четверг, 15 марта 2012 г.

US stocks rise ahead of Fed decision

Wall Street rose Wednesday as oil prices fell back and investors awaited the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates and policymakers' take on the economy.

Investors worried about the impact of higher oil and gas prices on consumer spending and the overall economy got a reprieve when light, sweet crude fell $4.17 to $132.83 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The pullback came in response to news from the Energy Department that U.S. supplies of fuel and oil rose more than expected last week. The buildup indicates Americans are cutting their use of fuel because of higher prices; a resulting drop in prices would relieve some of the inflationary pressures in the …

No loaf lost on bears: If you're playing for Smith, you'd better be hustling

SAN FRANCISCO -- Preseason games are the only time when itactually doesn't matter if you win or lose but how you play the game.

It starts with effort. Nobody wants to be caught loafing on tape,and cameras are omnipresent. Every practice, every scrimmage, everygame is filmed from multiple angles.

If a player isn't a part of the Bears' plans for this season,another team could see him on tape, so every play is essential,starting tonight in the team's preseason opener against the SanFrancisco 49ers.

Every NFL team keeps some statistic that measures hustle, andBears coach Lovie Smith is renowned for charting "loafs," plays inwhich it's determined that 100 …

Politics Goes E-mail Crazy

You thought you were just buying a plane ticket online, and now your e-mail inbox is loaded with fund-raising pitches, congressional newsletters and position papers.

Online shopping is one of the easiest ways people's e-mail addresses can become part of opt-in commercial databases that people in politics use to target prospective voters. This unwanted e-mail is largely considered spam.

Congress dealt with the problem partially with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, which limited types of commercial e-mail. But political messages were excluded. And that's just how political professionals like it.

"There's a distinct difference between political and government communication …

среда, 14 марта 2012 г.

France slaps record fines on steel cartel

France's competition authorities Tuesday slapped a record euro575 million ($776 million) in fines on 11 companies, including subsidiaries of global steel giant ArcelorMittal, for running a cartel in the steel trading sector from 1999 to 2004.

The damage to the French economy caused by the cartel amounts to "hundreds of millions of euros," France's Conseil de la Concurrence said in a statement.

ArcelorMittal steel trading subsidiary PUM Service Acier received the largest fine, euro288 million, for its role as one of three "leaders" of the cartel, said Virginie Guin, a spokeswoman for the regulator.

That makes it the largest …

Protesters heckle Obama adviser in Israel

Two ultranationalist Israeli activists have been arrested for shouting insults at White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

The two men approached Emanuel Thursday as he was touring Jerusalem's Old City with his family under heavy security.

The protesters began shouting insults and slogans from afar, yelling, "Jerusalem is not for sale." They were referring …

National weather

Hi Lo Otlk

Anchorage 36 26 Cldy

Baltimore 75 46 Clr

Boston 45 37 Cldy

Chicago 67 49 Rain

Dallas-Ft Worth 82 68 PCldy

Denver 55 32 PCldy

Detroit 71 43 Rain

Honolulu 81 67 Clr

Houston 83 68 Cldy

Indianapolis 77 56 Rain

Kansas City 63 59 PCldy

Las Vegas 85 58 Clr

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Los Angeles 74 54 …

Wiley, USC have rematch of memorable 1935 debate

DALLAS (AP) — Teams from Wiley College and the University of Southern California will have a rematch Friday of the memorable 1935 debate that saw the small, historically black school prevail over the nationally known, mostly white powerhouse.

The exhibition will be held at Wiley in the small town of Marshall, near Texas' border with Louisiana.

The 1935 debate at USC took place when the nation was heavily segregated and helped inspire "The Great Debaters," a 2007 movie starring Denzel Washington. The movie climaxes with a fictional debate against Harvard that was modeled on the real match in California.

"Before the civil rights movement, before Dr. King, Malcolm X, before …

Obama meets with Dalai Lama; Chinese complain

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama held a White House meeting Saturday with the Dalai Lama, a fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, hours after China called on the U.S. to rescind an invitation that could sour relations with Beijing.

The Tibetan spiritual leader has been in Washington for an 11-day Buddhist ritual. Thousands of expatriate Tibetans joined a 76th birthday celebration Wednesday for the Dalai Lama, who recently relinquished leadership of Tibet's government-in-exile.

The White House said that during the 45-minute private session in the Map Room, Obama "underscored the importance of the protection of human rights of Tibetans in China." In a statement issued after …

Massachusetts bill doubles jail time, fines for fraud

New language states that appraisers and shop owners could lose their license, but insurers will still not face criminal charges.

Massachusetts's legislators recently passed a bill that doubles the maximum amount of jail time and raises the fine to 20 times the minimum and five times the maximum of what it was previously for auto repairers and auto repair facilities committing insurance fraud.

Massachusetts Senate Bill (S.B.) No. 2096 passed through the House and Senate, and on June 13, was signed by Republican Acting Gov. Jane Swift.

Previously, the law called for a person filing a fraudulent motor vehicle claim to serve between six months and 2 1/2 years of time …

US panel cites health, envirnmental concerns about huge factory-like farms

American agriculture must move away from its focus on large, industrial farms to reverse environmental and human health problems, a private commission reported Tuesday.

The report examined the impact of what it called the widespread use of industry-like facilities, where large numbers of cattle, pigs and chickens are concentrated, often in very close quarters, for rapid growth and preparation for slaughter.

"There is increasing urgency to chart a new course," concluded the report by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, which spent more than two years examining the industrial farm systems.

The facilities, the report …

Sore points: Martinez sits as Lofton returns

Second baseman Ramon Martinez was a late scratch from Tuesdaynight's starting lineup for the Cubs. He has been nursing a sorehamstring, but hitting well in spite of it.

Martinez felt extra soreness while hitting Monday and was replaced in the lineup by Augie Ojeda when he wasn't physicallyimproved in pregame drills.

"Ramon had some soreness in his hamstring on a checked swing,"manager Dusty Baker said. "You get one back and lose another."

Baker was alluding to center fielder Kenny Lofton returning to thelineup after being absent in Monday's 3-1 loss to the Astros becauseof a jammed right wrist. Does Baker sense that he is patching hislineup …

Surface-induced polymerization of actin

ABSTRACT Living cells contain a very large amount of membrane surface area, which potentially influences the direction, the kinetics, and the localization of biochemical reactions. This paper quantitatively evaluates the possibility that a lipid monolayer can adsorb actin from a nonpolymerizing solution, induce its polymerization, and form a 2D network of individual actin filaments, in conditions that forbid bulk polymerization. G- and F-actin solutions were studied beneath saturated Langmuir monolayers containing phosphatidylcholine (PC, neutral) and stearylamine (SA, a positively charged surfactant) at PC:SA = 3:1 molar ratio. Ellipsometry, tensiometry, shear elastic measurements, electron microscopy, and dark-field light microscopy were used to characterize the adsorption kinetics and the interfacial polymerization of actin. In all cases studied, actin follows a monoexponential reaction-limited adsorption with similar time constants (~10^sup 3^ s). At a longer time scale the shear elasticity of the monomeric actin adsorbate increases only in the presence of lipids, to a 2D shear elastic modulus of mu == 30 mN/m, indicating the formation of a structure coupled to the monolayer. Electron microscopy shows the formation of a 2D network of actin filaments at the PC:SA surface, and several arguments strongly suggest that this network is indeed causing the observed elasticity. Adsorption of F-actin to PC:SA leads more quickly to a silghtly more rigid interface with a modulus of mu == 50 mN/m.

INTRODUCTION

Actin is the major constituent of muscle cells, but it is also expressed in the cytoplasm of all eukaryotic cells, where it plays a central role in numerous cellular functions such as cell motility, cytokinesis, and phagocytosis (Pollard, 1990; Kabsch and Vandekerckhove, 1992). Since actin purification procedures have been available, actin has been studied for its biochemical and physical properties. In vivo, monomeric actin, also called G-actin, can reversibly polymerize into microfilaments called F-actin, under the control of several intricate and distinct regulatory pathways that have been studied extensively (Carlier, 1991; Sheterline and Sparrow, 1994). In vitro, G-actin is classically induced to polymerize by salts such as KCl and MgC12 or polyamines (Oriol-Audit, 1978; Grant and Oriol-Audit, 1983), and the resulting F-actin solutions have been investigated by numerous groups for their macroscopic (Janmey, 1991; Maggs, 1997) and microscopic viscoelastic properties (Ziemann et al., 1994; Amblard et al., 1996; Schnurr et al., 1997).

Motivated by the elucidation of its structure, efforts have been made to crystallize the actin monomer, and various strategies have been used. The crystal structure of the monomer is not yet available, although cocrystals between F-actin and different actin-binding proteins have been made and resolved successfully, such as those with profilin, DNAse I, and gelsolin (Mannherz, 1992, and Pollard et al., 1994, for reviews). On the one hand, in 3D, under well-defined ionic conditions with polycationic molecules or multivalent cations, pure actin assembles into microfilaments that form superstructures such as elongated microcrystals, tubules, or stacks of parallel filament sheets (see Taylor and Taylor, 1992, for a review). On the other hand, solutions of filaments were shown to adsorb to positively charged 2D substrates by electrostatic interaction and assemble into flat paracrystalline filament arrays, from which low-resolution structural information was obtained (Rioux and Gicquaud, 1985; Ward et al., 1990; Taylor and Taylor, 1992, and references therein). Because actin has a low pI (~5.5), its electrostatic adsorption can be obtained at neutral pH on polyamine surfaces, mixtures of neutral and basic lipids (Rioux and Gicquaud, 1985; Laliberte and Gicquaud, 1988; Ward et al., 1990), or with basic surfactants (Taylor and Taylor, 1992). In most studies, the buffer conditions have been such that bulk polymerization in the solution generally precedes the surface adsorption of polymers and paracrystal formation, and not much attention has been paid to the possible scenario of surface-induced polymerization from a nonpolymerizing monomer solution. One report shows surface-induced polymerization by positively charged liposomes, leading to paracrystal formation, but single filaments were not observed (Laliberte and Gicquaud, 1988).

Because the organization of biological membranes is a central question in cell biology, several studies have been devoted to the lateral behavior of membrane proteins and to lipid/lipid and lipid/protein interactions (Jacobson et al., 1995). In this context, the 2D crystallization of soluble proteins by means of a lipid monolayer has been studied by powerful structural methods such as grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (Haas et al., 1995; Lenne, 1998), and electron cryomicroscopy (Henderson et al., 1990). In addition, the measurement of the surface viscoelasticity has been recently combined with ellipsometry (Venien-Bryan et al., 1998). Nevertheless, most proteins studied so far in 2D do not assemble into linear polymers, but rather into 2D arrays, and the possibility of polymerization from a solution of 2D confined monomers has not been investigated.

The aim of the present work is to investigate the process by which a positively charged lipid monolayer deposited at the air/buffer interface could serve as a template for the polymerization of monomeric actin into single filaments. We wish to establish a reproducible set of qualitative and quantitative observations that demonstrates surface-induced polymerization of actin and describes some of its kinetic, mechanical, and ultrastructural aspects. Following initial work (Renault et al., 1997), the adsorption kinetics and the process of surface polymerization are studied by ellipsometry, tensiometry, surface rheology, and dark-field light microscopy. The ultrastructure of single 2D-formed polymers is approached by electron microscopy. The role of the surface lipids and the dimensionality of the polymerization process are evaluated by contrasting experimental conditions: G- or F-actin at a bare air/water interface or under a lipid monolayer.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Lipid and actin biochemistry

Egg phosphatidylcholine (PC, Sigma catalog no. P-5763) and stearylamine (SA, Sigma catalog no. S-9273) were kept in hexane/ethanol solution (9:1) at -20 deg C. The working solutions were prepared in chloroform or in hexane/ethanol at a final lipid concentration of 6 X 10^sup -4^ M. Positively charged amphiphiles (SA) were mixed with PC as the neutral lipid, at a final molar ratio of PC:SA of 3:1. Following the classical method of Pardee and Spudich (1982), actin acetone powder was prepared from chicken breast muscles and stored at -80 deg C. Actin was then extracted through two or three cycles of polymerization-depolymerization. High-salt washes were performed with 0.65 M KCl for 30 min, and filaments were depolymerized by rapid overnight dialysis in G-buffer (5 mM Tris-HCI, pH 7.4, 0.2 mM Na-ATP, 0.5 mM beta-mercaptoethanol, 0.2 mM CaCI^sub 2^, and 0.01% NaN^sub 3^), followed by ultracentrifugation. The purity was assessed by electrophoresis, using Coomassie staining-overloaded polyacrylamide gels, and by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (Perseptive, Framingham, MA). Highly purified G-actin solution was stored at -80 deg C. Samples were prepared by diluting concentrated actin in nonpolymezing buffer (G-buffer) or polymerizing buffer (F-buffer), that is, G-buffer supplemented with 100 mM KCI, 2 mM MgC1^sub 2^, and 0.5 mM Na-ATP.

Ellipsometry, surface tension

The ellipsometric measurements were carried out with a conventional null ellipsometer using a He-Ne laser operating at 632.8 nm (Berge and Renault, 1993). The variation of the ellipsometric angle is a relevant probe for changes occurring at the interface. Ellipsometric angle (delta) and surface pressure were recorded simultaneously. The surface pressure was measured with a Wilhelmy balance. The sample cell is made from Teflon and has a volume of 8 ml. The protein is injected into the subphase, and the buffer is then coated by the lipid monolayer. All the experiments were carried out at room temperature. Initial time points of all graphs (t = 0) correspond to the first possible measurements, once the surface is stable, i.e., a few minutes after mixing.

Shear elastic constant

The rheometer set-up uses the action of a very light float (32 mg), which applies a rotational strain to the monolayer through a magnetic torque (with a pair of Helmholtz coils and a small magnetized pin deposited in the float). This set-up and the procedure for data analysis have been described previously (Venien-Bryan et al., 1998; Zakri-Delplanque, 1997). Briefly, at the center of a 48-mm-diameter Teflon trough, a 10-mm-diameter paraffincoated aluminum disc floats at the air/water interface, surrounded by the monolayer, whose rigidity is measured. The subphase is 5 mm deep. The float carries a small magnet and is kept centered by a permanent field, B^sub o^ = 6 x 10^sup -5^ T, parallel to the Earth's field and created by a little solenoid located just above the float. Sensitive angular detection of the float rotation is achieved by using a mirror fixed on the magnet to reflect a laser beam onto a differential photodiode. A sinusoidal torque excitation is applied to the float in the 0.01-100 Hz frequency range, by an oscillating field perpendicular to the permanent solenoid field. The latter field acts as a restoring torque equivalent to a monolayer with a rigidity of 0.16 mN/m. This number set the sensitivity limit of this rheometer. The device behaves like a simple harmonic oscillator. The angular response is measured in amplitude and phase and is considered to reflect directly the rotational strain of the monolayer (see the Discussion). The data presented here only include the values of the shear elastic constant, mu (mN/m), measured at 5 Hz. Initial time points of all graphs (t = 0) correspond to the first possible measurements, once the magnetic float is centered and stable, i.e., a few minutes after mixing.

Electron microscopy

At the end of the experiments, i.e., after 20 h, plain carbon-coated electron microscope grids were placed on top of the crystallization trough, withdrawn after a few minutes of adsorption, and negatively stained with 2% (w/v) uranyl acetate for 30 s. Negatively stained specimens were examined in a Philips CM200 electron microscope operating at 200 kV. Micrographs were recorded on Kodak SO 163 film under low dose conditions and at a nominal magnification of 27,500X. For some experiments, the subphase was mildly stirred by a slowly rotating magnetic bar lying on the bottom of the trough, with dimensions and an angular velocity such that it does not disrupt the surface.

Dark-field light microscopy

The air/water interface was imaged with an inverted microscope (IX; Olympus, Japan) equipped with a 100-W halogen lamp and commercially available dry optics: a dark-field condenser (U-DCD) and a 60x UPIFL objective. A ULL760 intensified CCD (Lhesa, Cergy Pontoise, France) was used for video-rate imaging of actin filaments at the interface.

RESULTS

G-Actin at the air/buffer interface

Electron microscopy observations

In nonpolymerizing conditions, i.e., without KCl and MgC1^sub 2^, electron micrographs of the bare air/buffer interface after a 20-h incubation show no linear structures that would be indicative of polymerization. In contrast, a dense and regular distribution of dots of similar size appears, which probably correspond to oligomeric aggregates of denatured monomers (not shown).

In the presence of a PC:SA monolayer but in otherwise identical conditions, the surface was sampled in two different sets of conditions: at mechanical rest, or with a mild stirring of the subphase (see Materials and Methods). The motivation of introducing a mild stirring of the subphase was to perturb the conditions of polymerization, by a hydrodynamic flow. This perturbation will be useful in illustrating and analyzing the differences between the present results and those previously obtained in closely related work (Laliberte and Gicquaud, 1988). Under "stirring" conditions, linear structures clearly appear on the surface, consisting of straight filaments (Fig. 5 a), with lengths typically from I to 3.5 mu m. The thickness of each filament appears to be constant at 6-7 nm, in agreement with the known ultrastructure of F-actin. These filaments are arranged in loose parallel patterns (made up of 5-20 filaments), which clearly contrast with the strong order and close spacing of paracrystalline microfilament sheets made from F-actin solutions (Laliberte and Gicquaud, 1988; Ward et al., 1990; Taylor and Taylor, 1992). Here the word "parallel" does not imply the same polarity of the filaments. In these stirring conditions, isolated filaments are barely seen. Fig. 5 b shows the dramatic effect of the lack of stirring of the subphase on actin filament structure, typically observed on samples transferred onto electron microscopic grids after torsion or ellipsometry measurements. The parallel long and straight filaments are no longer present; only single filaments are seen, and these form a continuous 2D network. Another striking feature is the stuctural defects shown by these isolated filaments, such as thickness irregularities and branching points (Fig. 5 b). The lengths of these filaments are also shorter: from 0.5 to 1 jam. Nevertheless, these seemingly "abnormal" structures are essentially ID objects, with an electron density contrast similar to that of straight filaments.

DISCUSSION

The present results show that a nonpolymerizing G-actin solution can be induced to assemble into individual filaments on the surface of a positively charged lipid monolayer. Following initial work (Renault et al., 1997), in this report the combination of ellipsometry, tensiometry, surface rheology, transmission electron microscopy, and dark-field light microscopy is used to investigate this phenomenon and to describe qualitatively and quantitatively some of its kinetic, mechanical, and ultrastructural aspects. Different experimental conditions (G- or F-actin solutions at a bare air/water interface or under a lipid monolayer) are used to evaluate the role of the surface lipids and the dimensionality of the polymerization process, and to kinetically resolve adsorption from rigidification/polymerization.

Purity and reproducibility

The protocols followed for actin purification and manipulation were optimized for an optimal reproducibility of the results: three polymerization/depolymerization cycles with a rapid overnight depolymerization at each step, storage at -80 deg C, reproducible thawing procedure, and only sameday use of thawed solutions. The solutions used typically had a total concentration of contaminants (larger than 5 kDa) on the order of 0.1-0.2%, as determined by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (Fig. 6). In addition, the molecular mass of actin determined by mass spectrometry was within ~50 Da of the expected mass with no apparent proteolysis. In our experience, the usual one-cycle purification procedure gave an insufficient purity (~1% contaminant), which gave fluctuating results in surface rheology experiments. The precautions described above are of critical importance and gave us a satisfactory reproducibility, even between different purification batches. Ellipsometry results were obtained four to five times, giving very similar results in terms of the angle Or"maX and the time constant T; indeed, the deviation of the fitted quantities between the different experiments was less than the fitting error (see values in Table 1). Shear elastic measurements were made two or three times for each set of conditions, and the kinetic curves gave similar results (see Table 1).

Adsorption kinetics

The ellipsometric angle A depends on the refractive index profile perpendicular to the air/water interface. It is analyzed here in a semiquantitative way, by considering it as the sum of two terms: a fixed offset representing the lipid monolayer, and the angle contributed by the proteins in molecular contact with the lipid surface, which reflects the average surface density and thickness of the adsorbed actin layer.

Let us first consider G-actin at the bare air/liquid interface or under the PC:SA monolayer. The short-time monoexponential behavior of the ellipsometric angle A (Figs. 1 and 3 a) can be accounted for by an effective first-order adsorption process sketched by

where [A] is the volume concentration of actin, [B] is its surface concentration, and k+ is the on rate, with units of length over time. The equilibrium value [B]/[A] reflects the surface affinity and has units of length. The experimentally observed proportionality between the on rate and the actin concentration (data not shown) is in agreement with this model, as well as the existence of a long time plateau in the ellipsometric angle. One may then ask whether the G-actin adsorption is diffusion limited or not. A simple calculation based on the actin volume concentration, the monomer size (~5 nm), and the diffusion coefficient of G-actin (~50 mu m^sup 2^ s^sup -1^) tells us that the adsorption occurs on a time scale that is within the reaction-limited regime by at least two orders of magnitude. The reaction-limited monoexponential behaviors described for G-actin are also found with F-actin with or without lipids (Figs. 2 a and 4 a), with slightly larger exponential time constants. Reaction limitation of protein adsorption onto lipids, as opposed to diffusion limitation, has also been observed in other experimental models, such as spectrin or protein 4.1 (Kiernan et al., 1997). It is noteworthy that the presence of lipids slightly reduces the adsorption on rate for both G- and F-actin and leads to a denser and/or thicker surface coverage (Table 1).

After the exponential adsorption phase, in the absence of lipids, the long-time behavior of the ellipsometric signal for both G- and F-actin fits very well with a slow adsorption process with a constant rate that does not saturate (Figs. 1 and 2 a). This process is most likely caused by the irreversible denaturation of actin in contact with air. Interestingly, surface denaturation is much slower (~30 times) with Fthan G-actin. In the case of F-actin, the shear rigidity of the interface is not affected in a detectable way by these processes.

The long-time behavior of the G- and F-actin solutions under the PC:SA monolayer are quite different from those in the absence of lipids. Indeed, F-actin under lipids results in an equilibrium situation, with a flat plateau for both the ellipsometric and the rigidity signals (Fig. 4). This suggests that actin filaments are protected from denaturation and build a mechanically stable surface. In contrast to this situation, the lipid interface in contact with a G-actin solution is not stable, but shows a distinctive hyperbolic decrease of the ellipsometric angle. Taken together with the decrease in surface tension, this observation strongly suggests that actin could intercalate into the monolayer, as has been observed in other experimental protein/lipid models (Ellison and Castellino, 1997, and references therein). The hyperbolic variation of the optical signal suggests that the underlying process is a second-order reaction in contrast with the initial exponential adsorption. Moreover, this second-order process occurs on a time scale that is very similar to that of the elasticity increase, thus suggesting a relationship between them.

Surface shear elasticity

Our approach to measuring surface shear elasticity involves a device that applies very small excitation strains (from 10^sup -3^ down to 10^sup -6^). In this range, previous experiments have shown that pure shear elastic response spectra are obtained with 2D protein crystals, and there is a linear stress-strain relationship over the whole range (VenienBryan et al., 1998). This demonstrates that 1) the rotation coupling between the float and the contacting monolayer covered with its underlying structures is satisfactory, and 2) such small strains do not create plastic deformations on fragile surface objects. We currently used strains in the 10-4 range, which is very likely to be inside the linear elastic response domain of surface actin networks. It is noteworthy that surface rheology experiments already reported employed much higher strains in the 0.01-0.05 range (Muller et al., 1991), and that strongly limits the meaning of quantitative comparisons with our work, as explained later.

The following discussion of elasticity focuses on the behavior of G-actin solutions at the PC:SA interface (Fig. 3), and all quantities refer to this experimental situation unless otherwise stated. As previously mentioned, elasticity cannot be measured while the subphase is stirred, so the present discussion only applies to structures obtained in unstirred conditions. Frequency response spectra (data not shown) acquired at different times during the experiments did not show a viscous component, but only an increase in the shear elastic modulus, which was then simply assessed at a fixed rotation frequency of 5 Hz.

Two arguments support the notion that the elasticity increase is entirely due to interfacial structures resulting from the actin-lipid interaction. First, ultrasensitive darkfield video microscopy experiments aimed at visualizing individual filaments over long times revealed filaments "sticking" to the interface without detaching (Fig. 7). In these experiments, no filaments were seen in the bulk solution. Second, the asymptotic value of the elastic modulus is roughly one order of magnitude larger than that for the F-actin solution in the absence of lipids, and the PC:SA monolayer per se has no detectable elasticity-less than 0.1 mN/m. Altogether, these facts suggest that a lipid-actin structure present at the surface is responsible for the observed elasticity.

We must then discuss the nature of these surface structures that increase the surface shear elasticity. Several arguments strongly suggest that actin filaments observed by electron microscopy in unstirred conditions are indeed causing the elasticity increase. In the first place, the analysis of numerous micrographs indicates that filaments form a 2D network that covers most of the surface in a continuous way, with a typical interfilament distance (2D mesh size) of a micron. Is such a network density high enough to account for the elasticity observed at long times? A direct quantitative answer to this question is rather difficult, because the elastic properties of the surface bound polymers seen by electron microscopy are not known. Nevertheless, the 2D mesh size (1 mu m) is close to the 3D mesh size of the 25 jig/ml solution when polymerized (2 /Mm) (Schmidt et al., 1989). In addition, the vertical size of the strained region (5 mm) is four times smaller than its horizontal extension (20 mm). This indicates that the surface elastic modulus of the 2D network (30 mN/m), when corrected for the geometry, is similar to that of the 3D actin solution. This order of magnitude comparison suggests that the surface elasticity of the surface polymerized actin "skin" can indeed be accounted for by the microfilament network seen on the surface. A rigorous comparison of these numbers would require a careful theoretical analysis of the geometry of the strain field, which is simple in 2D but much more complex in the 3D medium. In addition, the actin we used is very pure (0.1-0.2% contaminants in mass), and we did not see any evidence of 2D crystalline arrays of actin by electron microscopy. This is very different from streptavidin crystals formed under a biotinylated lipid monolayer. Indeed, despite the fact that 2D crystals are clearly visible by electron microscopy, they cause an order of magnitude smaller surface shear elasticity, as measured by the same apparatus with an identical geometry (3 mN/m) (Venien-Bryan et al., 1998). This makes it very unlikely that invisible surface structures contribute to the elasticity. Altogether, these results strongly suggest that the 2D filament network formed at the PC:SA interface over a nonpolymerizing actin solution is indeed the essential cause for the observed increase in surface shear elasticity.

The rheology of actin solution has been extensively investigated in bulk (Janmey, 1991; Maller et al., 1991; Wachsstock et al., 1994; Isambert and Maggs, 1996) and at a microscopic scale by the use of microbeads (Ziemann et al., 1994; Amblard et al., 1996; Schnurr et al., 1997; Maggs, 1998). Unfortunately, unlike physical polymer systems, experimental results with actin display a very strong variability. For instance, plateau moduli measured in bulk by different groups are scattered over many orders of magnitude (Maggs, 1997). This comes from some intrinsic features of the actin biochemistry, such as the polydispersity of filament length, from the purity of actin preparations used, and, importantly, from the technical details of rheology experiments. The surface rheology approach described here bears some apparent similarity to an oscillating disk rheometer previously used for measuring the 3D shear elastic modulus of an entangled actin solution (Miller et al., 1991). A typical plateau modulus of 0.1 N/m2 was found for a 0.1 mg/ml actin solution. Can one make quantitative comparisons between that work and ours? Despite apparent similarities between the two instruments, the set-up of Miller et al. has several important features that make it different from ours: 1) The coupling of the rotating float with the solution is made by a neutral lipid monolayer of dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine, which is known not to interact with actin (Bouchard et al., 1998). 2) The strain used (-0.OS) is roughly three orders of magnitude above our range, and this might affect the linearity of the response. 3) The strain geometries are different in the two instruments, and in particular, the strain in the meniscus region is poorly controlled and probably very high in Muller's work and inadequate for measuring 2D shear elasticity. For all of these reasons, it is not meaningful to look for the length scale that is required for comparing surface and bulk elasticity in the two instruments. Nevertheless, these remarks do not invalidate the above comparison made between our measurements of the elasticity of the 2D and 3D networks, because the same instrument was used.

The kinetics of rigidification follow an exponential behavior, from which the nature of the polymerization kinetics cannot be inferred, because the mechanical effect measured here probably has no simple relationship with the amount of polymer formed at the interface. The exponential elasticity increase is preceded by a 5000-s lag phase, which is longer than the 1800-s adsorption time constant (Fig. 3). This delay between the adsorption and the rigidification has also been observed in the process of 2D crystallization of cholera toxin B, where it was related to the percolation of 2D crystals (Venien-Bryan et al., 1998). A similar feature was also observed in kinetic analysis of actin polymerization in a suspension of positively charged liposomes in the absence of Mg2+ and K+ ions (Laliberte and Gicquaud, 1988). Here either the surface-induced polymerization has a lag like that of solution polymerization, and/or the elasticity requires the surface concentration of polymer to rise above a critical threshold. The latter interpretation fits well with the general notion that polymer solutions manifest elastic properties only if their concentration is above a threshold where entanglement appears (De Gennes, 1978).

Assembly and microscopic structure of surfaceinduced actin polymers

CONCLUSION

The present data demonstrate that a nonpolymerizing Gactin solution can be induced to polymerize into single filaments by and at a positively charged lipid monolayer. The mechanism first involves a monoexponential adsorption process, followed by a marked increase in the surface shear elastic modulus. Actin polymerization essentially occurs at the interface and produces a 2D network of actin filaments, which is probably responsible for the observed elasticity. These observations point toward open questions concerning the detailed molecular mechanism of 2D nucleation and polymerization and its relationship with 3D polymerization. The optical, mechanical, and microscopic imaging methods combined in the present work, together with other tools, should be useful for further studies of proteinlipid interactions and 2D molecular assembly.

[Reference]

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[Author Affiliation]

Anne Renault,* Pierre-Fran4;ois Lenne,* Cecile Zakri,* Achod Aradian, Catherine Vdnien-Bryan,# and Fran ois Amblard

[Author Affiliation]

*Laboratoire de Spectrometrie Physique, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR-5588, BP87, 38402 St Martin d'Heres; #Institut de Biologie Structurale Jean-Pierre Ebel, Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 38027 Grenoble Cedex 1; and Laboratoire de Physiologie, Ecole Superieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielle et Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR-7637-Neurobiologie, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France

[Author Affiliation]

Received for publication 2 April 1998 and in final form 25 November 1998. Address reprint requests to Dr. Franqois Amblard, Laboratoire de PhysicoChimie, Institut Curie, 11 rue Pierre et Marie Curie, 75005 Paris, France. Tel.: 33-1-42346795; Fax: 33-1-42346795; E-mail: francois.amblard@ curie.fr.

[Author Affiliation]

We are indebted to Claude Gicquaud for initiating our interest in actin/lipid interactions and for collaborating on the first experiments. We thank Bruno Berge for his constant scientific support. S. Charpak and J. Rossier are acknowlegded for their warm support, E. Beaurepaire for his assistance, and J. P. Le Caer for purity tests using mass spectrometry. This work was made possible partly by a grant from the Defense Ministry to FA (contract 961177).

Mavs Fend Off LeBron's 39, Beat Cavs

DALLAS - Here's how well the Dallas Mavericks are playing: Even on one of his best nights, LeBron James couldn't take them down. James had 39 points, combining eye-popping dunks with all sorts of other scoring tactics, and played terrific defense on fellow MVP contender Dirk Nowitzki with the game on the line. But James missed two free throws and a pair of 3-pointers in the final 13.7 seconds, letting the Mavericks slip past the Cleveland Cavaliers 95-92 Thursday night for their franchise record-tying 14th straight victory.

"It wasn't the prettiest win in that streak, but a win is a win," Mavs forward Jerry Stackhouse said. "LeBron is tough to guard - so strong, so talented. We all had an emphasis on trying to slow him down and he still amost had 40."

Said Mavs coach Avery Johnson: "We gave him some different looks - he still exploited some of our coverages. Sometimes we had three people on him and he was still able to split (them) like he was 160 pounds, then he was powerful like he was 260."

Cavs coach Mike Brown called it James' second-best performance of the season, insisting that "LeBron's intensity kept us in it." James himself acknowledged it was "the best I've felt in a while."

"I wanted to be focused and our team could tell," he said. "I tried to be as aggressive as possible."

And it still wasn't enough, not against a team that's now won 21 straight at home.

"They have a lot of weapons. They're definitely the favorite in the West," he said. "We played a good game, but it doesn't make me feel good because we lost. We aren't happy to just come close."

The difference was balance.

The Mavericks got 24 points from Nowitzki, 20 from Jason Terry and 17 from Josh Howard, plus 10 each from Stackhouse and Erick Dampier. Even DeSagana Diop chipped in a season-high eight.

With Cleveland's second-leading scorer Larry Hughes out with the flu, James' four fellow starters combined for 22 points. That included zilch from center Zydrunas Ilgauskas in 19 minutes and 11 from Hughes' replacement, Sasha Pavlovic.

Nowitzki and Terry each scored 10 in the fourth quarter. However, Nowitzki was 0-for-3 with two fouls and a turnover, plus a 24-second violation for the team, over the final 5:11, once James got in his way.

Dallas led 92-82 with 4:08 left following a 3-pointer by Terry, but James answered with a 3 of his own. He later added a three-point play to get Cleveland within three with 41 seconds left.

After a defensive stand by the Cavaliers, James streaked for a layup but Nowitzki shoved him out of bounds so hard he went sprawling into about third row of seats behind the basket. Once he gathered himself, he missed both foul shots.

Cleveland got the ball back out of bounds at midcourt and James quickly put up a potentially tying 3. The rebound bounced back to him and he had another chance to set up and shoot, but again came up short.

"I got good looks on both shots," James said. "I'll take those looks any day."

Dallas already had streaks of 12 and 13 wins earlier this season, so hitting 14 seems like a natural progression. The Mavs have lost only twice since Dec. 11 and just came off a perfect February that earlier Thurday earned Nowitzki and Johnson the Western Conference player and coach of the month awards.

Dallas first won 14 straight at the start of the 2002-03 season. The bid for No. 15 comes at home Saturday night against Orlando.

In his only appearance this year in Dallas, James gave fans what they wanted to see: A powerful dunk from the baseline that sent half Cleveland's bench to its feet in awe, a terrific spin move to free himself from All-Star Howard during a one-on-one breakaway and several long-striding moves through traffic. And that was just the first half.

Diop came up big in the first half.

Entering the game with the Mavericks down by a point late in the first quarter, he scored all eight of his points in eight minutes and denied the Cavaliers several times on the defensive end, putting the Mavs up by 10. He even had two assists in the spurt.

"Hey, they didn't play me for four years," said Diop, a former lottery pick who spent four lackluster seasons in Cleveland before emerging last year in Dallas. "Whenever you play your old team, you know what they do and you're motivated."

Notes:@ Nowitzki flirted with his first career triple-double yet again, getting 11 rebounds and seven assists. ... James averaged 39.7 points, 9.0 rebounds and 5.3 assists over his three previous games against the Mavericks, two of them victories.

вторник, 13 марта 2012 г.

Pak shares lead; Ochoa self-destructs

Se Ri Pak kept her mistakes to a minimum Saturday, finished witha 35- foot birdie putt and stands one round away from becoming theseventh woman to complete the career Grand Slam.

Lorena Ochoa made a whopper of a mistake that might cost her achance to win her first major and move to No. 1 in the world. Shewhiffed a flop shot on her way to a quadruple bogey on the par-317th hole, leaving Pak and Suzann Pettersen atop the leaderboard atthe Kraft Nabisco Championship in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Pak overcame some short-game gaffes on the closing holes with abirdie putt from the back of the green that dropped on its finalturn, giving her a 2-under- par 70 and a chance to capture the lastleg of the Grand Slam.

"You can't really think of that out there," said Pak, whocompleted 54 holes at 4-under 212. "There's just so much trouble outthere. Even par is a good score." Pettersen tapped in for birdie onthe 18th to finish a 1-under 71 that allowed her to tie Pak for thelead.

When a wild day finally ended, the tournament was up for grabs.Paula Creamer shot a 1-over 73 that put her one shot behind withMeaghan Francella, who shot a 3-under 69.

But the buzz came from Ochoa -- for all the wrong reasons. Shewas 3 under and one shot behind on the 17th when her 6-iron clippeda tree. Her pitch then landed in grass so deep she barely could seethe ball. Trying to hit a flop shot, the club slid under the ballwithout moving it. Her fourth shot ran down the ridge about 45 feetaway, and she needed three putts to get down. Ochoa wound up with a5-over 77 and was five shots behind.

"I was one behind, and suddenly I'm way back," Ochoa said inclipped answers. "I'm OK. ... I'm glad I'll be playing behind now. Ihave nothing to lose. Hopefully, I'll put pressure on the leaders."PGA: Bubba Watson was 9 under for the round and 15 under overallafter 15 holes when third-pound play was suspended by darkness inthe Houston Open in Humble, Texas.

Watson, who will finish his third round this morning, led JeffMaggert by three shots when play was suspended. Earlier,thunderstorms delayed play for almost six hours.

Champions: Keith Fergus shot a 5-under 67 to open a one-strokelead over Brad Bryant after the third round of the Ginn Championshipin Palm Coast, Fla. Fergus completed 54 holes at 10-under 134.

Listecki takes over Milwaukee archdiocese

Jerome Listecki has been installed as the Archbishop of Milwaukee.

In his homily Monday, the 60-year-old Listecki emphasized his friendship with his predecessor, Timothy Dolan _ and his fears he won't be able to fill his shoes.

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee in southeastern Wisconsin has 675,000 parishioners and 211 churches. Listecki came from the La Crosse diocese in the state's west, with 202,000 parishioners, where he had served since 2005.

Listecki once admonished House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her interpretation of Catholic teachings on the beginnings of life. On Monday he insisted he's not a political bishop.

The Chicago native is also a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves.

Dolan became the archbishop of New York on April 15.

, Coaches records

(Since 1942)

Name Years Record Pct.

Ed Nugent 1942 16-9 .640Roy Williams 1943-56 204-120 .630Joe Butta 1957-65 106-93 .533Buddy Kearns 1966-74 84-112 .428Gordon McCune 1975-77 27-39 .409Bill Turner 1978- 195-294 .399Totals 1942- 632-667 .486

Consumer confidence at lowest since recession

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans say they feel worse about the economy than they have since the depths of the Great Recession.

Consumer confidence fell in October to the lowest since March 2009, a research group said Tuesday — an ominous sign for the economy as families begin to prepare their budgets for holiday shopping season.

The declining mood reflects the big hit that the stock market took in late summer — down almost 20 percent in one month — as well as frustration with an economic recovery that doesn't really feel like one.

The Conference Board, a private research group, said its index of consumer sentiment came in at 39.8, down about six points from September and seven shy of what economists were expecting.

The reading is still well above where the index stood two and a half years ago, at 26.9. But it's not even within shouting distance of 90, what it takes to signal that the economy is on solid footing.

Economists watch consumer confidence closely because consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity. The index measures how shoppers feel about business conditions, the job market and the next six months.

It had been recovering since hitting an all-time low of 25.3 in February 2009, but has taken a turn for the worse as Americans worry about stubbornly high unemployment, rising prices for food and clothes and an overall weak economy.

The index is based on a survey conducted Oct. 1-13 of about 500 randomly selected people nationwide.

It was three days after the survey got under way, on Oct. 4, that the stock market began a remarkable rally. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 12 percent in three weeks, from the Oct. 3 close through Monday's trading.

The Dow fell about 1 percent Tuesday, not just because of consumer confidence but because investors are worried about corporate earnings and about whether Europe can find a solution to its crippling debt problem.

The last time consumer confidence was this weak was also the turning point for the stock market in its severe downturn during the recession. It was in March 2009 that the Dow bottomed out at 6,547.

The survey found that a growing number of Americans are worried about making less money over the next six months. The proportion of people expecting a pay cut is about nine percentage points higher than those who expect a raise, the biggest gap since April 2009.

It also came exactly two months before Christmas, with retailers preparing for the holiday shopping season, their busiest.

"If people think their income is declining, they're not going to be inclined to spend," said Jacob Oubina, an economist at RBC Capital Markets.

Higher earners are also starting to lose confidence, a bad sign because they account for a disproportionate amount of spending. The confidence index for people making more than $50,000 has dropped for six months in a row.

"The upper income brackets have weathered the recession and recovery better than most citizens and declining confidence among this group is certainly unwelcome," Dan Greenhaus, an economist at BTIG, said in a note to clients.

Still, many economists cautioned that what consumers say and what they do can be two different things.

In September, for example, despite feeling bad about the economy, people increased their spending on retail goods by the most since March. More people bought new cars, a purchase people typically make when they are confident in their finances.

Christopher Rupkey, an economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, said in a note to his clients that he expects consumer confidence to "bounce back with stocks in next month's report."

And the survey found that people weren't as gloomy when it came to specific buying plans, several analysts pointed out.

The percentage of Americans who plan to buy a major appliance in the next six months, such as a television or washing machine, rose to 45.9 percent, up from 40.8 percent. Exactly half plan to take a vacation in the next six months, up from 46.9 percent.

___

Rugaber reported from Washington.

OCC names Roeder senior deputy comptroller

Douglas W. Roeder has been appointed senior deputy comptroller for large banks in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Roeder will be responsible for examinations and supervision activities in the largest national banks and for overseeing operations in the OCC's London office. He will also serve on the new OCC Committee on Bank Supervision and the OCC Executive Committee.

Roeder has been with the OCC for 24 years. Since 1997 he has served as deputy comptroller for bank supervision in large banks.

Climate delegates call on US for robust policy

The United States came under increased pressure Monday to come up with a plan for fighting climate change and to offer an internationally acceptable policy for curbing pollution hastening global warming.

As U.N. climate talks reconvened, countries stepped up calls on Washington for specific commitments on reducing carbon emissions and contributing to a global climate fund to help poor countries deal with the damage already being caused by climate change.

The five-day negotiating round in Barcelona is meant to prepare the text of a global warming pact to be adopted at a major U.N. conference next month in Copenhagen.

The deal would replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, but require both industrial countries and developing countries to rein in emissions of carbon and other heat-raising greenhouse gases. Kyoto applied only to industrialized nations, and was rejected by the United States.

Delegates to the Barcelona talks were showing frustration that after two years of talks, the U.S. has been unable to make firm commitments because it is waiting for Congress to enact legislation.

"We expect the United States to be able to deliver on one of the major challenges of our century," said Danish Environment Minister Connie Hedegaard, who will chair the meeting in the Danish capital.

Hedegaard noted that President Barack Obama, cited for raising hopes of a more peaceful and climate friendly world, will receive the Nobel Peace Prize in nearby Norway on Dec. 10 _ just as the decisive climate conference is under way.

"It's very hard to imagine how the American president can receive the Nobel Prize ... and at the same time has sent an empty-handed delegation to Copenhagen," said the Danish minister.

U.S. chief delegate Jonathan Pershing said the U.S. intended to be part of a deal, but would ensure that any deal it signed would be accepted by Congress. "We don't want to be outside an agreement," he said.

He said the U.S. would avoid the mistake of 1997 when its delegation signed onto the Kyoto Protocol, but found unanimous opposition in Congress. The deal, which required industrial countries to cut carbon emissions but made no demands on developing countries, was not submitted for ratification.

In an indirect slap at Washington, Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. climate secretariat, said countries like China, India, Mexico, Brazil and South Korea were moving faster on climate change than the wealthy industrial countries.

"China is probably the world leader in limiting greenhouse gas emissions," de Boer said.

Scientists say poor countries will be hardest hit by climate change. They say coastal areas will be threatened by rising sea levels, countries will be hit by more severe storms as well as more frequent drought, and tropical diseases and warm weather pests will spread.

Earlier, de Boer warned that the Copenhagen agreement must have legal force because developing countries do not trust promises from the wealthy nations.

The legal status of the agreement and whether nations will face consequences for failing to meet their commitments are contentious issues in the talks.

"We live in a world of broken promises," de Boer told The Associated Press. Developing countries are concerned the rich countries "will commit to targets and not deliver."

Pershing, in a separate AP interview, said compliance with the agreement in Copenhagen should rest with the domestic laws of each country, which can be very strong.

Countries should register the actions they intend to take to lower the growth rate of carbon emissions, which would then face international inspection. But they would not face punishment for failing to meet their promises, he said.

"I don't think people here are talking about sanctions at all. That's not the discussion," he said.

But many countries want tough compliance measures to be part of any agreement.

The question of financing for poor countries also was on the delegates' agenda. Thirty of the draft agreement's 180 pages deal with financing.

The European Union on Friday called for ⁈ion to ⁈ion ($7.5 billion to $10.3 billion) in climate change aid to poorer nations over the next three years, scaling up to ⁈llion, or nearly $150 billion a year, by 2020.

De Boer called the EU proposal a good step, but said it lacked specifics. The EU also failed to specify how much it would contribute to the fund.

"I don't think the EU put enough on the table," he said.

In Stockholm, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said EU leaders wanted Obama to clarify the U.S. position on climate change this week as they meet in Washington.

Reinfeldt _ whose country holds the rotating EU presidency _ will be traveling to Washington along with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

F1 feeder series follows and cuts costs

Formula One's feeder series announced cost-cutting moves Monday designed to cope with the global economic crisis.

The GP2 series will followed F1's suit and trim technical and sporting costs.

"We cannot ignore the world's financial crisis that affects us all. We need to make sure we can go through the present delicate time by finding solutions both in the technical and sporting areas," GP2 head Bruno Michel said.

GP2 said overall costs will drop, specifically through less expensive car parts. The series has halted wind tunnel testing and decided that regular testing will cease after the first race of the season.

Teams will also have to cut 13-member staff down to 12 for the second half of the season. GP2 is also ready to extend an "exceptional credit" to teams if needed through spare parts.

F1 has already implemented a series of cost-cutting measures expected to curb costs by up to 30 percent after Honda pulled out of F1 in December due to the economic downturn.

F1 champion Lewis Hamilton of McLaren, as well as current drivers Nico Rosberg of Williams and Renault Nelson Piquet Jr., emerged from GP2.

NYC: Tests indicate no swine flu in dead toddler

New York City health officials say tests conducted on a toddler who died after being hospitalized with respiratory symptoms indicate he wasn't infected with swine flu.

A Department of Health statement says tests were performed Tuesday on nasal swabs taken from 16-month-old Jonathan Zamora Castillo. The health department sent tissue samples to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta for further analysis. Results are expected this week.

Jonathan died Monday night at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens. Hospital officials said he had a high fever when he arrived.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the child's death "is very tragic, regardless of what caused it."

понедельник, 12 марта 2012 г.

Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones

Nuclear-weapon-free zones (NWFZ) offer non-nuclear-weapon states a practical path for obtaining legally binding negative security assurances. In the context of nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) diplomacy, such assurances are guarantees by the five NPT nuclear-weapon states not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against states that have formally renounced them.

Such guarantees have been a major goal of the 115 developing country members of the Nonaligned Movement that are also governed by the NPT. Often overlooked, however, is that nearly four-fifths of Nonaligned Movement members have or could soon obtain similar legal protection if they belong to such zones. Current or pending nuclear-weapon-free zones in Africa, Central Asia, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and South Pacific are governed by treaties that include some form of negative security assurance. The status of these zones-and the legal protection offered by nuclear-weapon states to them-is detailed below.

Latin America NWFZ

A nuclear-weapon-free zone was established in Latin America and the Caribbean by the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which was opened for signature in 1967. The treaty specified that the full zone would not enter into force until it was ratified by all states. That did not occur until 2002 with Cuba the last holdout; however, the treaty permitted individual states to waive that provision and declare themselves part of the zone, which many did beginning in 1968. All five nuclear-weapon states have ratified Protocol II of the treaty. Thus, all Nonaligned Movement members are fully covered by legally binding negative security assurances. The treaty has been ratified by all zonal states, including all Nonaligned Movement states-parties and observers in the region. Zonal states include Argentina, Haiti, and Si. Kitts and Nevis, which are neither Nonaligned Movement members nor observers. Nonaligned Movement members and observers in the zone are:

Antigua and Barbuda * Bahamas * Barbados * Belize * Bolivia * Brazil * Chile * Colombia * Costa Rica * Cuba * Dominica * Dominican Republic * Ecuador * El Salvador * Grenada * Guatemala * Guyana * Hondurus * Jamaica * Mexico * Nicaragua * Panama * Paraguay * Peru * Saint Lucia * Saint Vincent and the Grenadines * Suriname * Trinidad and Tobago * Uruguay * Venezuela

(Observer states are in italics)

South Pacific NWFZ

A nuclear-weapon-free zone was established in the South Pacific by the Treaty of Rarotonga, which was opened for signature in 1985 and entered into force in 1986. All of the NPT nuclear-weapon states but the United States have ratified Protocol II of the treaty, which provides negative security assurances to members of the zone. The United States signed the treaty in 1996, but has yet to submit the pact to the Senate for ratification. Therefore, all ratifying zonal states are partially protected by legally binding negative security assurances at this time. Two Nonaligned Movement states in the zone-Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu-have ratified the treaty. So have 11 other states-Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Nine, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Samoa. Three states that are NAM members-Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau-have not signed the treaty.

Unprotected States

The following member and observer states of the Nonaligned Movement do not belong to any current or currently planned nuclear-weapon-free zones. Therefore, they cannot benefit from the protection provided by the negative """ security assurances that some nuclear-weapon states have provided to some members of those zones:

Afghanistan * Armenia * Azerbaijan * Bahrain * Bangladesh * Belarus * Bhutan * China * Croatia * Cyprus * DPRK * India[double dagger] * Iran * Iraq * Jordan * Kuwait * Lebanon * Maldives * Malta * Mongoliaf * Nepal * Oman * Pakistantt * Qatar * Saudi Arabia * Serbia and Montenegro * Sri Lanka * Syrian Arab Republic * Timor Leste* Ukraine * United Arab Emirates * Yemen

* It is unclear whether Timor I este is covered by negative security assurances.

[dagger] Mongolia declared itsvlt a nuclear-*weapon-tree yoneon September 25. 1992, but has not asked the nuclear-weapon states to sign or ratity a legally binding non-use protocol. On October 27, 2000, however, the five NPT nuclear-weapon states sent identical letters to the UN General Assembly that reaffirmed in the case of Mongolia, thier respective unilaterial negative security assurances as stated in thier declaration issued on 5 and 6 April 1995 and reffered to in Security Council resolution 984 (1995) of 11 April 1995*

[double dagger] Not elegilbe for negative surity assurances via NWFZs. Pakistan and India possess nuclear weapons.

(Observer states are in italics)

Central Asia NWFZ

On Feb. 7, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan met to negotiate a treaty establishing a Central Asian nuclear-weapon-free zone. Although a draft of the treaty was agreed upon, no opening date for signature has yet been announced. The agreement comes eight years after the five former Soviet republics committed themselves to create such a zone in the 1997 Almaty Declaration.

The countries have delayed signing the treaty because the five nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty nuclear-weapon states have yet to endorse it. Although the nuclear-weapon states' approval of the treaty is not required, the countries see it as desirable as it would offer them some measure of the protection provided by negative security assurances. The United States, France, and the United Kingdom have expressed some reservations about the treaty, including how the treaty affects the shipment of weapons-related fissile materials through the zone and interacts with existing regional security pacts. There is also concern about the relationship between a treaty provision that the zone could be extended and the fact that countries bordering the zone have nuclear weapons or are thought to be pursuing them. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan belong to the Nonaligned Movement, while Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are observers.

Southeast Asia NWFZ

A nuclear-weapon-free zone was established in Southeast Asia by the Treaty of Bangkok, which was opened for signature in 1995 and entered into force in 1997. All of the NPT nuclear-weapon states have refrained from signing the non-use protocol to the Southeast Asian NWFZ. Their objections stem principally from concerns over the reach of the zone to include exclusive economic zones and continental shelf ocean areas, and the potential impact this might have as precedent in areas affecting freedom of navigation. Although China announced in April 2004 that it had "reached agreement" with the members of this NWFZ on the treaty and protocol, it has not yet signed nor ratified the latter.

In particular, nuclear-weapon states are concerned that the broad definition would set a precedent effectively prohibiting the transit of nuclear weapons by them through these zones. They are also worried that the non-use protections of the protocol might extend to other, non-zonal states that might be operating in those ocean areas; China has a no-first use policy that it applies universally and is, therefore, less concerned about this issue. All of the members of the zone are members of the Nonaligned Movement. They are:

Brunei Darussalam * Cambodia * Indonesia * Laos * Malaysia * Myanmar * Philippines * Singapore * Thailand * Vietnam

Africa NWFZ

African nations agreed to create a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Treaty of Pelindaba, which was opened for signature in 1996. But the treaty has not entered into force because of the failure to obtain the 28 required ratifications. Only 19 of 52 signatories, all members of the Nonaligned Movement, have ratified the pact. And Somalia has neither signed nor ratified the treaty. Therefore, while some zonal states are partially protected by negative security assurances, none enjoys full protection. Moreover, only three of five nuclear-weapon states-China, France, and the United Kingdom-have ratified the treaty's non-use protocol.

There are several concerns about the agreement. Along with signing its protocol on the non-use of nuclear-weapons in the zone, the united States included a declaration that it would reserve the right to respond with all options-implying the use of nuclear weapons-to a chemical or biological weapons attack by a member of the zone. A dispute also exists over the inclusion of the Chagos Archipelago, which includes the U.S. military base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, as part of the zone. Nonaligned Movement members of the zone can be broken down into those who have ratified the treaty; those that have signed, but not ratified; and those that have not signed nor ratified. They are:

Ratified: Algeria * Botswana * Burkina Faso * Cote d'Ivoire * Equatorial Guinea * Gambia * Guinea * Kenya * Lesotho * Madagascar * Mali * Mauritania * Mauritius * Nigeria * South Africa * Swaziland * Togo * United Republic of Tanzania * Zimbabwe

Signed, Not Ratified: Angola * Benin * Burundi * Cameroon * Cape Verde * Central African Republic * Chad * Comoros * Congo * Democratic Republic of the Congo * Djibouti * Egypt * Eritrea * Ethiopia * Gabon * Ghana * Guinea-Bissau * Liberia * Libya * Malawi * Morocco * Mozambique * Namibia * Niger * Rwanda * Sao Tome and Principe * Senegal * Seychelles * Sierra Leone * Sudan * Tunisia * Uganda * Zambia

Neither signed, nor ratified; Somalia

Sources: Agency for the Prohibitation of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPTIONAL), African Union, Arms Control Association, and the United Nations

Yesteryear

100 years ago

Hints for the home: For a sick headache, try in a wineglassful ofwater as much carbonate as will lie on a sixpence.

A very interesting lecture was given at the meeting of the EastCentral Somerset branch of the National Union of Teachers at StBenignus's Schools, Glastonbury. the lecture was by Mr W A Strong ofSomerton on "Cardboard modelling in schools."

A shoemaker from Cranhill road, Street was charged with stealingbetween the 10th and 17th of March one pair of leather soles, onepair of inside soles and two pieces of felt filling, together valuedat 1s 3d, the property of Messrs C and J Clark Ltd, Street.

The bench bound the prisoner over in the sum of Pounds 10 to beof good behaviour for 12 months, and ordered him to pay a fine of 10shillings.

50 years ago

When Glastonbury electors go to the poll on May 11th, it looksvery much as though they will have eight candidates from which tochoose.

All four retiring Labour Councillors are seeking re-election andwe understand that the Conservative party will also put forward fourcandidates.

More than Pounds 1,000 damage was caused as the result of afierce blaze in a barn at Butleigh on Sunday afternoon.

More than 50 tons of hay and straw was said to have been lost inthe fire, which engulfed a large stone barn at Holman's Buildings.

Dvorak's Stabat Master will be performed at the StreetCongregational Church at 7.45pm on Good Friday.

Leading West of England singers taking part will be Isobel Watts(Soprano), Mary Condon (contralto) , Cyril Royal (tenor) and CharlesDyer (bass.)

25 years ago

Glastonbury businessman, Clive Browning, this week revealed plansfor a music museum in the town.

The museum, at Richard Whiting House, 9 Silver Street couldattract about 50,000 tourists a year to Glastonbury.

A new group for shy people is being set up in Street to bring anew dimension to people's lives.

Good Companions is recruiting people locally who are too shy togo out alone, join clubs or answer lonely hearts advertisements, butwould enjoy the fun and companionship that outings to local eventscould provide.

Glastonbury now has a railway line that runs up the slopes of theTor.

The railway was built by the family building firm headed by MrDon Cribb and runs up one of the steepest gradients - 600 feet to StMichael's tower on the top of the Tor.

It has been made to overcome the problem of getting 45 tons ofbuilding materials up the hill to carry out repairs caused byerosion bought about by wear caused by thousands of visitors.

10 years ago

A Glastonbury trader has slammed a three-fold increase in theprice of a car park season ticket.

Ann Tynan opened Glastonbury Chiropractic Clinic, NorthloadStreet, less than 18 months ago.

The building does not have any associated parking.

Instead she parks in St John's Car Park, but said she wasappalled to receive a letter from Mendip District Council to say theticket for the next 12 months has increased by 300 per cent.

Youngsters from Street are being invited to make their mark byputting pen to paper.

Street In Bloom have thrown down the challenge to the youth ofthe village to design their own logo to promote the organisation.

Youngsters have two weeks to design something that will be usednext year for Street In Bloom 2002.

A man was killed in an industrial accident at Glastonburyyesterday morning.

The dead man, who has not been named, was trapped by a forklifttruck at the town's car breakers yard Colin White Services.

A police spokesman described the death as a tragic accident.

Marian Hossa hurt in first game with Penguins, could miss a week

Pittsburgh forward Marian Hossa could be out for a week after injuring his knee in his first game for the Penguins on Thursday.

Acquired at the NHL trade deadline from the Atlanta Thrashers on Tuesday, Hossa banged knees with Glen Murray in the second period and left the game. The Slovak lasted only 13 shifts, didn't return to the game and Pittsburgh lost to the Boston Bruins 5-1.

"It was an accidental hit, knee-on-knee," Hossa said. "This is disappointing. I was trying to get comfortable with my linemates. But injuries happen, and this is the tough luck of the business we're in."

The five-time All-Star right wing has 26 goals and 30 assists in 61 games after tying for sixth in the NHL with 100 points last season.

Jobless rates rise in all US metro areas in May

Unemployment rates rose in all the largest U.S. metropolitan areas in May for the fifth straight month, and are likely to keep marching higher this year, a potential obstacle to a hoped-for economic recovery.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that jobless rates in May rose from a year earlier in all 372 metropolitan area it tracks.

The unemployment rate in Kokomo, Ind., jumped to 18.8 percent, up 11.7 percentage points from a year ago, the largest increase of all metro areas. The second-highest increase occurred in Indiana's Elkhart-Goshen, where the rate rose to 17.5 percent. That's up 11.4 percentage points from a year earlier.

Both parts of Indiana have been slammed by layoffs in transportation equipment manufacturing. Elkhart-Goshen has suffered layoffs at RV makers Monaco Coach Corp., Keystone RV Co. and Pilgrim International.

The other metro areas posting large gains were: Bend, Ore., where the jobless rate rose to 15.2 percent, an increase of 8.8 percentage points; and North Carolina's Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton saw its unemployment rate rise to 15.4 percent, a gain of 8.5 percentage points.

A common thread running through most of the regions that have been hard hit is the loss of manufacturing jobs. The collapse of the housing market has especially hurt jobs at factories that produce building materials and household goods, such as carpets, flooring, appliances and furniture. In addition, the global recession has cut into demand from customers both at home and abroad for a wide range of goods.

El Centro, Calif., again posted the highest unemployment rate in the country _ 26.8 percent. Unemployment there is notoriously high because of many seasonal farm workers without jobs. Following behind were: Yuma, Ariz., with a jobless rate of 23.3 percent; and Kokomo at 18.8 percent.

The U.S. unemployment rate climbed to a quarter-century high of 9.4 percent in May.

Many economists predict it will rose to 9.6 percent in June. The government releases the new national employment report on Thursday. If they are right, it would mark the highest jobless rate since 10.1 percent in June 1983, when the country was trying to recover from a severe recession.

The U.S. unemployment rate is expected to hit 10 percent by the end of this year. It could rise as high as 11 percent by the next summer before it starts to decline. The highest rate since World War II was 10.8 percent at the end of 1982.

On the metro front, the news wasn't much better when comparing jobless rates in May to April. The figures aren't seasonally adjusted, so making monthly comparisons can be more volatile.

The unemployment rates rose in 46 of the largest 49 metro areas. Two of the rates showed no change _ in Denver and Minneapolis. But only one _ in Buffalo-Niagara Falls _ showed a decline, dipping to 8.3 percent from 8.5 percent.

Among the bright spots was Bismarck, N.D., which registered May's lowest jobless rate of 3.5 percent. North Dakota has been helped by the oil business. Bismarck was followed by Iowa City, Iowa, home of the University of Iowa, with an unemployment rate of 3.7 percent, and Ames, Iowa, at 3.8 percent.

Teen abstinence contracts carry heavy baggage

Are you ready to promise to remain a virgin until marriage?

This is the question that thousands of teenagers must answer as they decide whether to sign a "purity pledge."

Purity pledges (or virginity pledges) are contracts signed by teenagers in front of their faith community and their families, in which they pledge to remain virgins until they are married.

A study recently released by the Rand Corp. suggests that these purity contracts are actually quite effective. Their findings indicate that teenagers who signed a purity contract were 21 percent less likely to engage in sex than teenagers who did not sign the contract. (The study followed the teenagers three years after the pledge).

Does this mean that parents should rely on purity pledges to protect their children from poor sexual decisions? I think not. The old proverb tells us that it takes a village to raise a child, but when an entire faith community, along with religious figures and family members, are involved in a child's first sexual decisions, the pressure can be overwhelming.

This is not to say that parents and faith leaders should not guide and instruct their teenagers in making safe sexual decisions (the safest being abstinence, both from a physical and emotional standpoint), but turning these personal sexual decisions into public property of discussion and judgment can be quite intimidating.

And since many of the teenagers who sign purity pledges will eventually break their agreements before marriage, the reality of failure and disappointment is inescapable. Thus, what might be viewed as a bad judgment call by teenagers who have not made the purity pledge becomes viewed as a monumental, life-altering failure by teenagers who feel they have let not just their God down, but also their whole community.

There has to be a better way to encourage teenagers to practice abstinence, and this might be a blending of abstinence teachings and safer sex education. Rather than putting a teenager on the spot and asking him "sign over" his sexuality for the next 10-plus years, church leaders could offer safe places for discussion and sex education, drawing from holy texts and other points of inspiration. In addition to these discussions, parents can maintain communication with their child by staying involved. Educators can play a part by offering curriculums that discuss safer sex methods, along with the realities of sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancy.

It is not enough to hand our teenagers a contract and ask them to sign away their sexuality until marriage. Sexual feelings and sexual identity are a natural and healthy part of life, and we need to offer teenagers guidance and support when grappling with their first sexual decisions.

Abstinence-based education can be offered as the first option, but it should not be offered as the only option.

See Dr. Berman at 6:45 a.m. Fridays on WMAQ-Channel 5 and listen to her at 7:30 a.m. Fridays on WBBM-FM (96.3).