##y, or crocodilian, or shark - like, than were the terrestrial, serpentine dragons. but japanese mythology includes also an earthquake - fish ( namazu ) like an eel, with a long, attenuated head and long feelers on both sides of the mouth, which stirs about underground, thus causing earthquakes. " the cultural drift from west to east, along the south coast of india, " dr. smith reminds us, " was effected mainly by sailors who were searching for pearls. sharks constituted the special dangers the divers had to incur in exploiting pearlbeds to obtain the precious ' giver of life. ' but at the time these great enterprises were undertaken in the indian ocean the people dwelling in the neighbourhood of the chief pearlbeds regarded the sea as the great source of all life - giving, and the god who exercised these powers was incarnated in a fish ( ancestor of dagon ). the sharks therefore had to be brought into this scheme, and they were rationalized as the guardians of the storehouse of life - giving pearls at the bottom of the sea.... out of these crude materials the imaginations of the early pearl - fishers created the picture of wonderful submarine palaces of naga kings in which vast wealth, not merely of pearls but also of gold, precious stones, and beautiful maidens, were placed under the protection of shark - dragons. "


in jena, graph is an interface. it abstracts anything that looks like rdf - storage options, inference, other legacy data sources. the main operations are addition, there are a number of getters to access handlers of various features ( query, statistics, reification, bulk update, event manager ). having handlers, rather than directly including all the operations for each feature reduces the size of the interface and makes it easier to provide default implementations of each feature. implementing a graph rarely needs to directly implement the interface. more usually, an implementation starts by inheriting from the class graphbase. a minimal ( read - only ) implementation just needs to implement wrapping legacy data often only makes sense as a read - only graph. to provide update operations, just implement the methods which are the methods called from the base implementations of then for testing with junit, inherit from abstractgraphtest ( override tests that don ' t make sense in a particular circumstance ) and provide the getgraph operation to generate a graph instance to test. where the graph level is minimal and symmetric ( e. g. literal as subjects, inclusion of named variables ) for easy implementation, the rdf api enforces the rdf conditions and provides a wide variety of convenience operations so writing a program can be succinct, not requiring the application writer to write unnecessary boilerplate code sequences. the ontology api does the same for owl. if you look at the javadoc, you ' ll see the apis are large but the system level interface is small. a graph is turned into a model by calling modelfactory. createmodelforgraph ( graph ). all the key application apis are interface - based although it ' s rarely needed to do anything other that use the standard model - graph bridge. data access to the graph all goes via find. all the read operations of application apis, directly or indirectly, come down to calling graph. find or a graph query handler. and the default graph query handler works by calling graph. find, so once find is implemented everything ( read - only ) works. arq ' s query api, which includes a sparql implementation, included. it may not be the most efficient way but importantly all functionality is available and so the graph implementer can quickly get a first implementation up and running, then decide where and when to spend further development time - or whether that ' s needed at all. an example of this is a prototype jena - mulgara bridge ( work in progress as of jan ' 08


get a first implementation up and running, then decide where and when to spend further development time - or whether that ' s needed at all. an example of this is a prototype jena - mulgara bridge ( work in progress as of jan ' 08 ). this maps the graph api to a mulgara session object, which can be a local mulgara database or a remote mulgara server. the prototype is a single class together with a set of factory operations for more convenient creation of a bridge graph wrapped in all jena ' s apis. implementing graph nodes, for iris and for literals is straight forward. mulgara uses jrdf to represent these nodes and to represent triples. mapping to and from jena versions of the same is just the change in naming. blank nodes are more interesting. a blank node in jena has an internal label ( which is not a uri in disguise ). when working at the lowest level of graph, the code is manipulating things at a concrete, syntactic level. a blank node in mulgara has an internal id but it can change. it really is the internal node index as i found out by creating a blank node with id = 1 and found it turned into rdf : type which was what was really at node slot 1. paul has been ( patiently! ) explaining this to me on a mulgara mailing list. the session interface is an interface onto the rdf data, not an interface to extend the graph details to the client. both approaches are valid - it ' s just different levels of abstraction. if the jena application is careful about blank nodes ( not assuming they are stable across transactions, and not deleting all triples involving some blank node, then creating triples involving that blank node ) then it all works out. the most important case of reading data within a transaction is safe. bulk loading is better down via the native mulgara interfaces anyway. the jena - mulgara bridge enables a jena application to access a mulgara server through the same interfaces as any other rdf data.


text : : unicodebox : : text - objects to describe text rendering this module is part of the low level interface to text : : unicodebox ; you probably don ' t need to use it directly. the string representation of the text. how many characters wide the text represents when rendered on the screen. the following methods are exportable by name or by the tag ' : all ' given the passed text, figures out the a smart value for the length field and returns a new instance. my $ text = box _ string ( ' test ' ) ; $ text - > align _ and _ pad ( 8 ) ; # is the same as # $ text - > align _ and _ pad ( width = > 8, pad = > 1, pad _ char = > ' ', align = > ' left ' ) ; $ text - > value eq ' test ' ; modify the value of this object to pad and align the text according to the specification. pass any of the following parameters : defaults to the object ' s length. specifies how wide of a space the string is to be fit in. doesn ' t make sense for this value to smaller then the width of the string. if you pass only one parameter to align _ and _ pad, this is the parameter it ' s assigned to. if the string looks like a number, the align default to ' right ' ; otherwise, ' left '. how much padding on the right and left what character to use for padding returns the value of this object. return array of objects of this string split into new strings on the newline character provides the count of return the length of the longest line in my @ segments = $ obj - > split ( max _ width = > 100, break _ words = > 1 ) ; return array of objects of this string split at the max width given. if break _ words = > 1, break anywhere, otherwise only break on the space character. copyright ( c ) 2012 eric waters and shutterstock images ( http : / / shutterstock. com ). all rights reserved. this program is free software ; you can redistribute it and / or modify it under the same terms as perl itself. the full text of the license can be found in the license file included with this module. eric waters < email @ example. com >


horizon may be jet fuel from the emerging " electrofuels " industry, which uses microbes and electrosynthesis, photosynthesis ' s more powerful cousin. the advanced research projects agency - energy and the energy department are throwing billions of research dollars at electrofuels, which they consider one of the more promising paths to fossil fuel independence to develop in many years. in march, the air force alternative fuels certification division demonstrated that biofuel performs just as well as fossil fuels in the f - 22 raptor fighter jet. commercial airlines are even more eager to see the industry ramp up, says jeff braun, the division ' s chief, with several firm commitments to buy biofuel as soon as it is available in commercial quantities. for the military, braun notes, biofuels represent an energy " holy grail " : domestically controlled fuel that can be produced anywhere the military needs it. not everyone is convinced. the rand corporation recently criticized the military ' s plans for biofuel, predicting that it would remain a niche industry incapable of providing the volume that the military needs at a price that could compete with oil. the navy ' s hicks counters that military purchases of biofuel, as they move from tens of thousands of gallons to tens of millions, will drive innovation and bring down costs. he cites as precedent such military - turned - commercial products as night - vision goggles, gps devices, and even the internet, all of which started out as expensive niche defense technologies. in fact, says hicks, a former epa and u. s. green building council official who helped develop both the energy star program for buildings and the leed rating system, " from what we can see already, we expect cost parity with petroleum by 2016. " many obstacles stand in the way of the military ' s big green goals, starting with the fact that most military housing and many other defense department buildings lack electrical meters — making it difficult to weed out inefficiencies. the armed services have recently been on a crash course to install " smart meters " but are still barely halfway there. an even greater energy and security concern is that almost all military bases — even those with solar or geothermal power plants attached — are dependent on the commercial grid for power. in the world war ii era, most bases generated their own power, but that capacity gave way to privatization, leaving most bases vulnerable to grid sabotage while also complicating plans to green military electricity. then there ' s the flagship 500 - megawatt solar project announced with


creating a distributed wireless monitoring system for aircraft noise " during the hardware evaluation process, we decided to use ni products because of their high measurement quality, ruggedness, and reliability compared to lower cost sound - level meters. " - luis fernandez, national polytechnic institute developing an autonomous, distributed wireless monitoring system to measure aircraft noise levels and stream the data back for analysis at a control center. using ni labview software, the ni sound and vibration toolkit, and an ni usb - 9234 dynamic signal acquisition module ( dsa ) to acquire and analyze reliable, high - quality data from various aircraft. noise levels from heavy automobile and aircraft traffic during morning and evening rush hours in mexico city could potentially cause hearing loss. the committee of aerial transport has proposed a new aircraft classification system in which the aircraft operator would pay a fee based on noise production, not weight or aircraft type. as a result, we put together a novel computational model that not only measures noise production, but also identifies an aircraft based on the noise it generates. each node in our wireless monitoring system contains a half - inch prepolarized microphone, a data acquisition card that measures noise level, an industrial computer, and a wireless internet connection using wi - fi or 3g. each microphone is in a weatherproof case mounted 4 meters above the ground. the node measures noise levels every 30 seconds and streams the data back to the control center every 5 minutes. figure 1. distributed wireless monitoring system diagram identifying an aircraft based on the noise spectrum characteristics it generates is complicated in the real world because background noise, the weather, takeoff speed, and the aircraft ’ s load can interfere with analysis. recently, measurement equipment that uses neural networks to identify noise has appeared on the market, but it can only distinguish between jet aircrafts, propeller aircrafts, helicopters, and background noise. we decided to create a computational model to measure and interpret noise. using only the noise created during the 24 seconds after takeoff, our system can correctly identify the aircraft. using a wireless topology reduces costs and provides flexibility in setting up a monitoring system. each monitoring node is based on a headless industrial pc running windows xp with a wi - fi adapter and an ni usb - 9234. during the hardware evaluation process, we decided to use ni products because of their high measurement quality, ruggedness, and reliability compared to lower cost sound - level meters. even though each node is connected to the city ’ s electrical system, we use an uninterruptible power supply to prevent data loss. the node measures noise levels


, ruggedness, and reliability compared to lower cost sound - level meters. even though each node is connected to the city ’ s electrical system, we use an uninterruptible power supply to prevent data loss. the node measures noise levels every 30 seconds and the system can collect data locally for up to 14 days. the government plans to use our data to identify the times and locations in mexico city with the highest noise level, create noise maps, and implement regulatory actions to control the noise and promote a healthier environment for its citizens. our system can record traditional metrics used for road traffic noise, such as continuous equivalent sound level ( leq ), and it can also record fractional octave analysis and measure prominent tones. in addition, the system can transfer wav files to a central server to study transient signals that may trigger alarms, which helps identify isolated sound sources that interfere with accurate measurements. figure 2. noise patterns from two weeks in the city square mexico city. we originally planned to use the public wi - fi that the government installed in 2008, but some nodes had to be converted to a slower 3g system provided by a wireless carrier. although we can use speech and data services simultaneously on the 3g network, it has significantly slower data transfer rates. communicating via tcp / ip our control center has a static ip address. each node has a dynamic address assigned by a dhcp server. to simplify, the control center is similar to a server, and the nodes are similar to a client. the nodes attempt to open a tcp connection, and if the control center receives this connection request and the node ’ s validation key, it accepts the connection. figure 3. control center central server interface figure 4. signal analysis of audio that exceeds thresholds figure 5. noise level, time, and date, and amplitude measured in dba figure 6. 3d noise map displaying noise level, time, date, and amplitude below is the system block diagram we created for pattern generation and recognition. we considered takeoff noise a nonstationary transient signal because it starts and ends at a zero level and has a finite duration. as figure 8 shows, most of the signal ’ s energy is below 2 khz. in this case, we notice the background noise more strongly at the ends of the signal because the aircraft - generated noise masks it in the middle portion. figure 7. system block diagram for pttern generation and recognition figure 8. typical noise signal and spectrum of a boeng 747 taking off for all aircraft noise, we observed the


the signal because the aircraft - generated noise masks it in the middle portion. figure 7. system block diagram for pttern generation and recognition figure 8. typical noise signal and spectrum of a boeng 747 taking off for all aircraft noise, we observed the typical form of the amplitude spectrum from 0 to 5, 000 hz. we chose to use a sampling frequency of 11, 025 hz in order to reduce the number of samples taken in 24 seconds to 264, 600 samples. in other aircraft noise analyses, the recommended sampling frequency is 25 ks / s and d -, c - and a - weighting filters. reducing spectral resolution we decided to reduce the spectral resolution because the amplitude spectrum has 132, 300 harmonics, which would result in very complex processing. in addition, we were only interested in gathering data about the spectral form. we present the following hypotheses : - any method to reduce spectral resolution introduces a tolerance in the initial and final times within the measurement interval of aircraft noise. for example, a feedforward neural network is trained with one noise pattern, which was acquired from zero seconds from the aircraft takeoff until 24 seconds later. in run time, if the aircraft takeoff noise is acquired from 5 seconds until 24 seconds, this 5 second time displacement will have little effect on the spectral form if its spectral resolution has been reduced. - a median filter ( moving average filter ) creates a typical form of the aircraft ’ s takeoff noise spectrums. - the decimation of average spectrum, with a rate x, conserves the spectral form of an aircraft ’ s takeoff noises. our 10 - node system successfully measures the noise produced during takeoff by airplanes at the international airport of mexico. the system makes many different types of spectral analyses and obtains the most - used statistical indicators for noise measurement, expressed in db ( a ) or db ( c ). we can store the data collected by our system and later come back to perform more in - depth analysis. we can determine potential health risks from this noise, and gain an idea of how noise levels fluctuate throughout the day. in the future, we would like to measure the differences of the yield when applying this technique after segmenting the original signal. we also plan to test new parameters to create the neural network. explore the ni developer community discover and collaborate on the latest example code and tutorials with a worldwide community of engineers and scientists. who is national instruments? national instruments provides a graphical system design platform for test, control, and embedded design applications that is transforming the way engineers


new srnl device measures liquid fill level ( download printer - friendly, pdf version ) aiken, s. c. ( november 18, 2010 ) – the u. s. patent and trademark office recently granted savannah river nuclear solutions ( srns ) a u. s. patent for an ultrasonic liquid level detector developed by savannah river national laboratory ( srnl ) to remotely measure the fill level of a hazardous liquid in a container. the inventors, william hinz and dennis kotz, constructed a functional prototype and demonstrated it at the savannah river site ( srs ). " this device was conceived because we needed a creative solution for a challenging process where there was not an off - the - shelf fix, " said hinz. ultrasonic devices are used to determine the liquid level by transmitting and receiving ultrasonic energy traveling through liquids and solids to accurately measure distance. in the nuclear storage industry, these devices are critical for the precise filling of drums containing hazardous liquids. the most commonly used devices measure from the side or bottom of the container. one type measures liquid level from within a container, but requires multiple devices attached separately at specific areas. " the core technology was available and well understood, but the access restrictions and the presence of shielding material presented a real challenge for the location and placement of the sensor. we sketched a device that took into consideration all the logistical complexities of the container design and the potential operational issues. a novel, spiral patterned shielding plug was incorporated to minimize any radiation exposure to personnel in the area. several weeks later a full scale prototype was developed and demonstrated to be effective, " said hinz. the ultrasonic liquid level detector was designed to be a simple, compact detector that could be positioned and used anywhere within a container, even above a liquid, independent of the orientation of the detector or the distance from the liquid surface to the bottom of the container. the patent states that the device achieves these goals and " is especially useful when a container is being filled remotely with a hazardous liquid … and shielding is positioned around the container so that access from the side or bottom is not possible. " " this new device will make it much easier to determine the level of liquid in such a container, with less error and radioactive exposure, " said hinz. srnl is doe ' s applied research and development national laboratory located at the savannah river site. srnl puts science to work to support doe and the nation in the areas of environmental management, national and homeland security, and energy security. the management and operating contractor for sr


what is culture shock? culture shock is the name given to a feeling of disorientation or confusion that often occurs when a person leaves a familiar place and moves to an unfamiliar place. the reaction may be both physical and psychological, and some students will probably at some point ask themselves why they chose to leave their familiar surroundings. it is important then to remember that it is a learning process, and that most students will return with greater self - confidence and the ability to manage in an intercultural environment. why you may experience culture shock when you arrive in denmark, you will no doubt encounter a multitude of new things. the food is not the same as it is at home, and familiar greetings such as ' hello ' and ' good day ', ' thanks ' and ' how are you doing ', may suddenly give completely different responses than the ones you are used to. people talk in a strange language and look different. university rules are different, and the way of studying may appear strange and difficult. even though things seem very similar, they may not be, and suddenly everyday routine and simple actions become difficult and frustrating. it is often small differences that are most frustrating, as you think you know how to behave / do things, but you get a strange response. your family and friends are very far away. stages you may go through research has shown that culture shock often develops in different stages : arrival / “ honeymoon ” stage : everything is new and exciting culture shock stage : you start to experience difficulties with everyday things, as they are different from home, such as the language barrier, getting the right food etc. adapting stage : you slowly start to understand the new culture and feel more in balance. you feel an urge to belong re - entry shock stage : this stage takes place when you return to your home country and suddenly find out that you have brought back something with you, namely something that suddenly makes you see your own culture with more critical eyes. this can be difficult to come to terms with. to minimise the effect of culture shock it is important to acknowledge the existence of it, and to know and pay attention to the symptoms, as well as to keep in mind that it is occurring as part of a learning process. some of the typical symptoms of culture shock are : - boredom, loneliness - allergies, pain - obsession with own health - sleeplessness, excessive need of sleep - mood changes, depression, powerlessness - anger, animosity against other people - identification and idealisation of home culture - trying to absorb everything


mathematics, one of the very oldest human disciplines, is an indispensable tool for analysing and explaining the world around us, providing us with the skills to deal with the most abstract concepts. mathematics and statistics play a fundamental role in the sciences, in commerce and in every other activity where quantitative, analytical or logical understanding is important. ultimately, mathematics is about clarity of thought and precision of understanding. in the mathematics major, you will be immersed in a mixture of different topics ranging from linear algebra to data analysis and hypothesis testing, from the mathematics of counting and logic, to the techniques of calculus. the range of units available has been designed to cater for you - whether you intend to become a professional mathematician or if you main interests lie in other areas. for exceptional students, there is the opportunity to participate in the challenging extension work provided through the science talented student program or the mathematics special studies program. when planning for a mathematics major, you generally need to take at least 12 credit points of junior mathematics units, in order to enrol in intermediate mathematics units for your second year. it is a good idea to plan ahead and have an idea of which senior units you need to complete, so that you can plan your junior and intermediate prerequisite units accordingly. you will take at least 12 credit points of intermediate mathematics units, which are the prerequisites for your third year senior units. to successfully complete your mathematics major, you must take at least 24 credit points of senior units of study from the mathematics subject area. differential equations and biomathematics fluid dynamics ( advanced ) lagrangian and hamiltonian dynamics ( advanced ) linear mathematics and vector calculus number theory and cryptography optimisation and financial mathematics partial differential equations graduates with mathematical skills are in demand in many areas, especially in business associated with financial services and information technology. they are needed in almost all scientific, medical, technological and industrial research. with a major in mathematics, you could be employed in a wide range of organisations to interpret information and make forecasts and decisions. statisticians and mathematicians can be found in major corporations and in the public sector, where their skills are essential for policy planning. secondary school mathematics teaching is also a high demand area for graduates. even in areas where specific mathematical knowledge is not directly relevant, mathematics and statistics graduates are highly valued by many employers for their mental discipline and thoroughness. further study for major many mathematics graduates choose to continue studying at postgraduate level in order to pursue more specialised careers. if you are interested in further study, you


just go outside on a sunny day and start shooting whatever ' s nearby. and aren ' t i glad that this is a camera thread to give context to that sentence... anyway, you want to understand the relationship of three things, represented with different numbers : shutter speed, aperture, and iso. changing either one of them will affect how bright / dark your images are, as well as one other " side effect " unique to each choice. all three affect each other and you will eternally balance with them. - your shutter speed seems intuitively obvious : how long your shutter is open, or rather, how long your sensor is exposed to light. measured in fractions of a second, or whole seconds or even minutes for really long exposures, but for walking around holding the thing in your hands, you ' re going to want numbers like 1 / 50 or 1 / 100, or even 1 / 1000 or 1 / 2000 in broad daylight. side effect : shutter speed is also what you use to freeze motion. something moving very fast will still be blurry even at 1 / 100th of a second. at 1 / 4000th, however, you might be able to freeze the subject. but getting that high of a shutter speed cuts down the amount of light you have, which leads us to... - aperture : how big a " hole " your sensor is being exposed to. think of a water faucet ; on low it takes forever to fill up a cup, but open it up a little and suddenly your cup runneth over in no time. sometimes water pressure can be so strong it ' ll blast in your glass and splash out all over the place. with light, that last effect leads to " overexposure ", when it ' s so bright that all you get is stark glaring whiteness, all detail of your subject gone. so you reduce the size of the hole that light ( water ) is going through, so it doesn ' t overload the sensor ( cup ). they call this " stopping down ". one full " stop " refers to a halving or doubling of light ; the water faucet becomes half or twice as strong, respectively. so the next number you have to worry about is your " f - stop ", the number system that describes how " open " or " closed " your lens is. f / 11 is a very small hole, and you ' ll probably only use this in broad daylight. lots of zooms have a widest f - stop of


the number system that describes how " open " or " closed " your lens is. f / 11 is a very small hole, and you ' ll probably only use this in broad daylight. lots of zooms have a widest f - stop of 3. 5 ; more expensive zooms will go to f / 2. 8 ; some prime lenses ( lenses that don ' t zoom ) go down to very wide f - stops like 1. 8 or 1. 4. very small numbers ( wide apertures ) mean lots of light per unit of time : at 1 / 100th of a second, f / 2. 8 will be " twice as bright " as f / 4. side effect : this is a biggie, and it ' s depth of field. this refers to how wide an area, perpendicular to the front of the lens. narrow depth of field ( dof ) has everything on one narrow plane in focus, while everything behind it or in front of it is blurry ; this is a product of wide apertures ( small f - numbers, like f / 1. 4 or f / 2 or whatever ) in most shooting situations. deep dof, or wide, or thick, or... whatever... has a very large plane of focus, at very narrow apertures ( big f - numbers, like f / 8, 11, 16 ). although i confess, in that last photo i cheated and used a very wide - angle lens ; i ' ll give you a note about focal length below. - iso is just how sensitive your camera is to light. this is a very simple one : noise. low iso ' s mean low noise, and low sensitivity ( you ' ll need wider apertures or longer shutter speeds unless you ' re in broad daylight ). noise is random data of wrongly - colored pixels. when there ' s less light, the camera has to " guess " more, and makes more errors based on random spikes of information in the sensor. the technical details are fascinating, but are also minutiae when discussing shooting. what you really need to understand is that the clearest, sharpest, best colored images will come at the lower isos. higher isos make shooting in very low light possible. the d90, in my opinion, looks very good even at iso 1600 or even, depending on the subject, 3200, but try the different settings and see what you like. you may prefer to keep it under iso 800. i know i try to keep it at iso


opinion, looks very good even at iso 1600 or even, depending on the subject, 3200, but try the different settings and see what you like. you may prefer to keep it under iso 800. i know i try to keep it at iso 200 as much as possible. iso is sort of a buffer that gives you wiggle room between balancing your aperture and shutter speeds. if you really want a deep depth of field, need a high shutter speed, you have no choice but to raise the iso ( or add more light ; open a window, turn on more lights, use a flash or multiple flashes... photography can get expensive really quick ). - focal length : how " zoomed in " or " zoomed out " you are, in simplest terms. small numbers mean a wide angle of view ( how much of what ' s in front of you will you see ) while big numbers mean a narrow angle of view, to frame really tightly on distant objects. roughly " in the middle " ( thematically, not numerically ) is the " normal " range. this corresponding number is commonly viewed to be hovering around 50mm in good ol ' 35 mm film parlance ; for a dx camera like your d90, which has a smaller sensor, " normal " is right around 35mm. numbers smaller than 35 are " wide ", and numbers higher go into " telephoto " range. wider lenses, all else being equal, will also have deeper depth of field. a 15mm focal length at f / 4 will have a greater range of objects in focus than a 100mm focal length at the same aperture. shutter speed doesn ' t affect depth of field, but it will affect how blurry ( or otherwise ) your pictures are. at 1 / 30th of a second, even casual movement will make blur. at 1 / 5th of a second, your hand holding the camera will be so jittery that the entire image will blur, unless you have a very good vibration reduction system in your lens. hmm. i wound up writing way more than i thought i would, and i ' m kinda running outta steam. i know i ' m only beginning to scratch the surface. sorry for the abrupt conclusion ; congratulations on the new toy! play around with it, go take some pictures, and realize that understanding the numbers and the tools are only to facilitate your own vision. composition will ultimately be the most important thing for you to work on, and you ' ll be going nuts with it once you get over


anatomic and physiologic considerations are the basis for proper diagnostic techniques. we will discuss basic diagnostic procedures and relative pharmacological consideration to enhance the ophthalmic examination. normal anatomy and physiology the eye is a sensitive neurological tissue and is considered the anterior extension of the brain. it functions to translate light waves into a nerve impulse, which can then be interpreted by the brain as sight. the eye is extremely delicate and sensitive, and has special anatomic and physiologic adaptations. a basic understanding of ocular anatomy and physiology are necessary to appreciate abnormalities and understand their significance. the eyes and their associated structures are bilateral and symmetrical in most species. eyelids protect, lubricate and meter out excessive light. the shape of the palpebral fissure is species and breed dependent. a wide variation among the breeds results in a particular facial expression. two main sets of muscles control eyelid position. the orbicularis muscles, innervated by the facial nerve, close the eyelid. the levator palpebral muscle innervated by the oculomotor nerve raises the upper eyelid. the margins of the eyelids contain specialized cilia known as eyelashes, and openings to the sebaceous meibomian glands provide oily secretions. the glands of zeis and moll are sebaceous and sweat glands that are associated with the follicles of the eyelash. the conjunctiva is the mucous membrane lining inside of the eyelids ( palpebral conjunctiva ) and is continuous onto the anterior sclera ( bulbar conjunctiva ). the palpebral conjunctiva is thicker and pink - red in color, whereas the bulbar conjunctiva is very thin, colorless and nearly transparent. both contain blood vessels which when irritated will become congested and red. jaundice contrition will give the conjunctiva a yellowish color. anemia will give it a blanched, pale appearance. the third eyelid ( nictitating membrane ) is a specialized conjunctival structure of non - primate animals. it serves to protect the cornea, secrete part of the tear film and fight infection via lymph follicles. this is supported by a t - shaped piece of cartilage and at the base of this cartilage is the gland of the third eyelid, which produces a significant quantity of tears. the excursion of the nicti


what are bitcoins, everybody asks. the usual answer is “ they are a distributed, semi - anonymous, peer to peer, cryptographic digital currency ” or something along those lines, but there is another simpler way to look at bitcoins. bitcoins are a tech stock – tech because they solve a technological problem and have a technological use, and stock because they can be bought and sold on open market. imagine a startup arrived in silicon valley one day and said they were going to create a digital currency which would succeed. a digital currency that overcomes the many limitations and fatal flaws of all its predecessors. i wonder how we could quantify it ’ s value in terms of vc funding, and once it reached a market cap of $ 300 million, its value as an acquisition? let ’ s look at three start ups who received over $ 100million each in vc funding. dropbox has received over $ 250 million in venture capital funding, for a service that essentially stores files. airbnb, a space rental service ( generally for holidays ) has received $ 119 million in funding. homeaway, a vacation property booking services has raised over $ 500 million. and let ’ s look at a few startups that have sold for over $ 1billion. instagram, a simple photo sharing platform, sold to facebook for $ 1billion. youtube, the video sharing site we all know and love, sold to google for $ 1. 6billion and doubleclick for $ 3billion. yahoo bought an internet radio service for $ 5. 7billion, geocities ( now defunct ) for $ 3. 6billion, overture services inc for $ 1. 6 billion and various others. microsoft purchased visio software for $ 1. 3 billion, navision for $ 1. 3 billion, aquantive for $ 6. 3 billion, fast search and transfer for $ 1. 1 billion, skype for $ 8. 5 billion and yammer for $ 1. 2 billion in the above examples i ’ ve listed 12 companies that were sold for a total of $ 36, 200, 000, 000. just 12 companies! and let ’ s not even talk about the tech stocks which have floated on stock exchanges! all of these companies have one thing in common, commerciality. each requires a monetary transaction of some description to have been worth investing in or buying, in the first place. now imagine a technology which facilitates the commerciality of all trade. the current market cap of bitcoins


authors : j. marvin herndon ours is a time of unparalleled richness in astronomical observations, but understanding seems to be absent throughout broad areas of astrophysics. among some groups of astrophysicists there appears to be measured degrees of consensus, as indicated by the prevalence of so - called " standard models ", but in science consensus is nonsense ; science is a logical process, not a democratic process, and logical connections in many instances seem to be lacking. so the question astrophysicists should ask is this : " what ' s wrong with astrophysics? " finding out what ' s wrong is not only the necessary precursor to righting what ' s wrong, but will open the way to new advances in astrophysics. toward that end, one may question the basic assumptions upon which astrophysics is founded, as well as question the approaches astrophysicists currently employ. here i describe one methodology and provide specific examples, the details of which are set forth elsewhere [ 1 - 3 ]. in doing so, i place into a logical sequence seemingly unrelated astronomical observations, including certain hubble space telescope images, so that causal relationships become evident and understanding becomes possible ; as a consequence, profound new implications follow, for example bearing on the origin of diverse galactic structures and the origin of the heavy elements. comments : recovered from sciprint. org [ v1 ] 2 apr 2008 unique - ip document downloads : 29 times add your own feedback and questions here :


becomes mandatory by default. here ' s how it might work : first thing is to organize at the local level on the idea of a people ' s constitutional convention, with proposed constitutional amendments. once this catches on across the country, then move to the next step. delegates are elected at the local level to attend regional conventions. these delegates will poll their constituencies to get an accurate report on what the people want strengthened in the constitution and what they want changed about government. this report will be the message of the delegate at the regional convention. the job of the regional convention is to debate and vote, so as to combine all the delegates polls into one coherent amendment package. these delegates then go to the state conventions, repeating the process. the amendment package that has thus been debated and voted upon, then moves on to the national convention. the final amendment package coming out of the national convention is a directive to congress, to the executive, and to the courts. according to the declaration of independence, this people ' s directive will supersede all existing law. all that ' s left after the congress does their job, by implementing the amendment package, is for the states to ratify the amendments. once ratified by the states, the newly amended people ' s constitution becomes the law of the land. now, if we don ' t really have this right, this original authority, then we the people have been lied to. everything taught to us about our country and the founding fathers is a lie. everything taught to our children in schools about our government is a lie. the declaration of independence is just a piece of paper. i don ' t think so. i suspect that the government, given the political choice, would capitulate in favor of the people, rather than risk an all - out revolution. after all, we are talking about america here, aren ' t we? here ' s more on the issue that is excerpted from an article i previously wrote, and that addressed several concerns. all the peace and social justice activists that i have talked to want the same things. they want what most people want, that is, equal rights and justice for all people everywhere, affordable education and health care, opportunity and quality of life, and a clean and healthy planet to live on. regardless of the particular issue, there are common threads interwoven into most, if not all, of the issues. these threads include, but are not limited to, government corruption, excessive corporate power, and an unfair class - driven election process that keeps high level political


issue, there are common threads interwoven into most, if not all, of the issues. these threads include, but are not limited to, government corruption, excessive corporate power, and an unfair class - driven election process that keeps high level political office out of the reach of the average working class individual. there are other fundamental issues as well, but these particular three go a long way toward fostering the crisis that we the people currently face in this country. think about it. nearly every issue that we are fighting in our many different causes can be traced back to a common thread, a fundamental flaw in our society. it seems logical that any long - term solution should address these flaws. otherwise it ' s like trying to get rid of a noxious weed by picking off its leaves. the problem is going to come back. so how do we get at the root? well you start by taking stock in the tools you have available. our most powerful tool that we collectively share is the fact that we the people are popular sovereigns. this is the authority that we the people declared in the declaration of independence. if you can get the majority of people in this country to realize the truth, then you have your sovereignty ' muscle '. then you flex that popular sovereignty muscle by calling a constitutional convention and amending the constitution. most left - leaning progressives tend to shudder whenever you mention the constitution as something that we should all embrace as activists working for change. i ' ve heard it all, from " the constitution is no longer relevant ", and " that authority no longer exists ", and " constitutionalism is the refuge of right wing extremists and gun nuts ", to " the constitution was written by rich white men ". i also get told by some that what i propose is unrealistic, that i should just select a smaller issue, and join the ranks of those " picking away at the problem " ; or that what i propose is dangerous, not only to ourselves, but to the constitution as well. some say it will " put the constitution up for grabs " because the convention delegations would be filled with existing legislators who would dominate the process. i understand what people are saying regarding some of the potential risks, however, i disagree with them on many of the variables. for instance, i believe that in a normal political environment, article v of the constitution does indeed govern the process of conventions. however, in a political environment that has created a legitimate threat to the future integrity of the rule of constitutional law, such


but we should see the futenma base relocation issue as part of a much broader problem. in this article i want to consider the futenma issue in the context of other activities within the international anti - bases movement. i have been involved in the anti - bases movement for many years and serve on the hokkaido asia africa latin america solidarity committee ( haala ). haala is an organization that opposes neo - colonialism, respects the rights of people to self - determination and aims for the equality of all peoples. revocation of the us - japan security treaty and the removal of all american bases from japan are among its aims. we have links with vietnam, nicaragua, cuba and south africa among others and are involved in various humanitarian projects there. a representative of the japan africa asia south america solidarity committee went to ecuador to attend the anti - base activities described in fuse yujin ’ s article [ add link ], and have also visited venezuela and bolivia. the international network for the abolition of foreign military bases ( inafmb ) took off at the world social forum held in mumbai in january 2004 and was launched officially as a result of its first international conference in quito and manta, ecuador, in march 2007. i attended the mumbai meeting as the representative of haala. it was an unforgettable experience. to have 130, 000 people gathering from across the globe under the slogan ‘ another world is possible ’ in a meeting of such diversity and vibrancy was enough to really make one believe it could happen. in particular, the demonstrations by members of india ’ s so - called ‘ untouchables ’ caste left a particularly strong impression. their cries of ‘ if another world is possible then it must include us ’ brought it home that only by raising one ’ s voice is there any hope to change things. read more. on march 11, the us state department issued its " 2009 human rights report : china ( includes tibet, hong kong, and macau ), " calling the people ' s republic of china ( prc ) " an authoritarian state in which the chinese communist party ( ccp ) constitutionally is the paramount source of power, " practicing : - " cultural and religious repression ; " - harassment of human rights activists ; - harassment and disbarment of lawyers who defend them ; - control of free expression, the internet, and access to it ; - extrajudicial killings ; - torture and coerced confessions of prisoners ; - use of forced labor, including prison labor ; - monitoring, harassing,


viticulture - n. : the cultivation or culture of grapes enology - n. : a science that deals with wine and wine making the v & e department combines the sciences of viticulture and enology in a single research and teaching unit that encompasses all of the scientific disciplines that impact grape growing and winemaking. for over one hundred years the university of california has maintained an active and productive program in research and education in viticulture and enology. the continuing excellence of the department has enabled california growers and vintners to develop practices that have allowed the golden state to achieve its potential and become a premier wine - producing region. le reve women in wine scholarship upon repeal of prohibition, rudolph c. kopf founded the wine and spirits department of macy ' s department store in new york, the year was 1933. it quickly gained a reputation as the finest wine and spirits shop in the country and kopf became recognized as one of america ’ s most knowledgeable wine and spirits professionals. in 1944 he decided to turn his knowledge and relationships toward establishing his own company, which would become kobrand corporation. his founding principles were simple : first was quality of product, second was the quality of people, and third was the quality of relationships created. regarding quality of product, mr. kopf was determined to represent only the very finest produc...


, i, 552 ). this general agreement of theologians as to papal infallibility in canonization must not be extended to beatification, not withstanding the contrary teaching of the canonical commentary known as " glossa " [ in cap. un. de reliquiis et venerat. ss. ( iii, 22 ) in 6 ; innocent., comm. in quinque decretalium libros, tit. de reliquiis, etc., no 4 ; ostiensis in eumd. tit. no 10 ; felini, cap. lii, de testibus, etc., x ( ii, 20 ) ; caietani, tract. de indulgentiis adversus lutherum ad julium mediceum ; augustini de ancona, seu triumphi, de potestate eccl., q. xiv, a. 4 ). canonists and theologians generally deny the infallible character of decrees of beatification, whether formal or equivalent, since it is always a permission, not a command ; while it leads to canonization, it is not the last step. moreover, in most cases, the cultus permitted by beatification, is restricted to a determined province, city, or religious body ( benedict xiv, op. cit., i, xlii ). some, however, have thought otherwise ( arriaga, theol., v, disp. 7, p. 6 ; amicus, theol., iv, disp. 7, p. 4, no 98 ; turrianus on ii - ii, v, disp. 17, no 6 ; del bene, de s. inquisit. ii, dub. 254 ). we must first distinguish causes of martyrs from those of confessors or virgins, since the method followed is not entirely identical in both cases. in order to secure beatification ( the most important and difficult step in the process of canonization ) the regular procedure is as follows : this procedure is followed in all cases of formal beatification in causes of both confessors and martyrs proposed in the ordinary way ( per viam non cultus ). those proposed as coming under the definition of cases excepted ( casus excepti ) by urban viii are treated in another way. in such cases it must be proved that an immemorial public veneration ( at least for 100 years before the promulgation, in 1640, of


zurich, switzerland - 13 jan 2012 : ibm scientists have developed a flexible, non - contact microfluidic probe made from silicon that can aid researchers and pathologists to investigate critical tissue samples accurately for drug discovery and disease diagnostics. tissue staining is widely used in pathology to detect disease markers in a patient ’ s sample. more specifically, a particular disease marker is bound with an antibody, which is then chemically colored or stained on the tissue. the intensity of the color classifies and determines the extent of a disease. tissue staining is a tedious process with many chemical steps analogous to developing photographs, whereby excessive chemical solution or long exposures can overdevelop the sample or photograph. in the context of pathology, this can cause false positives and negatives, which can lead to misdiagnosis. according to a report issued by johns hopkins hospital, of 6, 171 biopsy slides that were sent from late 2008 for a second review, pathologists disagreed with the diagnosis on 86 of them. obtaining a biopsy is an invasive procedure for the patient, so small samples are taken whenever possible. pathologists are determined to gain as much information as possible from these small samples, which can be only a few millimeters in length. working at this scale requires staining to be performed on many thin slices of the sample to identify and sub - type diseases such as cancer, for treatment. pathologists are often challenged in performing a sufficient number of important tests on these limited samples, critical for personalized treatment strategies. “ a key aspect of taking clinical samples is to ensure a high diagnostic capability while minimizing patient discomfort — the probe developed by ibm scientists does exactly that. the probe allows one to stain a very small section of a tissue with virtually any biomarker that may be clinically relevant. this capability allows the clinician to not only do more with a smaller sample, but will also allow the use of multiple stains on the same sample, therefore increasing the accuracy of the diagnosis. thus this work may be transformative for diagnosing a variety of ailments ranging from cancer to cardiac disease, ” said prof. dr. ali khademhosseini, associate professor at harvard medical school and brigham and women ' s hospital. to address these important challenges, ibm scientists in zurich are reporting today in the peer - reviewed journal lab on a chip an innovative proof - of - concept technology called the microfluidic probe, which can accurately stain tissue sections at the micrometer scale. the eight millimeter -


ibm scientists in zurich are reporting today in the peer - reviewed journal lab on a chip an innovative proof - of - concept technology called the microfluidic probe, which can accurately stain tissue sections at the micrometer scale. the eight millimeter - wide, diamond - shaped probe consists of a silicon microfluidic head with two microchannels at each tip. similar to an inkjet printer cartridge, the head injects the liquid on the surface, but then unlike a printer, it continuously aspirates the liquid to prevent spreading and accumulation on the surface, which can lead to overexposure. specifically for tissue section analysis, the probe can deliver an antibody very locally in a selected area of a tissue section with pinpoint accuracy. since analysis can be done on spots and lines instead of on the entire tissue section, the tissue is better preserved for additional tests, if required. in addition, only a few picoliters ( one trillionth of a liter ) of liquid containing antibodies are needed for each analysis spot. “ we have developed a proof - of - concept technology, which i hope puts pathology on a modern roadmap — benefiting from the latest developments in silicon - based microfluidics, ” said govind kaigala, a scientist at ibm research - zurich. he adds, “ this new approach will enable pathologists to stain tissue samples with micrometer precision and easily perform multiple tissue stains on limited samples. ” this research is based on ibm ’ s decades of experience with silicon, which is now being applied to novel micro and nanotechnologies to solve today ’ s greatest challenges ranging from energy production and consumption to healthcare. the microfluidic probe fits to standard workflows in conventional pathology. in addition, it is compatible with current biochemical staining systems and is resistant to a broad range of chemicals. the small size of the probe also enables easy viewing of the sample from above and below by an inverted microscope commonly used in research and clinical laboratories. prof. dr. khademhosseini said, “ the developed system may have great potential in applications where sample size and the need for testing various types of biological analysis are required. i am confident that one day such approach will enable us to take small tissue biopsies and be able to obtain significantly more information. ” ibm scientists will continue to test and improve the probe and potentially begin using it in laboratory environments in the next several months. in addition, the team plans to explore specific clinical applications, possibly with partners in the field


center of science, policy and society programs : aaas dialogue on science, ethics and religion aaas dialogue on science, ethics and religion physics & the cosmos the field of physics attempts to make sense of the universe at all scales, from the impossibly small particles from which we are comprised to the inconceivably large structures within which we exist. the miniscule yet fundamentally important realm of quarks, photons and protons ( among many others ) is articulated by quantum mechanics through such concepts as the simultaneously wave and particle nature of light and the inherent uncertainty in the physical universe. at the other extreme, einstein ’ s general relativity provides a framework for understanding our cosmos on the largest possible scale and accounts for the large - scale gravitational effects of all matter on space and time. from quarks to quasars, physics and astronomy address an enormous variety of objects and phenomena, many of which provoke intriguing physical and metaphysical questions. since the beginning of human history we have been looking up at the night sky, wondering about the countless points of lights and what might lie beyond. ancient astronomers observed that the visible heavens are relatively ordered and predictable, yet also peculiar and vast. such universally experienced mystery has engendered tremendous philosophical, religious, and scientific inquiry. the last several hundred years in particular have witnessed revolutions in the way we understand the universe. copernicus re - envisioned the cosmos as sun - centered, not earth - centered. galileo observed jupiter ’ s orbiting moons and the sun ’ s “ imperfect ” spots that led him to challenge the traditional greek conceptions of the heavens. indeed, both religious and scientific communities have had to regularly revise their understanding of the cosmos as more discoveries come to light. modern astronomy and physics continue to reveal many unanticipated features of the universe ’ s structure and evolution. astrophysicists theorize that all space, matter and energy expanded explosively from an extremely dense soup of subatomic particles in an event called the big bang. after a process of cooling and coalescing, cloudlike nebulae of gas and dust collapsed to form stars, and these stars clustered to comprise galaxies. eventually, terrestrial planets and moons were forged from the heavier material expelled from dying stars. over an unimaginably long span of time — approximately 13. 7 billion years — the components of the universe gradually formed, and today the universe continues to evolve as space itself dramatically expands. in addition to piecing together the intricate history of the universe and explaining the various objects we see around us


— approximately 13. 7 billion years — the components of the universe gradually formed, and today the universe continues to evolve as space itself dramatically expands. in addition to piecing together the intricate history of the universe and explaining the various objects we see around us, astronomers also seek to predict what the future may hold for the cosmos. however, such projections are constrained by the limits of our current understanding and by uncertainties inherent in many physical processes. as a result, recent cosmological models are not only plentiful but also often directly contradictory. will the expansion of the universe continue to accelerate until space is torn apart in a “ big rip? ” will the currently expanding universe eventually begin contracting, leading to a “ big crunch ” and potentially another big bang? could it be that this universe is only one of an infinite number of other universes? discussion of the universe ’ s turbulent past and uncertain future raises many socially relevant questions including : how does the vastness of space inform our conception of humanity ’ s role in the universe? more locally, a notable feature of our planet is that it contains conditions suitable for an incredible diversity of life. perhaps even more remarkable, however, is the fact that astronomers are discovering a multitude of planets orbiting other stars, some of which may share these conditions and some of which may also host life. such discoveries would impact our perceptions about human uniqueness, significance and purpose, and we must be prepared to address and explore the implications. the realm of physics and astronomy is wide ( physically and metaphorically! ), and it spurs questions foundational to religion, philosophy, and human significance. advances in particle physics, cosmology, astrobiology and energy are sure to yield abundant fodder for socially relevant discussions over the coming years. see doser ' s work related to physics & the cosmos


when all data are not created equally t idewater areas can be difficult places to acquire consistent - quality seismic data, because different sources have to be used across exposed land surfaces than what are used across shallow - water areas. typically, explosives are used in shot holes in the onshore portion of a tidewater prospect, whereas environmental regulations may require that an air - gun source be used in shallow - water areas. these two seismic sources produce different basic wavelets – and profiles produced with explosives and air guns rarely tie in an optimal manner at common image coordinates without using wavelet - shaping algorithms to create equivalent reflection character across targeted intervals. an example of using an explosive source and an air - gun source across a louisiana tidewater area is documented as figures 1 and 2. this shallow - water test line was recorded twice because, at this location, explosive sources were allowed. for one profile, the source was a 30 - pound ( 13. 6 - kilogram ) charge positioned at a depth of 135 feet ( 41 meters ) at each source station. for the second data acquisition along the same profile, the source was an array of four air guns with a combined volume of 920 in3, and eight air - gun pops were summed at each source station. considerable processing effort was expended to make the final reflection character identical on each test line. the data illustrated as figure 1 show the results of the data processing. the frequency content of the two profiles is approximately the same, but wavelet character is not identical at the junction point ( station 165 ). in this instance, the interpreter responsible for this prospect decided that the reflection character expressed by the explosive source was preferred rather than the wavelet response shown by the air - gun source. the challenge was that in neighboring tideland areas, regulations required that an air - gun source be used in water - covered areas – shot - hole explosives could not be used in shallow water as they had been across this initial test site, and a method had to be developed that would allow air - gun - source data to be used in conjunction with explosive - source data acquired across adjacent exposed - land areas. said another way, the problem was to create a basic wavelet in air - gun - generated data that was equivalent to the basic wavelet embedded in explosive - source data. this type of problem has to be solved by data - processing procedures, not by data - acquisition techniques. an approach used by many data processors to ensure that equivalent basic wavelets exist in two seismic profiles acquired with different sources is to


- source data. this type of problem has to be solved by data - processing procedures, not by data - acquisition techniques. an approach used by many data processors to ensure that equivalent basic wavelets exist in two seismic profiles acquired with different sources is to calculate numerical cross - equalization operators that convert the phase and frequency spectra of source a to be equivalent to the phase and frequency spectra of source b. this technique was applied to the tidewater seismic data illustrated on figure 1 by using data from the image trace at station 153 to calculate cross - equalization operators that converted the phase / frequency spectra of the air - gun data to the spectra of the explosive - source data. the result is exhibited as figure 2. the wavelet character of the profiles now agrees better at the tie point so that common horizons, sequence boundaries, and facies character can be interpreted on both profiles with greater confidence. the example discussed here is from a tidewater area where operating and environmental constraints forced different sources to be used on land - based and water - based seismic lines. the concept of numerical equalization of the basic wavelets embedded in any grid of intersecting 2 - d ( or 3 - d ) data, however, applies to a variety of onshore and offshore areas where people have access to overlapping legacy seismic data that have been acquired by different companies at different times and with different energy sources.


we may not catch this break next time a pandemic inevitably arises. a pandemic strain could emerge at the beginning of the production cycle for the seasonal vaccine. this would force a hard decision whether to shift some of the production capacity for a seasonal vaccine into efforts to manufacture a vaccine against pandemic virus. these vulnerabilities and our present efforts to make a vaccine to h1n1 illustrate the shortcomings and risks of the egg - based process. another challenge of the egg - based process is virus yield - - in other words, the number of viral particles that come out of an egg that could be used to make the vaccine. eggs are typically low - yield factories for the production of vaccine components. this limits how much vaccine can be produced in a limited time. as a rule of thumb, three eggs are needed to produce each individual shot of the seasonal flu vaccine. virus yield is increased substantially by using strains of the virus that are specially tweaked to make them produce more viral particles and survive better in the eggs. that is because the " wild - type " viruses that are isolated from patients do not grow well in the eggs that are used for their manufacture. therefore, the wild - type viruses need to be altered or reassorted to grow well in eggs while still retaining the ability to make the viral antigens that are needed for an effective vaccine. the antigens are basically components of the virus that have lost their property to infect people but remain similar to wild - type virus. when injected as part of a vaccine, they stimulate our immune systems to develop antibodies that will target the natural, wild - type virus. but this process of making reassortant strains takes time. it is this process that cdc refers to when it says it is working on the " seed " of the swine virus to give to vaccine manufacturers. at present, there are not many labs that work on developing these reassortants. thus, the egg - based process is slow and involved. when it comes to h1n1, based on current knowledge about the virus, " it would take at least two to three weeks for vaccine strain preparation, seed virus preparation would take another three or four weeks, putting the start of bulk production at the end of june, " according to a timetable provided by novartis. " standardizing reagents would not be available for another eight weeks, and quality control would tack on an additional one to two weeks.... that would bring us to a time


vaccines, creating incentives for the development of better products and more and better manufacturing facilities. so long as the market for new vaccines continues to remain robust, there is every reason to expect that more manufacturers will continue to enter this field. but our improved preparedness is not a sure thing, nor are continued advances in vaccines that can reduce risks and improve our preparedness. one significant reason is diminishing incentives for investment in research and development of vaccines and new industrial capacity to manufacture them. intellectual property creation has been a key component of driving more investment into vaccines - - not only for vaccines targeting new infectious diseases, but also for flu vaccines. in particular, the need to develop vaccines against new pandemic flu strains has required companies to invest in new processes for developing and delivering these products. these innovations have had more generalized benefits, spilling into improvements being recognized in other kinds of vaccines, including seasonal flu vaccines. for example, one technique for developing pandemic vaccines, pioneered by the biotechnology firm medimmune, has created significant new capabilities against pandemics and generated an attractive royalty stream for the company. the technique is called reverse genetics, and it can be used to engineer the specific seed strain rapidly. with the reverse genetics method, scientists can splice the desired genes into small circular pieces of dna called plasmids. the plasmids are then put into animal cells, and the vaccine seed virus grows. the seed stock can then be grown in mass quantity for vaccine production either in the traditional chicken egg or in cell culture. using reverse genetics is a potentially more predictable process for developing these seed strains. reverse genetics can also be used to improve the process for making seasonal flu vaccine, shaving time and uncertainty off that process. it seems only a matter of time before manufacturers move away from using the customary process for developing seed strains for the seasonal flu vaccines and adopt reverse genetics as a universal tool. reverse genetics is the process currently being used by the cdc in the development of a seed strain for a vaccine targeting h1n1. the development of this technique is an instructive example of how the creation of new intellectual property rewards investment while significantly improving our pandemic preparedness. but the patent protections that secure these investments are in doubt. the average patent life on big new drugs has been reduced to as little as ten years from more than twelve just nine years ago, in part by legislative endeavors favoring generics and lower drug costs. these measures improve access to medicines but reduce incentives to invest in new plants and technology.


drugs has been reduced to as little as ten years from more than twelve just nine years ago, in part by legislative endeavors favoring generics and lower drug costs. these measures improve access to medicines but reduce incentives to invest in new plants and technology. now, proposed legislation sponsored by representative henry waxman ( d - calif. ) would reduce the effective patent life on biologics like vaccines still further - - to as little as five years under some measures. this legislation is intended to address the approval of follow - on biologics ( fobs ) or so - called generic biologics. but it contains no carve - out for vaccines, even though the vaccine industry has narrower margins than those for traditional biologics. the intellectual property protections afforded under any potential legislation on fobs is likely to reflect a compromise that affords these drugs substantially more protection than waxman ' s proposed five years. nonetheless, the unusual economics of the vaccine industry means that it should be treated separately, not lumped in with traditional biologics as part of a new legislative scheme. at a time when we are trying to create new incentives for manufacturers to invest in this product category, we should be considering longer, not shorter, patent terms for products that embody genuine innovations and advances in intellectual property, especially products that target low - probability but potentially high - impact threats like a global flu pandemic. newly created intellectual property has been an important factor in coaxing more investment in the development of many new vaccines. ultimately, it is through new innovations like these that we will be able to thwart the risk from pandemic flu. to these ends, the holy grail would be a universal flu vaccine that protects against all varieties of influenza, including pandemic strains like h1n1. the complexity of flu vaccine owes to the fact that we have to develop a brand new vaccine each year to guard against that year ' s circulating strains of influenza. this stands in marked contrast to vaccines against other infectious diseases, which do not vary over time, enabling the vaccines to be mass - produced and stockpiled. with flu vaccine, just - in - time delivery is required. the idea of a universal vaccine is not far - fetched, however. a universal flu vaccine that would cross - react against a broader range of influenza viruses is more than theoretically possible. several biotech companies are working on such a product. in the case of h1n1, a possible complication to a new vaccine is that the product will be


cross - react against a broader range of influenza viruses is more than theoretically possible. several biotech companies are working on such a product. in the case of h1n1, a possible complication to a new vaccine is that the product will be made using the strain available now ; whether that will work if the virus mutates is uncertain. a universal vaccine, by contrast, would target more " conserved " regions of the flu virus ' s structural proteins - - parts of the flu virus architecture that do not undergo much mutation and, therefore, are unlikely to change, regardless of the particular strain of flu. right now, our vaccines target proteins that are on the outer surface of the flu virus. since our immune systems attack these proteins, the proteins themselves undergo adaptation, mutation, and change in order to evade our immune response. but structural proteins that are core components of the architecture of all flu viruses would be less likely to undergo mutation, regardless of the pressure from nature to change in order to survive. theoretically, to target these core proteins, a universal vaccine would need to recruit our t cells to attack the flu virus, as opposed to today ' s vaccines, which recruit an antibody response. for that reason, some suggest that such a vaccine would more likely be a therapeutic tool, as opposed to a protective vaccine. there is some literature to suggest that a t cell response alone may not be sufficient to protect us fully from flu, but work continues, and a universal vaccine is at least possible. steps the fda must take to improve vaccine readiness preparing for future threats requires a broad armamentarium and the residual capacity to create new things quickly. even as we respond to the present threat, policymakers must be looking downfield at the longer - term steps we need to take to improve our readiness. perhaps most important are those efforts undertaken by the fda to open up pathways to products that will continue to improve capacity. a few of the steps that the fda can take to continue to improve our preparedness deserve a high degree of attention from policymakers. first, the agency should develop guidance on the regulatory review pathway for other emerging technologies, such as dna - based vaccines, the use of adjuvants, cell - based methods, and a universal vaccine that triggers t cell responses. regulatory uncertainties and delays have in the past been obstacles to realizing benefits from new vaccine technologies. additional fda guidance may require some new investments in the fda ' s scientific capacity. the fda needs to develop the capacity to play a more proactive role in providing advice on the development


have in the past been obstacles to realizing benefits from new vaccine technologies. additional fda guidance may require some new investments in the fda ' s scientific capacity. the fda needs to develop the capacity to play a more proactive role in providing advice on the development and testing of these important technologies. once vaccine is available, it is the fda ' s responsibility to make sure that the products are potent and free from potential contaminants. impurities in the egg - based manufacturing process create health risks and have triggered some recent vaccine shortages. rapid assays are necessary to control manufacturing quality and accelerate the process for releasing lots of vaccines after they are manufactured. the fda needs to work with manufacturers to develop standardized assays for the rapid assessment of vaccine potency, quality, safety, and potential contamination. many current assays are outmoded and difficult to perform. since the fda sets the standards for testing and certifying new vaccine lots, the agency needs to play a key role in directing the science to develop better tools for assuring that new lots of vaccine are safe and effective. this also includes tools for establishing the standards for vaccines produced using new techniques. more broadly, we need to invest - - through federal grants if necessary - - in additional facilities for manufacturing flu vaccine, in particular cell - based facilities. these plants could be scaled quickly to enable rapid production of a pandemic vaccine. a certain amount of this production capacity needs to be maintained domestically. in a full - blown pandemic, with a very deadly strain of flu causing mass casualties, it is hard to envision that foreign nations would allow limited supplies of potentially life - saving vaccines to be shipped outside their borders. the reaction to h1n1, an infection that is turning out to be milder than first feared, demonstrates how quickly international panic can set in, prompting governments to take extraordinary and sometimes severe measures, such as china ' s decision to place mexican visitors under extended, involuntary quarantines. in a full - blown pandemic, we can expect vaccine - manufacturing facilities to be nationalized. much of the flu vaccine production capacity exists outside the united states. the creation of more domestic capacity for rapid vaccine production should be viewed as a strategic asset. finally, the development of countermeasures will require an embrace of new technology. one of the most significant impediments to these investments remains an antitechnology and anti - drug industry bias that permeates many policy decisions, thwarting innovation and targeting new therapeutics. one of the external


it is the religious time of the year. step into any city in america or britain and you will see the night sky lit by religious symbols, christmas decorations certainly and probably also a giant menorah. religion in the west seems alive and well. but is it really? or have these symbols been emptied of content, no more than a glittering backdrop to the west ’ s newest faith, consumerism, and its secular cathedrals, shopping malls? at first glance, religion is in decline. in britain, the results of the 2011 national census have just been published. they show that a quarter of the population claims to have no religion, almost double the figure 10 years ago. and though the united states remains the most religious country in the west, 20 percent declare themselves without religious affiliation – double the number a generation ago. looked at another way, though, the figures tell a different story. since the 18th century, many western intellectuals have predicted religion ’ s imminent demise. yet after a series of withering attacks, most recently by the new atheists, including sam harris, richard dawkins and the late christopher hitchens, still in britain three in four people, and in america four in five, declare allegiance to a religious faith. that, in an age of science, is what is truly surprising. the irony is that many of the new atheists are followers of charles darwin. we are what we are, they say, because it has allowed us to survive and pass on our genes to the next generation. our biological and cultural makeup constitutes our “ adaptive fitness. ” yet religion is the greatest survivor of them all. superpowers tend to last a century ; the great faiths last millenniums. the question is why. darwin himself suggested what is almost certainly the correct answer. he was puzzled by a phenomenon that seemed to contradict his most basic thesis, that natural selection should favor the ruthless. altruists, who risk their lives for others, should therefore usually die before passing on their genes to the next generation. yet all societies value altruism, and something similar can be found among social animals, from chimpanzees to dolphins to leafcutter ants. neuroscientists have shown how this works. we have mirror neurons that lead us to feel pain when we see others suffering. we are hard - wired for empathy. we are moral animals. the precise implications of darwin ’ s answer are still being debated by his disciples – harvard ’ s e. o. wilson in one corner, oxford ’ s


when we see others suffering. we are hard - wired for empathy. we are moral animals. the precise implications of darwin ’ s answer are still being debated by his disciples – harvard ’ s e. o. wilson in one corner, oxford ’ s richard dawkins in the other. to put it at its simplest, we hand on our genes as individuals but we survive as members of groups, and groups can exist only when individuals act not solely for their own advantage but for the sake of the group as a whole. our unique advantage is that we form larger and more complex groups than any other life - form. a result is that we have two patterns of reaction in the brain, one focusing on potential danger to us as individuals, the other, located in the prefrontal cortex, taking a more considered view of the consequences of our actions for us and others. the first is immediate, instinctive and emotive. the second is reflective and rational. we are caught, in the psychologist daniel kahneman ’ s phrase, between thinking fast and slow. religion reconfigures our neural pathways, turning altruism into instinct. the fast track helps us survive, but it can also lead us to acts that are impulsive and destructive. the slow track leads us to more considered behavior, but it is often overridden in the heat of the moment. we are sinners and saints, egotists and altruists, exactly as the prophets and philosophers have long maintained. if this is so, we are in a position to understand why religion helped us survive in the past – and why we will need it in the future. it strengthens and speeds up the slow track. it reconfigures our neural pathways, turning altruism into instinct, through the rituals we perform, the texts we read and the prayers we pray. it remains the most powerful community builder the world has known. religion binds individuals into groups through habits of altruism, creating relationships of trust strong enough to defeat destructive emotions. far from refuting religion, the neo - darwinists have helped us understand why it matters. no one has shown this more elegantly than the political scientist robert d. putnam. in the 1990s he became famous for the phrase “ bowling alone ” : more people were going bowling, but fewer were joining bowling teams. individualism was slowly destroying our capacity to form groups. a decade later, in his book “ american grace, ” he showed that there was one place where social capital could still be found :


science fair project encyclopedia very nice diagrams of refraction ( with the red lines ). very good at explaining the phenomenon. i think that a rainbow is visible only when the sun is at a low altitude - mornings and late afternoon / evenings. isn ' t there some specific angle for this? krs 15 : 33, 1 feb 2004 ( utc ) - i added : hence there is no rainbow if the sun is at a higher altitude than 42° : the rainbow would be below the horizon. - - patrick 23 : 30, 1 feb 2004 ( utc ) nevertheless, it is not true, as sometimes one can look below the horizon. for example, if you are looking down from a mountain, or - as mentioned in the article! - from an aeroplane. i ' ve deleted the incorrect reference to glories from the aeroplane comment. glory is a different optical phenomenon from rainbow and it is incorrect to state that a full - circle rainbow is a glory. this error needs to be removed from the page glory _ ( rainbow ) and i ' ve put that on my task list, but i ' m not sure how to fix the problem that the error is incorporated into the page title. advice welcome. - - richard jones 13 : 45, 20 mar 2004 ( utc ) added : even more rarely is a triple rainbow seen and a few observers have reported seeing quadruple rainbows in which a dim outermost arc had a rippling and pulsating appearance. - sounds fantanstic, but i saw this, and i was not the only one - leonard g. 03 : 50, 25 aug 2004 ( utc ) the article does a clumsy job about what is special about the 42° or the 52° angle. the picture lead me to correctly see that light can be refracted - internally. reflected - refracted. again at a large range of angles, its just that 42° is where the largest intensity of refraction occurs. the page http : / / www. phy. ntnu. edu. tw / java / rainbow / rainbow. html has a much better explanation for the angle. 220. 127. 116. 11 21 : 46, 30 aug 2004 ( utc ) i ' m not clear on this section : in a very few cases, a moonbow, or night - time rainbow, can be seen on strongly - moonlit nights. as human visual perception for colour in low light is poor, moonbows are perceived to be white. in hawaii, we see moonbows


, a moonbow, or night - time rainbow, can be seen on strongly - moonlit nights. as human visual perception for colour in low light is poor, moonbows are perceived to be white. in hawaii, we see moonbows all the time, and it ' s possible to make out many colors. so, what does the editor ( or author ) mean by " in a very few cases "? - - viriditas 12 : 00, 29 oct 2004 ( utc ) the article states : even more rarely is a triple rainbow seen and a few observers have reported seeing quadruple rainbows... these things are not rare in hawaii. i ' ve seen triple rainbows many times and a quadruple rainbow only twice. - - viriditas 12 : 32, 29 oct 2004 ( utc ) - more importantly we could use a scientific explanation of how they are possible. i ' ve seen a 3 + rainbow and know that the additional bows cannot be explained using descartes ' internal reflections in a rain drop. - - solipsist 08 : 32, 24 nov 2004 ( utc ) the main mnemonic described in the article is ' richard of york... ', given the subject am i right in thinking that this is only commonly used in the uk? another editor has also added ' roy g. biv ' saying it is more common. i haven ' t heard this one, is it common in the us? - - solipsist 08 : 43, 24 nov 2004 ( utc ) total internal reflection? the article states that light is reflected from the back of the drop under total internal reflection. i find this statement rather dubious at best. a quick derivation from snell ' s law shows that the minimum angle for total internal reflection in water ( using nw = 1. 33 ) is 48. 7 degrees. that would imply that the angle at the back of the droplet is greater than 90 degrees, which by inspection is not the case. since light would therefore leave the back of the drop refracted, would it not be impossible to see a rainbow between the observer and the sun, if the appropriate areas of the sky were unobscured? kenneth charles edit : i did some research. light is indeed passed out the back of a droplet, but due to the fact that there is no distinct peak of emission from this spectra, it does not form a visible rainbow. however, the statement that light is totally internally reflected inside a raindrop is wrong and should


science fair project encyclopedia a typographical error or " typo " is a mistake made during the typing process. this excludes errors of ignorance, rather being the result of slips of the hand or finger, or in some cases, mechanical failure. typographical errors typically manifest in the form of an additional or missing character, or the switching of two characters. the emergence of usenet and the world wide web as popular forms of mass - communication brought with it many people who are not skilled typists but have a lot to say. typos are therefore common on the usenet and the web, and some have found certain notoriety as in - jokes among internet groups and subcultures. a well - known typo in the internet gaming subculture is pwned. the etymology is not definite, but it is widely - believed that the close proximity of the o and p keys on a qwerty keyboard caused the accidental typing — and subsequent publishing — of pwned instead of owned ( a declaration of domination over an opponent ) in a popular multiplayer game. the in - joke has since gained considerable popularity and variations. " teh best thign evar!! 1! one! 1!! " users who are careless about their fast, emotional postings to web forums have sometimes brought on some sardonic ridicule with similar " errors " by others in follow - up or stereotypical postings. the ridicule is not usually directed solely at the original poster ' s typing ability, but also their impatience and carelessness to contribute a meaningful posting. this has included : - the misspelling of ' the ' as ' teh ', combined with poor grammar and similar misspellings. - the sardonic ridicule of a user being so excited that they have failed to hold down the shift key long enough to type a consistent series of exclamation marks ( resulting in a string of characters like "!!! 1! 1! " ). such ridicule is usually exacted by the replacement of ' 1 ' characters with literal ' one ' s in a similar string. e. g., " omg that is sooo interesting!!! 1! one! " despite syntactical similarities, this form of intentional mis - typing is not directly related to leetspeak. the intentional replacement of choice characters in leetspeak usually has the intention of obfuscation rather than ridicule. a common internet typo for student.


part of speech : noun notes : rudyard kipling must have been the last english speaker to use today ' s word as anything other than a name. he did so in his poem, the ballad of east and west, which begins : " oh, east is east, and west is west, and never the twain shall meet, till earth and sky stand presently at god ' s great judgment seat. " the phrase, " never the twain shall meet, " however, has found a permanent place among our idiomatic phrases. in play : the most famous play on this word was made by perhaps the greatest word - player of us all, samuel clemens. as a boy, clemens rode steamboats up and down the mississippi, where sailing was safe in water two fathoms or more deep. the river boatmen who checked the depth would call out " mark twain " to alert the captain when their two - fathom - long lines struck bottom. he took that phrase as his pseudonym, mark twain. word history : pie dwo - " two ", which underlies today ' s word, shows up in russian and serbian dva, german zwei, latin duo, french deux, spanish dos, portuguese dois, hindi do, and nepalese dui. however, it also appears in words where you might not expect it : twilight, of course, is when the two lights ( day and night ) meet. the reason you can only be between two things ( you must be among more than two ) is the tween " two " in the preposition. does it sound a little like twine, the string made by twisting two threads together? no wonder. finally, doubt is the result of french twitching latin dubitare " to waver ", that ' s right, between two choices. ( we are delighted that larry brady, the stargazer of the alpha agora, is never of twain minds when he spots a curious word like this one, which he suggested for today. ) come visit our website at < http : / / www. alphadictionary. com > for more good words and other language resources!


mirror of their own species, among the most social of all mammals. consequently, no domestic animal other than the dog has so many symbolic connotations as the chicken does. the mammoth new random house historical dictionary of american slang devotes no fewer than six pages to the word chicken and its compounds. hens, cocks, biddies, chicks, and others take up yet more pages. the chicken spread from india toward the west and reached greece at the time of the persian wars ( greeks still call chickens “ persian birds " ). by the roman era it was common throughout western europe. the romans and greeks thought that chickens were useful as diviners of the future, and roman military leaders would offer a flock grain before a battle. if the birds devoured it, the auguries were good. if they did not, the general often would avoid battle. during the punic wars, one roman admiral was so annoyed when the chickens, perhaps seasick, refused to eat that he threw them overboard, saying, “ if they will not eat, let them drink! ” and attacked anyway. he lost badly. chickens were often carried on shipboard for reasons other than forecasting the outcome of battles, for by roman times chickens and their eggs had come to be used for food. they made excellent shipboard livestock. they took up little space, would eat nearly anything, and provided both fresh meat and eggs to people who otherwise had to subsist on ship ’ s biscuits and salted meat. it is no wonder, then, that chickens arrived in the new world at very nearly the same time as europeans. by 1609, only two years after its founding, jamestown, virginia, had as many as five hundred. the terrible famine in the winter of 1609 - 10 reduced that population to zero, or very nearly so. but once the colony was restocked from the west indies the following spring, the chicken ’ s place in north america was secure. for a very long time, the americans ’ husbandry of chickens was a casual affair at best, for chickens, unlike most barnyard animals, are quite self - sufficient. often they weren ’ t even fed or housed but made their own way by snapping up grain spilled by the other animals, along with bugs, worms, and table scraps. at night they roosted in trees, which is why in those days white - feathered chickens were unpopular, being too easily spotted by foxes, hawks, and other predators. traditionally it was the job of the youngest child to hunt


dirt floors covered with wood shavings. as the manure built up, so did the incidence of disease as the chickens scratched, which chickens will do even when they are not hungry. to solve this problem, farmers began putting their chickens in houses with wire floors so that the droppings could fall through and be removed. the health of the chickens, and thus their egg production, greatly improved. the keeping of birds in tiers of wire cages, where they could be fed, watered, and cared for more easily, soon followed. the price of a dozen eggs began a fifty - year decline. much of that continuing decline has come from ever - increasing economies of scale as the number of egg farms has steadily dropped and the number of chickens at each farm has increased. in the 1940s an egg farm with a hundred thousand birds was considered very large. today a farm needs ten million birds to have that status. as a result of these enormous numbers — an egg farm with ten million birds produces well over half a million dozen eggs per day — even the most minor savings per egg makes major improvements to the bottom line. just a tenth - of - a - cent drop per egg in production costs increases the daily gross profit by more than six thousand dollars, or over two million dollars per year. although the number of independent egg farms has drastically declined since the days betty macdonald wrote about, there are nonetheless still about 350 companies in the united states, and competition among them remains fierce. much of the decreased cost that ensues from innovation, then, is necessarily passed along to the consumer as lower prices. this, in turn, requires an unceasing search for new ways to drive down costs if profits are to be maintained, just as adam smith predicted. some houses are built underground to save heating and air - conditioning costs, while light, which stimulates egg production, is provided at the optimal level. about the only thing that is not automated today is the removal of dead chickens. only about three in ten thousand die per day in a well - regulated hen house ( just about half again the human mortality rate in this country ). but out of two hundred fifty thousand, that is still seventy - five dead birds a day that must be removed immediately to prevent disease. in this wholly artificial — some would say cruel — environment, even the genes that the birds inherit have been determined by the process of artificial evolution called selective breeding. this process has been the biggest single factor in increasing egg production per bird and per pound of feed so dramatically. but the genes


the search for certainty : a philosophical account of foundations of mathematics. marcus giaquinto. xii + 286 pp. oxford university press, 2002. $ 45. david hilbert ( 1862 – 1943 ) was arguably the leading mathematician of his time. in struggles over how mathematics was to accommodate new understandings of the infinite, the dutch mathematician l. e. j. brouwer was his most fervent opponent. when hilbert ' s favorite student, hermann weyl, went over to the enemy, saying " brouwer, that is the revolution, " hilbert was incensed. in a passionate address delivered in 1922, he proclaimed : weyl and brouwer... seek to provide a foundation for mathematics by pitching overboard whatever discomforts them and declaring an embargo.... but this would mean dismembering and mutilating our science, and, should we follow such reformers, we would run the risk of losing a large part of our most valued treasures. weyl and brouwer outlaw the general notion of irrational number, of function, even of number - theoretic function, cantor ' s [ ordinal ] numbers of higher number classes, etc. the theorem that among infinitely many natural numbers there is always a least, and even the logical law of the excluded middle, e. g., in the assertion that either there are only finitely many prime numbers or there are infinitely many : these are examples of forbidden theorems and modes of inference. i believe that impotent as kronecker was to abolish irrational numbers..., no less impotent will their efforts prove today. no! brouwer ' s [ program ] is not as weyl thinks, the revolution, but only a repetition of an attempted putsch with old methods, that in its day was undertaken with greater verve yet failed utterly. especially today, when the state power is thoroughly armed and fortified by the work of frege, dedekind, and cantor, these efforts are foredoomed to failure. a decade later hilbert ' s own program for the foundations of mathematics lay in tatters, destroyed in an investigation by the young logician kurt godel, which had initially been undertaken in an effort to contribute to that very program. today, passions have cooled, and working mathematicians show little interest in foundational matters. the infinitary set theoretic methods that occasioned such controversy are casually absorbed in passing by the beginning graduate student and used unhesitatingly