one more word december 7, 2000 in last month ' s column, i talked about the basics of working with microsoft word documents programmatically, and discussed how to work with the contents of a document using the range object. i got a lot of interesting feedback on that column, along with requests for some additional information. specifically, readers asked about working with documents using the selection object and working with bookmarks programmatically. so, this month i will talk about the selection object, provide some information on the differences between the selection object and the range object, and give you some information on programmatically working with bookmarks in word documents. working with the selection object the selection object represents the currently selected text in a word document. the selection object is always present in a document ; if no text is selected, it represents the insertion point. unlike the range object, there can only be one selection object at a time. you can use the selection object ' s type property to get information about the state of the current selection. for example, if there is no current selection, the selection object ' s type property returns wdselectionip. the type property will return one of nine values represented by the wdselectiontype enumerated constants. you use the selection property to return a selection object. the selection property is available from the application, window, and pane objects. however, because the selection property is global, you can refer to it without referencing another object first. for example, the following sample code illustrates how you use the selection property to get information about the currently selected text : sub selectioncurrentinfo ( ) dim strmessage as string with selection if. characters. count > 1 then strmessage = " the selection object in ' " _ & activedocument. name & " ' contains " _ &. characters. count & " characters, " _ &. words. count & " words, " &. sentences. count _ & " sentences, and " &. paragraphs. count _ & " paragraphs. " msgbox strmessage end if end with end sub the next example shows how you can use the range property of the selection object to replace currently selected text : sub changeselectedtext ( ) dim rngdoccontent as word. range dim strnewtext as string if selection. type = wdselectionip then msgbox " please select a word to replace before running " _ & " this procedure. "


dim rngdoccontent as word. range dim strnewtext as string if selection. type = wdselectionip then msgbox " please select a word to replace before running " _ & " this procedure. " exit sub else strnewtext = inputbox ( " enter text to replace ' " _ & selection. text & " '. ", " replace existing text " ) if len ( strnewtext ) = 0 then exit sub end if set rngdoccontent = selection. range rngdoccontent. text = strnewtext end sub when it comes to manipulating text, the selection and range objects have many methods and properties in common. however, the selection object has a unique set of methods for manipulating text. these are the typetext, typeparagraph, and typebackspace methods. you use these methods to enter or remove text, and to insert paragraph marks in a selection object. in order to get the results you expect, there are a few things you need to understand about these methods. the typemethodname methods may delete existing text, depending on the value of the options object ' s replaceselection property. the replaceselection property returns the value of the typing replaces selection option on the edit tab in the options dialog box. when the replaceselection property is true, using any of the typename methods will result in the currently selected text being replaced. when the replaceselection property is false, the typetext and typeparagraph methods add text or a paragraph mark to the beginning of the current selection. in addition, when the replaceselection property is false, the typebackspace method behaves the same as the collapse method of a range or selection object when the wdcollapsestart constant is specified in the direction argument. the collapse method collapses a range or selection so that its starting point and ending point are the same. comparing the selection object and the range object in many ways, the selection object is like a range object. the selection object represents an arbitrary portion of a document. it has properties that represent characters, words, sentences, paragraphs, and other objects in a word document. the main difference is that when you use the range object, it ' s not necessary to first select the text. in addition, there can be only one selection object at a time, but the number of range objects you can create is unlimited. the selection object and the range object have many


the range object, it ' s not necessary to first select the text. in addition, there can be only one selection object at a time, but the number of range objects you can create is unlimited. the selection object and the range object have many common methods and properties, and it is easy to return a range object from a selection object or to create a selection object from a range object. however, most things you can do with a selection object, you can do even faster with a range object. there are two main reasons for this : - the range object typically requires fewer lines of code to accomplish a task. - manipulating a range object does not incur the overhead associated with word having to move or change the selection " highlight " in the active document. in addition, you can do much more with a range object than you can with a selection object : - you can manipulate a range object without changing what the user has selected in the document. practically speaking, you could save the original selection by using a range object variable, manipulate the selection object programmatically, then use the saved range object ' s select method to display the original selection. but there is rarely a good reason to show the user that the selection is changing. some wordbasic developers relied on changing the selection to indicate to the user that the code was still running. but this is not the right way to convey information to a user. an operation that takes a long time to execute should signal its progress by using a progress meter or by posting status messages to the status bar. - you can maintain multiple range objects in your code, and, where necessary, store those objects in a custom collection object. you cannot do these two things by using only the selection object. working with bookmarks in many ways, a bookmark object is similar to a selection or range object in that it represents a contiguous area in a document. it has a starting position and an ending position, and it can be as small as the insertion point or as large as the entire document. however, a bookmark object differs from a selection or range object because you can give the bookmark object a name and it does not go away when your code stops running or when the document is closed. in addition, although bookmarks are normally hidden, you can make them visible by setting the view object ' s showbookmarks property to true. you use bookmarks to mark a location in a document or as a container for text in a document. the following examples illustrate these uses : - you can use book


make them visible by setting the view object ' s showbookmarks property to true. you use bookmarks to mark a location in a document or as a container for text in a document. the following examples illustrate these uses : - you can use bookmarks to mark areas in a document that will contain data supplied by the user or obtained from an outside source. for example, a business letter template may have bookmarks marking the locations for name and address information. your visual basic for applications ( vba ) code could obtain the data from the user or from a database, then insert it in the locations marked by bookmarks. once a location is marked, navigating to that location is as simple as navigating to the bookmark. you can determine whether a document contains a specific bookmark by using the bookmarks collection ' s exists method. you display a bookmark location by using the bookmark object ' s select method. once a bookmark is selected, the selection object and the bookmark object represent the same location in the document. - if you have a document that contains boilerplate text that you need to modify in certain circumstances, you can use vba code to insert different text in these specified locations, depending on whether certain conditions are met. you can use a bookmark object ' s range property to create a range object, then use the range object ' s insertbefore method, insertafter method, or text property to add or modify the text within a bookmark. once you understand the subtleties associated with adding or changing text through vba code, working with bookmarks can be a powerful way to enhance your custom solutions in word. you add a bookmark by using the bookmarks collection ' s add method. you specify the bookmark ' s location by specifying a range or selection object in the add method ' s range argument. when you use the insertbefore method, the insertafter method, or the text property, a range object automatically expands to incorporate the new text. as you will see in the next few examples, a bookmark does not adjust itself as easily, but making a bookmark as dynamic as a range is a simple exercise. when you use the range object ' s insertbefore method to add text to a bookmark, the text is added to the start of the bookmark and the bookmark expands to include the new text. for example, if you had a bookmark named customeraddress on the following text ( the brackets appear when the


a bookmark, the text is added to the start of the bookmark and the bookmark expands to include the new text. for example, if you had a bookmark named customeraddress on the following text ( the brackets appear when the showbookmarks property is set to true ) : [ seattle, wa 12345 ] you could add the street address to this bookmark by using the following vba code : dim rngrange as word. range set rngrange = activedocument. bookmarks ( " customeraddress " ). range rngrange. insertbefore " 1234 elm drive # 233 " & vbcrlf as you might expect, the bookmark expands to include the additional address information : [ 1234 elm drive # 233 seattle, wa 12345 ] now suppose you wanted to use the insertafter method to add text to the end of a bookmark that contains the street address, and you want to add the city, state, and zip code information by using this code : dim rngrange as word. range set rngrange = activedocument. bookmarks ( " customeraddress " ). range rngrange. insertafter vbcrlf & " seattle, wa 12345 " note that when you use the insertafter method to add text to the end of a bookmark, the bookmark does not automatically expand to include the new text : [ 1234 elm drive # 233 ] seattle, wa 12345 this behavior could create problems if you were unaware of it. but now you are aware of it, and the solution is quite easy. the first part of the solution results from the benefits achieved when you use the selection and range objects together. the second part results from another aspect of bookmarks that you need to know : when you add a bookmark to a document in which the bookmark already exists, the original bookmark is deleted ( but not the text it contained ) when the new bookmark is created. the following sample code uses the insertafter method to add text to the end of the customeraddress bookmark. it then uses the range object ' s select method to create a selection object that covers all the text you want to bookmark. finally, it uses the bookmarks collection ' s add method to add a new bookmark that has the same name as the original bookmark, then uses the selection object ' s range property to specify the location of the bookmark : dim rngrange


, it uses the bookmarks collection ' s add method to add a new bookmark that has the same name as the original bookmark, then uses the selection object ' s range property to specify the location of the bookmark : dim rngrange as word. range set rngrange = activedocument. bookmarks ( " customeraddress " ). range with rngrange. insertafter vbcrlf & " seattle, wa 12345 ". select end with activedocument. bookmarks. add " customeraddress ", selection. range if you use the range object ' s text property to replace the entire contents of a bookmark, you run into a similar problem : the text in the bookmark is replaced, but in the process, the bookmark itself is deleted. the solution to this problem is the same solution we used for the insertafter method in the preceding example. you insert the new text, use the range object ' s select method to select the text, then create a new bookmark that has the same name as the original bookmark. where to get more info the techniques discussed in this column should go a long way toward making you more productive when you work with the content of a word document programmatically. for additional information, check out the following resources : - for more information on working with the word object model, see the word technical articles section. - for more information about differences between how the selection and range objects work when using the find and replacement objects, see http : / / msdn. microsoft. com / library / default. asp? url = / library / en - us / modcore / html / deovrthefindreplacementobjects. asp. - to see the word object model diagram, see http : / / msdn. microsoft. com / library / default. asp? url = / library / en - us / odeomg / html / deovrmicrosoftword2000. asp. - as always, check in regularly at the office developer center for information and technical articles on office solution development. david shank is a programmer / writer on the office team specializing in developer documentation. rumor has it he lives high in the mountains to the east of redmond and is one of the few native northwesterners who still lives in the northwest.


metropolis and soa governance richard veryard and philip boxer service oriented architecture ( soa ) summary : in the service economy, we expect service - oriented systems to emerge that are increasingly large and complex, but that are also capable of behaviors that are increasingly differentiated. as we shall see, this is one of the key challenges of service oriented architecture ( soa ), and is discussed in this article. ( 20 printed pages ) from time to space the defining technology of the past thousand years was the clock, and the prevailing technological imperative has been to save time, to make things go faster or better than before. see box 1. box 1. chronarchy. the power of the clock. " i was your slave, now you are mine : i am time. " ( incredible string band ) modern mechanical clocks with falling weights were invented around a thousand years ago. the invention is often attributed to pope sylvester ii, who was an accomplished mathematician and scientist before becoming pope. under the rule of st. benedict, mediaeval monasteries used the clock to regulate labor and prayer. lewis mumford traces the origins of the industrial revolution to the rule of st. benedict, and to the domination of the clock. charlie chaplin ' s film modern times shows ( in exaggerated form ) the relentless power of the clock over the production line worker. business process engineering in the late twentieth century was focused on reducing cycle time, eliminating waiting. the key slogan : just - in - time. of course, it is too early to say what the defining technology of the next thousand years will turn out to be. but there are already some signs of a shift from an emphasis on time towards an emphasis on difference. the internet, for example, creates new kinds of difference in the relationships between people and organizations ; business organizations operate as differentiated nodes or clusters within complex networked ecosystems ; social and institutional cohesion is mapped against the coordinates of complex abstract dimensions of difference. our understanding of complexity itself rests upon the recognition that once we go beyond a certain threshold of difference in the behaviors of systems, it becomes impossible to predict their composite behavior. thus in the service economy, we expect service - oriented systems to emerge that are increasingly large and increasingly complex, but that are also capable of behaviors that are increasingly differentiated. as we shall see, this is one of the key challenges of service oriented architecture ( soa ). the city or metropolis is another large complex system, which many of us encounter in our everyday lives, and which we typically experience as differentiated in its behavior. our familiarity with


this is one of the key challenges of service oriented architecture ( soa ). the city or metropolis is another large complex system, which many of us encounter in our everyday lives, and which we typically experience as differentiated in its behavior. our familiarity with cities makes the metropolis a good starting place for working out the best approach to building and governing such large complex systems. furthermore, many of the key issues for the design and governance of large complex service - oriented systems arise also in the field of urban design, where they have been debated for decades ( although without reaching consensus ). as it happens, the latest heavyweight contribution to the debate on physical architecture and urban design comes from christopher alexander, whose long - awaited work on the nature of order has finally been published. alexander has had a profound influence on software engineering for many years — his early work on the synthesis of form influenced the structured methods of yourdon and demarco, while his middle work on patterns was taken up enthusiastically by large numbers of software engineers, especially in the oo world. from cities to soa in the twentieth century, two of the best writers on the nature of cities were lewis mumford and jane jacobs. mumford thought a well - ordered city needed central planning and infrastructure, while jacobs took a more anarchist position. box 2. soa governance questions from pat helland here are some of the issues raised in the city debate : adaptability : in nineteenth century england, manchester was highly adapted to the cotton industry, but failed to adapt to later waves of industrialization. meanwhile, birmingham was far more adaptable, and this enabled it to accommodate a series of industrial innovations. complexity : a city contains a vast quantity of social and commercial interaction. a living city allows for many different levels of such interaction, and for meaningful clusters and subclusters to emerge, which form an abstract hierarchy. governance : city planning requires orchestration of developments large and small, balancing local initiative and autonomy against global coherence. there are some strong parallels between town planning and service - oriented architecture, which make it reasonable to translate ideas and experience from urban design into the soa domain. the distribution of design : detailed design decisions are taken within different organizations, each following its own agenda ( commercial or political goals, for example ). the constancy of change : elements of the whole are constantly being redesigned and reconfigured, and new elements are constantly being added. structures must evolve in robust ways. the need for progressive improvement : each design increment should not only make


pavement. it is a question for city governance to decide what should / may go under the pavement. the articulation of a complex system into two layers ( one homogeneous, one heterogeneous ) is an architectural question. obviously there are companies with a significant commercial stake in this question. it is therefore worth being suspicious of an articulation that is presented as given by some historical tradition or technical imperative. apparently pure technocratic architectural judgments often conceal a commercial agenda. one of the functions of governance is to maintain a " level playing field " between different commercial agendas. for this reason, regulators often aspire to intervene at the architectural level. it is conceivable that something could look homogeneous from the supply side and heterogeneous from the demand side, or vice versa, so the boundary is itself relative to some supply / demand formulation. technology is constantly creating homogeneous / heterogeneous splits — for example, voice over ip technology creates a split between devices that care whether a bitstream represents voice or data ( and therefore regard the traffic as heterogeneous ), and devices that don ' t care ( and therefore regard the traffic as homogeneous ). one plausible basis for articulation of layers is the differential rate of change. it may appear to make sense to standardize and regulate the slow - moving layer, and allow greater diversity in the fast - moving layer. but an ecological perspective informs us that the slow - moving dominates the fast - moving. this entails a new role for architecture : - to maintain appropriate stratification of layers and coupling between elements within and across layers, and - to operate at a higher level of abstraction, implementing evidence - based design policies. existing approaches to defining architectures may not work very well, even for the homogenous bits. they certainly don ' t work for the heterogeneous bits, and they also don ' t help with defining the boundary between the homogeneous layer ( s ) and the heterogeneous layer ( s ). a consequence of our argument is that the boundary between homogeneous and heterogeneous ( as illustrated above ) is a proper focus of attention for architecture. we shall come back to what this means in practice. we cannot avoid the commoditization of our lives — but we should be wary of its dangers. fortunately, we no longer have to put up with one - size - fits - all software. situated software — software designed in and for a particular social situation or context — resists the traditional software engineering pressure towards generalization


be wary of its dangers. fortunately, we no longer have to put up with one - size - fits - all software. situated software — software designed in and for a particular social situation or context — resists the traditional software engineering pressure towards generalization, and apparently disregards the economics of scale / scope. instead, it works solely within a collaborative socio - technical system ( the " community " ) ; the conditions for the success of the software ( including meaning and trust ) are co - created by the members of the community. one of the earliest forms of situated software was the spreadsheet. power users built themselves complicated structures using visicalc or lotus 123 or excel. these were essentially non - transferable artifacts with many hidden assumptions, but they served a useful purpose within a given context. this illustrates the fact that situated software is assisted by the existence of tools and platforms that provide generalized support for situated software. the overwhelming success of the spreadsheet was due to the fact that it performed a useful function, while leaving the user free to create context - specific meanings. but the spreadsheet was also limited by the fact that these meanings were private and undocumented, and attempts to turn spreadsheets into shared artifacts typically failed. this is where the software factory comes in. there is a great opportunity here to produce software tools capable of supporting a rich diversity of end - user demand. a domain specific language ( dsl ) can be a way of bridging and holding open the gap between the general / public and the context - specific / private, and maintain the dynamic interaction between supply and demand. this dynamic needs to be driven by the way the end - user defines the relationship between domains and their business as a whole. the service economy is a complex ecosystem. service - oriented solutions are essentially systems of systems, and their composition should be mindful of complex systems theory. to maintain requisite variety ( and therefore survival of the fittest ) in such an ecosystem, we need diversity at all levels of abstraction. concentration of power the wal - mart economic system is unsustainable. it destroys the fabric of small shops on which a rich urban life depends. cities are somewhat paradoxical. on the one hand, a city is itself already a concentration of human activity. but the concentration processes are unstable, and can result in highly dysfunctional urban forms. historically, cities have had walls to keep out unwanted visitors. elsewhere, helland has advocated the fortress model of computing. but here, he seems to be envisioning a


concentration processes are unstable, and can result in highly dysfunctional urban forms. historically, cities have had walls to keep out unwanted visitors. elsewhere, helland has advocated the fortress model of computing. but here, he seems to be envisioning a continuous metropolitan fabric, where one city fades into the next ( as manchester merges into salford ). helland ' s plea for central investment ( the lewis mumford position ) provides a justification for corporate central planning and investment in it. many large and small organizations attempt to impose central it planning. however, in many organizations this is a losing battle. the actual situation of the it industry emerges from millions of small procurement decisions, and is closer to the idea of anarchic procurement ( the jane jacobs position ). salingaros draws on alexander to describe how the mumford and jacobs dispute can be resolved — but by adopting an approach that goes beyond simply attempting to reconcile the top - down with the bottom - up. preservation of the " sacred " a modern version of the sacred may be found in borgmann ' s notion of focal things and practices. the role of urban / system governance would be to create / preserve a space in which these focal things and practices can be developed and honored. in an agile demand economy, the source of the sacred is demand. this contrasts with a supply - side logic based on a presumption of symmetric demand, in which markets are defined to reflect the supplier, so that formations of demand are symmetrical to the formations of supply. in talking about virtual enterprises, helland writes : " you have to consider the context in which the part will be used. is weight or ruggedness the principle concern? " helland argues that standards are the key to enabling component providers to leverage the cost of optimization across a broader market, and this can be understood as supply - side logic. however, this issue goes beyond standardization ( here extended to business component models, enabling them to be encapsulated as component capabilities and orchestrated as a part of larger assemblies of processes ) and opens up the granularity of component capabilities with respect to each other. that is, what is the repertoire of alternative component capabilities available. this needs to be understood from the demand - side, as well. in considering business process, this argument is extended by analogy to the need for standardization and interchangeability in data and operations : " people cheerfully accept standard stuff and customization is rare and expensive. but business process is still largely hand - crafted. there are poor standards … " and so the argument goes


by analogy to the need for standardization and interchangeability in data and operations : " people cheerfully accept standard stuff and customization is rare and expensive. but business process is still largely hand - crafted. there are poor standards … " and so the argument goes for standardization providing a basis of extending a supply - side logic deeper into the provision of services, with business process becoming the driving force that dictates the shape and form of applications " as surely as wal - mart drives the standards for many, many manufactured goods. " this doesn ' t meet the challenge of the above retail cycle. this cycle describes the emergence of a new form of supply - demand relationship ( destination ), which expands to become a new form of offering alongside others ( comparison ), before it becomes commoditized ( cost ), and ultimately embedded into the user ' s context ( custom ). from here, the ground is prepared for a new cycle ( the transitional cusp ), and so on. this cycle is a dynamic process, in which the supply - side is constantly learning new forms of supply in response to a demand which is always evolving — and never fully satisfied. asymmetric demand describes the demand in its particular context - of - use, and this something - always - left - to - be - desired is a structural deficit that is always there driving the development of markets. commoditization is only the supply - side part of the story, the real issue being the way the dynamics of the formation of demand itself has to be supported. nature of order for several decades, christopher alexander has been exploring alternatives to conventional architectural practice. his latest work, the nature of order, was published last year. box 4. the nature of order. christopher alexander ' s manifesto figure 1. capability requirement according to alexander, large complex systems cannot be produced by a conventional design process — either top - down or bottom - up. instead, they emerge from an extended and collaborative ( evolutionary ) process. order and coherence come from the rules that govern this evolutionary process. this evolutionary process can be broken down into discrete steps, which may either preserve structure and wholeness, or destroy it. structure and wholeness is articulated as a recursive system of centers. services can easily be considered as centers of value. services can be composed into composite services, with service orchestration ( hopefully ) yielding coherence between recursive levels. a service - oriented enterprise can then be understood as a continuous corporate web of services. the architectural properties of this enterprise depend on the


can be composed into composite services, with service orchestration ( hopefully ) yielding coherence between recursive levels. a service - oriented enterprise can then be understood as a continuous corporate web of services. the architectural properties of this enterprise depend on the numerous collaborating processes that bring about its composition. if these are appropriately structure - preserving, then the enterprise can become both increasingly differentiated and increasingly integrated, without loss of coherence. alexander is highly critical of the conventional governance over city planning and urban design, and highly critical of the inflexible and inhuman results of directed composition. his ideas on design and order are, we believe, consistent with the needs of collaborative composition, as outlined in this paper. a business or value chain is composed in a geometric structure. in soa, we design a business or value chain as a network of services. this is a powerful geometrical pattern. but there may be many possible network geometries capable of satisfying a given business requirement, all of which count as satisfying the principles of soa. for example : hub / spoke or peer / peer. a key characteristic of soa is stratification. a business process is composed of services from a set of lower - level services, presented as a platform. a good example of a business platform is the set of retail services offered by amazon and ebay. other service providers have built further retail / logistical services on top of the amazon / ebay platforms. each platform is in turn built upon even lower services. at the lower levels, there may be collections of it - based services, known as an enterprise service bus ( esb ). there may also be socio - technical service platforms, such as call centers. some of these lower layers of the stack may appear to be purely technical services ; however, a more complete picture should reveal the existence of an it organization maintaining the platform, in other words it, too, is a socio - technical platform that includes its administrators and programmers. thus we have a stratified geometry, in which a person tackling a problem at a given level is presented with a collection of available services, formed into a virtual platform. this can be thought of as a business stack, with one platform stacked on top of another. and while the soa principles may provide some geometrical guidance, and mandate certain geometrical patterns, there is still a design job to determine the form of geometry most appropriate to supporting the service demanded. this design job may be easy when the requirement is trivial, but gets harder as the complexity increases


geometrical guidance, and mandate certain geometrical patterns, there is still a design job to determine the form of geometry most appropriate to supporting the service demanded. this design job may be easy when the requirement is trivial, but gets harder as the complexity increases. in many situations, the demand side has more variation than a human designer ( or design team ) can accommodate. ( we characterize this as an asymmetry of demand, which calls for a process of asymmetric design. ) under these circumstances, we need to go still further and start thinking about variable geometry solutions, where the geometry itself can be adapted on - demand. for example, in the past we have assumed that granularity has to be fixed at design time. but we can conceive of a web service platform that detects patterns of demand - side composition, defines new component services automatically, describing and publishing these new services in real time, and notifies likely users of the new service, complete with an incentive to switch to new ways of orchestrating them in support of demand - side composition. we can conceive of such a web service platform analyzing the message content of a certain service, and producing a substitute service with a smaller footprint that would satisfy most of the uses in a more elegant way. we use the term value landscape to refer to the distribution of cost, benefit, and know - how across a complex market ecosystem, such as the insurance industry, for a given level of risk. technology ( including soa ) influences business geometry, because it not only affects transaction costs, but also the way know - how can be leveraged in relation to demand. the shape of the value landscape changes ( has already started to change ) as the result of b2b, b2c, p2p, and bpo. companies that once occupied safe market positions may find their commercial advantage slipping away, or they may find themselves cut off from their former customers or supply chains. let ' s suppose an insurance company has the following strategic aims : - profitability, short - term viability. to deliver the maximum service value as cost - effectively as possible, using available input services and technologies as efficiently as possible, with minimum costs / risks of change. - adaptability, medium - term viability. to understand and respond to changing demand for insurance services, and to trends in cost and risk, both internally and across the industry. to develop and deploy new services to exploit new business opportunities and avoid emerging business threats. - survival, long - term viability.


and respond to changing demand for insurance services, and to trends in cost and risk, both internally and across the industry. to develop and deploy new services to exploit new business opportunities and avoid emerging business threats. - survival, long - term viability. making sure the core business proposition remains valid, and doesn ' t get eroded by more agile players. taking strategic action in relation to structural changes in the insurance industry. if we are doing business geometry for an insurance company, we need to think about the insurance industry as an evolving ecosystem. we need an as - is model of the present ecosystem ( largely based on pre - soa technologies ) and a to - be model of an emerging ecosystem ( based on the effects of soa ). we can expect the pre - soa ecosystem to evolve into some form of post - soa ecosystem, although we may not have much idea which of the possible changes is going to happen first. to satisfy all three strategic aims, an insurance company needs to exploit the pre - soa ecosystem, and prepare for the post - soa ecosystem. note that this situation may force the insurance company to implement a variable geometry across its business stack, both in the organizational platform and in the underlying it platform. otherwise, it will either have to operate suboptimally for an extended period, or incur significant organization costs and it costs every time the industry takes another step towards soa. variable geometry involves a dynamic collaboration ( collaborative composition ) between an efficient supply side and a variable ( asymmetric ) demand side, as shown in figure 2. asymmetry of demand asymmetry means that the forms of demand are increasingly specific to the context in which they arise. the first asymmetry involves separating out technology from the supply of specific products. figure 2. collaborative composition in the insurance value chain ( based on microsoft ivc ) 7 this requires modeling of possible behaviors that can be supported ( so microsoft or car manufacturing has to modularize itself in support of families of technology use ). the second asymmetry requires separating out business models that can organize supply from the solutions that are on offer. this requires modeling of the possible forms of business geometry ( so rail maintenance or retail services have to use a franchise model to allow the variation n in business organization to accommodate the variety of ways in which the service needs to be implemented ). and the third asymmetry requires separating out the different contexts of use. this requires modeling of the possible forms of demand ( so that financial or care services are having to take up


the variety of ways in which the service needs to be implemented ). and the third asymmetry requires separating out the different contexts of use. this requires modeling of the possible forms of demand ( so that financial or care services are having to take up the way the through - time wealth / conditions are managed in a way that responds to different forms of context - of - use ). figure 3. three asymmetries of demand these asymmetries are summarized in figure 3, and it is worth considering what happens if they are ignored. in the first asymmetry, this means defining the product by the technology. this is typical of the early stages in the emergence of new technologies. ( do you remember how we used to have to use mobile phones? ). in the second asymmetry, this means defining the solution for the customer by the way the business is organized. ( do you remember how large businesses used to relate to their customers before crm? ). and in the third asymmetry, the solution to the problem presented by the customer is assumed to be what the customer actually needs. ( have you ever received a prescription from the doctor that turns out only to treat the symptom? ). we see the major competitive impact of soa being that it changes what the supplier can afford to ignore from the customer ' s perspective. to become better at capturing asymmetric forms of demand, an organization needs leadership that will enable it to do two things : - take power to the edge of the organization : the people at the edge of the organization with the relationship to the asymmetric demand must be able to organize the business model they need to capture that demand. - develop an agile infrastructure : providing business services that can be orchestrated and composed at the edge in response to the particular forms of demand they are targeting. this then allows the supply - side of a business to extract economies of scale or scope when providing support across multiple business models. asymmetry in the variety of conditions that people have, and the ways in which they reveal themselves in people ' s lives over time, is ever increasing. meanwhile, hospitals and clinics are having to become ever more efficient in how they administer particular care pathways. we see this challenge particularly in relation to conditions that are chronic. thus patients don ' t produce conditions that fit the treatments that are available, while organizing acute care systems around the treatment of chronic conditions becomes exorbitantly expensive. patients ' conditions are relentlessly asymmetric from the point of view of the medical


thus patients don ' t produce conditions that fit the treatments that are available, while organizing acute care systems around the treatment of chronic conditions becomes exorbitantly expensive. patients ' conditions are relentlessly asymmetric from the point of view of the medical specialists trying to care for them. for example, acute surgery can often be traced to an earlier failure to provide timely prophylactic treatment. getting power to the edge in healthcare means the funding following the patient, and the doctors having the ability to craft a treatment plan that is particular to the patient ' s condition. this creates a double challenge for healthcare provision. not only must it increase the flexibility with which its component services may be made available to patients, but also the doctors have to have a much greater involvement in formulating whole - life strategies of healthcare provision that can be tailor - made to a patient ' s condition over time, and for the delivery of which they can be held accountable. where this can be done, the total cost of care is reduced. a healthcare purchasing and supplies agency ( pasa ) was responsible for the supplies of equipment to a clinical service. they were concerned about the side - effects of minimizing the costs of these supplies — reduced investment in the industry and a vicious circle of decline in the quality of the clinical service itself. they decided that the conventional symmetric design wasn ' t working for them ; in an attempt to improve the quality of the clinical service itself, they decided to consider developing an approach that addressed the asymmetric nature of the clinic ' s demands. they conducted an initial pilot study to establish the feasibility of an asymmetric design process. what pasa accepted was that they needed to address the demand - side of the clinic, and establish how best to satisfy its needs. within this context - of - use, they could then address the question of the costs of supply. a national process was set up by the modernization agency. this process ran six pathfinder projects, each of which aimed to establish how to effect change in each context. it was the national project ' s task to secure long - term support and funding for the change process in the light of the learning and results of the pathfinders. this ultimately involved modeling the regional and national impact of the changes on nhs and social services budgets. from the point of view of the supply to the clinics, the demand - side modeling was of the referral pathways and the services offered by each clinic in response to the demands arising from those referral pathways. the supply - side modeling was of the


from the point of view of the supply to the clinics, the demand - side modeling was of the referral pathways and the services offered by each clinic in response to the demands arising from those referral pathways. the supply - side modeling was of the organization of the clinic itself, together with its use of suppliers, in order to establish how the one was aligned to the other. where this " cut " came between the supply - side and demand - side was a function of who the client was, and what their change agenda was. nevertheless, in examining the referral pathways and the particular ways in which they themselves had been " colonized " by suppliers, further questions were raised about the organization of primary care itself. these questions were left, however, to be taken up by a different client system at a later time — and which would have to address the interests of the strategic health authorities. the key challenge was to give the clinicians " design control " over how the clinics operated ( that is, power at the edge ). fundamental to this was to grasp on the supply - side the chronic multi - episode nature of the conditions being treated by the clinic, and on the demand - side the processes of delegation and / or teaming of clinical responsibility for patients ' conditions. the clinicians lacked the means of defining the different characteristics of the former, and managing the complexities of the latter. furthermore, without the means of doing these things, there was no practical way of holding the clinicians accountable for the clinical performance of their clinic. the solution was to build a reporting platform that could support the doing of these things. this modeling involved defining the referral pathways and their actual characteristics. from this emerged the requirement to change the way the clinic was relating to demand. this modeling involved defining the service propositions and clinical business models needed. in the former case, this meant establishing episode protocols for different conditions, and in the latter, changing the workflow processes between the clinic and front and back office processes in support. no realignment of the supply infrastructures was attempted, considerable gains being available simply through the way the alignment of suppliers to the demand was managed. the reporting platform built provided the means of achieving this. the platform allowed the clinic to define its own treatment protocols in relation to its own definitions of referred conditions. the back end of the platform was able to lift data out of the nhs environment on patients, appointments, and so on. figure 4 shows a typical roadmap for the service - based business as it responds to the competitive impact of


referred conditions. the back end of the platform was able to lift data out of the nhs environment on patients, appointments, and so on. figure 4 shows a typical roadmap for the service - based business as it responds to the competitive impact of soa. the business tackles each form of asymmetry in turn : - it uses a " service wrap " to decouple the product from the technology. this includes defining a different object model for the demand side, separating " raw " data from what we might call " cooked " data. - it uses a " solution wrap " to decouple the solution from the business. this includes defining different rules for the demand side, separating the business logic from the orchestration of different solutions. - it uses an " experience wrap " to decouple the ongoing customer experience from the particular solutions bought by the customer at any one time. this includes new forms of process modeling to understand the customer experience of solutions within their particular contexts of use. figure 4. supply - demand roadmap the point about this progression is that it confronts the supplying business with the need to manage increasing complexity ( and concurrency ) in the way the value chain relates to the customer. hence the competitive significance of soa. box 6. implications of asymmetry — the three dilemmas breaking the three symmetries with the first symmetry, the business only needs one model, because demand can be inferred from supply ( or so it seems at the time! ). when this symmetry is broken, two models are needed : one to manage the technology, and the other to manage the business. how many times has an investor of venture capital had to teach this to a start - up business? figure 5. the stratification of models if the full potential of a business proposition is to be realized, the second symmetry must also be broken ( this is something that every marketing mba learns ). now there are three models : one to manage the technology, one to manage the business, and one to manage the market solution. thus, in the railway example in box 6, you need to separate out how you deliver the service because you cannot derive the output - side service levels for the train operating companies purely from the input - side service requirements of the rail infrastructure ( unless, that is, you are prepared to service to the highest level of quality under all circumstances ). but what effect does breaking the third symmetry have? what crm tells us is that the ' market solution ' is also a customer relationship. but in


, that is, you are prepared to service to the highest level of quality under all circumstances ). but what effect does breaking the third symmetry have? what crm tells us is that the ' market solution ' is also a customer relationship. but in breaking the third symmetry we have to learn that each customer incorporates the solution into a context - of - use that is different. thus in healthcare, it is no longer just a question of delivering particular treatments cost - efficiently, but also of delivering the right treatment at the right time within the context of an evolving patient condition — like old age, for example! thus in the pharmaceutical case, you cannot derive the output - side knowledge ( what the gps and pharmacists need to know about the patient ' s condition ) from the input - side knowledge. you need at least two models because you cannot infer the effects of the treatments purely from your knowledge of interactions between the prescription and the situation as it presents itself when you prescribe — it requires a model of the dynamic effects of the prescription within its context - of - use. overall, then, the breaking of symmetries requires six different levels of model to be separated out ( see figure 5 ). even though each of these strata may contain many different levels within it, the agility of the infrastructure will depend on how much variability they will allow in the geometry of how they can be composed. role of the it architect in soa what, then, does all this require of the " it architect " in support of these new forms of agility? our main argument is that there is no single right level of granularity. there is a supply - side versus demand - side dilemma that needs to be addressed by an organic method ( c. f. alexander ) in which the level of stratification at which a change is made must always also address its impact on the levels above and below. as a result, a trade - off has to be made between two types of pressure on any given layer of stratification, one standardizing and the other requiring greater diversity. this places a different kind of demand on the role for architecture. we may think of the role of architecture as the making of certain kinds of ( structural ) judgement. we see architecture as something that emerges from a collaborative process, which may ( but doesn ' t have to ) involve people with the word " architect " in their job title. we may refer to these people as professional architects, although in systems and software engineering there is no professional body granting any official


collaborative process, which may ( but doesn ' t have to ) involve people with the word " architect " in their job title. we may refer to these people as professional architects, although in systems and software engineering there is no professional body granting any official status to this job title. these judgments belong in an asymmetric design regimen. we can then separate the products and processes of architectural activity from the professional responsibilities of suitably qualified architects. the structural properties of a city depend on a complex collaborative process, in which the professional judgments of architects are pitted against a broad range of commercial and political interests. professional architects rarely dominate the design of cities, although they may sometimes exert some influence. and we may note a similar situation within it. although there are numerous people in the it industry calling themselves " architect, " the structural properties of large it systems often depend largely on decisions taken elsewhere. for example, the degree of coupling between two modules may have a significant impact on the structural cohesion and flexibility of a large system, but this may be determined by fairly low level development choices that are not even visible to the software architects. in many organizations, software architects can be outmaneuvered and marginalized by coalitions of developers and users. and as outsourcing increases, the position of the software architect may become weaker yet — especially in those instances where contractual specifications focus on the functional requirements and under - specify the structural properties ; and where there are inadequate mechanisms for the architects to verify the structural properties of the delivered software. ( for example, hidden coupling that compromises the intended flexibility of a software artifact. ) so the challenge for software architects is to remain relevant to an soa world, to a world of distributed production of distributed services, by paying attention to the real structural issues emerging in this " on - demand " world. otherwise, they will be unable to contribute anything of value to the design and management of on - demand systems of systems. this leads to a need for forms of analysis that support an asymmetric design regimen, and can enable explicit consideration to be given to implicit choices being made concerning geometry. conclusions and next steps we have seen some vendors recognising the supply - side issues of reconciling multiple web services ( ibm rational, for example ), while other platform vendors are creating the conditions for an explosion in the numbers of ( behavioral ) domains needing to be brought into relation with each other ( microsoft, for example ). in both cases, the service - oriented business is configured as a continuous fabric


while other platform vendors are creating the conditions for an explosion in the numbers of ( behavioral ) domains needing to be brought into relation with each other ( microsoft, for example ). in both cases, the service - oriented business is configured as a continuous fabric of services — " the corporate web. " but this can never be achieved in one large ambitious project. it has to be achieved progressively through a continuous stream of small and medium projects. in the collaborative planning approach, order and coherence emerge from distributed activity, with no central design authority. each unit of procurement, development, or maintenance activity has to be regarded as a project, with project outputs being constituted as services. thus each project contributes something positive to the emerging corporate web of services. so what form of governance is needed to maintain architectural order? soa governance is required to ensure that each project satisfies the global demands of the corporate web, and to ensure that there is a well - balanced mix of projects — different types as well as different scales ( large, medium and small ). what our discussion in part i has outlined is the limitations of a supply - side approach to soa governance — directed composition is limited in its capacity to respond to the full heterogeneity of demand. it leaves too great a value deficit in relation to demand which is increasingly heterogeneous, asymmetric, and spatially as well as temporally differentiated. so we need to take governance to the edge of the organization, acknowledging that we are engaged in processes of asymmetric design, and prepare to meet the twenty - first century on its own terms. in part 2 of this article, we shall open up the question of what taking governance to ' the edge ' means for the design of soa infrastructures as well as for the relation to demand. christopher alexander, the nature of order. 4 volumes. the center for environmental structure, 2002 - 2004. albert borgmann, technology and the character of contemporary life. chicago, 1984. philip boxer & bernie cohen, triple articulation. brl working paper, revised 2004. andrew coward & nikos salingaros, the information architecture of cities, journal of information science, volume 30 no. 2 ( 2004 ), pp. 107 - 118. reprinted in salingaros 2005. jack greenfield & keith short, software factories ( wiley, 2004 ). pat helland, metropolis. microsoft architects journal, april 2004. available at http : / / msdn. microsoft. com / architecture / journ / jane jacobs


2005. jack greenfield & keith short, software factories ( wiley, 2004 ). pat helland, metropolis. microsoft architects journal, april 2004. available at http : / / msdn. microsoft. com / architecture / journ / jane jacobs, the death and life of great american cities ( vintage books, new york, 1961 ). lewis mumford, the culture of cities. ( secker & warburg, 1938 ). richard c. murphy, centers : the architecture of services and the phenomenon of life. ftp online march 2004. http : / / www. ftponline. com / special / soa / murphy / nikos salingaros, principles of urban structure. delft university press, delft, holland, 2005, in press. http : / / www. math. utsa. edu / ~ salingar / urbanstructure. html richard veryard, component - based business ( springer 2001 ). richard veryard & david sprott, the service based business ( cbdi journal, 2003 ). soa governance and business driven soa ( cbdi journal, 2004 ). thanks to bernie cohen, pat helland and nikos salingaros for comments on earlier drafts. - for a useful summary, see coward & salingaros. - pat helland, metropolis. microsoft architects journal, april 2004. available at http : / / msdn. microsoft. com / architecture / journ - practical example — phone companies would like to regard the location of mobile phone masts as mere infrastructure, to be decided on technical grounds and requiring no public consultation. however, people are becoming concerned about the radiation from these masts, especially near homes and schools, and this politicizes the location of masts. - a possible reconciliation of commoditization with human values is provided by albert borgmann. - for a version of this cycle as it applies to health care see " triply articulated modelling of the anticipatory enterprise " by p boxer and prof b. cohen, proceedings of the international conference on complex systems, boston 2004. - see article by murphy. - picture taken from report on service - based business in insurance, cbdi forum november 2004. - this example is derived from work done for pasa. http : / / www. pasa. nhs. uk / orthotics / orthotic _ pathfinder _ report _ july _ 2004. doc - we use judgement here as defined by vickers, to include appreciation and value judgement


according to statistics released by the us department of agriculture earlier this month, 31 percent of the managed honeybee colonies died in the winter. since fruiting is dependent on fertilization, a result of pollination, honeybee decline can impact agriculture. we can directly link honeybees to one out of every three bites of food that we put on our table. western nations rely heavily on managed honeybees — the “ moveable force ” of bees that ride in trucks from farm to farm — to keep commercial agriculture productive. about a third of our foods ( some 100 key crops ) rely on these insects, including apples, nuts, all the favorite summer fruits ( like blueberries and strawberries ), alfalfa ( which cows eat ), and guar bean ( used in all kinds of products ). in total, bees contribute more than $ 15 billion to u. s. crop production, hardly small potatoes. the us department of agriculture ( usda ) explains that colony collapse disorder ( ccd ) is a hive condition where “ very low or no adult honey bees present in the hive but with a live queen and no dead honey bee bodies present. ” according to interviews of beekeepers in the documentaries, this condition can occur within a matter of a few hours. the usda further suggests that possible causes of colony decline could be due to unusually warm winter, bee diet ( ie : protein, in particular ), or cyclic disease, but also states that scientific connections are lacking for the theories. while the european commission ( eu ) has ” has banned the pesticides associated with colony collapse disorder in bees, ” the us has not done so yet. oddly, the report contains this statement : a comprehensive and sensitive analytical survey was done for the presence of 200 pesticides in bee, comb, and pollen samples from 23 states. no specific pattern of pesticide residues emerged that correlates with honey bee deaths march 2010 to be precise, the study linked in the statement says this : the 98 pesticides and metabolites detected in mixtures up to 214 ppm in bee pollen alone represents a remarkably high level for toxicants in the brood and adult food of this primary pollinator. this represents over half of the maximum individual pesticide incidences ever reported for apiaries. while exposure to many of these neurotoxicants elicits acute and sublethal reductions in honey bee fitness, the effects of these materials in combinations and their direct association with ccd or declining bee health remains to be determined. will we fund or


many of these neurotoxicants elicits acute and sublethal reductions in honey bee fitness, the effects of these materials in combinations and their direct association with ccd or declining bee health remains to be determined. will we fund or ignore the “ remains to be determined ” part? would it surprise you at all to learn that yesterday, three large agrichemical pesticide companies came forward with plans to fund research for bee decline? bayer and sygenta “ produce neonicotinoids, ” and monsanto uses the pesticides to coat seeds. these pesticides have been banned in europe, as mentioned above. from wiki : “ neonicotinoids are a class of neuro - active insecticides chemically related to nicotine. the development of this class of insecticides began with work in the 1980s by shell and the 1990s by bayer. ” leo tolstoy said, “ the closer we examine the honeybee, the more we realize the workings of a beehive encompass territories beyond our comprehension. ” usda bee laboratory scientist dr. jeffrey pettis explains in vanishing of the bees that ccd is difficult to study because there are no bee corpses to examine when a colony literally vanishes. ( video at 15 : 30 ). so far, scientists have investigated, and eliminated as possibilities, several microbial and viral suspects. haunting how accurate tolstoy ’ s quote really was. but what is maybe even more haunting is that the beehive workings will be studied with funds that have direct interest in the outcome of the research. one of the scientists in the documentary reveals other suggestions for honeybee decline, that he has received in his email, including cell phones, the rapture, outer space, and the ‘ russians - have - implanted - genes - and - they - are - beaming - them - from - satellite. ’ while the scientist is confident that the persistent cell phone tower rumor is now known nonsense, he does say that the issue of genetically modified crops, while scientists have observed no direct evidence, deserves a bit more attention. what saddens in the documentary is that we have exploited the honeybee, with factory farming practices such as feeding the bees empty sugar calories, killing the queens and replacing them with younger queens introduced in cages, and artificial insemination, with the likes of a scientist ’ s backward after - remark, “ she looks a little rough, but she ’ ll come around. ” there have been only too few, it seems, efforts at returning the bees


return to physics index monegain, louise j. park manor 1 ) students will learn basic understanding of inertia. 2 ) students will demonstrate some activities illustrating inertia. 3 ) students will develop a basic understanding of newton ' s laws of motion. balls various sizes, pie pans with one fourth slice removed, pennies, heavy paper circle, checkers, skate board, stuffed animal, glass, two eggs ( one boiled, one raw ), cloth napkin, glass of water and straws. students should have prior knowledge of speed, force, acceleration, gravity and friction. demonstrate inertia by snatching a cloth napkin from under a glass of water, and a paper circle from under a checker so that the checker falls into the glass and spinning the two eggs. group students into cooperative groupings to carry out the following activities : activity 1 - place a ball in the pie pan and spin the ball. repeat this activity using two balls of different mass. activity 2 - put a ball in motion and try to blow it off of its path with a straw. repeat this activity using balls of various masses. activity 3 - stack five checkers one on top of the other. using your fore - finger flick another checker sharply against the bottom checker of the stack to move it from pile keeping pile undisturbed. discuss newton ' s first law of motion with students. have students answer these three questions : 1 ) how does the pie pan and ball activity help prove the first law of motion? 2 ) which ball was the hardest to move off of the straight path? 3 ) does inertia increase with mass?


in a few short days, this country will witness history in the making. it will be the first time that a black president has been inaugurated for a second term. in this year we celebrate milestones that helped our nation achieve this feat. two of those milestones happened in washington, dc where the latest historical moment will also take place. the emancipation proclamation was signed by president abraham lincoln 150 years ago, abolishing slavery and making blacks free. just 50 years ago, african americans from across the country descended on the nation ’ s capital for the march on washington for jobs and freedom. during this march, dr. martin luther king delivered his infamous, “ i have a dream ” speech where he outlined his dream of what this nation could become. in a lifetime, this nation has become a place where a black man could live in the white house, not for one term, but two. when president obama takes his oath for the second time, he will continue to tie together the legacy of these three great men as he uses president lincoln ’ s bible and dr. king ’ s bible for the public swearing in ceremony on the national king holiday while facing the lincoln monument. while the representation of all that these men fought for seems to be achieved, there is still much work to do. dr. king ’ s dream is no more fulfilled than it was 50 years ago. that is not to say that there has not been progress in working toward the dream, but we are very much a nation still divided along lines of race and class ; adding to that, there still exist gender and homosexual biases and bigotry. we have a long way to go before we can proclaim we ’ ve achieved the dream. since the president was elected, there has been a rise in hate groups. members of congress have been called racial slurs and we have seen the president hung in effigy on numerous occasions. the dream of having equal rights in public spaces and accommodations has been achieved, but the question must be asked, have we achieve the dream referenced when dr. king said in his iconic speech, “ we can never be satisfied as long as the negro is the victim of unspeakable horrors of police brutality … we cannot be satisfied as long as the negro ’ s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. ” have we achieved the dream when blacks suffer from greater health disparities, obesity, rates of hiv / aids? the dream has not been achieved when black children continue to lag behind others in reading, math and


ghetto to a larger one. ” have we achieved the dream when blacks suffer from greater health disparities, obesity, rates of hiv / aids? the dream has not been achieved when black children continue to lag behind others in reading, math and science and exceed others in high school dropout rates. there is still more to dream about, to work towards, to fight for. the dream has not been achieved. in the same month that blacks were freed from the bondage of slavery and on a day that observes the life and work of a man who helped blacks achieve a greater level of equality, we must not allow the work that remains to be diminished by what we have accomplished. we should not allow ourselves to romanticize the gains that have been made and allow ourselves to tell the story that the work is done. barack obama will become the first black president to be elected to a second term, but our story doesn ’ t end there. until we can say that our children receive quality education, that our communities are flourishing with fulfilling jobs, that blacks are treated fairly in the criminal justice system, that we are healthy and thriving ; until we can say that our wealth can effectively pass from one generation to the next, until our children can walk the streets without fearing for their lives or safety, until we can say that we ’ ve achieved all these things and more we should all keep working to achieve the dream.


inflammation is the body ’ s basic response to injury. conditions that have “ itis ” and “ osis ” at the end of their names are all some form of inflammation. inflammation is a process in which white blood cells and chemicals protect the body from infection, and repair injury. the immune system, sensing inflammation or irritation, creates a protein chain called cic ( circulating immune complex ) which is tagged specifically to that irritation. with inflammation, white blood cells are released to protect the body from injury. these white blood cells have chemicals within them that, when leaked, induce swelling. if the injury occurs near the surface of the skin, the damaged area will throb and become red and warm. blood flow also increases during inflammation. inflammation can also affect internal organs, displaying a variety of symptoms depending upon the organ involved. the most common symptom of inflammation is pain. more and more research is also finding a significant link between inflammation and a host of seemingly unrelated diseases that have begun to be epidemic in western cultures, such as asthma, diabetes, obesity, depression, heart disease, arthritis, alzheimer ’ s disease, osteoporosis, and other aging diseases. additional information about inflammation - common symptoms of inflammation - common causes of inflammation - natural and alternative treatments for inflammation - dietary and lifestyle recommendations that may help in the treatment of inflammation - conventional or prescription medications used in the treatment of inflammation - additional reading for inflammation


may 21, 2013 nchs has put out a new report that presents selected prevalence estimates for five key health behaviors among adults — alcohol use, cigarette smoking, leisure - time physical activity, body mass index, and sufficient sleep. the report is based on a total of 76, 669 completed interviews with a sample of adults aged 18 and over covering the period 2008 - 2010. key findings from the report : - about 6 in 10 ( 64. 9 % ) u. s. adults were current drinkers in 2008 – 2010 ; about 1 in 5 adults ( 20. 9 % ) were lifetime abstainers. - about one in five adults ( 20. 2 % ) were current smokers and over one - half of adults ( 58. 6 % ) had never smoked cigarettes. less than one - half of current smokers ( 45. 8 % ) attempted to quit smoking in the past year. - nearly one - half ( 46. 1 % ) of adults met the federal guidelines for aerobic physical activity, about one - quarter ( 23. 0 % ) of adults met the federal guidelines for muscle - strengthening physical activity, and about one in five adults ( 19. 4 % ) met both guidelines. - about 6 in 10 adults ( 62. 1 % ) were overweight or obese ( bmi ≥ 25 ), with about 4 in 10 ( 36. 1 % ) adults being of healthy weight ( 18. 5 ≤ bmi < 25 ). - about 7 in 10 adults ( 69. 7 % ) met the healthy people 2020 objective for sufficient sleep, defined as at least 8 hours for adults aged 18 – 21 and at least 7 hours for adults aged 22 and over on average during a 24 - hour period. data representing the u. s. civilian noninstitutionalized population were collected using computer - assisted personal interviews. nhis is a general purpose in - person household survey, collecting basic health, health care utilization, and demographic information on all household members with the family questionnaire. health behavior questions are asked in the sample adult survey component. may 21, 2013 though cdc ’ s national center for health statistics does not have specific data on tornado deaths, we do have data from our mortality database on deaths from “ cataclysmic storms, ” which includes tornado deaths ( international classification of diseases code x - 37 ). this specific icd code includes blizzards, hurricanes and tornadoes, but doesn ’ t separate deaths by tornadoes alone. below is a chart from our wonder database that shows how many deaths


includes tornado deaths ( international classification of diseases code x - 37 ). this specific icd code includes blizzards, hurricanes and tornadoes, but doesn ’ t separate deaths by tornadoes alone. below is a chart from our wonder database that shows how many deaths occurred under icd code x - 37 from 1999 to 2010. there are a few things to observe from these data : first, according the national oceanic atmospheric association, the spike in deaths in 1999 was a result of 93 tornado deaths. there was also another spike in x - 37 deaths which occurred in 2005 during hurricane katrina and hurricane rita, the notorious storms that devastated the gulf coast. finally, the 2008 spike in deaths was a result of 125 tornado fatalities that year. may 6, 2013 allergic conditions are among the most common medical conditions affecting children in the united states. an allergic condition is a hypersensitivity disorder in which the immune system reacts to substances in the environment that are normally considered harmless. food or digestive allergies, skin allergies ( such as eczema ), and respiratory allergies ( such as hay fever ) are the most common allergies among children. nchs has put out a report that presents recent trends in the prevalence of allergies and differences by selected sociodemographic characteristics for children under age 18 years. among children aged 0 – 17 years, the prevalence of food allergies increased from 3. 4 % in 1997 – 1999 to 5. 1 % in 2009 – 2011. the prevalence of skin allergies increased from 7. 4 % in 1997 – 1999 to 12. 5 % in 2009 – 2011. there was no significant trend in respiratory allergies from 1997 – 1999 to 2009 – 2011, yet respiratory allergy remained the most common type of allergy among children throughout this period ( 17 % in 2009 – 2011 ). skin allergy prevalence was also higher than food allergy prevalence for each period from 1997 – 2011 key findings from the report : - the prevalence of skin allergies decreased with age. in contrast, the prevalence of respiratory allergies increased with age. - hispanic children had a lower prevalence of food allergy, skin allergy, and respiratory allergy compared with children of other race or ethnicities. non - hispanic black children were more likely to have skin allergies and less likely to have respiratory allergies compared with non - hispanic white children. - food and respiratory allergy prevalence increased with income level. children with family income equal to or greater than 200 % of the poverty level


to have skin allergies and less likely to have respiratory allergies compared with non - hispanic white children. - food and respiratory allergy prevalence increased with income level. children with family income equal to or greater than 200 % of the poverty level had the highest prevalence rates. data source and methods prevalence estimates for allergic conditions were obtained from the health data interactive ( hdi ) table, “ allergic conditions, ages 0 – 17 : u. s., 1997 – 2011, ” available from the health data interactive website. nhis data were used to estimate the prevalence of allergic conditions for this hdi table. may 1, 2013 increased consumption of added sugars, which are sweeteners added to processed and prepared foods, has been linked to a decrease in intake of essential micronutrients and an increase in body weight. the dietary guidelines for americans, 2010 recommends limiting total intake of discretionary calories, including both added sugars and solid fats, to 5 % – 15 % per day. recent analyses indicate that children and adolescents obtain approximately 16 % of their total caloric intake from added sugars. nchs has put out a new report that presents results for consumption of added sugars among u. s. adults for 2005 – 2010. key findings from the report : - approximately 13 % of adults ’ total caloric intakes came from added sugars between 2005 and 2010. - the mean percentage of total calories from added sugars decreased with increasing age and increasing income. - non - hispanic black men and women consumed a larger percentage of their total calories from added sugars than non - hispanic white and mexican - american men and women. - more of the calories from added sugars came from foods rather than beverages. - more of the calories from added sugars were consumed at home rather than away from home. the somewhat counter - intuitive finding in this report is that most calories from added sugars come from foods rather than beverages. however, other research has shown that when looking at individual items – either specific food items or specific beverages – regular sodas are the leading food source of added sugars for adults aged 18 - 54. april 23, 2013 hyattsville, md – the director of cdc ’ s national center for health statistics ( nchs ), dr. edward j. sondik, has announced that he will be leaving nchs at the end of april. charles j. rothwell, currently the center ’ s director of vital statistics, began as acting director of nchs on


), dr. edward j. sondik, has announced that he will be leaving nchs at the end of april. charles j. rothwell, currently the center ’ s director of vital statistics, began as acting director of nchs on april 1, 2013, as cdc searches for a permanent director. dr. sondik started his career by studying electrical engineering for control systems, computers, and operations research while earning a doctorate degree at stanford university. in the 1970 ’ s, he joined the national institutes of health to work on clinical trial policy for the national heart, lung and blood institute. in 1982, he joined the national cancer institute ( nci ). here, he held a number of positions, including serving as deputy director of the division of cancer prevention and control, where among other duties, he oversaw the pioneering surveillance, epidemiology, and end results cancer registry. he also served as acting director of nci for a period of time prior to coming to cdc. rothwell takes over after earning the distinction as a top leader in federal service as director of the division of vital statistics at nchs. prior to working with cdc, he served more than a decade as the first director of north carolina ’ s center for health statistics. in addition, rothwell helped develop the national science foundation ’ s digital government initiative and served on a peer review team for the library of congress ’ national digital information infrastructure and preservation program. april 18, 2013 infant mortality is an important indicator of the health of a nation. a new nchs report describes the recent decline in the u. s. infant mortality rate from 2005 through 2011. changes in infant mortality rates over time are examined by age at death, maternal race and ethnicity, cause of death, and state. in 2011, the u. s. infant mortality rate was 6. 05 infant deaths per 1, 000 live births ( based on preliminary data ), 12 % lower than the rate of 6. 87 in 2005, but not significantly lower than 6. 15 in 2010. key findings from the report : - following a plateau from 2000 through 2005, the u. s. infant mortality rate declined 12 % from 2005 through 2011. declines for neonatal and postneonatal mortality were similar. - from 2005 through 2011, infant mortality declined 16 % for non - hispanic black women and 12 % for non - hispanic white women. - infant mortality declined for four of the five leading causes of death during the 2005 – 2011 period. - infant mortality rates declined most rapidly among some,


mortality declined 16 % for non - hispanic black women and 12 % for non - hispanic white women. - infant mortality declined for four of the five leading causes of death during the 2005 – 2011 period. - infant mortality rates declined most rapidly among some, but not all, southern states from 2005 through 2010. despite these declines, states in the south still had among the highest rates in 2010. rates were also high in 2010 in some states in the midwest. april 9, 2013 in 2011, americans spent $ 45 billion out - of - pocket on retail prescription drugs. some adults reduce prescription drug costs by skipping doses and delaying filling prescriptions ; however, some cost - reduction strategies used by adults have been associated with negative health outcomes. for example, adults who do not take prescription medication as prescribed have been shown to have poorer health status and increased emergency room use, hospitalizations, and cardiovascular events a new report from nchs analyzes different strategies used by u. s. adults to reduce their prescription drug costs, by age, health insurance status, and poverty status, using data from the 2011 national health interview survey. key findings from the report : - adults aged 18 – 64 and those aged 65 and over were equally likely to have asked their doctor for a lower - cost medication to save money on prescription drugs ( 19. 8 % and 20. 3 %, respectively ). - adults aged 18 – 64 were twice as likely to not have taken medication as prescribed to save money ( 12. 6 % ) compared with adults aged 65 and over ( 5. 8 % ). - among adults aged 18 – 64, uninsured adults ( 23. 1 % ) were more likely than those with medicaid ( 13. 6 % ) or those with private coverage ( 8. 7 % ) to not have taken medication as prescribed to save money. - among adults aged 65 and over, those with only medicare coverage were more likely to ask their doctor for a lower - cost medication to save money ( 24. 9 % ) compared with those who had private coverage ( 20. 1 % ) and those with medicare and medicaid ( 14. 7 % ) coverage.


| epidemiological profiles of neglected diseases and other infections related to poverty in lac | latin america and the caribbean ( lac ) continue to suffer from the fact that an exorbitant number of people — nearly 50 million — live in a state of extreme poverty ( with an income of less than one dollar a day ). beyond numbers and averages, the lives and hopes of each of these individual men, women, and children are what keep us awake at night in their appeal for us to make ever greater efforts to improve their health and quality of life. the majority of these people live in conditions favoring a greater burden of disease, many of which are neglected for a variety of reasons. usually, these neglected diseases affect uncared - for populations and vulnerable groups such as indigenous populations, rural inhabitants, the elderly, women living in poverty, and children. this situation needs to be changed for the better. this paho study contains epidemiological profiles on the major neglected diseases affecting the americas, using secondary data from the countries. by providing data disaggregated by first subnational level showing maps of areas within the countries, it puts forth the unfinished agenda for certain diseases that should no longer exist as a public health problem in the region — showing epidemiological ' hot spots ' and how these diseases overlap in specific areas where greater efforts and integrated actions could be targeted. with this work, we hope to contribute to achieving cost - effective actions focused specifically on the most vulnerable populations and groups and directed in a concrete way at fighting diseases related to poverty that, albeit continuing to cause great damage and enormous harm in terms of human suffering, as well as a huge financial burden, are euphemistically categorized under the heading of ‘ forgotten ’ or ‘ neglected. in latin america and the caribbean, some 127 million people live in a state of poverty ( under two dollars per day ), and 50 million in extreme poverty ( under one dollar per day ). the majority of these people — including traditionally vulnerable groups such as indigenous populations, rural inhabitants, the elderly, and impoverished women and children — live in conditions that favor a greater burden of disease. a number of these diseases exist with high possibilities for achieving their reduction to levels that no longer represent a public health problem — a reason that merits additional efforts towards their elimination. the availability of new technologies and strategies and the improvement of the health service infrastructure — particularly rising support for primary care — make their control and eventual elimination feasible. the objective of this study is to explore which countries in the


merits additional efforts towards their elimination. the availability of new technologies and strategies and the improvement of the health service infrastructure — particularly rising support for primary care — make their control and eventual elimination feasible. the objective of this study is to explore which countries in the region — and, if possible, which geopolitical units at the first subnational level — show evidence of the presence of selected poverty - related diseases, as well as the overlapping of these diseases ; gather and synthesize the available epidemiological information and existing plans for control ; and identify where information gaps exist. this study was done using secondary data. regional profiles were developed that included geo - process mapping of the selected diseases, showing all countries of the region. according to the availability of information at the time of the study, some diseases were analyzed at the first subnational level ( lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, trachoma, and human rabies transmitted by dogs ) ; and others, at country level ( soil - transmitted helminths, chagas disease, leprosy, congenital syphilis, and neonatal tetanus ). this study allows us to view where we may find the diseases that constitute the unfinished agenda in the region, such as lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis and human rabies transmitted by dogs. also, the study suggests where information gaps exist and further studies are needed — such as for trachoma, where endemic regions border on non - endemic countries. country profiles provide information on the epidemiology of the diseases and the coverage status of primary strategies. these were developed for all countries with evidence of the presence of one or more of the following neglected diseases : lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, and trachoma ( 11 countries ) — as well as paho ’ s priority countries, as defined by their socioeconomic status, for a total of 14 countries in all. due to time constraints, these diseases were prioritized, however a further study could be done to include other diseases. while a considerable amount of information is available, further epidemiological information is needed to establish better baselines for many of the selected diseases. there is a disparity among the information available on country websites. most of the strategies encountered for the control of these diseases included drug administration and intersectoral approaches. an overlapping analysis was conducted for five diseases (


for many of the selected diseases. there is a disparity among the information available on country websites. most of the strategies encountered for the control of these diseases included drug administration and intersectoral approaches. an overlapping analysis was conducted for five diseases ( lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, trachoma, and human rabies transmitted by dogs ), for which information was available at the first subnational level throughout the region. considering the population of latin america and the caribbean — some 580 million people — it is noteworthy that almost half ( 230 million ) live in areas at the first subnational level ( states / departments / provinces ) where at least one of these five diseases is present. of the total of 275 administrative units included in the study, one unit was found to contain four of the five selected diseases, two units were found to contain three of the five selected diseases ( all in brazil ) ; 33 units were found to have two of the five diseases ; and 66 of the 275 units reported only one of the selected neglected diseases. in the overlapping maps it can be observed that each disease is present in the administrative unit. the overlapping analysis suggests that many subnational units exist with more than one of the selected diseases present, implying that these areas could be considered a priority ( as ‘ hot spots ’ ) and an integrated approach could be applied. it should also be taken into consideration that only five diseases were chosen for the overlapping study, but that the other neglected diseases — such as soil - transmitted helminths — are likely to be present throughout the region. in conclusion, a considerable amount of information exists for most of the diseases studied, particularly those for which there are established elimination targets and easily identifiable symptoms. however, for diseases with goals of achieving prevalence levels where they are no longer considered a public health problem, or diseases for which it is more difficult to measure prevalence, there is a great need for further studies on the epidemiological situation of these diseases — ones that are up - to - date, contain information at the local level, and use standardized criteria. areas of work project of medicines and health technologies regional office for the americas of the world health organization


st. kate ' s to host international science education meeting the national center for stem elementary education at st. catherine university will host the 16th annual globe partners meeting, " building a global community of citizen scientists, " july 15 - 20. the global learning and observations to benefit the environment ( globe ) program is a worldwide hands - on, primary and secondary school - based science and education program. more than 100 educators from all over the world will be attending the meeting and for the first time, their students will have the opportunity to share their research projects in a student science symposium during the poster sessions of the meeting. st. catherine university ’ s st. paul campus and the crowne plaza hotel in nearby bloomington will be the hubs for a week of innovative training, sharing discoveries and expanding the globe community. more about globe. gov the globe is an inter - agency organization funded by the national aeronautics and space administration ( nasa ), the national oceanic and atmospheric administration ( noaa ) and the national science foundation ( nsf ). it is building a global community of citizen scientists by connecting educators and students with innovative teaching techniques, hands - on activities and emerging protocols from scientists. the national center for stem elementary education has received funding for this program from 3m and the national science foundation ( nsf ).


at harbin siberian tiger park, feeding time is a spectator sport. now home to more than 1, 000 tigers, the park, located in northern china, is one of the world ’ s largest and most successful conservation parks for the endangered animals. the park, which was intended to be a sanctuary and breeding center, now is a stop for many excited tourists. ( photos : animals that can think ) at the park, patrons can now ( for a fee ) watch siberian tigers be fed live animals. on a visit, patrons are able to choose from a menu — the animals they wish to see fed to the tigers. current rates according to the today show, run $ 8 usd for a chicken, $ 90 for a sheep and $ 300 for a cow. the graphic scenes of tigers feeding on live prey have become popular on youtube, amplifying awareness of this particular practice. park patrons view the scene from what the park calls the “ number one adventure bus. ” one incident this past january resulted in the death of one of the bus drivers. the driver was killed after being dragged off by one of the park ’ s tigers in an attempt to check the bus ’ s engine. reactions have varied from praise for the park ’ s efforts to protect the endangered tigers ( there remain approximately 20 in the wild in china ) to outrage on the part of those who question whether or not the harbin siberian tiger park is making a spectacle out of conservation. ( videos : 12 bizarre animal friendships )


nih research matters july 23, 2012 stabilizing vaccines and antibiotics with silk researchers developed a way to use silk to store and distribute vaccines and antibiotics without having to keep them cold. by eliminating the need for refrigeration, the technique can lower costs and help expand the use of these lifesaving medical tools around the world. most vaccines and antibiotics need to be refrigerated to remain effective. their chemical structures break down when they ' re exposed to heat or humidity, making them less potent. these compounds are currently handled by “ cold chain ” distribution networks, which keep temperatures down during transport, storage and handling. the process is expensive, accounting for up to 80 % of the cost of vaccines. the cold chain system severely limits the availability of vaccines and medicines in developing nations. billions of dollars worth of drugs and nearly half of all global vaccines are lost annually due to high temperatures and humid conditions. a research team led by dr. david l. kaplan at tufts university investigated whether silk protein could increase the shelf life of vaccines and antibiotics at higher temperatures. silk fibers purified from silkworm cocoons are highly resistant to changes in moisture and temperature. previous studies have found that the fibers can form a mesh - like environment that helps to immobilize molecules and stabilize their structures. the team developed a new silk - based film and tested it with the live measles, mumps and rubella ( mmr ) vaccine as well as the antibiotics penicillin and tetracycline. the mmr vaccine quickly loses potency above the recommended storage temperature of 2 to 8 °c ( about 35 to 46 °f ). penicillin and tetracycline also break down quickly when unrefrigerated. the study was funded by nih ’ s national institute of biomedical imaging and bioengineering ( nibib ), national eye institute ( nei ) and national institute of dental and craniofacial research ( nidcr ). it appeared on july 9, 2012, in the online edition of proceedings of the national academy of sciences. the researchers found that immobilizing the mmr vaccine in the silk film greatly enhanced its stability. even after storage at 45 °c ( 113 °f ) for 6 months, the vaccine retained more than 80 % of its potency. typically, the mmr vaccine would rapidly lose all its potency under those conditions. immobilizing antibiotics in silk greatly increased their stability, too. tetracycline lost only 20 % of its activity when


% of its potency. typically, the mmr vaccine would rapidly lose all its potency under those conditions. immobilizing antibiotics in silk greatly increased their stability, too. tetracycline lost only 20 % of its activity when stored in silk at temperatures as high as 60 °c ( 140 °f ) for 4 weeks. these conditions would normally eliminate all its activity. penicillin lost no detectable activity when stored in silk at 60 °c for 30 days. typical storage of the drug under those conditions would bring a 20 % loss of activity. the ability to store vaccines and medications at high temperatures for long periods of time would enable much more effective distribution. this technique could have a significant impact on the health of people in developing nations. “ we have already begun trying to broaden the impact of what we ’ re doing to apply to all vaccines, ” says kaplan. “ this could potentially eliminate the need for the cold - chain system, greatly decreasing costs and enabling more widespread availability of these life - saving drugs. ” - computer method predicts drug side effects : - new uses for existing medicines : reference : proc natl acad sci u s a. 2012 jul 9. [ epub ahead of print ]. pmid : 22778443 nih research matters bldg. 31, rm. 5b64a, msc 2094 bethesda, md 20892 - 2094 about nih research matters harrison wein, ph. d., editor vicki contie, assistant editor nih research matters is a weekly update of nih research highlights from the office of communications and public liaison, office of the director, national institutes of health.