her finger. She hurries to rinse out her mouth. She says she's tired, thirsty and has a headache. Amani says she sleeps or watches movies to pass the long Ramadan days, and hates it when there's a scene of people eating. But now sunset is getting closer and they hurry to finish preparations.
Amani arranges pickles. Jehad makes fillings for the qatayef: one a walnut-cinnamon-sugar mix and one sweet cheese. Her sons Ibrahim and Ismael, both in their 20s, and youngest daughter Huda, 13, wake up from naps and wander in.
With about 15 minutes to go, Jehad turns on the radio. A man is reading from the Koran. In Jerusalem, there are two signals ending the day's fast: a cannon, which the same family has been in charge of for more than 100 years, and the call "Allahu Akbar" ? God is great ? over the radio.
The table is set. The maqtuba has been transferred from pot to serving dish. The salads are dressed. The drinks are out of the refrigerator.
The cannon sounds ? it's loud! "Allahu Akbar" wafts in from the kitchen. This is also the call to evening prayer, and outside in the Old City streets worshippers are headed toward the Holy Sanctuary to pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque or the Haram al-Sharif. But in Jehad's home, it's time to eat.
"I think God wanted us to eat first, then pray," she says, smiling.
Jehad Outteneh's Maqluba Recipe
Serves eight
2 medium chickens cleaned and cut into parts
1 medium white onion
1 head cauliflower
Cooking oil
Cardamom powder
Salt
2 pounds white rice
Cumin
Turmeric
Soak the chicken parts briefly in salty water. Rinse. Put in a pot and cover with water. Set stove temperature to medium/high.
Add 1 chopped medium white onion. Continue to cook for about 45 minutes. Add water as needed. (Jehad uses hot water from the electric teapot.)
Chop cauliflower into bite-sized pieces. In a separate pot, pour in enough oil to mostly cover the cauliflower. Heat oil and add cauliflower when hot enough to fry. It's ready when its honey colored. Remove from oil; place on paper towel to drain. Let it cool, then add cauliflower to pot with chicken. Add six big shakes of cardamom powder and some salt.
While the chicken and cauliflower continue to cook, rinse rice. Add a small amount of salt and a generous amount of turmeric; mix with the wet rice. Add the rice to the chicken and cauliflower pot. Continue to cook until rice is ready. Serve warm with yogurt.
By Jim Dryden - Recycling isn?t just good for the environment. It?s also good for your eyesight.
Thomas Ferguson, PhD, Washington University? Recycling cellular debris within the eye is required for maintaining good vision. Inside retinal pigment epithelium cells, structures used for recycling (green) engulf and digest spent parts of photoreceptor cells (red).
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and St. Jude Children?s Research Hospital in Memphis have found that good vision depends, at least in part, on a recycling process in the eye that mops up cellular debris and reuses light-sensitive proteins.
The findings suggest that disruptions in that process may harm vision and play a key role in the development of eye diseases related to aging, including age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss in Americans over 50. In the brain, similar defects in the recycling of proteins contribute to other disorders associated with aging, such as Alzheimer?s and Parkinson?s diseases, both of which are linked to the build up and aggregation of proteins in brain cells.
The study is published online in the journal Cell.
?One possibility is that as we age, these recycling pathways can become less efficient and the system becomes clogged,? said co-senior author Thomas A. Ferguson, PhD, a professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at Washington University. ?That can cut down on the retina?s ability to use vitamin A, which is crucial to good vision. Inefficient recycling also is thought to contribute to disorders like Alzheimer?s, where patients can?t clear proteins from the brain as they get older.?
Working in mice, Ferguson and co-senior author Douglas R. Green, PhD, the Peter C. Doherty Endowed Professor Immunology at St. Jude, showed that vision suffers when the retina can?t clear away debris produced by light-sensing photoreceptor cells.
The retina, located at the back of the eye, is populated with photoreceptors that absorb light and send electrical signals to the brain, allowing us to see. A key component of these photoreceptors is a light-sensitive molecule called rhodopsin. It is rhodopsin that absorbs light, but each rhodopsin molecule only works for a brief stint. Once it has been exposed to light, rhodopsin breaks down and must be recycled to use again.
?
?After rhodopsin absorbs light, it?s no good anymore,? said Ferguson. ?But the ?spent? rhodopsin is recharged through a series of chemical reactions so that the whole process can start all over again.?
Ferguson
The key player in getting the rhodopsin recharged is a single layer of cells at the back of the retina called the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), which recycles and recharges a molecule that rhodopsin needs to activate the photoreceptor cells.
In addition, the photoreceptor cells themselves also get a little ragged after repeated exposure to light and they, too, are continually shed and renewed each day.
In this new study, Ferguson and Green found that both the recycling of rhodopsin and the clearance of discarded bits of photoreceptors are initiated by a mechanism called autophagy.
?Autophagy is just what it sounds like: self-eating,? said Green, the chair of immunology at St. Jude. ?Under adverse conditions, cells digest their own internal structures. They essentially eat themselves to survive. The process we?ve studied shares features of autophagy, but also is distinct, and that?s very exciting.?
There is increasing evidence that when operating efficiently, autophagy can help stave off the cellular damage that occurs in age-related diseases such as Alzheimer?s, and Ferguson and his colleagues suspect it also may play a role in age-related eye diseases.
But autophagy isn?t the only mechanism at work in the retina. The retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) also uses a second eating process called phagocytosis to clear away parts of the photoreceptor cells that are constantly shed in the retina.
But it turns out that both autophagy ? when cells eat themselves ? and phagocytosis ? when cells eat structures other than themselves ? operate through the same pathway, the research shows.
To understand how those two mechanisms operate in the eye, Ferguson and Green studied mice. In the animals, as in people, photoreceptor discs are shed early each morning. The researchers found that signs of autophagy were visible in the mouse retina throughout the day but peaked at about 7 a.m.
?
Next, they generated mice whose retinal pigment epithelial cells lacked a gene essential for autophagy.
?
?One of the first things we noticed was that disrupting this unusual form of autophagy also disrupted the process of phagocytosis,? Green explained. ?The retinal pigment epithelium cells weren?t able to digest debris from photoreceptors, suggesting that the two mechanisms shared a common pathway in the retina.?
They also found that when the pathway was interrupted, the mice didn?t see very well. Using complex techniques to measure vision, the researchers discovered that although the mice weren?t losing photoreceptor cells, they were losing their vision.
?Their vision was reduced by 30 to 40 percent,? Ferguson said. ?But when we gave each of the mice a single injection of a molecule to restore the rhodopsin in their photoreceptors, their vision was restored to normal for several days.?
The experiments, Ferguson said, suggested that autophagy assists the visual cycle by helping cells recover vitamin A, which is essential for the recycling of rhodopsin in the photoreceptors.
?And that is very interesting because deficiencies in vitamin A are known to lead to night blindness and other vision problems,? he said. ?We can?t really say these mice were ?night blind,? but their vision was reduced because they couldn?t efficiently recover enough vitamin A to restore rhodopsin to the photoreceptors.?
If that same process were to break down in humans as a function of aging, Ferguson believes it could play a role in the vision loss associated with normal aging and with diseases like macular degeneration.
?If autophagy becomes less efficient in the retina as a result of aging, it could cause problems clearing away debris and maintaining the visual cycle,? he said.
Because previous studies have suggested autophagy can help clear harmful proteins that accumulate in cells during Alzheimer?s and Parkinson?s disease, new drugs are being developed to boost that recycling process. Ferguson and Green think some of those drugs may be useful in combating age-related vision loss.
?
?
Funding for this research comes from the National Eye Institute (NEI) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It also was supported by Research to Prevent Blindness and the BrightFocus Foundation. NIH Grant numbers EY015570, AI44848, AI40646 and EY02687.
?
Kim JY, Zhao H, Martinez J, Doggett TA, Kolesnikov AV, Tang PH, Ablonczy Z, Chan CC, Zhou A, Green DR, Ferguson TA. Non-canonical autophagy promotes the visual cycle. Cell vol. 153 (8), published online July 18, 2013.
Washington University School of Medicine?s 2,100 employed and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children?s hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked sixth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children?s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]A newly discovered pandoravirus is 1,000 times the size of the flu virus and has nearly 200 times as many genes. And giant viruses turn out to be everywhere.
Parents with kids in K-12 say they expect to spend an average of $428 per child on back-to-school items. Think that?s bad? Parents of college student are shelling out up to $1,000 per child. On top of that, they expect their kids to contribute another 50% to buy books, clothes and dorm room necessities.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 22-Jul-2013
Share ] 
Thomas Ferguson, PhD, Washington University? Recycling cellular debris within the eye is required for maintaining good vision. Inside retinal pigment epithelium cells, structures used for recycling (green) engulf and digest spent parts of photoreceptor cells (red).
Ferguson