OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Oklahoma's 50-year-old ban on horse slaughtering was lifted Friday when the governor signed a new law that will allow facilities to process and export horse meat, despite bitter opposition by animal rights activists.
Supporters argue that a horse slaughtering facility in Oklahoma will provide a humane alternative for aging or starving horses, many of which are abandoned in rural parts of the state by owners who can no longer afford to care for them. Gov. Mary Fallin also noted that horses are already being shipped out of the country, including to facilities in Mexico, where they are processed in potentially inhumane conditions.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 166,000 horses were sent to Canada and Mexico last year alone.
"In Oklahoma, as in other states, abuse is tragically common among horses that are reaching the end of their natural lives," the Republican governor said. "Those of us who care about the wellbeing of horses - and we all should - cannot be satisfied with a status quo that encourages abuse and neglect, or that rewards the potentially inhumane slaughter of animals in foreign countries."
She noted that law strictly prohibits the selling of horse meat for human consumption in the U.S.
Similar efforts are under way in other states, but not without controversy. In New Mexico, a processing plant has been fighting the U.S. Department of Agriculture for more than a year for approval to convert its former cattle slaughter operation into a horse slaughterhouse. In Nevada, state agriculture officials have discussed ways to muster support for the slaughter of free-roaming horses, stirring protests.
The Oklahoma legislation received bipartisan support and was approved by wide margins in both the state House and Senate. It also was backed by several agriculture organizations including the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association and American Farmers.
But animal rights groups fought hard against the plan, including the Humane Society of the United States. Cynthia Armstrong, the organization's Oklahoma state director, said she was disappointed.
"It's a very sad day for Oklahoma and the welfare of the horses that will be exposed to a facility like this," Armstrong said. "It's very regrettable."
In addition to animal welfare concerns, opponents have said slaughtering horses for human consumption could pose a threat to human health and safety. American horses are often treated with drugs and medications that are not approved for use in animals intended for food.
Horse slaughter opponents are pushing legislation in Congress to ban domestic slaughter, as well as the export of horses to other countries for slaughter. Many animal humane groups and public officials are outraged at the idea of resuming domestic slaughter. But others - including some horse rescuers, livestock associations and the American Quarter Horse Association - support the plans.
They point to a 2011 report from the federal Government Accountability Office that shows horse abuse and abandonment have been increasing since Congress effectively banned horse slaughter by cutting funding for federal inspection programs in 2006. They say the ban on domestic slaughter has led to tens of thousands of horses being shipped to inhumane slaughterhouses in Mexico.
Although there are no horse slaughtering facilities in Oklahoma, the Humane Society said the USDA has received an application for horse slaughter inspection permits from a meat company in Washington, Okla., about 40 miles south of Oklahoma City.
Fallin said her administration will work with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture to ensure that any horse meat processing plant in the state is run appropriately, follows state and local laws, and does not pose a hazard to the community. The law takes effect Nov. 1.
"It's important to note cities, counties and municipalities still have the ability to express their opposition to processing facilities by blocking their construction and operation at the local level," the governor said.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Sometimes, wishes are quickly granted.? Sometimes, they already were.
Steelers safety Troy Polamalu wants player input in rule changes.? But the players already have input.
?I do wish . . . that the NFL did have a voice from the players? side, whether it?s our players? union president, or team captains, or our executive committee on the players? side,? Polamalu said earlier today on ESPN.? ?Because we?re the guys that realize the risk, we?re the guys on the field.?
As MDS pointed out, the players have a voice in the rule-revising process.? Specifically, this year?s the rule changes were discussed with NFLPA president Domonique Foxworth, who worked with Lester Archambeaux, Charlie Batch, Ernie Conwell, Matt Hasselbeck, Brandon Moore, Jeff Saturday, Ben Watson, and Eric Winston in providing input to the Competition Committee.
Also, Will Montgomery of the Redskins presented video to the Competition Committee in connection with the rule that makes the snapper a defenseless player.
Former players also had a voice with the Player Safety Advisory panel, which includes John Madden, Ronnie Lott, Ernie Accorsi, Antonio Freeman, Patrick Kerney, Willie Lanier, Oliver Luck, Steve Mariucci, Anthony Munoz.
So, basically, Polamalu already got what he wanted, without finding a lamp or losing an eyelash.
The U.S. housing market will see no surge at the start of spring, as fewer buyers signed contracts to purchase existing homes in February. An industry index of so-called pending home sales fell 0.4 percent from January but is up 8.4 percent from February of 2012.
While the number of for-sale listings increased more than the seasonal norm, Realtors still say a lack of supply is keeping many potential buyers from desired deals. Pending home sales are a one to two month forward indicator of closed sales.
"Only new home construction can genuinely help relieve the inventory shortage, and housing starts need to rise at least 50 percent from current levels," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors in a release. "Most local home builders are small businesses and simply don't have access to capital on Wall Street. Clearer regulatory rules, applied to construction loans for smaller community banks and credit unions, could bring many small-sized builders back into the market."
Sales of newly built homes fell nearly five percent in February, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Inventories did rise, but only slightly, as the nation's home builders struggle with labor and land shortages, as well as higher costs for materials.
Pending home sales fell 2.5 percent month-to-month in the Northeast, rose 0.4 percent in the Midwest, fell 0.3 percent in the South and rose 0.1 percent in the West, according to the Realtors.
"The volume of home sales appears to be leveling off with the constrained inventory conditions, and the leveling of the index means little change is likely in the pace of sales over the next couple months," Yun added.
A better sign for March, after two weeks of declines, mortgage applications to purchase a home jumped 7 percent during the past week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. This as interest rates fell slightly, due to concerns over the banking crisis in Cyprus.
"The rebound in mortgage applications is a small piece of a brighter housing outlook," says Bob Walters, chief economist for Quicken Loans. "Interest rates are still at record lows despite their upward trend, and consumers are taking advantage of record home affordability. Look for more buyers to enter the market this spring and a more robust housing recovery to occur."
Gameloft is no stranger to big name movie tie-in games, and it looks pretty much a given that another one is on the horizon. This image appeared on the Gameloft UK Twitter feed accompanied by the message, "warming up main core."
So, it looks a lot like Iron Man then. With the release of Iron Man 3 not that far away now, it's highly possible that whatever Gameloft has up their sleeves could be related to the movie in some way.
Previous efforts on The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises games have been commendable. We like both titles very much, although the Gameloft in-app purchases we're not so fond of. Needless to say, it all leaves us pretty excited to see how they might bring Tony Stark to life.
The good news is there isn't long to wait. The only other detail on the image was the date -- March 27. So, sit tight, we'll know the score very, very soon.
The first -- and still, the only -- 4G network in the U.K. is now available to half the U.K.'s homes and businesses. Carrier EE said today it has switched on the network in 13 more towns and cities to hit the 50% population coverage mark five months after the network went live. The company has previously said its network rollout would reach 55% of the population by June.
Before today, using an iPhone on T-Mobile's network meant a compromise on speed: unlocked handsets would get service, but only on EDGE. Thanks to spectrum refarming efforts that started last fall, the operator has been able to suddenly "turn on" 4G (the HSPA+ kind) for that grey market segment. But with Apple now bringing the iPhone 5 officially to T-Mobile's newly launched LTE lineup, the UnCarrier's subscriber base no longer has to trade down.
Being the last of the major US carriers to be granted access to the Cupertino cult, T-Mobile trotted out the device with a decent amount of fanfare. Well, at least as much as can be mustered for a six month-old device. And, what can we say, an iPhone is an iPhone. Aesthetically, it's the same handset that's already available from AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and a handful of regional carriers. That means a large swath of fortified glass on the front and a sheet of lovely metal on the rear. When it launches on April 12th with a $99 down payment, it'll be able to hop on T-Mobile's burgeoning LTE network on the AWS band. But, should that not be active in your hometown, it'll fallback to big-magenta's AWS-powered HSPA+ 42Mbps network.
Mar. 25, 2013 ? Researchers are digging deeper into whether infants' ability to learn new words is shaped by the particular language being acquired.
A new Northwestern University study cites a promising new research agenda aimed at bringing researchers closer to discovering the impact of different languages on early language and cognitive development.
For decades, researchers have asked why infants learn new nouns more rapidly and more easily than new verbs. Many researchers have asserted that the early advantage for learning nouns over verbs is a universal feature of human language.
In contrast, other researchers have argued that early noun-advantage is not a universal feature of human language but rather a consequence of the particular language being acquired.
Sandra Waxman, lead author of the study and Louis W. Menk Professor of Psychology at Northwestern, shows in her research that even before infants begin to produce many verbs in earnest, infants acquiring either noun-friendly or verb-friendly languages already appreciate the concepts underlying both noun and verb meaning.
In all languages examined to date, researchers see a robust ability to map nouns to objects, Waxman said, but when it comes to mapping verbs to events, infants' performance is less robust and more variable. Their ability to learn new verbs varied not only as a function of the native language being acquired, but also with the particular linguistic context in which the verb was presented.
Based on new evidence, a shift in the research agenda is necessary, according to Waxman and her colleagues.
"We now know that by 24 months infants acquiring distinctly different languages can successfully map novel nouns to objects and novel verbs to event categories," Waxman said. "It is essential that we shift the research focus to include infants at 24 months and younger, infants who are engaged in the very process of acquiring distinctly different native languages."
Waxman said the implications are clear. "Rather than characterizing languages as either 'noun friendly' or 'verb friendly,' it would be advantageous to adopt a more nuanced treatment of the syntactic, semantic, morphologic and pragmatic properties of each language and the consequences of these properties on infants' acquisition of linguistic structure and meaning."
In addition to Waxman, co-authors include Xiaolan Fu, Sudha Arunachalam, Erin Leddon and Kathleen Geraghty. The article "Nouns before verbs? Fresh insights and new cross-linguistic evidence" will appear online in the next issue of Child Development Perspectives.
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LG is no stranger to mixing together patents and white goods and this time its trying to bridge the gap between recipes and those all-too-often underwhelming results. One of its patents, granted today, outlines the idea of two RF tags that would offer food information and appliance specs, with a reader located on a terminal (say, an oven) that would attempt to bridge the gap between the two. This (likely wireless) device would then connect to a server, which would return operating details for cooking that specified "food information" on your appliance of choice. LG also hints at the ability of expanding the remit of a book when enough info can't be given due to the space limitations of the printed word, hopefully offering up some added value to any compatible future cookbooks. Well, you've got to try and explain those connected fridge and oven costs somehow, right?
BOSTON (Reuters) - Anthony Lewis, both a champion and a critic of the U.S. legal system and press rights in a newspaper career spanning more than 50 years, died at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Monday. He was 85.
A retired New York Times reporter and columnist who won two Pulitzer prizes, Lewis died of complications of heart failure and renal failure, said his daughter, Mia Lewis. He had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
He joined the Times in 1948 and, with the exception of a three-year stint at a Washington daily, spent his entire career at the newspaper, serving as London bureau chief and penning the "Abroad at Home" and "At Home Abroad" columns for more than three decades. He retired in 2001.
During his years as a columnist, Lewis took a number of positions at odds with his friends and colleagues, including criticizing Israel's relations with the Palestinian territories and questioning how much liberty the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gave the U.S. press to protect anonymous sources.
His views on the First Amendment, while sometimes unpopular with colleagues, grew out of the respect the Bronx, New York-born reporter developed for the court system while covering the U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren in the 1960s, recalled a former colleague.
"In his later years he turned a little bit against the press, which he loved. But he disagreed with those of us who felt that we couldn't just trust the courts to defend our freedom," said Max Frankel, who worked side-by-side with Lewis in the Times' Washington bureau early in his career and rose to become executive editor of the paper, retiring in 1995.
'IDEALIZATION OF THE COURT'
After retiring from the Times, Lewis spoke out in favor of a 2005 court decision to jail a New York Times reporter for 85 days over her refusal to reveal the source that had helped her to publicly identify a CIA agent.
"He felt that, no, the courts and the judges were the ultimate protectors of a free press," Frankel said. "His idealization of the court, I think, grew mainly out of a court that he worshipped, which was the Warren Court ... I'm not sure how enthusiastic he would have been were he still writing now."
Lewis wrote frequently on the importance of the First Amendment. In his 2007 book "Freedom for the Thought That We Hate," he wrote of America's longstanding tolerance for words that shock and disgust.
"There will always be authorities who try to make their own lives more comfortable by suppressing critical comment," Lewis wrote. "But I am convinced that the fundamental American commitment to free speech, disturbing speech, is no longer in doubt."
Lewis did two stints at the Times, first from 1948 to 1952 in the paper's Sunday department, before joining the Washington Daily News, where he won his first Pulitzer. He returned to the Times in 1955 as a Washington reporter and later went on to become London bureau chief.
He won his second Pulitzer Prize in 1963 for his coverage of the Supreme Court.
His column carried the heading "Abroad at Home" or "At Home Abroad," depending on where he was working. He was the author of the book "Gideon's Trumpet," an account of the Supreme Court's 1963 decision guaranteeing all poor defendants the right to a lawyer under the U.S. Constitution's 6th amendment.
This month marked the 50th anniversary of that decision, which involved an indigent Florida man, Clarence Earl Gideon, who was charged with breaking into a poolroom. Gideon, who could not afford a lawyer and represented himself at trial, was convicted.
Gideon appealed to the Supreme Court, which used his case to declare that every person charged with a serious crime is entitled to the assistance of a lawyer.
'OPTIMIST ABOUT AMERICA'
In his final column, written in the months following the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, Lewis mused on how the United States would balance its tradition of free expression with a renewed concern about national security.
"I am an optimist about America. But how can I maintain that optimism after Vietnam, after the murder of so many who fought for civil rights, after the Red scare and after the abusive tactics planned by government today?" he wrote. "I can because we have regretted our mistakes in the past, relearning every time that no ruler can be trusted with arbitrary power. And I believe we will again."
Lewis is survived by his second wife, Margaret Marshall, former chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court; daughters Eliza and Mia, son David and seven grandchildren. Marshall resigned from the court in 2010 to care for Lewis after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
Lewis was a lover of music, the arts, gardening and food, recalled his daughter Mia, who noted that her father loved to make fruit jellies, which won prizes at fairs on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
"Growing up, we all got the sense that the things that he cared about in the world, that he wrote about, he really felt very deeply and cared about tremendously, and he passed that on to us," Mia Lewis said.
(Reporting by Scott Malone in Boston, additional reporting by Joan Biskupic in Washington; Editing by Howard Goller and John Wallace)
QUANTICO, Va. (AP) ? A Marine who shot two of his colleagues to death and then killed himself was a tactics instructor at a school that tests Marines who want to become officers, military officials said Saturday.
Sgt. Eusebio Lopez, 25, gunned down 19-year-old Lance Cpl. Sara Castromata and Cpl. Jacob Wooley, 23, on Thursday night inside barracks at the Marine Corps Base Quantico in northern Virginia. Other than to say the three Marines worked together at the school, military officials have not described their relationship or released a motive for the shooting.
Lopez, of Pacifica, Calif., was a teacher whose specialty was machine gunner. He joined the corps in May 2006 and deployed in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Castromata, of Oakley, Calif., was a warehouse clerk who had been in the Marines since December 2011. Wooley, of Guntown, Miss., was a field radio operator. He joined the Marines in February 2010.
Lopez was an instructor at officer candidates school, known for its grueling 10-week program that evaluates Marines on physical stamina, intelligence and leadership. The candidates must complete obstacle courses, hikes of up to 12 miles in full combat gear and take classes on navigation and tactics that help them in the field, according to the school's website.
Lopez's great-grandfather, also Eusebio Lopez, said the Marines contacted their family on Friday night.
"They told us they were investigating more, and they'd let us know. He wasn't the type to do stuff like that," said Lopez, 81.
By Simon Evans DENVER, Colorado, March 23 (Reuters) - Furious Costa Rica coach Jorge Luis Pinto said it was an "embarassment to football" that Friday's World Cup qualifier with the United States was played in strong snow, while his federation promised to make an official protest. The U.S. won 1-0 but Pinto was riled the game was played on a snowy field with a covering that became deeper as the game wore on. "It was an embarrassment to football, disrespectful to the game," an animated Pinto told reporters. ...
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's foreign ministry said the country was not linked to a group of alleged spies arrested in Saudi Arabia, Iranian media reported on Sunday.
Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday that it had detained an Iranian, a Lebanese, and 16 Saudis for spying. Political analysts and press in Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia have accused Shi'ite Iran of being behind the alleged espionage.
The two countries are locked in a struggle for influence across the region, backing opposing sides in Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. Gulf Arab foreign ministers, meeting in Riyadh last month, issued a statement condemning what they said was Iranian "meddling" in their countries - an accusation Tehran rejects.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, denied that an Iranian national was involved in the alleged spy ring and called the allegations a "repetitive scenario", according to Iran's English-language Press TV on Sunday.
"Raising such baseless issues at the media level is merely for domestic consumption," he said, according to Press TV.
Leaders of Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite minority have also criticized the arrests of 16 members of their community, which they said sought to exploit sectarian tension.
The Saudi government has previously blamed unrest among Shi'ites in the Qatif district of oil-producing Eastern Province on an unnamed foreign power, which officials privately acknowledge means Iran - a charge local Shi'ite activists have denied. Sixteen people have been killed in Qatif in clashes with police in the past two years.
Riyadh also accuses Tehran of having masterminded an alleged plot to assassinate its ambassador in Washington that was announced by U.S. police in late 2011. Iran denies this.
Kuwait said in 2010 it had uncovered an Iranian spy ring, Yemen said last year it had arrested Iranian spies and that Tehran was backing rebels in the north, and Bahrain has accused Iran of plotting attacks on its territory. Tehran has denied all these charges.
(Reporting By Yeganeh Torbati; Additional reporting by Angus McDowall in Riyadh; Editing by Pravin Char)
UT MD Anderson scientists uncover the nuclear life of actinPublic release date: 24-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Scott Merville smerville@mdanderson.org 713-792-0661 University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Protein with key job in muscle function moonlights in nucleus to help regulate genes
HOUSTON -- A key building block of life, actin is one of the most abundant and highly conserved proteins in eukaryotic cells.
First discovered in muscle cells more than 70 years ago, actin has a well-established identity as a cytoplasmic protein that works by linking itself in chains to form filaments. Fibers formed by these actin polymers are crucial to muscle contraction.
So it came as a surprise when scientists discovered actin in the nucleus. Labs have been working for the past few decades to figure out exactly what it's doing there.
A new study published this week in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology reveals that actin has a new and fundamental nuclear function, and that surprisingly, it accomplishes this task in its single-molecule (monomeric) form not through polymerization.
Senior author of the study Xuetong "Snow" Shen, Ph.D., associate professor in The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Department of Molecular Carcinogenesis, has been fascinated by the mystery of nuclear actin. In collaboration with researchers from Colorado State University, his lab developed a unique model system to nail down actin's function in the nucleus by studying the actin-containing INO80 chromatin remodeling complex.
In 2000, as a postdoc at NIH in Carl Wu's lab, Shen identified actin as a component of the INO80 complex, adding to the growing list of evidence that actin indeed has a life in the nucleus. However, how actin actually works in the nucleus remains fuzzy due to lack of clear experimental systems.
"Our model system opened up a new opportunity to look in depth at the function of nuclear actin as it relates to gene regulation, genome stability, and ultimately cancer," Snow said.
A nuclear role for monomeric actin
Because yeast have only a single actin gene, the authors reasoned that studying INO80 in yeast cells would allow a direct assessment of the protein's nuclear function. In contrast, mammals have at least six forms of actin coded by separate genes, making their study more difficult.
The researchers used both genetic and biochemical methods to dissect actin's role in the INO80 complex. The INO80 complex normally functions in the nucleus to rearrange chromatin the intertwined proteins and DNA that are packaged into chromosomes regulating the expression of many different genes.
The authors found that a mutant form of actin impairs the ability of INO80 to function correctly, implicating actin in the process of chromatin remodeling an exploding field of research with applications in cancer diagnosis and treatment.
In the cytoplasm, actin functions primarily as a polymer. Cytoplasmic actin is a component of the cytoskeleton and the muscle contractile machinery, and is essential for cell mobility, including cancer metastasis. Actin inside the INO80 complex is arranged in a clever way such that it cannot polymerize; instead, actin's monomeric form appears to interact with chromatin.
"Our study challenges the dogma that actin functions through polymerization, revealing a novel and likely a fundamental mechanism for monomeric nuclear actin," Shen said.
New findings for an ancient complex
Because actin and several of the other INO80 components are so highly conserved, even in human cells, this mechanism likely represents an ancient, fundamental role of actin, which has been preserved through evolution.
Shen's group is now teasing out the exact mechanism by which nuclear actin interacts with chromatin. They also hope to extend the results to human cells and to identify potential ways by which nuclear actin could be involved in cancer.
Chromatin is critical for maintaining the delicate balance between gene activation and repression, Shen said. "Disrupting this regulation can lead to cancer, and it remains to be seen whether nuclear actin has a role in this process."
###
Lead authors of the study are Prabodh Kapoor, Ph.D., and Mingming Chen, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellows in Shen's lab. Co-authors are Duane David Winkler, Ph.D., and Karolin Luger, Ph.D., of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Colorado State University. Shen, senior author, also is a member of the Center for Cancer Epigenetics at MD Anderson.
The research was funded by grants from the National Cancer Institute (K22CA100017) and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (RO1GM093104), both of the National Institutes of Health, the Center for Cancer Epigenetics, the Theodore N. Law Endowment for Scientific Achievement at MD Anderson and by MD Anderson's Odyssey postdoctoral program to Kapoor
About MD Anderson
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston ranks as one of the world's most respected centers focused on cancer patient care, research, education and prevention. MD Anderson is one of only 40 comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute. For eight of the past 10 years, including 2011, MD Anderson has ranked No. 1 in cancer care in "America's Best Hospitals," a survey published annually in U.S. News & World Report.
Get M. D. Anderson News Via RSS Follow MDAnderson News on Twitter
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
UT MD Anderson scientists uncover the nuclear life of actinPublic release date: 24-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Scott Merville smerville@mdanderson.org 713-792-0661 University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Protein with key job in muscle function moonlights in nucleus to help regulate genes
HOUSTON -- A key building block of life, actin is one of the most abundant and highly conserved proteins in eukaryotic cells.
First discovered in muscle cells more than 70 years ago, actin has a well-established identity as a cytoplasmic protein that works by linking itself in chains to form filaments. Fibers formed by these actin polymers are crucial to muscle contraction.
So it came as a surprise when scientists discovered actin in the nucleus. Labs have been working for the past few decades to figure out exactly what it's doing there.
A new study published this week in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology reveals that actin has a new and fundamental nuclear function, and that surprisingly, it accomplishes this task in its single-molecule (monomeric) form not through polymerization.
Senior author of the study Xuetong "Snow" Shen, Ph.D., associate professor in The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Department of Molecular Carcinogenesis, has been fascinated by the mystery of nuclear actin. In collaboration with researchers from Colorado State University, his lab developed a unique model system to nail down actin's function in the nucleus by studying the actin-containing INO80 chromatin remodeling complex.
In 2000, as a postdoc at NIH in Carl Wu's lab, Shen identified actin as a component of the INO80 complex, adding to the growing list of evidence that actin indeed has a life in the nucleus. However, how actin actually works in the nucleus remains fuzzy due to lack of clear experimental systems.
"Our model system opened up a new opportunity to look in depth at the function of nuclear actin as it relates to gene regulation, genome stability, and ultimately cancer," Snow said.
A nuclear role for monomeric actin
Because yeast have only a single actin gene, the authors reasoned that studying INO80 in yeast cells would allow a direct assessment of the protein's nuclear function. In contrast, mammals have at least six forms of actin coded by separate genes, making their study more difficult.
The researchers used both genetic and biochemical methods to dissect actin's role in the INO80 complex. The INO80 complex normally functions in the nucleus to rearrange chromatin the intertwined proteins and DNA that are packaged into chromosomes regulating the expression of many different genes.
The authors found that a mutant form of actin impairs the ability of INO80 to function correctly, implicating actin in the process of chromatin remodeling an exploding field of research with applications in cancer diagnosis and treatment.
In the cytoplasm, actin functions primarily as a polymer. Cytoplasmic actin is a component of the cytoskeleton and the muscle contractile machinery, and is essential for cell mobility, including cancer metastasis. Actin inside the INO80 complex is arranged in a clever way such that it cannot polymerize; instead, actin's monomeric form appears to interact with chromatin.
"Our study challenges the dogma that actin functions through polymerization, revealing a novel and likely a fundamental mechanism for monomeric nuclear actin," Shen said.
New findings for an ancient complex
Because actin and several of the other INO80 components are so highly conserved, even in human cells, this mechanism likely represents an ancient, fundamental role of actin, which has been preserved through evolution.
Shen's group is now teasing out the exact mechanism by which nuclear actin interacts with chromatin. They also hope to extend the results to human cells and to identify potential ways by which nuclear actin could be involved in cancer.
Chromatin is critical for maintaining the delicate balance between gene activation and repression, Shen said. "Disrupting this regulation can lead to cancer, and it remains to be seen whether nuclear actin has a role in this process."
###
Lead authors of the study are Prabodh Kapoor, Ph.D., and Mingming Chen, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellows in Shen's lab. Co-authors are Duane David Winkler, Ph.D., and Karolin Luger, Ph.D., of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Colorado State University. Shen, senior author, also is a member of the Center for Cancer Epigenetics at MD Anderson.
The research was funded by grants from the National Cancer Institute (K22CA100017) and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (RO1GM093104), both of the National Institutes of Health, the Center for Cancer Epigenetics, the Theodore N. Law Endowment for Scientific Achievement at MD Anderson and by MD Anderson's Odyssey postdoctoral program to Kapoor
About MD Anderson
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston ranks as one of the world's most respected centers focused on cancer patient care, research, education and prevention. MD Anderson is one of only 40 comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute. For eight of the past 10 years, including 2011, MD Anderson has ranked No. 1 in cancer care in "America's Best Hospitals," a survey published annually in U.S. News & World Report.
Get M. D. Anderson News Via RSS Follow MDAnderson News on Twitter
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Being a musician or dancer not only requires the appropriate talent to impress an audience, it requires the necessary look to win people over. It's not enough just to act the part, it is important to look the part as well.
It is very awkward listening to a great performance while thinking why is she wearing that outfit? There is something unusual about watching a heavy metal singer in a football jersey, or a hip hop artist in a suit and tie, or a classical musician wearing a leather coat and chains. All of this affect performances in a negative manner.
It is often not the fault of the performer. A person can't wear the proper clothes or costume if he or she does not know what to wear. Musicians and dancers have spent years searching for outfits only to return home empty handed after a day of travelling to several distant locations.
Now with the invention of the internet, there is a solution to those who require help. An online music store provides thousands of choices regarding clothing and costumes for artists. A simple online search will save many hours of offline travelling, dollars spent if you get very lucky and do find what you're looking for, and the frustration of having to go through the annoying process of endless searches for what you require.
Halloween, holiday, movie, mascot, couples, adult, kid, baby, and jazz costumes are of the many costumes that are available with accessories that include wigs, makeup, masks, mustaches, beards, glasses, and a lot more.
Dancewear includes tap, ballet, gymnastics, modern, classic, and jazz costumes. Other items include bottoms, leotards, shoes, tights, tops, tutus, skirts, unitards, and shoes.
Hip Hop apparel includes jewelry, bracelets, earrings, pendants, watches, rings, necklaces, grillz, sunglasses, wallet chains, belt buckles, cuff links, tees, hats, tags, bags, and much more.
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The fading sign outside the Mobil gas station and convenience store where Zuheily Roman Rosado was murdered the night of Feb. 21. (? FlaglerLive)
There?s a worn and fading sign scotch-taped to the ice dispenser outside the Mobil service station and convenience store on State Road 100, where Zuheily Roman Rosado, a store clerk there, was murdered in an apparent hit on Feb. 21. ?Donations for Zuheily?s Funeral,? the sign reads, the ink bleeding from a few rains since.
School resource deputies and the Flagler County Sheriff?s Office?s Explorers and Junior Police Academy students organized a car wash in early March for Roman?s six children?the youngest is 1, the oldest is 16?at Flagler Palm Coast High School, raising close to $3,000.
Zuheily Roman Rosado
Both fundraisers might not have been as critical had the Mobil station?s workers? compensation policy been in order. According to Florida law, if a fatal accident occurs on the job, the victim?s family is entitled to $7,500 in funeral expenses, and additional death benefits of up to $150,000.
Mohammed Ansari, the owner of the station, did not have workers? compensation coverage at the time of Rosado?s shooting.
?As a result of Ansari not having workers? compensation coverage, there were no death benefits provided Ms. Roman?s family,? charging affidavit filed by the Division of Insurance Fraud on March 12 reads.
That day, Ansari, 51, of Ormond Beach, was charged with Workers? Compensation Fraud, a third-degree felony, and issued a stop work order at the Mobil station.
The work order has since been resolved, according to Deborah Jamison, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Financial Services, which oversees the insurance fraud division. ?The penalty was paid,? Jamison said. ?Now they?re in compliance and able to operate the station.? Jamison said that as far as the work order is concerned, the case is over, but that the financial services division could not comment on whether an investigation was continuing, and whether formal charges are being brought.
The workers? compensation fraud charge, however, was filed at the Flagler County Courthouse and assigned to Circuit Judge J. David Walsh. Ansari himself, reached at his home Friday afternoon, said he was contesting a $1,000 penalty, and was aware of a future hearing, but had not received any notices about it. ?I have to protest that because I have all the papers,? he said.
No hearing date has been set in the case, which is listed as a criminal felony, not an administrative proceeding. Jamison could not explain the discrepancy.
Ansari said there never was fraud. ?Somehow they lost a check in the mail, they didn?t get it,? Ansari said of his insurer. ?It was an honest mistake.? He added that he?d never received notice that the policy was cancelled. ?We have proof that all the checks got cashed except this check.?
Ansari also said that he was not required to have workers? compensation coverage at the time. ?If you have four people on the payroll, you don?t need a worker?s comp,? he said, and in late February, his garage had closed and his payroll was so small that it hadn?t tripped the requirement. The garage has since reopened, he said. (Friday, the convenience store, the garage and the gas station were doing brisk business.)
Rosado, 32, was working the evening shift when, just after 10 p.m. on Feb. 21, a man who?d covered his face with a dark shirt briskly walked into the store, headed for the counter, shot Rosado, and ran out. The case remains unsolved.
The next day, Daniel Pfaff, a state investigator with the Division of Workers? Compensation Compliance, went to the store to investigate Ansari?s workers? compensation coverage and found that Ansari?s policy had been cancelled on Jan. 7 for non-payment of premiums, according to the charging affidavit. Ansari told Pfaff that he?d sent a check to the insurance company on Feb. 15 as payment. The investigator confirmed with the insurer that the policy had been cancelled on Jan. 7, and that there was no other coverage in effect. He then issued the stop work order.
Ansari uses a company called PayChex Insurance Agency for his payroll services and to obtain workers? comp insurance, according to the affidavit. The policy is set up, an insurance agent told the investigator, so that Ansari is responsible for making premium payments, which go directly to AmTrust North America, PayChex?s parent company. The agent confirmed to the investigator that no payment was received on Feb. 15.
Ansari called Paychex on Feb. 25 to reinstate his policy, ?but was referred to the sales department for a new policy due to the length of time since cancellation and to having a history of prior cancellation,? the charging affidavit reads. An underwriting manager said that Ansari?s policy had also been cancelled on Oct. 29, 2012, for non-payment, but was reinstated on Nov. 5, once payment was received.
The agent confirmed to the state investigator that ?based on the facts of the case, there would have been benefits paid out had the policy been in effect,? according to the charging affidavit.
A Flagler County Sheriff?s spokesman Friday said the investigation into the killing of Rosado is continuing, with nothing new to report since February.
Jim Manfre, the sheriff, is the featured speaker at the March 27 meeting of the Flagler County Democratic Club, with a talk entitled ?Gun Legislation, Crime and the Case of Zuheily Roman Rosado.? The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Flagler County Public Library in Palm Coast, and is open to the public.
The Mobil station on State Road 100, near I-95.
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March 23, 2013. (Romereports.com) Spaniard St. Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus in 1548, with the goal of establishing a group of men under the Pope's service to go where they were needed.
As with other religious orders they
take a vow of poverty, chastity and obedience. But the Jesuits add a
fourth, to serve the Pope, whomever it may be.???
Another highlight in their work is their vocation to go to the borders, where the Gospel is not? yet known. For this reason, their missions take them far away places like China. The Jesuit order also runs 231 universities in 69 countries, and a large number of education centers across the globe.
Jesuits must get a civilian degree before getting ordained a priest. They must also take courses in philosophy and theology. In all, they must study for about 12 years before becoming priests.
They currently have 18,000 members, making them the largest Catholic order. Throughout their 600-year history, 51 Jesuits have been declared saints, and there are also dozens on the way to sainthood as well.
WrestleMania is The Grandest Stage of Them All, and thanks to New Jersey Transit, it will also be a convenient experience for members of the WWE Universe who are attending this year?s big event.
NJ Transit has announced it will provide special transit service from New York City and points throughout New Jersey to WrestleMania Week activities, including WrestleMania Axxess, WrestleMania 29 and Monday Night Raw.
Members of the WWE Universe traveling from New York to WrestleMania events can purchase round-trip tickets, in advance, from Penn Station to Meadowlands Sports Complex at a special fare of $10.50 here.
Events at the IZOD Center, including Axxess, will be served by shuttle buses that will depart from Secaucus Junction. MetLife Stadium, the site of The Showcase of the Immortals, will be served by trains from/to Hoboken Terminal and Secaucus Junction, with easy connections from New York and points throughout New Jersey.
For full details on the shuttle bus and rail service being offered during WrestleMania Week, visit the NJ Transit site.
BISMARCK, North Dakota (Reuters) - North Dakota lawmakers on Friday approved a proposed amendment to the state constitution that could make the state the first to define life as beginning at conception, which would effectively outlaw all abortions.
If approved by voters, North Dakota would be the first state in the United States with such a provision in its constitution. Similar measures have been put before voters in several states, including Mississippi, and rejected.
At the same time, the Republican-controlled state House of Representatives also passed more limited measures. The bill would outlaw abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and require doctors who perform abortions to have surgical privileges at local hospitals.
North Dakota, which has a single abortion clinic in Fargo, is one of several Republican-controlled states seeking to impose stringent abortion limits and challenge the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 landmark decision in the case of Roe v. Wade legalizing the procedure.
Under that ruling, women have a right to an abortion until the fetus is able to survive on its own outside the womb.
The U.S. constitution's supremacy clause holds that when state and federal laws conflict, federal law wins. But anti-abortion activists have tried to get "personhood" measures defining life as beginning at fertilization onto the ballots of several states in recent election cycles.
The proposed state constitutional amendment would declare that a fertilized human egg is a legal person. Critics of the measure, including Planned Parenthood and many other pro-choice groups, say it would effectively redefine abortion and some forms of birth control as murder.
The measure, dubbed the "personhood" amendment, would not take effect unless voters approved it in the 2014 general election.
"If we can determine that a seed is the definition of a plant, then we can certainly decide that an embryo is a human," said Republican representative Dan Ruby, a supporter of the proposed state constitutional amendment.
Sarah Stoesz, the head of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, called Friday's votes "a shameful day in North Dakota" and predicted they would force the state into "a series of expensive and needless (court) battles."
Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, called Friday's action "a wake-up call for the country."
The new requirements for abortion providers and the proposed personhood passed by the House Friday had already cleared the Senate. They join two other anti-abortion measures already on Republican Governor Jack Dalrymple's desk, including one that would ban the procedure in most cases once a fetal heartbeat can be detected -- as early as six weeks into pregnancy.
The measure banning abortions after 20 weeks that was passed by the House on Friday was also approved by the Senate. But House lawmakers changed the language of the bill and the Senate will have to approve it again before it can go to the governor.
Dalrymple has not indicated whether he will sign any of the measures into law.
Several states ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Arkansas lawmakers earlier in March approved a ban on most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy that could take effect in August if it survives expected legal challenges.
The proposal passed by the North Dakota legislature that would ban abortions in most cases after a fetal heartbeat is detected would be the most restrictive in the nation.
Statehouses across the nation approved a record 92 restrictions on abortion in 2011 and another 43 in 2012, which was the second-highest figure on record, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
The North Dakota House did reject a bill on Friday that would have opened up doctors who perform abortions to possible murder charges. That measure failed 49 to 43.
(Reporting by Dave Thompson in Bismarck, North Dakota; Writing by James B. Kelleher; Editing by Greg McCune and Diane Craft)
When I started writing situation comedies for television, "The Dick Van Dyke Show" had just finished its run. It was too late to have a shot to write for the gold standard, but the right time to work with practically everyone who had been associated with the show as they moved on to new projects.
Bill Persky and Sam Denoff, co-creators and producers of "Dick Van Dyke," had created "That Girl" for Marlo Thomas. Jerry Paris, who played next-door neighbor Jerry on DVD, as well as directing many episodes, was now directing "Hey, Landlord," created by Garry Marshall and Jerry Belson, writers for "Dick Van Dyke." Garry was my first mentor, and it was he who introduced me to my writing partner, Ed Scharlach, also fresh out of college.
Ed and I were "the kids" among writing teams who were, on average, 10 years older, and we spent our 20s being discovered by a series of some of the best talents in our strange but wonderful business. In our freshman year, we worked non-stop, producing 12 half-hour scripts in the "classroom" at the Desilu-Cahuenga lot, which is now part of Paramount. Just to walk on the same sets as Lucy! I wondered if I was using the same bathroom as she had -- a privilege denied to Ed.
Garry had educated us on the basics: don't worry about the camera. Just say "Fade In" at the beginning and "Fade Out" at the end. Still, Ed and I, both English majors, would spend hours arguing over the punctuation of set descriptions, when we really both knew that "FADE IN (double space) ANNE MARIE'S APARTMENT was all that was needed. We never remembered who had written what line in a script, but we always knew who had left a participle dangling. And we agonized over the titles of our episodes, which the audience would never see. Most were very bad puns.
"That Girl" was shot like a movie, with one camera taking many angles of the same scene, then moving on to another, which was not always in sequence. We were welcomed onto the set, but we were bystanders -- and often bored bystanders with the time it took to reset after every shot.
"Hey Landlord" was another matter. "Dick Van Dyke" had been shot with three cameras, each taking a different angle as the story played out in sequence before a live audience, and Garry and Jerry (known as "the boys" as opposed to Ed and I, "the kids"), along with Jerry Paris, preferred this technique. There was a high school atmosphere around the set, with Will Hutchins and Sandy Barron, the stars, joining in. Jerry was a madman as a director, creating impossible sequences to film live, with slamming doors requiring perfect timing and block comedy scenes out of the Marx Brothers. I loved taking a date to the tapings and being introduced. It kind of gave me an edge with the hotshot young lawyers I was dating -- and it also proved that I wasn't dreaming.
The most memorable moment that first year was being summoned for a meeting with "God" -- Carl Reiner, who had created "Dick Van Dyke," and who also played the TV star Alan Brady, and was responsible, along with Danny Thomas and Sheldon Leonard, for so much that was going on at the Desilu lot, including "Make Room For Daddy" and "Gomer Pyle." The "Dick Van Dyke School of Writing" was, in essence, the Carl Reiner School of Writing. He often looked at scripts and writers dreaded the notation "RR", which stood for "rotten riting" on their scripts. Carl's first principle of TV comedy was the "Hey, May."
"There's this guy," he said:
He's had a long day at work, and he's come home to a nice dinner cooked by his wife. Now she's in the kitchen washing up, and he's gone into the living room and turned on the TV. He doesn't know what to watch, so changes channels a couple of times, then stops. And then he hollers out, 'Hey May, you gotta come in here and watch this!' You have to grab them in the first two minutes.
Other writers, not of the "Dick Van Dyke" School, called this "the teaser," but it will be forever "Hey, May" to Ed and me. By the end of our first season, we intuitively knew how long the teaser and each of two acts and the tag should be. But we always sweated the Hey May -- particularly for "That Girl." Persky and Denoff had set up the premise that every teaser/heymay had to end with the words, "that girl." After five seasons, we had gone through so many convolutions to arrive at those two words that we were all jumping the shark. But that was "Happy Days" -- another show from the "Dick Van Dyke School of Comedy."
There was a lag between writing and air date. It was months before our first show was on television, an episode of "That Girl" we titled "I'll Be Suing You" (some of our other puns were a lot worse). Ed's mother and stepfather gave us a party to watch the show. This was not your ordinary party: Harry Crane was a legend among comedy writers. He had not only created "The Honeymooners" for Jackie Gleason, but also wrote Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin's nightclub acts. He was known for his one-liners. The guest list included Persky and Denoff, Marlo and her parents, Danny and RoseMarie,and Garry and Jerry. Also there were Harry and Ed's mother, Lillian's, friends, including Sid Caesar -- on a pedestal along with Carl Reiner, his sidekick on "Your Show of Shows," as well as Milton Berle, who was smoking the biggest, wettest cigar I had ever seen, which he placed, smoldering, on the arm of a white couch as the show commenced.
I don't remember anything else about that night, as I sat there, mesmerized, watching the cigar slowly eat its way into the sofa. But Ed had a clearer head: above my desk is the frame on the screen he shot with an instamatic: our first credit, "Written by Peggy Elliott and Ed Scharlach."
Earlier on Huff/Post50:
Orson Welles with Persky
This photo features Bill Persky on the right, Orson Welles in the middle and Persky's long-time collaborator Sam Denoff on the left.
Mary Tyler Moore with Persky
Bill Persky is on the left, alongside Mary Tyler Moore, long-time collaborator Sam Denoff and Carl Reiner.
The Gunslingers
The photo features Sam Denoff on the left and Bill Persky on the right.
Jack Benny with Bill Persky
Bill Persky with comedian Jack Benny.
Steve Allen with Denoff and Persky
Sam Denoff, comedian Steve Allen and Bill Persky. Correction: A previous version of this slide misidentified Steve Allen as Jack Benny.
The first -- and still, the only -- 4G network in the U.K. is now available to half the U.K.'s homes and businesses. Carrier EE said today it has switched on the network in 13 more towns and cities to hit the 50% population coverage mark five months after the network went live. The company has previously said its network rollout would reach 55% of the population by June.
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Public release date: 24-Mar-2013
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March 23, 2013. (Romereports.com) Spaniard St. Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus in 1548, with the goal of establishing a group of men under the Pope's service to go where they were needed.