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Book Haul~New Stash and Recently Received
Here's a new crop of books that have come in recently from publishers, and a couple that I've ordered for myself. Things have slowed down with the publishers since I took a hiatus with my illness, but now that I'm back reviewing...are picking up again. I'm delighted to be back and able to read again.
There's a mixed bag here as you'll see.
One I just ordered that came in this week! I may have already told you about it, but it bears telling again. It's fantastic. Published by Orbit. Here's a summary:
The Girl With All the Gifts is a groundbreaking thriller, emotionally charged and gripping from beginning to end.
Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class.
When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.
Melanie is a very special girl.
A new book ( #2 ) in the Flavia Albia series! Thanks to St. Martin's Press.
"There are rules for private informers accepting a new case. Never take on clients who cannot pay you. Never do favours for friends. Don’t work with relatives. If, like me, you are a woman, keep clear of men you find attractive.
“Will I never learn?”
In Ancient Rome, the number of slaves was far greater than that of free citizens. As a result, often the people Romans feared most were the “enemies at home,” the slaves under their own roofs. Because of this, Roman law decreed that if the head of a household was murdered at home, and the culprit wasn’t quickly discovered, his slaves—all of them, guilty or not—were presumed responsible and were put to death. Without exception.
When a couple is found dead in their own bedroom and their house burglarized, some of their household slaves know what is about to happen to them. They flee to the Temple of Ceres, which by tradition is respected as a haven for refugees. This is where Flavia Albia comes in. The authorities, under pressure from all sides, need a solution. Albia, a private informer just like her father, Marcus Didius Falco, is asked to solve the murders, in this mystery from Lindsey Davis.
Another Elin Hilderbrand...I love her stories, as I've said. This is one I just bought at Target on a whim. Don't you love the cover? It's published by Little, Brown & Co.
A summer wedding stirs up trouble on both sides of the family in the newest bestseller from "the queen of the summer novel" (People)
The Carmichaels and the Grahams have gathered on Nantucket for a happy occasion: a wedding that will unite their two families. Plans are being made according to the wishes of the bride's late mother, who left behind The Notebook: specific instructions for every detail of her youngest daughter's future nuptials. Everything should be falling into place for the beautiful event -- but in reality, things are falling apart.
While the couple-to-be are quite happy, their loved ones find their lives crumbling. In the days leading up to the wedding, love will be questioned, scandals will arise, and hearts will be broken and healed. Elin Hilderbrand takes readers on a touching journey in BEAUTIFUL DAY -- into the heart of marriage, what it means to be faithful, and how we choose to honor our commitments.
This is an unusual memoir sent to me by Skyhorse Publishing. It harkens back to the times when the Soviet Union was closed and at its worst where human rights was concerned. I'm interested to give it a try...
There is always some part of the world where human rights are trampled and oppression quashes the human spirit. In the 1980s, it was the Soviet Union. In Swimming in the Daylight, Lisa Paul, a Catholic-American student living in Moscow in the early ’80s, details how she grew to understand the perverse reality of the pre-Gorbachev Soviet regime as her friendship with her Russian-language tutor, Inna Kitrosskaya Meiman, blossomed. Inna, a Soviet-Jewish dissident and refusenik, was repeatedly denied a visa to receive life-saving cancer treatment abroad. The refusal was an apparent punishment imposed on both her and her Jewish husband, Naum, for his participation in the Moscow Helsinki Watch Group—the lone group fighting for human rights in the U.S.S.R.
Before Lisa returned to the United States, she promised Inna she would do all she could to get her out of Moscow. But Lisa was one person, what could she possibly do that would make a difference? Inspired by her faith and rights as an American, Lisa staged a hunger strike, held press conferences, and galvanized American politicians to demand Inna’s immediate release.
In this heartfelt, compassionate, and inspiring narrative, Lisa brings the reader along with her as she learns indelible lessons from her heroic teacher. Inna’s greatest lesson—that it is possible to swim through treacherous waters, in daylight, not in despair—is as relevant today as it was during the final years of the Soviet regime. At a time when international strife seems insurmountable and worries at home seem to paralyze, this story will teach people everywhere that it is the courage inside, not the chaos outside, that defines us.
Louise Penny is a new author for me. I've listened to one of her books on tape and enjoyed it, and look forward to an actual read. I know she has a tremendous group of followers. This was sent very nicely by St. Martin's Press.
Happily retired in the village of Three Pines, Armand Gamache, former Chief Inspector of Homicide with the Sûreté du Québec, has found a peace he’d only imagined possible. On warm summer mornings he sits on a bench holding a small book, The Balm in Gilead, in his large hands. “There is a balm in Gilead,” his neighbor Clara Morrow reads from the dust jacket, “to make the wounded whole.”
While Gamache doesn’t talk about his wounds and his balm, Clara tells him about hers. Peter, her artist husband, has failed to come home. Failed to show up as promised on the first anniversary of their separation. She wants Gamache’s help to find him. Having finally found sanctuary, Gamache feels a near revulsion at the thought of leaving Three Pines. “There’s power enough in Heaven,” he finishes the quote as he contemplates the quiet village, “to cure a sin-sick soul.” And then he gets up. And joins her.
Together with his former second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, and Myrna Landers, they journey deeper and deeper into Québec. And deeper and deeper into the soul of Peter Morrow. A man so desperate to recapture his fame as an artist, he would sell that soul. And may have. The journey takes them further and further from Three Pines, to the very mouth of the great St. Lawrence river. To an area so desolate, so damned, the first mariners called it The land God gave to Cain. And there they discover the terrible damage done by a sin-sick soul.
Very kindly sent to me by Kensington Press, this is of course a historical fiction about Jack the Ripper and his wife. Brandy Purdy is known for her fiction having to do with kings and queens of England. I look forward to reading this new approach of hers!
I am so looking forward to starting this one sent by Tom Doherty Associates. It looks awesome. I love this type of thriller. Read the summary below:
The Ark Storm is coming—a catastrophic weather event that will unleash massive floods and wreak more damage on California than the feared “Big One.” One man wants to profit from it. Another wants to harness it to wage jihad on American soil. One woman stands in their way: Dr. Gwen Boudain, a brave and brilliant meteorologist.
When Boudain notices that her climate readings are off the charts, she turns to Gabriel Messenger for research funding. Messenger’s company is working on a program that ionizes water molecules to bring rain on command. Meanwhile, Wall Street suits notice that someone is placing six-month bets on the prospect of an utter apocalypse and begin to investigate. Standing in the shadows is journalist Dan Jacobsen, a former Navy SEAL. War hardened, cynical, and handsome, Jacobsen is a man with his own hidden agenda.
Linda Davies's Ark Storm brings together the worlds of finance, scientific innovation, and terrorism in a fast-paced thrill ride that will leave readers gasping.
A techno thriller sent kindly by Tom Doherty Associates, as well. This one sounds like it could be a modern-day happening! It's a follow up to another book, but, hopefully easy to catch up on.
A trip to an island off the New England coast—and away from the demands of police work—might be just what is needed to jumpstart Detective Doyle Carrick and Nola Watkins’ stalled relationship. But a mysterious plague is killing the island’s bees. Nola takes a job at an organic farm hit hard by the disease, working for the rich, handsome, and annoying Teddy, with whom she quickly becomes a little too friendly for Doyle’s liking. When Teddy’s estranged father offers Doyle a big payday to keep his son out of trouble until he can close a big government contract—and when Doyle meets Annalisa, a beautiful researcher studying the bees—Doyle decides to stick around.
Stoma Corporation, a giant biotech company, moves in with genetically modified super bees that supposedly are the answer to the world’s bee crisis. As tension grows between protestors and a private army of thugs, Doyle realizes that bees aren’t the only thing being modified. Annalisa’s coworkers start to go missing, and she and Doyle uncover a dark, deadly, and terrifying secret. Things spin violently out of control on the tiny island, and when Doyle closes in on what Stoma Corporation is really up to, he must race to stop them before their plot succeeds, and spreads to the mainland and the world.
Deadout is thrilling follow-up to McGoran’s highly acclaimed novel, Drift.
A mystery and crime novel also generously sent by Tom Doherty Associates. This one is a Sonya Iverson series book. Has been compared to Barbara Taylor Bradford in its storyline.
Elsa Klensch, host of the groundbreaking CNN news magazine, Style with Elsa Klensch, is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Style with Elsa Klensch. When she retired from television, Elsa took with her many secrets, stories she'd never been able to tell...until now in The Third Sin.
Television producer Sonya Iverson has a habit of stumbling over dead bodies. Wade Bruckheimer decides to sell a fabulous diamond that once belonged to his late mother. He needs money, and selling the Braganza seems the best way of getting it. His stepmother, Irina, is furious—that diamond is her ticket to every A-list party in New York. A few days before the sale, Wade is found dead in his luxurious apartment.
Sonya was already working on a story about the diamond and immediately begins to cover the murder, to the dismay of her boyfriend, who fears that Sonya is putting herself in danger. Irina Bruckheimer is the first, but not the last, suspect. Esperanza’s family want the Braganza back. There are long-standing rumors that Wade’s high-maintenance wife is having an affair. Only Sonya, with her outsider’s viewpoint, can sort through Wade Bruckheimer’s life and find his killer.
Beautiful cover...this one is an ancient Ireland mystery which is Peter Tremayne's forte'. I love this time period and a good mystery. This one should be a fun read. Many thanks to St. Martin's Press for thinking of me with this one.
Winter, 670 AD. King Colgú has invited the leading nobles and chieftains of his kingdom to a feast day. Fidelma and her companion Eadulf are finally home for an extended stay, and have promised their son, Alchú, that they’ll be able to spend some time together after months of being on the road, investigating crimes. Fidelma and Eadulf are enjoying the feast when it is interrupted by the entrance of a religieux, who claims he has an important message for the King. He approaches the throne and shouts ‘Remember Liamuin!’ and then stabs King Colgú. The assassin is slain, but does enough damage to take out Colgú’s bodyguard, and to put the king himself on the verge of death.
As King Colgú lies in recovery, Fidelma, Eadulf, and bodyguard Gormán are tasked with discovering who is behind the assassination attempt, and who Liamuin is. They must journey into the territory of their arch-enemies, the Uí Fidgente, to uncover the secrets in the Abbey of Mungairit, and then venture into the threatening mountain territory ruled by a godless tyrant. Danger and violence are their constant companions until the final devastating revelation.
Atonement of Blood is a mystery of Ancient Ireland from Peter Tremayne.
On another note:
I'm reading "Outlander," "Me Before You," and "A Game of Thrones" presently. Also have started "The Girl with all the Gifts," which I've said is excellent!
Hope you are enjoying your new reads. Check back with me soon...
Labels: Book Haul 8 2014, historical fiction, mystery and suspense, St. Martin's Press, techno thriller, thrillers
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my art search contacts
(REVIEWS)
Incomprehensible are the relations between a man and a woman as earthly and celestial elements. Sun and Month, hard and pliable, as contrary and yet undivided sexes; taken together they make the basic theme of artworks of Kateryna Gutnikova.
Incomprehensible are the relations between a man and a woman as earthly and celestial elements. Sun and Month, hard and pliable, as contrary and yet undivided sexes; taken together they make the basic theme of artworks of Kateryna Gutnikova. Her artistic discourse is about problems of conscious and unconscious, about dramatic, agonizingly fine and bitter, and sometimes hateful connections between the worlds of a Woman and a Man, real and unreal in human life and senses. She embodies her meditations in artistically elegant compositions, the essence of which at first she puts through history and fiction, like through the lens, through the prism of aesthetics, play and carnival. In the meantime the artist makes skillful use of a guise, mask, persona in its antique understanding as a part of a person, which was shown to the external world, expressing and, simultaneously, hiding an authentic self, character, soul. The environment of her personages is made of histrionics, decorative poses and figures.
The works of Kateryna Gutnikova create a stage, where in oblivion some inspired performance. Splendid and wonderful attire stimulates thrust and relaxedness.
It is in flowers, grapes, fairy-tale melodies and, which is the most important, in love -headache you make it head off today... Today the author stages mostly one-theme performances, however under different names and aspects.
These complicated and rich compositions are inventively balanced, full of whimsical meanings and real life plots. Besides, there are landscape motifs and allegoric symbols. The Nature, flora and fauna from its entrails and are ready to flaw beyond the bounds of the drawing. The idea of a carnival, as a recreation of the essence of life with the help of figurative art means, is regularly actualized in the history of the world culture. In her works the moody and plotline carnival peripeteias become an important matter for philosophical reflection, psychological research and self-knowledge. Through her works, she strives to understand to major secrets: love and art. Perhaps, her quest is not in vain, as far as it brings forth one more secret: creative work of a young artist. Her creative manner is typical of the postmodern artist: reinterpretation of the age-old myths according to one's own painful questions. Private problems of the artist appear to be the problems of womankind, and mankind as a whole.
You can put her works on a par with palimpsests; only, to be precise, they do not block each other, but prop up. When you ponder over these artworks you come to understand that it isn't that easy to find the way out of the labyrinth of these themes, reminiscences, meanings and discoveries. This is the prime example of intellectual poetry created by means of graphic arts.
Olesia Avramenko, Candidate of Art Criticism.
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SciencePG Frontiers
Volume 3, Issue 1, January 2015, Pages: 1-10
Simulation of Digital Optical Receiver of Intensity Modulation and Direct Detection
Manuel Vítor Martingo Coelho
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Higher Technical Institute, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
To cite this article:
Manuel Vítor Martingo Coelho. Simulation of Digital Optical Receiver of Intensity Modulation and Direct Detection. Communications. Vol. 3, No. 1, 2015, pp. 1-10. doi: 10.11648/j.com.20150301.11
Abstract: This article presents the implementation of an interactive software that integrates various functional blocks of an optical receiver of intensity modulation and direct detection (IM-DD), with OOK (on-off keying) digital modulation and NRZ (non-return-to-zero) pulse format. The software allows for the isolated simulation of each block, as well as the complete simulation of the whole system. We underline the following results presented by the simulator: theeye diagram, the probability density functions of the samples, Bode diagram, bandwidth, transimpedance gain, signal-to-noise ratio, power of the different noise sources and the bit error probability of the simulated system.
Keywords: Interactive Simulator, Optical Receiver, Optical Amplifier, Photodetector, Electrical Preamplifier, IM-DD
Abstract Keywords 1. Introduction 2. Simulator 2.1. Developing the Simulator 2.2. Operating the Simulator 3. Optical Preamplification 3.1. Optical Amplifier 3.2. Optical Amplifier – EDFA 3.3. Optical Filter 3.4. EDFA Preamplifier and Optical Filter Simulation 4. Photodetector 4.1. PIN Photodiode 4.2. Avalanche Photodiode (APD) 4.3. Photo Detection Noise without Optical Preamplification 4.4. Photo Detection Noise with Optical Preamplification 4.5. Photodetector Simulation 5. Electrical Preamplifier 5.1. Voltage Preamplifier 5.2. High Impedance Preamplifier 5.3. Transimpedance Preamplifier 5.4. Simulation of the Electrical Preamplifier 6. Complete Optical Receiver 6.1. Bit Error Probability 6.2. Optical Receiver Simulation 7. Final Conclusions, Perspectives of Future Work and Original Contributions 7.1. Final Conclusions 7.2. Perspectives of Future Work 7.3. Original Contributions Acknowledgements References
The first optical fibre commercial transmission systems were deployed at the end of the seventies [1] and have gone through an exponential evolution up to the present. The reasons behind the enormous success of optic fibre transmission have to do with the following [2]-[5]: large bandwidth, immunity to electromagnetic interference, reduced attenuation, low cost, reduced dimensions and greater reliability.
The optical receivers can be based on direct detection orcoherent detection.
In direct detection, the photodetector of the optical receiver generates a current that is proportional to the optical power that falls on it, in which case the information, which can be either analogue or digital, is encoded into the signal intensity. When it comes to digital transmission, the modulation that is used more frequently is OOK, where, ideally, the "0" bit corresponds to the absence of light and the "1" bit corresponds to the presence of light. In this case the pulses, in the NRZ form (non-return-to-zero – thepulse occupies the whole period of the bit) orRZ form (return-to-zero – the pulse only occupies a fraction of the bit period)must be, imperatively, unipolar. The NRZ pulses are used more often because they need a lesser electrical bandwidth from the receiver. However, in the case of non-linear propagation of solitons in the optic fibre, the pulses cannot have the NRZ form due to the width characteristics of the soliton type pulse. In this case RZ encoding is used where the light pulses do not occupy more than 20% to 25% of the bit period[6].
In coherent detection, information arrives at the optic receiver modulated on a carrier wave by "ASK" (Amplitude-Shift Keying), "FSK" (Frequency-Shift Keying) or "PSK" (Phase-Shift Keying). The coherent detection can also be heterodyne or homodyne. In both cases the receiver needs a local optical oscillator (laser diode), where the output is adequately "mixed" with the received optical signal so as to obtain the information contained in the optical carrier.
Although good results have been obtained through coherent detection, direct detection is used more widely due to its simplicity. The option for direct detection was further promoted by the emergence of optical amplifiers, which bridged some of the weaknesses of this type of detection [7].
Although there are presently simulators for optical communications systems, as are the case of the Optiwave, VPIphotonics simulators and also the OptSim simulator from Rsoft, the development of new, easily accessible tools which are focused on certain more specific aspects of the study are, always, an added value to education, research and development in this area.
2. Simulator
2.1. Developing the Simulator
The simulator was developed in four distinct phases: Analysis, Design, Implementation and Testing. The simulator was developed in Matlab language, also known as M-code, since it is a simple and very popular language in the education andresearch areas.
The simulator can be run on computers with different operating systems (Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac). To this effect, all you have to do is to launch the installation file "MCR" (Matlab Compiler Runtime). After the installation the computer does not need any version of Matlab to run the simulator.
2.2. Operating the Simulator
The program starts with a Welcome window (Fig. 2.1) representing the simulator’s main menu.
Figure 2.1. Simulator Main Menu.
There are five buttons available on this menu, which are numbered 1 to 5 in Fig. 2.1,for easy reference:
• Button 1 → Change of version (in this case, to the Portuguese version);
• Button 2 → Isolated simulation of the EDFA preamplifier with optic filter;
• Button 3 → Isolated simulation of the photodetector;
• Button 4 → Isolated simulation of the electrical preamplifier and the equalizer;
• Button 4 → Complete simulation of the optical receiver.
When the user presses any of the buttons (with the exception of the change of version button) a new window opens where the requested simulation can be run.
The windows of the different simulations will be displayed during the course of this article.
3. Optical Preamplification
3.1. Optical Amplifier
The two main types of optical amplifiers are: semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) and doped-optical fibre amplifiers (DFA) [8].
The semiconductor optical amplifiers operate identically to the semiconductor lasers and present worse amplification characteristics than the doped-optical fibre amplifiers.
The doped-optical fibre amplifiers are obtained by doping an optic fibre with chemical elements belonging to the "rare earth" group. The optical amplifier most used in recent years is the EDFA (Erbium Doped Fibre Amplifier) due to the simplicity of its manufacture, its easy coupling to the fibre and also due to the fact that its amplification spectrum coincides with the minimum of attenuation of the optic fibres, which corresponds to "1550 nm" [16]. The EDFA uses erbium in its ionic form (Er+3) to dope the fibre.
3.2. Optical Amplifier – EDFA
The EDFA amplifier consists of a section of silica fibre with a nominal length ranging from 10 m to 30 m, doped with erbium ions (e.g. 1000 ppm). The doped fibre is pumped through a laser pump with a wavelength of 980 nm or 1 480 nm.
3.2.1. EDFA Gain
According to ITU (International Telecommunications Union), 35 nm [9](from 1 530 nm to 1 565 nm) is considered to be a useful band of amplification of the EDFA. On the other hand, with the increase in power of the input signal, the EDFA gain diminishes. This effect is called gain saturation, and it occurs when the population inversion is significantly reduced due to the high number of photons of the input signal. So therefore, the EDFA gain may be expressed through the conservation of energy principle[8]:
where "G0" represents the optical gain of the amplifier,"λp" is the wavelength of the laser pump, "λs" is the wavelength of the signal, "Pp,in" the maximum power of the laser pump and "Ps,in" is the power of the EDFA input signal.
3.2.2. EDFA Noise
During the EDFA amplification process, the amplified spontaneous emission(ASE) takes place and some photons are transmitted when the carriers pass spontaneously to their fundamental level. These photons appear as noise at the amplifier output.
Since there are two polarisation modes in the optic fibre and admitting that the noise power distributes itself equally in the two modes, the total noise power is given by [2]:
where "PEAA" is the noise power for each polarisation mode, "SASE" represents the spectral density of the noise power, "B0" is the optical bandwidth, "nsp" is the spontaneous emission factor, "G0" is the amplifier optical gain, "h" is the Planck constant and "v"the frequency.
The noise introduced by the optical amplifier is usually specified through the "F0" noise factor parameter [8]:
When the gain of the optical amplifier is high, the expression (3.3) can still be simplified into:
Replacing the expression (3.4) in (3.2) we obtain:
The optical signal-to-noise ratioat the output of the optical amplifier can be defined by:
where "OSNR" represents the optical signal-to-noise ratio. Bearing in mind that "Ps,out=G0Ps,in" and replacing the expression (3.5) in (3.6), we finally obtain:
3.3. Optical Filter
As a form of reducing the power of the optical noise inserted by the optical amplifier, in the optical preamplifier, an optical filteris normally used an optical filter between the amplifier and the photodetector.The optical filter reduces the optical bandwidth and, consequently, reduces the power of the optical noise.
The power transfer function of the optical filter is designated as transmittance. In the case of the simple cavity Fabry-Perot filter, the transmittance "TFP(f)", is given by [10]:
where"R" represents the mirror reflectivity and "FSR" thefree spectral range which corresponds to the optical spectrum that exists between a given wavelength and its multiple. The transfer function of the optical filter is a periodical function in frequency, with a period equal to the free spectral range.
3.4. EDFA Preamplifier and Optical Filter Simulation
The individual simulation of the optical preamplifier (Fig. 3.1), represented by an EDFA and an optical filter, allows the signal at the input, the connector used, the intrinsic parameters of the EDFA and the optical filter to be scaled.
The variable parameters of the incident optical signal and connector are formed by the average optical power that reaches the connector, the path penalty, the wavelength, the bit rate, theextinction ratioand the optical connector losses.The value of the extinction ratio "r" corresponds to the ratio between the optical power of the logical level "0" and the optical power of the logical level "1":
Since it is considered that in OOK digital modulation "Po,0<Po,1", then the extinction ratiovaries between "0<r<1".
Figure 3.1. Simulation of the EDFA preamplifier with optical filter.
It must be stressed that, in this simulation, the wavelength is limited to the third window or C band (between "1530nm" and "1565nm"), due to the limitations of the EDFA amplifier.
With relation to the EDFA and the optical filter, the individual simulator allows the scaling of the following parameters: gain, noise figure,optical filter bandwidth, power of the laser pump and the wavelength used in pumping.
In the results that are presented, the simulator uses the expressions above to process the variable parameters. The simulator presents graphically the results of the NRZ optical signal at the optical amplifier input (according to the defined parameters), as well as the signal power and noise power at the optical filter output. Values resulting from the optical signal-to-noise ratio, average signal power, logical level "1" power and the logical level "0" powerand amplified spontaneous emission factorpower brought in by the EDFA are shown.
4. Photodetector
The photodetector is the element of the optical receiver that is responsible for converting the signal from the optical domain to the electrical domain, by means of the photo-electrical effect. Notwithstanding the diversity of photodetectors that exist, the PIN (Positive-intrinsic-Negative) and APD (Avalanche Photodiode) photodiodes are used, almost exclusively, in optical communications. These present improved characteristics, due to their reduced size, high sensitivity, fast response in time and low cost.
4.1. PIN Photodiode
The PIN photodiode consists in a junction of "p-n" materials, separated by an intrinsic material.
Ideally, the PIN photodiode originates a pair of electron-hole for each incident photon. However, in truth, not all incident photons in the semiconductor material are absorbed and, as a consequence, cannot generate electron-hole pairs. The opto-electrical conversionefficiency is called quantum efficiency, "η", and may be obtained by the following expression [8]:
where "ip" is the electric current at the PIN photodiode output, "q" is the electric charge of an electron, "pi" is the optical power of the incident signal in the photodetector and "hv" is the energy of each photon. The quantum efficiencydepends on the wavelength of the incident optic signal, as well as the type of material used in manufacturing the photodetector.
Another usual and very useful value that characterises the photodiode is its responsivity, "R0", which translates the relationship between the generated current and the incident power in the PIN photodiode [11]:
By replacing the expression (4.1) in (4.2), we obtain the relationship betweenquantum efficiencyand responsivity:
By analysing the expression (4.3) we can observe that the responsivityincreases with the wavelength, since there are more photons for the same incident optical power. However, from the critical wavelength "λc" on, the quantum efficiencyand the responsivitylowers to zero, since the material stops absorbing the incident optical power.
4.2. Avalanche Photodiode (APD)
The APD is a photodiode with the capacitance to internally amplify the current generated during the photodetection process. The APD differs from the PIN photodiode due to the high polarisation voltages and the addition of one more type "p" layer in its structure. The APD operation is based on the ionisation by impact. The signal current at the APD output, "iAPD", is amplified by an "M" factor (avalanche gain) with relation to the primary current "ip" (current which corresponds to the primary carriers):
The designation APDresponsivity, "RAPD", appears frequently in the manufacturers’ catalogues, corresponding to the ratio between the current at the APD output and the incident optical power in the same. The ratio between APDresponsivity and responsivity for the primary current "R0" is given by:
4.3. Photo Detection Noise without Optical Preamplification
4.3.1. Quantum Noise
The generated photocurrent presents a random component "iq(t)", called quantum noise (also known as shot noise). Normally, in order to analyse the performance of an optical receiver we approach the quantum noise distribution with a Gaussian distribution with a zero mean value[11].
The photodiodes also generate a small current called dark current, which has its origin in the generation of electron-hole pairs through thermal effect. The contribution of this current may be included in the quantum noiseof the photodiode. Therefore the current variance of the quantum noise, "σq2", which corresponds to the mean-square value of the respective current, "˂iq2˃", at the photodetector output is given by [11]:
where "q" is the electron charge, "ip" is the primary current at the photodetector output, "Id" is the dark current of the photodiode, "Be,n" is the equivalent noise bandwidth of the electrical part of the optical receiver (obtained from the transfer function of the circuit) and, finally, "F(M)" is the excess noise factor of the APD, which can be obtained from [13], [8], [3]:
where "k" is an adimensional parameter for the different types of semi-conductor materials, which represents the ratio between ionisationby impactcoefficients of the electrons and the holes, or vice-versa, so that "0<k<1"; on the other hand, "x" represents a parameter that is characteristic of the type of the photodiode material which is obtained from experimental results.
The expression (4.6) for calculating the APDquantum noise can be customised for the PIN photodiode, as long as "M=1" is considered.
Bearing in mind the expression (4.2) and replacing it in the expression (4.6), we obtain the current variance of quantum noise in function of the incident optical power on the "pi" photodetector:
4.3.2. Circuit Noise
The circuit noise comes from the resistive and active elements that are present in the optical receiver. For the isolated simulation of the photodetector we consider a circuit composed only by the photodiode and by a load resistor, "Rb", as we can see in Figure 4.1.
Figure 4.1. Polarisation circuit of the photodiode.
In this case, the circuit noise originates only from the thermal noise of the resistor, "Rb" (also referred, as Jonhson or Nyquist noise). Therefore, the current variance of the circuit noise of Fig. 4.1, "σc2", which corresponds to the mean-square value of the circuit noise current, "˂ic2˃", is given by [14]:
where "kB" is the Boltzmann constant and "T" the absolute temperature (Kelvin).
4.4. Photo Detection Noise with Optical Preamplification
The photodetection of a signal with optical preamplification is carried out through a photodiode without internal gain of the PIN type. When the optical signal is amplified before it is detected, it reaches the photodetector, already corrupted by the amplified spontaneous emission noise (ASE) that was introduced by the optical amplifier. During photodetection the ASE optical noisepower is converted into the electrical domain in parallel with the signal optical power. As a consequence, new forms of noise appear: signal-ASE beat andASE-ASE beat. Although the circuit noise remains constant, the variance of the quantum noise current is now calculates from [13]:
where "2PASE" is the total ASE noise given by the expression (3.5), which also contributes to the quantum noise.
On the other hand, the variances of thesignal-ASE beat noise "σ2s-ASE", andASE-ASE beat noise, "σ2ASE-ASE", currents, which correspond to the mean-square values of the corresponding currents, "˂i2s-ASE˃" and "˂i2ASE-ASE˃", are given by [15]:
where "R0" is the responsivity, "SASE" is the spectral density of ASE noise power for each polarisation mode, "B0" is the optical bandwidth at the photodetector input and "Bbe,n" is the equivalent noise bandwidth of the electrical part of the optical receiver.
It is assumed that the different forms of noises have a Gaussian distribution with zero mean value. Since the different types of noise are not correlated, the variance of the total noise current, "σn2", which corresponds to the mean-square value of the total noise current, is obtained from the sum of the different noise variances referred before:
4.5. Photodetector Simulation
The individual simulation of the photodetector (Fig. 4.2) makes it possible to scale the incident optical signalin the photodetector as well as the intrinsic parameters and the load resistor.
Figure 4.2. Photodetector Simulation.
The variable parameters of the incident optical signal are made up by the average optical power, the wavelength,Bit Rate , extinction ratio and, in case the signal has been submitted to optical preamplification, the average noise power introduced by the amplifierand optical bandwidth of the amplifier or the optical filter.
With relation to the photodetector, the individual simulator allows the type of photodiode, the scaling of its responsivity, its avalanche gain (in the case of APD), the corresponding dark current, the type of material, theelectrical capacitanceof the photodiodeand the load resistor to be chosen. The simulator presents immediately bandwidth at -3dB and the equivalent noise bandwidth.
In the results that are presented, the simulator lets us view graphically the NRZ optical signal at the photodetectorinput (according to the defined parameters), the structure of the polarisation circuit of the photodiode, as well as the graphic of the photocurrent generated. The values resulting from the photocurrent are also presented with a mention of the existence or absence of inter-symbolic interference (ISI), as well as the signal-to-noise ratio, bearing in mind the power penalty due to the extinction ratio, the value of the power of the different types of noise (circuit, quantum, signal-ASE beat andASE-ASE beat) the optical powers of the "0" and "1" logical levels and the corresponding generated photocurrents.
5. Electrical Preamplifier
Usually the signal at the photodetector output is very weak and it needs a low noise amplification in order to be adequately processed. The electrical preamplifier changes the small photocurrent generated by the photodiode into voltage. Since noise increases with bandwidth, there must be a compromise between the two in order to optimize the performance of the receiver. The three most used configurations of the preamplifier are: voltage amplifier (also known as low impedance amplifier), high impedance amplifier and transimpedance amplifier.
5.1. Voltage Preamplifier
The voltage preamplifier, or low impedance preamplifier, has the structure represented in Fig. 5.1.
Figure 5.1. Structure of the voltage(or low impedance)preamplifier.
In this type of configuration the current generated in the photodetector originates a voltage at the terminals of the resistor "Rb" (with typical values around 50Ω). This voltage is amplified by the operational amplifier with an "A" open-loop gain.
In practice, the photodetector has a parasite capacitance associated with its junction ("Cd") and the amplifier has aninputimpedance given by the parallel combination of "Ra" and "Ca". Therefore, the transfer function of the circuit in Fig. 5.1 is given by the following expression:
where "RT" is the total resistance obtained from "RT =Rb//Ra=(RbRa)/(Rb+Ra)"; on the other hand, "CT" represents the total capacitance of the circuit which is obtained from "CT= Cd//Ca= Cd+Ca".
The value of the resistance "Rb" is fundamental for the value of the circuit noise coming from this type of preamplifier configuration.
When the circuit noisecurrent ("ic") passes through the electrical preamplifier it is translated into a noise voltage ("vc"), through the transimpedance gain of the electricalpreamplifier (obtained from the low frequency transfer function). Therefore, the variance of the circuit noisevoltage,"σc2", which corresponds to the mean-square value of the circuit noise voltage "˂vc2˃", at the voltage preamplifier output, is obtained from:
where "Fn" is the noise factor of the amplifier (since the electric components that are present in the operational amplifier also contribute to the circuit noise) and "RTA" is the transimpedance gain of the voltage preamplifier, obtained from the expression (5.1) for "f=0".
5.2. High Impedance Preamplifier
The high impedance preamplifier has a structure that is very similar to the configuration of the voltage amplifier mentioned earlier. However, this configuration includes, also, an equalizer, as can be seen in Fig. 5.2.
Figure 5.2. Structure of the high impedance preamplifier.
The high impedance preamplifier is based on the same principle as the voltage amplifier.However, in this case, the resistor "Rb" has high values (in the kΩ range) guaranteeing a low thermal noise generated by the same. However, this type of configuration requires the use of an equalizer to compensate the reduction in bandwidth derived from the increase of the resistor "Rb". The transfer function of the circuit of Fig. 5.2 is given by the following expression:
When scaling the equalizer, it is necessary that the equalizer zero matches the preamplifier pole, that is, "R1=RT" e "C1=CT" in order to obtain a perfect equalising.
The high impedance preamplifier with equalizer is less noisy than the voltagepreamplifier, since the resistor "Rb" has higher values. The noise introduced by the resistive elements of the equalizercan be discarded, since the signal, when it reaches the equalizer, is already amplified. Therefore, the voltage variance of the circuit noise, "σc2", which corresponds to the mean-square value of the circuit noise voltage "˂vc2˃", at the equalizeroutput, is obtained from:
where"RTA[R2/(R1+R2)]" is the transimpedance gain of the high impedance preamplifier with equalizer, which is obtained from the expression (5.3) for "f=0".
5.3. Transimpedance Preamplifier
The transimpedance preamplifier has the structure presented in Fig. 5.3.
Figure 5.3. Structure of the transimpedance preamplifier.
This type of configuration was developed to obtain a large bandwidth with low noise.
Taking into account the capacitance of the photodiode, "Cd", as well as the input impedance of the amplifier("Ra" and "Ca"), the transfer function for this type of configuration is given by [17]:
where the equivalent resistance "Req" is obtained from:
.6)
Observing the previous expression we can see that if the open-loop gainof amplifier "A" is high, then "Req≈Rf".
Just as with the previous configurations, the electrical components present in the operational amplifier also contribute to the circuit noise. The noise factor of the amplifier, "Fn", is used to quantify this noise. Therefore, the variance of the voltage of the circuit noise, "˂vc2˃", at the output of the transimpedance preamplifier is obtained from:
where "-A/(A+1)Req" is the transimpedance gain, obtained from the expression (5.5) for "f=0".
5.4. Simulation of the Electrical Preamplifier
The isolated simulation of the electrical preamplifier (Fig. 5.4) allows the optical signal at the photodetector output to be scaled, as well as the intrinsic parameters of the electrical preamplifier and equalizer.
Figure 5.4. Simulation interface of the electrical preamplifier.
The variable parameters of the signal at the photodetector output are the photocurrent value for "0" and "1" logical levels and the corresponding bit rate.
With relation to the electrical preamplifier parameters, the individual simulator allows for the choice of the type of amplifier (voltage, high impedance or transimpedance), the junction capacitance of the photodiode, load resistor, feedback resistance, amplifier input capacitance,amplifier open-loop gain, amplifier noise figureand the values of the components of the equalizer("R1", "R2" and "C1"). The simulator allows for the automatic adjustment of the equalizer values to a perfect equalization and makes it possible to display theBode diagram, according to the transfer functionresulting from the type of amplifier chosen and the values introduced.
In the results that are presented, the simulator shows graphically the NRZelectrical signal at the electrical preamplifierinput (according to the defined parameters), the circuit structureaccording to thechosen type of configuration, as well as the graphic of the resulting voltage at the output of the preamplifier orequalizer. The values resulting from the bandwidth at -3dB, the equivalent noise bandwidth, the mention if there is or no inter-symbolic interference (ISI), the signal-to-noise ratio (bearing in mind the penalty due to the extinction ratio), the transimpedance gain and the voltages generated for the "0" and "1" logical levels, are also presented.
6. Complete Optical Receiver
The digital optical receiver, in addition to converting information from the optical domain into the electrical domain, also has the function of processing adequately the electric signal in order to recover the transmitted digital information with the minimum possible error[12].
Fig. 6.1 prepresents a simplified block structure of a digital direct detection optical receiver with optical preamplification.
Figure 6.1. Simplified block structure of a digital optical receiver with optical preamplification.
The performance of the optical receiver in digital transmission systems as is the case, is evaluated by the bit error probability, "Pe", which corresponds to the probability of incorrect decision or identification of a bit on the part of the optical receiver. The typical bit error probabilities of optical receivers in telecommunications systems are between 10-9 and 10-12[8].
6.1. Bit Error Probability
In the following analysis we shall consider that each bit of information corresponds to a binary symbol.
In practice, the bit error probability can be obtained through the binary error ratio, BER, defined by the ratio between the number of error bits at the optical receiver output and the number of bits received in a determined period of time. The greater the number of bits received and considered in determining the BER, the more will its value approach the exact value of the bit error probability, "Pe".
However, the value of the bit error probability may be calculated from the probability density functions of the voltage samples, "p(v|1)" and "p(v|0), at the input of the decision circuit.
Figure 6.2. Probability density functions of the voltage samples for the "1" and "0" logical values,"p(v|1)" and "p(v|0)", respectively.
Fig. 6.2 displays the fluctuations of the values of the voltage samples for the different logical levels. The decision circuit is responsible for comparing the value of each sample of the signal with a certain reference value, called decision voltage "VDec".
Still in fig. 6.2, the probability of the decision circuit to commit errors, can be shown. "Prob(1|0)" represents the probability that the decision circuit will decide for the logical value "1" when "0" was sent and, in turn, "Prob(0|1)" represents the probability that the decision circuit will decide for the logical value "0" when "1" was sent. Considering that the symbols are equiprobable and that the voltage of generated noise is described by a Gaussian distribution with zero mean value, the bit error probability is given by [13]:
where"erfc" is the complementary error function and "Q" is the quality factor. The "Q" factor is obtained from:
where "V0" and "V1" are the average sample values for the "0" and "1" logical level, considering that the voltage samples were withdrawn at the optimum sampling instant of the signal and without inter-symbolic interference. On the other hand, "σ0" and "σ1", are the standard deviations of noise voltages for the different logical levels and which are obtained through the following expressions:
where "σ2q,1" and "σ2q,0" represent the variance of the quantum noise voltage for the different logical levels, "σ2c" represents the variance of the noise circuit voltage, "σ2s-ASE,1" and , "σ2s-ASE,0" represent the voltage variance of the signal-ASE beat noise for the different logical levels and "σ2ASE-ASE" represents the voltage variance of the ASE-ASE beat noise.
6.2. Optical Receiver Simulation
The simulation of the optical receiver (Fig. 6.3) allows the incident optical signal to be configured on the receiver, the optical preamplifier and optical filter (if it is considered), the photodetector, the electrical amplifier and the equalizer.
The variable parameters of the incident optical signal and connector are made up by the average optical power that reaches the receiver, the path penalty, the wavelength, the Bit Rate, the extinction ratio and theoptical connector loss.
With relation to the optical preamplifier and the optical filter, the simulator allows scaling of its gain, noise figure and also the bandwidth of the optical filter.
Figure 6.3. optical receiver simulation interface.
With relation to the photodetector, the simulator allows for the choice of the type of photodiode, the scaling of its responsivity, its avalanche gain (in the case of the APD), the choice of the type of material it is made of, and also allows the quantification of the dark current that is present in the photodiode.
With relation to the parameters of the electrical amplifier and equalizer, the simulator allows the scaling of the bandwidth, the square root of the spectral density of noise power (a measure that is normally present in the catalogues of optical receivers) and the transimpedance gain. The simulator allows also, the display of the Bode diagram of the transfer function of the electrical preamplifier and equalizer, according to the introduced parameters.
In the results that are presented, the simulator presents graphically the resulting signal at the input of the decision circuit, as well as the corresponding eye diagram. Voltage samples will be presented, extracted at the optimal sampling instant for the different logical levels. It is possible, also, to display the probability density functions of the voltage samples, as well as the optimum decision voltage.The values resulting from the bit error probability, the value of the signal-to-noise ratio (bearing in account the penalty due to the extinction ratio) and the values of the different types of noise that are present in the obtained signal (circuit, quantum, signal-ASE beat and ASE-ASE beat noise), are also presented.
7. Final Conclusions, Perspectives of Future Work and Original Contributions
7.1. Final Conclusions
With relation to the developed software, it is to be stressed that it is fully original. There was a strong concern in creating a user-friendly graphical interface and, simultaneously, a functional interface.
Controllers were implemented which, given the physical limitations and theoretical considerations, prevents the simulator user from taking certain options, by presenting warnings and giving the possibility of automatic correction of these same options. The results are presented numerically and graphically for a better and speedier analysis of the same.
In order to increase the universe of potential users, the simulator was developed in two versions: Portuguese and English. Since the two versions are integrated into the simulator the change of version can be carried out in any of the windows displayed.
The present simulator has a very important pedagogical side to it, since, by means of the variation of the input parameters, the output signal can be displayed, thus providing a solid training about the operation of this type of device.
The simulator constitutes an alternative to the systems of real components in the following manners:
• Economical – the conception and maintenance of real system laboratories is very expensive;
• Quick – a simulation is performed in a few seconds, on real systems it could take days;
• Portable – the simulations can be executed in any place with recourse to a single computer and its corresponding software;
• Easy access – there is no need for access restrictions related with security and preservation of the integrity of real system laboratories.
Taking into consideration the proposed objectives of this present article, we can conclude that these were fully accomplished.
7.2. Perspectives of Future Work
This work may serve as a basis for future work in this so promising area.
An interesting task would be the development of a simulator for coherent optical systems, where the information is modulated into a carrier through its amplitude "ASK", frequency "FSK" or phase "PSK". In this case the optical receiver would become more complex, requiring a local optical oscillator (laser diode), were the output is duly "mixed" with the optical signal received, in order to obtain the information contained in the optical carrier.
Given the growing importance of optical communications in the world, the existence of this type of simulator is imperative, since it can contribute to a better understanding of the components of an optical communications receiver, improve the training capabilities and provide a friendly tool with easy upgrading for other types of components.
7.3. Original Contributions
• The simulator developed for the IM-DD optical receiver contains several original contributions, as follows:
• The graphical interface of the simulator was originally designed and implemented, following the strategies of Ben Schneidermann[18] and using the available tools of the programming languageMatlab[19]. This resulted in a functional and very user-friendly graphical interface.
• For the simulation of the optical preamplifier a graphic was implemented which allows for the simultaneous display of the signal power and the noise power at the preamplifier output. This graphic gives the user a rapid perception of the quality of the signal.
• In the simulation of the photodetector, the graphic of the response of the photodetector to the incident optical power was implemented. The graphic takes into account the noise and the impulsive response of the photodetector, according to the parameters inserted for the simulation.
• The simulation of the electrical preamplifier and equalizer shows the Bode diagram of the different types of selected and scaled preamplifiers. An automatic scaling option of the equalizer was also implemented, in case the user intends to perform a perfect equalisation.
• For the simulation of the complete optical receiver, in addition to the signal at the input of the decision circuit and the corresponding eye diagram, stand out the implementation of the graphic that allows for the display of the probability density functions of the samples of the different logical levels and, simultaneously, the optimum decision value. Stand out, also, the implementation of the calculation of the bit error probability of the receiver from the probability density functions of the samples, as well as the discriminated acquisition of the power of each of the different sources of noise.
The author would like to thank Prof.ª Maria João Marques Martins and Prof. José Luís Gonçalves Correia da Mata for their assistance.
GIOZZA, Willian F., CONFORTI, Evandro, WALDMAN, Hélio, "Fibras Ópticas – Tecnologia e Projeto de Sistemas", McGraw-Hill, São Paulo, Brasil, 1991
CARTAXO, A.V, Transmissão por fibra óptica, IST, Lisboa, Portugal, 2005
PIRES, J., "Sistemas de telecomunicações I", IST, Lisboa, Portugal, 1999
SMITH, David R., "Digital Transmission Systems", Third Edition, Kluwer Academic Publishers, USA, 2004
MARTINS, M. J., "Introdução às fibras ópticas", AEIST Press, 1997
MOLLENAUER, Linn F., GORDON, James P., "Optic Fibers- Fundamentals and Applications", Elsevier Academic Press, USA, 2006
GREEN, Paul E., "Fiber Optic Networks", Prentice Hall, New Jersey, USA, 1993
KEISER, Gerd, "Optical Fiber Communication", Third Edition, McGraw-Hill, Singapore, 2000
OLIVEIRA, Júlio César Rodrigues Fernandes, "Amplificadores Ópticos com Controle Automático de Ganho para Aplicação em Redes Ópticas Reconfiguráveis", Dissertação de Mestrado, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 2007
PIRES, J., "Sistemas de Comunicação Óptica ", IST, Lisboa, Portugal, 1998
AGRAWAL, Goving P., "Fiber-Optic Communications Systems", Second Edition, Wiley-Interscience, USA, 1997
MARTINS, Maria João, PEREIRA, Marco Costa, "Estudo de DetectoresÓpticos com interesse para Aplicações Militares", Revista Proelium, IV Série nº4,pp.9-18,Academia Militar, Lisboa, 2006
AGRAWAL, "Goving P., "Lightwave Technology – Telecommunications Systems", Wiley-Interscience, New Jersey, USA, 2005
SALEH, B.E.A.,TEICH, M.C., "Fundamentals of Photonics", Wiley-Interscience, USA, 1991
CVIJETIC, Milorad, "Optical Transmission Systems Engineering", Artech House, Norwood, USA, 2004
MARTINS, Maria João, GARRIDO, P, ALMEIDA,V., "Desenvolvimento de um Simulador de Fibra Óptica", Revista Proelium, VI Série nº8, Academia Militar, Lisboa, 2007
KAZOVSKY, Leonid, BENEDETTO, Sergio, WILLNER, Alan, "Optical Fiber Communication Systems", Artech House, Norwood, USA, 1996
SHNEIDERMAN, Ben, "Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction", Addison-Wesley , Massachusetts,1992
(http://www.mathworks.com/)(September 15, 2009).
Developing the Simulator
Operating the Simulator
Optical Preamplification
Optical Amplifier
Optical Amplifier – EDFA
Optical Filter
EDFA Preamplifier and Optical Filter Simulation
Photodetector
PIN Photodiode
Avalanche Photodiode (APD)
Photo Detection Noise without Optical Preamplification
Photo Detection Noise with Optical Preamplification
Photodetector Simulation
Electrical Preamplifier
Voltage Preamplifier
High Impedance Preamplifier
Transimpedance Preamplifier
Simulation of the Electrical Preamplifier
Complete Optical Receiver
Bit Error Probability
Optical Receiver Simulation
Final Conclusions, Perspectives of Future Work and Original Contributions
Final Conclusions
Perspectives of Future Work
Original Contributions
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Beware the Fake Google Chrome OS Download
Gizmodo posted that an early version is available. Gizmodo is credible and respected, but the download is a fake.
By Tony Bradley
Google recently announced that it is developing its own operating system based around the Chrome web browser, named appropriately enough Chrome OS. For the past week there have been rumors circulating about a leaked version being available for download. Don't believe the hype. The 'leaked version' is a fake that is not related to Google at all.
Even a trusted source like Gizmodo has perpetuated the myth that Chrome is available. Its tough when there is so much pressure to be the first to publish a breaking news story. Gizmodo recently reported a story of alleged Chrome operating system screen shots, but later updated the story to state that it was verified as a fake. Gizmodo pushed the story of the fake download with a story titled Google Chrome OS Now Available, Go Get It .
The number of sites and individuals who are propagating the story is lending credibility to the false rumor. A quick scan of Twitter or a quick search of the Web will lead to all sorts of seemingly reputable sources talking about the availability of the Chrome OS beta. Most of the excitement though can be traced back to Gizmodo. It is a trusted source of breaking tech news and it doesn't take much for an announcement on Gizmodo to go viral on Twitter and blog sites.
The site in question appears legitimate in so much as it is actually on the google.com domain. The site lists features like a GNOME desktop, Google Picassa integration, and a Flash Player plugin. It comes complete with a few Google logos scattered about.
However, it is actually a product of Google Sites. Basically, someone created a page with Google Sites which points to sites.google.com and populated it with basic information about the Chrome OS which could be extracted from publicly available details Google has shared, then added a link to download some other completely unrelated tool.
To be fair, the site owner did include a disclaimer at the bottom stating "Chrome OS is not related to Google. Service is provided by SUSE Studio. Seethe license." Google has since disabled the site for violating the Google Sites terms of service.
Chrome sounds like it has promise, although the operating system market is a tough sell that is already filled with dominating players like Microsoft and Apple. Of course, Google hasn't shied away from head-to-head battles with either of those companies in other arenas like Web search, mobile phone operating systems, or web browsers.
Be patient. The fervor over all things Google is remotely understandable, but Rome wasn't built in a day. Even Google will take some time to develop an actual operating system. When it is actually available, I am sure you will hear about it.
In the meantime, if a guy in a dark alley whispers that he has an early version of Chrome OS available, there is good reason to be suspicious. Google may have shut down this fake Chrome OS site, but others are sure to follow. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, its probably a duck. Check your sources and exercise some common sense before you rush to download a fake, and potentially malicious, Chrome OS.
Tony Bradley is an information security and unified communications expert with more than a decade of enterprise IT experience. He tweets as @PCSecurityNews and provides tips, advice and reviews on information security and unified communications technologies on his site at tonybradley.com .
Posted by Unknown at Monday, November 02, 2009
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Moyers & Company Show 352: The Children’s Climate Crusade
From Moyers & Company | Part of the Moyers & Company series | 23:59
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With so many in Congress and state legislatures in denial or simply missing in action, and with the very agencies created to protect our environment hijacked by the polluting industries they were meant to regulate, it may turn out that the judicial system, our children and their children will save us from ourselves.
The new legal framework for this crusade against global warming is called atmospheric trust litigation. It takes the fate of the Earth into the courts, arguing that the planet’s atmosphere – its air, water, land, plants and animals -- are the responsibility of government, held in its trust to insure the survival of all generations to come.
It’s the brainchild of Bill Moyers’ guest this week on the final broadcast of the series Moyers & Company (Note that the BillMoyers.com website will continue). Mary Christina Wood is a legal scholar who wrote the book, “Nature’s Trust,” tracing this public trust doctrine all the way back to ancient Rome. It is, she writes, “a robust set of legal footholds by which citizens can hold their government officials accountable.”
Wood tells Bill Moyers, “If this nation relies on a stable climate system, and the very habitability of this nation and all of the liberties of young people and their survival interests are at stake, the courts need to force the agencies and the legislatures to simply do their job.”
“Climate is not just an environmental issue,” she continues. “This is a civilization issue. This is the biggest case that courts will get in terms of the potential harm and in terms of the urgency.”
Mary Christina Wood teaches law at the University of Oregon and is founding director of that school’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program. Her theories are being used in several legal suits filed by the advocacy group Our Children’s Trust.
Moyers & Company Show 352: The Children’s ... | 23:59
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Generation Putin - Hour Special
From Seattle Globalist | Part of the Generation Putin series | 59:01
It's been over 20 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Young people in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Georgia are facing unemployment, democratic pressure, and the legacy of repression, while being influenced by the West, punk music, and the Pussy Riot trials. PRX sent a reporting team from the Seattle Globalist to explore the tensions in these countries, described by The Atlantic as 'uneasily suspended' between two political eras.
Join host Brooke Gladstone for Generation Putin, an in-depth look at the millennial generation in the post-Soviet states.
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Join host Brooke Gladstone for Generation Putin, an in-depth look at the millennial generation in the post-Soviet states. Embed, stream and share the special and segments on SoundCloud.
Generation Putin - Hour Special | 59:01
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RISE: Climate Change and Coastal Communities (Series)
Produced by Claire Schoen
RISE is a series of 3 hour-long radio documentaries about the impact of climate change on coastal cities.
RISE: Part III Chuey’s Story
From Claire Schoen | Part of the RISE: Climate Change and Coastal Communities series | 59:00
Claire Schoen
Chuey Cazares has lived all of his 21 years in Alviso, a tiny hamlet jutting into the salt ponds at the southern tip of the San Francisco Bay. Part of a close, extended Chicano family, with hundreds of relatives living in town, Chuey works as a deck hand on a shrimp boat off Alviso's shores.
His town's history — and its future — are defined by water. In the 1800's, farmers drained the aquifer, and the land sank thirteen feet below sea level. Then, the conversion of wetlands to salt ponds made the rivers back up during heavy rains and flooded Alviso. Now sea level rise from the Bay and more rain swelling the rivers threaten more frequent flooding. Chuey's family was traumatized by the last big flood in 1983, and although they fear the next one, they don't want to move anywhere else.
Meanwhile, Mendel Stuart of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working to save Alviso by restoring wetlands. But who is Alviso being saved for? As the flood risk lessens, property values are increasing, making housing in Alviso unaffordable for Chuey and his relatives. And the wetlands conversion has driven his boss's lucrative shrimping business out of the salt ponds.
While we must adapt to the impacts of climate change that we can no longer halt, Chuey's story dramatizes that climate change will create both winners and losers in the short term.
RISE: Part III Chuey’s Story | 59:00
President Obama's 2009 Inaugural Address
From Public Radio Exchange (PRX) | 18:32
Sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, President Obama spoke of a difficult journey ahead that may take years to see through. Before one of the largest crowds ever assembled on the National Mall, Obama also touched on terrorism, hard work, and the struggle for civil rights.
Public Radio Exchange (PRX)
I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land – a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America – they will be met. On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted – for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.
Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things – some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.
Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.
This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions – that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking
America. For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.
Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans.
Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them – that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works – whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account - to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day – because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control – and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.
The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart – not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake.
And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.
We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort – even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West – know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment – a moment that will define a generation – it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.
For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.
Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends – hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
This is the source of our confidence – the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.
This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed – why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.
So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:
Let it be told to the future world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet.
America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations."
President Obama's 2009 Inaugural Address | 18:32
Barack Obama-The Remix
From Peter Bochan | Part of the Shortcuts series | 54:17
A PRX favorite from 2008. The excitement of Barack Obama's first campaign for president, mashup-style.
Peter Bochan
Barack Obama - The journey to the White House, reMixed in words & music-introduced by Robert F. Kennedy and featuring Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, John McCain, Chris Rock, Colin Powell, George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, Steve Harvey, Will. i. am, Hillary Clinton, The Pointer Sisters, The Drifters, John Legend, Homer Simpson, Moby, Bruce Springsteen, Ted Kennedy, FDR, The Little Rascals, Kevin So, Branford Marsalis, M.C. Yogi, Martin Luther King Jr, Sam Cooke, John Lewis, Quiet Village, David Letterman, Tim Russert. Katie Couric, Charles Gibson, Matt Damon, Roy Budd, Iron & Wine, Dephazz, Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions, The Edwin Hawkins Singers, various politicians, excited voters...and Barack Obama.
Barack Obama-The Remix | 54:17
Broken Borders: Immigration Reform in the Southwest (Series)
Produced by Fronteras Desk
A five part series from the Fronteras Changing America Desk on the broken parts of our immigration system and the prospects for reform.
Back of the Line
From Fronteras Desk | Part of the Broken Borders: Immigration Reform in the Southwest series | 04:01
Both the Senate and the President’s proposals for immigration reform agree the pathway begins in the “back of the line” — behind everyone who’s legally waiting. But, it turns out, there isn’t one line. There are many lines. And for some families, the wait is so long it’s going back in time. From the Fronteras Desk, John Rosman explains.
Back of the Line | 04:01
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Silicon Valley Summer Concert Guide
In Music May 21, 2014 by Brandon Roos Tweet
Coachella’s expansion to two weekends doesn’t really prove that more listeners than ever crave a weekend in a remote town at the mercy of desert weather, so much as it affirms the dominance of festivals in the summer’s musical landscape. The Bay Area and its more temperate climes is a principal stop for many such tours and the hometown, so to speak, of other fests. (Added bonus: unlike a certain SoCal desert extravaganza, purchasing tickets to most of these events does not require a payment plan.)
One of the largest dance music festivals in the United States, Beyond Wonderland, makes its home in Silicon Valley. Funk pioneer Bootsy Collins headlines the annual San Jose Jazz Summer Fest and local, regional and national acts convene at the latest incarnation of C2SV Music Festival (a Metro affiliate).
Just a short drive away, the Lightning in a Bottle Festival settles in Monterey County for its Northern California debut, First City Festival returns for its second year with Beck and the National, and Outside Lands is back with Kanye West and Tom Petty headlining another three-day party in Golden Gate Park.
Pop’s reigning royal couple, Jay Z and Beyoncé, touch down in the Bay Area, and it’s a great summer to be a Beatles fan with Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney both making Bay Area appearances.
May 23-25: Lightning in a Bottle
After running into problems at two sites in SoCal, Lightning in a Bottle tests the Northern California market with three days of music in Bradley, about an hour and a half south of Monterey. The festivities get under way at San Antonio Recreation this Friday with Moby, Baauer and San Francisco DJ Claude Vonstroke headlining the festival’s three main stages.
The party continues Saturday with Amon Tobin and Little Dragon before closing out Sunday with Phantogram, Beats Antique and The Gaslamp Killer. And for those looking to get realigned or commune with nature between performances, the festival also hosts the Lucent Temple of Consciousness with yoga, speakers and interactive exhibits highlighting personal improvement. (Matt Crawford)
July 13: Ringo Starr at City National Civic
Though his career has largely lingered in the shadows of his former Fab Four band mates, these past few years have been kind to former Beatle Ringo Starr. Beatles nostalgia has had a particularly good run recently, with Starr playing alongside Paul McCartney at the Grammys. They teamed up again a day later as part of a 50th anniversary celebration of the Beatles’ landmark TV appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. An exhibit at the Grammy Museum was recently opened in Starr’s honor as well. But don’t get your hopes up if you’re itching for a “Hey Jude” sing-along at the City National Civic. Ringo will lead his All Starr Band, who’s supported him since 2012, through a set of mostly originals. Fun fact: ’70s singer-songwriter Todd Rundgren is listed among Starr’s ensemble. (Brandon E. Roos)
July 17: San Jose’s Music in the Park
San Jose summer destination Music in the Park halted as a weekly event after 2011, going dark in 2012, but it returned with a single, ticketed destination event last year. Latin favorites Ozomatli played to an eager crowd after local collective Sonido Clash opened festivities. For 2014, the San Jose Downtown Association has announced two events under the Music in the Park banner. Live 105 is presenting a “Then and Now” block party with The English Beat on July 17 in St. James Park. Two more acts will join the bill. Another summer staple, Pete Escovedo, headlines a night of Latin music at Plaza de Cesar Chavez, Music in the Park’s old stomping ground, on Aug 21. Escovedo will be supported by recent Grammy winners La Santa Cecilia, who played to a packed house at San Pedro Square Market in March as part of San Jose Jazz Winter Fest. (BER)
July 27: Santana at Shoreline
Carlos Santana and his namesake group have carved out a career as one of the Bay Area’s best known musical acts. Santana’s signature tone has earned him worldwide acclaim and a slew of Grammys, most notably for 1999’s Supernatural. His 22nd album, the recently released Corazón, jumps headfirst into the rhythms and energy of Latin music—always an element of the band’s sound, just not the focal point. The guest-filled album includes appearances by Gloria Estefan, Lila Downs, Ziggy Marley and Wayne Shorter. Count on a concert highlighting standouts from Corazón in addition to an extensive list of fan favorites compiled over the years. (BER)
July 30: Arcade Fire at Shoreline
Fueled by the studio influence of LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and inspired by a trip to Haiti, Montreal outfit Arcade Fire came up with an album last year that, surprisingly, made listeners want to dance. Reflektor moves past the moody, baroque indie rock that gained them notoriety on their iconic debut, Funeral, and its follow-up, Neon Bible. The more subdued, accessible The Suburbs helped them enter mainstream consciousness when it scored Album of the Year at the 2011 Grammy Awards (we appreciate the effort, Grammy committee, but you were still late to the game). Their July performance kicks off a number of California dates, and will be their first appearance since closing the Main Stage at Coachella. (BER)
August 5-6: Jay Z & Beyonce at AT&T Park
The power couple assures us that the viral elevator incident, where Bey’s younger sister, Solange, tried to judo chop and kick a tuxedoed Jay Z, was just a normal family problem—it’s happened to everyone, right? They didn’t waste any time after the security video was leaked to TMZ to announce the next day a second summer concert at AT&T Park. The duo should offer plenty more fireworks on stage with a collective catalog that features some of the biggest hits of the past 10 years. (MC)
August 8-10: San Jose Jazz Summer Fest
San Jose Jazz continues its liberal definition of jazz (that’s a good thing) with funk icon Bootsy Collins headlining the festival’s main stage this year. Bootsy’s outlandish outfits and custom shades almost overshadow his music, but his résumé speaks for itself, with stints playing for James Brown and George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic before going solo. Other highlights include Latin jazz originators Jerry González and the Fort Apache Band, Con Funk Shun and Pacific Mambo Orchestra. (MC)
August 8-10: Outside Lands Music Festival
The normally conservative organizers for Outside Lands took a little risk this year naming polarizing, future Kardashian-by-marriage Kanye West as a headliner this year. Despite the expected backlash from Kanye haters, the festival sold out in record time with all three-day general admission tickets purchased in just 24 hours. Tom Petty (a headliner at the debut festival), The Killers, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Tiësto are among the nearly 60 other acts performing at the festival. (MC)
August 14: Paul McCartney at Candlestick Park
San Francisco’s loss is Santa Clara’s gain as the 49ers kick off their first season in the South Bay at Levi’s Stadium later this year, but San Francisco gets style points for its Candlestick Park sendoff with Paul McCartney, who last played the stadium in 1966 at the Beatles’ last concert ever. We’re guessing the set will be similar to his performance at Outside Lands in 2013—Beatles hits, songs from his band Wings and solo material, including tracks from his new album, appropriately titled New. (MC)
August 23-24: First City Festival at Monterey Fairgrounds
A product of Goldenvoice (the promoters behind Coachella), First City returns after a charming inaugural year that included Modest Mouse, Passion Pit and MGMT. The fest maintains its same sonic focus here, a good sign for the outing, which may still be trying to solidify its identity in a crowded festival landscape. Though there are names that are sure to touch on elements of R&B, soul and electronic, the main focus is still rock. Beck and the National headline, with other notables that include Best Coast, Phantogram, Cults and Lake Street Dive. If you’re looking to explore the lineup a bit further, check out the ambient R&B (sometimes derisively referred to as “PBR&B”) of How to Dress Well or the tight musicianship of Stones Throw Records’ artists the Stepkids. The latter is composed of three session musicians who pair their psychedelic explorations with far-out video projections—a must-see.
September 10-14: C2SV at SoFA District
C2SV Music Festival and Technology conference returns for its second year with five days of music and tech talks at its new home in the SoFA District. Lineup details are pending, but expect world-famous headliners and local favorites among the performers at local venues and an outdoor concert in the SoFA District.
September 20-21: Beyond Wonderland at Shoreline
Flower headdresses, neon and a general lack of clothing will all be in abundant supply when EDM spectacular Beyond Wonderland returns to Shoreline. After a successful inaugural run there last year, the fest expands its format to cover two full days. The lineup will likely feature the biggest names in EDM. Last year, radio staples Avicii, Calvin Harris and David Guetta shared the bill with unsung talents like Morgan Page and Cosmic Gate. Though Beyond Wonderland originated in San Bernardino, its only stop this year will be in the Bay Area, which could lead to a migration of dance die-hards from around the state converging on Mountain View.
Tags: Summer Concerts
Odesza Play Two Nights at Frost Amphitheatre
Juice WRLD, T.I., and more at ‘Audiotistic’
‘Friends Trivia’ at The Brit
Queen + Adam Lambert at SAP Center
Mason Razavi Organ Quartet at Art Boutiki
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US and Indian troops to begin training together for war
(Photos: US and Indian troops sharing expertise during previous Yudh Abhyas exercises)
Business Standard, 24th August 09
Since 2004, American GIs and Indian jawans have trained together to combat terrorists and insurgents. Now, the two armies are about to begin training to fight a war together.
Underlining the growing military-to-military relationship, a US Army battalion group of several hundred soldiers and some 50 frontline Stryker armoured vehicles, will travel to India in October and train with Indian strike formation units at the Babina Field Firing Ranges near Jhansi. This exercise, named Yudh Abhyas 2009, will include live firing by heavy combat vehicles.
It will be the first time mechanised units of an Indian strike corps, which bases its power on T-72 and T-90 tanks, BMP-II infantry combat vehicles, missiles and 155-mm medium artillery guns, will train or share expertise with any foreign army. The Indian units taking part will be selected from the Jhansi-headquartered 31 Armoured Division.
The annual Yudh Abhyas exercises (which US soldiers are told is pronounced as “You da Boss”) kicked off in March 2004, when 60 Indian jawans and 55 US soldiers from Alaska jointly raided mock insurgent hideouts in the jungles of Mizoram.
Since then, Yudh Abhyas has expanded each year in size, scope and complexity. Last November, in Yudh Abhyas 08, an Indian Air Force IL-76 aircraft had flown a company (120 soldiers) of Indian jawans to Hawaii for training in counter-insurgency with US soldiers of the US Pacific Command. Their simulated operations were controlled by India’s 49 Infantry Brigade, which set up a command post in Hawaii as part of the exercise.
But Yudh Abhyas 2009 will impart a different trajectory to the military-to-military relationship. This is no longer about raids on insurgent hideouts or terrorist camps; strike corps training is for fighting a full-scale war together. This year, American and Indian mechanised forces will synchronise operations, planning, manoeuvring and firing together to capture a simulated objective.
Senior Indian Army officers have confirmed to Business Standard that the US Army Stryker vehicles and crews will be transported to India by sea. They will come from the US Pacific Command, or US PACOM, which is headquartered in Hawaii and which oversees US military interests from the US west coast to the western border of India.
Starting from Pakistan, and extending across West Asia, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) is responsible for American military interests. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are under the jurisdiction of CENTCOM.
Approached for their comments on Yudh Abhyas 09, the Hawaii-based USPACOM has not responded. But speaking off the record, senior US Army officers have expressed satisfaction at what they term a “quantum jump” in the US-India military relationship.
One US officer notes, “Singapore armoured units have come earlier to Babina to fire their tanks since they don’t have the space to practise in Singapore. Similarly, Singapore air force fighter aircraft fire in Pokhran and artillery units fire near Nashik. But this is not just about firing. Yudh Abhyas 09 will see the two armies practising how to fight a full-scale war together. And the engagement will only grow closer.”
Labels: defence planning, Indian Army, region, strategy, US military
The Broadsword community MMRCA selection
Photo: A cutaway of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. This aircraft is not in contention in India's MMRCA tender.
Many visitors to Broadsword have expressed strong views on the ongoing selection process for India’s proposed Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA). But do we really need an MMRCA and, if so, what kind?
Let’s examine this 11 billion dollar question on Broadsword, based not upon gut reactions but on a cold assessment of our needs and our means.
I invite visitors to post on this subject. Let’s break down the decision-making into the following heads:
How many squadrons does the Indian Air Force (IAF) need?
In October 1962, the Government of India sanctioned 45 squadrons for the IAF, which was later stepped up to 65 squadrons (both these included transport and air observation squadrons). An expert committee later suggested that the IAF needed 39.5 combat squadrons.
Given our operational requirements (which need to be quantified), and the strength of our likely adversaries, what is our reasonable requirement of combat squadrons?
Force multiplication
To what extent would the introduction of force multipliers --- e.g. AWACS, network-centricity, satellite surveillance, etc --- reduce our requirement of squadrons? Please quantify.
Light, Medium and Heavy fighters
How should this total requirement be broken down into light, medium and heavy combat aircraft? After breaking down the requirement, calculate (squadron by squadron) obsolescence schedules and when aircraft of a squadron must be phased out. That will give you a chronological map of when you need different types of aircraft.
Fleet structure and types
What would be the best mix of aircraft that would allow commonality of parts (and hence ease of backup and servicing); interoperability; and operational flexibility.
ALL THIS WILL PROVIDE REASONABLE PREMISES BASED UPON WHICH WE CAN CALCULATE OUR REQUIREMENT OF MMRCA’s.
Give your inputs. Everyone's ideas are completely valid.
Labels: defence planning, Defence Production, Indian Air Force, LCA, MMRCA, Ordnance factories, Private Sector
A detailed look at the Car Nicobar class Water Jet Fast Attack Craft (WJ-FAC), being produced at GRSE Kolkata
(Photos: courtesy Ajai Shukla)
Photo 1 : A view of the INS Cheriyam WJ-FAC from front and left.
Photo 2 : The yard plate in the bridge of the INS Cheriyam
Photo 3 : Inside the bridge on the INS Cheriyam
Photo 4 : A view of the three water jets on the INS Kondul
Photo 5 : A close up of the water jets on the INS Kondul
Photo 6 : The gun controls for the CRN 91 cannon, and the spring-mounted gyro in the bridge
Photo 7 : A look at the 2800 Kilowatt MTU engine, three of which power the Car Nicobar class WJ-FAC
Labels: Defence Production, Indian Navy, Private Sector, shipbuilding, strategy
Gearbox problems delay the Car Nicobar class Fast Attack Craft: Coastal security faces shipbuilding delays
Photo 1 : INS Cheriyam, the third Water Jet driven Fast Attack Craft (WJ-FAC) of the Car Nicobar class, berthed at GRSE.
Photo 2 : The forward deck of INS Cheriyam; the 30 mm cannon is mounted below the bridge.
Photo 3 : A closer look from starboard at INS Cheriyam. The superstructure is made of aluminium to reduce weight.
Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers, Kolkata
India’s coastal and maritime problems are growing faster than the fleet of ships needed to deal with them. Here in Kolkata, at Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE), two newly built patrol ships have lain for two months, waiting for collection by the Indian Navy. But the admirals insist: first meet the navy’s performance requirements.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister AK Antony travels on Thursday to the Maldives to extend India’s maritime security network to that island nation. And an unauthorised North Korean freighter, espied lurking in Indian waters off the Andaman Islands early this month, underscores the urgent need for more patrolling
GRSE, India’s second-biggest defence shipyard, got a Rs 514 crore order in March 2006 to build ten Water Jet propelled Fast Attack Craft (WJ-FACs), whose high-tech German MTU water-jet engines could propel these sleek vessels through the water at 65 kmph, tackling threats along the coastline for up to 3600 km without refuelling.
After the Mumbai attacks on 26/11, the need for such craft was felt more than ever. The first two WJ-FACs --- INS Car Nicobar and INS Chetlat --- were press-ganged into the navy in February 09, even though they were restricted to just 50 kmph by flawed gearboxes supplied by Kirloskar Pneumatic Company Limited (KPCL).
But now the navy has refused to accept the next two WJ-FACs --- INS Kora Divh and INS Cheriyam --- until KPCL rectifies the transmission systems that it had developed and supplied to GRSE.
Rear Admiral KC Sekhar, GRSE Chairman and Managing Director, told Business Standard that KPCL had already supplied 30 defective gearboxes (three go into each WJ-FAC), but had now taken some back to diagnose and resolve the problem.
“I expect three gearboxes to come back very shortly”, said Admiral Sekhar, “And we have a commitment from KPCL that they will be responsible for their product. Any additional expenditure incurred will be their responsibility.”
KPCL is unlikely, however, to pick up the tab for the growing expenditure on trials. And GRSE supervisors say the morale of workers --- who are pushed hard to get vessels ready for on-time delivery --- suffers when buyers reject a completed ship.
KPCL has not responded to repeated requests for their comments.
As coastal security grows in importance, the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard are acquiring greater numbers of patrol vessels and attack craft. These smaller, lightly armed vessels, like the Car Nicobar Class WJ-FACs, are lighter, cheaper, easier to build, and better suited for coastal surveillance than the capital warships --- corvettes, frigates and destroyers --- that are designed and built for war.
Vice Admiral Arun Kumar Singh, who until recently commanded the Eastern Naval Command in Vishakhapatnam points to the growing importance of coastal security: “The term ‘a balanced Navy’ has now acquired a different meaning altogether; a ‘brown water’ coastal force is as relevant and essential as a ‘blue water’ force.
In recent years, the navy has built 7 Sukanya Class offshore patrol vessels (OPVs), one of which was sold to Sri Lanka; 4 Trinkat Class fast patrol vessels (FPVs), one of which was given to Maldives and one to Seychelles; 7 Super Dvora Mark II class FPVs; and 4 Bangaram Class fast attack craft (FACs). In addition, four Saryu Class offshore patrol vessels are being built by Goa Shipyard Limited.
The 10 Car Nicobar class WJ-FACs, with their ability to react quickly at high speeds, are purpose designed for coastal security. These 50 metres long, 600-tonne vessels are crewed by 35 sailors. Each WJ-FAC is armed with a 30 mm CRN-91 automatic cannon that can engage targets up to 3 kilometers away.
Labels: Defence Production, Indian Navy, Internal security, Private Sector, shipbuilding
Duel in the sky: Testing the MMRCAs and rating their chances
Photo 1: An aerial shot of Leh airfield. The fighter pens can be clearly seen.
Photo 2: The Gripen NG fighter, perhaps the contender with the best chance in the MMRCA competition.
Photo 3: (courtesy Boeing) Two F/A-18s, carrying out air-to-air refuelling over the United States.
Photo 4: The Dassault Rafale, which is the only MMRCA contender never to have flown in India.
Over the preceding weeks, two Indian Air Force aces have busied themselves with what might well be the world’s most expensive video game: sitting at a simulator in the US and learning to fly one of the world’s most advanced fighters: Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet. After the simulator came an even greater adrenaline rush: strapping into a real Super Hornet, gunning its twin F-414 turbofan engines into a deafening roar and hurtling into the sky at speeds touching 2000 kmph.
But this was no game. Through the coming fortnight, those pilots will test-fly the Super Hornet in India, scrutinising every aspect of its performance to decide whether it meets the IAF requirements for a Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) to defend Indian skies, and support Indian ground troops, over the next four decades.
There are six contenders for this massive Indian tender for 126 medium fighters, an order worth some $11 billion dollars. Besides Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet, Lockheed Martin has offered the F-16IN Super Viper; there’s the MiG-35 from Russia’s RAC MiG; the Rafale, offered by French company, Dassault; the Gripen NG, from Sweden’s Saab; and the Eurofighter Typhoon offered by a four-nation European consortium.
Over the next 8 months four IAF pilots will fly and fire all six fighters to evaluate which of them meet --- in every way --- the stringent requirements spelt out in the tender. This duel has been in the making for a full 8 years. That’s how long it has taken India’s notoriously sluggish Defence Ministry to frame its requirements, issue a global tender, and do a paper evaluation of the six responses that were received.
Now the ball is in the IAF’s court; it is time to see how the aircraft perform in the air. Being tested first, over the next two months, will be the two American fighters and the Russian Mig-35. Then, after a five-month winter break, the three European aircraft will be put through their paces.
The world’s toughest testing ground
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has assembled a team of its hottest top guns for evaluating the six fighters in the fray. Overseeing the entire testing process will be Air Commodore Rakesh Dhir, the Principal Director, Air Staff Requirements at IAF Headquarters. He will have two separate teams to do the actual flight-testing. One will test the two US fighters --- the F/A-18 and the F-16IN --- and the Russian MiG-35. The other team will be responsible for evaluating the three European aircraft: the Gripen, the Rafale, and the Eurofighter.
These teams will vie to uphold India’s reputation as the world’s toughest testing ground for military equipment. Each of the six fighters will fly in three types of terrain: hot and humid Bangalore, the desert heat of Jaisalmer, and the freezing high altitude desert of Ladakh. Any failure anywhere could signal the end of a campaign that will set back each of the contenders around $25-30 million.
Two Boeing F/A-18 will land this weekend at Bangalore, the home of India’s secretive flight testing agency, the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment. Like Boeing, each contending company plans to bring in at least two fighters, in case of technical problems. Accompanying the fighters will be fully equipped maintenance teams to iron out niggles daily, after the Indian test pilots finish throwing their fighters around the sky.
Jaisalmer: heat and dust
After the testing in Bangalore, each team will travel for two days to Jaisalmer to test aircraft performance in the desert heat. During the Jaisalmer leg, each contender will also drop unguided bombs at a ground target placed in the Pokhran Range. But the really high-tech weaponry --- guided by radar, infrared or laser --- will be tested in each aircraft’s home base. Switching on airborne radar is a strict no-no when there is the remotest possibility of it being recorded by a foreign country. An aircraft’s radar signal is as unique to it as a fingerprint is to an individual. Every major air force, India’s included, maintains a worldwide “library” of radar signals; aircraft in those libraries can be quickly identified whenever they switch on their radar.
But the sting has been taken out of the desert trials; the summer is practically over. Months of MoD inactivity, caused by the general elections, has resulted in “hot weather” trials being scheduled in a balmy 35-40 degrees Centigrade, rather than the searing 50 degree heat of a real Jaisalmer summer. Officials from Eurofighter, which sailed through summer trials in the Saudi Arabian desert, grumble that the MoD lost an opportunity to discover the contenders vulnerabilities.
Ladakh: hot and high
From Jaisalmer, the fighters head for what could be the trickiest part of the trials: the “Hot and High” trials at the spectacular Leh airfield, in Ladakh. On the face of it, there isn’t much to do in Leh: each fighter must land with a specified load of weapons and fuel; switch off its engines and systems; the pilot must alight and do a quick visual check of his aircraft, during which the cold starts to seep into the aircraft components; then after getting back inside, he must start up the fighter’s engines and systems, without external help, and then take off.
Sounds simple! But this is the phase that is giving the contenders nightmares. At 10,682 feet, which is the altitude of Leh airfield, oxygen levels are so low that there is a real danger of the aircraft engines not starting up after they are switched off. And, once started, the oxygen-starved engines will strain to lift the fighters off that short airfield, even with a reduced payload that would be child’s play at sea level.
The testing teams: IAF top guns
A specially selected IAF test pilot of the rank of Group Captain will head each of the two test teams. He will actually fly each of the three fighters that he is responsible for evaluating. Flying in tandem with him will be another junior pilot; it will quickly become clear whether the fighter can be handled comfortably by a less experienced pilot. Each team will also include a clutch of technicians: an avionics system engineer to check high-tech gadgetry like the on-board electronic warfare equipment; a flight test engineer for performance related issues; and a maintenance engineer to observe how much maintenance each fighter needs before and after each sortie.
Making up the rest of each 8-10 person team will be: a logistician to evaluate how easily the spare parts and consumables can be kept flowing; technicians from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, where the fighter will eventually be built; and officials from certification and quality assurance agencies.
Who wins, who loses?
The MoD rulebook that governs defence purchases --- the Defence Procurement Policy of 2008 --- reduces the medium fighter competition to three simple steps. Firstly, the IAF specifies exactly the performance it wants from its proposed medium fighter. Next, it flies and evaluates all the aircraft on offer to see which ones meet all those requirements; and finally, the MoD buy the cheapest of those that qualify.
The most challenging of these steps is the first. Each detail of a fighter’s performance --- the runway length it must take off in; its rate of climb; turning radius; maximum and minimum speeds; range of operation; the weapons payload, its radar pickup; and dozens of similar parameters --- must be painstakingly quantified. Once all those are down in black and white, Step 2 becomes easy: the IAF test pilots fly each aircraft, checking each parameter one by one to see whether it matches up to what the IAF has laid down. The fighters that fail to meet the bill are eliminated from contention.
But there’s a hitch in the medium fighter competition, a problem of plenty! If the aircraft companies are to be believed, there’s a good possibility that all six aircraft might qualify. That would make the price the final determinant. The cheapest aircraft --- with costs calculated over its entire life of 30-40 years --- will walk away with the order.
This situation has arisen because the IAF has --- to use an automobile analogy --- set out to buy a Maruti-type car, but invited Rolls Royce, Jaguar, BMW and Audi to the bidding, along with Maruti and Hyundai. Four of the fighters in the fray (F/A-18, MiG-35, Eurofighter and Rafale) are expensive, two-engine powerhouses in the 25-30 tonne range. The other two (F-16IN and Gripen) are single-engine aircraft and, therefore, lighter (15-20 tonnes) and cheaper. And since avionics, sensors, radars and missiles are compact and light, the single-engine fighters are almost as combat-capable as their bigger rivals.
Experts agree that if the MoD plays by the rules, the Swedish Gripen --- the lightest and apparently cheapest contender --- will walk away with the contract. The single-engine F-16IN may be very close behind.
The superior range and weapons payload of the heavier fighters will earn them no brownie points for being far better than the tender requirements. To return to the automobile analogy, if the buyer specifies a top speed of at least 100 kmph, the Jaguar and the Audi get no credit for clocking twice that speed. If the Maruti can clock 100 kmph, it will be selected being the cheapest.
But the vendors fielding the twin-engine behemoths are confident about their chances. Admitting that their purchase price may be higher, they declare that when the “Cost of Ownership” is calculated over 30-40 years, their lower maintenance and spare parts costs, and higher aircraft availability will tilt the economics in their favour.
And Eurofighter chief, Bernhard Gerwert, told Business Standard in Delhi last week that superlative flying and combat performance would definitely count. He said, “The feedback that we have gotten after meetings in Delhi with the MoD and the IAF is that they will test more than just compliance with the tender. The IAF will take into account the performance excellence of each aircraft.”
The IAF, however, flatly refutes this. Senior officers say there are no extra points for exceeding the requirements by, say, 50%. Testing will be confined to a “Compliance Matrix”, with a box being ticked alongside each performance parameter in which an aircraft measures up to the required specifications.
Says a senior officer, “We don’t compare the aircraft with each other. We compare the aircraft with the tender requirements, filling in a Compliance Matrix”.
Amidst this uncertainty, and with billions at stake, the aerospace corporations have launched a media blitz to harness public and political opinion. Journalists, astronauts, corporate honchos, medal-winning athletes and politicians have in turn been taken up for high-profile joyrides. NDTV anchor, Vishnu Som, has flown co-pilot on four of the six aircraft, more than any of the IAF test pilots will be able to claim.
The game is on.
Face-to-face: rating their chances
F/A-18 Super Hornet: Overall chances: COOL
1. Battle-tested, frontline fighter with the US Navy
2. Powerful, agile, rugged, designed for aircraft carriers
3. Advanced avionics and missile systems
4. Can function as refuelling tanker with external fuel tanks
5. Fields fully-operational and deployed Raytheon APG-79 AESA radar
1. US restrictions on modifications and end usage
2. Earlier generation design, dating back to 1980s
3. Heavy, 30-ton aircraft, expensive
F-16IN Super Viper: Overall chances: WARM
1. Tested modern fighter, has logged over 100,000 combat missions globally
2. Single-engine, 19-tonne fighter, price competitive
4. Advanced Northrop Grumman APG-80 AESA radar
5. Four F-16 production lines functioning world-wide
3. Earlier vintage F-16s in service with Pakistan Air Force
Eurofighter Typhoon: Overall chances: COOL
1. Contemporary fighter, still evolving
2. High performance, high-end technology, including supercruise
3. Offering India development partnership
4. No end user restrictions, easy transfer of technology
5. EADS already helping to develop India’s LCA
1. No combat experience
3. AESA radar still under development
Saab Gripen NG: Overall chances: RED HOT
1. Only Eurofighter and Gripen are capable of Supercruise: supersonic flight without afterburners
2. Can land, refuel, rearm and take off in 10 minutes
3. Light, single-engine, highly cost-effective
4. Selex Raven AESA radar with advanced swashplate technology
5. Willing to hand over source codes for high-tech equipment
1. Has US components, including engines and avionics
3. India has never operated a Swedish fighter
RAC MiG, MiG-35: Overall chances: HOT
1. Dovetails easily with IAF’s MiG-29 fleet
2. Typical Russian fast, agile fighter
3. Vastly improved avionics and targeting system
4. Thrust-vectoring engines option exists
5. Cheapest ticket price of twin-engine fighters
1. Airframe barely improved from MiG-29
2. Zhuk-Phazotron AESA radar still under development
3. Life cycle cost of Russian fighters is traditionally high
Dassault Rafale: Overall chances: DARK HORSE
1. Amongst the most contemporary options
2. France deploys on land and aircraft carriers
3. IAF’s Mirage-2000 fleet creates comfort level with Dassault
4. Transfer of technology smooth; no end user restrictions
5. Only non-US fighter with deployed AESA radar
1. Limited combat experience
2. 25-tonne, twin-engine aircraft, expensive
3. Only contender never to have flown in India
Labels: defence planning, france, HAL, Indian Air Force, LCA, MMRCA, russia, US military
F/A-18 trials from Monday: MoD sends out mixed messages
(Photos: courtesy Boeing)
US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets. In the picture on the right, they are carrying out fighter-to-fighter mid-air refuelling
Business Standard, 13th Aug 09
This weekend, two Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters will land in Bangalore for flight trials by the Indian Air Force (IAF), an eight-month-long selection process, involving six different aircraft, to zero in on a multi-role medium fighter for the IAF.
India’s defence ministry (MoD) has billed this Rs 42,000 crore purchase, currently the world’s biggest international arms tender, as also the world’s most transparent. The MoD declares that the tender document specifies every detail of what the IAF needs, and whichever company meets those requirements, at the cheapest cost, will walk away with the order.
But now, contradictory messages are emerging; the mantra no longer seems to be “a specified capability for the cheapest price”. Instead, MoD and IAF officers are apparently telling vendors like EADS --- which has offered the high-priced and high-performance Eurofighter --- that extra performance will win extra points.
Bernhard Gerwert, CEO Military Air Systems for EADS, travelled last week to Delhi to assess whether it was worth spending millions of dollars to put the Eurofighter through flight trials in India. If Eurofighter’s superlative performance, superior in several respects than the Indian tender requirements, would win no extra credit, Gerwert was prepared to pull out of the competition.
But the MoD provided the reassurance he was looking for. A relieved Gerwert told Business Standard after his meetings, “The feedback that we have gotten after meetings in Delhi with the MoD and the IAF is that they will test more than just compliance with the tender. The IAF will take into account the performance excellence of each aircraft during flight trials.”
After the relieved EADS team departed from Delhi on 7th August, Business Standard again asked senior IAF officials whether a fighter that demonstrated outstanding performance during flight-testing would win extra credits. The IAF’s answer was an unambiguous negative. “We will not be comparing the aircraft with one another. We have made out a “Compliance Matrix”, and we will only require each fighter’s performance to comply with what we have demanded in the RfP (Request for Proposals, or the tender). There are no extra points for having, say, 50% extra capability. Each contender just has to meet the IAF’s laid down requirements.”
This situation stems from the IAF’s unusually broad definition of a medium fighter. This contest has brought into the arena a range of aircraft, with significant variations in performance --- from the 14-tonne, single-engine Gripen to the 30-tonne, double-engine Super Hornet.
At the end of the flight-testing next May, predict experts, the IAF might have four or more aircraft that comply fully with the MoD’s tender. In that case, the cheapest bid will win, with the MoD evaluating costs on a “Life Cycle” basis. That includes all the costs over a 30-40 year life-cycle, adding the per unit purchase price to the costs of technology, indigenous manufacture, infrastructure, repair and maintenance, operating expenses, and a host of other hidden costs. The IAF calls it “Cost of Ownership”; this method of calculation is being adopted for the first time by India for a capital equipment purchase from abroad.
Western vendors, whose military equipment has traditionally had higher ticket prices, claim that the “Cost of Ownership” calculation will tilt the equation in their favour, especially when compared with Russian equipment that they accuse of being maintenance-heavy, demanding vast quantities of spares, and spending more time on the ground than in the air.
Labels: defence planning, Defence Production, france, HAL, Indian Air Force, MMRCA
The EVM controversy: old allegations revisited
Business Standard, 7th Aug 09
Today, the BJP and the Shiv Sena appeared before the Election Commission to allege that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), which are now used for all Indian elections, can be manipulated to favour a candidate. But old-timers from Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), who perfected the EVMs in the late 1980s, say that all the current allegations have been raised before, and comprehensively disproved.
Colonel HS Shankar, former Director (R&D) at BEL says that EVMs came under fire soon after BEL demonstrated them to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in mid-1989. Shankar, who attended that meeting, recalls that an impressed Rajiv Gandhi suggested the use of EVMs in 150 constituencies during the 1989 general elections.
The first challenge came swiftly. On 15th October 1989, at a dramatic press conference in New Delhi, Janata Dal chief, Vishwanath Pratap Singh and George Fernandes produced a “computer consultant” to prove that EVMs could easily be rigged. Before a crowd of journalists, the consultant keyed in “3 + 3” into a computer, pressed “Enter” and showed the answer to the crowd. It was 9.
In the charged atmosphere of 1989, the Election Commission scrapped the plan to use EVMs that year. But when VP Singh became PM, BEL launched a campaign to prove the reliability of electronic voting. Eventually, the government created an experts committee to examine whether EVMs could be “fiddled”.
Professor S Sampath of the Defence R&D Organisation headed the committee, which included Dr PV Indiresan of IIT Delhi, and Dr C Rao Kasarabada, Director Electronic Research and Development Center, Trivandrum. Dr Indiresan gathered four of his brightest research students and gave them five days to subvert the EVM’s source code. Their only restriction: there should be no external damage to the EVM.
Colonel Shankar says that BEL gave Dr Indiresan’s team all the EVM circuit diagrams and design drawings; only the encryption-coded software was withheld. “After five days of struggling, they admitted that the EVM was tamper-proof.”
At the core of the EVM is a microcontroller chip, built by Hitachi of Japan, called an OTP-ROM (one-time programmable read-only memory). Onto this, the Indian EVM contractors --- BEL and Electronics Corporation of India (ECIL) --- “burn” the algorithm that makes it record votes. The microprocessor’s “non-volatile” memory ensures that, once the algorithm is written, it can never be overwritten or subverted, not even by the manufacturer.
The algorithm makes the EVM function as a vote counter. Each candidate is assigned a numbered button, according to the alphabetic order of the candidates’ names. Each time a voter presses, say, Button No 1, the software adds one vote to the account of Candidate No 1. And since, in each constituency, each political party’s candidate will have different serial numbers (determined by the candidate’s name) there is no possibility of installing a country-wide code that favours one party.
After failing to subvert the software, the Sampath Committee staged a mock election to try and subvert the procedure. Failing to do so, it strongly endorsed the EVM. Chief Election Commissioner, RVS Peri Sastry, discussed the test results with all the political party heads, including BJP President LK Advani, all of whom agreed to the use of EVMs in general elections.
“The reason why all parties accepted the EVM was simple”, explains Colonel Shankar, “We copied the simplicity and transparency of the earlier system, while doing away with its drawbacks.”
Besides the tedious counting of votes, the major drawback in the old system of paper voting was booth capturing. Party goons would take over voting booths and, in a couple of hours, stamp thousands of paper ballots in each booth and slip them into the boxes. EVMs mitigate the effects of booth capturing, since a delay circuit ensures only two votes can be recorded per minute. Even if a booth is captured for an hour, a maximum of 120 votes can be polled.
"Eventually, EVMs were used for the first time in general elections in 45 seats in 1999. Polling in the 2004 general elections was entirely on EVMs. This year, again, 671 million voters got the opportunity to vote on EVMs."
Labels: Inside Tales
Facing order cuts at home, Eurofighter sweetens India offer
(Photos: courtesy Kuldip Gangwani)
Flight displays by the Eurofighter Typhoon during Aero India 2009)
Business Standard, 3rd Aug 09
With the four-nation Eurofighter consortium facing the uncomfortable reality of dwindling orders at home, India’s tender for 126 medium fighters, worth some $11 billion, is now crucial. So Eurofighter has reworked some of its most fundamental tenets and structures, to appear more appearling to India.
Next Friday, Eurofighter boss, Bernhard Gerwert, will fly into Delhi to offer a new sweetener to the Ministry of Defence: if India chooses the Eurofighter, it can become a full-fledged manufacturing partner, the first “outsider” to crack a tightly-interwoven four-country manufacturing chain.
The consortium that developed the Eurofighter --- comprising the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain --- had decided upon a unique manufacturing structure. Each part of the Eurofighter is manufactured in a different country; e.g. the right wing is made in Spain, the left wing in Italy. After that, all four partners assemble their own aircraft, bringing the parts together from the plants where they are manufactured.
This EU-style compromise distributed manufacturing jobs (100,000 jobs in 400 companies) amongst the four partners, while creating a mutual dependency.
If India becomes the fifth Eurofighter partner, it will manufacture complete assemblies --- say, as a random example, the front fuselage and tail fins --- for every new Eurofighter across the world. That will include fighters for the air forces of the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria and Saudi Arabia. In addition, Switzerland, Japan, Romania, Greece and Turkey, which are currently evaluating the Eurofighter, could also be on that list.
Kicking off its India campaign in early 2008, Eurofighter had suggested that India could play a major role in the programme, even using the word, “partnership”. But that was never elaborated; only now will India unambiguously be offered a share of the manufacture. All four European partners have agreed to forego a part of their work share to bring India in.
An order like India’s is badly needed. Earlier this year, a budget-strapped British MoD tried to pull out of buying its contracted share of 88 fighters from the latest batch (called Tranche 3). Eventually the UK honoured its commitments only because default would have cost London billions of Euros in penalties. The other Eurofighter partners are equally cash-strapped; all have jointly agreed to cut back on their orders for now.
In contrast to the gloom in Europe, the future in India looks rosy. EADS --- Eurofighter’s major shareholder --- has enjoyed notable success in penetrating the Indian market. Early this year, EADS signed a US $20 million contract to help resolve persistent niggles in India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme. US companies, Boeing and Lockheed Martin were ruled out of that bid by Washington’s unwillingness to grant permissions (called Technical Assistance Agreements). EADS points to the LCA consultancy as a major victory that highlighted the comparative ease of doing high-tech business with Europe.
Buoyed by the LCA consultancy, EADS is now focusing on the US $600 million tender --- floated by the MoD on 17th July --- for supplying 99 fighter engines for India’s single-engine LCA. Eurojet, an EADS subsidiary, has offered EJ200 engines, which power the twin-engine Eurofighter. The rival engine is the General Electric GE-414, which powers Eurofighter’s big rival, the twin-engine Boeing F/A-18. Getting the engine selected, both rivals believe, is a sure path towards getting the fighter selected as well.
Labels: defence planning, Defence Production, HAL, Indian Air Force, LCA, MMRCA
Project 28: Prestigious Indian anti-submarine corvette project delayed to build up private sector suppliers
(Photos: courtesy Ajai Shukla. Reproduce only with due credit to Ajai Shukla and Broadsword)
Photo 1: The stern of the corvette taken from the ground.
Photo 2: A view of the helicopter deck, looking rearwards at the Hooghly River, taken from where the hangar will be erected. .
Photo 3: A view of what will be the helicopter deck, taken from the rear. The hangar being a part of the superstructure, has not yet been erected.
Photo 4: The hull of the Project 28 ASW corvette.
Photo 5: A view of the forward main deck. Visible is the opening for the magazine of the Otomelara SRGM and the IRL system
Photo 6: One of the two engine rooms. You can observe the seating onto which one of the ship's three engines will be lowered.
Business Standard, 1st August 09
In the hot Kolkata sun, on the banks of the Hooghly River, craftsmen from Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) swarm over what will be the Indian Navy’s most high-tech stealth warship. For GRSE, the navy’s order for four anti-submarine warfare (ASW) corvettes is its flagship project. But Project 28, as it is termed, is two years behind schedule.
The first corvette was to join the fleet early next year. Business Standard discovered, during a first-ever media visit to this secretive project, that it will be delivered only in June 2012. The other three corvettes of Project 28 will follow at one-year intervals.
The major reason for the delay: the Indian Navy has stipulated such unprecedented standards of stealth for every piece of equipment on board that suppliers have struggled to develop engines, transmission, air-conditioning and power-generating systems that work silently enough to meet those requirements. Furthermore, the navy mandated that Indian suppliers would provide much of that equipment.
The Project 28 corvettes are 2500-tonne warships that will protect Indian Navy battle groups and coastal installations from lurking enemy submarines. In the deadly cat-and-mouse game between ASW corvettes and submarines, the stealthier vessel is usually the winner, detecting and destroying its opponent after sneaking up undetected. The challenge of Project 28 has been to minimise vibrations and noise from the ship’s machinery, propellers, and from water swirling past the hull.
Success has come late in developing some of this equipment. The Kirloskar group has delivered the engines, albeit after a delay. Earlier this year, DCNS of France supplied the Raft Mounted Gearbox, which almost completely suppresses noise from the power pack. But Wartsila India is still struggling to reduce vibration in the four diesel alternators that will power the corvette’s electronics.
Once all this is in place, six huge spaces will have to be cut open in the corvette’s hull, through which giant cranes will lower monster-sized equipment like the 65-tonne engines. Then the hull will be welded shut once again.
For the navy, which has implemented indigenisation as something of a religion --- the Naval Headquarters includes a full-fledged Directorate of Indigenisation --- the delay in Project 28 is a regrettable, but acceptable, consequence of its twin objectives: building cutting edge warships and, simultaneously, developing Indian warship building industry.
The Navy Chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta told Business Standard that the navy had carefully laid down stealth standards that were absolutely necessary in war. Admiral Mehta explained, “We cannot compromise operational requirements for suppliers who are having difficulties meeting standards. We cannot come second in war.”
The navy’s top designer, Rear Admiral MK Badhwar, says the navy is determined to nurture an Indian supplier base, to develop increasingly high-tech products for warships. He points out, “Initially, they (the private companies) had real problems in meeting the sophistication levels that we were demanding. But we insisted and now most of them have done so. This is vital for an indigenous shipbuilding industry.”
All this has taken the cost of Project 28 from a sanctioned Rs 2800 crores (Rs 700 crores per corvette), to an estimated Rs 7000 crores now. This is approximately in line with cost increases for previous Indian-built warships.
GRSE’s Chairman and Managing Director, Rear Admiral KC Sekhar explains, “Fortunately our shipyard will not take a financial hit, since this was a cost-plus contract (in which the actual cost of construction of the first ship will be the basis for paying for the entire project). But we have learned valuable lessons. The complexity of the project was totally underestimated.”
The Project 28 corvettes, when they join the navy’s fleet, will be silent and heavily armed. An Otomelara Super Rapid Gun Mount (SRGM) on the bow can pour 76 millimetre shells onto aerial and surface targets. Flanking it will be two Indigenous Rocket Launchers (IRLs) that can fire at both submarines and ships. Submarines can also be engaged through six torpedo tubes. Two AK 630 Gatling guns, one on either side, can shoot down attacking aircraft. Finally, vertically launched missiles are likely to be mounted for engaging aerial targets.
Labels: defence planning, Defence Production, DRDO, france, Indian Navy, Private Sector, shipbuilding
US and Indian troops to begin training together fo...
A detailed look at the Car Nicobar class Water Jet...
Gearbox problems delay the Car Nicobar class Fast ...
Duel in the sky: Testing the MMRCAs and rating the...
F/A-18 trials from Monday: MoD sends out mixed mes...
Facing order cuts at home, Eurofighter sweetens In...
Project 28: Prestigious Indian anti-submarine corv...
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Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences
Effect of lipid source; Linseed or soybean in diets, on rumen and blood fatty acids profiles in Damascus goats
Abeer M. El-Essawy
Abstract This research aims to evaluate the effect of feeding different levels of whole linseed (L); as a lipid source rich in linolenic fatty acid, and full fat soybean (S); as a lipid source rich in linoleic fatty acid; on ruminal and plasma fatty acids profiles, rumen fermentation, and microorganism population. Twenty-four Damascus goats were assigned to 3 dietary treatments; S, S+L and L groups; contained 90% basal diet which consisted of 56.67% Concentrate feed mixture (CFM) and 33.33% Alfalfa hay with either 10% full fat soybean, 5% full fat soybean + 5% whole linseed or 10% whole linseed, respectively. Inclusion of linseed to diets increased (P<0.01) the total volatile fatty acids (TVFA’s) and ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N) (P<0.05) compared to animals fed on soybean diet whereas ruminal pH was not affected by dietary treatments. Significant increases (P<0.01) were detected in the populations of Cellulomonas cellulasea, Bacillus sp., Thermonospora fusca, Acetobacter xylinum, Ruminococcus albus and Clostridium cellulovorans in goats fed on linseed compared to those fed on soybean diets. The populations of R. albus and C. cellulovorans were only affected with the high inclusion of linseed. The number of ciliated sp. (Holotrichs) decreased (P< 0.01) while Entodinomorphs sp. increased (P<0.05) with linseed . There was a significant increase (P<0.05) in the total number of protozoa compared to that of goats which received soybean only. The ruminal and blood plasma fatty acids (FA) profiles of the experimental animals showed considerable modifications. Ruminal stearic acid showed the highest (P<0.01) percentage with linseed feeding while palmitic (P<0.01) and oleic acids (P<0.05) were predominant with soybean feeding. Saturated fatty acids (SFA) detected higher percentage than unsaturated ones on both levels of linseeds. Soybean inclusion increased (P<0.01) percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) compared to other two groups. In blood plasma; the predominant FA were palmitic, oleic then stearic acids with soybean, either supplied alone or with linseed (S and S+L groups), whereas oleic, palmitic then linoleic acids were predominant with linseed (P<0.01). The percentage of the absorbed UFA with linseed supply was more than SFA in the same group. Plasma total protein, albumin (P<0.01) and urea (P<0.05) were increased by linseed inclusion while createnine (P<0.05) increased with soybean. Linseed inclusion resulted in decreased blood cholesterol (P<0.01), triglycerides (P<0.05), low density lipoprotein (P<0.01) and increased high density lipoprotein (P<0.01) and total antioxidant capacity (P<0.01). Results indicated that linseed inclusion in diets resulted in considerable variations in rumen and plasma FA which indicates health promoting effects. Therefore, fatty acids composition of animal’s products resulted in more satisfying and healthful properties for consumer
[ FULL TEXT PDF 1-10 ] DOI: 10.22587/ajbas.2019.13.5.1
Effect of selenium and vitamin E injection on nutritive value and performance of Baladi doe goats in Southern Sinai
Ahlam, R. Abdou
Abstract The present study aimed to investigate the effect of different injection levels of selenium plus vitamin E on goat performance, intake, digestibility, nutritive value and milk and blood metabolites. Forty Baladi doe goats 2-3 year old and (20.47±1.82 kg) average live body weight were randomly divided into four groups (10 does each). The first group was a control group, does of 2nd, 3rd and 4th groups received two injections of selenium and Vit. E; at early and late periods of gestation as follows, 0.125 mg Se+ 1.7 IU Vit. E/kg BW for 2nd group (T1), 0.250 mg Se + 3.4 IU Vit. E/kg BW for 3rd group (T2) and 0.310 mg Se + 4.2 IU Vit. E/kg BW for 4th group (T3). Digestibility trials were carried out after each injection. Does were fed a basal ration of concentrate feed mixture and the roughage portion of the diet was Berseem hay. Body weight of dams and kids were recorded. Mineral content (Se, Zn, Fe, Mn and Cu) of serum, blood and milk parameters were determined. Results revealed that, the injection of both Se and Vit. E did not show any significant effects on TDMI and CPI of treated groups at either period of pregnancy. Control group showed higher (P<0.05) CPD% than treatments. Whereas, EED% increased with Se supplementation. Supplementation of Se and Vit. E increased TDN% at late period and decreased NB at early and late pregnancy compared to control. Supplementation increased weight gain during pregnancy. Control and T2 recorded higher (P<0.05) average weaning weight, and daily gain than T3 and T1 groups. Goats received 0.125 mg Se plus1.7 IU Vit. E (T1) produced higher milk yield followed by control, T3 and then T2. Selenium concentration in milk increased with increasing injected selenium. Higher creatinine concentration at six hours’ post feeding was observed in treated groups compared with control. The highest AST was shown at zero time, while no significant effects on ALT were noticed. The highest AST value of P (5.33 mg/dl) was recorded of zero time for late pregnancy compared (3.28mg/dl) with early pregnancy periods at zero time. There were (P<0.01) differences of calcium (Ca) values among sampling time. The levels of zinc, iron did not differ significantly. Serum selenium concentration at zero time showed significant (P<0.05) differences. It could be concluded that lower level (0.125 mg Se plus 1.7 IU Vit. E/ kg /kg BW) injection of during early and late gestation improved nutrients digestibility, nutritive values, nitrogen utilization and increased milk yield of does. Moreover, injection with Selenium plus vitamin E resulted in normal renal functions (creatinine, urea), some minerals (phosphorus, calcium, iron , zinc and copper) and normal activities of both enzymes (alanine amino transferase (ALT) and aspartate amino transferase (AST) in pregnant does.
[ FULL TEXT PDF 11-25 ] DOI: 10.22587/ajbas.2019.13.5.2
Column adsorption of Violet Crystal and Methyl Red by deactivated lichen Parmotrema dilatatum
Kouassi Kouadio Dobi-Brice, Ekou Lynda, Yacouba Zoungranan, Koffi Kouame Sevariste, Ekou Tchirioua
Abstract In recent decades, there is an increase industrial sector in Ivory Coast, which results in the establishment of textile, agrochemical, pharmaceutical, etc. These industries release toxic chemicals such as dyes (Bhuiyan et al., 2017) into aquatic systems. Rejected dyes may cause gastrointestinal infections in humans with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea (Dulce et al., 2017; Jabs and Drutz, 2001). In plants, they affect negatively the process of photosynthesis (Tahir et al., 2016). Several effluent treatment methods (Lofrano et al., 2016) exist but remain expensive and inaccessible for developing countries such as Every coast. Adsorption is an alternative to these problems. The objective of these studies is to remove two dyes, Violet Crystal (VC) and Methyl Red (MR), on deactivated lichens using an adsorption column. The volume flow rate, lichen grain size, adsorption bed height and initial column entry concentration will be evaluated. Column adsorption tests have shown that feed rate, lichen grain diameter, adsorption bed height and dye concentration are parameters that influence the adsorption capacity and operating times of the column, such as residence and saturation times. The best residence and saturation times, and the best adsorption capacities were observed with a low flow rate D = 0.07 L/min, a high bed height h= 8 cm corresponding to a mass of 100 g, a small size of lichen grain [125-250 μm]. However, the increase in dye concentration has resulted in a decrease in residence and saturation times and an increase in the amount of adsorbed dye.
Evaluation of the quality of filter washing water and decanter sludge after sequential treatment by drainage bed, dissolved air flotation, and filtration
Nilton Fernandes de Oliveira, Andre Luiz de Oliveira
Abstract In the present study, following the treatment in the sequential drainage bed (LD), dissolved air flotation (FAD), and filtration, all being on bench scale, the evaluation of the quality of the sludge decanter and filter washing water was carried out, at the Bom Jardim Water Treatment Station, located in the city of Uberlândia-MG. Subsequently, effluents from drainage beds, composed of three types of different geotextile blankets ( RT-21, RT-26, and RT-31) were evaluated, followed by the analysis of three types of sand grading used in the present work. Upon being passed through the drainage bed, the drained effluents were directed to pass through the flotation unit by dissolved air, and subsequently, through the filtration units. The analysis was carried in two stages: stage I, and stage II. In stage I, the experiment was carried out in the absence of the coagulating agent or auxiliaries in coagulation/flocculation of the flotation. The samples, after passing through the system, were evaluated for physical parameters such as (i) pH, (ii) turbidity, (iii) true color, and (iv) apparent color, in addition to, chemical parameters, thereby determining the remaining concentrations of aluminum and iron. On the other hand, stage II involves the tests similar to those carried out in stage I, but in the presence of three different concentration (5, 10, and 15 mg/L) of the coagulant (aluminum sulfate), mainly used in coagulation/flocculation. Upon analyzing the results obtained from both stage I and II, one can deduce that test performed with the RT-26 blanket at the exit of Filter 01, in stage I, showed better performance, with the reduction being 91.8%, 41.4%, and 97.6%, of the apparent color, true color, and turbidity, respectively. However, in stage II, the best performance was observed, with the drainage of the RT-26 blanket at the outlet of Filter 02, upon being subjected to a dose of 15 mg/L of aluminum sulfate. The experiment demonstrated a reduction of 96.4% of the apparent color, 86.2% of the true color, and 99.6% of the turbidity. Therefore, the results establish the efficiency of the system in the removal of solids present in the filter washing water and the sedimentation sludge from the ETA studied. Thus, the study affirms that this system can be a potential alternative of the sludge discharge as well as can become an option of a new treated water supply line.
Investigating Instructors’ Attitude towards the Adoption of E-Learning Technology in Libyan Higher Education Institutes: Case Study; Misurata University
Khalid Ramadan, Jamal Elatresh, Alzain Alzain, Umit Tokeser
Abstract In recent years, Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) worldwide have invested heavily in the adoption of e-learning with a view to improving the quality of their education. However, the success of their development faced numerous challenges, particularly, the end user's acceptance, including the perceptions, and engagement. Therefore, surveying lecturers' attitudes toward e-learning in LHEIs is considered to be a meaningful stage before thoroughly embarking e-learning practices in educational activities. Instructors’ attitudes towards the use of e-learning have been extensively investigated in the educational system worldwide, however, in Libya, this research is ineffective and limited. In light of this, the present study aims to investigate the perception of instructors' in LHEIs and their attitudes towards implementing e-learning technology, where an online questionnaire has been utilized to collect data from 219 academic staff in various faculties at Misurata University (MU), in Libya. The collected data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social sciences (SPSS) to investigate the impact of demographic characteristics of participants on their attitude towards e-learning. The study concluded with a set of findings that revealed that the demographic characteristics of participants might have a significant impact on their attitude towards e-learning; which may directly impact the success of e-learning adoption in higher education. The results also show that the instructors in LHEIs have a positive attitude towards e-learning.
On the effect of audit committee characteristics on corporate governance good practices index. Fresh evidence from Sudan listed firms
Hussein Mohamed Elnafabi
Abstract The paper aims to study the effect of audit committee characteristics on the effectiveness of corporate governance practices among Sudanese public firms. We use a survey to construct an index of corporate governance practices effectiveness and an OLS regression method was used in order to test the effect of the main audit committee characteristics namely, the committee size, the committee experience, the committee education and the committee professional certificates on corporate governance good practices. The effect of auditors’ age on corporate governance practices effectiveness was also discussed.
Hormonal Strategy for Advance of Mating Season in Mares Scored on Follicular Diameter
Ana Carolina Fanhani de Arruda Botelho, Fabio Luiz Bim Cavalieri, Marcia Aparecida Andreazzi, Isabele Picada Emanuelli, Dyorgenes Mathaus Perosso Messias, Maria Fernanda Zamai
Abstract The equine productive in Brazil has been distinguished by the horses athletes. In this scenario, we highlight the use of reproduction biotecnology, which look to reproduce the best animals and increase the pregnancy rate through the induction of the first ovulation of the year. The objective of this study was to use intravaginal progesterone devices in mares with follicular diameters greater and smaller than 20 mm, aiming to advance the first ovulation of the mating season. Twenty-two crossbred mares, classified as: G1 - animals with a follicle ≤ 20 mm, and G2 - animals with follicles ≥ 20 mm, were given intravaginal progesterone device. After seven days, the follicular growth in the two groups was checked by daily ultrasonography. Device were removed when the animals got a follicle ≥ 35 mm and, one day after implant withdrawal, animals have reached 35 mm in both groups have had their ovulation induced. The data were tabulated and the statistical analyses of the variables were done using the procedure PROC GENMOD of the statistical program SAS, version 8.01. The percentage of animals that responded to the treatment, that is, had a dominant follicle greater than 35 mm, was significantly higher (P<0.05) in the animals of the G2 group (62.5%), compared to G1, which presented 28,5mm. The average time, in days, for the appearance of the dominant follicle was also higher (P<0.05) for the G2 group. The use of progesterone devices anticipated the first ovulation of the mating season, showing the efficiency and viability of technique.
Analysis of the agro-industrial system in the region of Balsas - MA between the years from 2005 to 2017
Gustavo de Oliveira Barbosa; Nilton Marques de Oliveira; Fernando Silva Lima
Abstract This study looking for to analyzes in general form the agroindustrial system in the city of Balsas – MA relating and evidencing the study with the data collected in secondary bases. The migration of soy to microregion in mid 80’s, starting of genectcs alterations and adaptations in soil made with the region attracted a lot of large landowners making the region appropriate to culture cultivation, showing up since the beginning the emergence of agroindustrial complex in the city. We are interested to analyze and to understand the economic dynamic in the city as well as for the microregion. The methodology adopted was based on a bibliographical review, a priori, after the theoretical construction, secondary data analysis gived for IBGE and RAIS. The results showed the concentration and attraction that city of Balsas over other micro region's cities, evidencing, therefore, the existence of a relative agroindustrial complex in the county.
Multi Criterion Decision Making Techniques for Ranking Regional climate models Over Wadi El-Natrun Catchment
Mahmoud A. Refaey and MHassan, Hany Mostafa, Mostafa Aboelkhear
Abstract A regional climate model (RCM) is a numerical climate prediction model forced by specified lateral and ocean conditions from a general circulation model (GCM). Multicriterion analysis were used to rank and choose the best regional model for the wadi el-natrun Catchment. Sixteen RCMs were assessed for Wadi El-Natrun Catchment with a gridded resolution of 0.5° × 0.5° for the mean monthly rainfall and mean monthly temperature using five performance indicators. The performance indicators used were the correlation coefficient, normalized root mean square deviation, absolute normalized root mean square deviation, average absolute relative deviation and skill score. The Entropy method was endorsed to acquire weights of these 5 indicators and PROMETHEE-2 (Preference Ranking Organization Method of Enrichment Evaluation). Multi-criterion decision-making techniques were applied as a new approach in Egypt for ranking sixteen Regional climate models over Wadi El-Natrun Catchment. The outranking relation is calculated and the solutions from best to worst are orderly positioned. Results direct that all entire applied methods give the same regional model for the first rank according to rainfall, for temperature, the first three applied methods (Compromise Programming, Cooperative Game Theory, Weighted average technique) give the same first rank model which have the second rank for PROMETHEE-2 method. The research concluded that the best model for the rainfall is not the same best model for temperature. The results indicated that model ICHEC-EC-EARTH _SMHI-RCA4 (Middle East and North Africa domain) and MPI-M-MPI-ESM-LR_MPI-CSC-REMO2009 (Africa domain) are the best regional climate model for simulating mean monthly rainfall and mean monthly temperature, respectively over Wadi El-Natrun Catchment. Therefore, they are recommended for the further investigation.
Solanum tuberosum peel waste: an attractive substrate for Aspergillus sp. CP to produce glucohydrolase under solid state fermentation
Erum Hanif , Rattab Abbas, Shafaq Aiyaz Hassan, Raheela Rahmat Zohra
Abstract Filamentous fungi are being selected for the production of industrial enzymes as they have enormous capacity of production, on low cost solid substrates. Glucohdrolase is one of the industrial enzymes produced by Aspergillus niger. It hydrolyzed alpha 1, 4 and beta 1,6 glycosidic linkage, yield glucose by hydrolyzing polysaccharides from non-reducing end. Major utilization of glucohydrolase is in starch and beverage industry for the preparation of high fructose corn syrup. The present study is focused to utilize low cost, easily available potato peel waste as substrate for the production of glucohydrolase. Solid state fermentation optimization was carried out by providing suitable physiochemical parameters results in highest enzyme production i.e. 12333 units/ml/min. Dry potato peels 20 grams per fermentation flask, particle size 2mm, was moisten with a fermentation medium containing soluble potato starch 10g/L, peptone1g/L, yeast extracts 2g/L and MgSO4.7H2O 0.5g/L, (pH 5) with 50% of final moisture content. Fermentation was started with the inoculum of 7.5x104 spores per flask and fermentation was carried out at 20oC for 5 days.
[ FULL TEXT PDF 97-105 ] DOI: 10.22587/ajbas.2019.13.5.10
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Follow @waltmossberg
Personal Technology > Applications
iTunes Gets an Upgrade Without Missing a Beat
December 4, 2012 at 6:05 pm PT
See More Reviews »
Apple’s iTunes is the world’s most popular computer program for playing, managing and buying music, movies and TV shows. The company estimates the number of copies in active use to be in the high hundreds of millions. Now, Apple has given iTunes its biggest overhaul since 2003, when the software — originally just a jukebox for Macs — was made available for Windows computers and the built-in iTunes store was added.
I’ve been testing this major new version, called iTunes 11, and I consider it a significant improvement in the look, feel, speed and function of the program, which had become somewhat bloated, sluggish and dense over the years as new features were added.
This new version won’t please every iTunes user. Some familiar ways of doing things have changed and some longtime features have been axed in the name of simplification. People who use iTunes solely to organize and play their media, not to buy it from Apple, will find many more prompts to patronize the iTunes store. There also are a few small flaws Apple is pledging to fix soon.
Overall, however, I found the new iTunes a pleasure to use. The venerable program is now brighter and more colorful, with clever and pleasing new capabilities and faster search. There is tighter integration between the library of media that resides on your computer and media stored in Apple’s online iCloud service. Streaming from the cloud has been expanded. The store has also been made cleaner, simpler and easier to use.
A new feature of iTunes 11, called Expanded view, allows you to click on an album cover to get a matching panel showing all the songs on that album.
I tested iTunes 11 on four computers: two PC laptops, one running Windows 7 and one the new Windows 8; and two Macs, an older desktop iMac and a late-model MacBook Air laptop. On all four machines, it ran well and smoothly, never crashing and properly playing all the local and cloud-based music and videos I tried.
In my tests, I bought a variety of new songs and videos, and they quickly became available on all my devices, including the four computers, an iPhone and an iPad. I also was able to smoothly sync an iPhone, an iPad and even a very old iPod, with no problems.
There are many small changes scattered throughout the program, but a few stand out.
No More Sidebar
The most notable change is that the program no longer uses a long, scrolling text sidebar to switch between displays of the major media types, such as music, movies, TV shows and podcasts. Instead, you select these by clicking on a drop-down button. When you pick a media type, it displays choices at the top. The music mode, for example, shows songs, albums, artists, genres and playlists. Choosing any of these instantly changes the main screen to reflect that choice.
Opening the iTunes Store is now done using a button at the top right. Once in the store, you return to the library using a similar button at the right.
Those who prefer the old sidebar can bring it back and banish the new main buttons.
My favorite new feature is called Expanded view. You can now click on any album cover and the cover image expands into a colorful panel showing all the songs on that album. The panel is in the dominant shade of the album cover and shows a lovely image of the cover that blends into the colored background of the panel.
This Expanded view also works for movies and TV shows, showing relevant information about films and, for TV shows, lists of episodes.
A small arrow next to each song, album, movie or TV show lets you perform actions like adding an item to a playlist, or jumping to the artist page in your library, or going to the item in the store.
Another nice feature is called Up Next. It replaces a function called DJ and is essentially a queue of songs. You place any song at the top of this queue to play it next and see a history of what has been played earlier. If you like, you can play immediately any song in these lists.
For years, iTunes was mainly about downloading media, not streaming it from the cloud. That changes with iTunes 11, now better integrated with Apple’s iCloud service, which stores music and videos you have purchased from Apple, or, if you have the paid iTunes Match service, any song, whether you bought it from Apple or not.
As before, small cloud icons indicate whether an album, movie or TV show is stored in iCloud rather than on your computer. And as before, you can click on these to download them. But now, iTunes lets you stream a song, movie or show without downloading.
Previously, streaming from the cloud was only available for paid users of Apple’s iTunes Match service, and only for songs.
MiniPlayer
The program has long had a MiniPlayer option, which hides the main window in favor of a small oblong player that better coexists with other windows you have open on your computer.
Now, this little player has added functions, such as search, and Up Next.
Fans of iTunes will notice some omissions and flaws. The long-touted Cover Flow carousel of album covers has been dumped. The company says it found too few users considered it useful. A feature that finds duplicate entries is missing. Apple says it will soon be restored in a minor update of the program.
In my tests, some album covers were missing in album view. Apple says this is a rare bug, but one it has solved and will fix in a minor update soon. Another bug the company says will be remedied prevents owners of Apple TVs from wirelessly streaming cloud-based movies to their TVs.
Also, if you want to see biographical information on an artist, you have to go to the store. I wish it was available in the library, but Apple has no plans to change this.
Apple has made iTunes better and easier to use, and veteran users who upgrade will gain from the new features, if they take a little time to get used to them.
Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.
Tagged with Apple, iCloud, iPad, iPhone, iPod, iTunes, iTunes 11, ITunes Music Store, iTunes Store, Mac, MacBook
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August 29, 2018 Research No comments
Zebrafish is an attractive model to anticipate drug-induced renal injury in humans
Most of the innovative drugs with important therapeutic benefits are not approved or are removed from the clinical practice due to drug-induced toxicity. The kidneys are one of the most important target organs of drug toxicity because they play a crucial role in drug excretion and drug metabolism. More specifically, the proximal tubule, which is a portion of the nephrons of the kidney, is very sensitive to any drug insult because it reabsorbs and secretes drugs and metabolites, meaning that it is continuously exposed to high concentrations of toxins. Despite the relevance of drug-induce renal injury, there are no useful biomarkers to detect early renal damage nor therapies to treat the renal damage. This can be explained, at least in part, by the lack of appropriate animal models that mimic the human renal pathophysiology. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) present unique advantages for assessing drug-induced renal injury when compared with other animals used in biomedical research: small size, transparency, rapid development, transgenic capabilities, low cost and high homology between the zebrafish and human renal physiology.
Fig. 1. Morphological and functional assessment of drug-induced renal damage. Zebrafish larvae were exposed to nephrotoxic drugs in 96-well plates. The sketch of a zebrafish larva shows the kidney in green with the proximal tubule limited by a square. Morphological damage was quantified from the 3D reconstruction of the proximal tubule, which shows the lumen in purple, and the 3D reconstruction of the tubular cell, which shows the mitochondria in blue. Glomerular filtration was quantified from the decay in the fluorescence of the tail blood after intravenous injection of fluorescent inulin.
PCT, proximal convoluted tubule; G, glomeruli.
In this work, we aimed to investigate the potential of zebrafish larvae as a model of drug-induced renal injury through a detailed analysis of the functional and morphological renal alterations induced by three drugs that are widely used and known to cause renal tubular toxicity in humans: gentamicin, paracetamol and tenofovir (Fig. 1).
We exposed zebrafish larvae of 4 days post fertilization to each of the drugs separately in a concentration that was lethal for 10% of the larvae. After 24 hours of drug exposure, we evaluated the renal function and the tubular morphology using different imaging techniques. Renal function was assessed with intravenous injection of fluorescent inulin, a polysaccharide that is exclusively eliminated from the body through the kidney by glomerular filtration. Gentamicin and paracetamol proved to decrease the renal function. The morphology of the proximal tubules was evaluated with two-photon microscopy followed by 3-D reconstruction of the proximal tubules to quantify the diameter of the tubules. Paracetamol and tenofovir induced an enlargement of the tubules, which is an early sign of tubular dysfunction. A deeper morphological analysis, at the cellular level, was performed by transmission electron microscopy followed by 3-D modelling. Tubular mitochondria, cellular organelles that play crucial roles such as energy production, were severely affected by all drugs.
These results confirm that zebrafish and human nephrons react in a similar way to nephrotoxic drugs. Thus, zebrafish larvae are a useful model to assess potential renal toxicity of new drugs before being used in humans.
Raquel Jacinto, Rita Gorgulho, Susana S. Lopes,
Emilia C. Monteiro, Sofia. A. Pereira, Judit Morello
Chronic Diseases Research Center, NOVA Medical School, NOVA University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
Usefulness of zebrafish larvae to evaluate drug-induced functional and morphological renal tubular alterations.
Gorgulho R, Jacinto R, Lopes SS, Pereira SA, Tranfield EM, Martins GG, Gualda EJ, Derks RJE, Correia AC, Steenvoorden E, Pintado P, Mayboroda OA, Monteiro EC, Morello J
Arch Toxicol. 2018 Jan
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Small fish can help finding drugs to fight retina diseases About 285 million people are visually impaired in the world. The arising of chronic eye diseases and ageing processes make more people at risk of blindness, 65% of visually impaired…
animal models, drug-induced renal injury, imaging techniques, mitochondria, zebrafish
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to the races
Some find it hard to believe that I could possibly be interested in motorcycle racing. But I think when you're born and raised in the desert, some part of you innately has a draw to it. It just seems to be the thing to do there. But more importantly, when your husband used to ride and still would if he didn't have bum knees, has a passion for it, you tend to pick up the interest also. At least somewhat.
So when Jimmy got tickets to watch Supercross racing in San Francisco for Christmas, I happily tagged along. Despite my attempts to sabotage his plans. Twice. Sigh, i really need to write things down. Because my pea-brain can't remember anything on its own anymore. Anyhoo...
Here are some pics from the event:
The race was at AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants and big enough to hold over 40,000 fans.
It was a sunny day in San Francisco and we got there early enough to watch practice, walk around the stadium and check out the pit.
James Stewart, 2008 AMA Motorcross National Champion, rides right in front of me on his way to his pit after practice.
The stadium fills up with 40,000 Supercross fans (whodda knew there'd be so many in the Bay Area?).
and the races begin.
It starts with a Heat, where the riders race to place in the Main race.
We had great seats.
this is Chad Reed, last year's Supercross champion.
I learned there's a difference between Motorcross and Supercross. Supercross is in a stadium. Motorcross is on natural terrain.
This is the start of the next Heat. Up front is #7, James Stewart and #800 Mike Alessi. Mike Alessi and his brother Jeff are from the desert where Jimmy and I grew up.
Jeff Alessi #801 rides in the Lites Class. Mike is a Premier Class rider.
I couldn't help but cheer them on even though I was ultimately rooting for James.
The first lap, Mike lead the race, keeping James just a bit behind.
But after that lap, James Stewart sped past Mike and it was over. James won the Heat.
Now, the big guns were out and the Main race began.
The leading 3 in front are Chad Reed #1, Mike Alessi #800 and James Stewart #7.
But James Stewart won the hole shot and lead the race for all 20 laps.
And crosses the finish line victoriously.
Labels: Jimmy, performances, San Francisco
Not a cycle race lady...but i love, love the Indy car races....I have sweet memories of the Ontario raceway and that handsome devil Danny Ongais and his Interscope car.
Ragged Around the Edges said...
Those are some amazing shots.
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PR Strategy
Helping you win awards
There are no flies on us
Practising what we preach
Look after your customers - or someone else will
Sorry seems to be the hardest word
Let me take you down...
Business Award Season
Winning Awards
Wasps Invade Our Media
More Awards!
Successful festive PR
‘I want to be Famous!’ - why PR isn’t what you need.
The impossible ideal : The Client/PR professional relationship
Why you should take social media seriously
Social media and the news: the power of the internet
Setting the tone: why being friendly and less formal can benefit your business
Emergency Services and Public Relations
Our turn at the awards table
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You are here: » Home > Blog > Wasps Invade Our Media
Posted by suzichristie on September 26, 2016
This month we have been dealing with a lot of wasps. Luckily, on this occasion they are wasps in the media rather than wasps in the house. As you will probably have noticed, the papers have been full of stories about people being attacked by wasps. In August, The Sun reported how a man and his two sons had been attacked by wasps during a country bike ride and, in September, the BBC reported on a woman being attacked by wasps while she pushed her daughter in a buggy. Wasps have even made it onto the big screen, literally, when a giant wasp appeared on BBC Scotland news.
You may wonder why a public relations company is so interested in wasps. This is because, for the last six years we have been working with a pest control company – Cleankill Environmental Services Ltd – and they are experts in dealing with all kinds of pests, including wasps.
Back in July they asked us to prepare a news item which would help people recognise the difference between a wasp and bee. This was because they had noticed an increase in the number of people contacting them about wasp nests, only for the technician to discover they were actually bees. While both can be difficult to live with, in general we try to protect bees because they are important pollinators.
Following this, we worked with a freelance journalist and helped them write a story about the German Wasp – Vespula Germanica. I contacted Paul at Cleankill and he furnished me with a few facts and some quotes. I passed these on to the journalist and asked that they include the company name in any articles.
Part of our remit with Cleankill is to also write news items for their website and, since this seemed like too good an opportunity to miss, we wrote a news item offering advice on how to deal with wasps and avoid getting stung. So far, from one subject, we had created two news items and passed on some information to a journalist.
This was when things became exciting. Our client’s name then began to appear in some of the national press. The first paper we saw it in was The Daily Star, this was quickly followed by the other national newspapers: The Sun, The Mirror, Metro and The Daily Mail. Following this, Paul’s quotes started appearing in the local press: firstly in Plymouth , then Portsmouth, Yorkshire , Doncaster, with others following. They even made to Scotland, in The Sunday Post and The Southern Reporter, and Ireland. So, from one piece of information, our client was now getting name-checks around the country.
And it didn’t stop there. With other stories appearing in the press about wasps, Cleankill were suddenly in demand on local radio and was booked to appear on the BBC Sussex Radio Breakfast Show with Neil Pringle. Our friends at QDOS Computer Consultants Ltd then managed to isolate Paul’s section of the broadcast and produced a Youtube video, which was then placed on Cleankill’s Youtube Channel. To listen to their segment, click here.
And then it went quiet...until last Wednesday when the same full attributed quotes appeared in the article, “Why are there wasps in my bathroom?”, on the BBC News website. This article has now gone global by being included on a global news website, Rocket News.
This subject has since become the subject of Paul’s monthly Cleankill blog and, as you can see, it has become the subject of our blog for September. For a public relations company, wasps have been the gift that keeps giving. Our clients have received coverage in both local and national press, on local radio, and on the behemoth of online news – the BBC News website. In addition, we have been able to create content to drive to Cleankill’s social media feeds.
It just goes to show how important it is to generate and maintain good relations with journalists, as without that initial contact we wouldn’t have been able to create so much from basically a few facts and a couple of quotes. In addition, it is also important to know how to build on the content that has been produced. In this case, we have tried to break up the delivery of similar stories in order to avoid boring our social media followers. Finally, the interaction between the Cleankill website and these major media websites, helps with SEO for our client.
It genuinely gets me excited when work creates traction of its own, although I was disappointed that this year we didn’t get any newspaper headlines as brilliant as last year’s, “Ouch, Achstung!“, in The Sun newspaper.
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Royal Statistical Society presents 2019 awards
The UK Royal Statistical Society has announced the recipients of its 2019 honours, who will be presented with their awards at a ceremony during their annual conference in Belfast this September. Notable among these are the Guy Medals in Silver and Bronze, which will be presented to Susan Murphy and Jonas Peters, respectively, and the RSS Research Prize, to Tengyao Wang. In addition, the Guy Medal in Gold will be presented to Stephen Buckland, and the Barnett Award to Marian Scott.
The Guy Medal in Silver is awarded to Susan Murphy, IMS Fellow and President-Elect, for her methodological, computational and applied work on dynamic treatment regimens. Susan’s influential JRSSB paper in 2003 on Optimal Dynamic Treatment Regimens proposed a methodology for estimating decision regimens that result in a maximal mean response, consistent with an elegantly-defined regret function and for use with experimental or observational data. Substantial follow-up work on multi-stage decision making has built on this paper, including Susan’s own work ranging from sample size determination to performance guarantees for individualized treatment rules and applications ranging from addictions to micro-randomized optimization of mobile health interventions for the Fitbit generation.
The Guy Medal in Bronze is awarded to IMS member Jonas Peters (University of Copenhagen) for important and innovative contributions to causal inference and related statistical methodology and theory. Of particular note are his two papers in JRSSB, namely ‘Kernel-based tests for joint independence’ (with N. Pfister, P. Bühlmann and B. Schölkopf), published in 2017, and ‘Causal inference using invariant prediction: identification and confidence intervals’ (with P. Bühlmann and N. Meinshausen), which was read to the Society in 2016.
The RSS Research Prize is awarded to IMS member Tengyao Wang for his outstanding and diverse contributions to statistical methodology and theory. Amongst other research, he has given new understanding about computational and statistical trade-offs; developed theory for multi-dimensional shape constrained estimators; and introduced a new paradigm and method for detecting changes in high-dimensional data streams.
More at https://www.statslife.org.uk/news/4045-announcing-our-honours-recipients-for-2019
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