between average and superior capability to build muscles and ignite energy. living organisms derive most of their energy from oxidation - reduction ( redox ) reactions, which involve the transfer of electrons to the respiratory chain complex ( an aerobic energy - yielding metabolic process that involves interaction between hydrogen protons and oxygen ). aerobic energy production requires oxygen and yields most of the energy needed for survival. in fact, the electron transfer system ( oxidative phosphorylation ) yields ten times more energy than the krebs cycle itself. dr. otto warburg, one of the world ' s foremost leading biochemists, won a nobel prize for his basic work with respiratory enzymes and cellular energy production. he discovered and characterized certain nucleotide compounds and proteins, which are necessary for the actions of the respiratory chain, which, as noted, yields most of the energy needed to maintain an optimum metabolic state. dr. warburg suggested that energy released in the oxidation of foodstuff may be conserved and transferred via a special mechanism for use in synthesis and growth. on the other hand, anaerobic respiration ( an energy yielding metabolic process that does not require oxygen ) may adversely catabolize and damage healthy tissues. dr. warburg and other researchers showed that there is indeed a relationship between anaerobic respiration, tissue destruction and cancer. dr. abram hoffer and dr. morton walker, in their book smart nutrition ( avery 1994 ), suggested that anaerobic respiration is the most primitive energy producing method compared to aerobic respiration which is a later development in the evolution of life from unicellular to multicellular organisms. it is likely that multicellular organisms did not develop until cells became aerobic. according to this theory, the switch back from aerobic to anaerobic respiration brings the cell back to a primitive condition that may cause uncontrolled cell division and a resultant catastrophic damage to the whole organism. as you ' re about to see, aerobic respiration clearly depends on dietary carb utilization and the production of substrates and enzymes that serve as energy molecules. all energy molecules are, in fact, made from nucleotides. most important, all nucleotide material, including all energy molecules, are derived from glucose that is then predominantly derived from dietary carbs. the essential role of carbs it is commonly assumed that carbs serve as fuel and nothing more. this assumption is wrong and quite misleading since it fails to recognize the main biological functions of carbs, which


sugar impact and effectively enhances overall detox. - take multivitamin and multimineral supplements as well as efas to facilitate optimum assimilation of all essential nutrients. a lack of even one essential nutrient may lead to severe metabolic impairment and compromise the ability of the body to utilize glucose and energy. b vitamins, in particular, are precursors to co - enzymes, which are vitally important for glucose and energy utilization. antioxidants are necessary for protection against oxidative free radicals and overall detox. note that active individuals, including bodybuilders and athletes, need to increase essential nutrients and antioxidant intake due to higher food consumption and increased oxygenation with their respective waste and toxin metabolites. dietary carbs should be regarded as a double edge sword. nonetheless, in times of so much confusion as to what to eat and how much, it ' s important to present another way of looking at food, including carbohydrate - rich foods. food should be regarded as a source of complete nourishment and as such, it should satisfy three requirements : - food should supply all essential and conditionally essential nutrients - food should be clean of chemical toxins. it should smell and taste well and be fully digestible. - food should supply an optimal amount of energy substrates ( including glucose ) to satisfy the body ' s metabolic needs. optimum means : the right amount needed - no less, no more! dietary carbs are a most viable source of conditionally essential glucose as well as fiber, minerals, oils and phytonutrients. carbs add unique taste, smell and aroma to food and are considered the cleanest and most digestible fuel. one should never dismiss the importance of smell, taste and overall satiety from food. hunger and satiety mark the presence of most powerful neuropeptides that aside from regulating feeding cycles, also regulate hormonal secretion, sleep - awake cycles, aggression and relaxation, regeneration of tissues ( growth ), overall energy expenditure and rate of fat burning. from that aspect, both sensation of hunger and satisfaction from food are necessary for maximum nourishment. food works as a source of nutrients and also as a neurocatalyst for other numerous critical metabolic functions that regulate the rate of growth, fat burning and energy production. chronically over restricting or eliminating dietary carbs from one ' s diet may lead to severe consequences including hormonal and neural impairments, stunted growth, sluggis


national alliance on mental illness page printed from http : / / www. nami. org / ( 800 ) 950 - nami ; firstname. lastname @ example. org using virtual reality to treat ptsd dr. robert mclay with some of the virtual reality equipment used for treatment. courtesy of johns hopkins university press by taylor poor, nami education program coordinator dr. robert n. mclay ’ s recent book, at war with ptsd : battling post traumatic stress disorder with virtual reality ( johns hopkins university press, 2012 ), offers a valuable lesson about treating people rather than diseases. after all, as the author says, “ doing mental health is not just about biology. ” posttraumatic stress disorder ( ptsd ) is a type of anxiety disorder associated with the direct or indirect experience of a traumatic event, and often involves memory disturbances, emotional detachment, hypervigilance ( abnormally increased arousal ) or insomnia. though soldiers have endured the psychological consequences of armed combat for millennia, ptsd has gained credence only recently as a biological disease with a potentially measurable impact on the brain, a disease that can occur at any age, following any type of traumatic experience, from assault or rape to war or a natural disaster. but the increase of ptsd ’ s validity as a clinical diagnosis does not protect service members and veterans from the shame of the stigma they face from comrades - in - arms — and from the civilian population once they return home. at war with ptsd : battling post traumatic stress disorder with virtual reality by robert n. mclay dr. mclay emphasizes the importance of looking at where patients are coming from before starting treatment, whether that ’ s the battlefield, a prison, or a home with domestic abuse. he draws from countless individual testimonies ( “ psychiatric fables ” ) to illustrate the diversity of patients who are looking for different solutions and who require different approaches. maybe the same basic treatment techniques will find success with both service members and non - service members experiencing ptsd, but for those service members, the idea that “ somebody else gets it ” is important ; it ’ s helpful to talk to a military psychiatrist rather than a civilian doctor. however, the distinction between combat ptsd and other types of ptsd isn ’ t necessarily clinical. dr. mclay explains that combat ptsd is typically a version of “ complex ptsd, ” involving multiple, compounded traumatic incidents ; unlike “ simple ptsd, ” which involves a single incident. however, the unique components of combat trauma


for disability benefits without a visible wound are unlikely to then seek treatment, and thus possibly lose those hard - won benefits. on the other hand, continuing advances in research and technology paint a brighter picture. dr. mclay has cautiously gained confidence in virtual reality treatments since his return to the u. s., but is “ convinced vr is not going to solve all our problems. ” other promising possibilities include : stellate ganglion block, or an anesthetic injection to a spinal nerve cluster that alleviates pain and some other ptsd symptoms ; transcranial magnetic stimulation ( tms ), which involves producing weak electric currents in the brain ; and “ third location ”, or staged, decompression, where instead of being transported straight back into civilian society, service members returning from duty can spend a period of time in a non - combat zone outside of their home country. all of these techniques serve to widen the array of treatment options that can be personalized to reflect an individual patient ’ s hopes and priorities. the reason dr. mclay ’ s book doesn ’ t feel like the typical treatise on a controversial mental health diagnosis is his unassuming tone. there is no pedagogy about symptomatology or the complexities of ptsd : he seems to be simply taking the reader along for the ride as he figures out the answers — or some possible answers, at least — to the very questions he ’ s just asked in the text. his final message, which he reiterates on the phone, is similarly simple : the only way to reduce stigma is “ to get the word out ” about mental illness, and particularly ptsd. with the help of accessible, informative and compelling books like at war with ptsd, that goal seems more reachable than ever.


nami ’ s position ( summarized from the nami policy platform ) treatment, not punishment : nami believes that persons who have committed offenses due to states of mind or behavior caused by a brain disorder require treatment, not punishment. nami believes that a prison or jail is never an optimal therapeutic setting. nami believes that mental health systems have an obligation to develop and implement systems of appropriate care for individuals whose untreated brain disorders may cause them to engage in inappropriate or criminal behaviors. treatment while in correctional settings : nami believes that states and communities have legal and ethical obligations to provide people with brain disorders humane and effective treatment while in correctional settings. training and education : nami believes that education about brain disorders at all levels of judicial and legal systems is crucial to the appropriate disposition of cases involving offenders with brain disorders. judges, lawyers, police officers, correctional officers, parole and probation officers, law enforcement personnel, court officers, and emergency medical transport and service personnel should be required to complete at least 20 hours of training about these disorders. consumers and family members should be a part of this educational process. nami believes that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, dangerous or violent acts committed by persons with brain disorders are the result of neglect or inappropriate or inadequate treatment of their illness. nami supports the retention of the " insanity defense " and favors the two - prong test that includes the volitional as well as the cognitive standard. nami opposes the adoption of " guilty but mentally ill " statutes. nami supports systems that provide comprehensive, long - term care and supervision in hospitals and in the community to individuals found " not guilty by reason of insanity, " " guilty except for insanity, or any other similar terminology used in state statutes pertaining to the insanity defense. parole and probation, transitional services : nami believes that states must adopt systems for assisting individuals with serious brain disorders who have served sentences and are eligible for release on parole with appropriate treatment and services to aid their transition back into the community. nami opposes the death penalty for persons with brain disorders. the " criminalization " trend is today worse than ever in 1992, nami and public citizen ’ s health research group released a report, entitled criminalizing the seriously mentally ill : the abuse of jails as mental hospitals, which revealed alarmingly high numbers of people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other severe mental illnesses incarcerated in jails across the country. most of these people had not committed major crimes, but either had been charged with misdemeanors or minor fe


joined : 16 mar 2004 | posted : tue may 27, 2008 11 : 36 am post subject : assembly lines for nanotechnology. | 24 august 2007 rsc publishing - chemical technology nano production lines researchers in switzerland have built nanoscale cargo loading stations and shuttles, an important step towards assembly lines for nanotechnology. drawing of a nano conveyor belt biological assembly lines consist of kinesin proteins which carry cargo, like organelles or vesicles, and literally walk along microtubules. however, as far as man - made systems go, ' nothing comparable to a macroscopic assembly line exists at the nanoscale, ' according to viola vogel of the department of materials at the swiss federal institute of technology ( eth ) in zurich. ' imagine if you wanted to build a car by fabricating all of its components, putting them in a glass full of water and hoping that they would self - assemble spontaneously into the finished car. ' the challenge is to tune the interactions in the system so that the cargo remains stuck to the station when not needed, but can be picked up easily by the shuttle. as a test of principle, vogel and colleagues used gold nanoparticles coated in anti - biotin antibodies as cargo, and compared loading stations made of biotin - tipped dna with biotin - tipped polyethylene glycol. biotinylated microtubules, powered by kinesin motors, act as shuttles rather than conveyor belts, as they do in cells. vogel and team then tracked the fate of the gold nanoparticles with scanning electron microscopy. they found that the shuttles did indeed pick up the nanoparticles and that they held on to them, with a loss rate of about 28 % over 12 minutes. they also found that dna stations are more effective than polymer ones. ' future challenges will be to combine the main components of a transport system : pick - up of cargo from defined locations, guided transport, and controlled discharge of the load at the final destination, ' commented vogel. she went on to caution : ' the problems are always in the details of working through the engineering challenges of interfacing biological molecules with synthetic devices. ' story posted : 24th august 2007


materials science research rack heats up for valuable space station science have you ever wondered how we develop new materials or find out what properties we can change in existing materials to improve them? scientists and researchers at nasa are doing just that through materials science research using the materials science research rack ( msrr ) aboard the international space station materials science research is the applied study of the properties of matter and substances. this type of research in space benefits from the microgravity environment, and it allows researchers to isolate chemical and thermal properties of materials from the effects of gravity. the msrr is about the size of a large refrigerator and contains two furnace inserts that can heat materials to temperatures of 2, 500 degrees fahrenheit. cartridges are placed inside the furnace insert one at a time for processing. once a cartridge is in place, the experiment can be run from the ground. processed samples are returned to earth as soon as possible for evaluation and comparison of their properties to samples from similarly processed cartridges on the ground. researchers have used the rack to process 16 samples of different materials since the facility launched to the space station in 2009. in late 2011, there was a loss of communications between the msrr and the computer that controls it. the automatic safety procedures on the rack caused it to shut down as designed ; but, in doing so, it also caused the temperatures inside the furnace to exceed their normal limits. these higher temperatures caused some of the material inside the furnace to become bonded to the furnace itself. this required the station crew to clean the furnace and remove the materials. to prevent such an event from happening again, shawn reagan, manager of the msrr project at nasa ' s marshall space flight center in huntsville, ala., and his team worked with marshall engineers to design a software upgrade for the msrr. this update will prevent this scenario from occurring in the future, allowing the facility to begin processing samples again. " the msrr has been a great tool in understanding how different materials like ceramics or metals react when heat is applied to them in space, " said reagan. " the original design of the software that controls the msrr called for it to shut down within 30 seconds of losing communications from the main computer that controls it. through our experience over the last several years on how the msrr operates, we were able to design a much more efficient software program that will allow the furnace to stay operating for up to three hours after losing communications. this will give researchers enough time to troubleshoot any problems and prevent any contamination of the furnace due to overheating


were able to design a much more efficient software program that will allow the furnace to stay operating for up to three hours after losing communications. this will give researchers enough time to troubleshoot any problems and prevent any contamination of the furnace due to overheating of materials. " getting the msrr back online is important because applied materials science is essential for the development of new, safer, stronger and more durable materials for use throughout everyday life. one of the goals of performing research in space is to gain a better understanding of the role of gravity in the microstructural development during solidification. one of the first experiments performed on the msrr melted and solidified an aluminum and silicon alloy. this type of processing typically is used for producing commercially important products such as high temperature turbine blades. the msrr was fired up on jan. 23 and began its work processing the first of 11 new samples that will be tested over the next several months. " everything looks great and the first sample was processed successfully, " said reagan. " we are really proud of our team for working through these issues with the msrr and designing this software to make it work even better. this is what science is all about - - working through challenges and coming out of those with an even better product. " nasa ' s marshall space flight center


a park - specific geoscience book. the park ' s geology may be described in regional or state geology texts. parks and plates : the geology of our national parks, monuments & seashores. lillie, robert j., 2005. w. w. norton and company. 9 " x 10. 75 ", paperback, 550 pages, full color throughout the spectacular geology in our national parks provides the answers to many questions about the earth. the answers can be appreciated through plate tectonics, an exciting way to understand the ongoing natural processes that sculpt our landscape. parks and plates is a visual and scientific voyage of discovery! ordering from your national park cooperative associations ' bookstores helps to support programs in the parks. please visit the bookstore locator for park books and much more. st. croix national scenic riverway still has much to learn about the riverway and the species that inhabit it. park staff and researchers set up studies to establish baseline inventories and monitor population trends. inventories are a snapshot in time of a particular population. monitoring looks at those populations and track how they change over time. information about the park ' s research program is available on the park ' s research webpage. for information about permits that are required for conducting geologic research activities in national parks, see the permits information page. the nps maintains a searchable data base of research needs that have been identified by parks. a bibliography of geologic references is being prepared for each park through the geologic resources evaluation program ( gre ). please see the gre website for more information and contacts. nps geology and soils partnersassociation of american state geologists geological society of america natural resource conservation service - soils u. s. geological survey general information about the park ' s education and intrepretive programs is available on the park ' s education webpage. for resources and information on teaching geology using national park examples, see the students & teachers pages.


even a material 10 billion times as strong as steel has a breaking point. it seems neutron stars may shatter under extreme forces, explaining puzzling x - ray flares. neutron stars are dense remnants of stars gone supernova, packing the mass of the sun into a sphere the size of a city. their cores may be fluid, but their outer surfaces are solid and extremely tough - making graphene, the strongest material on earth, look like tissue paper by comparison. these shells may shatter, though, in the final few seconds before a pair of neutron stars merges to form a black hole - a union thought to generate explosions known as short gamma - ray bursts. david tsang of the california institute of technology in pasadena and colleagues have calculated how the mutual gravitational pull of such stars will distort their shape, creating moving tidal bulges. as the stars spiral towards each other, orbiting ever faster, they squeeze and stretch each other ever faster too. a few seconds before the stars merge, the frequency of this squeezing and stretching matches the frequency at which one of the stars vibrates most easily. this creates a resonance that boosts the vibrations dramatically, causing the star ' s crust to crack in many places - just as a wine glass may shatter when a certain note is sung, the team says ( physical review letters, doi : 10. 1103 / physrevlett. 108. 011102 ). the star ' s gravity is too powerful to let the pieces fly away, but the sudden movement can disturb its magnetic field, accelerating electrons and leading to a powerful x - ray flare. that could explain observations by nasa ' s swift satellite in which a blast of x - rays preceded some short gamma - ray bursts by a few seconds. combining observations of x - ray flares with those of gravitational waves emitted by the stars as they spiral together could fix the exact frequency at which the shattering occurs, which would reveal more about the stars ' mysterious interiors, says tsang. if you would like to reuse any content from new scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. new scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to. have your say only subscribers may leave comments on this article. please log in. only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article


internet citizen science databases salamander study : this project has students collect data on the proximity of salamanders to a stream. during the field portion, students check under " wood cookies " for salamander locations. what are the abiotic conditions when salamanders are found further from the stream? explore our data to find out. ozone bio - monitoring study : ground - level ozone creates visible symptoms on sensitive plants that are exposed to this invisible air pollutant. students collect data on the percent of ozone damage covering leaves on plants growing in our monitoring garden. explore the data to find out what the symptom looks like, how quickly it progresses and how you might be able to monitor in your schoolyard. terrestrial invertebrate study : changes in climate can result in subtle shifts in phenology ( life cycle events such as when an insect emerges or when a plant blooms ). students collect data on insect orders found living in decaying leaves in our study plot. explore the data to find out if the appearance of certain insects is shifting over time. water quality study : all streams in the smokies originate in the park but even they are not pristine because of acid deposition and recreational activities in the park. compare data collected by students in the park with a stream near your schoolyard. how does the ph differ, which location gets the most stonefly larvae? lichen monitoring : lichens absorb nutrients from the air when they are wet which makes them sensitivie to acid deposition. data is collected on the perecentage of coverage of three different lichen growth forms on selected trees throughout great smoky mountains national park. are sensitive lichen growth forms being replaced by more tolerant groups? using the databases, students can compare changes over time and geography. hands on history : search photos, transcribed interviews and other first hand personal accounts of life in the region before great smoky mountains became a national park. there is also a database containing information from every cemetery and every gravestone located in the smokies. check out the teacher resource section for classroom activities. how to participate click any of the database links to explore our student citizen science research projects. are you doing a similar study in your own schoolyard? add your location to the hands on the land database to track your own research findings. just become a member of the hands on the land network of educators. - grade levels : - third grade - graduate level ( masters, phd ) - anthropology, aquatic studies, biodiversity, biology : animals, biology : plants, botany


university of southampton in the u. k., is internationally known for discovering the relationship between low birth weight and the lifetime risk for coronary heart disease and other medical disorders, which the british medical journal has named the barker hypothesis. he has published more than 200 papers and written or edited five books about the developmental origins of chronic disease. he was honored in 2005 with the prestigious danone international prize for nutrition for his pioneering research. the ohsu study published today proposes that breast cancer is initiated in the first trimester of a pregnancy by exposure of the embryo ' s developing breast tissue to the mother ' s circulating sex hormones. the primary mammary cord, which gives rise to milk - producing breast lobules, develops in the fetus at 10 weeks. the fetal breast is known to be stimulated by circulating hormones ; the intensity of the stimulation is such that half of all newborn babies have breast secretions. " our findings support the hypothesis that wide round hips reflect high levels of sex hormone production at puberty, which persist after puberty and adversely affect breast development of the daughters in early gestation, " the authors commented. they could only speculate, they said, on the exact nature of this adverse effect but pointed out : " catechol estrogen, a metabolite or estradiol, is thought to cause chromosomal instability by breaking dna strands. high catechol estrogen concentrations in the maternal circulation could produce genetic instability in differentiating breast epithelial cells, which would make the breast vulnerable to cancer in later life. " " epidemiological findings of this kind aren ' t designed to define precise biological or molecular mechanisms, " said grover bagby, m. d., deputy director of the ohsu cancer institute. " however, for those of us involved in identifying the earliest molecular causes of cancer, these fascinating results define the types of questions we need to ask. this is a wake - up call telling us to pay attention to stem cell populations at the time of birth … a good deal earlier than we might have otherwise done. it is important to consider these cell populations because only by understanding the initial cause can we begin to develop rational strategies to prevent this very common cancer. " the daughters who were the subjects of the study were all born during 1934 - 1944 at either helsinki university central hospital or city maternity hospital, the two maternity hospitals in finland ' s capital. the occurrence of breast cancer among them was ascertained from national registers of all hospital admissions and deaths in finland. three hundred of


1934 - 1944 at either helsinki university central hospital or city maternity hospital, the two maternity hospitals in finland ' s capital. the occurrence of breast cancer among them was ascertained from national registers of all hospital admissions and deaths in finland. three hundred of them had had breast cancer of whom 48 died from the disease. their mean age when they were diagnosed was 54. the findings shed new light on the link between breast cancer and nutrition. " mothers whose daughters developed breast cancer were of similar height to the other mothers, " barker and thornburg reported. " this suggests that they had similar nutrition through childhood. our findings do not therefore indicate that good nutrition through childhood is linked to breast cancer in the next generation. but they do show that the pubertal growth spurt of girls, which reflects the level of nutrition, is strongly associated with the risk of breast cancer in their daughters. " the authors of the journal article besides barker and thornburg, who is director of the ohsu heart research center and professor of cardiovascular medicine in the ohsu school of medicine, were clive osmond, senior scientist at the medical research council epidemiology resource center at the university of southampton ; eero kajantie and tom j. forsen, both of finland ' s national public health institute ; and johan g. eriksson, who holds positions at both the national public health institute as well as with the university of helsinki ' s department of public health. barker and osmond have collaborated with eriksson and his finnish colleagues for the past 12 years tracing some 20, 000 men and women in the helsinki birth cohort study. the american journal of human biology is published by wiley - liss, inc., a subsidiary of john wiley & sons, inc. the full text of the study, entitled “ a possible link between the pubertal growth of girls and breast cancer in their daughters, ” is available in “ early view ” at http : / / www3. interscience. wiley. com / cgi - bin / fulltext / 116327402 / pdfstart the link to the abstract is : http : / / www3. interscience. wiley. com / cgi - bin / abstract / 116327402 / abstract


the r project for statistical computing is an open source language and programming environment that provides a wide variety of data manipulation, statistical analysis, and data visualization capabilities. r is a successor to the s software originally developed at bell laboratories. r is a gnu project and is freely available under the terms of the gnu general public license. the software runs on windows, mac os, and a wide variety of unix platforms. even for people who aren ' t expert statisticians, the power of r is alluring. working interactively or using an r script, with just a few lines of code a user can perform complex analyses of large data sets, produce graphics depicting the features and structure of the data, and perform statistical analyses that can quickly answer questions about the data. this article introduces r and demonstrates a small slice of its capabilities, using data from the stock market and real estate industry as input. i developed and ran the demonstrations in this article on a vision computers pc running debian linux ( sarge version, " stable " ). i installed r version 2. 1 using the standard debian advanced package tool ( apt ) utility. to run r interactively, open a terminal window, create a work directory, enter the directory, and execute r : figure 1. the r command window r ' s command language takes some getting used to, but knowing just a few commands provides enough knowledge to perform basic statistical analyses and generate plots for any data set that can be formatted into a one -, two -, or three - dimensional rectangular grid. r commands can be lengthy, because most functions have many optional settings parameters. so it ' s very convenient that the up and down arrow keys in the r command window recall previous command - line entries, which you can then edit. this lets you work toward your data analysis goal incrementally by modifying and extending previously entered command lines. a simple starting point is a vector or array of numbers. i downloaded historical standard and poor ' s ( s & p ) 500 stock index data and wrote a perl program to convert the data into a simple two - column table. figure 2 shows a snippet of the start of the file. figure 2. the sp500. txt file format read. table ( ) function reads an external file into an r data frame variable. to read the s & p 500 data file and make a simple plot of the close price over time, enter the following commands at the r prompt ( > dv < - read. table ( ". / sp500.


that approximates the geographical size and position of the nine ofheo regions. then, using a perl script, i created an input data set for r that assigns the price index for the region to each grid point. hence, the r input file consists of 51 x 30 = 1, 530 data points. for areas on the grid that are not part of the united states ( for example, the ocean ), the data values are na, which tells r not to display data for that position in the 3 - d plot. the r commands that produce an image representation of the house price data are : > dv < - read. table ( ". / ofheo5yr. gridfine ", header = false ) > z < - dv [, 1 ] > attr ( z, " dim " ) = c ( 51, 30 ) > image ( z, col = topo. colors ( 50 ), axes = false ) the first line reads the 1, 530 - point data file. the second line assigns the values read to variable z. next, the attr ( ) function alters the dimension ( " dim " ) attribute of the z variable to arrange its data in the form of a two - dimensional array with 51 rows, each containing 30 data values. finally, the image ( ) function generates an image of the z data, using 50 colors in the topo color scale to represent the varying z values. figure 8 shows the results. figure 8. the plot of five - year regional house price changes topo color scale assigns violet to low values, with blue, green, yellow, orange, and pink assigned to successively higher values. the image shows that the change in housing prices is not at all evenly distributed across the united states geographically. persp ( ) function provides another view of the same data : this code tells r to generate a 3 - d perspective image of the z data, viewing the image with no rotation ( theta = 0 ) and tilted 60 degrees from the horizontal ( phi = 60 ), with no box around the image, coloring the mesh yellow. figure 9 shows the plot. figure 9. the perspective plot of five - year regional house price changes perhaps more clearly, the perspective plot shows that the large increases in house prices in the past five years have occurred on the west coast and in the northeast, while the middle of the united states hasn ' t seen significant home price increases overall. this backs up alan greenspan ' s assertions that there is not a national housing


the world economy is being reshaped by new technologies, services, and trading relationships. much of this dynamism is fuelled by ambitious developing - world nation - states like brazil, india and south africa. as governments, businesses and regional blocs in the global south expand their horizons, they increasingly bypass rich northern states. but is this south - south cooperation any more progressive or less selfish than the more familiar and hegemonic north - south relationship? the idea of south - south cooperation started to influence the field of development studies in the late 1990s. it was fuelled by a growing realisation that poor nations might find appropriate, low - cost and sustainable solutions to their problems in other developing countries rather than in the rich north. it drew on clear examples of existing waste and alternative opportunity ; for example, if african farmers need boreholes to access water, it surely makes more sense to access indias huge pool of expertise than to send expensive european water engineers. the concept quickly spread from the seminar room to the policy chamber. by 1997, britains new department for international development ( dfid ) explicitly aimed under its first minister, clare short to withdraw from its aid programmes any requirement to use british service providers. the intention was to encourage recipient governments to spend the aid more effectively especially on solutions sourced from other developing nations. by the early 2000s, some forward - thinking developing nations themselves were incorporating this altruistic principle into their foreign policies. luis ignacio lula da silvas brazil is just beginning to make africa part of its wider effort to build the countrys global profile ; recently it granted fellow - lusophone mozambique a project to install and staff its own factory producing anti - retroviral hiv drugs, thus reducing its reliance on expensive imports. china and africa an even more potent example of south - south cooperation is the peoples republic of china. chinas presence in africa goes back centuries : archaeologists digging in the ruins of africas great medieval trading states at timbuktu and great zimbabwe have found fine porcelain and other evidence of a trading network that spanned half the world. after the prc was founded in 1949, the new state based its relations with the developing world on a defined doctrine, the five principles of peaceful coexistence ; it also used its own legacy of colonial aggression and experience of liberation to forge links with the african nation - states emerging from colonial rule. china in the 1960s lacked the resources of the cold - war superpowers, but still invested significant energies in support of independent africa. the prc, driven by


and experience of liberation to forge links with the african nation - states emerging from colonial rule. china in the 1960s lacked the resources of the cold - war superpowers, but still invested significant energies in support of independent africa. the prc, driven by perceived ideological, anti - imperialist affinities, dispatched chinese technicians to nominally leftist states to provide military training, modest economic aid and infrastructural monuments to socialist solidarity. the era of liberation wars in the 1970s saw china choose sides and patronise its favoured forces, as in angola. this interest receded in the 1980s as chinese development efforts were diverted inwards. but the post - tiananmen period gave earlier ideological bonds a fresh twist : the hostility of many african leaders to democratic pressures and ( especially ) western, hegemonic conceptions of human rights chimed with chinas own preconceptions. throughout the 1990s, china increased its aid to african governments and resumed its earlier rhetoric of mutual respect and concern for diversity a discourse that resounded strongly in a continent highly attuned to the perceived neo - colonial reflexes of the former ruling powers. in return, beijing received recognition of its sovereignty over taiwan, indifference to its human - rights abuses, and support in international organisations. in 2000, a new china - africa cooperation forum agreed a joint economic and social programme, one that lent a developmental and commercial slant to the five principles. china has subsequently been well in advance of the g8 by cancelling $ 10 billion of the debt it is owed by african states ; at the second sino - africa business conference in december 2003, china offered further debt relief to thirty - one african countries, as well as opening the prospect of zero - tariff trade. the tensions in what might be called chinas developmental evangelism in africa are evident. the ideological underpinnings retain some potency and the principle of non - interference in domestic politics persists. but as chinese commercial interests dominate the relationship, the strain of avoiding entanglement in ethically and politically complex questions increases. for china, insensitivity to human - rights abuses can be finessed as respecting cultural diversity, but this gets harder in a more open, regulated trading environment. rapid economic growth in china in the last decade, coupled with oil exploration and economic diversification in west - central africa, has created new links. more than 60 % of african timber exports are now destined for east asia ; 25 % of chinas oil supplies are now sourced in the gulf of guinea region. china - zimbabwe :


a tsunami is a series of waves most commonly caused by violent movement of the sea floor. in some ways, it resembles the ripples radiating outward from the spot where stone has been thrown into the water, but a tsunami can occur on an enormous scale. tsunamis are generated by any large, impulsive displacement of the sea bed level. the movement at the sea floor leading to tsunami can be produced by earthquakes, landslides and volcanic eruptions. most tsunamis, including almost all of those traveling across entire ocean basins with destructive force, are caused by submarine faulting associated with large earthquakes. these are produced when a block of the ocean floor is thrust upward, or suddenly drops, or when an inclined area of the seafloor is thrust upward or suddenly thrust sideways. in any event, a huge mass of water is displaced, producing tsunami. such fault movements are accompanied by earthquakes, which are sometimes referred to as “ tsunamigenic earthquakes ”. most tsunamigenic earthquakes take place at the great ocean trenches, where the tectonic plates that make up the earth ’ s surface collide and are forced under each other. when the plates move gradually or in small thrust, only small earthquakes are produced ; however, periodically in certain areas, the plates catch. the overall motion of the plates does not stop ; only the motion beneath the trench becomes hung up. such areas where the plates are hung up are known as “ seismic gaps ” for their lack of earthquakes. the forces in these gaps continue to build until finally they overcome the strength of the rocks holding back the plate motion. the built - up tension ( or comprehension ) is released in one large earthquake, instead of many smaller quakes, and these often generate large deadly tsunamis. if the sea floor movement is horizontal, a tsunami is not generated. earthquakes of magnitude larger than m 6. 5 are critical for tsunami generation. tsunamis produced by landslides : probably the second most common cause of tsunami is landslide. a tsunami may be generated by a landslide starting out above the sea level and then plunging into the sea, or by a landslide entirely occurring underwater. landslides occur when slopes or deposits of sediment become too steep and the material falls under the pull of gravity. once unstable conditions are present, slope failure can be caused by storms, earthquakes, rain, or merely continued deposit of material on the slope. certain environments are particularly susceptible to the production of landslide - generated earthquakes. river deltas and steep underwater slopes above sub - marine canyons, for instance, are likely sites for landslide - generated earthquakes


determined by the physical size and shape of the basin. this sloshing is known as the seiche. the greater the length of the body, the longer the period of oscillation. the depth of the body also controls the period of oscillations, with greater water depths producing shorter periods. a tsunami wave may set off seiche and if the following tsunami wave arrives with the next natural oscillation of the seiche, water may even reach greater heights than it would have from the tsunami waves alone. much of the great height of tsunami waves in bays may be explained by this constructive combination of a seiche wave and a tsunami wave arriving simultaneously. once the water in the bay is set in motion, the resonance may further increase the size of the waves. the dying of the oscillations, or damping, occurs slowly as gravity gradually flattens the surface of the water and as friction turns the back and forth sloshing motion into turbulence. bodies of water with steep, rocky sides are often the most seiche - prone, but any bay or harbour that is connected to offshore waters can be perturbed to form seiche, as can shelf waters that are directly exposed to the open sea. the presence of a well developed fringing or barrier of coral reef off a shoreline also appears to have a strong effect on tsunami waves. a reef may serve to absorb a significant amount of the wave energy, reducing the height and intensity of the wave impact on the shoreline itself. the popular image of a tsunami wave approaching shore is that of a nearly vertical wall of water, similar to the front of a breaking wave in the surf. actually, most tsunamis probably don ’ t form such wave fronts ; the water surface instead is very close to the horizontal, and the surface itself moves up and down. however, under certain circumstances an arriving tsunami wave can develop an abrupt steep front that will move inland at high speeds. this phenomenon is known as a bore. in general, the way a bore is created is related to the velocity of the shallow water waves. as waves move into progressively shallower water, the wave in front will be traveling more slowly than the wave behind it. this phenomenon causes the waves to begin “ catching up ” with each other, decreasing their distance apart i. e. shrinking the wavelength. if the wavelength decreases, but the height does not, then waves must become steeper. furthermore, because the crest of each wave is in deeper water than the adjacent trough, the crest begins to overtake the trough


cycling terminology for the amgen tour of california riders : in professional cycling the racers are generally called riders as opposed to racers or cyclists. route map : the course or path the riders will take from start to finish. some stages will have laps where riders will repeat the same few blocks within the stage. stage 8 has 5 laps before the finish. stage profile : maps the ascents and descents along a stage. it is often fun for fans to see the riders on a climb where the rider ' s speed slows slightly ( or coming around a corner ). rolling neutral start : riders begin at a start line but do not begin racing until a few blocks or miles into the route ( the distance varies ). a neutral start is used if the start area conditions are narrow, crowded, or unsafe for race conditions. a neutral start is also sometimes used as a show of respect. stages 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7 all have neutral starts this year. kom ( king of mountain ) : first rider to the top of a designated climb on the race route. riders receive points, the rider with the most points wins the king of the mountain ( kom ) ( climber ' s ) jersey. the jersey transfers each day to the rider with the most points overall. there may be more than one kom point in a stage, stage 4 has 6 koms. sprint : first rider to a designated sprint line on the race route. riders receive points, the rider with the most points wins the sprint ( green ) jersey. the jersey transfers each day to the rider with the most points overall. there may be more than one kom point in a stage, stage 2 has 3 sprints. leader : there will be a current leader out on course while the race is taking place, but the overall leader ( yellow jersey ) is the rider with the lowest ( fastest ) overall time for all stages. the winner of each day ' s stage is called the stage winner, not the leader. feed zone : a designated area on the route where team staff must pass out food bags ( musettes ) to the riders containing food. water may be handed to riders through team cars throughout the stage. breakaway : 1 to a few riders who are leading the race and ahead of the main peloton peloton : the main pack of riders chasing the lead breakaway. podium girls : a tradition in professional cycling to have 2 beautiful women present the awards to the riders at the finish of every stage. podium : each day the top three


quarks are completely confined within protons and neutrons : a phenomenon that we do not completely understand. the artist ' s view below represents the two interlinked phenomena that drive confinement : the long - range correlations in the physical vacuum that surround the proton and excludes the color - field emanating from quarks and the extremely strong gluon - fields between the quarks. to make progress on confinement we need to separate these two effects and study each individually. one way to do this is to make a much larger system of quarks and gluons where the role of the vacuum at the surface of the larger system is much reduced. such a large system can be produced by compressing or heating nuclear matter so that the neutrons and protons begin to overlap. as the boundaries between each neutron and proton disappear, a large volume of a new state of matter should be formed - the quark gluon plasma ( qgp ). the strong interactions between quarks and gluons dominate the properties of the qgp, and because of the larger volume of the system, the influence of the correlated vacuum is much reduced. collisions between two heavy nuclei take place at relativistic heavy ion collider ( rhic ). our first results from phenix indicate that the plasma may be formed in these reactions. leading the evidence for the qgp is the reduced yield of particles at high transverse momenta ( pt ). these particles predominantly come from rare, high - momentum collisions between quarks and gluons ( partons ) that occur in the hot, early stage of the reaction. as high momentum partons travel through the forming plasma, they are predicted to lose a considerable fraction of their energy. outside the collision zone high - momentum partons fragment into hadrons, and any energy - loss in the plasma softens the hadronic spectrum, i. e. lowers the measured yield of hadrons at high - pt. the first high - pt spectra from au + au collisions measured by phenix at rhic were published in 2001 with the key observation that the high - pt spectra are softer in central than in peripheral collisions. because a central reaction would produce a larger volume of qgp, this result is consistent with the hard - scattered parton losing energy in a qgp. the overall caution remains that a heavy - ion reaction is a very complex, challenging environment. a strong case for the existence and properties of the qgp must rely on a broad range of


sheet music - purpose and use sheet music can be used as a record of, a guide to, or a means to perform, a piece of music. although it does not take the place of the sound of a performed work, sheet music can be studied to create a performance and to elucidate aspects of the music that may not be obvious from mere listening. authoritative musical information about a piece can be gained by studying the written sketches and early versions of compositions that the composer might have retained, as well as the final autograph score and personal markings on proofs and printed scores. comprehending sheet music requires a special form of literacy : the ability to read musical notation. nevertheless, an ability to read or write music is not a requirement to compose music. many composers have been capable of producing music in printed form without the capacity themselves to read or write in musical notation — as long as an amanuensis of some sort is available. examples include the blind 18th - century composer john stanley and the 20th - century composers and lyricists lionel bart, irving berlin and paul mccartney. the skill of sight reading is the ability of a musician to perform an unfamiliar work of music upon viewing the sheet music for the first time. sight reading ability is expected of professional musicians and serious amateurs who play classical music and related forms. an even more refined skill is the ability to look at a new piece of music and hear most or all of the sounds ( melodies, harmonies, timbres, etc. ) in one ' s head without having to play the piece. with the exception of solo performances, where memorization is expected, classical musicians ordinarily have the sheet music at hand when performing. in jazz music, which is mostly improvised, sheet music — called a lead sheet in this context — is used to give basic indications of melodies, chord changes, and arrangements. handwritten or printed music is less important in other traditions of musical practice, however. although much popular music is published in notation of some sort, it is quite common for people to learn a piece by ear. this is also the case in most forms of western folk music, where songs and dances are passed down by oral — and aural — tradition. music of other cultures, both folk and classical, is often transmitted orally, though some non - western cultures developed their own forms of musical notation and sheet music as well. although sheet music is often thought of as being a platform for new music and an aid to composition ( i. e., the composer writes the music down )


the uncanny valley appears pretty frequently in these pages, at least in presentation — like the disembodied baby head above, for instance, or the wonderfully horrible telenoid. these robots and others represent the gulf in our robot affinity that gapes open when machines approach a certain level of human likeness. masahiro mori described this phenomenon 42 years ago, when he was a robotics professor at the tokyo institute of technology. his paper was largely unnoticed for decades, but more recently it has become a touchstone for robotics, especially as they become more lifelike. but the paper was never published in english in its entirety, for whatever reason. now here it is, in a new translation approved by mori and appearing in ieee spectrum. mori notes the eerie sensation that arises when we are tricked into thinking an artificial limb is real, and then realize it ’ s not — it “ becomes uncanny, ” and we lose our affinity for it. he expresses this phenomenon in a graph. “ i have noticed that, in climbing toward the goal of making robots appear human, our affinity for them increases until we come to a valley, which i call the uncanny valley, ” the new translation reads. he also charts our affinities and lack thereof for still and moving objects, noting that our affinity is pretty high for a stuffed animal or a humanoid robot. but movement is key to our affinity — a humanoid robot would not move like a human, so it would be incredibly creepy, he says. “ imagine a craftsman being awakened suddenly in the dead of night. he searches downstairs for something among a crowd of mannequins in his workshop. if the mannequins started to move, it would be like a horror story, ” he writes. a still corpse is also down in the valley. at the deepest point : zombies. five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month ' s energy - focused issue. also : how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world ' s smallest arcade, and much more.


" green " energy, it ' s all green... so it ' s clean! public power ' s " green " energy - why choose " green " energy? public power is now offering 100 % " green " energy. " green " programs are helping america become energy independent. public power offers 100 % green energy, whereas our standard rate provides only 20 % green energy. customers who enroll with our " green " energy program will receive a certificate from public power acknowledging their contribution to america ' s future. if you had a choice?... what is " green " energy? in the united states, most of our electricity is generated by pollution sources like coal - fired plants, which pollute our environment with millions of tons of carbon dioxide ( co2 ). people can now power their homes a cleaner way ; with " green " energy, 100 % of a home ' s monthly electric will be generated from alternative renewable energy sources that have a zero imprint on our environment. green energy is produced in a way that has less of a negative environmental impact than conventional sources such as the burning of fossil fuels. examples of green energy include solar, wind, geothermal and hydro. the use of green energy reduces negative impacts to the environment and decreases harmful greenhouse gas emissions. we all contribute to the release of harmful greenhouse gases ; the good news is that it ' s not too late to make a difference and reduce the harmful effects of common daily activities such as driving our cars, air travel, and cooling and heating our homes. a higher standard public power is promoting renewable portfolio standards ( rps ) in order to get an increased usage of renewable energy and the development of renewable products. an rps is a statewide benchmark for the percentage of electricity that must come from green, renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal. continued development of renewable resources is largely driven by the adoption of these standards. by purchasing our " green " energy product you would be helping promote renewable portfolio standards. public power is a proud supporter of rps with our commitment to offer up to 16 % renewable energy in all of our markets. how does " green " energy work? green energy is derived from naturally - occurring sources. this energy can be replenished as wind, solar, and hydroelelectric power. to help spread the sale of green energy, a system was established that separates green energy into separate parts. green energy is separated by : the electricity produced by a renewable generator and the renewable " attributes " of that generation. these


experimental fusion research pppl fusion research centers on the national spherical torus experiment ( nstx ), which is undergoing a $ 94 million upgrade that will make it the most powerful experimental fusion facility, or tokamak, of its type in the world when work is completed in 2014. experiments will test the ability of the upgraded spherical facility to maintain a high - performance plasma under conditions of extreme heat and power. results could strongly influence the design of future fusion reactors. the laboratory develops components and scientific data for iter, which represents the largest step to date toward the development of a commercial fusion reactor. iter, whose name is latin for “ the way, ” is being built in cadarache, france, by the european union, the united states, china, india, japan, korea and russia. the facility is designed to produce 500 million watts of fusion power for at least 400 seconds by the late 2020s to demonstrate the feasibility of fusion as a source of energy. pppl conducts research on the use of liquid lithium to help keep fusion reactions hot. the laboratory ’ s lithium tokamak experiment ( ltx ) is the world ’ s first experimental fusion facility to have liquid lithium covering all its walls to absorb plasma particles that escape from magnetic confinement. the shiny metal keeps the particles from re - entering the plasma as a cold gas, retains impurities that can cool the plasma and halt fusion reactions, and prevents damage to the plasma - facing walls. included in this research are experiments led by princeton university engineer bruce koel on the behavior of lithium and other wall materials.


mathematics for the environment published january 18th 2011 by chapman and hall / crc – 679 pages published january 18th 2011 by chapman and hall / crc – 679 pages mathematics for the environment shows how to employ simple mathematical tools, such as arithmetic, to uncover fundamental conflicts between the logic of human civilization and the logic of nature. these tools can then be used to understand and effectively deal with economic, environmental, and social issues. with elementary mathematics, the book seeks answers to a host of real - life questions, including : a truly interdisciplinary, concrete study of mathematics, this classroom - tested text discusses the importance of certain mathematical principles and concepts, such as fuzzy logic, feedback, deductive systems, fractions, and logarithms, in various areas other than pure mathematics. it teaches students how to make informed choices using fundamental mathematical tools, encouraging them to find solutions to critical real - world problems. the book can be recommended to all those readers who are interested in applied mathematics as well as to those who do not think of themselves as mathematicians yet being interested in laws and relationships in which mathematics may be a helpful tool. — herbert s. buscher, zentralblatt math 1211 the book is heavily referenced … there are many detailed exercises designed to highlight how mathematics can be used to explain natural phenomena and human behavior and its consequences. … this book could serve as a text for courses in applied mathematics and a resource for study material in many other subject areas … — maa reviews, july 2011 mathematics is connected to everything else earth ’ s climate and some basic principles one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century edison ’ s algorithm : listening to nature ’ s feedback fuzzy logic, filters, the bigger picture principle consequences of the crime : suburbia ’ s topology a toxic consequence of the crime hubbert ’ s peak and the end of cheap oil resource wars : oil and water the co2 greenhouse law of svante arrhenius economic instability : ongoing causes necessary conditions for economic success the mathematical structure of ponzi schemes dishonest assessment of risk one reason why usury should again be illegal what is mathematics? more basics the definition of mathematics used in this book the logic of nature and the logic of civilization cycles and scales in nature and mathematics the art of estimating we all soak in a synthetic chemical soup thomas latimer ’ s unfortunate experience what ’ s in the synthetic chemical soup? synthetic flows and assumptions the flow of information about synthetic flows you cannot do just one thing : two examples mathematics : food, soil, water,


in a synthetic chemical soup thomas latimer ’ s unfortunate experience what ’ s in the synthetic chemical soup? synthetic flows and assumptions the flow of information about synthetic flows you cannot do just one thing : two examples mathematics : food, soil, water, air, free speech the " hour glass " industrial agriculture machine industrial agriculture logic vs. the logic of life fast foods, few foods, and fossil fuels genetic engineering : one mathematical perspective toxic sludge is good for you! oceans : rising acidity and disappearing life stocks, flows and distributions of food my definition of food choices : central vs. diverse decision making mathematics and energy how much solar energy is there? solar energy is there, do we know how to get it? nuclear power : is it too cheap to meter? net primary productivity and ecological footprints npp, soil, biofuels, and the super grid the brower – cousteau model of the earth how heavily do we weigh upon the earth? mining and damming : massive rearrangements fish, forests, deserts, and soil : revisited the cousteau – brower earth model fuzzy logic, sharp logic, frames, and bigger pictures sharp ( aristotelian ) logic : a standard syllogism measuring truth values : fuzzy / measured logic definitions, assumptions and the frame of debate humans in denial — nature cannot be fooled — gravity exists the bigger picture principle the dunbar number the sustainability hypothesis : is it true? the dunbar number public relations, political power, and the organization of society political uses of fear confronting fear ( and apathy ) : organizing your community for self - preservation and sustainability math and nature : the nature of math one pattern viewed via geometry and numbers : mathese the square numbers of pythagoras the language of mathematics : mathese a general expression in mathese : a formula for odd numbers an important word in mathese : σ sentences in mathese : equations with σ and a dummy variable induction, deduction, mathematical research, and mathematical proofs what is a mathematical proof? what is a deductive system? originalidad es volver al origen axioms and atoms molecules and atoms ; the atomic number and the atomic mass number of an atom scaling and our first two axioms for numbers our first axiom for numbers number 1 : its definition, properties, uniqueness the definition of multiplicative inverse our second axiom for numbers if …, then …. our first proofs return to the problem : how many protons in one gram of protons? what is a mole?


definition, properties, uniqueness the definition of multiplicative inverse our second axiom for numbers if …, then …. our first proofs return to the problem : how many protons in one gram of protons? what is a mole? scaling up from the atomic to the human scale five more axioms for numbers associativity, identity, and inverses for + commutativity of + and * what patterns can be deduced in our deductive system? playing the mathematics game rules for playing the mathematics game the usual rules for fractions are part of our deductive system can you tell the difference between true and false patterns? one of the oldest mathematical patterns a short story and some numberless mathematics relations defined as collections of ordered pairs transitive and reflexive relations relations that are functions a set of social rules for the warlpiri people the section rule the mother relation rules the marriage rules the father relation rules cultural contexts in which mathematics is done counting social security numbers among other things permutations : order matters there are n! permutations of n distinct objects counting connections : order does not matter equivalence relations and counting using equivalence relations to count combinations : order does not matter additional counting problems box models : population, money, recycling some population numbers counting people in the world a fundamental axiom of population ecology counting people in the united states basic mathematical patterns in population growth schwartz charts are box - flow models our first population model : simple boxes and flows three basic operations : addition, multiplication, and exponentiation defining logarithm functions computing formulas for doubling times logarithms to any base further study : more complicated models and chaos theory the world ’ s human population : one box box models : money, recycling, epidemics some obvious laws humans continue to ignore a linear multiplier effect : some mathematics of money multiplier effects arising from cycles : the mathematics of recycling a simple model of an influenza epidemic chance : health, surveillance, spies, and voting chance : health and news if you test hiv positive, are you infected? chance and the " news surveillance, spies, snitches, loss of privacy, and life is someone watching you? why? living with a police escort? i ’ m not worried, i ’ ve done nothing wrong identity theft, encryption, torture, planespotting encryption mathematics and identity protection extraordinary rendition = kidnapping and torture planespotting : a self - organizing countermeasure the cia did not anticipate bigger pictures and the cia voting in the 21st century stealing elections is


encryption, torture, planespotting encryption mathematics and identity protection extraordinary rendition = kidnapping and torture planespotting : a self - organizing countermeasure the cia did not anticipate bigger pictures and the cia voting in the 21st century stealing elections is a time honored tradition a simple solution exists two modest proposals what exactly is economics? it takes the longest time to think of the simplest things a preview of two laws of nature three kinds of economists the human economy depends on nature ’ s flows of energy and entropy nature ’ s services and human wealth : important calculations how we treat each other : how we treat nature — the tragedy of the commons mathematical concepts and economics new mathematical patterns : self - organizing systems finding a niche : habits and habitats the concept of money financial wealth and real wealth is financial collapse possible now? follow the money are you paying more or less than your fair share of taxes? financial growth vs. fish growth fractional reserve banking : an amazing mathematical trick distributed vs. centralized control and decision making farms : to be run by few or by many? utilities : muni or investor - owned? linux vs. microsoft medicine for people or for profit or both? a little history an example of the need for fuzzy logic : the definition of poverty energy and thermodynamics energy and the first law of thermodynamics the first law of thermodynamics entropy and the second law of thermodynamics early statements of the second law of thermodynamics algebraic statement of the second law of thermodynamics so what is entropy and can we measure it? some applications of the second law of thermodynamics : power plants and hurricanes hiking up a mountain understanding entropy with a little mathematics the financial mathematics of loans, debts, and compound interest simple and compound interest : a review how much does a debt really cost you? buying on time and / or installment plans. amortization. the four important numbers : p, r, r, n examples of individual debt : rent - to - own, credit cards, and loans information flow in the 21st century investigative journalism requires cash thesis : the range of debate is too narrow now time series test and multiple source test measuring the range of debate distractions and illusions media literacy : censorship and propaganda filters and censors censorship : external and internal conclusion and epilog : where are the adults? martin walter is a professor in the department of mathematics at the university of colorado at boulder. dr. walter is a sloan, woodrow wilson, and national science foundation fellow


right now, the accelerator is stopped for the annual maintenance shutdown. this is the opportunity to fix all problems that occurred during the past year both on the accelerator and the experiments. the detectors are opened and all accessible malfunctioning equipment is being repaired or replaced. in the 27 - km long lhc tunnel, surveyors are busy getting everything realigned to a high precision, while various repairs and maintenance operations are on their way. by early march, all magnets will have been cooled down again and prepared for operation. the experimentalists are not only working on their detectors but also improving all aspects of their software : the detector simulations, event reconstruction algorithms, particle identification schemes and analysis techniques are all being revised. by late march, the lhc will resume colliding protons with the goal of delivering about 16 inverse femtobarns of data, compared to 5 inverse femtobarns in 2011. this will enable the experiments to improve the precision of all measurements achieved so far, push all searches for new phenomena slightly further and explore areas not yet tackled. the hope is to discover particles associated with new physics revealing the existence of new phenomena. the cms and atlas physicists are looking for dozens of hypothetical particles, the higgs boson being the most publicized but only one of many. when protons collide in the lhc accelerator, the energy released materializes in the form of massive but unstable particles. this is a consequence of the well - known equation e = mc2, which simply states that energy ( represented by e ) and mass ( m ) are equivalent, each one can change into the other. the symbol c2 represents the speed of light squared and acts like a conversion factor. this is why in particle physics we measure particle masses in units of energy like gev ( giga electronvolt ) or tev ( tera electronvolt ). one electronvolt is the energy acquired by an electron through a potential difference of one volt. it is therefore easier to create lighter particles since less energy is required. over the past few decades, we have already observed the lighter particles countless times in various experiments. so we know fairly well how many events containing them we should observe. we can tell when new particles are created when we see more events of a certain topology than what we expect from those well - known phenomena, which we refer to as the background. we can claim that something additional and new is also occurring when we see an excess of events. of course, the bigger the excess, the easier


certain topology than what we expect from those well - known phenomena, which we refer to as the background. we can claim that something additional and new is also occurring when we see an excess of events. of course, the bigger the excess, the easier it is to claim something new is happening. this is the reason why we accumulate so many events, each one being a snap - shots of the debris coming out of a proton - proton collisions. we want to be sure the excess cannot be due to some random fluctuation. some of the particles we are looking for are expected to have a mass in the order of a few hundred gev. this is the case for the higgs boson and we already saw possible signs of its presence last year. if the observed excess continues to grow as we collect more data in 2012, it will be enough to claim the higgs boson discovery beyond any doubt in 2012 or rule it out forever. other hypothetical particles may have masses as large as a few thousand gev or equivalently, a few tev. in 2011, the accelerator provided 7 tev of energy at the collision point. the more energy the accelerator has, the higher the reach in masses, just like one cannot buy a 7000 chf car with 5000 chf. so to create a pair of particles with a mass of 3. 5 tev ( or 3500 gev ), one needs to provide at least 7 tev to produce them. but since some of the energy is shared among many particles, the effective limit is lower than the accelerator energy. there are ongoing discussions right now to decide if the lhc will be operating at 8 tev this year instead of 7 tev as in 2011. the decision will be made in early february. if cern decides to operate at 8 tev, the chances of finding very heavy particles will slightly increase, thanks to the extra energy available. this will be the case for searches for particles like the w ’ or z ’, a heavier version of the well - known w and z bosons. for these, collecting more data in 2012 will probably not be enough to push the current limits much farther. we will need to wait until the lhc reaches full energy at 13 or 14 tev in 2015 to push these searches higher than in 2011 where limits have already been placed around 1 tev. for lhcb and alice, the main goal is not to find new particles. lhcb aims at making extremely precise measurements to see if there are any weak points in


higher than in 2011 where limits have already been placed around 1 tev. for lhcb and alice, the main goal is not to find new particles. lhcb aims at making extremely precise measurements to see if there are any weak points in the current theoretical model, the standard model of particle physics. for this, more data will make a whole difference. already in 2011, they saw the first signs of cp - violation involving charm quarks and hope to confirm this observation. this measurement could shed light on why matter overtook antimatter as the universe expanded after the big bang when matter and antimatter must have been created in equal amounts. they will also investigate new techniques and new channels. meanwhile, alice has just started analyzing the 2011 data taken in november with lead ion collisions. the hope is to better understand how the quark - gluon plasma formed right after the big bang. this year, a special run involving collisions of protons and lead ions should bring a new twist in this investigation. exploring new corners, testing new ideas, improving the errors on all measurements and most likely the final answer on the higgs, that is what we are in with the lhc for in 2012. let ’ s hope that in 2012 the oriental dragon, symbol of perseverance and success, will see our efforts bear fruit. to be alerted of new postings, follow me on twitter : @ gagnonpauline or sign - up on this mailing list to receive and e - mail notification.


this paper provides observations of physical fitness testing in texas schools and physical education teachers ' insights about large - scale testing using the fitnessgram [ r ] assessment ( cooper institute, 2007 ) as mandated by texas senate bill 530. in the first study, undergraduate and graduate students who were trained to observe and assess student fitness testing in grades 3 through 12 provided observations. in the second study, physical education teachers responded to selected interview questions during a focus group discussion. from the observations and responses, specific themes emerged related to teachers knowledge and training about conducting fitness testing and managing data, students ' knowledge and motivation, support and resources far conducting fitness assessments, and complexity of the fitness situation. key words : behaviors, perceptions, physical education teachers physical fitness and physical activity levels in children and adolescents have long been a topic of interest, especially to physical educators, exercise scientists, health agencies, and private organizations dealing with sport and fitness ( safrit, 1990 ). knowledge that children and adolescents in the united states are more obese and possibly less physically fit than their counterparts in other developed nations has been highlighted for more than two decades ( see dinubile, 1993 ; freedson, cureton, & heath, 2000 ; seefeldt & vogel, 1989 ). a number of nationwide youth fitness school - based physical education programs have been developed over the past 50 years, during which time several reports critically examined the strengths and weaknesses of the fitness batteries used in the programs ( e. g., freedson et al., 2000 ; keating, 2003 ; safrit, 1990 ; safrit & wood, 1995 ). hence, examining physical education classes or fitness assessment protocols to improve the experiences of all those involved is not a new concept ( e. g., stewart, boyce, elliot, & block, 2005 ). the beneficial impact of fitness testing programs, components, and certain test items has met with some skepticism due to the increased number of overweight children and adolescents and overweight, inactive adults ( keating, 2003 ; u. s. department of health and human services [ usdhhs ], 2008 ). findings from a few studies suggested that high physical fitness during childhood and young adulthood is related to a healthy risk factor profile later in life ; however, youth physical activity levels do not necessarily influence cardiovascular disease in later life ( harris & cale, 2006 ; twisk, kemper, & van mechelen, 2002a, 2002b ). education, government, healthcare, and business institutions, as well as parents and families should share


cardiovascular disease in later life ( harris & cale, 2006 ; twisk, kemper, & van mechelen, 2002a, 2002b ). education, government, healthcare, and business institutions, as well as parents and families should share the responsibility for u. s. children ' s and adolescents ' health and fitness ( austin, fung, cohen - bearak, wardle, & cheung, 2006 ). positive attempts to make large - scale changes include legislation such as texas senate bill ( sb ) 19, requiring students in publicly funded elementary and middle schools to participate in physical activity ; sb 42, that schools implement a coordinated health program ; or sb 530, mandating fitness testing of grade 3 - 12 students ( e. g., kelder et al., 2009 ). however, there is limited information about the issues and barriers teachers and administrators face when making these changes ( e. g., green & thurston, 2002 ). by documenting testing errors and best practices during large - scale fitness testing, a comprehensive understanding may guide future endeavors to ensure accountability and success. thus, this paper reports on teachers ' experiences during the texas state - mandated physical fitness assessments conducted in the second year of implementation. through anecdotal reports, experiences, and observations from physical education teachers and trained college students who conducted the mandated fitness testing, we provide an understanding of the issues and barriers to conducting physical fitness assessments and maintaining annual statewide physical fitness data. this paper entails two separate studies, ( a ) the observations of undergraduate and graduate students trained to use the fitnessgram [ r ] / activitygram [ r ] assessment tools ( cooper institute, 2007 ) and ( b ) physical education teachers ' thoughts and opinions about the state - mandated fitness testing program and the fitnessgram / activitygram assessment tools. the themes and the concerns that emerged from these investigations are presented here to aid future large - scale fitness testing. study 1 : testing observations the research team included one graduate student and eight undergraduate students enrolled in the department of kinesiology, health promotion, and recreation at the university of north texas ( morrow, martin, & jackson, 2010 ). all were trained in fitnessgram test administration, which included reading the training manual, watching an accompanying dvd demonstration, completing the online certification, hands - on training at the cooper institute and the university of north texas, and practice testing at two local middle schools prior to beginning the study. in addition, team members were trained to use standardized testing forms that listed specific criteria for fitnessgram test items


hands - on training at the cooper institute and the university of north texas, and practice testing at two local middle schools prior to beginning the study. in addition, team members were trained to use standardized testing forms that listed specific criteria for fitnessgram test items ( e. g., 15 - m pacer [ progressive aerobic cardiovascular endurance run ], 20 - m pacer, curl - up, pull - up, etc. ). they also practiced observing and recording errors in the testing procedures. expertly trained testing teams of two to four people traveled to schools to either observe teachers administer the fitness test items twice within a 2 - week period or observe teachers administer the fitness test items and then within 2 weeks re - administer the same test items ( for additional information on the protocol see morrow, martin, & jackson, 2010 ). hence, at least two team members were present in each session to record observations of teacher - administered testing or to conduct the testing. they recorded daily observations journals and test results on the standardized fitnessgram testing forms. recruiting and scheduling schools schools were recruited through telephone, email, fliers, and in - person meetings with teachers and district physical education representatives. elementary school teachers showed the most interest in study participation and signed up quickly for the research. they were placed in one of two groups : the teacher - administered fitness group, or the teacher - administered followed by expert team - administered fitness group. many elementary school physical education teachers already incorporated fitness testing elements into their curriculum and devoted entire units to teaching the fitnessgram test battery ; these factors provided an ideal opportunity for them to schedule time to participate in the study. recruiting middle and high school teachers and their students was difficult due, in part, to the physical education and physical activity requirements defined in sb 530 ( morrow, martin, & jackson, 2010 ), which are different from those for elementary schools. the physical activity requirements for elementary school ( first through fifth grades ) are 30 min / day or 135 min / week ( 45 min three times per week ) or 225 min over 2 weeks ( 45 min three times the first week, and 45 min twice the second week ). only four of six semesters of physical education were required in middle school ( sixth through eighth grades ), and the high school physical education requirement was 1. 5 years. not all students were required to enroll in physical education at the middle and ' high school levels. at some schools, nonphysical education students were released from other classes to complete the mandated physical education fitness testing. conversely, other schools opted to


substance comparatively opaque to x - rays, which appears lighter on x - ray film and allows a body structure that does not normally contrast with its background to be seen clearly on the film. common contrast media include barium sulfate and iodized organic compounds. they are given by the route that introduces them into the structure to be examined — swallowed or as an enema for the digestive tract, inhaled for the respiratory tract, or injected for blood vessels and for organs and tissues they supply. serious reactions to contrast media are not infrequent. seealso diagnostic imaging. learn more about contrast medium with a free trial on britannica. com. iodine based contrast media such as urografin or omnipaque is used most commonly in radiology, due to its relatively harmless interaction with the body. it is primarily used to visualise vessels, but can also be used for tests of the urinary tract, uterus and fallopian tubes. | ionic | | diatrizoate ( hypaque 50 ) | | ionic monomer | | 300 | | 1550 | | high osmolar | | ionic | | metrizoate ( isopaque coronar 370 ) | | ionic | | 370 | | 2100 | | high osmolar | | ionic | | ioxaglate ( hexabrix ) | | ionic dimer | | 320 | | 580 | | low osmolar | | non - ionic | | iopamidol ( isovue 370 ) | | non - ionic monomer | | 370 | | 796 | | low osmolar | | non - ionic | | iohexol ( omnipaque 350 ) | | non - ionic | | 350 | | 884 | | low osmolar | | non - ionic | | ioxilan ( oxilan ) | | non - ionic | | low osmolar | | non - ionic | | iodixanol ( visipaque 320 ) | | non - ionic dimer | | 320 | | 290 | | iso osmolar | these often appear in the form of barium sulfate. barium is mainly used in the imaging of the digestion system. negative contrast always occurs in a gas, usually as one of the following : examples of the use of negative contrast medium are as follows : although rare, it is possible to be allergic to contrast media. reactions can range from minor to severe, in the worst case scenario,


one of the drawbacks investors and utilities have found with solar and wind power is that they are “ variable. ” simply put : they can ’ t generate electricity when the sun ’ s not shining or the wind isn ’ t blowing. that ’ s problematic because we ’ ve grown accustomed to getting energy whenever we want it. flick a switch and the lights should go on, regardless of whether it ’ s sunny or windy outside. in the past, utilities believed that they had to compensate for this variability by installing more traditional, fossil - fueled power plants. the more wind or solar power on the grid, the thinking went, the greater the need for backup generating facilities to be there when the wind or sun wasn ’ t. enter rmi ’ s energy & resources team. over the past year, senior consultant lena hansen has led a series of research projects to rethink the implications of wind and solar ’ s variability. in the process, she and her colleagues are re - evaluating the economics of putting more renewable energy on the grid. the key, according to hansen, is for utility managers to think of all their wind and solar installations as a portfolio. “ no person would invest in just one stock, ” says hansen. in the financial markets, most people forego the huge risks and potentially large gains of owning shares of one company for the reduced risk and smaller rates of return of owning shares in multiple companies, she explains. hansen argues that the same should go for utilities investing in wind and solar. “ by diversifying the portfolio of sites, you mitigate variability, ” she says. “ put another way, the wind blows differently in different locations. so spread out your resource to reduce total variability. ” the trick is to balance risks and rewards. very windy and very sunny sites produce more power than sites that are less windy or less sunny. but they also tend to be more variable. ultimately, explains hansen, utility managers have to make a tradeoff between variability and power output. however, by modeling a bunch of geographically spread - out sites, hansen and her colleagues hypothesized, utilities can start to make educated guesses about the optimal portfolio — one that maximizes power generation and minimizes variability. to test the hypothesis, hansen and former rmi fellow jonah levine compiled hundreds of tables of meteorological data for a one - year period, then set about looking for overlaps in the times when the wind is blowing. as it turned out, 2004 data were the most complete, enough to model what would happen at 63 sites across


of tables of meteorological data for a one - year period, then set about looking for overlaps in the times when the wind is blowing. as it turned out, 2004 data were the most complete, enough to model what would happen at 63 sites across the great plains. “ the basic idea, ” explains levine, “ was to look for a complementary effect. ” simulating wind sites over a large geographic area should have decreased variability in the whole system without adversely affecting power output. the results were promising. overall, hansen and levine noticed decreases in system variability for all the portfolios they studied. those findings spurred a second study, conducted earlier this year, that combined both wind and solar resources in one portfolio. the team ’ s hypothesis was that just as wind tends to blow differently in different places, the sun often shines when there is no wind. using data from the national renewable energy lab and levine ’ s study, hansen and ert fellow bryan palmintier simulated 43 wind and solar sites throughout the midwest. all 43 sites were within the midwest reliability organization ’ s ( mro ) area of responsibility regarding the grid. mro is one of nine north american electric reliability regions, comprising minnesota, north dakota, nebraska, as well as portions of montana, south dakota, iowa, wisconsin, the upper peninsula of michigan, and two canadian provinces. after running the numbers, they found that variability in the whole system went down by 55 percent compared to the average of all sites studied. surprisingly, those results bore out whether they looked at the entire study group, or as few as six optimally selected sites. “ if you look at the average wind or solar site alone, there ’ s a good amount of time each day that it ’ s not generating electricity, ” explains palmintier. “ but if you combine all the wind and solar sites together, you find that 90 percent of the time you can get seven megawatts out ” of facilities that at peak production might generate 100 megawatts. that increase in electric output may sound small, but palmintier contends that it ’ s substantial enough to get utilities to think differently about their investments, especially if paired with programs to help users better manage the times at which they draw power from the grid. to bolster these findings, the rmi team then expanded their analysis, first over a longer time period and then over a larger geographic area. for mro, hansen and her colleagues simulated what would happen if they took into account three years of data. the findings were essentially the


##hrenheit. when the shivering and shaking stops, body temperature drops back to the minimal temperature. this type of hibernation is rare among mammals and scientists are still studying this unique physiological behavior. in denali, ground squirrels are active from late april to early october, but the sexes and age - classes show some differences in their annual activity patterns. adult males are usually the first to emerge from hibernation. they dig their way through the snow and stay relatively close to their burrows until the snow cover melts. breeding occurs in may and a single litter of 5 to 10 pups is born in june. the young develop rapidly and usually emerge from their burrows in mid - july. by late summer, young abandon their natal burrow and occupy a neighboring, empty burrow or excavate a new one. adults start hibernating as soon as they have enough body fat to survive the winter, often in late august when plenty of foods are still available. it is probably safer to enter hibernation early, even when foods are accessible, than to remain on the surface vulnerable to predators. youngsters, however, take much longer to find foods and put on body fat and they are often active until late september. this means that youngsters are more vulnerable to predation than adults. the diet of arctic ground squirrels is diverse and opportunistic. they eat many types of vegetation including the leaves, seeds, fruits, stems, flowers, and roots of many species of grasses, forbs, and woody plants. they also eat mushrooms and meat from freshly killed animals ( including ground squirrels ). because they are active only during the short subarctic summer, arctic ground squirrels must be efficient foragers. as summer progresses, they put on a tremendous amount of fat stores for the winter and often double their body weight by the time they enter hibernation in fall. the social behavior of arctic ground squirrels is complex. this species is highly territorial and squirrels may kill other squirrels over territorial disputes. however, other related females in the colony often care for orphaned youngsters. further, territorial behavior lessens during late summer, and male squirrels may move between colonies or establish colonies of their own. so many different predators eat arctic ground squirrels that adolph murie called them the " staff of life " in denali. they are one of the most important summer food sources for golden eagles, gyrfalcons, foxes, and grizzly bears.


a collection of informative and interesting articles absolutely free - start sharing your knowledge today! home | submit articles | login online since year 2000 the images of back children in gwendolyn brook ' s poetry : a studyby : p. suresh kumar r. panneerselvam | category : education | submitted : 2012 - 04 - 13 08 : 18 : 42 in between, her poetic achievement is marked by gradual and progressive ascent. she became the first african american poet to win the pulitzer prize in 1950, membership of the academy if arts and letters un 1976, winning if two guggenheim awards, poet laureateship of illinois in 1968, the award by the national endowment for arts in 1989, jjeffrson lectureship by the national endowments of the humanities in 1994, the national medals of arts award in 1995, the " first woman " award from the federal government in 1999, and more than fifty honorary decorates from various colleges and universities. brools ' s creative output extends over a period of six decades. her poetry is distinctive not only in her handling of multiplicity of forms but also in her craftsmanship. she has committed herself to the ideals of social justice for her race and sex as well as ro the aesthetics of art. the issues of racism and an authentic identity have been the recurrent themes of african american writers. witnessing the growth of black literature by stages - form anger to defiance, to protest, to recognition, to search for identity, and to reconciliation, brooks wrote poetry that was at once potent, provocative, poignant, and starling, a poetry that resisted racism, asserted black consciousness, and upheld the black values, a poetry that instilled a new faith in self - reliance and dignity, and a poetry that can be a source of inspiration of succeeding generations writers. a study of brooks ' s poetry will be incomplete without a study of her poetry for children, who also encounter the same kind of racial discrimination which the adult balcks are subjected to in the racially prejudiced america. before 1967, brooks published only one volume of poetry ofr children : bronzeville boys and gorls ( 1956 ). the book consists of thirty - four poems, which are illustrated by ronnai solbert. all these poems portray the individual experiences of thirty - seven children, but brooks is objective and detached in her portrayal of these boys and girls. in poems written in couplets, the first line rhymes with the second, the third line rhymes with the foruth, and so on : i have a secret place