Modern-day Donatists? Around 300 AD many of the believers were persecuted for their faith. During this time the authorities demanded that many of the church leaders turned over their bibles. Many did, many did not. Those that did turn their's over to be burned were labeled traditors by much of the church. The group called the Donatists, led by Donatus Magnus, treated these traditors quite severely. They even went so far as to say that anyone who was baptized by one of these pastors who had turned over their scripture in order to preserve their life, had recieved a failed baptism. Their refusal to accept the baptism performed by these pastors led to a controversy that was eventually dealt with by Augustine himself. Augustine, in his writings, claimed that baptism was found to be appropriate, not because of the character or position of the "officiant" of baptism, but rather baptism found its authority in the originator of baptism, Christ.

In light of this, isn't it interesting to think that we may be re-living this entire experience again from a slightly different vantage point. Let's hope that the church today can understand anew that baptism is an affiliation with Christ and not a sign of a partnership with a church.

UncategorizedMicah Fries


Why Aftercare is Critical for Addiction Recovery

Millions of people struggle with drug abuse and addiction. Although it is a common and debilitating disorder, drug addiction is treatable. Addiction is a chronic illness, similar to diabetes or arthritis. These conditions, like substance abuse, are lifelong and do not have a “cure.” However, they can be effectively managed and treated with therapy, counseling, and medically-assisted detox.

Like all chronic illnesses, it’s critical that patients in recovery for drug addiction have access to a team of doctors and specialist for ongoing maintenance and aftercare of their disease. Just like a person with diabetes would not get a diagnosis and never do anything to manage their illness, a person diagnosed with addiction will need to continuously treat and manage their disorder to maintain sobriety and good health.

What is aftercare?

Achieving sobriety is a huge accomplishment. But treatment for drug addiction doesn’t stop after a person successfully detoxes and withdrawals from drugs. Aftercare is a type of ongoing treatment service that is given to people in recovery from drug addiction after they achieve initial sobriety. Aftercare can take the form of inpatient rehab or intensive outpatient rehab services.

About 10% of the U.S. adult population struggles with a substance use disorder, and relapse rates for substance use disorders can be as high as 60%. But patients who take advantage of aftercare services experience lower relapse rates than people who do not participate in aftercare programs.

What types of aftercare programs are available?

Drug addiction is an illness whose root causes and triggers can vary significantly for each patient. The most effective aftercare programs will be tailored to the individual patient’s needs and circumstances. Aftercare programs often take the following forms:

12-step programs are often conducted in anonymous group settings that operate under the principle of voluntary self-disclosure. Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous are examples of 12-step programs. These groups offer those in recovery a supportive environment where they can receive encouragement and advice. The camaraderie present in 12-step programs also gives people access to safe and confidential environments where they can develop more effective strategies for coping with stress and managing their condition.

Outpatient treatment programs are more intense than 12-step recovery programs and are more tailored to the individual patient’s unique needs and circumstances. Depending on the severity of the patient’s addiction, outpatient treatment programs may start immediately following a stay in an inpatient rehab facility, or they may happen after detox and withdrawal. Patient’s who are primary caregivers, or who’s addiction was not severe, or they were not addicted for very long may go straight from detox to outpatient treatment.

Outpatient treatment programs give people in recovery access to group counseling and individual therapy sessions with trained counselors and drug addiction therapists. In group counseling, patients can work with and listen to other people in recovery share their experiences, and they can build critical social and coping skills in a safe and supportive group setting. Patients also have access to one-on-one therapy with a trusted therapist where they can build upon and make additional progress after detox and withdrawal. Individual therapy is critical for helping patients with comorbid conditions manage their drug addiction and maintain sobriety.

What are some of the other resources available in aftercare programs?

For people who’ve been addicted to drugs, they often experience ongoing, systemic issues to maintaining their sobriety. They may have difficulty finding a job that will support them or securing safe and affordable housing. People who’ve struggled with drug addiction may also face legal hurdles that can be incredibly distressing to navigate. Stress and worry can be significant triggers for drug use and can cause someone to relapse. Aftercare programs can give patients access to the following resources which can help them live a drug-free, less stressful life:

  • Career counseling and support
  • Legal advice and support
  • Long-term support through major, life transitions
  • Case management
  • Substance monitoring
  • Coaching and goal-setting
  • Community building
  • Academic support
  • Financial planning and budgeting support

Aftercare usually entails less hands-on, direct support from clinicians and doctors, unlike during the withdrawal and detox phase. Once a patient safely detoxes from drugs, they need help, encouragement, and advice on how to maintain their sobriety from experienced therapists, counselors, and social workers.

Unfortunately, people who’ve struggled with addiction often don’t have those support systems in place in their personal lives. They may not have family who can help them, or their family may be a trigger for their drug use. Patients who are in recovery from drug addiction can significantly benefit from supportive aftercare programs.

These programs can assist them with obtaining legal counsel, budgeting, and getting a job that will support them outside of the treatment facility. Less stress, fear, and uncertainty with how they will manage outside of treatment can significantly reduce a patient’s chances of relapse. Studies show that people who attend aftercare support programs experience fewer instances of relapse than patients who do not receive aftercare support.

How can drug addiction patients find aftercare support programs?

Many licensed detox and rehab centers offer aftercare support programs for their patients. It’s critical that patients take advantage of these programs after they achieve initial sobriety. Aftercare support programs can help patients navigate sober living outside of the treatment facility, making a recovery from addiction less stressful. Successfully navigating life outside of treatment can also give patients the confidence they need to maintain their sobriety and stay away from drugs and alcohol. Most people in recovery only need aftercare support for about three to six months, but support programs can last for more than a year if someone needs the services.

Are you struggling with addiction, and don’t know where to turn for help? Mission Harbor Behavioral Health has helped hundreds of people achieve and maintain sobriety with customized aftercare support programs for drug addiction. Representatives are standing by to answer any questions you may have about outpatient support programs. Please contact Mission Harbor today to explore your treatment options.

Relapse Prevention Tips

Dealing with an Enabler

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Bus Driver Examination

The school bus driver has the responsibility to safeguard lives of children in the performance of his/her duty. The work requires physical strength, mental poise, ability to cope effectively with emergencies and a disposition designed to relate positively with students.

The School Committee, in support of State laws, initiates this policy to establish an annual medical examination for each bus driver operating a vehicle carrying 10 or more passengers. It includes the following physical requirements:
  1. Minimum vision, with or without glasses, of 20/40 in one eye and 20/100 in the other eye;
  2. Adequate hearing in both ears;
  3. Freedom from mental, nervous, organic, or functional disease, such as epilepsy, tuberculosis, paralysis, metal illnesses, diabetes, abnormal variations in blood pressure and heart ailments;
  4. Freedom from communicable diseases;
  5. Physical strength to the level that buses may be operated with ease; and
  6. Possession of and normal function of hands, arms, feet and legs.
Examinations may be conducted by the school physician, and when such is the case, the School Committee authorizes payment of fees for that service according to an annually negotiated schedule. Drivers wishing to obtain the examination from other medical resources, such as their own family physicians, shall pay all charges incurred. The School Committee will not be obligated, unless the examination is performed by the school physician.

The examinations must be completed each year during the month of August and prior to the beginning of any school year for regular drivers. The examination must also be completed prior to entry into employment.

Legal Reference: 29 MRSA§2013

Adopted: June 8, 1992


Magnetohydrodynamic-based Laboratories on a Chip for Analysis of Biomolecules, Phase I

A laboratory-on-a-chip design based on magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) microfluidics and integrated microelectrochemical detection is proposed. The proposed device is well-suited for the rapid, automatic and highly sensitive detection of a wide variety of biomolecules of potential interest to NASA. Interest in MHD microfluidic devices has previously been limited by their tendency to generate obstructive bubbles and to suffer quick erosion of the electrodes. The proposed approach solves these problems and provides for very high flow rates and long electrode lifetimes. In addition, the proposed device can be operated at very low voltage, and contain no moving parts, features that currently are not available with other forms of microfluidic devices. In the present approach, the many significant advantages of MHD-based microfluidic systems are retained, including compatibility with a much wider variety of materials and solvents than electrokinetic based systems. An integrated, self-contained microelectrochemical detection approach can be used in turbid, colored, or complex samples with a minimum or absence of false positives and false negatives. Together, the two technologies offer a unique platform for biomolecular analysis. For space applications where minimum sample handling steps and maximum automation are typically highly desired features, the proposed system should excel.


UNCG Campus Weekly

Malcolm Schug uniquely honored

How many people have a bug named after them?

Dr. Malcolm Schug had a newly discovered species of fruit fly, Drosophila, named after him.

Dr. McEvey, from the Australian Museum of Natural History is the lead author and the foremost expert in the world on Drosophila taxonomy, the branch of science that encompasses the description, identification, nomenclature, and classification of organisms.  He is a long-term colleague of Schug. “He accompanies me and my students on expeditions to the South Pacific,” Schug tells CW, “ where I collect Drosophila to study evolutionary genetics in my laboratory in the Ebehart Building at UNCG.”

Dr. Malcolm Schug is Associate Professor and Associate Head, UNCG Biology Department.


W.Va. Court Say Education Is Basic Right

In 1975, a group of West Virginia parents brought suit arguing that their children were receiving an inadequate education in violation of the state constitution’s education and equal protection clauses. In 1979, in Pauley v. Kelly, the state Supreme Court holds that education is a fundamental right under the state constitution and sends the case to a lower court to determine whether the school system “develops, as best the state of education expertise allows, the minds, bodies and social morality of its charges to prepare them for useful and happy occupations, recreation and citizenship, and does so economically.” In 1982, after a lengthy trial, the lower court will rule that the state is failing to meet that standard and issues a blueprint for overhauling the system. The court will watch over the state’s public school system until 2003, when oversight will be discontinued.


Critical Use of Sources

Michelangelo. (c. 1540). 'The Last Judgement', Sistine Chapel, Rome.
"Last Judgement (Michelangelo)", Sistine Chapel. Public Domain.

All sources, both primary and secondary, are made by people and may be biased (one-sided) and incomplete.  Two people can see exactly the same incident and yet remember it differently.  So too, modern historians can study the same evidence and reach different conclusions.

Therefore, it becomes important to take time to discover who created each source. Maybe the creator(s) were well known and their opinion might matter a great deal. Perhaps they were famous criminals who could have twisted the facts to justify their actions. Finding out about who created a source and why they did so will add great depth to your assessment pieces.

To do this, you need to develop CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS. These skills vary in complexity and sophistication. The table below explains the four kinds of critical thinking skills, from the simplest to the most difficult. Beside each critical thinking skill are some historical skills that help you demonstrate your mastery of each one.

Critical Thinking Skills

Historical Skills

Comprehension  Understanding and explaining:

-        The explicit (obvious) meaning of a historical source

Understanding and explain meanings that are implicit (hinted at) within a historical source. For example:

-      Ideas described in a political cartoon, photograph, propaganda poster, painting, carving or sculpture

-      The theme (overall message) of a speech or an article

-      The meanings of metaphors in written texts

-      Beliefs, values or motives that influenced individuals or group

Identifying and explaining the historical aspects of sources. For example:

-      What kind of source it is (primary or secondary)

-      What type of source (artefact, written, painting, photo, etc.)

-      Who was the creator of the source

-      When it was created

-      Who the intended audience of the source was

-      What the purpose of the source was (why it was created)

-      What perspective (point of view) the source contains

-      Whether it contains any bias (for or against people or ideas)

-      If the source’s information can be corroborated (confirmed or supported) by other sources

-      If the source’s information is in contradiction with other sources

Deciding how valuable a historical source is, according to what you discovered in your analysis. For example:

-      How relevant particular sources are to your investigation

-      How accurate the information in source is

-      How reliable a source, author or information is

-      Whether the source's interpretation is contested by other sources

-      Whether the source’s point of view represents the majority or a minority opinion of the time

Looking for revision material for source criticism?

Download a copy of the source criticism table for free in the Store.

Also, purchase a ready-to-use source criticism worksheet for use with any primary or secondary source.


BlockchainyourIP, incubated on January 1, 2019, at Station F, develops and markets a B2B solution, making it possible to prove the existence of their intangible assets simply and quickly. The BlockchainyourIP platform offers a monthly subscription allowing the integration of their solution in the internal processes of the company. This specialist of BlockchainyourIP is led by William Fauchoux, CEO. BlockchainyourIP and Hypios CI combine their respective AI and Blockchain skills to serve all-sized businesses who recognize the critical importance of creation and innovation in their day-to-day business.


Web Results

The 1988 Jesse Jackson presidential campaign was Jesse Jackson's second campaign for President of the United States. This time, his successes in the past made him a more credible candidate and he was both better financed and better organized.

The new Democratic party renominated Jackson to run for president in 1825, three years before the next election, with John C. Calhoun as his running mate. Jackson and Calhoun ran against incumbent John Quincy Adams of the new National Republican Party, a campaign that was less about issues and more about the candidates themselves: the election ...

Emily was married to Andrew Jackson Donelson, who acted as Jackson's private secretary and in 1856 ran for vice president on the American Party ticket. The relationship between the president and Emily became strained during the Petticoat affair, and the two became estranged for over a year.

What year did Andrew Jackson run for president? He ran for president in 1824, 1828 , and 1832. He won the election the last 2 times.

Jesse Jackson may have lead the way for Barack Obama when he ran for president in 1988. In this part 1 of 8 parts here on YouTube, his address to the delegates is preceded by the Jackson Campaign ...

Jesse Jackson is a civil rights leader who worked with Martin Luther King Jr. He ran for U.S. president and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

What years did Jesse Jackson run for president of the US? ... Jesse Jackson ran for president twice, both times as a member of the Democratic Party. He ran for president in 1984 and again in 1988.

Jesse Jackson and 6 Black Politicians Who Ran for President of the United States Barack Obama may have been the first black president elected to the White House, but many tried before him. Author:


Customs Building of Antofagasta

Customs Building of Antofagasta

Information about Customs Building of Antofagasta

The customs building Antofagasta has its origin in the treaty signed between Chile and Bolivia in 1866, which set the boundary between the two countries at the 24th parallel, and has benefitted equally sharing of the taxes of guano and mining companies existing and established between parallels 23 and 25, which demarcated the disputed area. The implementation of the economic terms of this arrangement imposed on India the need for quality public buildings. It was decided to siting it in the port of Mejillones guano center of activity.

The lack of resources offered to construct a building Mussels of the characteristics required, and the desire to make a work of poise, led to the Chilean authorities to commission the work to the firm Wetmare y Cia., Who the built in Valparaiso, in a modular fashion. In 1868 they moved the prefabricated parts to their destination, which already had built the foundations, arming themselves facing the sea called the House of Intervention Chilena.

Was decided to move the construction of Mejillones Antofagasta, in 1885 after a series of public buildings in that city, "newly incorporated into Chilean territory after the Pacific War, were destroyed by fire. Antofagasta was booming then nitrate, and the building and then move was considered a work of great beauty, which would enhance the city. Undertook the disarmament movement and rearmament, as well as the construction of new foundations, the signature of Don Eduardo Orchard, who performed the task in 1888. From the following year and by 1966 the building housed the local Customs.

Customs Antofagasta is a two-story building in the shape of "U", open to a central courtyard which is the access and circulation, the center of it comes a staircase that splits to both sides, allowing access to the second floor, which is run entirely by a balcony. The building overlooking the sea. The foundation is granite-type stone, the Douglas fir is the material of the overcodified, skies, floors, staircase, railings, brackets, doors and windows. Walls are structured with columns and diagonals of Douglas fir and filled with clay mixed with straw. The roof is of corrugated galvanized iron sheet.

Customs has characteristics of the type of architecture of the north shore that had its most extensive demonstration in the port of Iquique is a wooden architecture is distinguished by the use of elements such as balcony n, double roof, balustrade and trim. This corresponds to the style that flourished in America in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century, based on the "Georgia" and that extends to different places in America because of immigration, speaking on variations according to local conditions.

In 1976, under an agreement between the National Monuments Council and the Department of Architecture of the Ministry of Public Works, the building was restored by the specialist Eduardo Muñoz González, going to host dependencies Regional Museum of the Universidad del Norte, and the regional office of the National Tourism Service.

Recommended Hotels in Antofagasta


The ideal means to summarize an essay is to begin with by reading it via a very firsttime fast. As soon as it is clear that essays are this bestessay4u piece an inevitable part of college life, it’s the understanding of the tiny hints and techniques which makes college professors contented. By way of instance, a concise essay may endure approximately a hour when compared with a complex individual who requires at the lowest a number of hours to receive your position straight during your own audience. It is different to a argumentative composition as it cann’t need to rely on references to make its own points.

Go To This Web-Site .


Excellent Tips For Taking A Great Photograph

TIP! Get quick with your shutter finger. If you take too long, you’ll never get the perfect shot you envision.

Want to change your hobby into a form of artistic expression? Discover how to change your photography from mundane to glamorous, by implementing many of the techniques recommended in this article. This article will cover all of the basic skills that any photographer will need to capture those great shots.

Keep your technique simple to get the best pictures. You can usually take a great picture without playing with advanced settings.

TIP! Don’t make your photographic techniques too complicated; simplifying your process can get you better pictures. In many cases, you can take wonderful photos without needing to tinker with all the different color and motion settings on your camera.

When you are taking photos of landscapes, create an appearance of depth. Provide the viewer with an understanding of the scale for the photo by placing a person in the picture’s foreground. Changing the setting for your aperture can give your picture the appearance of high resolution.

Direct Sunlight

Many people think that sunny days are great for photos, when in fact, direct sunlight can ruin any photograph. It causes odd shadows and glare, and direct sunlight in the eyes of the photographer or the person being filmed is never good. whenever possible, choose morning or late afternoon light, rather than mid-day, to shoot your outdoor photos.

TIP! Capture the smaller things when traveling with your camera. Small unique details are often what makes a particular item, location or face interesting.

Keep your arms close to your sides when you are holding the camera, and hold on to the bottom of your camera. Much clearer photos will result, as the hand shaking will be minimized. By cradling the camera from below, it will help to prevent you from dropping the camera accidentally.

A vital photography composition factor, is framing. Zoom in on your subject and eliminate any surrounding distractions. This prevents clutter in your pictures, and multiple unwanted, unsightly focal points.

TIP! Just like a military sniper, once you have your picture ready and in focus, you should pause to hold in a breath and steady yourself before taking the shot. Any little movement can ruin your shot.

Try to get close to your subject when shooting. Not doing so can result in photos that are too distant or blurred for any clarity. Try to make it easy on your audience to be able to see images clearly and vividly.

TIP! There is no secret to becoming a good photographer. Experience and persistence are both necessary.

If you believe the nostalgic sentiments associated with film-based photography and would like to try your hand at doing it the old-fashioned way, pick up a film camera at a second hand store. You can use ISO 200 black-and-white film to get a great balance between versatility and dramatic results. When you develop the pictures, consider using old fashioned papers as well. Fiber-based papers are good.

TIP! When you are taking a picture, experiment with perspective, expression and scale. Take the simplest of objects, and place it in an unusual place for an amusing photo, or play with the perspective of the picture to make the object seem much larger than it really is.

If you are looking to improve your photography skills, you should begin by investigating the art of proper composition. If composition is lacking, your photograph as a whole will feel as if it’s lacking something. Take the time to learn and implement different types of composition to improve the overall quality of your photographs.

TIP! A lot of times in photography, people will stare right into the camera. If you want to make your photos a little more interesting, have your subject fix his gaze on an object outside the camera’s field of view.

When you are taking photos, a good rule of thumb is the idea of less is more. You should have no reason to have a bunch of clutter or elements in your shot. The art of innocence is really wonderful, so try to keep the shots you take simple.

TIP! There are three essential elements to a landscape picture. They need a foreground, middle ground, and finally a background.

Set limitations, and this will help you make your photographs more creative. For example, set a goal for the day to only shoot images that represent a single concept, such as “sweet.” One way to improve technique in photography is to photograph the same object or scene over and over again. These limitations can force you to think outside the box and create more unusual photos.

TIP! Natural lighting is a key component. If you are taking outside shots, the sun should be low for optimal effects.

Practice Shots

TIP! You need to decide if you want to use highlights or shadows in photos. There are ways in Photoshop to do both of these things at the same time, by blending together two photographs.

Get in as many practice shots as you can, especially when photographing a new environment or subject. Each photograph situation varies, but practicing can help you get a feel for your environment. The lighting can alter quite often, so you should not second think taking more practice shots between the actual pictures that you are taking.

Different filters are used as an extension of a camera’s lenses. You screw them on the lens. They are useful because they’re are multi-purpose. A UV filter is the most commonly used filter. This prevents harsh sunlight from damaging the lens. It may also protect your camera lens from physical damage in case it’s dropped.

TIP! You can make your pictures more interesting by having focus points in the foreground if you are taking a photo of a landscape. Items that you can use include a tree branch or a small rock.

It may seem as if red eye is insignificant, but it is a flaw that can ruin a photo. Avoid red eye by not using your camera’s flash. If flash is necessary due to low-light conditions, make sure your subject looks directly at the camera. There are also cameras out there that have a feature that eliminates red eye.

TIP! If you are taking pictures of a moving object, apply the correct settings to your camera, so that your subject does not appear as a blur. This can be accomplished by increasing the ISO setting on your camera, and it’s best to experiment a lot with this, until you get a feel for the right ISO setting for the effect you are after.

Try experimenting with the shutter speed on your camera. Most people use the fastest speed available to gain stills from action shots, but other speeds, like 1/30, can have interesting effects too. See that bicyclist speeding by? The end result will be a sharp cyclist with a background that has some horizontal streaking to express his speed.

TIP! Make sure you use optical zoom rather than digital zoom if you want to take close-up shots. Most cameras will allow you to continue zooming in closer and closer on your subject, but the image quality is always compromised when it switches from optical to digital mode zoom.

Shoot a picture at an upwards angle to give the object of the photo a sense of power. If you wish to evoke a feeling of smallness, assume a higher position and shoot the frame from the top down. Certain situations will require different techniques, and learning as you go is the best way to figure out what you need to do and when you need to do it.

Shutter Speed

TIP! Low light makes for tricky photography conditions due to the increased blurriness it causes. When you are taking photos in a low light situation, concentrate on holding your hands steady.

If you plan to shoot images in dimly lit settings, increase the shutter speed on your camera. This helps prevent blur when taking the photo. Try using a shutter speed of a minimum 1/200 or use 1/250.

TIP! If you are presented with a low-light photo opportunity, you need to set the aperture, also known as the f-stop, properly. What happens is you end up opening the aperture really wide, and that allows the most amount of light to pass through while taking the picture.

Give the matter a second thought before you decide that an outdoor photo taken in the sun doesn’t need a flash. Bright sun could cause deep facial shadows to form. The fill flash on your camera can help remedy these issues. This can help to illuminate even deep facial folds and creases.

TIP! Good pictures and the art of photography are not something that can be rushed. The shot is there when the shot is there.

It is crucial to understand proper focus and good lighting to create magnificent pictures. Learn a little from our article, and play around with the focus of your camera and different light sources. Soon you’ll be producing pictures that you are truly proud of.

Greenland photography


AULAST:(8) System Administration Utilities AULAST:(8)

NAME aulast - a program similar to last

SYNOPSIS aulast [ options ] [ user ] [ tty ]

DESCRIPTION aulast is a program that prints out a listing of the last logged in users similarly to the program last and lastb. Aulast searches back through the audit logs or the given audit log file and displays a list of all users logged in (and out) based on the range of time in the audit logs. Names of users and ttys can be given, in which case aulast will show only those entries matching the arguments. Names of ttys can be abbreviated, thus aulast 0 is the same as last tty0.

The pseudo user reboot logs in each time the system is rebooted. Thus last reboot will show a log of all reboots since the log file was cre- ated.

The main difference that a user will notice is that aulast print events from oldest to newest, while last prints records from newest to oldest. Also, the audit system is not notified each time a tty or pty is allo- cated, so you may not see quite as many records indicating users and their ttys.

OPTIONS --bad Report on the bad logins.

--extract Write raw audit records used to create the displayed report into a file aulast.log in the current working directory.

-f file Use the file instead of the audit logs for input.

--proof Print out the audit event serial numbers used to determine the preceeding line of the report. A Serial number of 0 is a place holder and not an actual event serial number. The serial numbers can be used to examine the actual audit records in more detail. Also an ausearch query is printed that will let you find the audit records associated with that session.

--stdin Take audit records from stdin.

EXAMPLES To see this months logins ausearch --start this-month --raw | aulast --stdin

SEE ALSO last(1), lastb(1), ausearch(8), aureport(8).

AUTHOR Steve Grubb

Red Hat Nov 2008 AULAST:(8)


What If an Asteroid Was Going to Hit Earth? NASA Will Make Believe This Week

What would we do if we knew an asteroid would hit Earth in 2027? That’s what NASA personnel will explore during a simulation taking place next week. The project will play out as a tabletop exercise held during the 2019 Planetary Defense Conference in College Park, Maryland.


Sugar Alert! – Memory Problems

By Dean L. Jones, C.P.M.

Diabetes suffers are twice as likely to have or develop memory loss problems.  The science is slow in reporting this fact, but a major issue with insulin malfunction is dementia that can lead to developing Alzheimer’s disease.  Even those who have been diagnosed by their doctors as pre-diabetic (people on the verge of developing diabetes), run the same risk of incurring memory loss.

Science has already confirmed that diabetes increases a person’s risk of having a stroke, and strokes can lead to mental problems, such as dementia, i.e. memory loss.  Although the studies confirm the facts about the importance of a good diet, medical professionals still neglect informing their patients about the dangers associated with over eating processed sugars.  Processed sugar is in nearly every packaged food item and consequently its use is prevalent at every meal and snack.  The total downside is that processed sugars inflict havoc on blood sugar(glucose) levels that can cause the pancreas to overwork and push a body toward being insulin resistance, or diabetic.

Diabetes is no joke and the common warning signs are frequent thirst and urination.  Kidneys work harder to filter out the excessive sugar and end up pulling more fluids from the body’s tissues.  Constant fatigue is another signal that a person’s blood sugar is not under control and sugar is staying in the bloodstream instead of being diverted to the body’s cells.   In addition, regularly feeling dizzy or shaky could be an indicator of low blood sugar or hypoglycemia.

Glucose is essential to function and a drop in blood sugar can be life-threatening.  Likewise, the combination having high blood pressure and diabetes can cause a lack of ability for the kidneys’ to filter wastes and fluid over time.  Nerve damage (called peripheral neuropathy) can be another sign of chronically elevated blood sugars.  It results in numbness or tingling in the hands and feet, or inability to feel pain or temperature changes. Diabetes also damages the nerve that helps the stomach empty and move food smoothly through the digestive tract, a condition called gastroparesis.

With weight loss being the word of the day one needs to know that losing weight quickly, without trying, or without doing anything different, may be a sign that the blood sugar is too high. Remember the frequent urination results from high glucose levels and as it gets flushed out of the body in urine it takes the calories and fluids with it.  Also, be aware of cuts and bruises that appear slow to heal, as it reduces the risk of infections in people with diabetes.

It all boils down to the immune system and its potential strength.  The take away information about processed sugar is that it weakens the immune system every single time it is eaten, period!

Mr. Jones, is a marketing strategist with theSouthland Partnership Corporation (a public benefit organization), sharing his view on mismanagement practices of packaged foods & beverages.


You will be placed in one of two roles throughout your weekend of volunteering. Depending on your schedule and/or the needs of the festival, you will either be working as a Venue Assistant or as a Compass Navigator. Venue Assistants support Venue Managers in maintaining a welcoming and organized environment in our venues. Compass Navigators will work with the Box Office staff to register attendees and welcome them when they first arrive at the festival. Why just one role? We want to provide you with a more structured schedule and to elevate your knowledge within your role in order to provide a luxury experience for our attendees.


Jowei Chen
Jowei Chen
Associate Professor,
Department of Political Science,
University of Michigan

Jowei Chen
Department of Political Science
University of Michigan
5700 Haven Hall
505 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1045

Telephone: (917) 861-7712

Jowei Chen

Revise and Resubmit, State Politics and Policy Quarterly.

Electoral Studies, Vol. 44, No. 4: 329-340.
Replication Data, Code, and Simulated Districting Maps

Working Papers:

Abstract: How does the size of a legislature affect the competitiveness of its districts' elections? This paper theoretically develops and empirically tests three hypotheses concerning the effect of legislative chamber size on electoral competition and partisan gerrymandering. First, in swing states, legislature size has a negative effect on the fraction of districts that are electorally competitive; the intuition here is that smaller districts are more politically homogenous and thus less competitive. Second, in those few states that are extremely Democratic (e.g., New York) or extremely Republican (e.g., Alabama), legislature size has a single-peaked relationship with electoral competitiveness: Moderate-sized legislative chambers produce the most competitive districts. Finally, because political gerrymanderers often seek to manipulate electorally vulnerable districts, a decline in competitive districts should cause a decrease in partisan gerrymandering. Therefore, among swing states, larger legislative chambers should exhibit less gerrymandering than smaller chambers. To empirically test these three arguments, I first present data from state legislative election results during 1992-2002. I then conduct automated, repeated simulations of state legislature and Congressional districting across several states. These simulations allow us to isolate the effect of legislature size on electoral competitiveness, thus removing confounding factors such as gerrymandering, candidate quality, and incumbency advantage. Finally, in order to measure the extent of gerrymandering in each legislative chamber, I compare real-life districting plans against the simulated districting plans. By comparing these two sets of plans, I estimate the extent to which gerrymanderers politically manipulated legislative districts in the 2002 redistricting cycle.

Abstract: This paper presents a new method of estimating the ideal points of US federal agencies using the campaign contributions of bureaucrats employed by each agency. Ideal points are calculated by examining the Common Space DW-NOMINATE scores of incumbent federal politicians who receive campaign contributions from each agency's bureaucratic personnel. These ideal point estimates exhibit face validity under tests of some basic hypotheses about the partisan control of bureaucratic agencies. The substantive contribution of this paper is to show that the most right-wing agencies under a Republican administration often become the most leftwing agencies under a Democratic presidency. That is, agency ideal points under a Republican president exhibit a negative correlation with agency ideal points under a Democratic administration.


Tambora (Indonésie): a Lost Kingdom Buried Beneath Volcanic Ash

Archaeologists Excavate a Lost Kingdom Buried Beneath Volcanic Ash

Source - http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/march-2012/article/archaeologists-excavate-a-lost-kingdom-buried-beneath-volcanic-ash

Like Pompeii, evidence shows a human settlement frozen in time by volcanic pyroclastic flows.

An artist’s depiction of people fleeing the 1815 Tambora eruption (Source: Greg Harlin)

In 1980, people began to take notice when workers from a commercial logging company began dredging up pottery fragments and bones in an area near the little village of Pancasila on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia. Other locals began finding coins, brassware and charred timber in the same region, all buried beneath a thick layer of volcanic deposits. The finds were not far from the foot of the Tambora volcano, a volcano that, in April of 1815, produced the largest eruption in recorded history. In fact, so intense was the eruption, it's atmospheric effects influenced weather patterns across faraway Europe and North America. And in one evening alone, it destroyed at least one entire village kingdom near its feet.

Acting on the discovery of these finds in 2004, Volcanologist Haraldur Sigurdsson of the University of Rhode Island began investigating the jungle-shrouded area by using Ground Penetrating Radar. He identified a complete house buried under 2-3 metres of pyroclastic flow and surge deposits. Although it was entirely charred, its form was well preserved, making it possible to distinguish beams and bamboo floors. Artifacts found inside the structure included Chinese porcelain, iron tools and copper bowls. Two victims were also discovered; one complete skeleton was found by the hearth in the kitchen area and the second, which was very badly damaged, identifiable only by the leg and a vertebra, was found on the porch.

Sigurdsson's discovery touched off a series of formal excavations beginning in 2006 and continuing to this day under the direction of Dr M. Geria of the Bali Institute for Archaeology. What they have found are, like the remains of Pompeii, the charred but remarkably well-preserved remains of house structures, human bodies, and many of the accoutrements of life frozen in their last moments of time. In 2008, a house was uncovered containing a male skeleton sitting upright, adorned with a copper tobacco box tied to his waist and a ceremonial spear at his side. He wore rings inlaid with precious stones, a bracelet on his wrist, and a large brass pendulum necklace around his neck. During the 2009 excavation season, another carbonized house was discovered, this time with a body lying just outside under the volcanic debris, with his left arm held up to his head, perhaps in a (failed) attempt to protect himself from the falling pumice. In 2011, the remains of half of a house were identified.

One victim who was discovered during the 2009 excavations. His left arm is held up to his head perhaps in a (failed) attempt to protect himself from falling pumice. The carbonized beams of the house are also shown (Photograph: Rik Stoetman)

"Based on the artefacts found, particularly the many bronze objects and jewels, evidence suggests the site was once inhabited by the wealthy or an elite who had grown prosperous through trade" says Emma Johnston, a member of the investigative team and a Ph.D candidate with Bristol University (U.K.). "Historical evidence supports this theory, as Tamborans historically were known in the East Indies for their honey, horses, red dye and sandalwood. The design and decoration of the artefacts suggest that the Tamboran culture was linked to Vietnam and Cambodia."

The principal investigators hope to learn not only more about this buried kingdom, which they estimate counted about 10,000 people, but also about the flow of events and activities that described the details about how they met their deaths.

Says Johnston: "We know from the excavations and deposit stratigraphy that the houses were mostly inhabited when the accumulating pumice fall led to the collapse of the houses, trapping and killing those inside. The evidence uncovered so far indicates this was the fate of all victims identified so far."

The investigaive team will be returning to the site again in 2012. They will have their work cut out for them. "The excavations thus far have only scratched the surface", states Johnston. "The rich finds suggest that there is much more waiting to be discovered at the site."

A detailed article about the eruption and the excavation and study of the lost village kingdom of Tambora will be published in the June issue of Popular Archaeology Magazine.

Excavating carbonized building beams (Photograph: Made Wita)


“A genius display of talents and creative minds that have succeeded to leap past the hurdles of personal, cultural and language differences, and the very fact that such genre of performing arts is relatively new to the eyes of its expected audience. It was a celebration of art beyond art.”

Agnes Alpuerto / Khmer Times, March 2018

The production that astounded audiences in Phnom Penh continues its flight towards the fully-fledged spectacle anticipated for the majestic and mysterious setting in the Angkor Archeological Park. In the true spirit of a melting pot of cultures, the narrative grandeur of Cambodia’s epic poem the Reamker is woven into Mozart’s most popular and endearing opera, the Magic Flute. In a journey from darkness to light, of self-discovery and the triumph of good over evil, Tamino and Pamina find their alter egos in Prince Preah Ream (Rama) and Queen Neang Seda (Sita) as they search for truth, liberty, justice and love. Their path towards enlightenment, accompanied by Papageno is met with a host of birds and animals, the dastardly Monostatos comes with a horde of cheeky flea-ridden monkey dancers and the operatic highpoint of the Queen of the Night’s arias enthral with the accompaniment of Khmer classical dance in all its power and grace.

The unprecedented and spectacular sub-tropical jungle setting in all its mystery and luxuriant vigour is the location for an opera the world has never seen, complete with a full Cambodian traditional instrumental ensemble, a Mozartian orchestra, an international cast of singers and Cambodia’s national treasures of dance and shadow puppetry.

Follow us: Mozart at Angkor on Facebook


Berkay Tuncay

The artist uses videos and photographs alongside with the images and texts he gathers from the internet and looks further into the effects that internet has on society through copying, gathering and transforming the cultural codes he finds online. He focuses on the concepts of error and randomness in the use of technological devices.

The exhibition provides the viewer with an extensive look with its focus on various issues; such as the fixation of online stats, the obscenity we are exposed to on a daily basis and the craze of posting online.
In his exhibition ‘Life is What Happens to You While You Are Watching Cute Cat Videos’, Tuncay observes how our life is transformed by the internet through his exploration of the concepts of global memory and interconnectedness.

Untitled (Life Is What Happens To You While You Are Busy Watching Cute Cat Videos) 2016
Webcam Girls While Touching Their Keyboards
26 Most Disliked Videos on Youtube
Untitled (After Gangnam Style)


Home news Government names trial areas for 'full fibre' broadband

Government names trial areas for 'full fibre' broadband

Six areas in the UK will soon be trying out broadband technology that provides data at speeds approaching one gigabit per second (gbps).Businesses, schools and hospitals will be the first to try out the “full fibre” network technology.The pilots will be run in Aberdeenshire, West Sussex, Coventry and Warwickshire, Bristol, West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.The government will spend about £10m getting the pilots up and running.Speeding up The technology involved is known as full-fibre because it takes high-speed cables directly to premises. By contrast, much of the existing fibre services in the UK connect the fast cables to roadside cabinets and then rely on older, slower copper for the final link to homes and other buildings.Currently full-fibre networks are only available to about 2% of premises in the UK. The government hopes that the projects will significantly boost the availability of the technology.

What is full fibre broadband?The preferred technology of Openreach, the body that runs the UK’s fibre network, has to date been fibre to the cabinet.That means that homes and businesses are connected by a slower copper-based connection to local street cabinets, before the fibre optic network takes over.Full fibre broadband uses fibre to the premises (FTTP) technology, which is widely regarded as the best way to deliver fast internet services.Here, the fast fibre optic cables run directly to homes and offices, providing a more stable, efficient and reliable connection than the hybrid copper and fibre systems.They can also support broadband speeds of up to 1Gbps, enough to download an HD TV programme in five seconds.

“How we live and work today is directly affected by how good our broadband connection is,” said Andrew Jones, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, in a statement. Faster, more reliable connections would create jobs, help new industries to emerge and let people work more flexibly, he said.

Possible uses of full-fibre broadband would include hospitals sharing high-definition images to aid diagnosis, or schools using video more effectively during lessons. However, broadband market analysts have pointed out that gigabit-capable cables would be shared with many different premises, suggesting that actual data download speeds would be much lower than the theoretical maximum. The gigabit speeds that are possible with full-fibre are much faster than the 10 megabits per second (mbps) which the regulator Ofcom says modern families need to meet their requirements. Last month, the government published information about the work being done on its broadband delivery programme, which aims to improve download speeds across the UK. It claimed that 93% of premises in the UK can now get superfast broadband services which run at speeds of about 24mbps.Cash for the gigabit-speed broadband pilots comes from a £200m fund announced in the budget earlier this year. The government said it aimed to spend the remaining balance of the fund by the end of 2021.
Source: BBC


About the Session

This session will compare the infrastructure and interoperations of a hospital to the human body. Like a human body, a healthcare facility is a complex integration of several systems, all working together according to a specific sequence of operations. Faculty will discuss unusual cases within a hospital that were difficult to “diagnose” and “treat.” They will then discuss a list of potential diagnoses and a “differential diagnosis,” discuss what tests will assist them in making a final diagnosis and determine what the treatment plan will be. Through this exercise, the systems and symptoms experienced in the hospital facility will be compared to systems and symptoms in the body. The goal of this session is for facilities staff bring a better understanding of the complexity of the systems they maintain to the clinical staff in a hospital.

Learning Objectives:

  • Present the various systems and components of a hospital’s building system in a simplified manner.
  • Help clinical staff in a hospital understand the functioning of various building systems and the complex relationships that exist between them.


Artificial intelligence (AI) is the hottest topic in technology right now. AI is transforming industries, businesses and many aspects of our everyday lives. Many commentators live in fear of AI’s ability to eventually replace many roles currently carried out by humans and the impact this could have on employment.

One area of AI that is discussed less often is its ability to do good, we tend to hear more about its ability to threaten jobs. Incremental are firm believers that AI is a power for good in the world. A recent PwC study suggested that AI will in fact create more jobs in the UK than are displaced by the year 2037. Although almost every industry and role will be affected, the new jobs created will be highly skilled valuable jobs with automation allowing more people to focus on adding value and less on administrative tasks.

Here are just a couple of examples of how AI is being applied for good across the globe:

  • Computer Vision – Computer vision is a tool that uses AI to analyse photos and video outputs to understand what it is seeing. Computer vision has come a long way and can now be used to help blind and low-sight people understand the world around them. Using cameras (including the one on your phone) AI vision can be applied to tell you what is around and convert this into sound, providing a narration of what is happening. This is technology that could be used for a wide range of purposes and is readily available with computer vision API’s on Microsoft Azure.
  • Translator – AI can take speech, understand it and then turn it into something else. This has a number of applications, for example This technology can also be applied to convert speech and then present sound or text in a different language. Rochester Institute of Technology use this to, in real time, convert lecturer’s speech into text and presenting live subtitles on the page to help deaf students.
  • Humanitarian Support –Humanitarian crises caused by natural and man-made disasters, oppression and other emergencies catch the world unexpectedly and require a quick reaction. AI is being used to not only predict certain disasters and help create a more proactive approach, but it can be used to solve problems on a massive scale, such as finding a cure/treatment for new diseases or the most effective distribution of resources to counter act a disaster.
  • Disease Control and Cure –When looking at developing a cure for diseases such as cancer, AI represents the best way of us discovering the answer. The more powerful and accurate AI solutions become, the quicker they can be used to solve some of the biggest challenges faced by the healthcare industry. Project Premonition is a Microsoft powered project where through drones, the cloud and smart traps, scientists are able to monitor the global ecosystem to ensure early warning of any outbreaks.
  • Protecting the Planet – AI is being used to help reduce waste and ensure we are only using the least amount of resources required in the most efficient way possible. An example of this is Microsoft Yield, this is a new AI powered service available to farmers that based on all of the data available tells farmers what to plant, how much to water crops and when best to harvest.
  • Education – The traditional approach to teaching involves putting people of the same age in a room and teaching the same curriculum at the same time. This model is however failing many people. Squirrel is an example of a personalised learning platform that provides customised teaching for each student using artificial intelligence. Learning levels are measured and exercised in real-time to provide students with optimal learning content and speed. Next to paid services, Squirrel also offers free education to thousands of children in over 1000 learning centres across China.
  • Environment – Wildlife conservation involves counting animals, which is a difficult task. Motion sensitive cameras are being used to automatically photograph animals, providing massive amounts of data. This data needs analysed and can be carried out by deep learning. Snapshot Serengeti project scientists are using this approach and are managing to achieve the same 96.6% accuracy as human volunteers. This is also reducing manual effort by 99.3% which accounts for more than 17,000 volunteering hours.
  • Human Rights – Using satellite images of remote areas, Amnesty International is monitoring at risk areas to identify humanitarian crises. They are applying machine learning to help analyse the images to identify damaged buildings as an indicator for help needed. In order to set up the machine learning algorithm you need to create a database of examples that it can use as a reference point.

These are just a few examples of how AI is being used for good. In the fields of healthcare, accessibility and scientific research, the applications are truly endless and we look forward to seeing how AI helps us solve some of the greatest problems of our time. For many organisations AI is now within reach and can be used to better solve problems, apply resources and identify areas of need.

Contact us for help applying for Microsoft grants and to understand the potential available from AI to help not for profit organisations.


Phase 4 - Status update on the AMSAT Geosynchronous satellite effort

Presented by Steve Conklin
Thursday 2:15 p.m.–3 p.m.
Target audience: Community

Phase 4 is the designation for Geosynchronous Amateur Satellites. AMSAT US is working to design, fund, build, and launch a geosynchronous satellite. This satellite will provide voice and data connections to amateur radio operators within the satellite ground 'footprint', and may have a large impact in enabling disaster communications from areas with no intact telecommunications infrastructure.

The initial effort is for a single satellite which will be stationed over the Northern Hemisphere, but if the project is successful it could expand to more satellites.

Steve Conklin is a member of the ground station engineering team. The goal is to design a complete ground station that is very portable and can be carried and set up by a single person, for under $1000 USD. The ground station is open hardware and software.

This talk will present project goals, current status, and projected schedule.

Presented by

Steve Conklin

Steve is a long time hardware and software hacker who has been working in open source since 2000. He has been employed to work on open source projects, by Red Hat and then by Canonical, where he helped deliver kernel updates for suported releases of Ubuntu.

Personal contributions to open source include maintenance of amateur radio applications and packages, founding of the Ubuntu-hams interest group, and creation of the PDD-emulate software emulator for an obsolete exetrnal floppy drive for Brother knitting machines. This helped fuel the growth in interest in knitting machine hacking and home knitting applications.

Steve also dabbles in rf curcuit design, signal processing, and machining.

Steve implemented the framework for tmtp-project, a batch mode proof-of-concept for algorithmic garment pattern design using concepts by Susan Spencer.

His current personal project is a CNC machine optimized for cutting fabric for small batch garment production, which accepts output from the Valentina open source pattern design application.


Digger by Mike Dumbleton

Published: March 2018Goodreads badge
 Allen & Unwin
Illustrator: Robin Cowcher
Pages: 32
Format: Picture Book
★   ★   ★   ★   ★  – 5 Stars

The poignant story of a toy kangaroo that goes to war with a young man who doesn’t come back.

‘A Digger for a digger,’ she said, hugging her brother.
‘I’ll keep him safe,’ James promised.

Digger is the story of one toy kangaroo, one Australian soldier and two girls, in two countries on opposite sides of a world at war. It’s a quiet reminder of the casualties of war, and a tribute to the French schoolchildren who once tended the graves of Australian soldiers who died on the Western Front in the heroic battle for Villers-Bretonneux in April 1918.

I think these kinds of picture books are absolutely fantastic. Based off true stories, photographs, or personal family histories are beautifully pure and honest, even if they are a bit heartbreaking. From reading the dedication alone I teared up.

Crowcher’s illustrations are roughly sketched but beautiful watercolours that match the tone of this story incredibly well. The subdued colours and the outlines capture the story without needing to be finely detailed. They express beauty and peace, and show the chaos of the battlefront without ever needing to show anything traumatic.

Digger’s point of view conveys a lot of the actual conflict, his experience of the noises and the sensations. But Dumpleton doesn’t stick with this perspective as it shifts from Annie, the James, to Collette on the other side of the world. This was incredibly clever because it flows seamlessly and fits in not only with history, but with engaging storytelling.

Even though you may know the outcome, it remains a touching story because it is based on truth. It is based on these boys who went to fight in a war, who were far from home, found care in unexpected places, and the importance memories of home were.

There is nothing explicitly mentioned about injury or death, but the implications are there through other characters. I really liked this approach because it actually felt more impactful to have a different soldier bring Digger to be sent home, to have a simple sentence saying James had given instructions that had to be passed on. It felt real, it felt suitable, and it was heartbreaking.

This is a timeless book because while it focuses on WWI, it still is about soldiers who fought for this country and who are still fighting, as well as those who never got to come home.

You can purchase Digger via the following

QBD | Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | WorderyAngus and Robinson

 Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust

Eve and Elly by Mike Dumbleton

Published: 16th May 2016Goodreads badge
 Random House Australia
Illustrator: Laura Wood
Pages: 32
Format: Paperback Picture Book
★   ★   ★   ★  – 4 Stars

Elly is Eve’s toy elephant, but he’s also her best friend. When Elly goes missing, Eve is the one who is lost.

What drew me to this book were the illustrations. I loved the cover by Laura Wood, and as I kept turning pages I loved them and the story even more. Elly the elephant comes alive in Eve’s mind, he has expressions, he mimics Eve’s movements, and Wood makes the whole thing incredibly adorable. The pictures are relatively basic but reflect the words on the page, and depending what they’re depicting have varying degrees of detail.

The blurb tells us that when Elly goes missing, it is Eve who is lost. I loved that when Elly is gone Eve’s dad doesn’t try to make her feel better per se, he understands but offers up another one of her toys as “someone who [also] needs her” and tries to make her love her other toys for the time being until Elly comes back.

It’s a sweet story about how to cope when a child loses a favourite toy. Dad has a good solution and it is one that could be easily adopted if need be because lost toys are not always recovered. Dumbleton has been creative and clever in his writing, it suits what a parent might do and say to their child who is upset over the loss of a toy but it does also come with its own troubles as mum and dad discover.

There are moments for the parents to enjoy as they read and the kids will love seeing Eve’s love for her toy and get to think about what they would do if they lost one of their favourite toys.

You can purchase Eve and Elly via the following

Book Depository | Dymocks

Booktopia | Kobo

QBD | Bookworld


A new concept for a unidirectional waveguide

A team of scientist at MPQ and Caltech proposes the realization of two-dimensional topological insulators by classical optical networks.

In the past decade, a new type of material has attracted raising attraction: the so-called topological insulator. This class of materials exhibits a very peculiar property: they behave like insulators in the interior, but contain conducting states at their boundaries. As these states are “topologically” protected (see below), the states are very robust against imperfections, and electric currents can flow almost without any dissipation. This makes these materials extremely interesting for the task of quantum communication and quantum computing, for example.
Now Dr. Tao Shi (at present Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing) and Prof. Ignacio Cirac from the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, together with Prof. Jeff Kimble from the California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, USA), have developed a detailed scheme for an experimental setup to realize a 2-dimensional topological insulator with classical optical networks (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, AOP 10 October 2017). “In this network, photon modes play the role of the electronic states in a solid state layer,” explains Dr. Tao Shi. “By preparing chiral photon modes at the boundary, we may be able to build a one-way electromagnetic waveguide, in which light can only propagate in one direction, while the opposite direction is prohibited.“
Solid state crystals are characterized by their band structure. In case of an insulator, the so-called valence band, in which all electronic states are occupied, is separated from the conduction band by a large forbidden zone. This, however, only holds for infinite samples. In case of a confined crystal or layer, the electronic states at the surface or edge, respectively, differ from those in the interior, and sometimes they emerge in the middle of the forbidden zone. As the shape of the band structure is mathematically described by a certain topological number, these systems are called in short “topological insulators”. The chirality of the edge states is locked to the spin of the electron, and is consequently protected by time-reversal symmetry: a reverse in direction would imply a flip of the spin direction. For a certain class of materials with a “nontrivial” topological number this is not allowed. Therefore, the states are protected and robust against imperfections or deformations, as long as the perturbations are small. In a certain class of electronic 2-dimensional topological insulators also the so-called quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect can be observed. Intuitively, this effect describes the phenomenon that electrons with different spins are subjected to oppositely directed magnetic fields.

More information: here

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 Thore Lohmann, Country Head, ThyssenKrupp Egypt | | Oxford Business Group

Thore Lohmann, Country Head, ThyssenKrupp Egypt

On leveraging Egypt's investment potential in the oil and gas industry

What is being done to meet the population's growing demand for energy?

THORE LOHMANN: Egypt has undertaken a number of steps towards increasing its production of oil and gas in order to meet the growing demand for energy, which is driven by both population growth and industrial development. Over the past few years, the government has invested heavily in building power plants to expand power generation capacity, and more recently big steps have been taken towards developing alternative energy, which is increasingly becoming more popular. This is important because another aspect of the long-term development of the oil and gas sector in Egypt is the potential to develop downstream petrochemical industries.

How do you determine how much oil and gas should be devoted to power production and how much should be diverted to industry?

LOHMANN: The question of how to balance the distribution of oil and natural gas between power production and value-added petrochemical industries is a challenging one and requires the participation of all stakeholders. By reducing subsidies on oil and gas, as well as electricity, consumers and businesses have felt increased pressure on spending at a time when inflation and a devalued currency are already creating pressure. This has been a challenge, but it is an important step towards rationalising consumption. Meanwhile, the reduced cost of solar energy will encourage consumers to install solar panels, and manufacturers will implement changes to increase energy efficiency.

On a broader scale, these adjustments will contribute to achieving the appropriate balance in the allocation of oil and gas supplies. Egypt has significant opportunity to attract investment in this area if there is clarity regarding strategy and policy, and if this potential growth can be backed up by the country’s ability to meet liquefied natural gas demand without relying on imports.

To what extent are hard and soft infrastructure important factors in driving investment?

LOHMANN: Attracting foreign investment, particularly in industry, requires a number of factors. The broad economic reforms undertaken by the government since the floatation of the Egyptian pound in the autumn of 2016 have started to pay off as a number of indicators improve. The focus on regulatory reform to support investment and the ease of doing business are very positive, as are the significant ongoing investments in hard infrastructure. Roads, ports, refineries and power plants are the foundation for any significant investment in this area, so the government programmes in these areas will be attractive to potential investors.

However, it is also necessary to have land available at a reasonable price and in a location where good infrastructure is already in place, for example the Suez Canal Economic Zone and other industrial zones. The challenge now will be to continue this progress with the implementation of regulations.

In terms of technology, this is impacting every area of the economy, including construction and manufacturing, but one of the first areas it will have an impact is in the digitisation of bureaucratic processes. Greater clarity and efficiency when getting approvals and applying for licences will not only boost investor confidence, but will help businesses make decisions more quickly and enable them to be more reactive to market developments.

How important is access to African markets in drawing industry to Egypt?

LOHMANN: One of Egypt’s advantages is the size of its local market. The population is approximately 100m and is experiencing over 2% growth per year. This level of growth is of course a challenge, but it is also an opportunity for a huge cross-section of businesses that are consumer-facing or tied to consumer demand in Egypt.

The other draw Egypt has for industry is its geographic location and proximity to growing markets in Africa. There is an opportunity for Egyptian companies to serve not only the local boom in construction and infrastructure, but sub-Saharan markets as well. In addition to exporting products, developing the knowledge base needed to export services is a key step in this progression. With the recent signing of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement, which sets up the regulatory framework to allow for increased trade, a growing interest in investing in industry in Egypt with export in mind is expected. As is often the case, the agreement’s implementation will make all the difference.

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