Sunday, January 31, 2010

NASA: ISS Astrronaut Picture of Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji, Japan. 3,776m. The highest mountain in Japan. /via @Astro_Soichi

Four-legged tracks in mud cause paleontologists re-think

Muddy tracks left 397 million years ago may reset the age when the first four-legged animals crawled onto land.

In the Nature journal study, reported Wednesday and led by Grzegorz Niedz´wiedzki of Poland's Warsaw University, a European team reports "numerous" tracks from the Zachelmie mountain quarry that reveal the era when clumsy-limbed fishes forsook the seas to live on land.
The tracks show that four-legged creatures, one of them more than 8 feet long, probably originated in lagoons, not swamps, as suggested by past fossil finds.

A beach "provides a ready food source of stranded marine animals," the study's authors say. That would have allowed marine

ancestors of four-legged creatures to evolve "terrestrial competence" while dining on "a new and essentially untouched resource."

The trackway discovery "is undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary and unexpected finds in paleontology for decades, perhaps a century," says paleontologist John Long of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Until the discovery, paleontologists thought the evolutionary transition from fishes to land animals was tightly nailed down to fossils dated about 379 million years old, he says.
The tracks not only push back the age of the first four-legged animals by a "whopping 18 million years," he says, but also "show that quite advanced kinds of tetrapods (four-limbed creatures), with incipient wrist joints, had already appeared by this much earlier stage of animal evolution."

The tracks "lob a grenade" into fossil studies of the earliest land creatures, Philippe Janvier and Gael Clement of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris say in a commentary accompanying the study.
Paleontologists had considered fish-like creatures such as "Tiktaalik," a discovery that made headlines in 2006, as the likely earliest land animals. Instead, the trackways suggest Tiktaalik was a relic species still adapting to land long after other species had made the transition.

Not so fast, Tiktaalik's discoverers say. "Trace fossils such as these presumed vertebrate tracks and trackways, however, are a notoriously difficult class of evidence to interpret with full confidence," says Ted Daeschler of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia by e-mail. "With all respect to the scientists involved in this study, there may be other explanations for these suggestive tracks."

The study authors acknowledge they have only fossil tracks, not bones, from their four-legged creature, which perhaps resembled an oversized salamander. Based on its gait, the critter floated in the tide while making tracks. The authors recommend from their finding that other paleontologists look for fossils of four-legged creatures as far back as 420 million years ago.

Scottish scientists who reach for stars ‘are leading the world’

An image of the Flame Nebula that has given astronomers their most vivid picture of the star formation was offered up by the Scottish government yesterday as proof of the world-leading role maintained by the country’s scientists and researchers.

The photograph was taken by the Vista telescope at the European Southern Observatory, using technology designed and built at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh. That contribution was symbolic of the global importance of the country’s research base, said Anne Glover, the Scottish government’s chief scientific adviser.

“In every area of science Scotland outperforms the world average; our performance is truly stunning for a nation of only five million people,” Professor Glover said. “This is a country full of potential for those in science, engineering and technology.”

Professor Glover was speaking at the presentation of a report that purports to demonstrate the continuing success of home-grown scientists and engineers by comparing rates of publication of academic studies, and by collating the numbers of citations achieved by Scottish researchers in articles published by their peers from other countries.

The 120-page document showed that in sciences as diverse as medicine, agriculture and biology, Scotland has achieved 1.8 per cent of the world’s academic citations, from a population share of less than 0.1 per cent. Scotland even led the field in space sciences, Professor Glover said, though more dogs than Scots have experienced space travel so far.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Natural World: The Chimpcam Project

How will they react to tools which in evolutionary terms are a few million years ahead of them? As chimp specialist Betsy Herrelko finds out, trying to communicate with chimps using video technology has its trials and tribulations.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Lunar Orbit: Perigee and Apogee Moon(s)

Properties of the lunar orbit

The non-circular form of the lunar orbit causes variations in the Moon's angular speed and apparent size as it moves towards and away from an observer on Earth.

The mean angular daily movement relative to an imaginary observer at the barycenter is 13.176358° to the east. The orientation of the orbit is not fixed in space, but precesses over time.

The Moon's elongation is its angular distance east of the Sun at any time. At new moon it is zero and the Moon is said to be in conjunction. At full moon the elongation is 180° and it is said to be in opposition. In both cases the moon is in syzygy, that is, the Sun, Moon and Earth are nearly aligned. When elongation is either 90° or 270° the Moon is said to be in quadrature.

The line of nodes of the lunar orbit (the line of the intersection of the plane of the lunar orbit with the plane of the ecliptic) has a retrograde motion, that is, it rotates towards the west (along the ecliptic) at a rate of 19°21′ per year, that is, with a period of 6,793 days or 18.60 years (nutation period).

Thus the node, or point at which the Moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic, moves steadily clockwise (viewed from celestial north), closely aligned with Earth's orbital path but in the opposite direction. The interval of time between the passage of the Moon through the same node is called the draconitic month, and is 27.2122 days. The times of the eclipses depend upon these factors.

Line of Apsides
Perigee is the distance of closest approach, whereas apogee is its farthest recession. The line joining these two points (the line of apsides) has a progressive motion or advances, that is, it slowly rotates counterclockwise in space in the plane of the Moon's orbit, that is, direct motion, making one complete revolution in 3232.575 days or about 8.85 years.

Lunar Standstill
When the ascending node of the moon's orbit coincides with the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere, the declination of the moon in the sky reaches a maximum at 23°29′ + 5°9′ or 28°36′.

This is called the major standstill. Nine and a half years later, when the descending node has come to the same point, the angle is only 23°28′ − 5°8′ or 18°19′, and the declination of the moon is a minimum. This is the minor standstill.

OBAMA to cancel NASA Moon mission

President Barack Obama is essentially grounding efforts to return astronauts to the moon and instead is sending Nasa in new directions with roughly six billion US dollars more, according to officials familiar with the plans.

A White House official confirmed published reports that when next week's budget is proposed, Nasa will get an additional 5.9 billion US dollars over five years.

Some of that money would extend the life of the International Space Station to 2020.

It would also be used to entice companies to build private spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the space station after the space shuttle retires, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The money in the President's budget is not enough to follow through with Nasa's plan for flights to the moon, which had been initiated by President George W Bush and has already cost 9.1 billion US dollars.

It all comes down to money. The six-year-old Bush plan sputtered when promised budget increases did not materialise. And now money is a big consideration in Nasa's latest shift in focus.
A new direction for Nasa has been on hold for several months while an independent commission studied options and the White House weighed them.

Mr Obama's choice will be made clear on Monday, when he releases his 2011 budget proposal.

Space policy scholar John Logsdon, who was on an Obama space campaign advisory committee, said Mr Obama is adopting the preferred option of a White House-appointed outside panel of experts last year. That concept includes reliance on a commercial spaceship, a space station that functions for five more years than planned, and a "flexible path" for human space exploration.

That might mean trips to a nearby asteroid, a Martian moon or a brief visit to the moon, instead of the Bush plan for a moon base by the end of the decade.

ESA: CNES Airbus Zero-G Parabolic Flights

Giant Laser set to trigger Fusion Reaction

The world's largest laser is approaching the long-sought goal of igniting a fusion reaction that produces more energy than the laser delivers.

Lasers are intended to do this by super-heating a fusion fuel pellet until it implodes, heating and compressing its central core to the temperatures and pressures needed for nuclear fusion.

Past experiments have been plagued by irregular implosions that wasted most of the input energy. But now, researchers led by Brian MacGowan of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have managed to squeeze targets of material into spheres rather than pancakes or more lopsided shapes, paving the way for future attempts at fusion.

The work was performed at Livermore's 192-laser beam National Ignition Facility (NIF), which began operating in 2009.

The team used targets that did not contain the key ingredients for fusion – two isotopes of hydrogen known as deuterium and tritium. But the symmetrical implosion of the targets suggests that NIF should be able to ignite fusion with laser pulses of 1.2 to 1.3 megajoules – well below its full 1.8-megajoule capacity.

"From everything we can see, we're on the right path here," Jeff Wisoff, a top NIF manager told New Scientist.

Researchers spent last year slowly cranking up the output of the laser, ultimately reaching a total energy of more than 1 megajoules. Now they're pausing to mount new instruments on the 10-centimetre-thick aluminium target chamber and to install giant concrete doors to contain neutrons they expect to produce in future fusion experiments.

In a few months, they will begin testing a series of new targets designed to assess beam interactions and compression. If all goes well, they could try for fusion ignition by the end of the year.

ESA: Mars express - 7777th Orbit

ESA: Mars express Auspicious orbit marks run-up to Phobos flyby

In a first, ESA’s Mars Express orbiter imaged the martian moons Phobos and Deimos together on 5 November 2009. Apart from their ‘wow’ factor, these unique images will help the HRSC team validate and refine existing orbit models of the two moons.

Human Genome Contains Viral DNA

This is dwarfed by DNA deriving from viruses, which amounts to roughly 9 per cent.

The human genome therefore presents us with a paradox. How does this viral DNA come to be there? What role has it played in our evolution, and what is it doing to our physiology? To answer these questions we need to deconstruct the origins of the human genome - a story more fantastic than anything we previously imagined, with viruses playing a bigger part than you might care to believe.

Around 15 years ago, when I was researching my book Virus X, I came to the conclusion there was more to viruses than meets the eye. Viruses are often associated with plagues - epidemics accompanied by great mortality, such as smallpox, flu and AIDS.

I proposed that plague viruses also interact with their hosts in a more subtle way, through symbiosis, with important implications for the evolution of their hosts. Today we have growing evidence that this is true (New Scientist, 30 August 2008, p 38), and overwhelming evidence that viruses have significantly changed human evolution.

To read the full article click here ...

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Compton Observatory: Detection of Gamma Ray Bursts

Compton Gamma Ray Observatory

'Superman' vision penetrates opaque glass

It's not quite X-ray vision, but a way has been found to transmit simple images through opaque objects using ordinary light – physicists projected an image through glass covered in thick paint.

Some things we consider opaque – "not able to be seen through", in the New Oxford Dictionary of English definition – are slightly translucent, meaning some light does in fact make it through. However, it is scattered so much by bouncing around such materials' lattice of atoms that physicists thought it was beyond practical use for seeing what is on the other side of the object.

A 2007 experiment that managed to focus light through eggshells and a human tooth demonstrated that might not be so. Now the first simple images have been transmitted through an opaque object and reconstructed on the far side, by physicist Sylvain Gigan and colleagues at École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles in Paris, France.

Read the full article here...

ESA Proba-2 Sun Observation Video

Gestalt Laws and Design: Slideshare

What is Gestalt?

Route 66: Cassini's Next Look at Titan

Route 66: Cassini's Next Look At Titan

Cassini's Next Look At Titan

On the inbound leg, the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer will have the opportunity to do one stellar occultation. (A stellar occultation occurs when an intervening body - in this case Titan - blocks the light from a star).

NASA 2010: Final Space Shuttle Year Begins With Last Night Launch

NASA on Wednesday gave the green light for the US Endeavour space shuttle to blast off towards the International Space Station on February 7 carrying six astronauts.

Lift-off is set for 04:39 am (0939 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida in what marks the final year of space exploration for the shuttle fleet, which is due to be mothballed at the end of September.

Only five more shuttle flights, including the Endeavour launch, are planned, NASA said in a statement after a meeting of the US space agency's scientists.

During its 13-day mission Endeavour's crew will deliver the US module Tranquility, the last big piece of equipment to be flown to the ISS for installation.

Tranquility will provide extra room for crew members as well as the life support and environmental control systems. It will also help recycle waste water and produce oxygen.

The Endeavour's crew will also carry out three spacewalks during the mission.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

L'Oceans en Danger! Jacques Perrin et Jacques Cluzaud

Rarement des images auront autant donné l’impression de nager en communion avec les multiples animaux qui peuplent les mers de notre globe. Il faut dire qu’avec Le Peuple Migrateur, Jacques Perrin et Jacques Cluzaud nous avaient fait déjà voler auprès des oiseaux qui entament un long périple lors des changements de saisons. Pour ces deux cinéastes fascinés par la nature, se pencher sur les océans ne pouvait que s’imposer. Le film qui découle de leur démarche, et qui s’intitule très logiquement Océans, sortira en début d’année prochaine sur les écrans européens (bande-annonce ci-dessous).

ESA: Previewing of Marvellous Oceans Video

Oceans, a new film produced by filmmaker Jacques Perrin that captures the mysterious and fascinating marine world like never before, makes its big-screen debut today in cinemas across France, Belgium and Switzerland.

ESA and the European space programme play a major role in the film, showing the importance of space to allow us to understand the evolution of the planet and the impact human activities are having on it.
Oceans cover nearly three-quarters of Earth's surface, yet they remain the least explored territories of our planet. Oceans captures the mysterious and fascinating marine world like never before.

The film highlights the unique advantage that views from space provide us with by showing impressive images of our oceans taken from ESA satellites. With pictures 'speaking a thousand words', the film is the ultimate speech in defense of the planet.

For more video previews and the full article click here....

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Piracy on the High Seas: The Economist

Online video and audio: programmes and multimedia | The Economist

Avalanche Protection Air-Bags - Video

Video: Avalanche Protection Air-Bags - New Scientist

Water woes could undermine Yemen's drive against Al-Qaeda

Water woes could undermine Yemen's drive against Al-Qaeda

Impoverished Yemen is reeling under the threat of Al-Qaeda, northern Shiite rebels and southern secessionists, but a lack of water is putting its ancient capital at even greater risk, experts say.

Within a decade -- or even less -- Sanaa could become the first waterless capital in the world, they warn, adding the outlook is also bleak for the rest of this parched country where wells in some regions are already dry.

A conference in London
on Wednesday will discuss Yemen's anti-terrorism drive, but it is unclear whether the water woes that experts say are likely to fuel more insecurity are on the agenda.

Water disputes and riots in this largely tribal nation could squeeze Yemen's struggling government, undermining its ability to remain focused on an increasingly alarming security situation.

The United States and major European powers, concerned about the possible fallout from a resurgent Al-Qaeda, have been pressuring Sanaa to uproot the Islamic militants. Yemen says it needs arms, training and funds to do that.

"The situation in Yemen is rapidly deteriorating in the face of several challenges, all of which have the potential to develop into a serious crisis within the next five years," the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in a report last year.

NASA: Avoiding Planetary Asteroid Hits Is A Big Job

Avoiding Planetary Hits Is A Big Job

The Scope of the Hazard
Near-Earth objects are asteroids and comets that orbit the Sun and approach or cross Earth's orbit. An asteroid or comet about 10 kilometers in diameter struck the Yucatan peninsula 65 million years ago and caused global devastation, probably wiping out large numbers of plant and animal species including the dinosaurs. Objects as large as this one strike Earth only about once every 100 million years on average, the report notes.

NASA has been highly successful at detecting and tracking objects 1 kilometer in diameter or larger, and continues to search for these large objects. Objects down to sizes of about 140 meters in diameter - which NASA has been mandated to survey for - would cause regional damage; such impacts happen on average every 30,000 years, the report says.

While impacts by large NEOs are rare, a single impact could inflict extreme damage, raising the classic problem of how to confront a possibility that is both very rare and very important. Far more likely are those impacts that cause only moderate damage and few fatalities.

Conducting surveys for NEOs and detailed studies of ways to mitigate collisions is best viewed as a form of insurance, the report says. How much to spend on these insurance premiums is a decision that must be made by the nation's policymakers.

Yale Team Finds Neural Thermostat Keeps Brain Running Efficiently

Yale Team Finds Neural Thermostat Keeps Brain Running Efficiently

Our energy-hungry brains operate reliably and efficiently while processing a flood of sensory information, thanks to a sort of neuronal thermostat that regulates activity in the visual cortex, Yale researchers have found.

The actions of inhibitory neurons allow the brain to save energy by suppressing non-essential visual stimuli and processing only key information, according to research published in the January 13 issue of the journal Neuron.

"It's called the iceberg phenomenon, where only the tip is sharply defined yet we are aware that there is a much larger portion underwater that we can not see," said David McCormick, the Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor of Neurobiology at Yale School of Medicine, researcher of the Kavli Institute of Neuroscience and co-senior author of the study.

The brain uses the highest percentage of the body's energy, so scientists have long wondered how it can operate both efficiently and reliably when processing a deluge of sensory information.

Most studies of vision have concentrated on activity of excitatory neurons that fire when presented with simple stimuli, such as bright or dark bars. The Yale team wanted to measure what happens outside of the classical field of vision when the brain has to deal with more complex scenes in real life.

By studying brains of animals watching movies of natural scenes, the Yale team found that inhibitory cells in the visual cortex control how the excitatory cells interact with each other.

"We found that these inhibitory cells take a lead role in making the visual cortex operate in a sparse and reliable manner," McCormick said.

Nuclear fission algorithm is created

Nuclear fission algorithm is created

U.S. Department of Energy scientists say they've created a computer algorithm that allows a substantially enhanced view of nuclear fission.

The Argonne National Laboratory scientists said the algorithm, known as the neutron transport code, enables researchers for the first time to obtain a highly detailed description of a nuclear reactor core.

"The code could prove crucial in the development of nuclear reactors that are safe, affordable and environmentally friendly," laboratory officials said in a statement.

To model the complex geometry of a reactor core currently requires billions of spatial elements, hundreds of angles and thousands of energy groups -- all of which lead to problem sizes with quadrillions of possible solutions, the researchers said. Such calculations exhaust computer memory of the largest machines, they said, and therefore reactor modeling codes typically rely on various approximations.

"The (neutron transport code) is intended to reduce the uncertainties and biases in reactor design calculations by progressively replacing existing multilevel averaging techniques with more direct solution methods based on explicit reactor geometries," said Andrew Siegel, leader of Argonne's reactor simulation group.

Officials said the code has run successfully in some of the world's fastest supercomputers, including the IBM Blue Gene at Argonne and the Cray XT5 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

ESA: Slovenia Joins Space Agency

During the coming months, Slovenia will define with ESA the specific areas and projects for cooperation, and the budget for the next five years. Its major participation will be in ESA's Science and Robotic Exploration programme.

Slovenia becomes the sixth European country to sign the European Cooperating State Agreement with ESA.

ESA's Director of Legal Affairs and External Relations, Peter Hulsroj, and Slovenian Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Gregor Golobic, signed the agreement at ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, on 22 January 2010.

This agreement strengthens Slovenia's relations with ESA and defines the legal basis for developing a Plan for European Cooperating State (PECS) Charter, describing activities, projects and budget for Slovenia's cooperation with ESA. Following the signing ceremony, Mr Golobic visited the ESTEC Test Centre and Concurrent Design Facility.

Hungary was the first country to gain this status in April 2003, with Romania, Poland and Estonia also becoming ECS countries. The Czech Republic, now a full Member State, was the second ECS.

The first visit to ESA of a Slovenian delegation was in May 2006, led by Mr Alojz Peterle (former Slovenian Prime Minister and currently Member of European Parliament). Since then, several steps have been made in cooperation between Slovenia and ESA, and the first Cooperation Agreement was signed in May 2008.

ESA participated, through its Earth Observation Directorate, in the 'Bridging the gap' conference in Portoroz, 14-16 May 2008. An ESA expert team visited Slovenian industrial and research organisations involved in space projects in May 2009, notably the Josef Stefan Institute ('bed rest' studies) and EMO Orodjarna, a supplier for the Ariane 5 programme.

Slovenia has a longstanding involvement in astronomy and space science. Herman Potocnik (1892-1929) was a Slovene rocket engineer and pioneer of astronautics.

His book, Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums - der Raketen-Motor (The Problem of Space Travel - The Rocket Motor) was published in Berlin in 1928. Potocnik devoted himself to rocketry and space science, set out plans for a permanent human presence in space, with detailed plans for a space station and one of the first calculations of a geostationary orbit.

Jupiter: Difference Between Ganymede And Callisto

The Difference Between Ganymede And Callisto

Jupiter (right) and the Galilean satellites (right to left) Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Cutaways show the interior states of Ganymede and Callisto after many impacts by icy planetesimals during the late heavy bombardment. Colors represent density, with black showing the rocky core (with a density 3 g/cm^3), blue showing mixed ice and rock (densities 1.8 to 1.9 g/cm^3) and white showing rock-free ice.

Differences in the number and speed of cometary impacts onto Jupiter's large moons Ganymede and Callisto some 3.8 billion years ago can explain their vastly different surfaces and interior states, according to research by scientists at the Southwest Research Institute appearing online in Nature Geoscience Jan. 24, 2010.

Ganymede and Callisto are similar in size and are made of a similar mixture of ice and rock, but data from the Galileo and Voyager spacecraft show that they look different at the surface and on the inside. A conclusive explanation for the differences between Ganymede and Callisto has eluded scientists since the Voyager Jupiter encounters 30 years ago.

Dr. Amy C. Barr and Dr. Robin M. Canup of the SwRI Planetary Science Directorate created a model of melting by cometary impacts and rock core formation to show that Ganymede and Callisto's evolutionary paths diverged about 3.8 billion years ago during the Late Heavy Bombardment, the phase in lunar history dominated by large impact events.

"Impacts during this period melted Ganymede so thoroughly and deeply that the heat could not be quickly removed. All of Ganymede's rock sank to its center the same way that all the chocolate chips sink to the bottom of a melted carton of ice cream," says Barr. "Callisto received fewer impacts at lower velocities and avoided complete melting."

Monday, January 25, 2010

NASA: Costa Rica's Turrialba Volcano

Turrialba volcano, located in central Costa Rica, emits a translucent plume of volcanic gases in this natural-color satellite image. According to the Red Sismológica Nacional (Costa Rican National Seismological Network) activity at the volcano increased markedly on January 4, 2010.

Strong, long-lasting volcanic tremors were accompanied by gas plumes over the volcano, and emissions of ash began on January 5th. The “jet-type noise” of gas and ash rushing out of fumaroles was heard several kilometers away. On January 21, 2010, reported that potato and carrot farmers were asked to leave fields near the volcano’s summit due to further increases in gas emissions.

Drug that could reverse Alzheimer’s to be tested on patients

A new drug with the potential to halt or even reverse Alzheimer’s disease is expected to be tested in patients later this year, researchers have revealed.

The drug, which tackles a key factor in the development of the disease, is expected to enter the crucial Phase 3 trial – the last stage before seeking regulatory approval – in the latter half of 2010, according to its inventor, Aberdeen University’s Professor Claude Wischik.

Earlier clinical trials of the drug – called remberTM – showed that it could slow progression of Alzheimer’s disease by 84 per cent over 12 months. Furthermore, the effect was sustained over two years. When the results were reported at a conference in Chicago in 2008, they caused worldwide excitement and optimism that, at last, an effective treatment for dementia could be in the pipeline.

But before the drug could move to Phase 3 trials – which will compare it against placebo in larger numbers of patients – millions of dollars in funding have to be raised and regulatory obstacles overcome.

Prof Wischik is optimistic that that ongoing fundraising will permit the Phase 3 trial to begin this year. “This will be a large-scale, international study using around 50 centres,” he said. “We’re moving on substantially from the Phase 2 trial – we’ve beefed up our management team and have really moved on to another level.

“We’re breaking new ground here – the Phase 2 trial provided the first evidence that a drug of this type could arrest progression of the disease, but we believe it can go further than that and perhaps reverse the disease, at least at its early stages.”

The drug acts on the “tangles” which are found in the brains of people with the disease, and which were first described by Alois Alzheimer in 1907. Around two decades ago, Prof Wischik discovered that these tangles were made up of a build up of tau protein, which destroys the brain cells responsible for memory, before going on to kill neurons elsewhere in the brain.

A university spin-out company, TauRx Therapeutics, based in Singapore, developed a novel treatment from a chemical already used in other conditions, which appears to ‘dissolve’ the tangles and halt cognitive decline – the Holy Grail in dementia treatment.

The Phase 2 trial – intended to reveal side-effects as well as efficacy – revealed that the tested form of the chemical worked well at the low and moderate doses, backing the theory that it could arrest the progression of the disease.

It did not work at the highest dose tested due to a problem with the formulation which affected the release of the drug in its active form and this had an impact both on the efficacy and side-effects and limiting the benefit that can be achieved with the older form of the chemical.

Read the full article here at Caledonian Mercury .....

ESA: CryoSat-2 Satellite Prepared for Launch

Following the safe arrival of the CryoSat-2 satellite at the launch site in Baikonur a week ago, the launch campaign team has been busy unpacking the satellite and the containers of support equipment.

Initial inspections show the satellite to be in good shape.

Marking the official start of the launch campaign, CryoSat-2 arrived at the Yubileiniy airfield at the launch site on 13 January. The first task was to unload the satellite container and support equipment from the Antonov aircraft, which had carried the cargo from Munich in Germany.

Fortunately, the weather was kind; sunny, around –12°C and a slight breeze, which helped with the job of unloading and transporting the precious cargo by lorry to the integration facilities.

The following day was spent unpacking and setting up the ground support equipment. This equipment includes a lifting beam and the multipurpose trolley, which is used to support the satellite while it is being tested. Once the equipment was set up the satellite could be unpacked and installed on the trolley – an important milestone in the launch campaign.

Read the full article on the ESA site ....

Russia's FSB seeking Israeli drones to Patrol Borders

Russia's Federal Security Service, successor to the KGB, is reportedly negotiating with Israel to purchase advanced unmanned aerial vehicles for border surveillance amid a torrent of complaints by the military about the poor quality of Russian-built drones.

Russian business newspaper Kommersant reports that the security service, known by its Russian acronym FSB, seeks at least five high-performance Orbiter UAVs from Israel's Aeronautics Defense Systems.

Israel is a world leader in developing and manufacturing advanced UAVs. Its military forces have used them extensively for surveillance of the Palestinian territories in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and in Lebanon, its northern neighbor.

It has also used missile-armed UAVs for airstrikes, including the assassination of militant leaders on both fronts in recent years.

The Orbiter has a silent electric motor that reduces detection from the ground. It can carry a payload -- video cameras and transmitters -- of around 3.5 pounds at a maximum altitude of around 8,500 feet for two to three hours.

"That the FSB should express interest in UAVs is not surprising," according to the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, which monitors global security issues.

"There are a number of locations where they would enhance border security, ranging from the Russian-Kazakh border to potential conflict zones such as Abkhazia, South Ossetia as well as in the North Caucasus.

"The deterioration in the security situation in the North Caucasus is undoubtedly a factor in the timing of the FSB initiative, since special services are at the forefront of combating the rising tide of insurgency."

NASA: WISE Telescope Detecting Near Earth Asteroids

Sunday, January 24, 2010

ESA tooling up for ExoMars mission

Establishing whether life ever existed, or is still active on Mars today, is one of the outstanding scientific quests of our time. Both missions in the ExoMars programme will address this important goal. The first spacecraft is the Trace Gas Orbiter, which ESA will build and NASA will launch.

Today, both space agencies issued an Announcement of Opportunity inviting scientists to propose instruments to be carried on the mission. Once all proposals are in, they will be evaluated and the winning teams will be tasked with building the actual hardware.

A Joint Instrument Definition Team has identified a model payload based on current technology, but turning that blueprint into reality is now the job of the scientific community. "We are open to all instrumental proposals so long as they help us achieve our scientific objectives," says Jorge Vago, ESA ExoMars Project Scientist.

The priority for this mission is to map trace gases in the atmosphere of Mars, distinguishing individual chemical species down to concentrations of just a few parts per billion. Of these gases, one in particular attracts special attention: methane.

Discovered on Mars in 2003, it happens to be a possible 'biomarker', a gas that is readily produced by biological activity. Understanding whether the methane comes from life or from geological and volcanic processes takes precedence. "The methane is the anchor point around which the science is to be constructed," says Vago.

Adding to the mystery is that methane was found to be concentrated in just three locations on Mars, and then disappeared much faster from the atmosphere than scientists were expecting. This points to an unknown destruction mechanism much more powerful than any known on Earth. It may also indicate a much faster creation process to have produced such large quantities of the gas in the first place.

MARS is looking at its best right now

Mars, the most Earthlike planet of all the planets, has been absent from our evening sky for well over a year. Now it's coming back and here's why:

Earth and Mars are in an eternal dance with the two parties sometimes close, sometimes very far apart. Both worlds orbit the sun, with Earth doing so more quickly on the inner path. Every 2.1 years, Earth laps Mars, like a race car on the inside track. At that moment, the sun, Earth and Mars are all lined up. Astronomers call it opposition.

During much of January we've been speeding toward Mars in our orbit by an average of 3 miles per second; so Mars has been gradually getting brighter and larger in apparent size.

Mars will pass closest to the Earth at 2:01 p.m. EST during the American afternoon of Jan. 27, just two days before its Jan. 29 opposition, when it will appear to rise at sunset and set at sunrise and will be visible all night.

As a bonus, on opposition night, the Moon, just hours before officially turning full, will sit well off to the right of Mars as they climb the early evening eastern sky.

NASA Working to Boost Speed of Space Communications

View of the Canberra Complex showing the 70m (230 ft.) antenna and the 34m (110 ft.) antennas. The Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, located outside Canberra, Australia, is one of the three complexes which comprise NASA's Deep Space Network. The other complexes are located in Goldstone, California, and Madrid, Spain

Rovers and deep space probes can forget about quickly posting cool high-definition videos to YouTube, given the painfully slow data transfer rates for most of today's space missions.

But NASA wants to change that by fusing together three aged space communication networks into a much faster, more efficient data network worthy of 21st century missions to the moon, Mars and beyond. And it hopes to do it all without costing taxpayers an extra cent.

NASA's overhaul aims to boost space communication by as much as 50 times faster than today's data transfer rates, so that a Mars mission squeaking by on a few megabits per second might someday get as much as 600 megabits per second, if not more. That could enable far more scientific payoff per mission in the long run.

"Imagine what you can accomplish with a single mission instead of several spacecraft flying over several years to collect the data," said Badri Younes, NASA's deputy associate administrator for Space Communications and Navigation.

An upgraded network might support the very quick upload or download of huge video files the size of an HD YouTube video, as opposed to current capabilities that would struggle to transfer mp3 music files.

Younes worked at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for a decade before leaving to join the U.S. Department of Defense. But the U.S. space agency hired him back in August 2007 for the purpose of revolutionizing its space communication networks.

Earth Reflections From Space

Bigelow Aerospace Building the first Private Space Station

Bigelow Aerospace is pioneering use of expandable space modules. Grouping of modules into Earth orbiting facilities are to be offered for rent or lease to countries and corporate interests. Credit: Bigelow Aerospace

For the upstart firm, it's about volume and not entirely in the sense of quantity or number of items sold. The company's expandable module designs are designed to offer low-cost commercial volume in space — for rent or lease — not only to private sector interests, but also to national space agencies.

Entrepreneur Robert Bigelow founded Bigelow Aerospace in 1999. Over the years, the space businessman has invested some $180 million in his vision, drawing from a bank account built on construction and real estate deals, along with money gleaned from his hotel chain, Budget Suites of America.

Entrepreneurial zeal

As "Mr. B" explains, space is no longer viewed as largely the exclusive domain of large governments and satellite telecommunications companies. Emerging as a key ingredient of the future is the rise of the private sector, hungry to spur a new business case for space. An element of that entrepreneurial zeal is the establishment of commercial space habitats and complexes.

NASA Mars: HiRISE pictures on request

NASA is taking public suggestions for photo targets on Mars using the HiRISE camera on its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The "HiWish" project, announced Wednesday, allows the general public to choose a location on Mars from a map on the Internet for HiRISE to photograph.

But there's a catch. Merely asking for a photo won't cut it. Requests must be accompanied with a title for the snapshot and a brief explanation of what scientific benefits may come from the Martian photo shoot. Suggestions also need to be categorized in one of the 18 science themes for the camera's mission at Mars.

"The HiRISE team is pleased to give the public this opportunity to propose imaging targets and share the excitement of seeing your favorite spot on Mars at people-scale resolution," said HiRISE principal investigator Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona in a statement.

Earth's Gravitational Pull Threatens Near-Earth Asteroids

Asteroids, such as Itokawa, pictured here, are thought to be more like piles of rubble loosely clung together, than solid chunks of rock. Credit: ISAS/JAXA

steroids may want to think twice before they swing too close to Earth. A new study has found that our planet's gravity can cause seismic tremors, or asteroid-quakes, if the space rocks stray too close.

This process could explain why many space rocks orbiting nearby appear pristine, as if they were covered in a new and clean surface, researchers said.

Normally, asteroids are weather-beaten, their top coats of rock made dirty and reddened by the onslaught of charged particles streaming off the sun during up to 4 billion years or more of wandering the solar system.

"Any part of the surface that's facing into the sun is hit by the solar wind, which damages the mineral grains and turns them red," said the study's lead researcher Richard Binzel of MIT. "An analogy is a sunburn."

Like a sunburn on your skin, the reddening of an asteroid is only skin deep, with fresher material lurking just beneath the sun-drenched surface of the space rock, he added.

But when asteroids approach the Earth, our planet's gravity may induce small quakes that shake up the space rocks, causing the weathered pebbles on their surface to turn over, revealing their cleaner undersides. Asteroids are thought to be more like piles of rubble loosely clung together, than solid chunks of rock, which means even a small tremble could displace surface material.

"All of the particles that got reddened are going to flip over and you're going to have new material that's fresh now out facing the sun," Binzel told "So it's going to change the color of the asteroid from red to a brighter gray."

The idea has been suggested before, but now Binzel and his colleagues have finally found observational evidence that it's happening.

China: Launches Beidou GPS Satellite system

China has developed a family of boosters over the years, including new development of a heavy-lift launcher to fly by 2011. Credit: China National Space Administration

The Long March 3C rocket blasted off from the Xichang space center at 1612 GMT (11:12 a.m. EST) Saturday, or just after midnight Sunday morning local time, state media reported.

The 180-foot-tall booster flew east from Xichang, which is situated in Sichuan province in southwestern China. The Beidou, or Compass, navigation satellite was placed on a trajectory toward geosynchronous orbit, according to the Xinhua news agency.

NASA: Fantastic Close-up of Moon Crater - Tycho

New photographs taken by a satellite in orbit around the moon have revealed one of its most prominent craters in a whole new light.

The moon's Tycho Crater, though average in size, is special because it appears to have formed relatively recently. The vast crater still looks pristine in the new images, while older craters are slowly covered by newer impacts as their features are obscured over the years.

Like all the moon's craters, Tycho is thought to have formed when a space rock slammed into the surface. Since the moon lacks Earth's protective atmosphere, which vaporizes small asteroids on collision courses, even tiny rocks can make a dent on the lunar surface.

The new images were captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and released Jan. 14. The robotic spacecraft is on a scouting mission to map the moon's surface in great detail to help plan for the proposed manned trips on the horizon.

Rays of material ejected during the impact are still visible around Tycho, as is the central heap of debris that resulted when melted material flowed back down the crater's slopes and solidified in the middle. Because it is so well preserved, Tycho offers a unique chance to study the mechanics of how craters form, researchers said in a statement.

Tycho is about 53 miles (85 km) in diameter. Without directly sampling rocks from inside the crater, scientists can't be sure how old it is.

One of their best guesses comes from rocks collected by astronauts at the Apollo 17 landing site that may have originated at Tycho and been displaced by the impact. Radiometric age dating of these rocks indicates they formed about 108 million years ago, meaning the Tycho crater may have formed then as well.

"This may still seem old, but compared to the 3.9 billion-year age for many large lunar craters, Tycho is the new kid on the block," LRO researchers said in a statement.

To find the truth about Tycho's age, scientists will need rocks collected inside the crater. These may finally be available soon, since the site has been chosen as a possible landing spot for future manned missions to the moon in the 2020s under NASA's Constellation program.

"Directly sampling material from within the crater would help us learn more about not just when Tycho formed, but the ages of terrains on other planets throughout the solar system," the scientists said.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Viruses use 'Hive Intelligence' to spread Infection

A tactic familiar from insect behaviour seems to give viruses the edge in the eternal battle between them and their host – and the remarkable proof can be seen in a video.

The video catches viruses only a few hundred nanometres in size in the act of hopping over cells that are already infected. This allows them to concentrate their energies on previously uninfected cells, accelerating the spread of infection fivefold.

Geoffrey Smith and his team of virologists at Imperial College London were curious about the vaccinia virus, and set up a video microscope to watch how the virus spreads through cells.

Vaccinia and Smallpox
Vaccinia was used in the vaccine that rid the world of smallpox some 35 years ago. It doesn't cause disease in humans or any other animal, and its origin is unknown.

Spreading Infection
The traditional idea of how viruses spread goes like this. A virus first enters a cell and hijacks its machinery to make its own viral proteins and replicate. Thousands of replicated viruses then spread to neighbouring cells to wreak havoc.

When Smith watched the vaccinia virus infecting monkey liver cells, he thought that it was spreading far too quickly. "It takes 5 to 6 hours for the virus to replicate, but it was spreading from cell to cell within 1 or 2 hours," he says.

Spread of Vaccinia
Vaccinia is known to spread from cell to cell in a characteristic way. After attaching to the cell membrane of its target, it releases a protein that enters the cell, where it communicates with actin – a protein that helps maintain the cell's structure.

The actin responds by growing longer, and then attaches itself to the virus, still sitting on the surface of the cell, as a so-called "actin tail". This tail helps the virus take off from the cell and find the next victim.

Marking the Virus
Smith's team labelled the virus with green fluorescent protein, and labelled some – but not all – cells with a red marker that tagged the actin. They found, to their amazement, that a virus leaving a cell would travel to another cell and merely bounce off it if it already contained the virus.

Virus Changes
The researchers could tell that a single virus had travelled over more than one cell because some viruses which left a cell with an uncoloured actin tail picked up a red actin tail from another cell. "This means that the viruses can change their actin tails as they bounce along the surfaces of cells," says Smith. "This allows the virus to reach distant cells really quickly."

Smith reckons that two viral proteins which are presented on the surface of the infected cell effectively tell the virus not to bother reinfecting that cell. When he looked at virus strains lacking each of these proteins, the virus spread at the slower rate that would expected without the "bouncing infection" mechanism.

"It's as if the proteins are telling the virus: 'Hey guys, there's no point in coming in here'," says Smith. "If you think about it, it makes sense – it's very Darwinian."

The Full article is available here .........

Space Animation: Just Storm in a Coffee Cup

Meteorite Crashes through Ceiling of Clinic: Video

Friday, January 22, 2010

ESA - Observing the Earth - Congo receives help from space after volcano eruption - images

Mount Nyamulagira
Congo receives help from space after volcano eruption

Following the eruption, scientists and local authorities have been using a long series of space images from ESA’s Envisat, together with seismic and helicopter data, to monitor the situation and calm fears of the local population.

Path of lava flow

Path of lava flow

Thursday, January 21, 2010

NASA Image of the the Day - Gallery

NASA Image of the the Day - Gallery

Dunes of Mars
Dunes of sand-sized materials have been trapped on the floors of many Martian craters. This is one example, from a crater in Noachis Terra, west of the giant Hellas impact basin. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this view on Dec. 28, 2009

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Homeopathy - Didn't realise there was nothing in it

The 10:23 'overdose' event

What is Homeopathy?

Contrary to popular belief, 'homeopathy' is not the same as herbal medicine. Homeopathy is based on three central tenets, unchanged since their invention by Samuel Hahnemann in 1796.

The Law of Similars

The law of similars states that whatever would cause your symptoms, will also cure those same symptoms. Thus, if you find yourself unable to sleep, taking caffeine will help; streaming eyes due to hayfever can be treated with onions, and so on. This so-called law was based upon nothing other than Hahnemann's own imagination. You don't need to have a medical degree to see the flawed reasoning in taking caffeine - a stimulant - to help you sleep; yet caffeine is, even today, prescribed by homeopaths (under the name 'coffea') as a treatment for insomnia.

The Law of Infinitesimals

Following on from his 'law of similars', Hahnemann proposed he could improve the effect of his 'like-cures-like treatments' by repeatedly diluting them in water. The more dilute the remedy, Hahnemann decided, the stronger it will become. Thus was born his 'Law of Infinitesimals'.

Taking a single drop of caffeine and diluting in ninety-nine drops of water creates what is known to homeopaths as one 'centesimal'. One drop of this centesimal added to another ninety-nine drops of water produces a two-centesimal, written as 2C. This 2C caffeine potion is 99.99% water and just 0.01% caffeine. At 3C the dilution is 0.0001% caffeine, at 4C it's 0.000001% caffeine, and so on. Homeopathic remedies are commonly sold at 6C (0.000 000 000 1%) and even 30C (0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 1%) dilutions, which homeopaths will often drip onto little balls of sugar to sell.

When these numbers are written out, it's easy to see how absurd they are. At 12C you pass what is known as the Avogadro Limit, the point at which there is likely nothing of your original substance left.

By the time you reach 30C, you have more chance of winning the lottery five weeks running than you have of finding a single caffeine molecule in your homeopathic sleeping draft. It's just ordinary water, dripped onto ordinary sugar.

The Law of Succussion

While transporting his remedies on a horse-drawn carriage, Hahnemann made another 'breakthrough'. He decided that the vigorous shaking of a homeopathic remedy would further increase its potency. This shaking process was named 'succussion'. When ritually preparing a homeopathic remedy, the homeopath will shake or tap the preparation at each stage of dilution, in order to 'potentize' it.

Modern homeopaths believe that this 'potentization' process allows the water to retain the 'memory' or 'vibrations' of the original substance, long after it has been diluted away to nothing. Of course, there is no good scientific evidence to suggest that water has such an ability, nor any indication of how it might be able to use this 'memory' to cure a sick patient.

Does it work?

Despite being rooted in supersition, ritual and sympathetic magick, the laws devised by Hahnemann are still in use by homeopaths today.

For Hahnemann's Laws to be correct, we would have to toss out practically everything we have learned over the past two centuries about biology, pharmacology, mathematics, chemistry and physics. Illnesses are not effectively treated by administering substances which cause similar symptoms; serial dilution and succussion does not 'potentize' a remedy. Water has no memory, nor any way of using one if it did! Homeopathy could never work in the way Hahnemann described it, but does it work at all?

The most comprehensive review of homeopathic treatments ever conducted was published in the medical journal The Lancet in 2005. The paper analysed every clinical investigation then published into the effects of homeopathy, and concluded that any apparent benefits from homeopathic 'treatments' were simply placebo effects. Homeopathy does not work. This conclusion was supported by the Cochrane Collaboration, an independent global network of medical professionals tasked with examining medical research to determine exactly which treatments are effective.

Science Fiction's Robotics Laws Need Reality Check

Artificial intelligence researchers often idealize Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics as the signpost for robot-human interaction. But some robotics experts say that the concept could use a practical makeover to recognize the current limitations of robots.

Self-aware robots that inhabit Asimov's stories and others such as "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Battlestar Galactica" remain in the distant future. Today's robots still lack any sort of real autonomy to make their own decisions or adapt intelligently to new environments.

But danger can arise when humans push robots beyond their current limits of decision-making, experts warn. That can lead to mistakes and even tragedies involving robots on factory floors and in military operations, when humans forget that all legal and ethical responsibility still rests on the shoulders of homo sapiens.

"The fascination with robots has led some people to try retreating from responsibility for difficult decisions, with potentially bad consequences," said David Woods, a systems engineer at Ohio State University.

Woods and a fellow researcher proposed revising the Three Laws to emphasize human responsibility over robots. They also suggested that Earth-bound robot handlers could take a hint from NASA when it comes to robot-human interaction.

NASA: Hubble Service Mission 4


Thursday, March 21, 2013

3/20/13 ChefElla's Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

When I think of spring, I think of so many things like birds, bunnies, flowers, green grass, sunshine, and well...hard boiled eggs.  I know it may sound funny that hard boiled eggs make me think of spring, but eggs are a symbol of the holidays celebrated in spring.  Colored eggs for Easter are everywhere and eggs can be found on the dinner table during the Passover Seder.  I know there are many other recipes for eggs, but hard boiled eggs are easy to make and eat by themselves.  But don't worry, hard boiled eggs can also be made into many other things, like deviled eggs, Cobb salad, potato salad, egg timbale and of course egg salad. Hard boiled eggs are fun for everyone to help peel, and my egg salad recipe is a great way to share these eggs with your family and friends.  So enjoy spring and think eggs.

For this recipe you will need to use the stove and a knife.  If you are not allowed to use the stove or a knife by yourself you can have a grown up help.

1.  Wash your hands.
2.  For this recipe you will need measuring spoons, a rubber spatula, a fork or small whisk, a
    large bowl, a small bowl, measuring cups, a knife, a cheese grater, a cutting board and a sauce pan or
    small stock pot.

Ingredients: (This recipe will make 12 hard boiled eggs or 1 quart of Egg Salad)
12           Large Organic Eggs
2 Tbl.      Kosher or Sea Salt

3.  Place your eggs in your sauce pan or small pot.
4.  Cover eggs with cool water.  The water should be 1-2 inches above the eggs.
5.  Add the salt and stir gently with your rubber spatula.  The salt will help the shell come off the eggs
     when they are done.
6.  Put the eggs on the stove over high heat.  When the eggs come to a rolling boil (lots of bubbles) set
     your timer for 10 minutes.
7.  When your 10 minutes are up remove the pan from the heat and set aside with the water and eggs
     still in the pot.  Set your timer for another 10 minutes.
8.  When your time is up, pour off your hot water, and fill the pot with cold water and a lot of ice.  This
     will stop the eggs from cooking and cool them down to peel.
     -Be careful when pouring the water off because it is still very hot and can burn you.  You might
      want to get your parents to help you with this part.
9.  After 10-15 minutes in the cold water it is time to peel the eggs.  Tap the egg on the side of you pan
     to break the shell.  Then take your thumb and slowly pick off the pieces of shell.  The shell should
     come off easily, but do not go to fast or you could pull some of the white off with the shell.
10.  Rinse your eggs when done and store in a small bowl.
      -While your eggs are cooking you can get everything ready for your egg salad.

Egg Salad Ingredients:
12           Hard Boiled Eggs
3/4 Cup  Mayonnaise
               -I use real mayonnaise, but you can use any kind you like, organic mayo, olive oil mayo,
                canola oil mayo, or sandwich spread.
1/2 Cup  Red Onion, small diced
1/2 Cup  Celery, small diced
               -1 large rib of celery should be enough.  To dice, cut the celery in half lengthwise. Take your
                two halves and cut in half again.  Take your thin sticks of celery and slice thinly.
1 tsp       Yellow Mustard
1/2 tsp    Tabasco Sauce
1/2 tsp    Kosher Salt
1/2 tsp    Black Pepper

11.  In a large bowl mix mayonnaise, red onion, celery, yellow mustard, tabasco, salt and pepper.
12.  Put your cheese grater over your bowl and grate your hard boiled eggs into the bowl.
13.  This can be dangerous so keep your hand flat and grate slowly.  The eggs are soft so you do not
       need to press very hard.  Grating gives your egg salad a great texture and consistency.
14.  Mix your eggs in with your mayonnaise mixture until well combined.  Chill in the refrigerator.
15.  Serve your egg salad as a sandwich, with crackers, or eat it alone.

- ChefElla

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

3/12/13 ChefElla's Sunday French Toast

I have always heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but Sunday breakfast is the most exciting breakfast of the week.  Every Sunday my Mom or Dad makes something fun for breakfast. During the week we always eat something quick and good for us for breakfast like cereal, fruit, eggs or oatmeal, but on Sunday we get something different.  I know that we make something special because we have more time, and it is fun to spend time together in the kitchen, but sometimes I would like to eat Sunday breakfast on another day.  This week I took one of our Sunday recipes to make something that was quick, good for me, and would remind me of Sunday during the week.

For this recipe you will need to use the stove.  If you are not allowed to use the stove by yourself you can have a grown up help.

1.  Wash your hands.
2.  For this recipe you will need measuring spoons, a spatula (pancake turner), a fork or small whisk, a
    bowl and a saute pan.

Ingredients: (This recipe will make 6-8 servings)
4              Large Organic Eggs
1 Cup      Skim Milk
1 Tbl.      Orange Juice
2 tsp.       Vanilla Extract
2 Tbl.      Light Brown Sugar
6-8          Slices, Whole Wheat Bread
1 Can      Pan spray
1 Tub      Light Strawberry Cream Cheese
3.  Crack Eggs into medium bowl.  Wash your hands.  Eggs can carry a lot of germs, and it is good
     to wash your hands after handling them, just in case.
4.  Add milk, orange juice, vanilla and brown sugar to the bowl and mix well.  The mixture will have a
     light yellow color when it is done
5.  Pre-heat your sauté pan on the stove over medium heat.
6.  Spray your pan with pan spray.
7.  Dip one of your pieces of bread into the batter.  Turn the bread over and coat the other side.
     Transfer your bread into the sauté pan.  Wash your hands after putting the toast in the pan.
8.  Let the toast cook for 1-2 minutes.  Use your spatula to lift up one edge of your toast.
     When the toast has a nice golden brown color it is time to flip it.
9.  Flip your toast over and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes.  When the toast is golden brown it
     is done.   Transfer your toast to a plate
10.  Repeat steps 6 - 9 until all of your toast is cooked.
11.  When your toast is all cooked, spread strawberry cream cheese on top and enjoy.

If you do not like strawberry cream cheese, you can top your toast with maple syrup, peanut butter, honey, powered sugar or you can eat it plain.  This recipe is so good and quick you can enjoy Sunday toast on a Tuesday.


Anastasia Glanchiran

Captain of Pilum Detachment

Captain of Pilum Detachment of the Iron Raiders.

Age: 34 (born 727)

Originally trained by the Guild of Swords, Anastasia was known for being a bit too bloodthirsty and having a love of combat. Through independent study and various hired teachers she was able to become an accomplished user of Blade Channeling. In addition, she has raised her own physical abilities beyond that of a normal mundane through the use of alchemy. She also wields an enchanted katana from Makoro with a very sharp edge. Combined with her years of experience and natural disposition for violence, she is considered an even match for even an Imbued.

Anastasia Glanchiran

Defenders of Aylanae taragnor


Healthcare for Indian Women

India is an ethnically and linguistically diverse country. It is also variable in terms of socio-economic and development indicators. Moreover the federal structure stipulated in the Indian constitution makes health care predominantly a state-level responsibility. As a result, depending on the economic prosperity, dominant political ideology, and even some cultural factors, access to healthcare varies across individual states. Given the breadth of diversity of Indian demographics, picking merely one group for analysis is a challenging endeavor. This is so because demographic groups in India intersect across language, caste, gender and class lines. When we apply these parameters to the Indian population we get thousands of small groups with marked differences between them in terms of privilege and quality of life. As a result no one group can be said to directly relate and represent India and its healthcare system. In order to overcome this challenge, the biggest minority group in the country is chosen, namely, women.

It is often pointed out by social scientists that women in India comprise the largest minority community. This ‘minority’ status has two key aspects – one figurative (that they are not empowered) and the other literal (they are only 49% of the total population). One of the anomalies regarding Indian demographics is the skewered sex-ratio. Country-wide statistics show that for every 49 females there are 51 males. This is a significant disparity in a population of more than 1.2 billion. One of the main reasons for this situation is a culturally promoted preference for boys over girls. As a consequence thousands of female fetuses are aborted annually, some even at advanced stages of pregnancy. This also puts the life of the mother at risk. It is not surprising then that India (especially the rural regions) score poorly in terms of maternity health parameters. Equally, rural India fares rather poorly on child nutrition and infant mortality counts. For healthcare providers the challenge is clear cut. The success of any healthcare initiative is pivoted on its effectiveness in improving quality of healthcare for women, and by extension children. (Ridge, 2010, p.1)

On top of the diversities in politics, economy and socio-culture, the geography and climate of the Indian subcontinent is also very diverse. This means that there cannot be a nation level one-size-fits-all approach to offering health care to women. Indeed, each of the Indian states (or provinces) has a different track record in providing healthcare for women. Among the 30 odd Indian States, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu rank high in terms of access to public health care for this demographic group. There are some uniting undercurrents between the successful states. For example, states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu have had strong presence of socialist political parties. These parties have always exerted pressure toward implementing social welfare schemes, some of which were women centric. The fact that Tamil Nadu had elected a woman as its Chief Minister (J. Jayalalitha) is another important factor. In contrast, in most of the other states, public health care is either of poor quality or nearly nonexistent. (Kumar, 2007, p.160)

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Category Archives: Rutger Kuyper

Preservation of randomness under symmetric differences

Speaker: Rutger Kuyper

Joint work with Joseph S. Miller

Title: Preservation of randomness and genericity under symmetric differences

Given a class $\mathcal U$ of subsets of the natural numbers, let us say that a subset $A$ of the natural numbers is $\mathcal U$-stabilising if the symmetric difference (or bitwise addition) $A+X$ of $A$ and $X$ is an element of $\mathcal U$ for every element $X$ of $\mathcal U$.

Several people have asked, using varying terminology, to characterise the Martin-Löf-stabilising sets, i.e. the sets $A$ such that $X+A$ is Martin-Löf random for every Martin-Löf random set $X$. We show that the Martin-Löf-stabilising sets are exactly the $K$-trivial sets.

We also show that the 1-generic-stabilising sets are exactly the computable sets, using an argument which (surprisingly) makes use of Kolmogorov complexity and facts about the $K$-trivial sets.


Sports Update - The Knee

By Thomas Souza, DC, DACBSP
This month we will review a number of articles in an attempt to answer the following questions:
  • Is there evidence to suggest that during a cutting maneuver, the ACL is at risk of damage?

  • What are the surgical options and outcomes for patients who fail conservative management of patellar tendinopathy?

  • Is there a factor that indicates a longer recovery time for patients with anterior ligament rupture?

  • Is there a reason why the medial collateral ligament heals faster than the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments?

Colby S, Francisco A, Yu B, et al.
Electromyographic and kinematic analysis of cutting maneuvers: implication for anterior crucicate ligament injury.

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) damage is a common injury in sports, accounting for 70 percent of all tears. The primary sports that are high-risk include football, skiing, basketball, and soccer. The injury rate is approximately 1 in 3,000 people per year in the general population. Although contact injury is possible, the majority of ACL injuries are non-contact.

Mechanisms with skiing have been divided into basically three common possibilities: (1) when the skier falls backward with the knee flexed and internally rotated; (2) when the skier catches the edge of a ski in the snow; and (3) when the skier takes a hard fall, the boot forces the tibia forward. Non-contact injury in other sports has not been as well-studied.

This study uses surface electromyographic (EMG) and kinematic analysis during cutting maneuvers to determine which muscles contract and what knee flexion angle occurs during the cutting maneuver. Sidestep cutting, cross-cutting, stopping and landing were analyzed. Foot strike for all maneuvers occurred at an average angle of 22 degrees of flexion. The maximum quadriceps muscle activation for all maneuvers was 161 percent. This high level of contraction occurred just before foot strike and peaked in mid-eccentric motion. The level of hamstring muscle activation was minimal, as low as 14 percent. It is proposed that the combination of low hamstring protective contraction and low angle of knee flexion at foot strike and during the eccentric motion, coupled with the massive quadriceps pull forward on the tibia, combine to strain the ACL to the point of tearing or rupture.

Coleman BD, Khan KM, Kiss ZS, et al. Open and arthroscopic patellar tenotomy for chronic patellar tendinopathy: a retrospective outcome study. Am J Sports Med 2000;28(2);183-190.

Although patellar tendinitis is often responsive to conservative care, there are some that, with even months to a year of conservative management, fail to respond. Surgery is often the only answer. This study compared the success rate of two approaches using a similar strategy; removal of the abnormal portion of the tendon. One approach was with open surgery, the other arthroscopic. Interestingly, symptomatic relief was found more in the arthroscopically-treated group: 96 percent compared to the open-surgery group (81 percent). However, more of the open group (54 percent) were successfully able to return to sport compared to the arthroscopic group (486 percent). Recovery time (i.e., return to pre-injury status) was on average six months for the arthroscopic group and 10 months for the open group. There were no real statistical differences between the groups. The authors note that only about half of either group were able to return to their previous sporting activity level. This study suggests that the arthroscopic procedure might be as good as the open procedure with the advantage of earlier return to sports activity. Follow-up time in this study was about four years.

Johnson DL, Bealle DP, Brand JC Jr, et al. The effect of a geographic lateral bone bruise on knee inflammation after acute anterior cruciate ligament rupture. Am J Sports Med 2000;28(2);152-155.

It has long been recognized that bone damage accompanies most ACL ruptures. Some of these signs are visible radiographically; some are not. On magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), it is common to see a subchondral fracture (geographic bone bruise) of the lateral femoral condyle. This study compared amount and duration of effusion; range of motion, and pain between those patients with an MRI-documented subchondral fracture of the lateral femoral condyle and those without. Patients with the subchondral fracture had an increased size and duration of effusion, and increased number of days required to nonantalgic gait; increased number of days to achieve normal range of motion; and increased pain, when compared to those without the subchondral fracture. The authors suggest the identification of a subchondral fracture may be significant prognostic factor and may factor into timing of surgery.

Cao M, Racic-Stefanovic M, Georgescu HI, et al. Does nitric oxide help explain the differential healing capacity of the anterior cruciate, posterior cruciate, and medial collateral ligaments? Am J Sports Med 2000;28(2);176-182.

It has been recognized that the medial collateral ligament (MCL) heals faster and more efficiently than the ACL and PCL. This study supports a new theory that this differential in healing rate is due to nitric oxide synthesis. This study compared the ability of rabbit MCL, PCL, and ACL tissue to synthesize nitric oxide and its effect on healing. Apparently, the ACL and PCL synthesized large amounts of nitric oxide, whereas the MCL produced only modest amounts in response to injury. Nitric oxide (NO) strongly inhibited collagen synthesis for the cruciates but not the MCL. NO appears to:

  • inhibit not only collagen synthesis, but also matrix synthesis, prolonging healing time;

  • increase and prolong the early inflammatory reaction to injury; and

  • prevent cell migration while blocking cell division.

Thomas Souza,DC,DACBSP
San Jose, California

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Cw2 Final Project: Tribalism – Religion tribe

For my final portfolio I have decided to concentrate on tribalism. From the understanding in which I have gathered from the meaning of tribe, it is a social group conformed and represent a type of culture.

I want my images for the final portfolio to focus on religion, Islam in particular.I have chosen this specific genre, because I can substitute and relate, however also express a religious culture through understandings of images.

I want to photograph each image and represent ‘peace’ which is the meaning of the religion through holy places of worship, their dressing, what that means, through ornaments and the importance of their praying, prayer mats and so on.

My main focus is to be on detailed and close-up of each image I take. I have been inspired from some of Sanders work in relation to this idea. However this specific genre is a great ordeal to me.

My first plan is to set out some dates in trying to organise visits to mosques. This will be my main focus. The interior and architecture of the location and settings, focusing on detail. Focusing on the floor, the layout of prayer, people worshipping their God (Allah)

Close-up shots of peoples hands praying with prayer beads, to capture the  understanding and notion of it. The holy book, Qur’an. Very close and detailed shots of it.

I want to be able to capture 18-25 images focusing on different religious themes and put it together on a website which will then be able to tell my story for this final project.

Here are some of my images:

In this topic I decided to look at a particular group who have similar personalities, thinking outside of the box in the sense of a social group forming together and sharing their unique desire. In this form I concentrated on the locations and streets full of graffiti.

I set out to take images in the streets of Shoreditch, Camden and Brick lane. Along the streets of Shoreditch and Brick lane especially I was able to identify many street art, other known as graffiti.

Some of these Graffiti’s done by specific individuals signifies their stories and meanings to specific subjects.

Here are some of my images:

These images create a sense of story, and behind each art, the artist who creates these graffiti’s has their own personality, and all artists that create these types of images shows that they are linked. They all form some sort of connection. From the way they produce some of their work. Majority of them are highly talented, they all have one thing in common which is the signature post. They all initialise their names or whatever they are other known as to identify who their work was created by.

Here’s some work that I looked at by St John Stamford which inspired me into the notion of understanding one’s culture and idolising their unique connection with one another

graffiti research.png

st john stamford grafiti research.png

These images are created by particular gangs. They use their own way of communicationg, representing their culture as well as use their ‘way of art’, graffiti to offer as an indicator of gang related activities.

From my representation and understanding of Diaspora it can be visualised as a small group who have specific things in common. In this case, such as expressing their emotions understandings through this type of criminalistics art.

A diaspora (from Greek διασπορά, “scattering, dispersion”) is a scattered population whose origin lies within a smaller geographic locale. Diaspora can also refer to the movement of the population from its original homeland

When studying the approach of tribalism I wanted to focus on a specific theme, such as religious tribes and culture stimulated differences. I acknowledged the fact that identifying these structures through pictures would be rather difficult however I had mainstreamed the ideas of how to portray certain features of the specific topics in which I want to portray.

I want to establish the religion Islam, through their understandings of clothing, ornaments, what each item means, their sacred holy place of worship and so on.

To combine the Asian culture and religion is quite broad in the sense that a lot of people within our current society still confuse the both.

I was more inspired to go for the religious tribe and I wanted to establish the Muslim religion culture as there are so many fascinating hidden stories.

So therefore I came down to the conclusion of adapting and focusing on telling a story or identifying some parts of that religion through photography.

For landscapes we was given a set task to be able to take long, landscape shots. It was the use of being able to practice these long shots in which we later could use towards our final project. This was useful because I was able to experiment the different lens on the Nikon dslr camera and export some skills and practice for later purposes. Also I was able to analyse the difference between the 18mm-55mm and the lens of 55mm-200mm.

Here are some of my shots established from this task:

Some of the angles produced from these images were amazing. Focussing the camera and cutting in the correct borders and edges for some of these shots were key essentials.

For alienation I decided to focus on the subject of people and social interaction through mobile devices and other technologies such as people using laptops or the regular use of people using their mobile phones within their day to day lives. In general I wanted portray people’s use and link to media.

When I went out to take my first load of pictures, it was quite difficult because I didn’t want people that I was taking photographs on, to acknowledge that I was photographing them because it would have automatically made them feel uncomfortable. Also, if I was to do it with taking their permission, they would have posed for the pictures. So therefore I wanted to focus on taking images of people using their mobile phones or other uses of technology without them identifying it, which would make it more realistic and natural which was my main focus for the project. An article by David Bates,  concept through representations and reality.

My main objective was to take images within public places, such coffee shops, outside in public areas, tubes etc.. Having to do this was more difficult as people would suspect you taking the images, and I wanted all my images of people using their devices as natural and real as possible.

Overall, I gathered pictures of people using their technologies, mobile devices and laptops in public as well as a social area.

Some research I did on social interaction, was based on photographer, Brian Megan. He reconstitutes the idea that socialising is the new interaction and the use of smartphones dominates our way of social interaction.

Here are some of the images of my perception of alienation below:

These images are all forms of social interaction and how people are drawn to the ideology of their technology, despite for what reasons, but it goes to show that technology plays a big role within our current society today.

Bibliography and group presentation powerpoint:

Group powerpoint presentation: [Last Accessed 21st March 2015]

The film ‘The Giver’ produced by Lois Lowry, is an inspiration to my work in which I have produced in the sense, that it has connection to the theme regarding ‘memories.’ Although the film has a different connection to the film in which I have produced for my project, the theory behind the film was the inspiration in which Lois had discovered by her fathers memory loss. In correlation to this, the movie that I had produced was to emphasize and adapt the good memories via old photographs, this is in order to show and make sense to the audience one type of ways in which a movie can be regarding ‘memories’ as a sense of theme. Lowry’s work is used as an inspiration because it is one method in showing how you can relate to flashback scenario’s, from a present scene in order to make relevance to any kind of synopsis. [Accessed 10th March 2015]

– Jane La: [Last accessed 9th March 2015]

Inspiration from her, with the split scenes, gave us ideas when we was making our film.This inspiration influenced me using different types of editing skills as well as picking up doifferent kinds of notions to build up a emotional yet understanding format, to improve as well as making the video clip interesting.

Written evaluation and URL link to video:

Overall, i believe to some extent we had evaluated a great quality skilled video, hitting the target of the film being with 2-3 minutes long. Our main synopsis had evaluated well with the film whilst producing it. We started off with some ideas relating to the theme ‘memories’ and created a storyboard. This helped us create and visualise an image in our heads and produce scenes in which we could make relating back to the key idea of our video.

The film was produced at home, although we thought we could have faced some difficulty with lighting and background noise, overall the film made-believe a homely environment, which connoted our loving memories which created the sense of memories and happiness which were also involved with our film-making project.

Their was different types of angles used as well as shots. Their were long shots, medium shots as well as close-up shots, re-defining the sense of meaning within the video.

Our target audience for the video, I would say its quite vague, due to film being produced is about memories, and our film connotations were focusing on happy memories, their wasn’t a necessary target audience at constant. As memory can define and be linked to any individual, especially if the flashbacks are made from looking back on old photographs. But I would say if we was to be precise, the age range group can be between anyone within the ages of 15-60 or even more.

After taking shots for different scenes, this was to create a sense of illusion of a scene portraying the present and also a visual image identifying the past again to connote the flashbacks looking back not memories. When the video was being films, none of the scenes made clear sense as their were more than one shot taken in order to connote the meaning to the film.

In order for us to break down each scene and make it come in altogether, we had to edit our film. We used final cut pro to edit our film. First thing we done was taken out all the repeated scenes that were not necessary, we kept the most great quality looking scenes as we wanted to use them to make our film look the best of qualities. One of the great qualities that i was very fond of was the use of voice playing in the background, creating feelings along side with the visual effect of the clock rewinding itself back fast. This created the beginning of a story put together relating to the theme. Also the split setting between the two scene, identifying ‘present’ and ‘past. We used edged effect to make this work.

Some things we could have improved could be, when we done our cutting out, i should have waited for the film roll off so that it made sense instead of just cutting out directly. Also the background music we had used, we could have toned it down a little. As well as the shakiness of the camera could have been more improved by taking more shots.

Overall, I would like to suggest that, via all our research and individual contribution we were able to put together a well scripted film using the skills gained from videography, as well as a lot of room for improvement for more tasks later on the course. The presentation and feedback allowed us to reflect back onto ourselves with positive as well as notes on improvement, which is was a great reflection to continue to help us do better.

Videography storyboard

In the image above is a storyboard of a rough idea of the video that we want to produce using skills, features and techniques given from videography alongside with sound. We have images connoting each scene and the significance of it relating back to the theme which of course is memory. This is to help us analyse and view each scene before recording, so that we can get the sense of understand and create images and scenes in our heads which will help us produce a great film. This also helps us break down the scenes and ideas created before we shoot each scene. Some of the images connote long shots, medium shots as well as close-ups. This helps us build an image as well as a sense of expectation from the film we produce. We are then able to view and discuss the things that did work and didn’t work, and talk about room for improvement. The task, practice and skills will better our skills as well structure for future relevance.

Video synopsis:

In this project our task given was to produce a film with the theme ‘memory.’ This can identify or literate many meanings. The idea chosen is to reflect back onto memory and show this with videography skills and portray a sense of meanings, through different angles and perspectives given a story to connote a visual sense of emotions and feelings, through the usage and skills, using videography and films, which can signify a sense of happy memories, past or present memories. This will be produced within three minutes, to show the usage of skills, reflecting through the theme.

The storyboard connotes some parts of the initiatives to the story play.

The idea produced was to use a film strip to be the first connotation to play a big part within the film. The time strip is to signify, the ‘person’ within the film looking back at some old photographs, portraying the sense of ‘memory’

Another key source which is important within the video is the key signification shown, to portray through the video, is to let the audience view and notice that the clock is going backwards. This is very important as it shows the importance of flashbacks, with the time going back to the past allows the audience to understand the difference between the two scenes.

The film was concentrated on a family home, with loving people, looking at the strips, to create the illusion of flashbacks. The idea of having split scenes, whilst one identifies the time as in, its present, and the other signifies the time as past, hopefully after the usage of final cut pro, to show the difference between the past and the present, identifying that the ‘person’ in present is looking back into the past, reminiscing good ‘memories.’

Background music, wise we wanted to use a slow melody of relaxing music, as the initiative idea of the video being filmed within a family home we wanted the genre of music to fit in and create the sense calmness and relaxation.

Alongside with background sound, we decided to use direct dialogue. A voice in which it creates a sense of emotions and feelings that will connect to our audience, creating a sense of meaning which relates back to our theme.

overall I hope as planned through our ideas, storyboard and other research in relation to our task topic, we are also able to create a a theme through the idea of memories to produce to the public.


5 giants that were destroyed

Big doesn’t means strong and sturdy, and it certainly doesn’t mean that the eternal. The story has a lot of giant designs or structures, which, unfortunately, despite its power, was destroyed. Today we will tell you about the five giants, in case you did not know about them or forgot.

1.Floating giant — Titanic

It does not matter if you history lessons of the flies believed, the famous «Titanic» known to many because of the eponymous film. So it is probably known to everyone, but cinema is cinema, and reality is another thing. The main cause of the «Titanic» was the fact that a growing America, which took their citizenship and all, felt the problem of the carriage of passengers. Millionaire S. Koundara established a prize for the Blue ribbon, to which was the fastest and largest liner. Started a race among shipbuilders, joined the company «white star of Line» built in 1911, the largest and most comfortable liner «Titanic». This giant was a length of 268 meters and a displacement of 46,000 t in order to pull a whopper on the water and it took 23 tons of tallow, train oil, and liquid soap (to lubricate the guides gangways). Everything about this giant was perfect: the size, capacity and comfort. One problem — 3 000 000 rivets of steel with sulfate that can not withstand low temperatures. The giant could survive a collision with an iceberg, everything was foreseen: the ship had a double bottom and was divided into 16 watertight compartments. The iceberg damaged some of them, but brittle rivets could not withstand the onslaught of water. The Titanic went to the bottom, paraleipsis into two parts.

2. Flying the giant airship «Hindenburg»

As you a boat name, so it will float. «Celestial Titanic» — named airship «Hindenburg», which was also huge and, unfortunately, also had a tragic end. Giant, built by the German company «Zeppelin-Roeder», was 248 m long and has a volume of 200,000 cubic meters. Inside were seats and chambers with hydrogen. The airship had taken passengers from Germany to America in three days. On one tank the giant could fly 15 000 km at a speed of 135 km/h, the Price of one way ticket was like,$ 800 — a considerable sum even by today’s standards, but in those days it was generally expensive. Not so long existed the famous «Hindenburg» (although longer than «Titanic»), in 1937, during its fourth flight it exploded and burned. First, the cause of the explosion was considered a discharge of static electricity, but in 1972 it became known that a team member Erich Spell put mine in the airship with the goal to undermine the power of Nazi Germany.

3.Trying to fly a giant lunar rocket N-1

rocket 0309714134

After the Americans landed on the moon (by the way, this is still a controversial issue), the USSR decided to keep up with and outdo the bourgeoisie, creating the largest and most powerful rocket to send men on the moon. So in 1968 under the leadership of S. P. Korolev had developed a super powerful rocket N-1, the weight of which was 2,500 t, length of 76.6 m. In the first stage of the rocket was set to 30 engines with thrust of 154 TS each. It was the largest flying ship in history. Although the flight did not take place. From 1969 to 1972, was made four attempts to launch rockets, and each time it is the first stage exploded. Each of the motors worked perfectly separately, but not together. In the end, all the details of the N-1 was destroyed on the orders, although something still remained — at the Baikonur there is a cafe, a shed which serve as the wall of the fuel tank is large and, unfortunately, never took off, rockets.

4.Tried to ride the giant — King-tank-Lebedenko

tank 1522741770

During the First world war, each of the participating countries had its own trick, which was to provide her with a quick victory. It was assumed that in our country it will be large and powerful tank of Lebedenko. However, during the creation of this giant designer probably wanted to impress the Emperor, than to help the Russian soldiers, and so some calculations were inaccurate and had errors. And if a wooden model of the tank-not at the floor in the office of Nicholas II, the tank itself could not boast of much needed tank maneuverability. The Tsar tank was like a huge bike with a gun weighing 40 tons and a diameter of the large wheels 9 m. In the tank I used 2 motors, taken from the downed German Zeppelin. The tank and failed to rush into battle, because when testing it are stuck in a small ditch. After some time, the Soviet pioneers, business guys, smashed it to scrap metal.

5.Standing and supine giant — Colossus of Rhodes

ear 1995635683

This giant existed in the year 230 BC. Built this big statue of the inhabitants, or rather, one of the architects of the island of Rhodes, in the Aegean sea. The story is. The Greeks were constantly raiding the island, wanting to capture it, and after another defeat of the Greeks, the Rhodians decided to thank and praise the patron Saint of the island of the God Apollo. Sculptor Haret tide bronze giant statue, only he did it wrong. The statue was composed of sheets with the contours of the face, extremities and genitals. He took steel frame 3 m high, filled it with stones and sheathed harvested the bronze plates. Ambitious sculptor decided to add a few more meters, the result did not calculate the costs and went bankrupt. A disproportionate of Rhodes stood for only 50 years, then the earthquake it collapsed. 900 years the giant spent on the island, but gradually the Syrian tourists pilfered it for Souvenirs.


posterior interosseous artery

(redirected from Posterior interosseous)

pos·te·ri·or in·ter·os·se·ous ar·ter·y

origin, common interosseous artery; distribution, posterior compartment of forearm.

pos·te·ri·or in·ter·os·se·ous ar·te·ry

(pos-tēr'ē-ŏr in'tĕr-os'ē-ŭs ahr'tĕr-ē) [TA]
Origin, common interosseous artery; distribution, posterior compartment of forearm.
Synonym(s): arteria interossea posterior, dorsal interosseous artery.

posterior interosseous artery

A branch of the common interosseous artery; it descends through the forearm between the superficial and deep layers of muscle.
See also: artery
References in periodicals archive ?
Given the superior biomechanical properties of cortical button fixation and increased use of this technique, the safety of the posterior interosseous nerve was brought into question while drilling through the posterior cortex.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the etiological pathologies for mechanical entrapment of the posterior interosseous nerve (PIN).
Posterior interosseous nerve entrapment may occur concurrently with a tennis elbow.
The distal cage pattern allows for 4 screws to be placed in the radial shaft for distal stability though a relatively short plate to help limit risk of injury to the posterior interosseous.
The common interosseous artery arises from the lateral side of the ulnar artery and divides into the anterior and posterior interosseous arteries.
The proximal portion of the distal biceps is supplied by branches of the brachial artery, whereas the distal insertion is supplied by the posterior interosseous recurrent artery.
They reported one permanent posterior interosseous nerve palsy.

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Orsi Khaneh

The main concept of this built project is originated from Iranian traditional architecture, using a special type of window which is locally called Orsi, made by wooden lattice and stained glasses have had an effective technical functions in climatic and natural light controlling.

The architects tried to make a modern orsi window, with the aim of creating a space with an Iranian spirit or genius loci, which respects both the mental and biological needs of the users. So the elements like water, plants and light have been highlighted.

The facade of the building is a double layer coverage of heat-treated timber and inset with panes of stained glass and planting that not only serve as a decorative element but also help to control temperature.The balconies are framed with boxes made up of travertine and are placed in such a way that the configuration implies a dynamic composition.

The framing around the terraces in the northern view, being inspired by the Iranian space framings like Tabatabayiha house in Kashan are presented in a modern way, that emphasizes the balconies through a unique volume, improving the appropriate radiation of sunbeams into the building thanks to the different angles of radiation.

Framing the terraces and their displacement creates movement and dynamism in the facade, and induces a different landscape experience of every balcony.

Inside, the ground-floor lobby links with a shared staircase and is lined in glossy, dark stone to reflect tiny spotlights in the ceiling. Small sculptures of pigeons, a symbol of peace in Iran, are set into niches in the wall of the staircase.

Architects: Keivani Architects
Client: Amir Abbas Taheri
Contractor: Mohammad Mashuf
Design associates: Ladan Mostofi , Akbar Khalaj
Architectural theory consultant: Alireza Kharazmi Nezhad
Mechanical engineering: Mehdi Bazargani
Area: 300 sqm