NASA has settled on April 5 as a launch date for space shuttle Discovery.
Senior managers met Friday and agreed unanimously on the launch date. They determined that leaky helium valves aboard Discovery would pose no safety concerns.
Discovery will haul up spare parts and extra supplies for the International Space Station. The mission is one …
STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Metallica may work as a name for a heavymetal band, but a Swedish couple is in court, trying to convinceauthorities it's also suitable for a baby girl. Michael and …
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is slapping sanctions on Iran's ministry of intelligence and security, asserting that it supports global terrorism, commits human rights abuses against Iranians and participates in ongoing repression in Syria.
The Treasury Department announced Thursday that it added the ministry to its list of specially designated global terrorists. The step freezes any assets the group …
B. Jan. 17, 1946 in Twillingate, Nfld. S. of William F. Noel (dec.) and Marion E. Noel (dec.). Ed. at Prince of Wales Coll., St. John's; Memorial Univ. of Nfld.; Carleton Univ., Ottawa and Dalhousie Univ., Halifax. M. to Ruth Gilis. Two children: Elliott and Miriam. A lawyer. Private Career: Solicitor, Dept. of Justice, 1973-76. Called to the Bar of Nfld., 1974. Legislative Counsel, 1977-79. Sr. Legislative Counsel and Law Clerk of the House of Assembly, 1979-91. Ass't Deputy Min., Dept. of Justice, 1983. Appt'd Clerk of the House of Assembly, Nov. 26, 1991. Appt'd Q.C., May 2000. Address: …
A fresh approach both on and off the pitch will pay dividends inthe second half of Street's season, according to club chairman PhilNorton-Ashley.
After a disappointing start to the campaign, Dave Pople steppeddown as manager and was replaced at the Tannery Ground helm byreserve-team boss Dan Badman at the end of November.
Despite the new manager presiding over successive defeats inhis first three matches, Norton-Ashley believes the acquisition ofseveral new players in recent weeks means his side will fare muchbetter in the new year.
"I feel very optimistic for the future of the club, there areexciting times ahead," he said.
"When Dave …
HOUSTON - Two astronauts floated outside the international space station Wednesday to help fold up a solar wing and bring to life a rotating joint that will allow a new pair of solar arrays to track the sun.
Space shuttle Atlantis astronauts Patrick Forrester and Steve Swanson spent the first two hours of their scheduled 6 1/2-hour spacewalk helping to put the 115-foot solar wing away in its storage box.
The spacewalk began at 2:28 p.m. EDT as the astronauts were 206 miles above eastern Europe.
A few hours before the walk started, astronauts began retracting the solar wing's 31 1/2 sections by computer command.
Using specially designed tools, including …
AB de Villiers struck an outstanding 105 not out and seam bowler Pradeep Sangwan took 3-28 to guide the Delhi Daredevils to a thrilling nine-run win over the Chennai Super Kings in an Indian Premier League match at Kingsmead on Thursday.
After being set on course by De Villiers' contribution to a Delhi total of 189-5, left-arm medium pacer Sangwan claimed the key wickets of Parthiv Patel (16), Matthew Hayden (57), Suresh Raina (41) to reduced Chennai to 180-9.
Hayden's 50 was the fastest of the tournament, knocking it off in just 22 balls. He stroked five boundaries and three sixes. Hayden and Patel put on 57 for the first wicket before Patel miscued to …
LOS ANGELES Jerry B. Wheeler, a film, television and theatricalproducer and writer, has died of complications of AIDS. He was 44.
Mr. Wheeler died Saturday in Los Angeles.
At the time of his death, Mr. Wheeler was producing the "TheFront Runner," a film based on Patricia Nell Warren's 1974 novelabout a college athletic coach's homosexual affair with a young trackstar.
Born in New York, Mr. Wheeler first worked as a child actor indaytime television shows.
Moving to Los Angeles in 1968, he coordinated production forsuch variety series as "The Carol Burnett Show," "The Red SkeltonShow," and the "Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour."
…
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai's airport operator says passenger traffic at the Mideast's busiest air hub jumped nearly 9 percent in the first half of the year, marking its busiest six-month period yet.
Dubai Airports said Monday that traffic at Dubai International Airport surged 8.9 percent to a record 24.6 million passengers between January and June. That compares with …
Oil prices touched $80 a barrel Monday in Asia on optimism a gradual U.S. economic recovery in 2010 will boost demand for crude.
Benchmark crude for February delivery was up 63 cents at $79.99 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange after briefly changing hands at $80. The contract added 8 cents to settle at $79.36 on Thursday. Trading was closed Friday for the New Year holiday.
Oil has jumped from $69 a barrel last month on signs the U.S. economy may be improving. The unemployment rate fell to 10 percent in November from 10.2 percent in October, and the government is scheduled to announced December's …
Getting people off welfare is a good thing for Illinois, but itmay not always be a good thing for children, an advocacy group said.
Voices for Illinois Children said the recent success of welfarereform - 65,000 people moved from welfare to work since July, 1997 -conceals potential problems with the welfare of children.
In its "Illinois Kids Count" report released Tuesday, thenonprofit child advocacy group applauded the turn toward work, buturged lawmakers to strengthen efforts to support newly employedwelfare recipients and more closely monitor what happens to them whenthey leave public assistance."The fact that there is a significant decline in the …
NEW YORK (AP) — Food and drink table service may be coming to the pedestrian plazas in New York City's Times Square this summer.
The Times Square Alliance on Tuesday issued a request for proposals from area restaurants and vendors to take orders and serve food to people seated at the 100 tables and chairs in the car-free zone.
The business improvement …
LONDON (AP) — Luxury goods company Burberry says its profit was up 27 percent in the six months ending Sept. 30 as retail contributed a growing share to sales and profit.
Burberry on Tuesday reported a net profit of 117 million pounds compared to 83 million pounds a year earlier. Revenue was 30 percent higher at 830 million pounds.
The company's retail outlets reported a 45 percent gain in underlying sales; retail accounted for 64 percent of Burberry's revenues in the six months, compared to 57 percent a year earlier. The other key components of revenue are wholesale and licensing.
Burberry shares were down 2.7 percent at 1,382 pence in early trading on the London Stock Exchange. However, its share price has risen by a third in the six weeks or so to Nov. 14.
SAN FRANCISCO - A cleaner-burning gasoline meant to reduceCalifornia's air pollution has led to a legal fight that threatensto raise prices at pumps nationwide by between 1 cent and 6 centsper gallon. Unocal Corp. and six major oil companies have haggledover Unocal's patent on reformulated gasoline since 1995, whenCalifornia required the fuel to reduce vehicle emissions.
The issue becomes a factor outside California beginning today,when the federal Clean Air Act requires other states to sellreformulated gas to reduce auto emissions.
El Segundo, California-based Unocal believes a patent obtained inFebruary 1994 applies to the reformulated gas and gives it the rightto collect licensing fees - as much as 53/4 cents per gallon - fromrivals that sell the gas blend.
The question is whether those companies will foot the bill orpass the expense along to motorists.
The gas blend in other states differs slightly from California'sreformulated gasoline, but analysts expect Unocal to assert itsroyalty rights nationwide. Unocal has five different patents onreformulated gas.
"This is a significant issue, not just for California, but foreveryone in the United States," said David O'Reilly, chairman ofChevron Corp., one of six oil giants contesting the validity ofUnocal's patent.
The other companies that contested the patent were Exxon, Mobil(since bought by Exxon), Arco, Texaco and Shell.
A federal jury in Los Angeles concluded in 1997 that Unocal'spatent was valid and other oil companies should pay 53/4 cents pergallon to use the blending formula. The oil companies have until mid-August to decide whether to take their case to the U.S. SupremeCourt.
Based on the 1997 verdict, Unocal could reap as much as $1.1billion in annual royalties.
Analysts say Unocal is more likely to negotiate a licensing feeof about 1 cent per gallon applicable to about 20 percent of the 350million gasoline gallons sold nationwide each day, resulting inroughly $127 million in annual royalties.
Regardless of the actual figure, the patent claim is expected todrive up gasoline costs, said Fadel Gheit, an oil industry analystfor Fahnestock & Co. in New York.
"The meter has been running on this issue for a while and (theindustry) has been deferring the charges," Gheit said. "Now, it'stime to feed the meter, but who is going to put in more coins?"
ExxonMobil Corp. chairman Lee Raymond said the dispute will forceretail prices higher as gas supplies tighten this summer becauserefiners who must use other blending methods to make the cleaner-burning fuel won't be able to produce as much gasoline.
Gas prices already are poised to rise above the current nationalaverage of $1.53 per gallon, as inventories are below normal levelsand the peak driving season is just beginning.
Just back from the nation's capital where he announced a major class action lawsuit to give American consumers access to affordable prescription drugs, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich today met with nearly 300 seniors in suburban Bolingbrook to tell them how they can get discounts on their medications and help push for a permanent solution to skyrocketing drug prices.
"You have worked hard, you raised your families and saved carefully all your lives so you could live happily and independently in your retirement years. You did your part, but many of you still haven't been able to enjoy retirement and the promise of the American Dream because the medications that would make it possible are out of reach," Blagojevich said.
"Since September, the State of Illinois has been asking the federal government to work with us to help our citizens buy safe, affordable prescription drugs from Canada. The FDA tells us our plans - that have been carefully designed to protect consumers and help them buy affordable prescription drugs - are unsafe, unsound, and ill-considered. In the meantime, we see study after study reporting that senior citizens and people with chronic illnesses are being forced to choose between buying the medications they need and paying their rent. We can't let that continue to happen."
On Thursday, Gov. Blagojevich stood with an Illinois couple - Ray and Gaylee Andrews - in Washington, D.C. as they became the first plaintiffs in a federal class-action lawsuit against the FDA and HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson.
The Andrews, like older individuals in communities across the state and country, have very high monthly drug costs, but their limited income and lack of adequate prescription coverage prevents them from being able to meet their medication expenses and other basic needs.
"Ray and Gaylee are asking the courts to tell the FDA to respect people's rights to make their own medical decisions - and allow them to buy safe, affordable drugs from Canada. Others in circumstances like the Andrews may be able to join this effort to change once and for all a law that discriminates against seniors and sick people in our country who can't get the drugs they need at a price they can afford," the governor added.
The suit challenges the current federal law that prohibits individuals and governments from importing prescription drugs from Canada on three grounds: for violating individuals' right to privacy by denying them freedom to make personal medical decisions; for improperly giving legislative authority to the executive branch by letting the Secretary of Health and Human Services decide if and when importation should be legal; and for disproportionately impacting seniors in non-border states who do not have the option of driving across the border to buy less expensive medications, as has been permitted by the FDA.
The governor urged seniors who, like the Andrews, have high drug costs, no prescription coverage and fixed or low incomes to sign on to the legal action by forwarding their names and personal stories to Robert Clifford, the plaintiffs' attorney for the class-action.
Blagojevich also invited his audience to join the Illinois Rx Buying Club, open to all Illinois' residents who are 65 or older, and disabled people. The Club offers savings that average more than 20 percent on all FDA-approved drugs for an annual administrative fee of $25.
"We're pushing for a permanent solution. But in the meantime, seniors in our state who have been unable to qualify for assistance in the past can get some help in affording their medications," Blagojevich told his audience.
Article copyright Sengstacke Enterprises, Inc.
White Sox left-hander Scott Radinsky has the perfect mentalityfor a setup reliever. Saves mean nothing to him. Not now, anyway.
"I'm not a stat man," said Radinsky, who twice has had to yieldapparently easy save situations to Bobby Thigpen, who lost one of theleads. "I care more about inherited runners than saves and ERA. Ilike to make our starting pitcher feel good on the bench when he seeshis runners still on base."
If Radinsky truly doesn't know his own statistics, he's unawarethat opponents' .149 batting average against him with runners inscoring position last season led the league.
The White Sox might be interested in their 1992 bullpen stats: They lead the league in converting save opportunities with 6-of-7.The first-place Athletics are 6-of-10 and the defending worldchampion Twins are 2-of-5. Their bullpen ERA of 2.77 is fifth in the league behind the Angels(2.45), Red Sox (2.67), Yankees (2.70) and Blue Jays (2.73).
Thigpen has made things interesting in some scary finishes, buthe thinks he's back on track after making spring-training adjustmentsto improve on his 30-save output of last season.
"I'm throwing the ball a lot better," he said. "My arm's in abetter slot. If there's one big difference from last year, that'sprobably it.
"The ball would take off up and out to the right. Whenever Ithrow a ball like that, it's because I either flew open, I dropped my arm or I wasn't getting on top of theball."
Radinsky, meanwhile, just keeps moving through lineups. Hehasn't allowed a run in four innings and is holding opponents to an.083 average.
He doesn't even keep a "book" on opposing hitters.
"I don't think you're going to get them out the same way twice,anyway," Radinsky said. "Every hitter's the same to me. I don'teven like to know who I'm going to face when I come in from thebullpen.
"It doesn't make any difference. You've got to face somebody.I like to get out there, then see for myself who it is.
"Sometimes I don't know him, anyway."
ABSTRACT We have prepared acyl chain-defined D-erythro-sphingomyelins and D-erythro-dihydrosphingomyelins and compared their properties in monolayer and bilayer membranes. Surface pressure/molecular area isotherms of D-erythroN-16:0-sphingomyelin (16:0-SM) and D-erythro-N-16:0-dihydrosphingomyelin (16:0-DHSM) show very similar packing properties, except that the expanded-to-condensed phase transition (crystallization) occurs at a lower surface pressure for 16:0-DHSM. The measured surface potential was generally about 100 mV less for 16:0-DHSM monolayers compared to 16:0-SM monolayers. The condensed domains (crystals) that formed in 16:0-SM monolayers as a function of compression displayed star-shaped morphology when viewed under an epifluorescence microscope. 16:0-DHSM monolayers did not form similar crystals upon compression. 16:0-DHSM was degraded much faster by sphingomyelinase from Staphylococcus aureus than 16:0-SM (10-fold difference in enzyme activity needed for comparable hydrolytic rate). Cholesterol desorption from 16:0-DHSM to cyclodextrin was slightly slower (~20%) than the rate measured from 16:0-SM monolayers (at 60 mol % cholesterol). The bilayer melting temperature of 16:0-DHSM was 47.7 deg C (DeltaH 8.3 kcal/mol) whereas it was 41.2 deg C for 16:0-SM (DeltaH 8.1 kcal/mol). Cholesterol/16:0-DHSM bilayers (15 mol % sterol) had more condensed domains than comparable 16:0-SM bilayers, as evidenced from the quenching resistance of DPH in DHSM membranes. We conclude that cholesterol interacts more favorably with 16:0-DHSM and that the membranes are more condensed than comparable 16:0-SM-- containing membranes.
INTRODUCTION
Sphingomyelin (SM) is the major sphingolipid class present in the external leaflet of cellular plasma membranes. It is highly enriched in the plasma membrane compartment, as is cholesterol (Large and Ramos, 1983; Large et al., 1989; Koval and Pagano, 1991). It also appears that sphingomyelin and cholesterol may colocalize in the cell membrane (Patton, 1970; Slotte and Bierman, 1988; Slotte, 1999), and that cholesterol prefers to interact with sphingomyelin, both in cell and model membranes (Porn et al., 1993; Ohvo et al., 1997; Mattjus and Slotte, 1996; Ramstedt and Slotte, 1999a).
Naturally occurring sphingomyelins have the phosphocholine head group linked to the hydroxyl group on carbon one of a long-chain base (most often an 18-carbon amine diol), and have a long and highly saturated acyl chain linked to the amide group on carbon 2 of the long-chain base (for a review, see Barenholz, 1984). These sphingomyelins have the D-erythro-(2S, 3R) configuration of the long-chain base (Sarmientos et al., 1985). In cultured cells (i.e., human skin fibroblast and baby hamster kidney cells) about 90 to 95% of the sphingomyelins contain sphingosine (1,3-dihydroxy2-amino-4-octadecene) as the long-chain base, whereas the remainder have sphinganine (1,3-dihydroxy-2-amino-4-octadecane) as the base (Ramstedt et al., 1999). The latter sphingomyelins are also called dihydrosphingomyelins (DHSM; see Scheme 1). Although it is currently not known why cells need both sphingomyelins and dihydrosphingomyelins, it is remarkable that DHSM accounts for 50% of all phospholipids in human lens membranes (Byrdwell and Borchman, 1997). The acyl chain composition of DHSM in human lens membranes is reported to be mainly 16:0 (57.8%) and 24:1^sup Delta15c) (23.3%; Byrdwell and Borchman, 1997). The lens membranes are also known to contain very high concentrations of cholesterol (about 3 cholesterol to 1 phospholipid; Li et al., 1985), and it is possible that DHSM may function in the human lens as an efficient solubilizer of cholesterol. Very little is known about the physico-chemical properties of DHSM as compared to those of sphingomyelins, except that the lack of the trans double bond between carbons 4 and 5 in DHSM is known to lead to a substantially higher melting temperature for DHSM as compared to an acyl-matched sphingomyelin (Barenholz et al., 1976). Consequently, DHSM is even more likely than sphingomyelin to undergo lateral segregation in glycerophospholipid-- containing membranes, because of the huge difference in melting temperatures, and may thus contribute to the formation of laterally condensed domains in biomembranes (Brown, 1998).
In the present study, we have prepared enantiomerically pure (D-erythro) and acyl chain-defined sphingomyelins and dihydrosphingomyelins and compared their biophysical properties in both monolayer and bilayer membranes in the presence or absence of cholesterol.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES Materials
D-erythro-N-palmitoyl-sphingomyelin (16:0-SM) was purified from egg yolk sphingomyelin (Avanti Polar Lipids, Alabaster, AL) by reverse-phase HPLC (LiChrospher 100 RP-18 column, 5 (mu)m particle size, 240 x 4 mm column dimensions; Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) using 5 vol-% water in methanol as eluent (at 1 ml/min, column temperature 40 deg C). D-erythro-N-- palmitoyl-dihydrosphingomyelin (16:0-DHSM) was prepared from 16:0-SM by hydrogenation using palladium oxide (Aldrich Chemical Co., Milwaukee, WI), as catalyst (Schneider and Kennedy, 1967), and purified as described for 16:0-SM. D-erythro-N-oleoyl-sphingomyelin (18:1-SM) and D-erythro-N-oleoyl-dihydrosphingomyelin (18:1-DHSM) were prepared from the respective D-erythro-lysosphingomyelin/lyso-dihydrosphingomyelin, as described by Ramstedt and Slotte (1999a). D-erythro-lysodihydrosphingomyelin was prepared from D-erythro-lysosphingomyelin (Avanti Polar Lipids) by hydrogenation, as described above. The solvents used for synthesis of phospholipids were stored over Molecular Sieves 4A (Merck). 1,2-Dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) and 1-palmitoyl-2-(12-doxyl)-stearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (12SLPC) were purchased from Avanti Polar Lipids. Cholesterol, sphingomyelinase (Staphylococcus aureus), and beta-cyclodextrin (CyD) were obtained from Sigma Chemicals (St. Louis, MO). 1,6-Diphenyl- 1,3,5-- hexatriene (DPH) and 22-(N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1, 3-diazol-4-yl)amino)23,24- bisnor-5-cholen-beta-ol (NBD-cholesterol) were obtained from Molecular Probes (Leiden, The Netherlands). Stock solutions of lipids were prepared in hexane/2-propanol (3/2, v/v), stored in the dark at -20 deg C, and warmed to ambient temperature before use. The CyD stock solutions were prepared in pure water to a concentration of 40 mM. The water used as subphase for the monolayers and for differential scanning calorimetry measurements was purified by reverse osmosis followed by passage through a Millipore UF Plus water purification system (Molsheim, France), to yield a product with a resistivity of 18.2 M(Omega)cm.
Force/area isotherms
Pure monolayers of each lipid were compressed (at 10 Angstrom ^sup 2^/molecule, min) on water at ambient temperature (20 +/- 1 deg C) or at 37 deg C with a KSV surface barostat (KSV Instruments Ltd., Helsinki, Finland). Surface pressure or surface potential versus mean molecular area isotherms were acquired using proprietary KSV software. Surface potential was determined using a vibrating plate device (KSV Instruments Ltd.).
Monolayer fluorescence microscopy
To follow the monolayer crystallization of pure sphingomyelins, or the formation of lateral cholesterol-rich domains (30 mol % cholesterol) in mixed cholesterol-sphingomyelin monolayers, we used monolayer fluorescence microscopy (Slotte, 1995a,b) with NBD-cholesterol as a fluorescent probe (at 1 mol %). Micrographs were obtained using a sensitive KP-M IE/K video camera (Hitachi Denshi, Japan) attached to a DT3851 digitizing board (Data Translation, Marlboro, MA) in a personal computer. The lateral domains were documented at indicated mean molecular areas.
Removal of monolayer cholesterol to the subphase by cyclodextrins
Mixed monolayers containing sphingomyelins and 60 mol % cholesterol were prepared at the air/water interface. The trough used was of a zero-- order type, with a reaction chamber (volume, 23.9 ml; area, 28.3 cm^sup 2^) separated by a glass bridge from the lipid reservoir (Verger and De Haas, 1973; Ohvo and Slotte, 1996). CyD in a volume not exceeding 1 ml was injected into the reaction chamber, the content of which was continuously stirred (20 deg C). The final beta-cyclodextrin concentration in the subphase was 1.7 mM. The removal of lipids from the monolayer to the subphase was determined from the area decrease of the monolayer at constant surface pressure (20 mN/m), as described by Ohvo and Slotte (1996).
Differential scanning calorimetry
Sphingomyelins were dissolved in hexane and 2-propanol (3:2 v:v). The solvent was evaporated at 40 deg C under a stream of argon. Excess residual solvent was removed by vacuum drying at room temperature. The lipids were then suspended in water by warming the tube to 50 deg C and vortexing vigorously for about 30 s; final lipid concentration was 0.5 mg/ml. The water used as reference and the lipid suspensions were degassed under vacuum. The lipid suspension and water were loaded into the sample and reference cell, respectively, of a Nano II high-sensitivity scanning calorimeter (Calorimetric Science Corp., Provo, UT). Heating/cooling scans from 20 to 55 deg C at a scan rate of 0.3 deg C/min were performed. Three consecutive heating scans were made on both samples, giving identical thermograms. Data from two separate preparations of sphingomyelin liposomes were analyzed and averaged.
Determination of the steady-state fluorescence anisotropy in unilamellar vesicles
Vesicles were prepared from pure sphingomyelins or from a mixture of 30 mol % cholesterol and 70 mol % sphingomyelins, using a Lipextruder (Lipex Biomembranes Inc., Vancouver, BC) and the extrusion technique described by Hope and coworkers (Hope et al., 1985). In brief, 100 nmol of the lipid, or lipid mixture, were dried under argon. The lipids were then sonicated in phosphate-buffered saline (2.5 ml) to yield multilamellar vesicles (MLV). MLVs were then extruded at 55 deg C through 400 nm polycarbonate filters (Costar Corp., Cambridge, MA) to yield the desired vesicles. DPH was used as a reporter molecule for steady-state anisotropy, and was included in the lipid mixture at 0.5 mol % before extrusion. Excitation was carried out at 360 nm and emission was recorded at 430 nm, at a temperature of 37 deg C, using a PTI Quantamaster 1 spectrofluorimeter (Photon Technology International, Surrey, England) operating in the T-- format. The steady-state anisotropy, r, is defined as:
Fluorescence quenching experiments
Essentially, we followed the procedure described by Xu and London
(2000) for determining the quenching of DPH in sphingomyelin multilamellar vesicles by 12SLPC. Briefly, the multilamellar vesicles contained 50 (mu)M total lipid and 1 mol % DPH and were prepared in 10 mM sodium phosphate and 150 mM NaCl (pH 7) at 55 deg C. The sample volume was 1 ml. Samples with quencher (F samples) contained an equimolar mixture of 16:0-SM (or 16:0-DHSM) and 12SLPC, or contained DOPC and 12SLPC, with or without 15 mol % cholesterol. Corresponding samples without quencher (F^sub o^ samples) contained equimolar amounts of 16:0-SM (or 16: 0-DHSM) and DOPC or only DOPC, respectively, with or without 15 mol % cholesterol. Background samples were prepared identically but without DPH. Fluorescence was measured at the indicated temperatures with a Hitachi F2000 spectrofluorimeter (Tokyo, Japan), with excitation and emission wavelengths at 358 run and 427 nm, respectively.
Sphingomyelin hydrolysis in monolayers
Sphingomyelins were hydrolyzed in monolayers by bacterial sphingomyelinase, essentially as described previously (Jungner et al., 1997). The hydrolysis experiments were carried out at 37 deg C and at a constant surface pressure of 20 mN/m. The buffer used contained 50 mM Tris/HCl (pH 7.4) with 140 mN NaCl and 5 mM MgCl^sub 2^. The final activity of enzyme in the subphase is indicated in each figure.
RESULTS
Force/area and surface potential/area isotherms of sphingomyelins
To characterize and compare the interfacial properties of the defined molecular species of 16:0-SM, 16:0-DHSM, 18:1-- SM, and 18:1-DHSM, we prepared monolayers at the air/ water interface at ambient temperature. Force/area compression isotherms of the saturated 16:0-containing species showed an expanded-to-condensed phase transition (Fig. 1 A), which occurred at a higher lateral surface pressure with 16:0-SM compared to the dihydro species 16:0-DHSM. The mean molecular area before onset of the transition was roughly similar for both lipid species, as it was also after the transition. Monolayers from both lipid species collapsed at about 72 mN/m. From a comparison of these two force/area isotherms, one can conclude that 16:0-DHSM formed crystals at lower pressure compared to 16:0-SM, and that for a bilayer system this would mean that the gel-liquid phase transition temperature of the dihydro species would be higher than for the acyl chain-matched sphingomyelin (see our differential scanning calorimetry results, which give the T^sub m^ for these two lipids). Force/area isotherms of 18:1-SM and 18:1 -DHSM showed that the introduction of an unsaturation into the amide-linked acyl chain removed the phase transition at ambient temperature (Fig. 1 B) from both lipid species. The isotherms in Fig. 1 B also show that 18:1-- DHSM and 18:1-SM occupied roughly similar mean molecular areas at a given lateral surface pressure and that the monolayers were equally stable against compression-- induced destabilization (collapse).
Surface potential versus mean molecular area isotherms of 16:0-SM and 16:0-DHSM monolayers indicate clearly the absence of the trans double bond in 16:0-DHSM reduced the measurable surface potential significantly (50-- 100 mV depending on packing density; Fig. 1 C). Fairly similar differences in surface potential were seen with 18: 1-SM and 18:1-DHSM monolayers (Fig. 1 D).
Monolayer fluorescence microscopy documentation of sphingomyelin monolayers
In order to visualize the formation of condensed phases in the monolayers of 16:0-containing sphingomyelins, monolayer fluorescence microscopy was used. In this method, the monolayer is doped with a small amount (0.5 mol %) of a fluorescent reporter molecule (NBD-cholesterol), which preferentially partitions into liquid-expanded phases (Slotte and Mattjus, 1995). Consequently, condensed phases appear as dark areas against a highly fluorescent matrix when the monolayer is viewed under the fluorescence microscope. When the pressure-induced crystallization of 16:0-SM was examined using NBD-cholesterol as reporter molecule, we could see clearly the formation of crystal nuclei (Fig. 2 A) at the onset of the expanded-to-condensed transition (see the isotherm in Fig. 1 A). As the surface pressure was increased (and the molecular area decreased), the crystals grew in size (Fig. 2, B and C). These crystals were not liquid-like, since they had a distinct star-like shape with 5 or 6 growth cones. Interestingly, although the force/area isotherm of 16:0-- DHSM showed that this sphingomyelin species crystallized at even lower surface pressures than 16:0-SM, we could not see similar clearly defined crystals in the 16:0-DHSM monolayers (Fig. 2 D) as were seen with 16:0-SM (Fig. 2, A-C). The crystals that were formed in 16:0-DHSM monolayers were much smaller in size, and the resolution of the method did not allow us to observe details of their texture.
We have previously shown that the mixing of cholesterol into 16:0-SM monolayers results in the formation of macroscopic, cholesterol-rich condensed domains (Ramstedt and Slotte, 1999b). In this study very similar domain formation patters were observed in mixed monolayers containing 30 mol % cholesterol and either 16:0-DHSM (Fig. 3 A) or 16:0-SM (Fig. 3 B).
Cholesterol desorption from mixed monolayers
Cholesterol desorption from monolayers to CyD in the subphase has been used by us as a measure of how well cholesterol interacts with other lipids in a mixed monolayer (Ohvo and Slotte, 1996; Ramstedt and Slotte, 1999a). We prepared mixed monolayers to contain 60 mol % cholesterol together with either 16:0-SM or 16:0-DHSM as the sphingomyelin species. We determined rates of cholesterol desorption to 1.7 mM beta-CyD at a lateral surface pressure of 20 mN/m. The results show that desorption rates were slower from 16:0-DHSM mixed monolayers as compared to 16: 0-SM mixed monolayers (5.6 +/- 0.2 and 6.9 +/- 0.2 pmol/ cm^sup 2^. min, respectively). The observed desorption rate was practically zero with both SM types if the cholesterol concentration in the mixed monolayer was reduced to 50 mol% (data not shown). We previously measured desorption of cholesterol from 16:0-SM monolayers and observed a rate corresponding to 3.1 pmol/cm^sup 2^, min at 60 mol % cholesterol (Ramstedt and Slotte, 1999b). We consider the difference in rate for this study and the study of Ramstedt and Slotte (1999b) to be due to possible differences in cyclodextrin concentration (e.g., different moisture content).
Sphingomyelinase-catalyzed hydrolysis of monolayer sphingomyelins
The degradation of sphingomyelin in monolayers by sphingomyelinase in the subphase can be followed as a timedependent reduction in the monolayer area (at constant surface pressure), since the reaction product (i.e., ceramide) has a smaller molecular area requirement than sphingomyelin (Yedgar et al., 1982; Jungner et al., 1997). All sphingomyelinase experiments were performed at 37 deg C, because the reactions are very slow at ambient temperatures (data not shown). At 37 deg C all substrates used were in their expanded state at the lateral surface pressure used (the mean molecular area for 16:0-SM and 16:0-DHSM was 70.8 and 69.7 (Angstorm)^sub 2^/molecule at 20 mN/m, respectively; isotherms not shown). We have previously shown that the degradation of 16:0-SM is a fairly slow process and that relatively high amounts of sphingomyelinase must be used in the subphase (Ramstedt and Slotte, 1999b). When the degradation of 16:0-SM and 16:0-DHSM by sphingomyelinase are compared (Fig. 4, A and B), it was clearly observed that 16:0-- DHSM was degraded much faster than the 16:0-SM species (10 times less enzyme needed for 16:0-DHSM compared to 16:0-SM). If degradations of 16:0-DHSM and 16:0-SM were performed at a similar enzyme concentration (i.e., 6.7 mU/ml), there was almost no degradation of 16:0-SM during the first hour (data not shown), whereas 16:0-DHSM was completely degraded in 20 min. Hydrolysis of 18:1-SM and 18:1-DHSM species by bacterial sphingomyelinase proceeded with roughly similar kinetics (using 6.7 mU/ml enzyme with both monounsaturated species, Fig. 4 C).
Differential scanning calorimetry
To study the thermodynamics of the gel-to-liquid transition of 16:0-SM and 16:0-DHSM bilayers, differential scanning calorimetry was used. The lipids were hydrated thoroughly and dispersed by vigorous mixing at a temperature above 50 deg C. The thermograms were acquired with a heating or cooling scan rate of 0.3 deg C/min. The thermogram in Fig. 5 A shows the second heating scan obtained for dispersions of 16:0-DHSM. There is a small pre-transition centered at 44 deg C, whereas the main transition occurs at 47.7 deg C. The enthalpy of the pre-transition is about 0.7 kcal/mol (heating scan), whereas the enthalpy of the main transition is 8.3 kcal/mol (heating scan). On cooling, the 16:0-DHSM thermogram shows the main transition at 46.8 deg C (Omega)H 9.1 kcal/ mol), whereas the pre-transition has moved to a significantly lower temperature (28.8 deg C, (Omega)H 0.4 kcal/mol). The heating scan for 16:0-SM is shown in Fig. 5 C (main T^sub m^ is at 41.2 deg C, (Omega)H is 8.1 kcal/mol, the small pre-transition was centered at 28.2 deg C; not shown clearly in the figure because of the scale chosen). We recently published a similar heating scan for 16:0-SM (Ramstedt and Slotte, 1999b). A similar thermogram is shown here again, to allow easy comparison of the two lipid species. On cooling, the 16:0-SM displayed the liquid-to-gel transition at 40.3 deg C, whereas the mid-temperature for the pre-transition moved down to 25.2 deg C (thermogram not shown).
Steady-state anisotropy of DPH in sphingomyelin vesicles
To obtain indirect information about sphingomyelin packing properties in bilayer membranes, we determined the anisotropy of DPH in both pure and cholesterol-containing sphingomyelin vesicles. DPH is a hydrophobic reporter molecule that orients itself along the acyl chains of the phospholipids in the bilayer (Shinitzky and Barenholz, 1974), and consequently is sensitive to packing properties in the hydrophobic core of the bilayer membrane (Shinitzky and Barenholz, 1978). The anisotropy of DPH, when plotted as a function of temperature in both 16:0-DHSM (Fig. 6 A) and 16:0-SM (Fig. 6 B) vesicles clearly reported the phase-- transition that occurred in these vesicles. The mid-temperature of the transition, as reported by the anisotropy of DPH, was 48.2 and 41.1 deg C for 16:0-DHSM and 16:0-SM, respectively. The experimentally determined anisotropy of DPH at a given temperature below or above the phase transition was remarkably similar for 16:0-DHSM and 16:0-SM bilayers, suggesting similar packing in the hydrophobic core of these membranes. Inclusion of 30 mol % cholesterol into the bilayer membranes removed the phase-transition (Fig. 6, C and D) for both sphingomyelins, whereas the overall DPH anisotropies remained similar for both sphingomyelin membranes.
In bilayers of either 18: 1-SM or 18: 1-DHSM (no cholesterol), the anisotropy of DPH was very similar in the temperature range of 10 to 40 deg C (Fig. 6, E and F). However, it appeared that 18:1-DHSM had its gel-to-liquid transition somewhere between 0 and 5 deg C (higher anisotropies, Fig. 6 E). 18:1-SM clearly had no observable transition above 0 deg C (Fig. 6 F).
Formation of condensed domains in bilayers as determined from DPH quenching
Cholesterol has been shown to promote domain formation in model membrane systems (Ahmed et al., 1997; Xu and London, 2000). Ahmed and coworkers have recently developed a method to study sterol domain formation in vesicles (Ahmed et al., 1997). The method relies on the finding that DPH distributes almost equally between condensed and expanded domains, whereas 12SLPC (which is a DPH quencher) preferentially partitions into expanded domains (because of the bulky doxy1 function). Consequently, if more condensed domains exist (compared to a control system) quenching of DPH by 12SLPC is less efficient. We studied the quenching resistance of DPH in multilamellar liposomes at different temperatures between 23 and 52 deg C. The liposomes contained either 16:0-SM or 16:0-DHSM with or without 15 mol % cholesterol. As seen in Fig. 7, in the absence of cholesterol the quenching of DPH was efficient and did not change markedly as the temperature was raised through the transition region. There was more quenching of DPH fluorescence in 16:0-SM liposomes as compared to 16:0-DHSM membranes, but the difference was not dramatic. Inclusion of 15 mol % cholesterol increased the quenching resistance of DPH markedly (e.g., at 23 deg C) for 16:0-SM, and even more dramatically in 16:0-- DHSM liposomes (Fig. 7). With 16:0-SM liposomes, the cholesterol-induced domains melted as the temperature was increased; however, with 16:0-DHSM liposomes, the condensed domains persisted even at higher temperatures, although there was a gradual temperature-induced increase in DPH quenching.
Supported by generous grants from the Academy of Finland, the Sigrid Juselius Foundation, the Oscar Oflund Foundation, the Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation, and the (Angstrom)bo Akademi University.
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[Author Affiliation]
Miia Kuikka, Bodil Ramstedt, Henna Ohvo-Rekila, Jessica Tuuf, and J. Peter Slotte Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacy, Abo Akademi University, FIN 20521 Turku, Finland
[Author Affiliation]
Received for publication 28 November 2000 and in final form 2 January 2001.
Address reprint requests to J. Peter Slotte, Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacy, (Angstrom)bo Akademi University, P.O. Box 66, FIN 20521 Turku, Finland. Tel.: +358 2 215 4689; Fax: +358 2 215 4010; E-mail: jpslotte@abo.fi.
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| Milwaukee 000 003 100_4 | |||
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| Umpires_Home, Ted Barrett | First, Dana DeMuth | Second, Lance Barksdale | Third, Doug Eddings. |
| T_3:21. A_45,311 (41,900). |
LYNDON, Kan. (AP) — A judge sentenced a Kansas man to death Tuesday for fatally shooting his estranged wife, their two daughters and his wife's grandmother, then ordered him to stay in court and listen to his victims' relatives talk about the pain he caused them.
James Kraig Kahler declined the opportunity to address the court during the brief hearing, and showed no emotion as his sentence was announced.
Kahler, 48, was convicted in August in the Thanksgiving 2009 killings in Burlingame, about 30 miles southwest of Topeka. Prosecutors said he shot his 44-year-old wife Karen, her grandmother 89-year-old Dorothy Wight, and the Kahlers' two daughters, 18-year-old Emily and 16-year-old Lauren, as the couple struggled through a divorce.
A psychiatrist testified during Kahler's trial that he had been upset with his daughters for siding with their mother, who had instigated the divorce, and that he believed Wight should have encouraged his wife to stay in their marriage. Karen Kahler had been having an affair with a woman from Weatherford, Texas.
Kahler's attorneys said he was unable to control his emotions and had been suffering from a deep depression when he went from room to room at Wight's home and shot the victims with an assault rifle. The jury that convicted him recommended the death penalty.
"It was clearly anticipated. There's never been a judge in Kansas that's overturned a jury's recommendation," Kahler's attorney Thomas Haney said.
Haney asked Osage County Judge Phillip Fromme to allow his client to return to his jail cell before the victims' families read their statements but the judge rejected that request. The relatives' statements were tributes to the victims and did not name Kahler or mention how they felt about his sentence.
Karen Kahler's mother, Patricia Hetrick, was too frail to attend Tuesday's hearing, but said in a statement that was read on her behalf that she was upset her two granddaughters had been killed "just because they were guilty of loving their mom."
Kahler stared at walls and papers as the statements were read.
The Kahlers' son, Sean, was present during the shooting rampage but escaped unscathed. Haney said Sean declined a request to appear in court Tuesday. The boy, who was 10 when his father shot the rest of family to death, testified that he did not want his father sentenced to death. Haney said the boy continued to believe his father should be spared.
As he was leaving the courtroom, Kahler, a former utilities director in Weatherford, Texas, and Columbia, Mo., told his parents he has lost everything and exhorted them to take care of his son.
Under Kansas law, an appeal to the death sentence is automatically filed with the state Supreme Court. The death penalty was reinstated in 1994, although no one has been executed in the state since June 1965, mainly due to disagreements among the courts over provisions related to jury instructions.
Kahler is the ninth person on death row.
Karen Kahler's sister, Lynn Denton, said the pain of losing her sister has never eased.
"I miss her every day, some days more than others," Denton told the hearing. "I still want to pick up the phone and call her. I hear the phone ring, I want to pick up the phone and say 'Hi sister.'"
___
The case is State of Kansas v. James Kraig Kahler, No. 09-CR-270 in Osage County District Court.
Online:
Kansas courts website for Kahler case: http://www.kscourts.org/State-v-Kahler
Sen. Barack Obama has won the overall delegate race in Texas thanks to a strong showing in Democratic county conventions this past weekend.
Obama picked up seven of nine outstanding delegates, giving him a total of 99 Texas delegates to the party's national convention this summer. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won the other two, giving her a total of 94 Texas delegates, according to an analysis of returns by The Associated Press.
Texas Democrats held both a presidential primary and caucus. Clinton narrowly won the popular vote in the state's primary March 4, earning her 65 national convention delegates to Obama's 61.
Precinct caucuses began immediately after polls closed primary night and quickly devolved into chaos in many parts of the state because of an unprecedented turnout of more than 1 million Democrats. The state party was never able to provide complete results from the caucuses, which is why the AP withheld nine delegates.
The precinct caucuses elected delegates to about 280 county and state senate district conventions on Saturday. The AP awarded the remaining delegates based on results from Saturday's conventions, showing Obama with about 58 percent of vote, compared to 42 percent for Clinton.
Obama won 38 delegates through the caucus/convention system, and Clinton won 29.
The final delegate allocation will be decided at the party's state convention June 6-7, and the numbers could change if either campaign is unable to maintain the level of support they had over the weekend.
Obama leads the overall race for the Democratic nomination with 1,631 delegates, including separately chosen party and elected officials known as superdelegates. Clinton has 1,501, according to the latest AP tally.
On the same day Gov. Ryan announced he would not seek re-electionin 2002, Illinois residents said in CBS 2/Sun-Times survey thatAttorney General Jim Ryan was their top choice to replace thegovernor.
Thirty-one percent of adults polled said they would most like tosee Jim Ryan in the post. He has twice the support of any otherlikely candidate.
The survey of 500 residents was conducted Wednesday night, with 15percent stating former Chicago Schools Chief Paul Vallas was theirchoice.
Another 13 percent like former state Attorney General RolandBurris; 12 percent look to state Sen. Pat O'Malley; 9 percent preferRep. Rod Blagojevich and 6 percent said they back Lt. Gov. CorinneWood.
Jim Ryan is favored by 33 percent of women and 28 percent of mensurveyed--the majority in those categories.
The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentagepoints and was conducted by Survey USA.
The federal government is considering a fresh multibillion-dollar aid package for Bank of America Corp. to help it absorb losses at Merrill Lynch.
A person with knowledge of the discussions said Thursday the new aid package could be modeled along the lines of the financial lifeline that was thrown to Citigroup Inc. in November. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions.
Shares of Bank of America plummeted more than 20 percent.
Bank of America could get another capital infusion from the government, and possibly secure government guarantees against losses on problem loans. A fresh capital injection could come from the Treasury Department's $700 billion bailout pot, while any money that might be put up for loan guarantees could come from a mix of government sources.
The Treasury Department already has pledged the first half of the bailout pot. Some money, however, hasn't actually been allocated. President-elect Barack Obama pleaded with Congress this week to release the second $350 billion of the bailout funds.
Bank of America has received a total of $25 billion in capital injections from the Treasury bailout fund, called the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. That includes $10 billion for Merrill Lynch & Co., which Bank of America bought in a deal that closed Jan. 1.
"It gets down to the cost of the acquisition of Merrill and the risks associated with the deal," said Gary Townsend, president of Maryland-based private investment group Hill-Townsend Capital. "They were obviously in contact and in discussion with the Treasury prior to the end of year close."
Any possible arrangement might protect Bank of America from losses on Merrill's bad assets, he added.
Even with the government aid, Bank of America's stock has been pummeled.
Shares of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank are down more than 27 percent this year, and lost $2.08, or 20.4 percent, to $8.12 in midday trading Thursday after trading as low as $7.35 earlier in the session. Rival Citigroup's shares plunged 82 cents, or 18.1 percent, to $3.71.
Bank of America, which reports its fourth-quarter and annual results Tuesday, declined comment about a new aid package Thursday. The Wall Street Journal late Wednesday reported that the government was nearing a new deal with Bank of America, and said details of the aid are expected to be announced with earnings next week.
Some analysts are predicting the biggest U.S. bank by assets to report a loss or lower-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter.
Its board has already halved the company's dividend and could slash the payout again.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, expect Bank of America to earn 8 cents per share during the quarter and $1.15 per share for 2008.
Fears about the stability of the financial industry has again gripped Wall Street in recent days, sending stocks plunging. Wall Street investors are worried about another round of losses from banks, which had been especially hard hit by the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.
Against that backdrop, the federal government has taken radical steps _ including making capital injections in banks _ to shore up the nation's shaky financial system and to try to get credit flowing more freely again. Problems, however, have persisted. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke earlier this week made a forceful case that the second $350 billion bailout installment was critically needed.
In the Citigroup rescue late last year, the bank received a fresh $20 billion capital infusion from Treasury's bailout fund _ after earlier receiving $25 billion _ as well as government backing of billions in risky assets held by the bank.
Specifically, Treasury and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. provided a guarantee against the possibility of losses on up to $306 billion of risky loans and securities backed by New York-based Citigroup's commercial and residential mortgages. Funds from the FDIC and $5 billion from the bailout money would be used for the guarantees.
___
AP Economics Writer Jeannine Aversa reported from Washington.
Extremist groups that possess nuclear weapons or materials will be the "No. 1 security threat" facing the world in the coming years, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday.
Mohamed ElBaradei said the Vienna-based U.N. agency needs more money to properly protect nuclear sources and to keep potentially lethal substances out of the hands of such groups.
"Deterrence does not work in the case of extremist groups ... because if they were to acquire a nuclear weapon or powerful radioactive source, they would simply use it," ElBaradei said in a speech to diplomats and politicians in Austria's parliament.
ElBaradei, in other comments, appeared hopeful the new U.S. administration would make progress in resolving the international standoff surrounding Iran's nuclear program.
Unlike his predecessor, George W. Bush, President Barack Obama has called for diplomatic contacts with Iran as a way of persuading its rulers to drop their nuclear ambitions. Tehran says its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.
"I think an Iranian solution would be a win-win situation because Iran could be a positive force in the region _ in Syria and Lebanon, in Iraq, in Palestinian territory," said ElBaradai, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
He warned, however, that Iran could also be "a source of confrontation."
The EU has condemned Iran for executing a juvenile offender and 21 other people.
The Czech Republic, which holds the rotating EU presidency, says there is "absolutely no justification" for executing juvenile offenders.
The EU identified him as Molla Gol Hassan, an Afghan national executed Jan. 21 in Evin prison for a crime that prosecutors alleged he committed at 17. The EU couldn't immediately provide his age at the time of his execution.
The Czech Republic accused Iran in a statement Tuesday of executing at least nine juvenile offenders in 2008 and urged the country to stop the practice.
The statement also said Iran executed 21 other people last week and urged Tehran "to abolish the death penalty."
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin a "poor thing" who didn't know what she was saying when she called him a dictator.
Friday's verbal attack was the latest in long history of creative insults by Chavez _ but was not unprovoked.
In an interview with the U.S. Spanish-language network Univision aired Tuesday, Palin remarked that "through negotiations or sanctions, if necessary, we can pressure dictators like Hugo Chavez to make it clear that they cannot mess with the United States whenever they feel like it."
Speaking at an event to inaugurate a thermoelectric plant, Chavez said he had heard of Palin's remarks.
"The poor thing, you have to feel sorry for her," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. Palin, he said, is "a beauty queen that they've put in the role of a figurine."
Chavez said one must do as Christ did: "Forgive her, for she knows not what she says."
Republican presidential candidate John McCain's choice of Palin as his running mate surprised the nation and prompted questions about her qualifications to serve as vice president. The McCain campaign had no comment on Chavez' comment.
Palin, the governor of Alaska, says she would take the lead as vice president in energy policy, overall government reform and working with families who have special-needs children.
CO2 EMISSIONS DOWN REMARKABLY IN 2009
THE U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has determined that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the U.S. have declined by 405 million metric tons in 2009, or 7.0 percent! This is in addition to the 3 percent decline in 2008. The declines for the last two years take the U.S. CO2 emissions back to nearly 1995 levels without any significant new carbon policy.
Much of this scaling back of CO2 emissions is related directly and indirectly to the contraction of the U.S. economy. Reducing CO2 emissions via this economic crisis is like claiming diet-like weight loss from being sick. We all need the economy to snap back soon - hopefully without a corresponding rebound of carbon emissions.
The EIA provides some compelling reasons for the decline that go beyond massive cutbacks in energy consumption due to the economic recession. These include changes in technology and switching to fuels with lower carbon intensities. The moral of the story is that we really can change.
EIA describes the 7 percent drop in roughly equal declines in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), energy intensity and carbon intensity. The decline in GDP is the direct indicator of the economic recession. The other two units are more complicated. Both energy and carbon intensity are influenced by the economic downturn but in less direct ways. EIA defines energy intensity as energy consumed per unit of economic activity or (Btu/GDP). Carbon intensity is defined as carbon dioxide emissions per unit of energy consumption (CO2/Btu).
Because the energy intensity measure includes GDP in the denominator, it is certainly influenced by the economic activity. Curiously because GDP is in the denominator, as the GDP shrinks the energy intensity would intuitively get larger. However, it did not increase when the GDP decreased. The energy intensity declined by nearly the same amount as the GDP. For this to happen, it requires a much greater decline in the amount of energy consumed (Btu) than the decline in the GDP.
The amount of energy consumed did drop remarkably in the transportation sector. In 2008, transportation fuels declined 7.1 percent from 2007. In 2009, the transportation sector declined another 3.2 percent. EIA also credits improvements in the fuel economy of the total U.S. fleet from 27 miles per gallon (mpg) in 2008 to 28.5 mpg in 2009. While that increase in fuel efficiency may seem trivial, it is more than 5 percent! And it is only beginning. The automobile manufacturers are increasing their lines of fuel-efficient models and scaling back on the fuel hogs (GM ceased production of the fuel-consumptive Hummer in May). It has taken decades to build a culture of fuel conservation, but it seems to be happening.
LESS INTENSE AND MORE EFFICIENT
Part of the EIA CO2 emission explanation is that energy and carbon intensities have mellowed. A large reason for declines in the U.S. energy intensity is due to declines in energy-intense primary manufacturing activity. Industries such as primary metals and nonmetallic minerals were more adversely affected by the economic downturn because they require more energy than other sectors. Hopefully, as the economy recovers, these sectors will resume then* valuable role in the economy. Unless they can upgrade their technologies or switch to lower carbon fuels as some power plants have, they may well resume former emissions levels.
The carbon intensity of the U.S. fuel supply also has decreased. EIA reports that fuel sources have switched from coal to natural gas, due to lower prices for natural gas. This is pretty interesting because the CO2 emissions from natural gas are about half the CO2 emissions from coal on a Btu basis. So for every Btu of natural gas consumed, about half the CO2 is emitted. Also wind energy capacity has increased 11 fold - 65,000 million kilowatt hours (kWh) from 2000 levels. During the same ten year period, utilization of existing nuclear power capacity increased by 45,000 million kWh.
The EIA also presented data showing that newer natural gas power plants that have come online since 2000 have become more efficient. Metric tons OfCO2 emissions from natural gas power plants have dropped 18 percent in the last 10 years from 0.542 to 0.445 metric tons per thousand kWh. The real solution to gains from both economic growth and higher environmental quality is through gains in technical efficiency.
This EIA analysis on the declines in U.S. CO2 emissions in 2009 is disturbing from the standpoint that it illustrates the multiyear impact of the floundering U.S. economy. The lack of disposable income has taken the fun out of our excess fael consumption. The story is not over.
As the economy recovers, our energyintensive industries will hopefully come back online also. A risk that remains as we develop U.S. carbon policies in the new green economy is that excessive regulations on CO2 emissions may force U.S. industries to other countries. Even if they restart production at former emission levels, I believe we are further ahead by keeping our industrial economic engines within our borders and helping them become more carbon efficient than we are exporting the jobs and CO2 emissions to countries outside U.S. jurisdiction.
The silver-lining here is that it isn't ah" about the economic losses. Advances in technology and shifts to lower carbon fuels are outcomes that will likely rebound with the economy. Amid the economic chaos, there is hope for a greener tomorrow.
[Author Affiliation]
Mark Jenner, PhD, and Biomass Rules, LLC1 has joined the California Biomass Collaborative. Burning Bio News and other biomass information is available at www.biomassrules.com.
After suffering through a nightmarish season in 1988-89, one ofhis most difficult in 22 years at Timothy Christian, boys' basketballcoach Don Greenfield wondered what he was in store for this time.
It did not take him long to realize this could be a specialseason for his Class A team, bringing back memories of glory days.Greenfield's first team in 1967 won 26 straight games. His 1975club was second in the state. And in 1979 and 1980, he guided theTrojans to consecutive Downstate trips.
The Elmhurst school currently ranks No. 4 in Class A in theChicago area with a 5-1 record.
"We had an absolutely horrendous year, but I'm really enjoyingcoaching this team. I look forward to each day of practice,"Greenfield said. "We have a number of good role players, and theyall work extremely hard."
Timothy Christian's marquee role player is senior all-conferenceperformer Jim Smith. The 6-8, 200-pounder is averaging 19.4 points and 11 rebounds a game.
"He is a good scorer and a strong rebounder. People double andtriple team him, and he still does well," Greenfield said. "When weneed him against pressure defenses, he can also handle the ball quitewell for a big man. The most important thing is he must be able tohandle all the punishment."
"We played as individuals last year and lost a lot of closegames (13 by five points or less)," Smith said. "This year, we'replaying as a team and doing very well."
Starring with Smith are his frontcourt teammates, 6-5 1/2senior Kevin Post (9.5 points) and 6-2 junior Brandon Van Dyke (11points).
"Kevin is our big forward, but I certainly wouldn't call him apower forward (170 pounds). He is a very good offensive player,with a soft shot. He just needs to get more rebounds," Greenfieldsaid. "Brandon is a slashing driver with good ball-handling skills."
The Trojan backcourt is undecided. At one spot is 6-footsophomore guard Dave Bosman (five points, two assists). Threeplayers share the other position.
"Dave is learning every day. As he starts to get the feel ofthings, he will improve," Greenfield said. "Our other spot has alittle of everything. Stability, but less scoring from Tim DeJong;explosiveness, though sometimes out of control play from Doug Tincuand Steve Cook, who has a more deliberate tempo."
Timothy Christian began the season on a strong note, winning theLisle Thanksgiving Tournament, prior to losing its only game toIlliana Christian.
"We've progressed nicely so far, but sometimes the consistencyof high school kids can be a problem, such as a letdown againstIlliana Christian," Greenfield said. "We just need to hang in there,battle, and keep improving. Our 1975 team did that and I think thisteam can also go Downstate."
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Byline: Carolyn Hax
DEAR CAROLYN: What do you do when your father and stepmother adamantly refuse any acknowledgment of, or contact with, your significant other, because in their paraphrased words, they think she is wrong for you and therefore refuse to show approval of the relationship?
My girlfriend is wonderful, she is a partner in every way, and I respect, admire and am in love with her. Even if my father/stepmother's objections were what I'd call reasonable - my girlfriend was unkind to them or to me, prone to fits of psychotic rage, into Kenny G - I'd find their boycott to be a far less than mature and reasoned way to handle the situation.
…
Byline: WINIFRED YU Staff writer
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They bolt their doors, pin their windows and travel in groups. Some women carry Mace and sleep with baseball bats nearby. The police have been besieged with phone calls for security checks in neighborhood homes.
It's all the result of the string of rapes and assaults that has occurred there since last summer.
"The mood is of apprehension," said 11th Ward Alderman Gerald Jennings. "More people are afraid, especially at night."
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