asthma : using an asthma action plan what is an actionset? if you or your child has asthma that requires daily treatment, it is important to have an asthma action plan. an asthma action plan is a written plan that tells you what asthma medicine to take every day and how to treat an asthma attack. it can help you make quick decisions in case you are not able to think clearly during an attack. an asthma action plan usually includes : - treatment goals, which include your personal goals about your asthma. - an outline of which medicines you take daily for asthma control and when to take them. - an asthma diary where you record peak expiratory flow ( pef ) and the triggers that cause asthma symptoms. - steps to take and medicines to use to treat an asthma attack early, before it becomes severe. - what to do if an attack becomes an emergency, and where to get medical treatment. using an asthma action plan can help you stay active with fewer asthma problems. following your plan is a big step toward controlling the disease so you can live the life you want. return to topic : an asthma action plan has three zones. you can find out what zone you are in by checking your peak flow or symptoms. peak flow is a measure of how fast you breathe out when you try your hardest. you check your peak flow with a peak flow meter, an inexpensive device that you can use at home. your doctor can show you how to use it. the zones of an asthma action plan are based on the colors of a stoplight. see an example of an asthma action plan ( what is a pdf document? ). green zone. green means go. - you are in the green zone if your peak flow is 80 % to 100 % of your personal best measurement. you should have no asthma symptoms when you are in the green zone. you want to be in the green zone every day. - if you continue to stay in the green zone, your doctor may lower your daily asthma medicines. yellow zone. yellow means caution. - you are in the yellow zone if your peak flow is 50 % to 79 % of your personal best measurement. you may not have any symptoms, but your lung function is reduced. when symptoms are present, they may be mild to moderate, or may keep you from your normal activities or disturb your sleep. - being in the yellow zone means that you should take action. your action plan should state what medicines you need to take, how much to take, and when to take them. - if you keep


you from your normal activities or disturb your sleep. - being in the yellow zone means that you should take action. your action plan should state what medicines you need to take, how much to take, and when to take them. - if you keep going into the yellow zone from the green zone, talk with your doctor. you may need a different medicine. or the doses of your medicines may need to be increased. red zone. red means stop. - you are in the red zone if your peak flow is less than 50 % of your personal best measurement. your symptoms will be severe, and you may cough and be very short of breath. - if your symptoms and peak flow are in the red zone, follow your action plan. - callright away if you are in the red zone and you have followed your action plan, but : - you are having severe difficulty breathing. - 20 to 30 minutes after taking the extra medicine, you do not feel better and / or your peak flow is still less than 50 % of your personal best measurement. using an asthma action plan takes the guesswork out of treating asthma attacks. it can help you to : - take control of your treatment. - have fewer or less severe attacks. - avoid trips to the doctor or the hospital. develop your plan - work with your doctor to make an action plan for you or your child. the action plan is based on peak flow and asthma symptoms. these help your doctor know how bad your asthma is. an action plan may include : see an example of an asthma action plan ( what is a pdf document? ). - the peak flow readings and symptoms for each zone. - what medicines to take in each zone. - when to call a doctor. - a list of emergency contact numbers. - a list of your asthma triggers. - let your doctor know what you want regarding asthma care. for example, if you are not comfortable using a peak flow meter, tell your doctor. - if you make an asthma action plan for your child, give a copy to the child ' s school or caregivers and make sure they know how to use it. follow your daily treatment, and use the asthma action plan - take your daily medicines to help minimize long - term damage and avoid asthma attacks. - check your peak flow every morning and evening. this is the best way to know how well your lungs are working. - check your action plan to see what zone you are in. - if you are in the green zone, keep taking your daily asthma medicines as prescribed


american scientists make great leap in battery technology one of the primary concerns with owning an electric vehicle is cost of the battery, the range it offers, and the time it takes to recharge. those concerns will be significantly lessoned with the development of a new lithium - ion battery. designed by scientists at envia systems, a us - based company, the new battery has roughly twice the energy density of existing rechargeable batteries. such an innovation could greatly increase the range of electric cars as well as cut the price of the battery packs in half. the research conducted by envia systems was funded by a $ 4 million federal grant through arpa - energy ( advanced research projects agency ). the work was done at the argonne national laboratory. the new battery can achieve an energy density of 400 watt - hours per kilogram, double that of existing rechargeable batteries. the key was introducing manganese into the mix of materials used in the cathode, the electrode where the lithium ions congregate. then, they added silicon to the anode, the electrode toward which the ions flow, producing the electric current. the costs of the batteries are cheaper per kilowatt - hour than standard lithium ion batteries. at $ 125 per kwh, they are less than half the cost. the is not trivial because the batteries constitute roughly 65 percent of the total cost of an electric vehicle. the major automakers have taken notice of this battery breakthrough and are knocking on envia ' s door. general motors is already an investor in the technology. however, according to envia chairman and ceo, atul kapadia, envia is " working with all the brand name [ carmakers ] in the world. " the new batteries could greatly boost the nascent electric car industry. for example, a nissan leaf combined with the new envia battery could potentially travel 300 miles on a single $ 10 charge, as opposed to its 80 mile range today. this is roughly the same range as many conventional internal combustion engines. it is the equivalent of driving from philadelphia to pittsburgh on a single charge. the new battery breakthrough may well revolutionize the auto industry. it is foreseeable that electric vehicles may actually surpass sales of conventional vehicles, potentially phasing them out forever. for more information : http : / / enviasystems. com / image shows envia laboratories. image credit : john f. martin for general motors


trilobite olenoides erratus. source : mark a. wilson a fossil is the preserved remain of a lifeform that lived in prehistoric times. most commonly fossils are mineralized parts or a whole organism which is no longer alive. in other cases the fossil may contain actual remains of the dead organism ; in particular, dna may be preserved over long periods of time under the right conditions, since dna is fundamentally an inanimate molecule. while the most familiar fossils are those derived from animals and plants including such exotic species as dinosaurs and woolly mammoths, there are also fossils from ancient bacteria. there are several methods of fossil formation including re - crystallization, permineralization, compression, molding and entombment. examination of fossils was the earliest technique of palaeoentology, the study of ancient lifeforms, and it continues as the companion of molecular biology, to be key in the elucidation of phylogenies ( ancestral relationships of species ). the earliest animal fossils date from the cambrian period, approximately 540 million years before present, although some bacterial fossils exist from at least two billion years before present. process of formation most fossils are the result of sedimentary rock formation where coverage of the original organism occurred quickly ; preservation and mineralization is encouraged by anoxic ( oxygen deprived ) conditions, where decompostion was not able to occur rapidly upon death of the subject. body parts most readily preserved are teeth and bony animal parts and the chitonous elements of plants, which elements are most resistive to decay, and thus have more time to enter their preserved state. recrystallized scleractinian fossil coral. source : mark a. wilson one of the simplest processes for fossil formation is the phenomenon of re - crystalization. this is an easily understood process, whereby substances such as teeth and bone, which begin with a high mineral content, have their chemicals replaced by a new crystalline lattice. in a number of instances, mineral replacement of the original body part transpires so gradually that microstructural features are conserved even though a complete transformation of the original organism ' s material occurs. a shell is termed recrystallized when the original skeletal compounds are still present but in a different crystal form, as in a transition form aragonite to calcite. the process of re - crystallization is often termed replacement. living organisms ordinarily contain large amounts of volume that is filled with water or gases. when an organism is covered with sediment, those aqueous


transition form aragonite to calcite. the process of re - crystallization is often termed replacement. living organisms ordinarily contain large amounts of volume that is filled with water or gases. when an organism is covered with sediment, those aqueous and gaseous portions of the individual may be replaced with mineral rich water from an aquifer or surface water body. this process is termed permineralization, and often is best viewed as a replacement phenomenon at the cellular level. fine grained or small scale permineralization produces very detailed fossil specimens. for permineralization to occur, it is essential for the organism to become covered by sediment rapidly upon death, before significant decay has set in. in ideal cases of preservation, individual cell walls can be effectively fossilized, producing an incredible level of microscopic preservation. compression fossils, most often exemplified by planar plant forms such as leaves or ferns, result from chemical reduction of complex organic molecules that comprise biotic tissues. the fossil actually preserves original organism material, but in a geochemically altered state. in many cases the preserved fossil is nothing but a thin carbonaceous film. lepidodendron external mold. source : mark a. wilson such a chemical change is a manifestation of diagenesis, the transformation of sediment after its original deposition. in some cases dna may effectively be extracted from compression fossils. internal or external mold in some cases the entire organism may vanish, but an exterior mold will be made by sedimentary rock encasing the original remains of the organism which has been completely dissolved or destroyed. this casting results in a sculptured cavity within the rock, with the exterior three dimensional outline of the original organism ' s exterior ; the product of this process is termed an external mold. if this hole is subsequently filled with different minerals, it is a cast and called an internal mold. a common example of this latter type of mold is a bivalve mollusc. ant entombed in baltic amber. souce : anders l. damgaard in some cases exceptional preservation may occur by a relatively rapid fatal trapping and encasing of a live organism with ( usually ) an organic substance such as amber or tar. some of these circumstances create fossils of unusual life - pose forms, and many of these instances provide substantial detail of the subjects. for example, recent research using crystallography has yielded amazing structural detail of the morphology of long extinct insects that were trapped in amber. bioimmuration is a form of fossilization whereby a skeletal organism envelopes or subsumes


moon system formed and evolved, as well as the role of geophysical processes such as volcanism, tectonics, cratering, or erosion in shaping the moon. and, of course, in preparation for future lunar and planetary exploration, we need to find resources and landing sites. ” so, there are many unsolved questions about the moon, even though six nasa apollo missions and three unmanned soviet spacecraft have landed on it and brought back rock samples. the far side of the moon - - the one that never faces earth - - and the polar regions remain fairly unexplored. the existence of water on the moon has also never been confirmed, although two orbiters in the 1990s found indirect evidence. we are not even sure how the moon was formed. according to the most accepted theory, 4500 million years ago an asteroid the size of mars collided with our planet, and the vapourised debris that went into space condensed to form the moon. smart - 1 will map the moon ' s topography, as well as the surface distribution of minerals such as pyroxenes, olivines, and feldspars. also, an x - ray detector will identify key chemical elements in the lunar surface. these data will allow scientists to reconstruct the geological evolution of the moon, and to search for traces of the impact with the giant asteroid. if the collision theory is right, the moon should contain less iron than the earth, in proportion to lighter elements such as magnesium and aluminium. by gauging the relative amounts of chemical elements comprehensively for the very first time, smart - 1 can make a significant contribution in resolving this issue. as for water, if it exists, it must be in the form of ice in places always hidden from the sun. in such places, the temperature will never rise above - 170ºc. dark places like that could exist in the bottoms of small craters in the polar regions. peering into these craters is maybe the trickiest task that the smart - 1 scientists have set themselves. they will look for the infrared signature of water - ice. it will be difficult because no direct light falls in those areas, but rays from nearby crater rims, catching the sunshine, may light the ice sufficiently for smart - 1 instruments to see it. new technologies to prepare for future interplanetary missions future scientific missions will greatly profit from the technologies being tested on smart - 1. solar - electric primary propulsion is a new propulsion technique based on so - called ' ion engines ' that feed on electricity derived


new technologies to prepare for future interplanetary missions future scientific missions will greatly profit from the technologies being tested on smart - 1. solar - electric primary propulsion is a new propulsion technique based on so - called ' ion engines ' that feed on electricity derived from solar panels. it is a technique that has only ever been used once before. these engines provide a very gentle thrust, but they work for years while conventional, more powerful chemical rockets burn for only a few minutes. ion engines offer key advantages. they need considerably less propellant than chemical propulsion, which means less weight at launch and more mass available for scientific instruments and payload. ion engines open the door to truly deep space exploration. they slash the time for interplanetary flight : although they provide less thrust they can last for years. the ion tortoise will therefore eventually overtake the chemical hare. moreover, another application of the gentle thrust provided by electric propulsion allows very accurate spacecraft attitude control, a skill that will be useful for scientific missions that require highly precise and undisturbed pointing. future esa science missions will rely on ion engines. smart - 1 will also test new miniaturisation techniques that save space and economise on mass : in space, less mass per instrument enables scientists to have more instruments on board, so more science. the smart - 1 payload consists of a dozen technological and scientific investigations performed by seven instruments weighing only 19 kilograms in total. for example, the x - ray telescope d - cixs, consists of a cube just 15 centimetres wide and weighing less than 5 kilograms. the ultra - compact electronic camera, amie, weighs no more than an amateur ’ s camera. new navigation and space - communication techniques will also be tested. an experiment called oban, based on images from the miniature camera amie and the star trackers, is the first step towards future ' autonomous ' spacecraft. in a not - too - distant future, scientific satellites will be able to ' find their way ' with a minimum of ground control, just by using stars and other celestial objects to guide themselves along predefined paths. as for communications, engineers need to develop new and efficient ways to communicate with earth from deep space, for interplanetary missions that are long or go far. smart - 1 will test both very short radio waves ( called ka band, with the instrument kate ) and a laser experiment to try to communicate with the earth using a laser beam, instead of traditional radio frequencies. esa already has laser links with telecommunications satellites from an optical ground station on


what your blood pressure says about you here ' s how to get the most from your blood pressure readings. medically reviewed by lindsey marcellin, md, mph doctors have been measuring patients ’ blood pressure, the force that blood exerts on the inside walls of your vessels — since the first sphygmomanometers ( yes, that ' s what blood pressure cuffs are called ) were invented at the beginning of the 20th century. doctors are still finding new ways to glean information about your health from these numbers. british researchers recently found differences in blood pressure between the right and left arms might be a sign of vascular disease. likewise, a difference in blood pressure when you ’ re lying down vs. standing up may indicate heart problems or blood vessel disease. doctors can tell that from a painless test that takes only a few minutes. the basics : what does blood pressure mean the most important thing to know about your blood pressure is whether or not it ' s high. a blood pressure reading consists of two numbers, with acceptable ranges for each one. the first, or top, number is called the systolic number. that ' s the pressure inside your arteries when your heart beats. the bottom, or diastolic, number is the pressure between beats. you want those numbers to be below 120 and 80, respectively. " what high blood pressure means is too much resistance inside your arteries, " says ivan v. pacold, md, a cardiology professor at loyola university ' s stritch school of medicine and director of cardiology at gottlieb memorial hospital in chicago. " simply speaking, that causes arterial damage and increases your risk for stroke, heart attack, heart failure, and kidney failure. " the lowdown on low blood pressure " in a healthy person, low blood pressure is a sign of good health as long as the systolic pressure is above 80, " explains dr. pacold. " very low blood pressure in a person with heart disease could be a sign of heart failure. " one type of low blood pressure that could predict future heart problems is called orthostatic hypotension. in this type of low blood pressure, " there is a drop of 10 to 20 points of blood pressure when a person moves from a sitting or supine ( flat ) position to a standing position, " pacold says. " it causes a sudden sense of lightheadedness and can be due to a heart that is starting to have trouble compensating. " a recent study on


earlier chapters have presented all the key elements of an observer programme. this final chapter gives a brief overview on how to put all the elements together. three aspects are considered : design, implementation and maintenance. there are two main sets of influences that condition the framework of a programme. policy decisions ( and complementary decisions at management, science, mcs / compliance and observer operations levels ) - possibly reflected through the fishery management plan that lays down programme objectives. the situation ( or environment ) within which the programme must function, i. e. the factors that will shape the programme strategy and ultimately define its success or failure. decisions that underlie an observer programme were outlined in the introduction, and programme objectives were discussed in chapter 1. it is important to define objectives in a way that is easy to understand, but which is sufficiently comprehensive to meet the needs of observer data users. over - ambitious objectives may lead to disappointment within and outside of the observer programme. once the objectives have been defined, they must continually be assessed in terms of the functional environment of the programme. this involves attention to the following components. a ) physical environment conditions of the area covered - e. g. temperate or tropical location of ports. b ) biological environment for example, the key species, by - catch and predictions of catch rates. c ) fishing activity the resource users e. g. vessel nationality, size of vessel, fishing methods. d ) owner organization background information on the government fma that will be home to the programme. e ) other data collection programmes any other programmes that collect data for fisheries management. f ) the potential observers consider skills, abilities, professionalism and qualifications. g ) national level policies and objectives consider wider political, social and economic policies that may influence the programme, e. g. the need to address national employment problems, including gender or empowerment questions. h ) international level is the fishery sector party to any international or regional agreements that may influence the scope of the programme? i ) legal instruments what legal instruments exist, both informal and formal, such as acts, regulations, tribal rights, etc.? l ) financing options where will the programme finance come from? if from donor support, how will donor objectives influence the strategy of the programme? if from industry, should joint management be considered? who will care about the programme? draw up a list of all the possible stakeholders and consider current links and historic problems between them, and gauge their interest in the programme. assessment of the functional environment helps to clarify programme prospects and problems. these can be further clarified through sw


the programme? draw up a list of all the possible stakeholders and consider current links and historic problems between them, and gauge their interest in the programme. assessment of the functional environment helps to clarify programme prospects and problems. these can be further clarified through swot analysis ( strength, weakness, opportunity and threat analysis ). swot analysis looks at all the aspects of the programme in relation to the required outputs and simply asks logical questions about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats ( table 16 ). swot analysis serves as a kind of reality check. are threats too big to overcome or can they be overcome by opportunities? if the threats are considered too big, then should programme objectives be reconsidered? the analysis might contribute to a background paper that defines the intentions and plans for the programme for circulation among potential stakeholders for feedback. a possible structure of a background paper would include : name of programme, background and objectives situation analysis and overall strategy proposed organization and delivery how to address sustainability this paper can also serve as a basis for securing donor assistance to the programme. following feedback from stakeholders, decisions can be made on its feasibility or on any programme re - design. table 16 how to make a swot analysis what are your advantages and consider this from your own point of view and from the point of view of the people you deal with. be realistic. what could be improved? again this should be considered from both an internal and external perspective. do other people perceive weaknesses that you don ' t see? do your colleagues do any better? it is best to be realistic now, and face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible. what good changes do you face? useful opportunities can come from such things as : changes in technology on both a broad and narrow scale what obstacles do you face? carrying out this analysis will often be illuminating - both in terms of pointing out what needs to be done, and in putting problems into perspective. make a risk analysis by defining what could go wrong. if the chances for a successful programme are deemed good, a project will be necessary in order to implement it. project duration might be anywhere from one to five years, depending on the scale and scope of the programme to be established. planning is vital, and a project logical framework ( logframe ) approach should be used. a pilot phase, incorporating also pilot work on a sampling strategy ( section 4. 5 ), should first be implemented. trials during this phase will be used to establish work plans, working practices, codes of conduct, training manuals and guides, and consideration


register new player welcome to our world of fun trivia quizzes and quiz games : studies have shown... " what do the results of the latest study really prove? this quiz explores the techniques used to avoid inferring too much from scientific studies and tests. " 15 points per correct answer - no time limit i ' ll bet you ' ve noticed the resemblance between the surface of a shelled walnut and the surface of a human brain. perhaps, then, you won ' t be surprised to learn that in three separate surveys, 100 % of highly successful funtrivia quiz takers reported using walnuts before taking quizzes!!! which of the following could be inferred with certainty from these survey results? none of these. eating walnuts before taking quizzes improved the performance of the participants in my survey. eating walnuts before taking quizzes will improve your quiz performance. the respondents to my survey believed that eating walnuts improved their performance. during world war i, tin helmets replaced cloth helmets. contrary to expectation, the number of injuries increased. which of the following could be inferred with certainty from the facts presented? the number of injuries increased after tin helmets were introduced. soldiers wearing tin helmets were more likely to suffer fatal injury than those wearing cloth helmets. tin helmets provided protection that was inferior to cloth helmets. all of these. helmet laws for motorcyclists are controversial. some years following the repeal of louisiana ' s motorcycle helmet law, the journal " academic emergency medicine " ( volume 9, number 5 418 - 419, 2002 ) reported on changes in accident statistics. which of the following unequivocally indicates an increased risk as a result of not wearing a helmet? unhelmeted fatalities increased from 8. 4 to 29. 0 per year after the law was repealed. unhelmeted motorcyclists were found to have a significantly higher incidence per collision of head injury and fatality. after repeal of the helmet law, helmet use decreased from 79 % to 46 %, and fatalities in all patients increased from 3. 4 % to 5. 2 %. all of these i demonstrated that 100 % of highly successful funtrivia quiz - takers consumed walnuts prior to quizzes. having been criticized for not having a control group, i undertook to make a comparison using historical controls. i analyzed an equal number of quiz - takers afflicted with chronically low quiz performance and could find no evidence that any of them reported eating walnuts prior to taking quizzes.


group, i undertook to make a comparison using historical controls. i analyzed an equal number of quiz - takers afflicted with chronically low quiz performance and could find no evidence that any of them reported eating walnuts prior to taking quizzes. which of the following would not be a valid criticism of my study methods? i failed to disclose the specifics of my methods for determining walnut use in the study and control groups and could be hiding an ascertainment error / bias. i failed to specify the number of study participants. retrospective studies never prove cause and effect. my study was retrospective, and retrospective studies never provide statistically valid, useful results. randomized, controlled, double - blinded studies are the gold standard for medical investigation. in 2001, a group of neurologists was asked to help investigate the importance of a component of this method during a study of a treatment for multiple sclerosis. these neurologists were asked to evaluate subjects but were told before doing the evaluation whether or not the subjects had received placebo or the proposed intervention. which aspect of randomized, controlled, double blinded studies was being omitted for these neurologist to allow that particular aspect to be studied? none of these according to the coronary risk calculator provided at the nih website, the risk of a coronary event for a 35 year old non - smoking woman with normal blood pressure, normal hdl cholesterol and a total cholesterol of 300 is 1 % for ten years. assuming that 200 such women were treated for ten years with cholesterol lowering drugs that reduced the risk of coronary events by 50 %, how many coronary events would we expect to prevent in a ten year period? a 35 - year - old woman dentist is offered a free cardiac treadmill at a dental convention. before accepting the offer she calculates her expected coronary risk and finds it to be 1 %. assuming a 20 % false positive rate and a 10 % false negative rate, what would her risk of coronary artery disease be should she be found to have an abnormal cardiac stress test? david g. myers ' " exploring psychology " states, " there is a highly significant tendency for first - born individuals within a family to have higher average scores ( on tests of intelligence ) than their later - born siblings. " assuming dr. myers is speaking of statistical significance, what can we infer about intelligence test scores of first - born as opposed to later born siblings? the difference in test scores is highly unlikely to be explained on the


their later - born siblings. " assuming dr. myers is speaking of statistical significance, what can we infer about intelligence test scores of first - born as opposed to later born siblings? the difference in test scores is highly unlikely to be explained on the basis of chance variation of statistical samples. the difference in test scores is large in magnitude and highly unlikely to be related to chance. the difference is large in magnitude. the difference in test scores results in highly significant differences in school performance. " web md ", an internet medical information provider, ran a report on february 4, 2003 that was headlined " selenium may fight prostate damage " and " supplementation may reduce prostate cancer risk ". the study, however, was not performed on humans but on elderly, male beagles. the results of this study can be applied with complete confidence to which of the following groups? all of these elderly male humans elderly male beagles any age and species of dog i have decided to make a spring water extract of walnuts that i call " quizzlenut " available in the united states for improving quiz taking health. ( remember, i have performed three surveys showing that walnuts improve quiz - taking performance! ) will the us food and drug administration analyze either my product to verify its contents or my claims for the product before it is marketed? copyright, funtrivia. com. all rights reserved. legal / conditions of use compiled jun 28 12


a new type of white blood cell has been identified that activates a killing immune response to an external source — providing a new potential target for vaccines for conditions such as cancer or hepatitis b. publishing in the journal immunity, a team of researchers from newcastle university in collaboration with a * star ’ s singapore immunology network describe a new human tissue dendritic cell ( dc ) with cross - presenting function. most cells are only able to present antigens from within themselves, and so will only elicit an immune response if they are infected themselves. only a specialized subset of dendritic cells is able to generate a response to an external source of antigen, for example bacteria, vaccines, and tumors. the identity of human tissue dcs that are capable of presenting external antigen to activate the cell - killing response by t cells — a process termed cross - presentation — has remained a mystery. their discovery, as revealed by this research, will help scientists to design better targeted vaccine strategies to treat cancer and infections. “ these are the cells we need to be targeting for anticancer vaccines, ” says muzlifah haniffa, m. d., ph. d., a wellcome trust intermediate fellow and senior clinical lecturer at newcastle university. “ our discovery offers an accessible, easily targetable system that makes the most of the natural ability of the cell. ” the researchers also showed for the first time that dendritic cell subsets are conserved between species and have in effect created a map, facilitating the translation of mouse studies to the human immune system. the researchers isolated the dendritic cells from human blood and skin and from mouse blood, lung, and liver. using gene expression analysis, they identified gene signatures for each human dendritic cell subset. mouse orthologues of these genes were identified, and a computational analysis was performed to match subsets across species. this provides scientists for the first time with an accurate model to compare dcs between species. “ these gene signatures are available in a public repository accessible for all researchers to benefit from the data, ” says dr. haniffa. “ it will allow detailed knowledge of individual human dendritic cell subsets to enable specific targeting of these cells for therapeutic strategy. ”


alice and bob in i / o land [ click here to start ] this lecture is also available in one big html file table of contents alice, bob and their race to disk - haven alice ' s adventures in wonderland - a partial recap alice ' s adventures in wonderland - a partial recap - cont. meet alice - the 16kb " write " that could alice goes down the rabbit hole alice wants to pass through the small door little alice joins the ( page - cached ) caucus race little alice going down the ( disk ) elevator little alice grows again - the i / o scheduler dance example of " iostat " output big alice plays the disk crockett - the basic elevator algorithm original alice stands to trial - err _ success or err _ io? mad hatter testifies - the small bio - s joining in original alice wakes up from her write - full dream ecila - the " read " that came back from the cold through the looking glass - a partial recap through the looking glass - a partial recap - cont. ecila passes through the looking glass ecila meets the red queen and ( page - cachely ) runs nowhere what ' s in my cache? ecila meets the white knight and goes to gather herself ecila and humpty dumpty have a great elevated fall ecila meets twiddledee and twiddledum - and sends them ahead tuning device - level read - ahead ecila comes back through the mirror file - systems and meta - data i / o directory hierarchy traversal and the dentry cache checking dentry - cache statistics file control blocks and the inode cache checking inode - cache statistics file blocks and file extents file blocks and file extents - cont. bob - the raw - " write " - er bob goes into i / o land to cache or not to cache - that is the d ( irect ) question what if bob was sync ( ing ) harder? bob - the reader from the " raw " bob goes catching some rie bob the cached vs. bob the direct alice and bob go picking an elevator the " noop " elevator - quick and noisy the " cfq " elevator - " no room! no room! ( at the tea party ) " i / o priority using " ionice " the " deadline " elevator - " i ' m late! i ' m late! i ' m late! " the " anticipatory " elevator - " if you build it - they will come " i


cloud computing as commonly defined is when a business gives its data, applications, storage and computational power to a cloud computing provider and accesses those resources via the public internet. it ' s been a godsend for many organizations, most notably small enterprises that can save enormously on infrastructure costs and have access to highly skilled i. t. expertise that they couldn ' t afford otherwise. salesforce. com and amazon. com have quickly become giants in the " public " cloud service sector thanks to the convenience and low start - up costs for their services. international data corp., a technology research firm, estimates in a recently released report that the cloud software market reached $ 22. 9 billion in 2011, a 31 percent year - over - year growth increase. the market is expected to reach $ 67. 3 billion by 2016 at a compound annual growth rate of 24 percent. idc also estimates that small businesses - defined as those with 100 or fewer employees - spent $ 3. 5 billion on cloud technologies in 2011, or about 7 percent of the $ 53 billion the small business segment spent overall on i. t. expenditures. that enthusiasm for remotely hosted services and low - cost infrastructure is shared by the health care industry, but not necessarily in the same way, or to the same degree, as industries such as construction or retail. klas enterprises, a utah - based health care i. t. research firm, polled nearly 100 provider organizations for a 2011 " perception " study of cloud computing. right off the bat, erik westerlind, the report author, had to sift through how respondents - of which nearly 70 percent were c - level executives - defined cloud computing. " we ran into a lot of cases where executives would tell us that yes, they use the cloud because they ' re having their electronic health record remotely hosted by cerner, for example, " he says. " but those types of services are not really how " the cloud " is typically defined outside this market - yes, they ' re remotely hosted, but the applications are running via direct connections to cerner ' s data center, and all their information is housed in one place, kansas city. " some of the confusion about how to define cloud services is due to the " cloud washing " going on - rebranding application service provider or application hosting services as " cloud " solutions. " true " cloud service is virtualized, elastic, scalable, metered out and resides on pooled or shared resources on the web. respondents mentioned every one of these attributes, but


service provider or application hosting services as " cloud " solutions. " true " cloud service is virtualized, elastic, scalable, metered out and resides on pooled or shared resources on the web. respondents mentioned every one of these attributes, but only a few mentioned them all, according to the klas report. the health care execs most commonly used two attributes - an application was remotely hosted, and it was available via the web - to define the cloud. the bottom line is that interest in the cloud is strong in health care, but neither klas nor other industry experts expect a stampede of providers to a public cloud environment where their data is stored and accessible via the public web. not surprisingly, data security and privacy, and lack of control, are the top concerns of health care execs. and while health care is - has to be - downright obsessive about security and privacy, those concerns are not exclusive to the industry. the idc report and other cloud research finds the top drawback for adopting cloud services is data security. " one hospital cio summed it up pretty neatly - he noted that he has to go before his board of directors every year and attest to them that the hospital is compliant with hipaa regulations, one requirement being that he certifies that he knows where its data resides, " westerlind says. " in a public cloud that data could be anywhere in the world. that pretty much sums up why many are taking a cautious approach to public cloud services. " but then again, interest is high in cloud computing, and 55 percent of respondents to the klas survey are currently deploying some part of their i. t. environment in the cloud, where the definition was the delivery of storage solutions, software solutions, or both over the web. at this point, much of the industry ' s interest is focused on creating private clouds that enable providers to keep control of their data by either storing it on virtual servers they own, or putting it on dedicated virtual servers owned by trusted third parties. a lot of the future of health care cloud computing hinges on trust. while much has been made of the reluctance of health care organizations to use the cloud, another roadblock has been the lack of cloud service providers willing to take on the burden of handling health care data, says jeffrey white, a principal at pittsburgh - based aspen advisors, a health care consultancy. " there ' s been a reluctance on the part of cloud platform providers to sign hipaa business associate agreements, which has really


was augmented. this is what one would expect, moon noted, since the loss of a functional inhibitor is a double negative - - meaning that regeneration should be accelerated. “ these experiments showed that there is a completely novel and unexpected mechanism that antagonizes the regenerative process, ” said moon. “ there had been other studies indicating that wnt5b - like genes could block the wnt / ß - catenin pathway, but no one had examined whether this antagonism occurs in the context of the normal regenerative process. ” “ cristi and gilbert ' s experiments rigorously establish through genetic approaches that the wnt pathways are functionally important in regeneration, ” he said. “ more generally, they show that in studying injury or inflammation in any context, investigators should explore whether wnt signaling is involved. these experiments suggest that wnt signaling is a universal component of regenerative pathways in animals, ” he said. according to moon, the findings by stoick - cooper and weidinger will have clinical implications for tissue regeneration, as well as for encouraging growth of stem cells. stem cells are immature, undifferentiated cells that are capable of maturing into a variety of mature cell types. “ wnt / ß - catenin signaling plays an important positive role in the differentiation of stem cells and progenitor cells that are required for regeneration, ” he said. “ it agrees with previous studies in which our laboratory showed in animals that activating this pathway increases the success of transplants of blood - forming hematopoietic stem cells. such transplants in cancer patients whose immune systems have been destroyed by radiation or chemotherapy are invaluable as therapy ; and sometimes they fail because they transplanted cells do not engraft into the bone marrow. we believe that enhancing the wnt / ß - catenin pathway will increase the success rate of such hematopoietic stem cell transplants, ” he said. in other clinically - related studies, moon and his colleagues are exploring whether activating the wnt / ß - catenin pathway can enhance differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into cardiac cells that could be used to treat heart disease moon and his colleagues are also exploring how the myriad different kinds of cells involved in regeneration respond to wnt - activating signals and, in collaboration with hhmi investigator leonard i. zon at children ' s hospital, boston, how injury switches on wnt / ß - catenin signaling. the researchers are optimistic


one of the most common uses of flash memory is for the basic input / output system of your computer, commonly known as the bios ( pronounced " bye - ose " ). on virtually every computer available, the bios makes sure all the other chips, hard drives, ports and cpu function together. every desktop and laptop computer in common use today contains a microprocessor as its central processing unit. the microprocessor is the hardware component. to get its work done, the microprocessor executes a set of instructions known as software ( see how microprocessors work for details ). you are probably very familiar with two different types of software : - the operating system - the operating system provides a set of services for the applications running on your computer, and it also provides the fundamental user interface for your computer. windows 98 and linux are examples of operating systems. ( see how operating systems work for lots of details. ) - the applications - applications are pieces of software that are programmed to perform specific tasks. on your computer right now you probably have a browser application, a word processing application, an e - mail application and so on. you can also buy new applications and install them. it turns out that the bios is the third type of software your computer needs to operate successfully. in this article, you ' ll learn all about bios - - what it does, how to configure it and what to do if your bios needs updating.


the eduss solution consists of five individual tools that provide you with a complete homeschool curriculum solution covering math, english grammar, comprehension, vocabulary and phonics reading. gap scan technology : the eduss gap scan technology is the intelligent multi - dimensional assessment engine that has the ability to not only identify your child ’ s level of knowledge but also their foundational level of understanding. the engine will also expose your child to various learning styles to facilitate the best learning style for your child. automated differentiated diagnostic assessment : most often, learning gaps only become evident sometime after they occur. the eduss diagnostic assessment is designed to search for and identify these learning gaps by using the gap scan technology, even if they occurred earlier in your child ’ s learning career. this forms the basis for the individualized learning plan for your child. gap recovery plan : on the basis of information gleaned in the comprehensive diagnostic assessment, the solution generates a learning plan that is specifically designed to meet the individual child ’ s needs. it is not a one size fits all. each child begins his / her learning program at the level of proficiency identified in the assessment in each and every strand assessed. personal instructor : the personal instruction module of the solution provides fully narrated step - by - step instruction in any topic of need to the student. because different students learn differently, eduss has been careful to design this instructional module to meet the needs of different learning styles. student management system : the eduss student manager system provides real - time monitoring and mapping through one integrated reporting interface making it easy for you to track and monitor the activity of each of your children individually. real - time information helps you make instructional decisions and / or adjustments. complete reports are available at any time for every component of your child ’ s learning cycle : assessment, tutorial, progress made, practice results, homework results, and quiz / test results.


research study types there are many different types of research studies, and each has distinct strengths and weaknesses. in general, randomized trials and cohort studies provide the best information when looking at the link between a certain factor ( like diet ) and a health outcome ( like heart disease ). these are studies done in laboratories on cells, tissue, or animals. laboratories provide strictly controlled conditions and are often the genesis of scientific ideas that go on to have a broad impact on human health. however, laboratory studies are only a starting point. animals or cells are no substitute for humans. these studies look at the characteristics of one group of people who already have a certain health outcome ( the cases ) and compare them to a similar group of people who do not have the outcome ( the controls ). while case - control studies can be done quickly and relatively cheaply, they aren ’ t ideal for studying diet because they gather information from the past. people with illnesses often recall past behaviors differently from those without illness. this opens such studies to potential inaccuracy and bias in the information they gather. these studies follow large groups of people over a long period of time. researchers regularly gather information from the people in the study on a wide variety of variables ( like meat intake, physical activity level, and weight ). once a specified amount of time has elapsed, the characteristics of people in the group are compared to test specific hypotheses ( like the link between carotenoids and glaucoma, or meat intake and prostate cancer ). though time - consuming and expensive, cohort studies generally provide more reliable information than case - control studies because they don ’ t rely on information from the past. cohort studies gather the information all along and before anyone develops the disease being studied. as a group, these types of studies have provided valuable information about the link between lifestyle factors and disease. two of the largest and longest - running cohort studies of diet are the harvard - based nurses ’ health study and the health professionals follow - up study. like cohort studies, these studies follow a group of people over time. however, with randomized trials, the researchers actually intervene to see how a specific behavior change or treatment, for example, affects a health outcome. they are called “ randomized trials ” because people in the study are randomly assigned either to receive or not receive the intervention. this randomization helps researchers hone in on the true effect the intervention has on the health outcome. however, randomized trials also have drawbacks, especially


hyped arsenic bacteria research ' should not have been published ' by brian thomas, m. s. * nasa recently issued a series of press releases and arranged a press conference to promote research claiming that life was possible in outer space. 1, 2 however, the research drew heavy criticism from scientists around the world, and the interest - generating tactics that the space agency employed have been called into question. the study, which appeared in the journal science, focused on microbes found in a california lake, not in materials from space. 3 the study ' s authors concluded that certain bacteria could actually incorporate the element arsenic — a well - known poison — into the structure of their dna molecules. however, critics quickly noted that the testing procedure was flawed. the research results could have come from arsenic that was on or near the dna, but not in it. it would have been quite simple for the researchers to have " washed " the dna and then searched for the arsenic in a clean sample of pure dna — but they didn ' t. in addition, " it turns out the nasa scientists were feeding the bacteria salts which they freely admit were contaminated with a tiny amount of phosphate, " science writer carl zimmer wrote for the online news magazine slate. this could have supplied the phosphorous the bacteria needed, rather than having it completely replaced by arsenic. the university of colorado ' s shelley copley added, " this paper should not have been published. " 4 the report in science did not address the additional conundrum that dna has physical size constraints on its elemental building blocks. arsenic atoms are much larger than those of phosphorus and would undoubtedly yield warped and misshapen dna that would be inaccessible to the many dna - binding proteins upon which cellular life depends. the nasa authors have so far refused to engage these issues, pointing to the more proper scientific procedure of publishing in a peer - reviewed journal. critical letters to science are currently in the mail. 4 in the meantime, other scientists are not staying silent. jonathan eisen, university of california, davis genomicist and academic editor of the online science journal plos biology, called the nasa authors ' lack of response " absurd. " he told slate, " they carried out science by press release and press conference. whether they were right or not in their claims, they are now hypocritical if they say that the only response should be in the scientific literature. " 4 these events have a familiar tone. when media hyped the fossil primate " ida " as a " missing link


first - hand : the foundation of digital television : the origins of the 4 : 2 : 2 component digital standard contributed by stanley baron, ieee life fellow by the late 1970 ' s, the application of digital technology in television production was widespread. a number of digital television products had become available for use in professional television production. these included graphics generators, recursive filters ( noise reducers ), time base correctors and synchronizers, standards converters, amongst others. however, each manufacturer had adopted a unique digital interface, and this meant that these digital devices when formed into a workable production system had to be interfaced at the analog level, thereby forfeiting many of the advantages of digital processing. most broadcasters in europe and asia employed television systems based on 625 / 50 scanning ( 625 lines per picture, repeated 50 fields per second ), with the pal color encoding system used in much of western europe, australia, and asia, while france, the soviet union, eastern europe, and china used variations of the secam color encoding system. there were differences in luminance bandwidth : 5. 0 mhz for b / g pal, 5. 5 mhz for pal in the uk and nominally 6 mhz for secam. there were also legacy monochrome systems, such as 405 / 50 scanning in the uk and the 819 / 50 system in france. the color television system that was dominate in the americas, japan, and south korea was based on 525 / 60 scanning, 4. 2 mhz luminance bandwidth, and the ntsc color standard. ntsc and pal color coding are both linear processes. therefore, analog signals in the nstc format could be mixed and edited during studio processing, provided that color sub carrier phase relationships were maintained. the same was true for production facilities based on the pal system. in analog ntsc and pal studios it was normal to code video to composite form as early as possible in the signal chain so that each signal required only one wire for distribution rather than the three needed for rgb or yuv component signals. the poor stability of analog circuitry meant that matching separate channel rgb or yuv component signals was impractical except in very limited areas. secam employed frequency modulated coding of the color information, which did not allow any processing of composite signals, so the very robust secam composite signal was used only on videotape recorders and point to point links, with decoding to component signals for mixing and editing. some secam broadcasters avoided the problem by operating their studios in


of composite signals, so the very robust secam composite signal was used only on videotape recorders and point to point links, with decoding to component signals for mixing and editing. some secam broadcasters avoided the problem by operating their studios in pal and recoding to secam for transmission. the international community recognized that the world community would be best served if there could be an agreement on a single production or studio digital interface standard regardless of which color standard ( 525 line ntsc, 625 line pal, or 625 line secam ) was employed for transmission. the cost of implementation of digital technology was seen as directly connected to the production volume ; the higher the volume, the lower the cost to the end user, in this case, the broadcasting community. work on determining a suitable standard was organized by the society of motion picture engineers ( smpte ) on behalf of the 525 / 60 broadcasting community and the european broadcasting union ( ebu ) on behalf of the 625 / 50 broadcasting community. in 1982, the international community reached agreement on a common 4 : 2 : 2 component digital television standard. this standard as documented in smpte 125, several ebu recommendations, and itu - r recommendation 601 was the first international standard adopted for interfacing equipment directly in the digital domain avoiding the need to first restore the signal to an analog format. the interface standard was designed so that the basic parameter values provided would work equally well in both 525 line / 60 hz and 625 line / 50 hz television production environments. the standard was developed in a remarkably short time, considering its pioneering scope, as the world wide television community recognized the urgent need for a solid basis for the development of an all digital television production system. a component - based ( y, r - y, b - y ) system based on a luminance ( y ) sampling frequency of 13. 5 mhz was first proposed in february 1980 ; the world television community essentially agreed to proceed on a component based system in september 1980 at the ibc ; a group of manufacturers supplied devices incorporating the proposed interface at a smpte sponsored test demonstration in san francisco in february 1981 ; most parameter values were essentially agreed to by march 1981 ; and the itu - r ( then ccir ) plenary assembly adopted the standard in february 1982. what follows is an overview of this historic achievement, providing a history of the standard ' s origins, explaining how the standard came into being, why various parameter values were chosen, the process that led the world community to an agreement, and how


1982. what follows is an overview of this historic achievement, providing a history of the standard ' s origins, explaining how the standard came into being, why various parameter values were chosen, the process that led the world community to an agreement, and how the 4 : 2 : 2 standard led to today ' s digital high definition production standards and digital broadcasting standards. it is understood that digital processing of any signal requires that the sample locations be clearly defined in time and space and, for television, processing is simplified if the samples are aligned so that they are line, field, and frame position repetitive yielding an orthogonal ( rectangular grid ) sampling pattern. while the ntsc system color sub carrier frequency ( fsc ) was an integer sub multiple of the horizontal line frequency ( fh ) [ fsc = ( m / n ) x fh ] lending itself to orthogonal sampling, the pal system color sub carrier employed a field frequency off set and the secam color system employed frequency modulation of the color subcarrier, which made sampling the color information, contained within those systems a more difficult challenge. further, since some european nations had adopted various forms of the pal 625 line / 50hz composite color television standard as their broadcast standard and other european nations had adopted various forms of the secam 625 line / 50hz composite color television standard, the european community ' s search for a common digital interface standard implied that a system that was independent of the color coding technique used for transmission would be required. developments within the european community in september 1972, the european broadcasting union ( ebu ) formed working party c, chaired by peter rainger to investigate the subject of coding television systems. in 1977, based on the work of working party c, the ebu issued a document recommending that the european community consider a component television production standard, since a component signal could be encoded as either a pal or secam composite signal just prior to transmission. at a meeting in montreux, switzerland in the spring of 1979, the ebu reached agreement with production equipment manufacturers that the future of digital program production in europe would be best served by component coding rather than composite coding, and the ebu established a research and development program among its members to determine appropriate parameter values. this launched an extensive program of work within the ebu on digital video coding for program production. the work was conducted within a handful of research laboratories across europe and within a reorganized ebu committee structure including : working party v on new systems and services chaired by peter rainger ; subgroup v1 chaired by yves


on digital video coding for program production. the work was conducted within a handful of research laboratories across europe and within a reorganized ebu committee structure including : working party v on new systems and services chaired by peter rainger ; subgroup v1 chaired by yves guinet, which assumed the tasks originally assigned to working party c ; and a specialist supporting committee v1 vid ( vision ) chaired by howard jones. david wood, representing the ebu technical center, served as the secretariat of all of the ebu committees concerned with digital video coding. in 1979, ebu vi vid proposed a single three channel ( y, r - y, b - y ) component standard. the system stipulated a 12. 0 mhz luminance ( y ) channel sampling frequency and provided for each of the color difference signals ( r - y and b - y ) to be sampled at 4. 0 mhz. the relationship between the luminance and color difference signals was noted sometimes as ( 12 : 4 : 4 ) and sometimes as ( 3 : 1 : 1 ). the proposal, based on the results of subjective quality evaluations, suggested these values were adequate to transparently deliver 625 / 50i picture quality. the ebu technical committee endorsed this conclusion at a meeting in april 1980, and instructed its technical groups : v, v1, and v1 vid to support this effort. smpte organized for the task at hand three smpte committees were charged with addressing various aspects of world wide digital standards. the first group, organized in late 1974, was the digital study group chaired by charles ginsburg. the study group was charged with investigating all issues concerning the application of digital technology to television. the second group was a task force on component digital coding with frank davidoff as chairman. this task force, which began work in february 1980, was charged with developing a recommendation for a single worldwide digital interface standard. while membership in smpte committees is generally open to any interested and affected party, the membership of the task force had been limited to recognized experts in the field. the third group was the working group on digital video standards. this working group was charged with documenting recommendations developed by the study group or the task force and generating appropriate standards, recommended practices, and engineering guidelines. in march 1977, the society of motion picture and television engineers ( smpte ) began development of a digital television interface standard. the work was assigned by smpte ' s committee on new technology chaired by fred remley to the working group on digital video standards


the society of motion picture and television engineers ( smpte ) began development of a digital television interface standard. the work was assigned by smpte ' s committee on new technology chaired by fred remley to the working group on digital video standards chaired by dr. robert hopkins. by 1979, the working group on digital video standards was completing development of a digital interface standard for ntsc television production. given the state of the art at the time and the desire to develop a standard based on the most efficient mechanism, the working group created a standard that allowed the ntsc television video signal to be sampled as a single composite color television signal. it was agreed after a long debate on the merits of three times sub carrier ( 3fsc ) versus four times sub carrier ( 4fsc ) sampling that the composite digital television standard would require the composite television signal with its luminance channel and color sub carrier to be sampled at four times the color sub carrier frequency ( 4fsc ) or 14. 31818... mhz. during the last quarter of 1979, agreement was reached on a set of parameter values, and the drafting of the composite digital television standard was considered completed. it defined a signal sampled at 4fsc with 8 bit samples. this standard seemed to resolve the problem of providing a direct digital interface for production facilities utilizing the ntsc standard. by 1980, the committee on new technology was being chaired by hopkins and the working group on digital video standards was being chaired by ken davies. responding to communications with the ebu and so as not to prejudice the efforts being made to reach agreement on a world wide component standard, in january 1980, hopkins put the finished work on the ntsc composite digital television standard temporarily aside so that any minor modifications to the document that would serve to meet possible world wide applications could be incorporated before final approval. since copies of the document were bound in red binders, the standard was referred to as the " red book ". seeking a common reference the agenda of the january 1980 meeting of smpte ' s digital study group included a discussion on a world wide digital television interface standard. at that meeting, the study group considered the report of the european community, and members of the ebu working parties had been invited to attend. although i was not a member of the study group, i was also invited to attend the meeting. it was recognized that while a three color representation of the television signal using red, blue, and green ( r, g, b ) was the simplest three component representation, a


member of the study group, i was also invited to attend the meeting. it was recognized that while a three color representation of the television signal using red, blue, and green ( r, g, b ) was the simplest three component representation, a more efficient component representation, but one that is more complex, is to provide a luminance or gray scale channel ( y ) and two color difference signals ( r - y and b - y ). the r - y and b - y components take advantage of the characteristics of the human visual system which is less sensitive to high resolution information for color than for luminance. this allows for the use of a lower number of samples to represent the color difference signals without observable losses in the restored images. color difference components ( noted as i, q or u, v or dr, db ) were already in use in the ntsc, pal, and secam systems to reduce the bandwidth required to support color information. members of the ntsc community present at the january 1980 study group meeting believed that the ebu v1 vid proposed 12. 0 mhz, ( 3 : 1 : 1 ) set of parameters would not meet the needs for ntsc television post production particularly with respect to chroma keying, then becoming an important tool. in addition, it was argued that : ( 1 ) the sampling frequency was too low ( too close to the nyquist point ) for use in a production environment where multiple generations of edits were required to accommodate special effects, chroma keying, etc., and ( 2 ) a 12. 0 mhz sampling system would not produce an orthogonal array of samples in ntsc ( at 12. 0 mhz, there would be 762. 666... pixels per line ). the ntsc community offered for consideration a single three channel component standard based on ( y, r - y, b - y ). this system stipulated a 4fsc ( 14. 318 mhz ) luminance sampling frequency equal to 910 x fh525, where fh525 is the ntsc horizontal line frequency. the proposal further provided for each of the color difference components to be sampled at 2fsc or 7. 159 mhz. this relationship between the luminance and color difference signals was noted as ( 4 : 2 : 2 ). adopting 4fsc as the luminance sampling frequency would facilitate trans coding of video recorded using the “ single wire ” ntsc composite standard with studio mixers and editing equipment based on a


signals was noted as ( 4 : 2 : 2 ). adopting 4fsc as the luminance sampling frequency would facilitate trans coding of video recorded using the “ single wire ” ntsc composite standard with studio mixers and editing equipment based on a component video standard. representatives of the european television community present at the january 1980 study group meeting pointed to some potential difficulties with this proposal. the objections included : ( 1 ) that the sampling frequency was too high for use in practical digital recording at the time, and ( 2 ) a 14. 318 mhz sampling system would not produce an orthogonal array of samples in a 625 line system ( at 14. 318 mhz, there would be 916. 36... pixels per line ). during the january 1980 study group meeting discussion, i asked why the parties involved had not considered a sampling frequency that was a multiple of the 4. 5 mhz sound carrier, since the horizontal line frequencies of both the 525 line and 625 line systems had an integer relationship to 4. 5 mhz. the original definition of the ntsc color system established a relationship between the sound carrier frequency ( fs ) and the horizontal line frequency ( fh525 ) as fh525 = fs / 286 = 15734. 265... hz, had further defined the vertical field rate fv525 = ( fh525 x 2 ) / 525 = 59. 94006 hz, and defined the color sub carrier ( fsc ) = ( fh525 x 455 ) / 2 = 3. 579545.... mhz. therefore, all the frequency components of the ntsc system could be derived as integer sub multiples of the sound carrier. the 625 line system defined the horizontal line frequency ( fh625 ) = 15625 hz and the vertical field rate fv625 = ( fh625 x 2 ) / 625 = 50 hz. it was noted from the beginning that the relationship between fs and the horizontal line frequency ( fh625 ) could be expressed as fh625 = fs / 288. therefore, any sampling frequency that was an integer multiple of 4. 5 mhz ( fs ) would produce samples in either the 525 line or 625 line systems that were orthogonal. i was asked to submit a paper to the study group and the task force describing the relationship. the assignment was to cover two topics. the first topic was how the 625 line / 50hz community might arrive at a sampling frequency close to 14. 318


was asked to submit a paper to the study group and the task force describing the relationship. the assignment was to cover two topics. the first topic was how the 625 line / 50hz community might arrive at a sampling frequency close to 14. 318 mhz. the second topic was to explain the relationship between the horizontal frequencies of the 525 line and 625 line systems and 4. 5 mhz. this resulted in my authoring a series of papers written between february and april 1980 addressed to the smpte task force explaining why 13. 5 mhz should be considered the choice for a common luminance sampling frequency. the series of papers was intended to serve as a tutorial with each of the papers expanding on the points previously raised. a few weeks after i submitted the first paper, i was invited to be a member of the smpte task force. during the next few months, i responded to questions about the proposal, and i was asked to draft a standards document. crunching the numbers the first paper i addressed to the task force was dated 11 february 1980. this paper pointed to the fact that since the horizontal line frequency of the 525 line system ( fh525 had been defined as 4. 5 mhz / 286 ( or 2. 25 mhz / 143 ), and the horizontal line frequency of the 625 line system ( fh625 ) was equal to 4. 5 mhz / 288 ( or 2. 25 mhz / 144 ), any sampling frequency that was a multiple of 4. 5 mhz / 2 could be synchronized to both systems. since it would be desirable to sample color difference signals at less than the sampling rate of the luminance signal, then a sampling frequency that was a multiple of 2. 25 mhz would be appropriate for use with the color difference components ( r - y, b - y ) while a sampling frequency that was a multiple of 4. 5 mhz would be appropriate for use with the luminance component ( y ). since the european community had argued that the ( y ) sampling frequency must be lower than 14. 318 mhz and the ntsc countries had argued that the ( y ) sampling frequency must be higher than 12. 00 mhz, my paper and cover letter dated 11 february 1980 suggested consideration of 3 x 4. 5 mhz or 13. 5 mhz as the common luminance ( y ) channel sampling frequency ( 858 times the 525 line horizontal line frequency rate and 864 times the 625 line rate both equal 13. 5 mhz ). my series of papers suggested adoption of a component color system


as the common luminance ( y ) channel sampling frequency ( 858 times the 525 line horizontal line frequency rate and 864 times the 625 line rate both equal 13. 5 mhz ). my series of papers suggested adoption of a component color system based on ( y, r - y, b - y ) and a luminance / color sampling relationship of ( 4 : 2 : 2 ), with the color signals sampled at 6. 75 mhz. in order for the system to facilitate standards conversion and picture manipulation ( such as that used in electronic special effects and graphics generators ), both the luminance and color difference samples should be orthogonal. the desire to be able to trans code between component and composite digital systems implied a number of samples per active line that was divisible by four. the february 1980 note further suggested that the number of samples per active line period should be greater than 715. 5 to accommodate all of the world wide community standards active line periods. while the number of pixels per active line equal to 720 samples per line was not suggested until my next note, ( 720 is the number found in rec. 601 and smpte 125 ), 720 is the first value that “ works. ” 716 is the first number greater than 715. 5 that is divisible by 4 ( 716 = 4 x 179 ), but does not lend itself to standards conversion between 525 line component and composite color systems or provide sufficiently small pixel groupings to facilitate special effects or data compression algorithms. < / p > additional arguments in support of 720 were provided in notes i generated prior to ibc ' 80 in september. note that 720 equals 6! [ 6! ( 6 factorial ) = 6x5x4x3x2x1 ] = 24 x 32 x 5. this allows for many small factors, important for finding an economical solution to conversion between the 525 line component and composite color standards and for image manipulation in special effects and analysis of blocks of pixels for data compression. the composite 525 line digital standard had provided for 768 samples per active line. 768 = 28 x 3. the relationship between 768 and 720 can be described as 768 / 720 = ( 28 x 3 ) / ( 24 x 32 x 5 ) = ( 24 ) / ( 3 x 5 ) = 16 / 15. a set of 16 samples in the ntsc composite standard could be used to calculate a set of 15 samples in the ntsc component standard. proof of performance at the september 1980 ibc conference


) / ( 3 x 5 ) = 16 / 15. a set of 16 samples in the ntsc composite standard could be used to calculate a set of 15 samples in the ntsc component standard. proof of performance at the september 1980 ibc conference, international consensus became focused on the 13. 5 mhz, ( 4 : 2 : 2 ) system. however, both the 12. 0 mhz and 14. 318 mhz systems retained some support for a variety of practical considerations. discussions within the working group on digital video standards indicated that consensus could not be achieved without the introduction of convincing evidence. smpte proposed to hold a “ component coded digital video demonstration ” in san francisco in february 1981 organized by and under the direction of the working group on digital video standards to evaluate component coded systems. a series of practical tests / demonstrations were organized to examine the merits of various proposals with respect to picture quality, production effects, recording capability and practical interfacing, and to establish an informed basis for decision making. the ebu had scheduled a series of demonstrations in january 1981 for the same purpose. smpte invited the ebu to hold its february meeting of the bureau of the ebu technical committee in san francisco to be followed by a joint meeting to discuss the results of the tests. it was agreed that demonstrations would be conducted at three different sampling frequencies ( near 12. 0 mhz, 13. 5 mhz, and 14. 318 mhz ) and at various levels of performance. from 2nd through the 6th of february 1981 ( approximately, one year from the date of the original 13. 5 mhz proposal ), smpte conducted demonstrations at kpix television, studio n facilities in san francisco in which a number of companies participated. each participating sponsor developed equipment with the digital interface built to the specifications provided. the demonstration was intended to provide proof of performance and to allow the international community to come to an agreement. ' the demonstration organizing committee had to improvise many special interfaces and interconnections, as well as create a range of test objects, test signals, critical observation criteria, and a scoring and analysis system and methodology. the demonstrations were supported with equipment and personnel by many of the companies that were pioneers in the development of digital television and included : abc television, ampex corporation, barco, canadian broadcasting corporation, cbs technology center, digital video systems, dynair, inc., kpix westinghouse broadcasting, leitch video ltd., marconi electronics, rca corporation and rca laboratories, sony corporation, tektronix


canadian broadcasting corporation, cbs technology center, digital video systems, dynair, inc., kpix westinghouse broadcasting, leitch video ltd., marconi electronics, rca corporation and rca laboratories, sony corporation, tektronix inc., thomson csf, vg electronics ltd., and vgr corporation. i participated in the demonstrations as a member of smpte ' s working group on digital video standards, providing a vidifont electronic graphics generator whose interface conformed to the new standard. developing an agreement the san francisco demonstrations proved the viability of the 13. 5 mhz, ( 4 : 2 : 2 ) proposal. at a meeting in january 1981, the ebu had considered a set of parameters based on a 13. 0 mhz ( 4 : 2 : 2 ) system. additional research conducted by ebu members had shown that a ( 4 : 2 : 2 ) arrangement was needed in order to cope with picture processing requirements, such as chroma key, and the ebu members believed a 13. 0 mhz system appeared to be the most economic system that provided adequate picture processing. members of the ebu and smpte committees met at a joint meeting chaired by peter rainger in march 1981 and agreed to propose the 13. 5 mhz, ( 4 : 2 : 2 ) standard as the world wide standard. by autumn 1981, nhk in japan led by mr. tadokoro, had performed its own independent evaluations and concurred that the 13. 5 mhz, ( 4 : 2 : 2 ) standard offered the optimum solution. a number of points were generally agreed upon and formed the basis of a new world wide standard. they included : - the existing colorimetry of ebu ( for pal and secam ) and of ntsc would be retained for 625 line and 525 line signals respectively, as matrixing to a common colorimetry was considered overly burdensome ; - an 8 bit per sample representation would be defined initially, being within the state of the art, but a 10 bit per sample representation would also be specified since it was required for many production applications ; - the range of the signal to be included should include head room ( above white level ) and foot room ( below black level ) to allow for production overshoots ; - the line length to be sampled should be somewhat wider than those of the analog systems ( ntsc, pal, and secam ) under consideration to faithfully preserve picture edges and to avoid picture cropping ; - a bit parallel


overshoots ; - the line length to be sampled should be somewhat wider than those of the analog systems ( ntsc, pal, and secam ) under consideration to faithfully preserve picture edges and to avoid picture cropping ; - a bit parallel, sample multiplexed interface ( e. g. transmitting r - y, y, b - y, y, r - y,... ) was practical, but in the long term, a fully bit and word serial system would be desirable ; - the gross data rate should be recordable within the capacity of digital tape recorders then in the development stages by ampex, bosch, rca, and sony. the standard, as documented, provided for each digital sample to consist of at least 8 bits, with 10 allowed. the values for the black and white levels were defined, as was the range of the color signal. ( r - y ) and ( b - y ) became cr [ = 0. 713 ( r - y ) ] and cb [ = 0. 564 ( b - y ) ]. while the original note dated february 1980 addressed to the task force proposed a code of 252 ( base10 ) = ( 1111 1100 ) for ‘ white ’ at 100 ire and a code of 72 ( base10 ) = ( 0100 1000 ) for ‘ black ’ at 0 ire to allow capture of the sync levels, agreement was reached to better utilize the range of codes to capture the grey scale values with more precision and provide more overhead. ‘ white ’ was to be represented by an eight bit code of 240 ( base10 ) = ( 1111 0000 ) and ‘ black ’ was to be represented by an eight bit code 16 ( base10 ) = ( 0001 0000 ). the original codes for defining the beginning and the end of picture lines and picture area were discussed, modified, and agreed upon, as well as synchronizing coding for line, field, and frame, each coding sequence being unique and not occurring in the video signal. smpte and ebu organized an effort over the next few months to familiarize the remainder of the world wide television community with the advantages offered by the 13. 5 mhz, ( 4 : 2 : 2 ) system and the reasoning behind its set of parameters. members of the smpte task force traveled to europe and to the far east. members of the ebu committees traveled to the, then, eastern european block nations and to the members of the oti, the organization of the south


of parameters. members of the smpte task force traveled to europe and to the far east. members of the ebu committees traveled to the, then, eastern european block nations and to the members of the oti, the organization of the south american broadcasters. the objective of these tours was to build a consensus prior to the upcoming discussion at the itu in the autumn of 1981. the success of this effort could serve as a model to be followed in developing future agreements. i was asked to draft a smpte standard document that listed the parameter values for a 13. 5 mhz system for consideration by the smpte working group. since copies of the document were bound in a green binder prior to final acceptance by smpte, the standard was referred to as the “ green book ”. in april 1981, the draft of the standard titled “ coding parameters for a digital video interface between studio equipment for 525 line, 60 field operation ” was distributed to a wider audience for comment. this updated draft reflected the status of the standard after the tests in san francisco and agreements reached at the joint ebu / smpte meeting in march 1981. the ebu community later requested a subtle change to the value of ‘ white ’ in the luminance channel, and it assumed the value of 235 ( base10 ). this change was approved in august 1981. after review and some modification as noted above to accommodate european concerns, the “ green book ” was adopted as smpte standard 125. itu / r recommendation 601 the european broadcasting union ( ebu ) generated an ebu standard containing a companion set of parameter values. the smpte 125 and ebu documents were then submitted to the international telecommunications union ( itu ). the itu, a treaty organization within the united nations, is responsible for international agreements on communications. the itu radio communications bureau ( itu - r / ccir ) is concerned with wireless communications, including allocation and use of the radio frequency spectrum. the itu also provides technical standards, which are called “ recommendations. ” within the itu, the development of the recommendation defining the parameter values of the 13. 5 mhz ( 4 : 2 : 2 ) system fell under the responsibility of itu - r study group 11 on television. the chair of study group 11, prof. mark i. krivocheev, assigned the drafting of the document to a special committee established for that purpose and chaired by david wood of the ebu. the document describing the digital parameters contained in the


channel and 360 samples for each of the color difference signals. starting with 720, doubling the resolution to 1440, and adjusting the count for a 16 : 9 aspect ratio leads to the 1920 samples per active line defined as the basis for hdtv. accommodating the hollywood and computer communities ' request for “ square pixels ” meant that the number of lines should be 1920 x ( 9 / 16 ) = 1080. progressive scan systems at 1280 pixels per line and 720 lines per frame are also a member of the “ 720 pixel ” family. 720 pixels x 4 / 3 ( resolution improvement ) x 4 / 3 ( 16 : 9 aspect ratio adjustment ) = 1280. accommodating the hollywood and computer communities ' request for square pixels meant that the number of lines should be 1280 x ( 9 / 16 ) = 720. the original 720 pixel per active line structure became the basis of a family of structures ( the 720 pixel family ) that was adopted for mpeg based systems including both conventional television and hdtv systems. therefore, most digital television systems, including digital video tape systems and dvd recordings are derived from the format described in the original 4 : 2 : 2 standard. the existence of a common digital component standard for both 50 hz and 60 hz environments as documented in smpte 125 and itu recommendation 601 provided a path for television production facilities to migrate to the digital domain. the appearance of high quality, fully digital production facilities providing digital video, audio, and metadata streams and the successful development of digital compression and modulation schemes allowed for the introduction of digital television broadcast services. in its 1982 - 1983 award cycle, the national academy of television arts and sciences recognized the 4 : 2 : 2 component digital standard based on 13. 5 mhz ( y ) sampling with 720 samples per line with three emmy awards : the european broadcasting union ( ebu ) was recognized : “ for achieving a european agreement on a component digital video studio specification based on demonstrated quality studies and their willingness to subsequently compromise on a world wide standard. ” the international telecommunications union ( itu ) was recognized : “ for providing the international forum to achieve a compromise of national committee positions on a digital video standard and to achieve agreement within the 1978 - 1982 period. ” the society of motion picture and television engineers ( smpte ) was recognized : “ for their early recognition of the need for a digital video standard, their acceptance of the ebu proposed component requirement, and for the development of the hierarchy and line lock 13. 5 mhz demonstrated specification, which provided the


cavendish, henry, 1731 – 1810, english physicist and chemist, b. nice. he was the son of lord charles cavendish and grandson of the 2d duke of devonshire. he was a recluse, and most of his writings were published posthumously. his great contributions to science resulted from his many accurate experiments in various fields. his conclusions were remarkably original. his chief researches were on heat, in which he determined the specific heats for a number of substances ( although these heat constants were not recognized or so called until later ) ; on the composition of air ; on the nature and properties of a gas that he isolated and described as " inflammable air " and that lavoisier later named hydrogen ; and on the composition of water, which he demonstrated to consist of oxygen and his " inflammable air. " in his electrical researches ( 1879 ) he anticipated some of the discoveries of coulomb and faraday. his experiments to determine the density of the earth led him to state it as 5. 48 times that of water. his scientific papers were collected in two volumes ( electrical researches and chemical and dynamical ) in 1921. see biography by a. j. berry ( 1960 ) ; j. g. crowther, scientists of the industrial revolution ( 1963 ). the columbia electronic encyclopedia, 6th ed. copyright © 2012, columbia university press. all rights reserved. more on henry cavendish from infoplease : see more encyclopedia articles on : physics : biographies


ideally, everyone should be able to study kabbalah. kabbalah is the inner wisdom of creation revealed to us by god in order to bring us closer to him. clearly, god desires that all human beings come as close to him as possible. thus, kabbalah is important for all people. that said, it is important to clarify that each of us has to study kabbalah at his own individual level, which, contrary to common misconceptions, may have nothing to do with age, gender, or any other imagined limitation. since kabbalah is part of jewish tradition, it is often mistakenly assumed that it has no pertinence to non - jews. however, much of kabbalah is pertinent to all human beings, since the study of kabbalah arouses in all students the desire to worship one god, as commanded in the torah to all mankind. the torah anticipates that every human being become a righteous servant of the one god of israel, exclusively. for a non - jew, this means to become a righteous gentile, unless he desires to proceed even further and to convert to judaism. much of the kabbalah is pertinent to the consciousness of righteous gentiles. kabbalah and chassidut arouse one to the true worship of god, a commandment relevant to all mankind. in order to worship, one has to be conscious of and to experience the emotions of love and fear of god, two of the six constant commandments of the heart. in order to experience these emotions, one has to have meditative content and input. chassidut teaches that non - jews should also meditate on those truths and depths of reality of divine providence in the world that will arouse their hearts to serve the one god of israel. these sections of the kabbalah are prerequisites for non jews to come close to god. the levels of divine light that are pertinent for non - jews to study are the explicitly immanent levels of divinity. this is the influx of divine energy that is present in the creative process. god ' s infinite light is absolutely transcendent. the ultimate purpose of chassidut is to bring transcendence into the perspective of immanence. until mashiach comes, though, this is still relatively a state of jewish consciousness. thus, a non - jew should learn in kabbalah those secrets of creation that help him to appreciate and become aware of god ' s


immanence. until mashiach comes, though, this is still relatively a state of jewish consciousness. thus, a non - jew should learn in kabbalah those secrets of creation that help him to appreciate and become aware of god ' s immanent light in creation. this draws him closer to god and augments his desire to serve him. clearly, in order for non - jews to study kabbalah - - which, after all, is an intrinsic expression of jewish faith - - they have to identify with receiving this wisdom through the channel of the torah and the jewish people, and commit themselves to worship the one god of israel and live in accordance with the seven commandments given by him to noah for all peoples. please refer to our section on the seven noahide commandments and kabbalah for non - jews. even though there is an opinion that one should not begin to study kabbalah until the age of 40, the great masters of kabbalah and chassidut did not agree with this opinion. some of the greatest teachers of kabbalah - - including the ari, rabbi moshe chaim luzzatto ( also known as the ramchal ), and rebbe nachman of breslov - - did not live to the age of 40! from an early age they began to study kabbalah. in the zohar we find that a sign of the coming of the mashiach is when children will study and discuss kabbalah. chassidut reveals to us the drama of god ’ s creation of the universe. it is like a game of hide - and - seek. in this divinely inspired game, god conceals himself, but he desires that we seek him. he promises us that if we seek him with all our heart and soul, we will ultimately find him. the seeking is the study of kabbalah. it can begin from the first moment that a person realizes that there is more to this world than what meets the eye, and this can be at a very early stage of life. the reason that some authorities have warned against studying kabbalah at too early an age was that there were instances in jewish history, even relatively recently, when most negative phenomena resulted from the misrepresentation and misuse of kabbalah. for example, approximately 350 years ago, a misguided jew, shabbetai tzvi, proclaimed himself the messiah, basing himself on misinterpretations of kabbalah. before he was


a slender boy of 14 moves slowly across the room. his full head of long red hair bounces as he walks. his mind is racing. he sits at the oak table near the window of the vast room. on the table is a box ; a box that glows with flashing lights and a screen. printed on the screen is less than 100 words. at the top of the box is a single word printed in a playful font. under the word is another box ready for the boy ’ s command. the boy smiles as he realizes that before him is all the knowledge of the world. sitting before him is almost every idea and thought that mankind has ever put onto paper, stone, papyrus, film, video, or in bytes. he is about to use google. we all have amazing access to amazing knowledge. the trick is to find what you want in the billions of pages indexed and cataloged by google. forget the haystack. the search for information is like looking for a particular needle in four states, given the available data. finding stuff on the web is a skill that we can all gain from. i pick on google here as it is, by far, the most popular search engine. other search tools have similar functionality. the google search box is much more than a place to enter the subject of your search. here are some of the non - traditional search features of the google box : calculator – type 8 * 12 in the box and hit the enter key. up comes the answer. the box is a powerful financial and scientific calculator. currency conversion – type 3, 500 euros to dollars to learn the premium your client ’ s french office is being charged. conversion of measures – enter 4 cups to oz. the answer will be at the top of the results page. dictionary – unsure of the definition of a word? type define : pontification. spell checker – just type the word as close as you can get it, and let google provide you with options. package tracking – you can track packages by typing the tracking number for your ups, fedex, or usps package into the search box. weather reporter – type the word weather, then a city name, and up comes the latest weather report. zip code look up – enter zip and the city name to learn the various zip codes in a city. airline flight tracker – enter the airline and the flight number to learn the current arrival and departure times of the flight. world clock – type what time is it in detroit to learn the current time at


- 1. a royal seat, or chair of state. the king sits " upon the throne of his kingdom " ( deut. xvii. 18 ). pharaoh delegated full power tojoseph to rule over egypt ; " only in the throne will i be greater than thou " ( gen. xli. 40 ). the royal throne is sometimes designated as " the throne of the kings " ( jer. lii. 32 ). the most magnificent throne was that of solomon ( see jew. encyc. xi. 441 et seq. ; j. s. kolbo made a model of solomon ' s throne and exhibited it in new york city in 1888 ). the throne, like the crown, was a symbol of sovereign power and dignity. it was also the tribunal, the " throne of judgment " ( prov. xx. 8 ), where the king decided matters of law and disputes among his subjects. thus " throne " is synonymous with " justice. " - 2. the throne, the abode of god, known as " kisse ha - kabod " ( the throne of glory ), from which god manifests his majesty and glory. micaiah " saw the lord sitting on his throne, and all the hosts of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left " ( i kings xxii. 19 ; compare the vision of isaiah [ vi. 1 ] with that of ezekiel [ x. 1 ] ). the throne of god is heaven ( isa. lxvi. 1 ) ; in future it will be jerusalem ( jer. iii. 17 ), and even the sanctuary ( jer. xvii. 12 ). thus the idea of the majestic manifestation of god gradually crystallized in the cabalistic expression " koah ha - zimzum " ( the power of concentration ). god ' s throne is the symbol of righteousness ; " justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne " ( ps. lxxxix. 15 [ a. v. 14 ] ). the throne of glory is an important feature in the cabala. it is placed at the highest point of the universe ( hag. 12b ) ; and is of the same color as the sky — purple - blue, like the " sapphire stone " which ezekiel saw and which had previously been perceived by the israelites ( ex. xxiv. 10 ; sotah 17a ). like the torah, it was created before the world