of rumor detection later in the outbreak is consistent with allport and postman ’ s basic law of rumor ( 12 ). according to this law, the amount of rumors in circulation is roughly equal to the importance of the rumor multiplied by the uncertainty surrounding the rumor. we found that, as more information became available about the outbreaks and about the h5n1 virus, fewer rumors circulated. this decrease was despite the fact that the importance of the disease remained high because of the ongoing risk for evolution of a pandemic influenza strain. through rumor surveillance, who assisted affected countries by issuing guidelines, providing technical expertise, and mobilizing supplies. unaffected countries also took action by banning the importation of poultry from affected countries. this action was crucial in preventing the further spread of avian influenza. an important part of rumor surveillance is the timely dissemination of accurate information to reduce misunderstanding and unwarranted concern, especially for rumors reported in the media. one example was the need to address the international concern that arose about the rumor that pigs were infected with avian influenza ( 13 ). if the rumor had not been reported to be incorrect publicly after the verification process, health authorities may have heightened avian influenza surveillance to include the investigation of persons with symptoms of influenza and a history of contact with pigs. the literature lacks guidance on how to establish and operate enhanced rumor surveillance during large outbreaks. based on our experience and drawing on the recommendations in standard texts on public health surveillance ( 14, 15 ), we suggest the following criteria for developing rumor surveillance : 1 ) define the goals of surveillance as part of an early warning system in which each rumor deserves investigation to determine its veracity ; 2 ) apply a case definition that will have a high level of sensitivity ( and therefore a relatively lower specificity ) to identify the event of interest early in the outbreak ; 3 ) articulate clearly the steps to be undertaken to assess the veracity of the rumor, the criteria for deeming the verification process complete, and the ethics and confidentiality in conducting investigations ; 4 ) clarify the actions to be taken if the rumored events are true, or incorrect, or if the response of the verifying authority lacks credibility ; 5 ) delegate responsibility for data collection, management of the rumor database, and verification to a person trained in surveillance. this person must have access to relevant national and international networks and appropriate negotiation skills to investigate the veracity of the rumors. in selected instances, multilingual staff may be essential ; 6 ) include among the data sources print and electronic media, the


another day, another planet, another micro — but the ace is so fast that even bill bennett had to switch into hyper - drive to review it. the jupiter ace is a radical departure from the mainstream of micro - computing, and could prove to be the start of a very important new - trend. rather than accepting the prevailing wisdom, jupiter cantab designed the machine around the forth language. in a way, this makes the ace a breakthrough — it is both the first mass - produced home computer not to use that tired old lady of micro languages, basic, and is also one of the fastest micros ever made. the speed clement is vital ; it is more or less the justification for using a hitherto arcane computer tongue. but speed is not the only - advantage of forth, or indeed of the ace. it has that all - important feature ; structure. structured programming is definitely the “ coming thing ”. it is preferred by both educationalists and professional programmers alike, and leads me to another fashionable computer buzz - word ; portability. portability is an important conception in micro - computing. put simply it means the ability of one computer to run a program written for another, taking the hardware differences into account. forth is highly portable. providing the relevant hardware details, such as screen and memory size, are taken into account, any program written in forth should run on any forth system. programming in forth is so fundamentally different to programming in basic that some people prefer not to call forth software “ programs ” at all. it is important to discard all your current ideas about programming before you start with the language forth. when writing a basic program, it seems quite normal to think of the control passing through program lines. these lines are like rails along which the control runs, complete with loops and goto jumps. the control path is often difficult to follow even in your own, short, well - documented programs. imagine trying to sort out someone else ’ s epic and rather badly - documented program, which they quickly wrote in the middle of the night. this just does not happen with forth, because each little section of code is debugged as it is written, and the control path does not really exist as a concept. a forth system contains a set of words, called a kernel in some implementations. on the jupiter ace they are referred to as rom - words, because they are in the machine ’ s 8k of read - only memory. these words act on whatever number is on the top of the stack, which is the


in some implementations. on the jupiter ace they are referred to as rom - words, because they are in the machine ’ s 8k of read - only memory. these words act on whatever number is on the top of the stack, which is the area of memory that the system plays with. the best way to think of a stack is as a pile of plates. these plates are the numbers. plates can be added to the top of the pile at any time, but only the one on the top can be worked on. this is a much more convenient way of managing the memory than using addresses, though with forth it is still possible to define variables and constants. each word in the rom - word set can be thought of as a call to a machine - code subroutine. usually any value sent into a subroutine is called a “ parameter ”. in forth the relevant parameters are those numbers at present on the top of the stack. for example : plus is a forth word — written + — which adds together the two numbers at the top of the system stack, and then puts the resulting number in their place. thus, on the jupiter, when you input 2 enter the screen shows 2 ok 3 enter the screen shows 3 ok + enter the screen shows + ok. enter the screen shows 5 ok the command “. ” prints out whatever is currently on the top of the stack. for conven - ience i will call this “ dot ”. we can think of the numbers 2 and 3 as parameters sent to the plus routine, and the resultant value 5 as the parameter sent to the dot routine. as soon as a forth word is entered it is obeyed. a number of words can be entered at a time. for example, our example could have been input as : 2 3 +. enter the result 5 is printed immediately at the cursor position. it is very important to remember to put a space between all forth words or numbers as they are entered. forth really comes into its own when users start to define their own words. this is very simple to do. new words are formed by combining words already defined, and in some cases using numbers which are placed on the stack. for example, to write a word that will add two numbers together and then print out the result, we shall use the name plus : : plus +. ; enter the colon at the beginning indicates that a new word is being defined. what follows it — plus in this case — is the name of that word. we input the +


the result, we shall use the name plus : : plus +. ; enter the colon at the beginning indicates that a new word is being defined. what follows it — plus in this case — is the name of that word. we input the + and. to tell the computer that these are the forth words which go to make up our word, plus, and the semi - colon at the end closes the definition. once a new word is defined it appears on the top of the vocabulary list. the vocabulary initially contains the 140 rom - words, and, the top word in the list is forth. this merely indicates that the words below it constitute the main vocabulary. the forth word vlist makes the machine print out a list of all the words in the vocabulary, including all the new ones. it is possible to define the same word twice. if, having typed in the word plus as i des - cribed you decided that you wanted to change it so that the screen cleared first, you would have to use the editor. enter the following : and up comes the previous definition of that word, laid out thus ; : plus +. the word cls — clear screen — would need to be added before the word +. this is done by moving the cursor to the position where the extra word — or words — are to be inserted and typing that word in. the cursor - control keys are the 5, 6, 7 and 8, used in the same way as on the zx - 81. once the word has been changed to the corrected form, typing enter now places that word in the vocabulary. if at this stage you type vlist, you would find that there are two versions of the word plus in the list. the computer would always execute the second version, leaving the first for dead. this makes debugging software incredibly easy because any incorrectly - defined words can be tested as they are entered and continually hacked about until they reach a correct form. because all previous attempts at the same word are kept in the dictionary, you can return to these at any time. when the definitive version of the word has been created, you can save memory space by deleting with replace all the intermediate attempts. unlike most implementations of forth, the ace has a substantial level of error - checking. for example, the stack will not overflow. it is also made more powerful by the ability to redefine words without the system crashing. however, should you require yet more speed than normally available, there is a


level of error - checking. for example, the stack will not overflow. it is also made more powerful by the ability to redefine words without the system crashing. however, should you require yet more speed than normally available, there is a fast command. this does away with the error - checking, so it is wise to use it only when a program is totally debugged. it takes the computer ’ s speed up to about 90 percent of a machine - coded program, but it does disable the break key. at an end - user price of £89. 95, the jupiter ace is an excellent way of learning an important new computer language. it will have a special appeal to those who feel that they have now grown out of their zx - 81s, especially as far as basic programming is concerned. it will also be a godsend to those who want the speed and economy of machine code but cannot grasp its principles. the jupiter ace comes in a white plastic case, not all that dissimilar in style to the now - defunct zx - 80 ′ s horrible box. it is undoubtedly the machine ’ s worst feature, and the cost - cutting that has been done here could turn out to be that ha ’ porth of tar that spoilt the ship. the printing on the case is in a matt - black, broken only by a series of red lines. these red lines are obviously the microcomputer world ’ s equivalent of the “ go - faster ” stripes that teenage car owners sport to make their old ford cortinas look a little sleeker. the truth of the matter is that the jupiter is very fast. the manufacturer claims that it is the fastest microcomputer in this quadrant of the galaxy. this has a lot to do with the rapidity of the forth language, but some of the credit has to go to the z - 80a processor which nips along at a rate of knots — 3. 25mhz to be precise. speed implies heat, but there is not much danger of the jupiter overheating, or at least a sight less danger than some machines, because inside that flimsy plastic case is plenty of breathing room and what is more, the case is better ventilated than that of the zx range of computers. sinclair cognoscenti will smile when they peer inside the case and see the heat sink. i often wonder why they are such odd shapes — could it be they were designed by picasso? comparisons with the sinclair


of the zx range of computers. sinclair cognoscenti will smile when they peer inside the case and see the heat sink. i often wonder why they are such odd shapes — could it be they were designed by picasso? comparisons with the sinclair machines will inevitably keep cropping up, because the designers of the ace were, until recently, in the employ of sinclair research and so take some of the credit and blame for the zx spectrum. apart from the gross departure of choosing the forth language, the design is fairly standard. sinclair owners will find much inside the ace ’ s case that is familiar to them. the keyboard closely resembles that on the zx - 81, both in the number of keys and their layout. but rather than having those horrid little squares that you have to struggle to push down as you program, the ace uses a rubbery “ moving - key ” design. personally i find it is a little like shaking a dead man ’ s hand. the keys do at least have the advantage of being readable — that is, there are none of the spectrum ’ s red words which you can only track down using special spectacles. another small mercy that we can thank jupiter for — or zeus if you are greek — is that there is no single - keyword entry to contend with. however, the designers probably did not abandon it for any good reason, but merely because the infinity of word names available to forth makes it impracticable. there are also some significant advances. for example, there are both upper and lower - case letters. it is also possible for the user to define his own character set — in fact by doing so, some reasonably high - resolution graphics are possible. in this way the graphics of the ace remind me of a non - colour spectrum. in normal mode there are 32 character positions across the display and 24 down. in the plot mode, there is a resolution of 64 by 48 points — not exactly high resolution. if you are prepared to play about with the character definition then this increases to a respectable 192 by 256. the operation of the word plot is like the other forth words. the top three numbers on the stack are the parameters which are passed to a machine - code routine. at the top of the stack is a number which describes how the point is to be drawn, and the next two give its screen location. probably the biggest advantage of the ace ’ s picture quality over the zx - 81 ′ s is that the ace has a rock - steady black screen on which


the amount of plutonium in their teeth. ” add to this the morbidity and mortality or working in uranium mines and the dangers of disposing of radioactive waste, and you have negative health impacts at every stage of nuclear power ( for a summary see the uk ’ s campaign for nuclear disarmament ). despite this, governments have invested massively in the nuclear industry and globalized the risk. canada has exported nuclear reactors while building seven of its own, and despite concerns about safety the ontario government plans on investing $ 36 billion into nuclear power at the same time as its backing off wind power. reasons and excuses while nuclear power is a clear and present danger to the health of the planet and its people, it is a thriving industry driven by economic and military competition. vandana shiva — who studied nuclear physics and now leads the climate justice movement in india — has exposed the hypocrisy of us hostility to iranian nuclear power when it is doing the same thing to promote nuclear power and weapons in india as a bulwark against china : as shiva summarized in her book soil not oil, “ nuclear winter is not an alternative to global warming ”, and it is a tragedy that japan has become the test case against both military and civilian arms of the nuclear industry - - from the atomic bomb 65 years ago to the nuclear meltdown today. but instead of admitting the problems of nuclear power, the nuclear industry and its supporters have greenwashed it and presented it as a solution to global warming. some environmentalists, such as gaia theorist james lovelock, have fallen prey to these claims. lovelock, whose ideas are driven by apocalyptic predictions and an extreme pessimism, has gone so far as to claim that “ nuclear power is the only green solution ”. while former us president george bush defended his country ’ s 103 nuclear power plants as not producing " a single pound of air pollution or greenhouses gases ”, dr. helen caldicott has refuted the claim in her important book nuclear power is not the answer, which proves that even without meltdowns nuclear power is a threat to the planet : the false dichotomy between carbon emissions and nuclear power is also refuted by those developing the tar sands, who have proposed using nuclear power to pump tar sands oil. people power, green jobs fortunately there are growing anti - nuclear campaigns uniting indigenous groups, ngos and the broader climate justice movement to challenge nuclear power in all its stages — from mining to use to waste disporal. as vandana shiva writes in


[ previous ] | [ session 38 ] | [ next ] r. greenberg, g. hoppa, b. r. tufts, p. e. geissler ( lpl, univ. of arizona ) the characteristics of chaos regions on europa suggest they may be sites of melt - through from below. they are wide - ranging in size, location and age. most are similar to conamara with a matrix reminiscent of frozen slush, and often rafts of pre - existing crust. edges are of two types : ramps, perhaps the tapering of crustal thickness to zero, or cliffs where rafts appear to have broken clear from the shore. of the lenticulae, " spots " generally appear to be small chaoses with textured matrix and occasional rafts, " pits " may represent incipient melting nearly at the surface, and many " domes " may be small chaoses raised by isostatic compensation following refreezing of the crust. the extent of chaoses often appears to be limited by ridge systems with the coastline parallel and set back by a distance comparable to the width of the ridge system. pre - existing ridges often survive as causeways or chains of rafts. boundaries of chaoses are apparently not controlled by pre - existing cracks, evidence that formation is essentially a thermal, rather than mechanical process. evidently ridges thicken the crust such that melt - through is more likely between ridge systems. subsequent cracks and ridges form across pre - existing chaoses : recent chaoses have few cracks or ridges across them ( with paths somewhat jagged as they meander among rafts ), while the remains of old chaoses are only isolated rafts surrounded by densely ridged terrain. thus two fundamental resurfacing processes have alternated over europa ' s geological history : melt - through ( at various places and times ) forming chaos terrain, and criss - crossing by cracking and ridge - building forming densely ridged ( and other tectonic ) terrain. mapping of chaos features based on morphology at 200 m shows that they correlate well with dark regions in global ( 2 km resolution ) mosaics ( except dark regions due to ridge margins or craters ), so considerable area has been available to accommodate the expansion of crust that occurs along extensional bands and ridges. chaos ubiquity suggests europan geology has been dominated by the effects of having liquid water under a very thin ice shell, with chaos regions being widespread examples of zero shell thickness.


this is a language dependent introduction course on computer program design and development. emphasis is on the identification and solution of business problems through systems of computer programs. programs are described and designed through such tools as program flowcharts, structure charts, and pseudocode. within this framework, programming languages are treated as tools which can be selected, as appropriate, to implement the designs. this course provides the foundation for a program of study in computer science. it introduces the discipline of computing and the roles of professionals. a contemporary high - level language with appropriate constructs for structured design and structured types is presented. it integrates an introduction to algorithm design, an understanding of abstraction applied to date types and structures, and an appreciation of imperative and object - oriented programming. programming assignments are an integral part of this course. prerequisite : csc 110 or permission of instructor. this course develops the discipline of computing and the roles of professionals by introducing software engineering early in the learning process. this course formally presents abstract date types ( adts ). the adts presented are stacks, queues, lists, trees, graphs and tables. simple sorting and searching techniques, along with their efficiency are studied. the use of pointers and recursion is covered. programming assignments are an integral part of this course. prerequisite : csc 111. this course covers the manner in which the computer is used to solve problems. lectures cover the style and techniques necessary to solve problems using the visual basic programming language. object - oriented programming ( oop ) will be covered. this course will allow students to take advantage of the many new capabilities of building applications in a graphical user interface ( gui ). this course emphasizes the organization and operation of real computer systems at the architectural level. the mapping of statements and constructs in a high - level language onto sequences of machine instruction is studied, as well as the internal representation of simple data types and structures. topics include the fetch / execute cycle, bus structures, memory hierarchy, addressing modes, and subroutines. alternative architectures, such as vector and parallel models, are presented. three lecture hours per week. prerequisites : csc 111, mat 161. this course is the capstone course for the as degree in computer science. the course focuses on software engineering and requires a major software project. topics include : object - orientation, software design tools and techniques ( such as data flow diagrams, structure charts, crc cards, algorithms, pseudocode ), software reuse, software test strategies, and documentation standards


and requires a major software project. topics include : object - orientation, software design tools and techniques ( such as data flow diagrams, structure charts, crc cards, algorithms, pseudocode ), software reuse, software test strategies, and documentation standards. prerequisite : csc 112. this course is an introduction to game programming techniques and gaming development. topics include 2d graphics and code generated animation, sound technologies, interactivity, and multi - player games. prerequisite : csc 111 or csc 264 or permission of instructor. this course is an introduction to the administration of servers operating in a client server environment. students will be introduced to the system software running client server networks, and will learn to install, configure, monitor, and manage a network server. specific topics include server software installation, protocols, shells, system and user administration, scripts, and daemons. students will be exposed to several different operating systems and several server applications, such as web, ftp, database, and mail servers. three lecture hours. prerequisite : cis 130 or permission of instructor. the fundamentals of database design and implementation are introduced with an emphasis on data relationships. utilization of a database management system ( dbms ) and its components will be covered, along with structured query language ( sql ) and data security techniques. prerequisite : cis / csc major with sophomore standing. an introduction to the c + + language which provides software developers with an " extendable " language in which abstract data types suitable for a given application can be created and then used as naturally as built - in data types. while based on the c programming language, c + + provides data and function encapsulation, function overloading, inheritance, strong typing, and other features needed for object - oriented programming ( oop ). this makes c + + a true high - level language suitable for professional software engineering. the language constructs and oop methods are introduced with a series of examples of increasing sophistication which are the basis of project assignments. four lecture hours and one optional recitation hour per week. prerequisite : csc 110 or permission of instructor. this course introduces object - oriented java using current technical advances in programming methodology, web - based applications, and applications for hand - held devices. java methods, classes, objects, inheritance, graphics, animation, and networking are discussed. four lecture hours per week. prerequisite : csc 110 or permission of instructor. this course builds upon the fundamental topics explored in


definition, survive over multiple seasons ( or periodic condition changes ). seaweed. algae that are large and photosynthetic. a large change in the shape or structure of an animal that happens as the animal grows. in insects, " incomplete metamorphosis " is when young animals are similar to adults and change gradually into the adult form, and " complete metamorphosis " is when there is a profound change between larval and adult forms. butterflies have complete metamorphosis, grasshoppers have incomplete metamorphosis. having the capacity to move from one place to another. specialized for swimming the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic. reproduction in which eggs are released by the female ; development of offspring occurs outside the mother ' s body. the business of buying and selling animals for people to keep in their homes as pets. the kind of polygamy in which a female pairs with several males, each of which also pairs with several different females. structure produced by the calcium carbonate skeletons of coral polyps ( class anthozoa ). coral reefs are found in warm, shallow oceans with low nutrient availability. they form the basis for rich communities of other invertebrates, plants, fish, and protists. the polyps live only on the reef surface. because they depend on symbiotic photosynthetic algae, zooxanthellae, they cannot live where light does not penetrate. mainly lives in oceans, seas, or other bodies of salt water. breeding is confined to a particular season remains in the same area reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female associates with others of its species ; forms social groups. uses touch to communicate defends an area within the home range, occupied by a single animals or group of animals of the same species and held through overt defense, display, or advertisement the region of the earth that surrounds the equator, from 23. 5 degrees north to 23. 5 degrees south. an animal which has an organ capable of injecting a poisonous substance into a wound ( for example, scorpions, jellyfish, and rattlesnakes ). uses sight to communicate breeding takes place throughout the year animal constituent of plankton ; mainly small crustaceans and fish larvae. ( compare to phytoplankton. ) agbayani, e. 2008. " zebrasoma flavescens " ( on - line ). fishbase. accessed april 08, 2008 at http


you might check the following : the fuel pressure regulator ( 1 ) is a diaphragm - operated cartridge relief valve with the fuel pump pressure on one side and the regulator spring pressure and intake manifold vacuum on the other. a retainer ( 2 ) holds the fuel pressure regulator. the regulator ' s function is to maintain a constant pressure differential across the injectors at all times. the pressure regulator compensates for engine load by increasing the fuel pressure as engine vacuum drops. with the ignition on leaving the engine off ( zero vacuum ), the fuel pressure at the pressure test connection should be 415 - 455 kpa ( 6o - 66 psi ). if the pressure is too low, poor performance could result. if the pressure is too high, excessive odor may result. the engine coolant temperature sensor is a thermistor ( a resistor which changes value based on temperature ) mounted in the engine coolant passage. low coolant temperature produces a high resistance 100, 000 ohms at - 40°c ( - 40°f ) while high temperature causes low resistance 70 ohms at 130°c ( 266°f ). the vcm supplies a 5 volt signal to the engine coolant temperature sensor through a resistor in the vcm and measures the voltage. the voltage will be high when the engine is cold. the voltage will be low when the engine is hot. by measuring the voltage, the vcm calculates the engine coolant temperature. engine coolant temperature affects most systems the vcm controls. the scan tool displays engine coolant temperature in degrees. after engine start - up, the temperature should rise steadily to about 9o°c ( 194°f ) then stabilize when thermostat opens. if the engine has not been run for several hours ( overnight ), the engine coolant temperature and intake air temperature displays should be close to each other. when the vcm detects a malfunction in the engine coolant temperature ( ect ) sensor circuit, the following diagnostic trouble code ( dtc ) s will set : dtc p0117 circuit low. dtc p0118 circuit high. dtc p0125 excessive time to closed loop. dtc p1114 circuit intermittent low. dtc p1115 circuit intermittent high.


pods ) require a specific number and type of facility depending upon the public health scenario and the number of persons affected. the alternative care site planning model is intended to help public health officials evaluate the resources required to staff and equip alternative care sites in multiple emergency scenarios. < br > < br > | montgomery county advanced practice center | | workforce | | website | | 3 / 13 / 2012 1 : 46 pm | | susan wherley | | http : / / apc. naccho. org / products / apc20101003 | the alternative care site planning model is intended to help public health officials evaluate the resources required to staff and equip alternative care sites in multiple emergency scenarios. this model focuses on the critical resources needed for alternative care sites. it is not intended to manage all materials required. users must have microsoft excel in order to operate the model. does the public really understand the difference between the terms " avian influenza " and " pandemic influenza "? do they know how avian and pandemic influenzas are spread? are they familiar with simple ways to prepare for influenza? this tool is both a resource for local health departments to educate their communities and a self - study for persons who wish to increase their own knowledge and awareness. this tool includes a pdf of the “ complete presentation guide ” which includes the powerpoint presentation with speaker ' s notes, pre - and post - tests, suggested handouts, and interactive activities. word documents are available for the pre - and post - test and evaluation. | montgomery county advanced practice center | | risk communication | | word ; pdf | | reference / guides | | english | | 5 / 20 / 2011 11 : 05 am | | ian goldstein | < br > prepare for an emergency by equipping first responders with the medication they need to safely respond to a biological incident or other public health disaster. protect first responders while cutting down on response time. the bio - pack toolkit demonstrates an effective model of medication prepositioning implemented in montgomery county, md. < br > < br > | montgomery county advanced practice center | | mass medical countermeasures ; workforce | | hostedvideo | | reference / guides | | english | | 3 / 13 / 2012 4 : 56 pm | | susan wherley | | http : / / apc. naccho. org / products / apc2005681 | • demonstrate an effective model of medication prepositioning for first responders through bio - packs.


. < br > < br > | montgomery county advanced practice center | | continuity of operations planning | | word | | reference / guides ; training | | english | | 3 / 14 / 2012 12 : 01 pm | | susan wherley | | http : / / apc. naccho. org / products / apc20071696 | • identify critical day - to - day services of the local health department that will need to continue to ensure uninterrupted performance during a wide spectrum of emergency events or disasters. < br > building a public health community of practice – a biosurveillance resource compendium is a cd toolkit intended to help public health agencies implement an effective, comprehensive biosurveillance program. providing approximately 40 resources, the cd includes a series of articles on implementing biosurveillance initiatives, materials defining and discussing the development of a public health community of practice, specific examples of real - world tools and resources that have proven beneficial in north texas ( including system response protocols ), and a research report on biosurveillance system efficacy. < br > < br > | tarrant county advanced practice center | | biosurveillance, disease detection, and investigation | | cd | | reference / guides | | english | | 3 / 14 / 2012 3 : 58 pm | | susan wherley | | http : / / apc. naccho. org / products / apc20081484 | • help public health agencies strengthen partnerships with stakeholders at the federal, state and local levels and with the medical community, law enforcement, first responders, and schools. < br > learn about public health preparedness issues such as isolation and quarantine, workforce activation / surge, vulnerable populations planning, risk communications, and pandemic influenza preparedness with tools directed towards local health departments ( lhds ), businesses, and community agencies. < br > < br > | seattle & king county advanced practice center | | risk communication | | cd | | training | | english | | 3 / 14 / 2012 3 : 55 pm | | susan wherley | | http : / / apc. naccho. org / products / apc20091746 | build, strengthen, and carry out emergency response strategies in : • vulnerable and at - risk populations • risk communication • pandemic flu • healthcare response • isolation and quarantine • community and partner engagement < br > help businesses, government agencies,


that will provide assistance with planning for a public health vaccination or dispensing clinic. this tool can be used either in the advance planning stages or for immediate support during an actual event. the computer model is designed to assist in planning a clinic with improved efficiency and performance while enlightening the planners on what to expect in the event of an outbreak. < br > < br > | montgomery county advanced practice center | | mass medical countermeasures | | website | | reference / guides | | english | | 3 / 21 / 2012 5 : 04 pm | | susan wherley | | http : / / apc. naccho. org / products / apc2008258 | • create mathematical and simulation models of mass dispensing and vaccination clinics ( also known as points of dispensing or pods ). • develop decision support tools to help emergency preparedness planners plan clinics that have enough capacity to serve residents quickly while avoiding unnecessary congestion. < br > the closed pod partnerships : train the trainer website is designed for businesses, faith - based and community - based organizations, higher education institutions ( colleges and universities ) and federal agencies that are interested in partnering with their local health department as closed points of dispensing ( pods ) for mass dispensing of antibiotics to employees, family members and / or clients in the event of a large scale infectious disease emergency. this resource includes self - guided online training modules, forms, templates, fact sheets, planning resources, checklists, and information useful for staff setting up and working a closed pod. < br > < br > | san francisco bay area advanced practice center | | partnerships and collaborations | | website | | reference / guides | | english | | 3 / 22 / 2012 1 : 20 pm | | susan wherley | | http : / / apc. naccho. org / products / apc20101780 | • learn how a closed point of dispensing ( pod ) works. • set up and activate a closed pod. • conduct just - in - time training for closed pod staff. < br > tabletop exercises are one of the strategies that the public health workforce can use to convene and engage their community partners. this resource provides state and local public health entities with information and guidance on the key ingredients to consider when developing and facilitating a bioterrorism tabletop exercise. | dekalb county board of health advanced practice center, revised by the san francisco bay


encounter during the disaster. after answering each question, you earn points based on the relative correctness of your decision, given the three choices available in each situation. you also receive feedback explaining the merits or drawbacks of the possible answer answers. at the end of each scenario, you obtain your final score and can review the questions and feedback. < br > design and conduct a full - scale disaster exercise using a dvd - based interactive training course designed to assist public health and emergency management professionals. the dvd includes video footage that details tarrant county ' s full - scale dirty bomb disaster drill. the tool also includes an interactive training manual as well as a chapter - based lecture series focused on the design and evaluation components of a public health exercise. < br > < br > | tarrant county advanced practice center | | chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive preparedness | | dvd ; hostedvideo ; pdf | | exercises ; training | | english | | 3 / 26 / 2012 2 : 29 pm | | susan wherley | | http : / / apc. naccho. org / products / apc2005272 | • identify the basic components of a field functional exercise for public health. • compare a field functional exercise to drills, tabletops, full - scale exercises, and top offs. • set performance expectations and scale the exercise to include budget considerations. • plan a field functional exercise. • define key collaboration and partnerships including required expertise and level of experience. < br > discover the process for utilizing pharmacies as medication dispensing and vaccination sites during emergencies by building effective partnerships between local health departments and community pharmacists. this toolkit contains four sections related to developing effective and sustainable medication dispensing strategies : background, planning, activation & operation, and policy & legal. a user guide and table top exercise are also available on the website. < br > < br > | seattle & king county advanced practice center | | partnerships and collaborations ; mass medical countermeasures | | website | | 3 / 26 / 2012 2 : 53 pm | | susan wherley | | a prescription for preparedness : an online community for local health departments and pharmacists to help ready america for emergencies | | http : / / apc. naccho. org / products / apc20102206 | • document the process for developing collaborative drug therapy agreements and memoranda of understanding between local health departments ( lhds ) and ph


new ideas and information have emerged recently that hold great promise for enhancing the impact of current prevention efforts. " prevention is the best treatment " is an oft - cited maxim, and one that certainly applies to drug abuse. anyone who can be influenced to avoid abusing drugs is spared their harmful health and social effects, including increased risk for lethal infections, family disruption and job loss, confusion and despair, the difficult struggle of treatment, and - - for many - - the ravages of addiction and the ordeal of climbing back after relapse. from society ' s point of view, drug abuse prevention helps keep a tremendous burden - - related to disease and premature death, lost capacity for productive work, and crime - - from being even worse. the bulk of current interventions to prevent drug abuse fall mainly into two groups. one set is designed to reduce risk factors associated with higher likelihood of drug abuse and increase protective factors associated with lower likelihood of drug abuse. when implemented in conformity with proven prevention principles ( see " risk and protective factors in drug abuse prevention " ), this strategy, the product of more than a decade of research and clinical experience, is effective and inclusive enough to apply to most populations. moreover, researchers continue to learn more about how risk and protective factors relate, and practitioners are ever more adept at applying this knowledge. these efforts will continue to yield incrementally - - perhaps even dramatically - - higher impact interventions well into the future. nonetheless, there are limitations to the risk - and - protective - factors strategy. one feature that ultimately limits its impact, for example, is the nature of the factors themselves. they tend to be fundamental or deeply entrenched characteristics or experiences of a person, family, or community. some are hidden, such as sexual victimization ; others are prominent in society, such as adolescent depression or ready access to drugs of abuse. as a result, traditional risk factors generally can be modified only by relatively broad and long - term interventions. certain factors may not be susceptible to modification, such as a genetic predisposition to risk - taking. in addition, for the most part, traditional risk factors pertain to an individual ' s vulnerability to drug abuse, rather than the actual choice to use drugs. as important as it is to lower vulnerability, on a given day, even someone with a relatively low vulnerability may opt to use drugs. the second important group of preventive interventions complements and extends the risk - and - protective - factors strategy by focusing on the dynamic of situations, beliefs, motives,


a given day, even someone with a relatively low vulnerability may opt to use drugs. the second important group of preventive interventions complements and extends the risk - and - protective - factors strategy by focusing on the dynamic of situations, beliefs, motives, reasoning and reactions that enter into the choice to abuse or not to abuse drugs. important applications of this strategy include normative education to refute the common belief that " everyone takes drugs, " and equipping young people with the skills to refuse drug offers without feeling they are losing face. this strategy is full of untapped promise, and today likely offers the best prospects for rapid development of more effective prevention. a few of the many issues whose elucidation may yield improved interventions include why even very young children tend to expect positive experiences from drugs ; how individuals ' styles for processing language and visual images affect drug - taking decisions ; the roles of curiosity and impulsivity in such decisions ; and what logical processes people typically follow when deciding to use or not use drugs. a recent dramatic finding in neurobiological research may greatly increase our understanding of adolescent decisionmaking and our ability to help adolescents choose wisely regarding drug abuse. scientists have long suspected that the adolescent brain is still developing physically, and researchers have now demonstrated that new neural tissue and connections continue to form throughout the transitional years between childhood and adulthood. further investigation of this growth process undoubtedly will yield important insights relevant to some of the cognitive issues affecting the appeal of drugs and drug - taking decisions. the impact on drug abuse prevention could be tremendous, especially in light of the fact that adolescence often is a critical period for initiation of drug abuse. most chronic drug abusers start experimenting with intoxication in adolescence or young adulthood. while populations are constantly changing - - and while prescription drug abuse by older individuals today is a serious and mounting concern - - it remains generally true that people who do not abuse drugs during the decisive years before age 25 are unlikely ever to develop a serious drug problem. it remains generally true that people who do not abuse drugs during the decisive years before age 25 are unlikely ever to develop a serious drug problem. a tighter focus on decisionmaking regarding drug abuse should enable us to progress in a vitally important area : preventing escalation from early, experimental drug use to regular use, abuse, and addiction. we know that fewer than 10 percent of people who experiment with drugs become dependent or addicted. we also know that some of the factors that influence whether a person will become dependent or addicted are independent of the factors that influence


use, abuse, and addiction. we know that fewer than 10 percent of people who experiment with drugs become dependent or addicted. we also know that some of the factors that influence whether a person will become dependent or addicted are independent of the factors that influence whether he or she will initiate drug abuse. for example, research has suggested that, perhaps because of their particular brain chemistry, some individuals dislike the agitation cocaine can produce more than they like the euphoria it brings - - and so discontinue use after their initial experimentation. interventions based upon such factors may curtail drug abuse before it reaches critical severity and thereby forestall most of its truly tragic health and social consequences. nida ' s prevention agenda is to aggressively pursue research on risk and protective factors while also seeking to identify, develop, and integrate new science - based approaches into existing prevention programs. to accomplish these goals, nida recently launched the three - part drug abuse prevention research initiative. ( see " nida conference reviews advances in prevention science, announces new national research initiative. " ) basic researchers will mine new neurobiological and other fundamental research discoveries for prevention applications. basic, clinical, and applied researchers and practitioners will work together in transdisciplinary prevention research centers to synthesize knowledge from all the relevant scientific fields into powerful new prevention packages. researchers and state and local practitioners will collaborate in community multisite prevention trials to rapidly assess proposed new prevention approaches and interventions in diverse communities and populations. exciting moments in science occur when the gradual accumulation of knowledge suddenly gives rise to new perspectives with the promise of new solutions to problems of living. in the area of drug abuse prevention, this is such a moment, and nida is moving swiftly to take full advantage of its potential.


researchers at stanford university have brought about a unique marriage between computer chips and living cells that could greatly accelerate everything from tests for new drugs to screening for diseases such as leukemia. the basic living element in every organism is the cell. humans have at least 100 trillion of them, all designed to carry out various bodily functions. each cell is a complex bag of enzymes and chemicals surrounded by a spherical membrane, and how a cell reproduces and works with other cells determines how efficiently the organism performs. scientists have struggled for years to understand the cell and especially the membrane that seems to control most of the crucial functions, but they have been hampered by the difficulty of growing cells in a laboratory culture for research. a decade ago, stanford researchers developed artificial membranes that were so like the real thing that living cells could be tricked into attaching themselves to them. two years ago, graduate student jay t. groves learned something interesting when he pulled a pair of tweezers through one of the artificial membranes. the parts separated permanently. he also found that he could manipulate the different parts by applying an electrical current. about that time, nick ulman, an electrical engineer, joined groves ' research group, headed by chemistry professor steven g. boxer. ulman brought with him an understanding of microelectronics. the researchers discovered that the electric field generated by a tiny microchip could be used to separate the artificial membrane into tiny squares, which they called " corrals. " the corrals were so small that millions occupied an area no bigger than a fingernail. that gave the researchers something they had never had before : a means of isolating, cataloging and manipulating millions of cell membranes simultaneously. " it ' s a little bit like having a parking lot with assigned spaces, " boxer says. if you leave your car in an unmarked parking lot at the airport, he says, you may be lucky to find it again. but if each parking space has a number, it becomes much simpler. " ultimately, you can say i ' ve got a ferrari in spot 2a, and i ' ve got a volkswagen over in space 3d, " boxer says. similarly, living cells can be " tricked " into attaching themselves to individual membranes. that is done by modifying the surface of each membrane. " if you wax a car, after you wax it, water beads up on the surface, " boxer says. " before waxing, the water just runs off. that ' s an example of modifying the properties of the surface such that water associates differently with the


wax a car, after you wax it, water beads up on the surface, " boxer says. " before waxing, the water just runs off. that ' s an example of modifying the properties of the surface such that water associates differently with the surface. " one potential use is for cell screening for leukemia patients. some of the membranes on the chip could be " seeded " with proteins that bind to different kinds of cells. by flooding a glass plate embedded with chips with blood from the patient, the cells would attach themselves to designated areas, thus revealing how many cells of different types are present, and possibly even how well they are performing. joseph a. zasadzinski, professor of chemical engineering at uc santa barbara, who has analyzed the stanford research, sees many potential applications. it could pave the way for a pharmaceutical researcher to " try 50 million different things " at the same time, zasadzinski says. " right now, you grow cells in culture and you see which ones die, and that ' s very slow. here you can imagine 20, 000 little plates in a square inch, and each one of them you can tweak a slightly different way. " it could greatly increase the rate of testing for new drugs for viruses, he says, because the experiments could be repeated millions of times in a tightly controlled and manipulable environment. others see it leading to a test for aids in which thousands of blood tests could be conducted in the time it now takes to do just one. the heart of the system is the computer chip. " that ' s where the ultimate power of this comes in, " boxer says. " the same technology that ' s used to make integrated circuits, computer chips, is also being used to design a biocompatible surface. " that has led to a bit of unwelcome fallout, he adds. the researchers are constantly asked if they are on the road to the ultimate marriage between computers and living cells - - the bionic man. boxer flinches at the suggestion. this is such a tiny step, he says, that it ' s ludicrous to think of it in those terms. still, some see this as one more step toward creating computer - based biological systems. " if you can optimize this, you can get a nice bio - sensor out of it, " zasadzinski says. " but it would be hard to imagine any sort of bionic man for an awful long time. " he says he is more


this - that man is not independent ; that under all circumstances and relations he is in the hand of a power mightier than himself, which frames time and seasons according to its own good pleasure. god holds the threads of human life ; in some mysterious way directs and controls events ; success and failure are dependent upon his will. there are certain laws which, regulate the issues of actions and events, and man cannot alter these ; his free - will can put them in motion, but they become irresistible when in operation. this is not fatalism ; it is the mere statement of a fact in experience. koheleth never denies man ' s liberty, though he is very earnest in asserting god ' s sovereignty. the reconciliation of the two is a problem unsolved by him. gill ' s exposition of the entire bible a time to love, and a time to hate,.... for one to love his friend, and to hate a man, a sinner, as the targum ; to love a friend while he continues such, and hate him, or less love him, when he proves treacherous and unfaithful ; an instance of a change of love into hatred may be seen in the case of amnon, 2 samuel 13 : 15. a time of unregeneracy is a time of loving worldly lusts and sinful pleasures, the company of wicked men, and all carnal delights and recreations ; and a time of conversion is a time to hate what was before loved, sin, and the conversion of sinners, the garment spotted with the flesh, the principles and practices, though not the persons, of ungodly men ; and even to hate, that is, less love, the dearest friends and relations, in comparison of, or when in competition with, christ ; a time of war, and a time of peace ; for nations to be engaged in war with each other, or to be at peace, which are continually revolving ; and there is a time when there will be no more war. in a spiritual sense, the present time, or state of things, is a time of war ; the christian ' s life is a warfare state, though it will be soon accomplished, in which he is engaging in fighting with spiritual enemies, sin, satan, and the world : the time to come, or future state, is a time of peace, when saints shall enter into peace, and be no more disturbed by enemies from within or from without. in the midrash,


this morning, via mashable. i like the idea of “ the deleted city ” being an enormous virtual city that never really existed, but sort of did. ( video via mashable ) i remember the math olympiad and the science olympiad in high school, but for some reason i never thought of the practice continuing out of the classroom. since school is supposed to prepare you for the real - world, i don ’ t know why i was surprised to come across this project from charlotte, north carolina. welcome to the business intelligence olympiad! every two years, starting in 2008, the city of charlotte pits business unit teams from different city departments against each other to address a fictional problem with analytics and data sets. i ’ m sure the competition leads to plenty of laughter and good - hearted competition, but according to the article i read, it ’ s also created an environment where “ a lot of information that previously had not be [ sic ] shared is now shared regularly between bi analysts throughout the city. ” the competition in 2010 included a fictitious hurricane that bore a striking resemblance to irene. “ the underlying benefit was with hurricane irene coming up the coast almost on the same track as the theoretical hurricane vixen from december, teams were more used to looking at contingencies and how they affected portions of their business, ” [ manager of data administration for the city of charlotte ] raper said. as far as i know there isn ’ t something comparable in seattle, but maybe there should be. is it time for a bi olympiad with data from the viaduct? for more about charlotte ’ s olympiad, see the original article from govtech. com here. the teams here at piraeus put in a lot of hard work, so it ’ s nice that we can also hang out together. we had our summer picnic on friday and our fearless office manager managed to pick just about the nicest day all summer. the food was great, we had balloons and music, a little bit of ladder golf and a little bit of swimming. most importantly, some really great people! oh yeah, and water balloons. i forgot how much fun water balloons are! i ’ ll update the slideshow as i get more photos.


mra is a study of the blood vessels using magnetic resonance imaging ( mri ). using a large magnet, radio waves, and a computer, an mra makes two - dimensional and three - dimensional pictures. reasons for test this test is done in order to : - identify diseased, narrowed, enlarged, and blocked blood vessels - locate internal bleeding mris can be harmful if you have metal inside your body such as joint replacements or a pacemaker. make sure your doctor knows of any internal metal before the test. some people may also have an allergic reaction to the contrast dye. talk to your doctor about any allergies you have. also, let your doctor know if you have liver or kidney problems. these may make it difficult for your body to get rid of the contrast. what to expect prior to test before the test, your doctor may : - ask about your medical history - perform a physical exam - do blood tests if your doctor prescribes a sedative : - arrange for a ride home. - do not eat or drink for at least four hours before the exam. - take the sedative 1 - 2 hours before the exam, or as directed. at the mri center, you will be asked if you have something in your body that would interfere with the mra, such as : - pacemaker or implantable defibrillator - ear implant - metal fragments in your eyes or in any other part of your body - implanted port device, such as an insulin pump - metal plate, pins, screws, or surgical staples - metal clips from aneurysm repair - retained bullets - any other large metal objects in your body you may be : - given earplugs or headphones to wear. the mri machine makes a loud banging noise. - given an injection of a contrast dye into your vein. - allowed to have a family member or friend with you during the test. description of the test if contrast is used, a small iv needle will be inserted into your hand or arm before you are moved into the mri machine. the contrast will be injected during one set of images. it helps to make some organs and vessels easier to see on the pictures. you might have an allergic reaction to the dye, but this is rare you will lie on a special table. this table will be moved inside the opening of the mri machine. most mris consist of 2 - 6 sets of images. each one will take between 2 - 15 minutes. you will need to lie still while the images are being


consider the following in haskell : let p x = x + + show x in putstrln $ p " let p x = x + + show x in putstrln $ p " evaluate this expression in an interactive haskell session and it prints itself out. but there ' s a nice little cheat that made this easy : the haskell ' show ' function conveniently wraps a string in quotation marks. so we simply have two copies of once piece of code : one without quotes followed by one in quotes. in c, on the other hand, there is a bit of a gotcha. you need to explicitly write code to print those extra quotation marks. and of course, just like in haskell, this code needs to appear twice, once out of quotes and once in. but the version in quotes needs the quotation marks to be ' escaped ' using backslash so it ' s notactually the same as the first version. and that means we can ' t use exactly the same method as with haskell. the standard workaround is not to represent the quotation marks directly in the strings, but instead to use the ascii code for this character and use c ' s convenient % c mechanism to print at. for example : again we were lucky, c provides this great % c mechanism. what do you need in a language to be sure you can write a self - replicator? it turns out there is a very general approach to writing self - replicators that ' s described in vicious circles. what follows is essentially from there except that i ' ve simplified the proofs by reducing generality. we ' ll use capital letters to represent programs. typically these mean ' inert ' strings of characters. i ' ll use square brackets to indicate the function that the program evaluates. so if p is a program to compute the mathematical function p, we write [ p ] ( x ) = p ( x ). p is a program and [ p ] is a function. we ' ll consider both programs that take arguments like the p i just mentioned, and also programs, r, that take no arguments, so [ r ] is simply the output or return value of the program r. now we come to an important operation. we ' ve defined [ p ] ( x ) to be the result of running p with input x. now we define p ( x ) to be the program p modified so that it no longer takes an argument or input but instead substitutes the ' hard - coded ' value of


p ] ( x ) to be the result of running p with input x. now we define p ( x ) to be the program p modified so that it no longer takes an argument or input but instead substitutes the ' hard - coded ' value of x instead. in other words [ p ( x ) ] = [ p ] ( x ). p ( x ) is, of course, another program. there are also many ways of implementing p ( x ). we could simply evaluate [ p ] ( x ) and write a program to simply print this out or return it. on the other hand, we could do the absolute minimum and write a new piece of code that simply calls p and supplies it with a hard - coded argument. whatever we choose is irrelevant to the following discussion. so here ' s the demand that we make of our programming language : that it ' s powerful enough for us to write a program that can compute p ( x ) from inputs p and x. this might not be a trivial program to write, but it ' s not conceptually hard either. it doesn ' t have gotchas like the quotation mark issue above. typically we can compute p ( x ) by some kind of textual substitution on p. with that assumption in mind, here ' s a theorem : any program p that takes one argument or input has a fixed point, x, in the sense that running p with input x gives the same result as just running x. given an input x, p acts just like an interpreter for the programming language as it outputs the same thing as an interpreter would given input x. so here ' s a proof : define the function f ( q ) = [ p ] ( q ( q ) ). we ' ve assumed that we can write a program that computes p ( x ) from p and x so we know we can write a program to compute q ( q ) for any q. we can then feed this as an input to [ p ]. so f is obviously computable by some program which we call q0. so [ q0 ] ( q ) = [ p ] ( q ( q ) ). now the fun starts : [ p ] ( q0 ( q0 ) ) = [ q0 ] ( q0 ) ( by definition of q0 ) = [ q0 ( q0 ) ] ( by definition of p ( x ) ) in other words q0 ( q0 ) is our fixed point. so now take p to compute the identity function.


) ( by definition of q0 ) = [ q0 ( q0 ) ] ( by definition of p ( x ) ) in other words q0 ( q0 ) is our fixed point. so now take p to compute the identity function. then [ q0 ( q0 ) ] = [ p ] ( q0 ( q0 ) ) = q0 ( q0 ). so q0 ( q0 ) outputs itself when run! what ' s more, this also tells us how to do other fun stuff like write a program to print itself out backwards. and it tells us how to do this in any reasonably powerful programming language. we don ' t need to worry about having to work around problems like ' escaping ' quotation marks - we can always find a way to replicate the escape mechanism too. so does it work in practice? well it does for haskell - i derived the haskell fragment above by applying this theorem directly, and then simplifying a bit. for c + +, however, it might give you a piece of code that is longer than you want. in fact, you can go one step further and write a program that automatically generates a self - replicator. check out samuel moelius ' s kpp. it is a preprocessor that converts an ordinary c + + program into one that can access its own source code by including the code to generate its own source within it. another example of an application of these methods is futamura ' s theorem which states that there exists a program that can take as input an interpreter for a language and output a compiler. i personally think this is a little bogus.


principles of design balance in design is similar to balance in physics. a large shape close to the center can be balanced by a small shape close to the edge. a large light toned shape will be balanced by a small dark toned shape ( the darker the shape the heavier it appears to be ) graduation of size and direction produce linear perspective. graduation of colour from warm to cool and tone from dark to light produce aerial perspective. graduation can add interest and movement to a shape. a graduation from dark to light will cause the eye to move along a shape. repetition with variation is interesting, without variation repetition can become monotonous. if you wish to create interest, any repeating element should include a degree of variation. contrast is the juxtaposition of opposing elements eg. opposite colours on the colour wheel – red / green, blue / orange etc. contrast in tone or value – light / dark. contrast in direction – horizontal / vertical. the major contrast in a painting should be located at the center of interest. too much contrast scattered throughout a painting can destroy unity and make a work difficult to look at. unless a feeling of chaos and confusion are what you are seeking, it is a good idea to carefully consider where to place your areas of maximum contrast. harmony in painting is the visually satisfying effect of combining similar, related elements. eg. adjacent colurs on the colour wheel, similar shapes etc. dominance gives a painting interest, counteracting confusion and monotony. dominance can be applied to one or more of the elements to give emphasis. relating the design elements to the idea being expressed in a painting reinforces the principal of unity. eg. a painting with an active aggressive subject would work better with a dominant oblique direction, course, rough texture, angular lines etc. whereas a quiet passive subject would benefit from horizontal lines, soft texture and less tonal contrast. unity in a painting also refers to the visual linking of various elements of the work.


what is fluorescence? fluorescence is the ability of certain chemicals to give off visible light after absorbing radiation which is not normally visible, such as ultraviolet light. this property has led to a variety of uses. let ’ s shed some further light on this topic ; consider the omnipresent “ fluorescent ” lights. just how do they work? fluorescent tubes contain a small amount of mercury vapor. the application of an electric current causes a stream of electrons to traverse the tube. these collide with the mercury atoms which become energized and consequently emit ultraviolet light. the inside of the tube is coated with a fluorescent material, such as calcium chlorophosphate, which converts the invisible ultraviolet light into visible light. the same idea is used to produce color television pictures. the screen is coated with tiny dots of substances which fluoresce in different colours when they are excited by a beam of electrons which is used to scan the picture. but fluorescent materials had practical uses even before we dreamed of color television. one of the most amazing of all fluorescent materials is a synthetic compound, appropriately called fluorescein. under ultraviolet light it produces an intense yellow - green fluorescence which during world war ii was responsible for saving the lives of many downed flyers. over a million pounds of the stuff were manufactured in 1943 and distributed to airmen in little packets to use as a sea marker. since the fluorescence is so potent that it can be seen when the concentration of fluorescein is as little as 25 parts per billion, rescue planes easily spotted the men in the ocean. aircraft carriers also made extensive use of fluorescein. the signal men on deck wore clothes and waved flags treated with the compound which was then made to glow by illumination with ultraviolet light. the incoming pilots could clearly see the deck and the need to use runway lights which would have drawn the attention of enemy aircraft was eliminated. certain natural substances also fluoresce under ultraviolet light. urine and moose fur are interesting examples. prisoners have actually made use of this property of urine and have used it as a secret ink. what about the moose fur? well, in canada and sweden there are hundreds of accidents each year involving the collision of automobiles with moose. some of these result in fatalities. some car manufacturers are now considering fitting their vehicles with uv emitting headlights to reduce moose collisions! how ’ s that for putting the right chemistry to work.


.. ], and sometimes vice versa : [... ], welcome ( greeting ) = [... ], be happy, and s [... ], 96 ( crum, 1939, p. 273 ) = phonetically * pset - ase. [... ] and [... ]. often interchange with transcribed [... ] and [... ] : thus, [... ], demon, genius = [... ], and [... ] ( munier, 1930, p. 165 ) = s [... ] ( ibid., p. 167 ) = [... ], cabbage. but there are other cases as well, such as insertions of an auxiliary vowel ( written [... ] ) in a three - consonant cluster : thus, s [... ], sow ( ibid., p. 113 ) = latin scrofa, and s [... ], vault of heaven = greek [... ], ball, vault of heaven. also [... ], sparrow, appears as s [... ], bird = [... ] ( ‘ usfur ) ( ibid., p. 114 ). the group ks ( [... ] ) was often pronounced nks in the final position and later, with an auxiliary vowel, - niks : [... ] whip, appears as s [... ] ( ibid., p. 171 ), still without auxiliary vowel, but [... ], appears as s [... ] ( ibid., p. 116 ), and [... ], wasp, is s [... ] instead of s [... ] ( ibid., p. 115 ). a similar case is s [... ], apocalypse, from [... ] today pronounced abu ghalamsis. the group [... ] is often written [... ], probably influenced by [... ] ( [... ] ), but, a frequent conjunction. thus, one finds s, b [... ], palace, from [... ] = latin palatium. s [... ], b [... ], pupil of the eye, is nothing else than s, b [... ], child


. ], palace, from [... ] = latin palatium. s [... ], b [... ], pupil of the eye, is nothing else than s, b [... ], child, in this case the “ girl of the eye ” as in egyptian [... ] wn. t im. t ir. t, the girl in the eye, or greek [... ], girl, pupil of eye ( vycichl, 1983, p. 7 ). the copto - greek words of the scalae often represent greek postclassical forms. b [... ], october, is neither latin, nor modern [... ] or a similar form, but a postclassical form. one can compare armenian hoktember and russian oktyabr ’ ( * oktembri ) there are four s words for “ water ” : [... ] ( [... ] ), [... ] ( [... ] ), [... ] ( [... ] ), and [... ] ( munier, 1930, p. 109 ). [... ] ( [... ] ) is the classical word ; [... ] ( [... ] ), literally “ the new, fresh one, ” is the current expression in modern greek ; [... ] ( nama ) is “ running water ” ; and p - [... ] is the autochthonous coptic word for “ water ” ( s ). [... ] and [... ] are translated ( az - zalzalah ), the earthquake ( ibid., p. 107 ). the etymologies are quite clear : [... ] + [... ], earthquake, and the autochthonous coptic form derives from s [... ], to move, and the old word s [... ], earth. this s [... ] is another word than old coptic [... ], creator of the earth ( vycichl, 1983, p. 82 ). s [... ], the pictures = arabic ( as - suwar ) ( munier, 1930, p. 122 ) derives from greek [... ], little picture ( stephanus, 1831 - 1865, vol. 4, p. 42


one of my favorite science fiction ideas is in a short story called light of other days about something called “ slow glass. ” light took decades to pass through. in this story, the idea was that people could buy glass windows that took so long for the light to pass through, that they could nostalgically watch long gone scenes, such as their children playing outside as toddlers long after they had gone off to college, or green fields with horses where now ugly cities grew. it was about the speed of light. here is a concept that is similar. instead of slow windows, it is slow walls. ravenbrick has made a nanotech wall that can slow down the day ’ s heat coming into a building. using phase - changing material at the molecular level, you get to transfer the warmth of the sun ’ s heat from the afternoon well into the night. ravenbrick makes several clean tech materials for building that greatly reduce energy needs, most notably windows that turn off the sun, like sage electrochromics windows do. the one that is new to me is this “ slow wall ”. they claim that their glass - clad smart wall : ravenskin could literally reduce your heating bill to zero! ( coupled with good building design, of course, you can ’ t expect a zero bill if you put leaky windows in their wall! ) their wall can delay solar heat gain from hot afternoons, to later that night, when you need it more. this helps regulate the internal temperatures of buildings. it has excellent r - values to begin with ( r - 11 or more ) so it insulates like a normal wall limiting the conduction and convection of heat. the magic – or science fiction – part is achieved by converting incoming sunlight to infrared, and then directing the flow of energy inward only when you want it to come through the walls. the problem with super well - insulated buildings is that sometimes you do want the suns heat getting in, and regular insulated walls are dumb walls that don ’ t know when to send the heat in and when to shut it out. the smart wall knows because you can tell it. susan kraemer writes at cleantechnica, csp - today, pv - insider, smartgridupdate and greenprophet and has been published at ecoseed, nrdc onearth, matternetwork, celsius, energynow and scientific american. as a former serial entrepreneur in product design she brings an innovator ' s perspective on inventing a carbon - constrained civilization :


benefits of touch typing on task performance : i assume that when comparing skilled individuals, two handed touch typing on a traditional keyboard is faster, more reliable, and more automatic, than the other methods of text input that you mention ( e. g., phone or tablet keyboards ). these advantages are discussed here. - faster input means that ideas can be expressed more quickly. - visual attention does not need to be allocated to the keyboard which permits more attention to be placed on the content or the screen. - the greater reliability and automaticity mean that less attention needs to be allocated to the task of typing than to other methods. - a more consistent keyboard layout across devices further justifies the investment in learning touch typing. for further discussion of the cognitive and performance benefits of skilled touch typing, check out yechiam et al ( 2003 ). discussing the benefits of touch typing over visual typing, they state : one main distinction of the touch - typing strategy appears to be the ability to look at the screen while typing and to devote a minimal level of visual search to the keyboard ( cooper, 1983 ). this ability is gained through the memorization of key positions and finger trajectories, which makes touch - typing a difficult skill to acquire. other differences between touch - typing and visually guided typing include touch typists ' ( a ) use of all fingers of both hands, as opposed to the use of one hand of only some of the fingers ; ( b ) fixed assignment of fingers to keys ; ( c ) reduced arm movements ; and ( d ) fixed locations of the palms ( crooks, 1964 ). broader cognitive benefits of touch typing : while i have not read any specific research testing the idea, i think the benefits of touch typing relate to its superiority as a text entry method and not as some broader tool for brain integration. a large body of research on psychomotor and cognitive performance suggests that transfer across disparate domains tends to be minimal. the domains would need to have some overlapping elements. more broadly, there is a strong link between unemployment and depression ( e. g., frese & mohr, 1987 ). engaging in meaningful or enjoyable activity might help improve mood in some cases ( e. g., juggling, mastering some other new skill ). however, i don ' t think the mechanism of that mood improvement would be hemispheric brain balancing. - cooper, w. e. ( 1983 ). introduction. in w. e. cooper ( ed. ), cognitive aspects of skilled typewriting


nasa / jpl - caltech / stsci / esa this image of a pair of colliding galaxies called ngc 6240 shows them in a rare, short - lived phase of their evolution just before they merge into a single, larger galaxy. click on the image for a larger version. nothing draws a crowd like a spectacular crash - whether it ' s a nascar auto race or a galactic collision. over the past month, internet users voted for a cosmic smash - up as their favorite target for a future close - up from the hubble space telescope, and this week you can feast your eyes on two fantastic images of galaxies in gridlock. the first " train wreck " comes from nasa ' s spitzer space telescope. this is a biggie : two huge galaxies, each anchored by a central black hole that ' s millions of times as massive as the sun, are moving toward an imminent pile - up. exactly how imminent? millions of years after the scene captured in this image - a time span that ' s a mere blink of the eye on the cosmic scale. " one of the most exciting things about the image is that this object is unique, " stephanie bush of the harvard - smithsonian center for astrophysics, says in a news release about the observations. " merging is a quick process, especially when you get to the train wreck that is happening. there just aren ' t many galactic mergers at this stage in the nearby universe. " spitzer ' s image of ngc 6240, which is 400 million light - years away in the constellation ophiuchus, highlights the bursts of infrared radiation as the dust and gas from the two galaxies slam together. all that pressure creates new generations of hot stars, blazing away in infrared wavelengths even though the radiation in visible wavelengths is obscured by dust clouds. because of this phenomenon, these starry swirls are known as luminous infrared galaxies. in the news release, the spitzer science team point to the streams of stars being ripped off the galaxies - " tidal tails " that extend into space in all directions. and this is just the warmup act : bush and her colleagues expect the galactic black holes to hit head - on. that would upgrade ngc 6240 ' s status to that of an ultra - luminous infrared galaxy, thousands of times as bright in infrared as our own milky way. the findings are detailed in the astrophysical journal. in addition to bush, the paper ' s co - authors include zhong wang, margarita karovska and giovanni fazio, all of the harvard - smithsonian


in infrared as our own milky way. the findings are detailed in the astrophysical journal. in addition to bush, the paper ' s co - authors include zhong wang, margarita karovska and giovanni fazio, all of the harvard - smithsonian center for astrophysics. this week ' s other galactic crash was witnessed by the european southern observatory ' s very large telescope in chile. two galaxies are piling into each other 70 million light - years away in the constellation libra, and just as in the case of ngc 6240, the clashing clouds of gas and dust are sparking waves of stellar fireworks. | this color composite image from the eso very large telescope in chile shows arp 261. click on the picture for a larger version. these galaxies, collectively known as arp 261, aren ' t as big as the monsters in ngc 6240. they ' re on the scale of dwarf galaxies, similar to the magellanic clouds orbiting the milky way. in this week ' s image advisory, the eso says the focus of research in this picture actually isn ' t the wide - screen view of smashing galaxies, but a detailed look at an unusually long - lasting, x - ray - emitting supernova. this image adds little white bars to highlight the location of the supernova. the picture also includes other objects at a wide range of distances. if you click on a higher - resolution view, you ' ll be able to make out a sprinkling of background galaxies on the right side of the picture. those galaxies may be 50 to 100 times farther away than arp 261, the eso says. toward the top left corner of the picture, you can see two red - green - blue streaks. those are two small asteroids in our solar system ' s main asteroid belt. the streaks are multicolored because the eso ' s picture was taken through different color filters - and the asteroids were moving through the telescope field even as the exposures were switched from one filter to the next. correction for 3 : 30 p. m. et march 18 : i fixed a bad link to the saturn transit story... sorry about that! after reading all the perceptive comments below, i ' ve also edited the item to straighten something out about the timing of events at ngc 6240. we will likely see an even more spectacular pile - up there millions of years from now, but because the galaxies are so distant, and because the speed of light is finite, that phase of the pile - up will have


since its origin, the scouting program has been an educational experience concerned with values. in 1910, the first activities for scouts were designed to build character, physical fitness, practical skills, and service. these elements were part of the original cub scout program and continue to be part of cub scouting today character development should extend into every aspect of a boy ' s life. character development should also extend into every aspect of cub scouting. cub scout leaders should strive to use cub scouting ' s 12 core values throughout all elements of the program — service projects, ceremonies, games, skits, songs, crafts, and all the other activities enjoyed at den and pack meetings cub scouting ' s 12 core values contributing service and showing responsibility to local, state, and national communities. being kind and considerate, and showing concern for the well - being of others. being helpful and working together with others toward a common goal being brave and doing what is right regardless of our fears, the difficulties, or the consequences. having inner strength and confidence based on our trust in god. | | health and fitness : being personally committed to keeping our minds and bodies clean and fit. telling the truth and being worthy of trust. sticking with something and not giving up, even if it is difficult. being cheerful and setting our minds to look for and find the best in all situations. using human and other resources to their fullest. showing regard for the worth of something or someone. fulfilling our duty to god, country, other people, and ourselves. | 12 core values and the scout law boy scouts learn and strive to live by the scout law : a scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent many of the core values of cub scouting relate directly to the scout law : | health and fitness character can be defined as the collection of core values by an individual that leads to moral commitment and action. character development should challenge cub scouts to experience core values in six general areas : god, world, country, community, family, and self. character is " values in action. " the goals of the cub scout leader are - to seek out and maximize the many opportunities to incorporate character development - to convince the young cub scout that character is important to the individual, to his family, community, country, world, and god character development should not be viewed as something done occasionally as part of a separate program, or as part of only one area of life. for in reality


that character is important to the individual, to his family, community, country, world, and god character development should not be viewed as something done occasionally as part of a separate program, or as part of only one area of life. for in reality, character development is a part of everything a cub scout does. character development lessons can be found in every aspect of the cub scouting experience. when it comes to developing character, the complete person must be considered. character development involves at least three critical areas : - know ( thought ) - commit ( feeling ) - practice ( behavior ) in cub scouting, addressing these three critical areas and relating them to values is referred to as character connections. character connections asks the cub scout to : character development includes moral knowledge — both awareness and reasoning. for example, children must understand what honesty means and they must be able to reason about and interpret each situation, and then decide how to apply the principles of honesty. what do i think or know about the core value? how does the context of this situation affect this core value? what are some historical, literary, or religious examples representing the core value? character development includes attention to moral motivation. children must be committed to doing what they know is right. they must be able to understand the perspectives of others, to consider how others feel, and to develop an active moral conscience. why is this core value important? what makes living out this core value different? what will it take to live out this core value? character development includes the development of moral habits through guided practice. children need opportunities to practice the social and emotional skills necessary for doing what is right but difficult, and to experience the core values in their lives. how can i act according to this core value? how do i live out this core value? how can i practice this value at school, at home, and with my friends? to make character connections an integral part of cub scouting, the 12 core values are being integrated throughout the boys ' handbooks and advancement program. program support for character development can be found in cub scout program helps, in the cub scout leader book, and at your monthly roundtable meetings. - core values are the basis of good character development. - character must be broadly defined to include thinking, feeling, and behavior. - core values should be promoted throughout all phases of life.


darkness is our natural state. during the 200, 000 years of human existence our species has only known electric light for. 06 % of that time. yes there were candles and torches, but the thought of just flipping a switch to turn on all the lights in a room was inconceivable. today we recognize the shapes of cities based on the lights they shine at our satellites. here in europe electricity is like oxygen. it is everywhere. we would never even consider paying for electricity at an airport or cafe to charge the batteries of our computers and mobile phones. but what is essential to remember is that this year, 2009, exactly 130 years after the invention of the electric light bulb, the technology still hasn ’ t spread to all corners of the globe. these students are studying under lamps at their city ’ s airport because it is the only place with stable electricity. major african cities like monrovia in liberia, are powered completely by generators. the centralization of electricity thomas edison ’ s electric light bulb was really an ingenious invention, but from a business point of view it had a problem. you couldn ’ t use it without electricity. and so, to sell his electric lamps edison realized that he would need to distribute electricity to the homes, offices, and warehouses that wanted electric light. pearl street station was edison ’ s first power generating station. to the right you can see the small neighborhood in manhattan that it was able to provide electricity to. edison came up with direct current to transmit electricity from power stations to nearby businesses and homes. the problem with direct current is that it is a very inefficient way of transmitting electricity over long distances. the direct current model would require a power station in every neighborhood. still, edison thought he came up with a master plan to provide electricity and electric light to the whole world. after all, who could challenge america ’ s greatest inventor? nikola tesla is one of europe ’ s and one of science ’ s most intriguing characters. a serbian, tesla was born in the tiny village of smiljan, which today still has a population of less than 500 and is now part of croatia. ( as danica radovanovic recently reminded me on facebook, tesla was one of many brilliant serbian scientists to leave his country for elsewhere. ) tesla questioned edison ’ s use of direct current to transmit electricity and instead proposed alternating current, which is far more efficient as it travels over long distances. what followed was the war of currents : tesla and edison went head to head. europe ’ s


) tesla questioned edison ’ s use of direct current to transmit electricity and instead proposed alternating current, which is far more efficient as it travels over long distances. what followed was the war of currents : tesla and edison went head to head. europe ’ s greatest inventor of the time versus america ’ s greatest inventor of the time. and who lost? this poor elephant named topsy. tesla ’ s system of alternating current raises the voltage to a very high level as it travels across distances. edison electrocuted topsy as a scare tactic to show the public what would happen if they touched a high voltage cable. but what sealed the deal was the niagara falls hydroelectric power project, the biggest power generator of the time. in 1883, the niagara falls power company hired nikola tesla and his business partner george westinghouse to design a system to generate alternating current and transmit it throughout new york. had alternating current not won, then projects like china ’ s three gorges dam, which will generate ten times as much electricity as niagara falls, would never exist. alternating current led to the centralization of electricity. one of edison ’ s arguments against alternating current is that a few major power generators are much more vulnerable than many spread all around the world. that remains true today, but the economics of centralized energy production and the allure of cheap energy won out in the end. the centralization of computing i wanted to briefly go over the history of electrification because its development so closely parallels what we are seeing today in the computing industry. this is not my own observation : it was first made in a book by nicholas carr called the big switch and the analogy is now commonly used by many when they explain the concept of cloud computing. phase 1 : mainframe computing this is the computer that the internal revenue service used to process tax returns in the 1960 ’ s. mainframe computers at the time typically cost between $ 500, 000 – $ 1 million. they were only available to programmers and researchers who had to wait hours if not days to use them because there was so much computing to be done and so few computers to do it. phase 2 : personal computing the second phase of computing began in 1977 with the apple ii computer, which brought computing into the home and personal office for the first time. data was stored on audio cassette tapes. the first apple ii cost $ 1, 300 with 4k of ram and $ 2, 600 with 48k of ram. today you can buy a gigabyte of ram for $ 30 and a terabyte hard drive for $ 70


tapes. the first apple ii cost $ 1, 300 with 4k of ram and $ 2, 600 with 48k of ram. today you can buy a gigabyte of ram for $ 30 and a terabyte hard drive for $ 70. it had a one megahertz processor and the above ad from a 1977 issue of scientific america touted its high resolution graphics ; by which it meant a 280 by 192 pixels display with four colors : black, white, violet, and green. this is gary. from the tags on the flickr picture i assume he works in the it department of some startup company. in many ways gary ’ s position exemplifies the era of personal computing. gary is in charge of maintaining a network of computers for just one company. he goes around to each computer and upgrades new versions of software. he creates new email accounts for new employees. he answers questions as they come up. and he backs up all the data to make sure it isn ’ t lost in case of a hard drive failure. ( increasingly gary is able to nap while online services do that work for him. ) most of us still operate in the era of personal computing. we create content on our laptop and desktop computers. we store our information on our individual hard drives. and when we share documents it is usually with email. phase 3 : cloud computing the greatest evidence that we are entering the third chapter of computing is that laptop computers are becoming less powerful, not more. this is because today you don ’ t need a powerful computer ; all you need is an internet connection. google is even creating a free and open source operating system specifically targeted for cheap netbooks like the one above. in fact, increasingly we are leaving our laptops at home because smart phones are proving sufficient for most of our daily tasks. this week the big talk of town is a rumored apple tablet, which might be announced tomorrow, though much more likely sometime during the first half of 2010. there have, in fact, been rumors of an apple tablet computer for years, but only now does it make sense to release such a powerful product with so few features. a tablet pc does little except connect to the internet. but today all you need is a keyboard, screen, camera, and microphone to connect to the cloud. word processing, image editing, spreadsheets, video editing, audio recording : all the applications are available online. so, what do we mean when we say “ the cloud ”? in many ways i think that the term is an un


cloud. word processing, image editing, spreadsheets, video editing, audio recording : all the applications are available online. so, what do we mean when we say “ the cloud ”? in many ways i think that the term is an unhelpful abstraction which masks the actual shift in infrastructure that is taking place. increasingly computing and data storage are not taking place on our own computers, but rather at massive data centers like this one : the data center in the above video has about 40, 000 computers. here is just one : machines like this process and store our emails, the photos we publish online, our blog posts, the videos we upload to youtube, and even the voicemails we listen to from our mobile phones. datacentermap. org has a map - based directory of major data centers based around the world. when we speak of “ the cloud ” what we ’ re really referring to are these massive data centers, the thousands of computers they contain, and the countless software applications they make available to us through our browsers. and this visualization from new scientist shows us how those applications interact with our laptops, cell phones, and tablets from the massive data centers that make up the cloud. 2009 is the 40th anniversary of the internet, the 20th anniversary of the world wide web, and the 5th anniversary of what we call web 2. 0. the change is accelerating. just look at these maps of internet users from 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008. ( teddy points out that african internet users aren ’ t included on any of the maps. ) last year, for the first time ever, the united states was not the nation with the largest number of internet users. that now belongs to china. and, unless something drastic happens, china will continue to have the largest online presence for the rest of our lives. internet world statistics estimates that there are over 1. 5 billion internet users. last year google announced that it had indexed its trillionth web page. researchers at microsoft estimate that “ if you spent just one minute reading every website in existence, you ’ d be kept busy for 31, 000 years. without any sleep. ” ( “ that explains a lot, ” says georgia. ) some researchers estimate that global internet usage already makes up five percent of the world ’ s energy consumption. though this video has stirred up lots of debate about the statistics it cites ( check out the 130 + comments on the post ), its basic premise – that the internet has had a tremendous impact on human society


percent of the world ’ s energy consumption. though this video has stirred up lots of debate about the statistics it cites ( check out the 130 + comments on the post ), its basic premise – that the internet has had a tremendous impact on human society – cannot be denied. the centralization of intelligence we have gone over the history of electrification and computing. i ’ d like to conclude with a brief history of collective intelligence. in the 17th century thomas hobbes was a controversial figure in part because he believed that intelligence came not from an all powerful god, but from each individual ; and that if we could somehow bring each individual ’ s intelligence together to create a collective intelligence then we could shape society for the better. in 1938, hg wells published world brain, a collection of essays on the future organization of knowledge and education. two years earlier the american library association had endorsed microfilm as a way to archive and store books, newspapers, manuscripts, and periodicals. wells, inspired by advances in microfilm, imagined “ a mental clearing house for the mind, a depot where knowledge and ideas are received, sorted, summarized, digested, clarified and compared. ” even before wells published world brain, belgian author and peace activist paul otlet was already envisioning his own pre - cursor to google books : so how has collective intelligence changed in the era of cloud computing? what do we mean when we say “ cloud intelligence? ” for one thing, our relationship with software has become much more symbiotic. we depend on cloud software to make sense of the information around us ; and cloud software depends on us to help it make sense of the ever - increasing amount of information we upload to the internet. take google flu trends, for instance, which can detect flu outbreaks faster than the center for disease control by monitoring searches for symptoms. another example of cloud intelligence is recaptcha which has enlisted an army of millions of unknowing volunteers to help digitize books and the complete archive of the new york times : ( if you want to leave a comment on this post you ’ re forced to join von ahn ‘ s mission. ) another example of cloud intelligence is found in the active astrometry group on flickr. there are over 1, 000 amateur astronomers in the group that help scientists keep an eye on the galaxies around us by regularly posting the photos they take from their telescopes. when members of the group publish a photograph of the nighttime sky an automated computer application scans their photos for recognizable stars, planets,