fly - parasitized bees in three out of four honey bee hives sampled in the san francisco bay area, they report online today in plos one. the good news is that when hafernik ' s group examined a hive that had been set up near the entomology building a few years ago, only about 5 % to 15 % of the forager bees were infected — not a level that would threaten the hive. for individual bees, of course, being parasitized is bad news. " it ' s a death sentence, " hafernik says. " we don ' t find bees that are surviving. " in addition, the flies appear to be able to transmit deformed wing virus, which is fatal, and the deadly fungus nosema ceranae, which causes bee diarrhea. it ' s not clear when or how the fly might have jumped from bumble bees to honey bees. because the fly is present across the continent, the next step is to figure out where it is parasitizing honey bees. dna analysis of commercial hive samples suggests that the flies are present in south dakota and the central valley of california. ( honey bees are trucked between these two locations. ) the distribution of the flies in europe or asia is unknown. " extensive surveys are now needed on the distribution of the flies in the global honey bee population, " says bee pathologist elke genersch of the institute for bee research in hohen neuendorf, germany, who was not involved in the study. the parasites conceivably might play a role in colony collapse disorder ( ccd ), the sudden abandonment that has been resulting in the loss of 7 % of hives a year in the united states. " anything that further stresses the bee population and increases bee losses can contribute to ccd, " says eric mussen of the university of california, davis, who was not involved in the study. but given the infection rate observed in the san francisco state university hive, the parasite " does not appear to be a dominant factor, " he says. the situation could change if the flies are able to reproduce within bee hives and thus easily parasitize many bees, genersch says. " such a high host density might allow the fly population to explode. "


will the earth stop rotating? date : 1999 - 2000 will the earth stop rotating? yes, but not for a long long long time. ( if i remember correctly, it is currently slowing down by about half a second per century. ) as the earth rotates it gets stretched and squeezed by tidal forces. the energy required to do this work comes from the earth ' s rotation. the simple answer to this is no. it is believed that the earth ' s day will be twice as long as it is now, in about 5 thousand million years time, but there is too much momentum in the earth to stop it from rotating. by the way, at the moment the earth is rotating its fastest since the late 1920s, having lost approximately 0. 63 milliseconds per day in the last 12 months ( to june 28, 2001 ) against atomic time, based on preliminary international earth rotation service data ; compared with 3. 13 milliseconds per day in 1972, and 3. 89 milliseconds per day in 1912. the earth gained on atomic time in 1929 by 0. 35 ms / day. because of tidal friction.... yes it will. in fact, it is slowing as we ride on it now. actually, it will not stop, but rather the period of rotation will equal its period of revolution. i do not have the number at hand, but i seem to recall that each ( solar ) year is. 00024 seconds slower than the year one century earlier. the number may not be correct, but the concept is. in the same way that the moon has rotates around the earth, the earth will eventually rotate around the sun... if the sun does not supernova first! there is a small tidal drag on the earth caused by the gravitational forces of the moon and sun which have a small effect on the earth ' s rotation, but the effect, while measurable, is exceedingly small. on the other hand, the reason the moon always presents the same face to the earth it is believed was caused by tidal drag of the earth on the moon, which is much greater because the mass of the moon is so much smaller than that of click here to return to the astronomy archives update : june 2012


potsdam – clarkson university ' s egon matijevic, the victor k. lamer professor of colloid and surface science, and evgeny katz, the milton kerker chair in colloid science, are listed in the h - index of living scientists. the h - index attempts to measure both the scientific productivity and the apparent scientific impact of a scientist. the index is based on the set of the scientist ' s most cited papers and the number of citations that they have received in other people ' s publications. at ranking # 218, matijevic, with an h of 69, has published 69 papers ( among total 575 papers ), which have each received at least 69 citations. at ranking # 380, katz, with an h of 60, has published 60 papers ( among more than 300 papers ), which have each received at least 60 citations. it should be noted that this listed of the most - cited chemists totals only 587 worldwide with the two clarkson ' s professors among them. the index was suggested by physicist jorge e. hirsch as a tool for determining quality of scientific publications of a person and is sometimes called the hirsch index or hirsch number. the purpose of this index is similar to the popular impact factor, which is used to rank the quality of scientific journals, but it is applied to a person. the definition of the h - index and the explanations of its importance can be found at http : / / en. wikipedia. org / wiki / h - index. the latest list, compiled by henry schaefer of the university of georgia, together with colleague amy peterson, was updated in november 2010 and can be found at http : / / www. rsc. org / chemistryworld / news / 2007 / april / 23040701. asp.


formatting marks in a word document. imagine that you have typed a few paragraphs. the paragraphs seem very far apart, and the second paragraph starts farther to the right than the first paragraph. you can see what ' s going on in your document by looking at the formatting marks that word automatically inserts as you type. these marks are always in documents, but they are invisible to you until you display them. for example, a dot appears every time you press the spacebar, such as between words. one dot is one space ; two dots are two spaces, and so on. normally there should be one space between each word. word inserts a paragraph mark ( ) each time you press enter to start a new paragraph. in the picture, there are two paragraph marks between the two paragraphs, which means that enter was pressed twice. this creates extra space between paragraphs. one arrow ( ) appears each time tab is pressed. in the picture there is one arrow before the first paragraph and two arrows before the second paragraph, so tab was pressed twice in the second paragraph. to see formatting marks, go to the ribbon, at the top of the window. on the home tab, in the paragraph group, click the show / hide button ( ). click the button again to hide formatting marks. note : these marks are just for show. they won ' t be on printed pages, even when you see them on the screen.


from ohio history central the progressive movement was a widespread reform effort to cure the many social and political ills in america after the advent of the industrial revolution. during the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries, the united states of america underwent tremendous change. one of the principal changes was the shift from a predominantly agricultural economy to a much more industrialized one. this change also brought stark social changes to the united states. now millions of americans relied on other people - - business owners - - for their livelihood. oftentimes, the employers reinvested profits back into the company, rather than paying workers a fair wage. these business owners also had tremendous power within the federal government. many americans believed that the business owners had undue influence over the government and that the employers had no desire to relinquish any power to middle and working - class americans. by the 1890s, a group of reformers, known as the progressives, emerged to combat some of the ill effects of these changes. most progressives came from middle - class backgrounds. many of them were college educated. progressives generally believed that industrialization was good for the united states, but they also contended that human greed had overcome industrialization ' s more positive effects. they hoped to instill in americans moral values based upon protestant religious beliefs. the progressives wanted employers to treat their workers as the bosses wanted to be treated. they also hoped that, if working conditions improved, americans would not engage in immoral activities, like drinking and gambling, to forget the difficulties that they faced. progressives sought better pay, safer working conditions, shorter hours, and increased benefits for workers. believing that only education would allow americans to lead successful lives, progressives opposed child labor, wanting children to attend school rather than working in mines and factories. they supported prohibition and succeeded in enacting a ban on the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol with the eighteenth amendment to the united states constitution in 1919. progressives also sought to reclaim government from the business owners and corrupt politicians partly by supporting the direct election by the people of united states senators. the progressives succeeded in attaining this reform with the adoption of the seventeenth amendment to the united states constitution in 1913. other reforms included initiative, which allowed voters to pass legislation on their own, referendum, which allowed voters to repeal laws that they did not support, and recall, which allowed voters to remove elected officials from office. many progressives supported women ' s suffrage, helping women secure the right to vote through the adoption of the nineteenth amendment


referendum, which allowed voters to repeal laws that they did not support, and recall, which allowed voters to remove elected officials from office. many progressives supported women ' s suffrage, helping women secure the right to vote through the adoption of the nineteenth amendment to the united states constitution in 1919. progressives also battled against city bosses, including cincinnati, ohio ' s george cox, by hiring city managers. while progressives enacted numerous positive reforms, some of their goals were questionable. they did seek to make the united states government more democratic and to protect american workers, but they also sought to force their social and political beliefs on others. progressives opposed immigration and enacted several immigration restrictions during the 1920s. progressives also tried to force immigrants to adopt progressive moral beliefs. one way they tried to accomplish this was through settlement houses. settlement houses existed in most major cities during the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. they were places where immigrants could go to receive free food, clothing, job training, and educational classes. while all of these items greatly helped immigrants, progressives also used the settlement houses to convince immigrants to adopt " american " or progressive beliefs, causing the foreigners to forsake their own culture. during the 1920s, many progressives also joined the ku klux klan, a self - proclaimed religious group that was to enforce morality - - based on progressive beliefs - - on other people. due to such the progressives ' participation in prohibition, the ku klux klan, and immigration restrictions, many americans stopped supporting the progressive movement. while aspects of its beliefs remain today, as a functioning and clearly identifiable group, the progressive movement began to weaken by the late 1920s and the early 1930s.


what is opec? opec is an acronym for organization of the petroleum exporting countries. opec was formed in 1960 in baghdad, iraq with five founding member countries. currently opec is a cartel composed of 11 oil producing countries. current member countries include : algeria, indonesia, iran, iraq, kuwait, libya, nigeria, qatar, saudi arabia, united arab emirates, and venezuela. opec ' s stated purpose is said to serve three main functions : - help stabilize world oil prices - ensure oil producers achieve a reasonable rate of return on production - ensure a stable supply of crude oil for consumer use. opec has a current goal of $ 27 us per barrel of oil. how much crude oil do the opec countries produce? collectively these countries hold approximately 77 % of known world crude oil reserves. in terms of daily crude oil production opec countries currently produce about 41 % ( 24. 2 million barrels per day ) of the world ' s crude oil. the oil exported by the opec countries accounts for 55 % of all oil traded internationally. opec countries also represent about 15 % of total world natural gas production. how does opec set oil prices? opec does not " set " oil prices. opec manipulates the free market price of crude oil by setting caps on the oil production of its member countries. twice each year, ministers from each opec country meet in vienna, austria to review the status of the international oil market and to forecast the future oil demands in order to agree upon an appropriate crude oil production level.


exposure to violent video games. a failure to take medication to treat mental illness or a development disorder. access to assault weapons. and is it time to profile white males? these issues and questions have been raised in the aftermath of one of the worst mass shootings in modern american history. a week ago, 20 - year - old adam lanza went on a shooting rampage, killing 20 children and 6 adults at sandy hook elementary school in newtown, conn., where he lived with his mother, nancy, whom he also killed. he pumped several bullets in her head before heading out of the door and turning the gun on himself at the school after the shootings. while it ’ s difficult to know lanza ’ s mental state and what steps his mother took to seek treatment for him, experts are weighing in based on what they know from news reports of interviews with neighbors and people in the community who say he was in need of mental health treatment. “ most children who play violent video games do not commit crimes or violent acts, ” jeff gardere, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor of behavioral medicine at touro college of osteopathic medicine, told newsone. “ but some youth can be at risk for violence if there is mental illness and an oversaturation of violent video gaming, according to some studies. there have been studies showing a link between violent gaming and acting out because these kids become desensitized. the answer is about parents finding the proper balance and not allowing the child to isolate. ” law enforcement authorities are still trying to piece together what led to the horrific crime in which lanza, known as withdrawn and anti - social, used high - powered weapons obtained from his mother. she reportedly took him to shooting ranges and the three weapons, including a bushmaster rifle, used in the attack were all legal. the shooting prompted president barack obama to appoint vice president joe biden to push to strengthen gun laws. lanza was reportedly isolated and spent hours in a windowless basement den, playing violent video games, which has caused speculation about the desensitization to violence. and some reports have emerged that nancy lanza was preparing to commit her son to a psychiatric facility for treatment of asperger ’ s syndrome, a form of autism, and unspecified mental health issues. experts say she took the right steps, but his problems reportedly went on for a while. mental health experts suggest that parents seek help immediately if a teen or young adult shows signs of trouble, including antisocial behavior, chronic defiance, harms


by joe cochrane a 19th - century warehouse that lies off the main square of jakarta ' s dutch batavia quarter once held supplies for the needs of traders, seamen, colonial civil servants and foreign adventurers. today, inside the terra - cotta colored building, giant trees stretch more than 20 meters into the air through a caved - in roof. what were once wooden floors in the 400 - square - meter dwelling are now uneven hills of dirt and debris that has fallen into the gutted - out structure for more than half a century. the shop house ' s owner is ella ubaidi, leader of a local conservation group. she bought the building several years ago and has plans to restore it to its former glory. but ms. ubaidi, an indonesian who has a dutch grandmother, says she won ' t act until a comprehensive revitalization program for the batavia quarter gets underway. also known as " kota tua " or the old town, batavia is an 87 - hectare neighborhood of centuries - old colonial buildings that are abandoned and steadily decaying into ruins. " twenty - five years ago, amsterdam was crumbling. so a dutch company bought the [ old ] buildings, developed them and rented them out, " ms. ubaidi says. " we need that model here. " the first dutch sailing fleet arrived in jakarta in 1607, and in the ensuing decades the dutch built a trading post in the city. during its economic peak in the 1650s, batavia was where the dutch east india company, or vereenigde oost - indische compagnie, ran its spice trade of cloves, pepper and nutmeg and administered one of europe ' s most - envied colonial possessions. surrounded by batavia ' s high walls that kept out hostile local tribes and invading central javanese armies, traders, merchants, bankers, civil servants, engineers, soldiers, plantation operators and tax collectors worked here through the 17th and into the 18th centuries. around the main square, known as taman fatahillah, there were packed warehouses, busy trading houses, dutch administrative offices, a church, and ale houses that served warm beer amid the tropical heat. batavia was in decline in the mid - 1700s and by the 1770s was nearly a ghost town. the city had become overcrowded, its rivers packed with garbage, and diseases such as dysentery and dengue fever were rife. by the 20th century, it was a shadow of its former self. today, central jakarta lies several miles inland


had become overcrowded, its rivers packed with garbage, and diseases such as dysentery and dengue fever were rife. by the 20th century, it was a shadow of its former self. today, central jakarta lies several miles inland, surrounded by high - rise office buildings and outlandish upscale shopping malls, while the capital ' s main port lies eight kilometers to the east of the old dutch quarter. the fact that batavia lies in an area where demand for commercial property is low may have saved it from the wrecking ball, unlike colonial asian buildings in hong kong, singapore, hanoi and shanghai. in today ' s batavia, there are preserved buildings with original stain - glass windows, and arched bridges over dutch - built canals and waterways. but aside from one restaurant and a few museums — a karaoke bar and pool hall recently closed — the area is neglected. jakarta gov. fauzi bowo, who as a boy played in batavia ' s dusty streets, is trying to become the first city leader since the 1970s to make economic use of its past. in 2008, his office drafted a new revitalization master plan for batavia — the ninth since 1991. taman fatahillah square and its surrounding area were closed to traffic, and jackhammers tore up the old pavement. new cobblestones, a new drainage system and ground lighting were installed at a cost of $ 5 million. the square buzzes with life during daylight hours, hosting weekend music concerts, cultural exhibits and historic walking and bicycle tours. foreign and local tourists roll off of buses to walk through the dungeons of the old city hall, which was built in 1710 and is now a museum. the square is also a favorite spot for young couples to do pre - wedding photo shoots. cafe batavia, which opened in 1993 inside a 19th - century restored warehouse, has become a must for new jakarta expatriates and foreign visitors. but beyond the main square, nearly all of the 59 colonial - era buildings surrounding it remain empty and unused. some are occupied by squatters while others are literally falling apart, like the jasindo building, built in 1912, which in march saw two - thirds of its roof collapse. when the sun goes down, affluent city residents scurry home, and squatters, beggars and garbage scavengers come out and occupy the streets and the main square. " the city did what they could do, but it didn ' t bring any change because there is no economic activity, " ms. u


using openmp - the book and examples use this forum to discuss the book : using openmp - portable shared memory parallel programming by barbara chapman, gabriele jost and ruud van der pashttp : / / mitpress. mit. edu / catalog / item / default. asp? ttype = 2 & tid = 11387 the sources are available as a free download under the bsd license. each source comes with a copy of the license. please do not remove this. you are encouraged to try out these examples and perhaps use them as a starting point to better understand and perhaps further explore openmp. each source file constitutes a full working program. other than a compiler and run time environment to support openmp, nothing else is needed. with the exception of one example, there are no source code comments. not only are these examples very straightforward, they are also discussed in the above mentioned book. as a courtesy, each source directory has a make file called " makefile ". this file can be used to build and run the examples in the specific directory. before you do so, you need to activate the appropriate include line in file makefile. there are include files for several compilers and unix based operating systems ( linux, solaris and mac os to precise ). these files have been put together on a best effort basis. the user ' s guide that is bundled with the examples explains this in more detail. please post your feedback about the book and / or these examples to this forum.


- proton transfer networks and the mechanism of long range proton transfer in proteins ( 2010 ) - the main energy providing reaction systems in living cells, for example the photosynthesis or the respiratory chain, are based on long range proton transfer ( lrpt ) reactions. even since these lrpt reactions have been heavily investigated in the last decades, the mechanism of these reactions is still not completely understood. the reaction kinetics of the lrpt are under heavy discussion and it is not clear, whether the reorientation of the hydrogen bond network ( hbn ) or the electrostatic barrier for the charge transfer is rate limiting. the main purpose of this work is to investigate the dynamics of chemical reactions inside of proteins, focused on long range proton transfer reactions. electron transfer reactions, rotations of water molecules or conformational changes of the protein are also considered. the developed sequential dynamical monte carlo ( sdmc ) method is applicable to almost all kinds of chemical reactions. for all proton transfer reactions, the hbn of a protein plays a major role. protons are transferred along such hydrogen bonds. therefore, knowledge about the hydrogen bond network of a protein is crucial for the simulation of lrpt systems. the hbn can be calculated from the protein structure and the rotational state of the amino acid side chains. the reaction rate can be calculated from the electrostatic energies of the participating proton donor and acceptor groups. these two criteria are combined for the decision if a proton transfer between two molecules is possible and how fast this transfer would happen. while the calculation of electrostatic energies of protonatable amino acid side chains or relevant cofactors in proteins ( among them also water molecules ) is already solved - implemented in various programs - the remaining tasks - calculating the hydrogen bond network followed by calculating the reaction rates - were solved during this work. before the hydrogen bond network and the electrostatic energies could be calculated, the lack of water positions in many available crystallographically resolved protein structures made it necessary to develop an algorithm to detect internal cavities in proteins and fill these cavities with water molecules. the derived water positions could be included in the electrostatic calculations as well as in the calculation of the hbn. the simulation of the lrpt in gramicidin a ( ga ) compared to experimental data of the proton transfer in this polypeptide showed the possibilities of the simulation of the lrpt by the sdmc algorithm. the promising results encouraged us to investigate the mechanism of the lrpt, especially, if the re


to experimental data of the proton transfer in this polypeptide showed the possibilities of the simulation of the lrpt by the sdmc algorithm. the promising results encouraged us to investigate the mechanism of the lrpt, especially, if the reorientation of the hbn or the electrostatic energy barrier of the charge transfer is rate limiting for the lrpt. the results indicate, that both effects influence the lrpt and none of them is exclusively responsible for the lrpt rate. further analysis of the hydrogen bond network topology showed that graph algorithms can be used to analyze these networks. hydrogen bond networks can be clustered into regions which are close connected to each other. on the other hand, residues connecting two or more of these densely connected regions might play an important role for proton transfer pathways since a loss of such residues cuts a proton transfer pathway. a comparison of an analysis of the hbn topology of the photosynthetic reaction center with mutation studies of the same system showed, that residues identified as important for proton transfer by the mutation studies are identified as connection points between clusters by the network analysis. the developed algorithms together with the introduction of a new method for the simulation of the lrpt process ( sdmc ) improved the picture of the proton transfer processes in proteins. starting from the protein structure, the developed algorithms cover all steps from the detection of protein cavities, the placement of water molecules in these cavities, the calculation and analysis of the hydrogen bond network, the simulation of the lrpt and the investigation of the reaction kinetics. the analysis of the hbn by graph theoretical methods gives further insight into the hbn topology and identifies residues important for proton transfer pathways and therefore important for the protein activity.


an analysis of the classic arctic outbreak event of late december 2008 - early january 2009 by christian m. cassell stratospheric role | the 2008 - 2009 winter was characterized by colder than normal temperatures and above normal snowfall for each month from october through march. while there was no one significant snow event that overshadowed any other this past winter, a bitterly cold arctic outbreak that persisted for more than two weeks brought the coldest temperatures in a decade to the anchorage area, and grabbed headlines around the world for extreme cold in interior parts of the state. this analysis will show how the outbreak developed and how it was able to persist for a prolonged period of time. * - indicates a record low value for that particular date. 1. summary of temperatures and records from the outbreak the following chart is a breakdown of temperatures and extremes at anchorage during the two week arctic outbreak. * * - indicates tying or setting of the lowest temperature of this decade ( 2000 - 2009 ). though it is arbitrary as to when the outbreak began and ended based on the numbers, the temperature at anchorage dropped below zero degrees during the evening hours of december 29th, and remained below zero until january 8th except for a one - hour period during the afternoon of january 5th when the temperature managed to make it to 0. 4 degrees briefly during the mid afternoon hours. this represented the longest streak of sub - zero days since 30 january. 5 february 1999. additionally, the eleven - day streak ( 29 dec. 8 jan ) with the minimum temperature falling to - 10 degrees or lower from the official reporting station at the national weather service office on sand lake road was the longest such streak since 17 - 29 december 1961. therefore, while there were no record low minimum temperature values set at the official temperature station in anchorage, the duration of the cold in terms of minimum temperatures at or below - 10 degrees was the longest such stretch in 47 years. go to next page stratospheric role |


the machinery of criminal justice university of pennsylvania law school january 1, 2012 the machinery of criminal justice, s. bibas, oxford university press, 2012 u of penn law school, public law research paper no. 12 - 16 two centuries ago, the american criminal justice system was run primarily by laymen. jury trials passed moral judgment on crimes, vindicated victims and innocent defendants, and denounced the guilty. but over the last two centuries, lawyers have taken over the process, silencing victims and defendants and, in many cases, substituting a plea - bargaining system for the voice of the jury. the public sees little of how this assembly - line justice works, and victims and defendants have largely lost their day in court. as a result, victims rarely hear defendants express remorse and apologize, and defendants rarely receive forgiveness. this lawyerized machinery has purchased efficient, speedy processing of many cases at the price of sacrificing softer values, such as reforming defendants and healing wounded victims and relationships. in other words, the u. s. legal system has bought quantity at the price of quality, without recognizing either the trade - off or the great gulf separating lawyers ' and laymen ' s incentives, interests, values, and powers. in the machinery of criminal justice, author stephanos bibas surveys these developments over the last two centuries, considers what we have lost in our quest for efficient punishment, and suggests ways to include victims, defendants, and the public once again. these ideas range from requiring convicts to work or serve in the military, to moving power from prosecutors to restorative sentencing juries. bibas argues that doing so might cost more, but it would better serve criminal procedure ' s interests in denouncing crime, vindicating victims, reforming wrongdoers, and healing the relationships torn by crime. the introduction to the book is attached. number of pages in pdf file : 20 keywords : criminal law and procedure, american criminal justice system, sentencing, plea bargain, guilty plea, negotiation, settlement, dispute resolution, right to trial, jury, efficiency, fifth amendment, sixth amendment, constitutional law, fairness, procedural justiceaccepted paper series date posted : february 25, 2012 © 2013 social science electronic publishing, inc. all rights reserved. this page was processed by apollo5 in 0. 609 seconds


the history and tradition of patna go back to the earliest dawn of civilization. the original name of patna was pataliputra or patalipattan and its history makes a start from the century 600 b. c. the name patna has undergone many changes at its earliest stages like pataligram, kusumpur, patliputra, azimabad etc., ultimately terminating to the present one. chandragupta maurya made it his capital in the 4th century a. d. thereafter the city lost its importance until sherkhan suri rose into power in the early 16th century a. d. another version that comes to focus is that there existed a village named pattan or patthan, which later turned into patna. it has been said that pataliputra was founded by ajatashatru. patna, therefore, has become inextricably bound up with the ancient pataliputra. the ancient village was named ‘ patali ’ and the word ‘ pattan ’ was added to it. greek history mentions ‘ palibothra ’ which perhaps is pataliputra itself. ajatashatru had to adopt certain security measures in order to protect patna from the repeated lichchavi invasions. he had got a natural riverine fort protected by three rivers. ajatashatru ’ s son had moved his capital from rajagriha to pataliputra and this status was maintained during the reign of the mauryas and the guptas. ashoka the great, administered his empire from here. chandragupta maurya and samudragupta, valliant warriors, they took pataliputra as their capital. it was from here chahandragupta sent forth his army to fight the greeks of the western frontier and chandragupta vikramaditya repelled the shakas and the huns from here. it was there that the greek ambassador megasthenes stayed during the reign of chandragupta maurya. the famous traveler fa - hien in the 3rd century and hiuen - tsang in the 7th century inspected the city. many noted scholars like kautilya stayed here and works like ‘ arthashastra ’ were written from this place. this city was the fountainhead of the spring of knowledge and wisdom in ancient times.


re : plant - based fats question posted tuesday, march 5, 2013 at 9 : 18 am it depends on your goals - weight loss? disease prevention? cancer survival? general health and well being? here ' s our general advice with high - fat plant foods : a low - fat diet is not a no - fat diet. there are traces of natural oils in vegetables, beans, and fruits, and these fats are important for health. some people add additional sources of healthful omega - 3 ( “ good ” ) fats, such as walnuts, flaxseeds or flax oil, or soy products. and some researchers have found health benefits to having a small serving of nuts each day, despite the fact that nuts are very fatty. the idea is that nuts are heart - healthy and may even prevent arrhythmias — disorders of the heartbeat. pcrm ’ s advice is to be cautious with these foods. they can easily impart enough fat to bring your weight loss to a halt. rather than using nuts and seeds as snack foods ( where it is so easy to go overboard ), use them as condiments or in sauces, limiting them to about an ounce or so ( about one modest handful ) each day. susan levin, ms, rd pcrm director of nutrition education


although it ’ s what many people on the kenai peninsula associate it with, memorial day weekend isn ’ t just about fishing and barbecues. it ’ s a time to remember those who have died in battle for this country. originally called decoration day, the holiday was first widely observed on may 30, 1868, to commemorate the sacrifices of civil war soldiers by proclamation of general john a. logan of the grand army of the republic, an organization of former sailors and soldiers. in 1966, the federal government, under the direction of president lyndon johnson, declared waterloo, n. y., the official birthplace of memorial day. they chose waterloo — which had first celebrated the day on may 5, 1866 — because the town made memorial day an annual, communitywide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags. today, memorial day is celebrated at arlington national cemetery with a ceremony in which a small american flag is placed on each grave. also, it is customary for the president or vice president to give a speech honoring the contributions of the dead and lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. communities across the country, including those on the kenai peninsula, take part in annual events to commemorate the day. memorial day observances, will be held in kenaiand soldotna this year. in kenai, the avenue of flags begins at 10 : 30 a. m. at the kenai city cemetery and a memorial service will take place at leif hansen memorial park at 1 p. m. in soldotna, a memorial is planned for 1 p. m. at the soldotna community memorial park on west redoubt. our fallen soldiers have fought for so much throughout the years, and their dedication has given us the freedoms we enjoy today. we encourage you to take a moment to remember them and the reason for this holiday.


indian peranakans : the chitty melaka the melaka chitty community, also known as the malacca straits - born hindus or indian peranakans has been in malacca, malaysia since the reign of the malacca sultanate in the early 15th. century. years before parameswara the founder of malacca in 1401 became the first sultan, hindu traders had already come to malacca. trading between the west and east had long been established before then. due to the distance and weather conditions, traders had to make several stops along their trading route the straits of malacca and malacca was seen as the best location. it was exactly the ideal choice for these traders as it was stragically located and food supplies were easily available. as malacca gained its popularity, more and more traders including the hindus from the corromandel coast, southern india thronged its port. inter - marriages between the hindu traders and the malays, chinese, javanese and bataks were then unavoidable. through the process of assimilation, these traders had gradually adapted themselves to a new lifestyle. thus the term ' melaka chitty ' was born. as staunch believers of the hindu faith, the melaka chitty community still uphold their religious ceremonies and beliefs but with a unique blend. in malacca, one can easily notice this unique community in kampung chitty, gajah berang which is situated about 2. 5 kilometres from the city centre. it consists of a few castes namely ; pandaram, pillay, neiker, raja, pathair, chitty and padaichi. they strongly resemble the malays and baba nyonyas the malacca straits - born chinese in terms of clothing, spoken language, food and appearance. no doubt they are inarticulate in tamil but they still maintain their hindu names and customs. as of material importance, need to assert that the melaka chitty community is different than the other hindus, especially the chettiars the hindu money - lenders, in many ways. they had lost all forms of relation with their descendants in india a long time ago. today, they pledge their loyalty to the ruler of malaysia. most of them are wage earners and lead a simple life. some have ventured into other types of occupations. a handful of them are living in other parts of the country and some can be found in singapore too. during festive seasons, most of them would return to kampung chitty and they will have lots to talk about. " please don ' t confuse us with the


living in other parts of the country and some can be found in singapore too. during festive seasons, most of them would return to kampung chitty and they will have lots to talk about. " please don ' t confuse us with the chettiars. they are moneylenders and we are the traders who came here in the 14th century like the babas & nonyas. " so pleads chitty village elder v. ramasamy pillai. " after all these years, more than 600 years to be precise, malaysians are still unable to differentiate between chittys and chettiars, " he says smiling and shaking his head. history books and ramasamy, 83, will tell you that the chittys are actually indian traders who came to the malacca in the early 1400s from the southern part of india, namely kalinga in the corromendal coast, during the days of the spice trade. many married local malay women like the chinese peranakans & adopted the cultures and languages of the region while retaining their own religion – hinduism. seafaring chitty traders went on to become farmers and settled down in many parts of malacca, eventually moving to kampung tujung in gajah behrang. you will notice from the below picture that the indian peranakan wedding ceremonies and styles of dressing abd wedding garments are very similar to that of the chinese peranakans. also notice the " ranjang kemanten " in the background on the picture of the right to that of a peranakan chinese " ranjang kemanten ". it is in kampung tujung where many of the chittys now live. there are 19 homes amidst three temples and a newly constructed museum that awaits its official opening. when many of the chittys married and settled in malacca, they didn ' t keep in touch with their families in india, thus making it virtually impossible for their predecessors to trace relatives in kalinga. while their indian relatives might be a permanently closed chapter, the chittys in malacca are a fascinating group. daily but more so on weekends, scores of visitors come to chitty village. " most chittys look like indians while others have fair skin like the chinese peranakans and have made bahasa malaysia their official language. many here only speak tamil haltingly as baba malay is the language spoken by the community, " says k. nadarajan raja, who is secretary of the cultural society of chitty


. the below photo shows you how similar the indians peranakans are to the chinese peranakans. indian chitty peranakan cuisine chitty cuisine, a blend of malay local influences, nonya and the indian art of blending spices, is little - known. there is no chitty restaurant, not even in malacca, and hence their food can only be sampled in the community ' s enclave in kampung tujuh gajah berang. " the chittys ' most famous food is nasi lemak. we serve it as offerings during prayers, ' ' says g. meenachi, 70. unlike the other indian groups who usually offer rice with vegetarian dishes during prayers, the chittys serve nasi lemak or plain rice with a variety of fish and meat accompaniments. " chitty nasi lemak is usually steamed. first, we steam the rice for about 20 minutes before it is left to cool. in the meantime, we will boil thick and thin coconut milk separately over a low fire. the pandanus leaf is boiled with the coconut milk so that it ' ll be fragrant. " stir the coconut milk into the steamed rice. leave the rice for a few hours or until all the coconut milk has been absorbed by the rice. then steam the rice again for 10 - 15 minutes, ' ' meenachi ' s daughter, amuthavathi, narrates the painstaking preparation of nasi lemak, as taught by her mother. a good nasi lemak must be fragrant, and the grains fluffy and separate, and must even have a shiny sheen. the secret to getting the shiny sheen, says chitty s. kathai, is by adding on some lemon juice to the rice during the steaming process. unlike the northerners, ginger is not added to their nasi lemak. " nasi lemak is only cooked in a rice cooker when there are unexpected guests. we call this nasi lemak terkejut ( surprise nasi lemak ). ' ' offerings to ancestors a chinese peranakan trsdition such as rice accompanied by 13 dishes are served by the chittys to honour their ancestors. traditional chitty cooks such as meenachi suffer no shortcuts or half measures in their kitchen, holding firm to elaborate details that give their food a delicious edge. when she makes chillied fried fish, she wraps the fish with turmeric leaf which lends the dish


meenachi suffer no shortcuts or half measures in their kitchen, holding firm to elaborate details that give their food a delicious edge. when she makes chillied fried fish, she wraps the fish with turmeric leaf which lends the dish a subtle aroma. for pulut tekan ( glutinous rice cake steamed with coconut milk ), meenachi uses leaf only from the pisang batu or pisang nipah tree... " leaves from other banana species would darken the white pulut. ' ' spices are not blended in electric blenders, but are ground on the batu giling ( a granite pestle and mortar slab ). meenachi ' s youngest daughter, s. amuthavathi, recalls handling the heavy granite roller from young as her mother was adamant that her children learn to cook well. " my mother called this morning to instruct that i pound the shallots, ginger and garlic, and not use an electric blender, ' ' says amuthavathi who cooked one of the chittys ' signature dish for us, armed with her mother ' s detailed instructions and secret tips. one of the chitty ' s more unusual dish is nasi kembuli. not many chittys still know how to cook it although it was once served to brides three days after the wedding, and as offerings during prayers. " the ingredients in nasi kembuli are indian such as ghee, cumin and coriander. however, one of the most important accompaniments, pineapple pachedi, is malay in origin, ' ' says amuthavathi. a popular chitty everyday dish is lauk pindang which bears strong malay influences. " lauk pindang is fish cooked with a blend of shallots, garlic and turmeric, in a tamarind and thin coconut milk gravy, ' ' describes amuthavathi. the best time to sample chitty delicacies is during festivals such as ponggal or bhogi. bhogi, which falls on the eve of ponggal, is the day that chittys hold ancestral rites and honour deceased family members. " on that day, we lay out seven banana leaves of offerings for our ancestors. in my family, there will be three leaves of nasi lemak, three leaves of nasi kembuli and a leaf of white rice. there will be 13 accompaniments to the rice, a salted


of offerings for our ancestors. in my family, there will be three leaves of nasi lemak, three leaves of nasi kembuli and a leaf of white rice. there will be 13 accompaniments to the rice, a salted egg, and coffee, ' ' says meenachi. the accompaniments include sambal ludang ( fish roe and prawns cooked with belimbing ( sour starfruits ), lemon grass, ginger, shallots, chilli, turmeric and coconut milk ), dry chicken and mutton curry, pineapple pachedi, spiced fried chicken, brinjal pachedi, udang goreng asam garam ( prawns fried with tamarind and salt ), cucumber relish, lauk pindang and krill sambal. other festive chitty food is putu, which is indian in origin. putu is traditionally served during the sadanggu, a ceremony for young girls who have reached puberty. " only women are invited for this ceremony, and they must finish all the food prepared to ensure that no man eats the food. it ' s considered bad luck if food for the sadanggu is eaten by a man. notice the sembayang dato or offering to the ancestors ceremony in the middle picture below. notice the two red candles used. this is a peranakan chinese tradition, not an indian tradition as only the peranakan chinese use red candles for offering and prayers to the ancestors. " it is also best to serve tea with sugar and pandanus leaf to go with the putu, which is made from scraped coconut, palm sugar syrup, fried green beans, cardamom and rice flour, ' ' says meenachi. although many chitty dishes are still prepared, there are fears that some recipes may be forgotten as the young marry out of the close - knit but small community. meenachi ' s four daughters hope to document the chitty recipes their illiterate mother remembers so vividly. meenachi does not only list down ingredients and cooking methods when passing recipes, but also the little details that matter. for certain dishes, use only the pink shallots. a pinch of salt must be added when pounding sambal belacan to mute the chillies ' rawness. boil salted mustard for itik tim in a brass wok, and it won ' t turn yellow but remain green. recipes aside, chitty baba malay terms used to describe


jerusalem, the biography by simon sebag montefiore february 2, 2012 by bob livingston the fact that jerusalem is the center of the spiritual world for so many people seems to make politics there frighteningly complex and deadly. consequently, if you have any interest in understanding why the area in and around jerusalem is such a contentious piece of real estate, jerusalem explicates, in exquisite historical detail, the thousands of years of fighting over a piece of ground that so many people want to possess. sometimes, the details supplied by montefiore are a bit overwhelming. but the historical tidbits, footnotes, archeological gossip and descriptions of what we know or think we know about what historical figures did to each other in this part of the planet are never less than fascinating and illuminating. near the beginning of the book, montefiore describes a time when jerusalem was ruled by a confederation of tribes who were challenged by the philistines, “ part of the sea peoples, who originated in the aegean ( sea ). ” the israelites led first by saul and then by david beat them back. as king, david established his stronghold at jerusalem because it was a demilitarized zone between the northern and southern tribes. later on, though, rulers of the various kingdoms in and around jerusalem would periodically invade and kill many of the local inhabitants, making off with gold from the city ’ s temple. and then, in between invasions and sieges, members of the ruling class would battle with each other for power, brothers killing each other in order to take control, children killing parents, in - laws plotting each other ’ s doom and generals using assassinations and bloodbaths to establish their own dynasties. at the same time, the ruling jewish kings twice built magnificent temples in jerusalem ( each eventually destroyed ), filling them with golden treasures ( all eventually looted ) and established the city as a living, holy shrine. but the battles never stopped. in one typical period, as the assyrians invaded, israel ’ s king ahab joined with judah and syria to repel the would - be conquerors. but soon, the three anti - assyrian partners began to war with each other, civil wars broke out and king ahab was killed by his own troops. in the power vacuum, a general named jehu decided it was time to do away with the rest of the royal family. he stacked the heads of ahab ’ s 70 sons in a gruesome pile at the one of the city ’ s gates, killed the new king who was trying to


decided it was time to do away with the rest of the royal family. he stacked the heads of ahab ’ s 70 sons in a gruesome pile at the one of the city ’ s gates, killed the new king who was trying to succeed ahab and, for good measure, murdered the visiting king of judah. ahab ’ s wife, queen jezebel, was unceremoniously thrown out of a palace window, “ pulverized ” by chariots and fed to the dogs. but ahab ’ s family was soon in control again. one of jezebel ’ s daughters, athalia, took power, killing every prince she could get her hands on ( all of whom were her own grandchildren ). she made baal the state religion and set up idols in the temple. athalia, though, was eventually murdered, as were her priests. this kind of back - and - forth killing was typical. eventually, the assyrians came back for more booty, and the egyptians took a turn invading the area. when those empires backed off, the babylonians arrived for their share. a couple of hundred years later, the persians took out the babylonians, followed by the greeks and later the romans. destruction and conflict soon after jesus was crucified, relations between rome and the jewish rulers of jerusalem reached a tipping point. roman legions marched into the city, looted it, burned it to the ground and slaughtered most its residents, hauling many of the survivors back to rome as slaves and unwilling participants in bloody shows at the coliseum. for a time, the city was a camp for roman soldiers. later, when the romans eventually left, the city settled down into relative obscurity, lapsing into low level anarchy before being invaded by european crusaders. today, of course, jerusalem is in the center of the controversy between palestinians and israelis, each group claiming that they should control the area. after reading jerusalem, you won ’ t wonder that the city and the area around it is a continual source of conflict. you may wonder why it isn ’ t worse. montefiore warns, “ … there have always been two jerusalems, the temporal and the celestial, both ruled more by faith and emotion than by reason and facts. ”


closing in on the planck constant sep 25, 1998 physicists in the us have made the most accurate measurements ever of the planck constant, h. edwin williams and colleagues at the national institute of standards and technology in gaithersburg, maryland, measured h by comparing the voltage needed to control the velocity of a coil moving vertically in an magnetic field, with the current that has to be passed through the coil to balance gravity in the same magnetic field. the measurement could lead to a new reference stand for the kilogram ( phys. rev. lett. 81 2404 ). the kilogram is currently defined by a platinum - iridium alloy maintained at the bureau international des poids et mesures ( bipm ) in paris and six official copies. however, the official mass of the standard kilogram has been known to vary with time, hence the interest in defining the kilogram is terms of fundamental constants like h. the highly stable magnetic field needed for the experiment is generated by a superconducting magnet that has been cooled to 4 kelvin. the experiment also uses two induction coils : the lower coil is fixed to the support structure of the experiment, while the upper coil can move. this upper coil is also attached to a wheel balance above the experiment. in the first stage of the measurement, the mass balance is empty and a small force is applied to the upper coil, forcing it to move at 2mm / s. the researchers found that this generated a voltage of 1. 018 ± 0. 001 v across the moving coil. in the second stage of the experiment, a 500 g countermass is balanced by a - 10. 18 ma current in the induction coil. both stages were repeated over many months to obtain a value of 6. 62606891 ( 58 ) x 10 - 34 joule seconds for the planck constant. this result - which corresponds to an accuracy of 9 parts in 108 - is a factor of 15 better than previous measurements. the team hope to improve on this result by another factor of 10 by modifying their experiment.


ultrafast electron microscope makes movies dec 8, 2006 physicists have created a new form of electron microscopy that can make " movies " of atoms as they undergo ultra - rapid chemical or structural transitions. ahmed zewail and colleagues at the california institute of technology in the us have used coincident electron and laser pulses to follow vanadium and oxygen atoms as they rearranged themselves on a vanadium oxide surface over the course of several picoseconds. the researchers say that the technique could also be used to study a wide range of ultrafast biological and physical phenomena. ( proc. natl. acad. sci. 103 18427 ) ). electron microscopes have better resolution than optical microscopes because high - energy electrons have a much shorter wavelength than light. the resolution can be further improved by using coherent electron wavepackets, which can contain as few as one electron. the wavelengths of these packets are much smaller than the space between individual atoms and can be brought to a very sharp focus, allowing objects to be imaged with atomic - scale resolution. the packets are of extremely short duration and this can be exploited to take “ snapshots ” of atoms as they undergo structural or chemical transitions. in 2005, zewail and colleagues used coherent electron packets to take single snapshots of a number of materials and biological samples. now the researchers have further refined their technique to take a time sequence of images that allowed them to watch vanadium and oxygen atoms rearrange themselves in a process that can take as little as 100 femtoseconds ( 10 - 13 seconds ). the timing sequence is generated by femtosecond laser pulses as illustrated in the figure " ultrafast microscope ". each pulse is split into two pulses – one is used by the microscope to create the electron pulse and the other is used to heat the sample. according to zewail, the crucial and most difficult part of the technique is coordinating the arrivals of the laser and electron pulses at the sample with an accuracy of just a few femtoseconds. this is particularly difficult because the laser pulse travels at the speed of light, while the electron pulse lags behind at about two thirds the speed of light. the coincident laser pulse is used to heat the sample and drive a transition from a low - temperature crystal structure to a high - temperature structure. by changing the delay between the laser and electron pulses in regular time steps, the researchers were able to take snapshots of the atoms at different sample temperatures. zewai


dodgers ' progress plan not only about robinson campanella, newcombe got their shots in class a ball los angeles - - the dodgers were front and center in breaking the color barrier in major league baseball, but the early movement involved more than jackie robinson. when robinson was signed by dodgers president branch rickey and owner walter o ' malley out of the negro leagues to be the first african - american to play at triple - a montreal in 1946, as part of his grand integration plan rickey also signed don newcombe and roy campanella to be the first african - americans to play class a ball. newcombe grew up poor in elizabeth, n. j., his father a chauffeur. there were no dreams of hitting it rich in the big leagues, but his neighbor, john grier, saw him throwing rocks and envisioned a pitcher in the making. " john grier was like my second father, he took a liking to me, and he taught me to wind up, taught me everything i knew about baseball, " newcombe said. " i began to learn and began to like it. i was only 14 and i was already big and i could throw hard. he taught me to control it. but aspirations of the major leagues? black kids had none of that. " at 17, newcombe was signed for $ 175 a month by the newark eagles, owned by abe manley and run by his wife, effa. he played with and against the likes of cool papa bell, monte irvin, ray dandridge and willie wells. two seasons into his career at age 19, newcombe was a newlywed and life was about to change dramatically. " my wife and i came out of a movie and saw a headline in the new york post, i ' ll never forget it, and it said that montreal had signed jackie robinson, " said newcombe, now 85 and a special advisor to dodgers chairman frank mccourt. " i knew this was the beginning of change. i said to my wife, maybe this is a chance for me and roy. " former dodgers general manager buzzie bavasi wrote in his autobiography that if newcombe hadn ' t been 19 years old at the time, rickey might have chosen him over robinson ( who was 28 ) to be the first african - american major leaguer. newcombe appreciated the mention, but believes the dodgers got the right man for the job. " the only man i ever knew that i thought could do what jackie did was jackie, " newcombe


to be the first african - american major leaguer. newcombe appreciated the mention, but believes the dodgers got the right man for the job. " the only man i ever knew that i thought could do what jackie did was jackie, " newcombe said. " i couldn ' t have accepted that kind of responsibility. jackie brought more to the table. he served in the military. he went to ucla. he was the man to do the job, not me. i don ' t know if roy could have or monte irvin could have, but i do know that jackie could do it. he far surpassed anyone i ' ve ever known. " newcombe can recall details of a 60 - year anecdote as if it happened yesterday. he noted the irony in that a few months before signing, he had pitched in an ebbets field all - star game between negro league stars and major league stars. newcombe pitched three innings of a sunday game, went into the clubhouse, took off his uniform and was met by a slender man he had never seen before that turned out to be dodgers scout clyde sukeforth, who would also sign robinson. " he asked me if i had ever heard of branch rickey, " newcombe said. " he told me this mr. rickey wanted to see me. i asked what he wanted. sukeforth said i needed to come to the office and find out. " the meeting led to newcombe ' s signing with the dodgers for a $ 1, 000 bonus. " i gave $ 500 to my mother, " said newcombe, who had to borrow money from his mother for the subway fare from his home in new jersey to brooklyn for the meeting. newcombe and campanella were originally signed to play at danville in the class a illinois - indiana - iowa league, but the league president threatened to shut down rather than let african - americans in. so the pair was redirected to nashua of the new england league. " me and roy talked about it, " newcombe said. " i told roy i ' d do whatever he thought. he said, ' we ' ve got to start somewhere, don. ' the president of the new england league said he didn ' t care what color we were if we could play. so we went. " nashua became the first racially integrated team in the united states. walter alston, who would go on to be a hall of fame manager with the dodgers, was the nashua player / manager. "


could play. so we went. " nashua became the first racially integrated team in the united states. walter alston, who would go on to be a hall of fame manager with the dodgers, was the nashua player / manager. " alston called a meeting with the team when we joined to work out. and alston - - god bless him - - asked this question to the team : ' if i get sent out of a game, and i name this man manager, will you play for him or quit? because if i ' m not managing, i want roy campanella to manage. does anybody have a problem with that? ' " to a man, everyone said no problem, and that ' s the way it was. and lo and behold, in a game in massachusetts, alston was put out of the game. we were losing 2 - 1 and it was the top of the eighth and campanella came over to me on the bench and said i was going to pinch - hit, and my eyes just about popped out of my head. and i hit a home run to center field and we won the game. so, roy became the first black in organized baseball history to win a game as manager. " rickey ' s talent evaluation was right on point. robinson was a rookie of the year, an mvp, a six - time all - star and hall of famer. campanella won three mvp awards and was an eight - time all - star before his career was cut short by a paralyzing accident. he also is in the hall of fame. newcombe became the only player to win a rookie of the year, cy young and mvp award until justin verlander completed that trifecta last season. verlander invited newcombe to the new york baseball writers dinner this month to present the mvp award. " i had that honor for 55 years, it was about time someone else did it, " newcombe said. " it ' s good to have a partner. i hope he carries on. " ken gurnick is a reporter for mlb. com. this story was not subject to the approval of major league baseball or its clubs.


in 2009, the asean intergovernmental commission on human rights ( aichr ) was formed to promote and protect the human rights of people in the region and was tasked to formulate the asean human rights declaration, which aimed to standardize all human rights of all people in the southeast region of asia. • five member countries have laws that target and criminalize transgender women for ‘ cross dressing ’ : brunei, burma, malaysia, singapore and thailand. • six member countries of asean have laws criminalizing same sex activities between mutually consenting adults : brunei, burma, malaysia and singapore, philippines ( in marawi city ), indonesia ( in south sumatera province ). • none of the 10 member countries of asean have national anti - discrimination laws to protect people of diverse sexual orientation or gender identity or other minorities and vulnerable groups. " the only glimpse the public and civil society groups have had of the proposed declaration was by way of a leaked document " jakarta postthe asean human rights declaration does not include or recognize the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer ( lgbtiq ) persons. " civil society groups gathered in phnom penh last week argued that time was running out to rid the proposed draft of clauses that would restrict peoples ’ rights rather than protecting and enhancing them. " since it ’ s conception, lgbt groups have been demanding the inclusion of human rights based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the asean human rights declaration but our demands have fallen on deaf ears. this is a clear sign by the member countries of asean that they do not recognize the existence of lgbtiq persons and have no interest in protecting and promoting the human rights of lgbtiq persons in this region. take action! stand in solidarity with the asean lgbt caucus and iglhrc in demanding the inclusion of lgbt rights in the asean human rights declaration!


puzzle pageissue 37 mystery christmas theft where ' s that missing coin? as a last treat before the start of the busiest period of the year, santa claus and rudolph the reindeer decide to go out for a meal. the easter bunny comes along for company. they feast on scrumptious food and mulled wine, which makes rudolph ' s nose glow redder than ever. at the end of the night the bill totals 30 north pole pounds, and the three decide to share it evenly, each paying 10 pounds. the waiter takes the money and walks over to the til, where he meets the proprietress of the restaurant. she tells him that for these very distinguished guests the last bottle of mulled wine is on the house. that bottle was 5 pounds, so now the bill only comes to 25 pounds. she gives the waiter 5 pound coins in change. but the waiter, not being a very honest sort and still holding a grudge about an undelivered present, slips two pounds into his pocket and only returns 3 pounds, 1 pound to each of the three guests. now each has paid 9 pounds, making 27 in total. the waiter stole 2 pounds, making 29. but santa, rudolph and the easter bunny paid 30 pounds in total! what happened to the missing pound?


a recent report by the world economic forum on the future of the gas markets has highlighted the revolution that is currently happening in this sector. the report started by saying : “ what a difference a few years can make in one of the world ’ s major energy markets. advances in the production of unconventional gas – shale gas, tight gas and coal bed methane ( cbm ) – coupled with growing lng capacity have changed longstanding assumptions about natural gas markets around the world. ” whilst the shale gas revolution is well under way in north america, it is in its infancy in europe and asia. the one country that stands to benefit from the shale gas bonanza the most in europe is poland. the report acknowledges : “ poland has the largest potential for unconventional gas production in europe, ” and argues that “ poland could become a significant gas exporter and transform gas supply throughout central europe ”. the country, which has historically relied on dirty coal and gas from russia to power itself, could even become a gas exporter. so for many countries like poland or ukraine, they see shale gas as the technology that will rid them from years of dependency on russian gas, with its threats and price hikes. earlier this week, the financial times picked up on this theme, interviewing one polish farmer who said : “ i hear about people who don ’ t want these kinds of things, but it gives us a chance to free ourselves from russia, ” she says. “ we aren ’ t worried at all. ” a british company, called 3 legs resources, is currently drilling on the woman ’ s land. elsewhere in the country the big giants such as conocophillips, exxonmobil and chevron, are all joining in poland ’ s dash for shale gas. the ft even trumpets that “ gas could also help with poland ’ s pollution problem. currently, about 85 per cent of polish electricity is generated by coal, which will become increasingly untenable thanks to eu restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions. ” but herein lies the rub. it would be madness for the poles, in their desire to rid themselves from russia and dirty coal, to exploit a technology that has known risks to drinking water, through the controversial technique called fracking. already in the us, where the film gasland, has been a hit, there are consistent and widespread reports of water contamination. in france, the technique is currently banned due to pollution concerns. yesterday, a long awaited report by a panel of experts in the us delivered a warning to the shale gas drilling industry that


individual differences | methods | statistics | clinical | educational | industrial | professional items | world psychology | - for a non - technical introduction to the topic, please see introduction to genetics. genetics ( from ancient greek γενετικος genetikos, “ genitive ” and that from γενεσις genesis, “ origin ” ), a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and variation in living organisms. the fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding. however, the modern science of genetics, which seeks to understand the process of inheritance, only began with the work of gregor mendel in the mid - nineteenth century. although he did not know the physical basis for heredity, mendel observed that organisms inherit traits in a discrete manner — these basic units of inheritance are now called genes. genes correspond to regions within dna, a molecule composed of a chain of four different types of nucleotides — the sequence of these nucleotides is the genetic information organisms inherit. dna naturally occurs in a double stranded form, with nucleotides on each strand complementary to each other. each strand can act as a template for creating a new partner strand — this is the physical method for making copies of genes that can be inherited. the sequence of nucleotides in a gene is translated by cells to produce a chain of amino acids, creating proteins — the order of amino acids in a protein corresponds to the order of nucleotides in the gene. this is known as the genetic code. the amino acids in a protein determine how it folds into a three - dimensional shape ; this structure is, in turn, responsible for the protein ' s function. proteins carry out almost all the functions needed for cells to live. a change to the dna in a gene can change a protein ' s amino acids, changing its shape and function : this can have a dramatic effect in the cell and on the organism as a whole. although genetics plays a large role in the appearance and behavior of organisms, it is the combination of genetics with what an organism experiences that determines the ultimate outcome. for example, while genes play a role in determining a person ' s height, the nutrition and health that person experiences in childhood also have a large effect. - main article : history of genetics although the science of genetics began with the applied and theoretical work of gregor mendel in the mid - 1800s, other theories of inheritance preceded mendel. a


health that person experiences in childhood also have a large effect. - main article : history of genetics although the science of genetics began with the applied and theoretical work of gregor mendel in the mid - 1800s, other theories of inheritance preceded mendel. a popular theory during mendel ' s time was the concept of blending inheritance : the idea that individuals inherit a smooth blend of traits from their parents. mendel ' s work disproved this, showing that traits are composed of combinations of distinct genes rather than a continuous blend. another theory that had some support at that time was the inheritance of acquired characteristics : the belief that individuals inherit traits strengthened by their parents. this theory ( commonly associated with jean - baptiste lamarck ) is now known to be wrong — the experiences of individuals do not affect the genes they pass to their children. other theories included the pangenesis of charles darwin ( which had both acquired and inherited aspects ) and francis galton ' s reformulation of pangenesis as both particulate and inherited. mendelian and classical geneticsedit the modern science of genetics traces its roots to gregor johann mendel, a german - czech augustinian monk and scientist who studied the nature of inheritance in plants. in his paper " versuche uber pflanzenhybriden " ( " experiments on plant hybridization " ), presented in 1865 to the naturforschender verein ( society for research in nature ) in brunn, mendel traced the inheritance patterns of certain traits in pea plants and described them mathematically. although this pattern of inheritance could only be observed for a few traits, mendel ' s work suggested that heredity was particulate, not acquired, and that the inheritance patterns of many traits could be explained through simple rules and ratios. the importance of mendel ' s work did not gain wide understanding until the 1890s, after his death, when other scientists working on similar problems re - discovered his research. william bateson, a proponent of mendel ' s work, coined the word genetics in 1905. ( the adjective genetic, derived from the greek word genesis - γενεσις, " origin " and that from the word genno - γεννω, " to give birth ", predates the noun and was first used in a biological sense in 1860. ) bateson popularized the usage of the word genetics to describe the study of inheritance in his inaugural address to the third international conference on plant hybridization in london, england, in 1906. after the red


was first used in a biological sense in 1860. ) bateson popularized the usage of the word genetics to describe the study of inheritance in his inaugural address to the third international conference on plant hybridization in london, england, in 1906. after the rediscovery of mendel ' s work, scientists tried to determine which molecules in the cell were responsible for inheritance. in 1910, thomas hunt morgan argued that genes are on chromosomes, based on observations of a sex - linked white eye mutation in fruit flies. in 1913, his student alfred sturtevant used the phenomenon of genetic linkage to show that genes are arranged linearly on the chromosome. < span id = " molecular " / > although genes were known to exist on chromosomes, chromosomes are composed of both protein and dna — scientists did not know which of these was responsible for inheritance. in 1928, frederick griffith discovered the phenomenon of transformation ( see griffith ' s experiment ) : dead bacteria could transfer genetic material to " transform " other still - living bacteria. sixteen years later, in 1944, oswald theodore avery, colin mcleod and maclyn mccarty identified the molecule responsible for transformation as dna. the hershey - chase experiment in 1952 also showed that dna ( rather than protein ) was the genetic material of the viruses that infect bacteria, providing further evidence that dna was the molecule responsible for inheritance. james d. watson and francis crick determined the structure of dna in 1953, using the x - ray crystallography work of rosalind franklin that indicated dna had a helical structure ( i. e., shaped like a corkscrew ). their double - helix model had two strands of dna with the nucleotides pointing inward, each matching a complementary nucleotide on the other strand to form what looks like rungs on a twisted ladder. this structure showed that genetic information exists in the sequence of nucleotides on each strand of dna. the structure also suggested a simple method for duplication : if the strands are separated, new partner strands can be reconstructed for each based on the sequence of the old strand. although the structure of dna showed how inheritance worked, it was still not known how dna influenced the behavior of cells. in the following years, scientists tried to understand how dna controls the process of protein production. it was discovered that the cell uses dna as a template to create matching messenger rna ( a molecule with nucleotides, very similar to dna ). the nucleotide sequence of a messenger rna is used to create an amino acid sequence in protein ;


was discovered that the cell uses dna as a template to create matching messenger rna ( a molecule with nucleotides, very similar to dna ). the nucleotide sequence of a messenger rna is used to create an amino acid sequence in protein ; this translation between nucleotide and amino acid sequences is known as the genetic code. with this molecular understanding of inheritance, an explosion of research became possible. one important development was chain - termination dna sequencing in 1977 by frederick sanger : this technology allows scientists to read the nucleotide sequence of a dna molecule. in 1983, kary banks mullis developed the polymerase chain reaction, providing a quick way to isolate and amplify a specific section of a dna from a mixture. through the pooled efforts of the human genome project and the parallel private effort by celera genomics, these and other techniques culminated in the sequencing of the human genome in 2003. features of inheritanceedit discrete inheritance and mendel ' s lawsedit - main article : mendelian inheritance at its most fundamental level, inheritance in organisms occurs by means of discrete traits, called genes. this property was first observed by gregor mendel, who studied the segregation of heritable traits in pea plants. in his experiments studying the trait for flower color, mendel observed that the flowers of each pea plant were either purple or white - and never an intermediate between the two colors. these different, discrete versions of the same gene are called alleles. in the case of pea plants, each organism has two alleles of each gene, and the plants inherit one allele from each parent. many organisms, including humans, have this pattern of inheritance. organisms with two copies of the same allele are called homozygous, while organisms with two different alleles are heterozygous. the set of alleles for a given organism is called its genotype, while the observable trait the organism has is called its phenotype. when organisms are heterozygous, often one allele is called dominant as its qualities dominate the phenotype of the organism, while the other allele is called recessive as its qualities recede and are not observed. some alleles do not have complete dominance and instead have incomplete dominance by expressing an intermediate phenotype, or codominance by expressing both alleles at once. when a pair of organisms reproduce sexually, their offspring randomly inherit one of the two alleles from each parent. these observations of discrete inheritance and the segregation of


an intermediate phenotype, or codominance by expressing both alleles at once. when a pair of organisms reproduce sexually, their offspring randomly inherit one of the two alleles from each parent. these observations of discrete inheritance and the segregation of alleles are collectively known as mendel ' s first law or the law of segregation. notation and diagramsedit geneticists use diagrams and symbols to describe inheritance. a gene is represented by a letter ( or letters ) — the capitalized letter represents the dominant allele and the recessive is represented by lowercase. often a " + " symbol is used to mark the usual, non - mutant allele for a gene. in fertilization and breeding experiments ( and especially when discussing mendel ' s laws ) the parents are referred to as the " p " generation and the offspring as the " f1 " ( first filial ) generation. when the f1 offspring mate with each other, the offspring are called the " f2 " ( second filial ) generation. one of the common diagrams used to predict the result of cross - breeding is the punnett square. interactions of multiple genesedit organisms have thousands of genes, and in sexually reproducing organisms assortment of these genes are generally independent of each other. this means that the inheritance of an allele for yellow or green pea color is unrelated to the inheritance of alleles for white or purple flowers. this phenomenon, known as " mendel ' s second law " or the " law of independent assortment ", means that the alleles of different genes get shuffled between parents to form offspring with many different combinations. ( some genes do not assort independently, demonstrating genetic linkage, a topic discussed later in this article. ) often different genes can interact in a way that influences the same trait. in the blue - eyed mary ( omphalodes verna ), for example, there exists a gene with alleles that determine the color of flowers : blue or magenta. another gene, however, controls whether the flowers have color at all : color or white. when a plant has two copies of this white allele, its flowers are white - regardless of whether the first gene has blue or magenta alleles. this interaction between genes is called epistasis, with the second gene epistatic to the first. many traits are not discrete features ( eg. purple or white flowers ) but are instead continuous features ( eg. human height and skin color ). these complex traits are the product of many


with the second gene epistatic to the first. many traits are not discrete features ( eg. purple or white flowers ) but are instead continuous features ( eg. human height and skin color ). these complex traits are the product of many genes. the influence of these genes is mediated, to varying degrees, by the environment an organism has experienced. the degree to which an organism ' s genes contribute to a complex trait is called heritability. measurement of the heritability of a trait is relative - in a more variable environment, the environment has a bigger influence on the total variation of the trait. for example, human height is a complex trait with a heritability of 89 % in the united states. in nigeria, however, where people experience a more variable access to good nutrition and health care, height has a heritability of only 62 %. molecular basis for inheritanceedit dna and chromosomesedit - main article : dna the molecular basis for genes is deoxyribonucleic acid ( dna ). dna is composed of a chain of nucleotides, of which there are four types : adenine ( a ), cytosine ( c ), guanine ( g ), and thymine ( t ). genetic information exists in the sequence of these nucleotides, and genes exist as stretches of sequence along the dna chain. viruses are the only exception to this rule — sometimes viruses use the very similar molecule rna instead of dna as their genetic material. dna normally exists as a double - stranded molecule, coiled into the shape of a double - helix. each nucleotide in dna preferentially pairs with its partner nucleotide on the opposite strand : a pairs with t, and c pairs with g. thus, in its two - stranded form, each strand effectively contains all necessary information, redundant with its partner strand. this structure of dna is the physical basis for inheritance : dna replication duplicates the genetic information by splitting the strands and using each strand as a template for synthesis of a new partner strand. genes are arranged linearly along long chains of dna sequence, called chromosomes. in bacteria, each cell has a single circular chromosome, while eukaryotic organisms ( which includes plants and animals ) have their dna arranged in multiple linear chromosomes. these dna strands are often extremely long ; the largest human chromosome, for example, is about 247 million base pairs in length. the dna of a chromosome is associated with structural proteins that organize, compact, and control access to the


in multiple linear chromosomes. these dna strands are often extremely long ; the largest human chromosome, for example, is about 247 million base pairs in length. the dna of a chromosome is associated with structural proteins that organize, compact, and control access to the dna, forming a material called chromatin ; in eukaryotes, chromatin is usually composed of nucleosomes, repeating units of dna wound around a core of histone proteins. the full set of hereditary material in an organism ( usually the combined dna sequences of all chromosomes ) is called the genome. while haploid organisms have only one copy of each chromosome, most animals and many plants are diploid, containing two of each chromosome and thus two copies of every gene. the two alleles for a gene are located on identical loci of sister chromatids, each allele inherited from a different parent. an exception exists in the sex chromosomes, specialized chromosomes many animals have evolved that play a role in determining the sex of an organism. in humans and other mammals, the y chromosome has very few genes and triggers the development of male sexual characteristics, while the x chromosome is similar to the other chromosomes and contains many genes unrelated to sex determination. females have two copies of the x chromosome, but males have one y and only one x chromosome - this difference in x chromosome copy numbers leads to the unusual inheritance patterns of sex - linked disorders. - main article : asexual reproduction when cells divide, their full genome is copied and each daughter cell inherits one copy. this process, called mitosis, is the simplest form of reproduction and is the basis for asexual reproduction. asexual reproduction can also occur in multicellular organisms, producing offspring that inherit their genome from a single parent. offspring that are genetically identical to their parents are called clones. eukaryotic organisms often use sexual reproduction to generate offspring that contain a mixture of genetic material inherited from two different parents. the process of sexual reproduction alternates between forms that contain single copies of the genome ( haploid ) and double copies ( diploid ). haploid cells fuse and combine genetic material to create a diploid cell with paired chromosomes. diploid organisms form haploids by dividing, without replicating their dna, to create daughter cells that randomly inherit one of each pair of chromosomes. most animals and many plants are diploid for most of their lifespan, with the haploid form reduced to single cell gametes. although they do not use the haploid / diploid method


that randomly inherit one of each pair of chromosomes. most animals and many plants are diploid for most of their lifespan, with the haploid form reduced to single cell gametes. although they do not use the haploid / diploid method of sexual reproduction, bacteria have many methods of acquiring new genetic information. some bacteria can undergo conjugation, transferring a small circular piece of dna to another bacterium. bacteria can also take up raw dna fragments found in the environment and integrate them into their genome, a phenomenon known as transformation. these processes result in horizontal gene transfer, transmitting fragments of genetic information between organisms that would be otherwise unrelated. - main article : chromosomal crossover the diploid nature of chromosomes allows for genes on different chromosomes to assort independently during sexual reproduction, recombining to form new combinations of genes. genes on the same chromosome would theoretically never recombine, however, were it not for the process of chromosomal crossover. during crossover, chromosomes exchange stretches of dna, effectively shuffling the gene alleles between the chromosomes. this process of chromosomal crossover generally occurs during meiosis, a series of cell divisions that creates haploid cells. the probability of chromosomal crossover occurring between two given points on the chromosome is related to the distance between them. for an arbitrarily long distance, the probability of crossover is high enough that the inheritance of the genes is effectively uncorrelated. for genes that are closer together, however, the lower probability of crossover means that the genes demonstrate genetic linkage - alleles for the two genes tend to be inherited together. the amounts of linkage between a series of genes can be combined to form a linear linkage map that roughly describes the arrangement of the genes along the chromosome. - main article : genetic code genes generally express their functional effect through the production of proteins, which are complex molecules responsible for most functions in the cell. proteins are chains of amino acids, and the dna sequence of a gene ( through rna intermediate ) is used to produce a specific protein sequence. this process begins with the production of an rna molecule with a sequence matching the gene ' s dna sequence, a process called transcription. this messenger rna molecule is then used to produce a corresponding amino acid sequence through a process called translation. each group of three nucleotides in the sequence, called a codon, corresponds to one of the twenty possible amino acids in protein - this correspondence is called the genetic code. the flow of information is unidirectional : information is transferred


group of three nucleotides in the sequence, called a codon, corresponds to one of the twenty possible amino acids in protein - this correspondence is called the genetic code. the flow of information is unidirectional : information is transferred from nucleotide sequences into the amino acid sequence of proteins, but it never transfers from protein back into the sequence of dna — a phenomenon francis crick called the central dogma of molecular biology. the specific sequence of amino acids results in a unique three - dimensional structure for that protein, and the three - dimensional structures of protein are related to their function. some are simple structural molecules, like the fibers formed by the protein collagen. proteins can bind to other proteins and simple molecules, sometimes acting as enzymes by facilitating chemical reactions within the bound molecules ( without changing the structure of the protein itself ). protein structure is dynamic ; the protein hemoglobin bends into slightly different forms as it facilitates the capture, transport, and release of oxygen molecules within mammalian blood. a single nucleotide difference within dna can cause a single change in the amino acid sequence of a protein. because protein structures are the result of their amino acid sequences, some changes can dramatically change the properties of a protein by destabilizing the structure or changing the surface of the protein in a way that changes its interaction with other proteins and molecules. for example, sickle - cell anemia is a human genetic disease that results from a single base difference within the coding region for the β - globin section of hemoglobin, causing a single amino acid change that changes hemoglobin ' s physical properties. sickle - cell versions of hemoglobin stick to themselves, stacking to form fibers that distort the shape of red blood cells carrying the protein. these sickle - shaped cells no longer flow smoothly through blood vessels, having a tendency to clog or degrade, causing the medical problems associated with this disease. some genes are transcribed into rna but are not translated into protein products - these are called non - coding rna molecules. in some cases, these products fold into structures which are involved in critical cell functions ( eg. ribosomal rna and transfer rna ). rna can also have regulatory effect through hybridization interactions with other rna molecules ( eg. microrna ). nature versus nurtureedit although genes contain all the information an organism uses to function, the environment plays an important role in determining the ultimate phenotype — a dichotomy often referred to as


molecules ( eg. microrna ). nature versus nurtureedit although genes contain all the information an organism uses to function, the environment plays an important role in determining the ultimate phenotype — a dichotomy often referred to as " nature vs. nurture. " the phenotype of an organism depends on the interaction of genetics with the environment. one example of this is the case of temperature - sensitive mutations. often, a single amino acid change within the sequence of a protein does not change its behavior and interactions with other molecules, but it does destabilize the structure. in a high temperature environment, where molecules are moving more quickly and hitting each other, this results in the protein losing its structure and failing to function. in a low temperature environment, however, the protein ' s structure is stable and functions normally. this type of mutation is visible in the coat coloration of siamese cats, where a mutation in an enzyme responsible for pigment production causes it to destabilize and lose function at high temperatures. the protein remains functional in areas of skin that are colder — legs, ears, tail, and face — and so the cat has dark fur at its extremities. environment also plays a dramatic role in effects of the human genetic disease phenylketonuria. the mutation that causes phenylketonuria disrupts the ability of the body to break down the amino acid phenylalanine, causing a toxic build - up of an intermediate molecule that, in turn, causes severe symptoms of progressive mental retardation and seizures. if someone with the phenylketonuria mutation follows a strict diet that avoids this amino acid, however, they remain normal and healthy. - main article : regulation of gene expression the genome of a given organism contains thousands of genes, but not all these genes need to be active at any given moment. a gene is expressed when it is being transcribed into mrna ( and translated into protein ), and there exist many cellular methods of controlling the expression of genes such that proteins are produced only when needed by the cell. transcription factors are regulatory proteins that bind to the start of genes, either promoting or inhibiting the transcription of the gene. within the genome of escherichia coli bacteria, for example, there exists a series of genes necessary for the synthesis of the amino acid tryptophan. however, when tryptophan is already available to the cell, these genes for tryptophan synthesis are no longer needed. the presence of


, there exists a series of genes necessary for the synthesis of the amino acid tryptophan. however, when tryptophan is already available to the cell, these genes for tryptophan synthesis are no longer needed. the presence of tryptophan directly affects the activity of the genes — tryptophan molecules bind to the tryptophan repressor ( a transcription factor ), changing the repressor ' s structure such that the repressor binds to the genes. the tryptophan repressor blocks the transcription and expression of the genes, thereby creating negative feedback regulation of the tryptophan synthesis process. differences in gene expression are especially clear within multicellular organisms, where cells all contain the same genome but have very different structures and behaviors due to the expression of different sets of genes. all the cells in a multicellular organism derive from a single cell, differentiating into variant cell types in response to external and intercellular signals and gradually establishing different patterns of gene expression to create different behaviors. as no single gene is responsible for the development of structures within multicellular organisms, these patterns arise from the complex interactions between many cells. within eukaryotes there exist structural features of chromatin that influence the transcription of genes, often in the form of modifications to dna and chromatin that are stably inherited by daughter cells. these features are called " epigenetic " because they exist " on top " of the dna sequence and retain inheritance from one cell generation to the next. because of epigenetic features, different cell types grown within the same medium can retain very different properties. although epigenetic features are generally dynamic over the course of development, some, like the phenomenon of paramutation, have multigenerational inheritance and exist as rare exceptions to the general rule of dna as the basis for inheritance. - main article : mutation during the process of dna replication, errors occasionally occur in the polymerization of the second strand. these errors, called mutations, can have an impact on the phenotype of an organism, especially if they occur within the protein coding sequence of a gene. error rates are usually very low — 1 error in every 10 – 100 million bases — due to the " proofreading " ability of dna polymerases. ( without proofreading error rates are a thousand - fold higher ; because many viruses rely on dna and rna polymerases that lack proofreading ability, they experience higher mutation rates. ) processes that increase the rate of changes in