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pp 825-827 December 2013 Commentary
pp 829-833 December 2013 Brief communication
Animals often evaluate the degree of risk posed by a predator and respond accordingly. Since many predators orient their eyes towards prey while attacking, predator gaze and directness of approach could serve as conspicuous indicators of risk to prey. The ability to perceive these cues and discriminate between high and low predation risk should benefit prey species through both higher survival and decreased energy expenditure. We experimentally examined whether Indian rock lizards (Psammophilus dorsalis) can perceive these two indicators of predation risk by measuring the variation in their fleeing behaviour in response to type of gaze and approach by a human predator. Overall, we found that the gaze and approach of the predator influenced flight initiation distance, which also varied with attributes of the prey (i.e. size/sex and tail-raise behaviour). Flight initiation distance (FID) was 43% longer during direct approaches with direct gaze compared with tangential approaches with averted gaze. In further, exploratory, analyses, we found that FID was 23% shorter for adult male lizards than for female or young male (FYM) lizards. In addition, FYM lizards that showed a tail-raise display during approach had a 71% longer FID than those that did not. Our results suggest that multiple factors influence the decision to flee in animals. Further studies are needed to test the generality of these factors and to investigate the proximate mechanisms underlying flight decisions.
pp 835-844 December 2013 Articles
Quorum sensing (QS) plays an important role in virulence, biofilm formation and survival of many pathogenic bacteria including Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This signalling pathway is considered as novel and promising target for anti-infective agents. In the present investigation, effect of the Sub-MICs of clove oil on QS regulated virulence factors and biofilm formation was evaluated against P. aeruginosa PAO1 and Aeromonas hydrophila WAF-38 strain. Sub-inhibitory concentrations of the clove oil demonstrated statistically significant reduction of lasand rhl-regulated virulence factors such as LasB, total protease, chitinase and pyocyanin production, swimming motility and exopolysaccharide production. The biofilm forming capability of PAO1 and A. hydrophila WAF-38 was also reduced in a concentration-dependent manner at all tested sub-MIC values. Further, the PAO1-preinfected Caenorhabditis elegans displayed an enhanced survival when treated with 1.6% v/v of clove oil. The above findings highlight the promising anti-QS-dependent therapeutic function of clove oil against P. aeruginosa.
pp 845-855 December 2013 Articles
Internal mobility of the two domain molecule of ribosome recycling factor (RRF) is known to be important for its action. Mycobacterium tuberculosis RRF does not complement E. coli for its deficiency of RRF (in the presence of E. coli EF-G alone). Crystal structure had revealed higher rigidity of the M. tuberculosis RRF due to the presence of additional salt bridges between domains. Two inter-domain salt bridges and one between the linker region and the domain containing C-terminal residues were disrupted by appropriate mutations. Except for a C-terminal deletion mutant, all mutants showed RRF activity in E. coli when M. tuberculosis EF-G was also co-expressed. The crystal structures of the point mutants, that of the C-terminal deletion mutant and that of the protein grown in the presence of a detergent, were determined. The increased mobility resulting from the disruption of the salt bridge involving the hinge region allows the appropriate mutant to weakly complement E. coli for its deficiency of RRF even in the absence of simultaneous expression of the mycobacterial EF-G. The loss of activity of the C-terminal deletion mutant appears to be partly due to the rigidification of the molecule consequent to changes in the hinge region.
pp 857-866 December 2013 Articles
The Klenow fragment (KF) has been used to make the blunt end as a tool enzyme. Its 5′-3′ polymerase activity can extend the 5′ overhanging sticky end to the blunt end, and 3′-5′ exonuclease activity can cleave the 3′ overhanging sticky end to the blunt end. The blunt end is useful for cloning. Here, we for the first time determined that a sticky end can be made by using the 3′-5′ exonuclease activity of KF. We found that KF can cleave the blunt end into certain sticky ends under controlled conditions. We optimized enzyme cleavage conditions, and characterized the cleaved sticky ends to be mainly 2 nt 5′ overhang. By using these sticky ends, we realized ligation reaction in vitro, and accomplished cloning short oligonucleotides directionally with high cloning efficiency. In some cases, this method can provide sticky end fragments in large scale for subsequent convenient cloning at low cost.
pp 867-876 December 2013 Articles
Expression of 𝛽1,6-branched N-linked oligosaccharides have a definite association with invasion and metastasis of cancer cells. However, the mechanism by which these oligosaccharides regulate these processes is not well understood. Invasive variants of B16 murine melanoma, B16F10 (parent) and B16BL6 (highly invasive variant) cell lines have been used for these studies. We demonstrate that substitution of 𝛼2,6-linked sialic acids on multiantennary structures formed as a result of 𝛽1,6-branching modulate cellular adhesion on both extracellular matrix (ECM) and basement membrane (BM) components. Removal of 𝛼2,6 sialic acids either by enzymatic desialylation or by stably down-regulating the ST6Gal-I (enzyme that catalyses the addition of 𝛼2,6-linked sialic acids on N-linked oligosaccharides) by lentiviral driven shRNA decreased the adhesion on both ECM and BM components and invasion through reconstituted BM matrigel.
pp 877-886 December 2013 Articles
We sought to clarify the involvement and the intra-cerebral distribution variability of C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP), a representative molecule related to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-induced cell death signalling pathways, in neuronal death resulting from status epilepticus in rats. The expression patterns of CHOP and glucose-regulated protein (GRP) 78, a good marker of ER stress, were assessed by Western blotting, real-time PCR, Hoechst and immunohistochemistry in the hippocampus, cortex and striatum on a status epilepticus (SE) model. Double-fluorescent staining of CHOP and the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated DNA nick-end labelling (TUNEL) method were performed to clarify the involvement of CHOP in cell death. SE resulted in a time-dependent increase in the expression of GRP78 and CHOP. The expression of GRP78 protein was increased at 3, 6 and 12 h after SE and no brain region variability was found. The expression of CHOP protein was also increased, reached its peak at 24 h and remained high at 48 h. CHOP protein expression, however, showed brain region variability with highest expression noted in the hippocampus followed by the striatum, and lowest in the cortex. The up-regulation of CHOP occurring at the transcriptional level was demonstrated by real-time PCR. Double fluorescence showed that CHOP expression strongly correlated with neurons undergoing apoptosis. The results indicated that SE compromises the function of the ER and that the hippocampus is more vulnerable than the cortex and the striatum.
pp 887-892 December 2013 Articles
Globalization and women empowerment have led to stressful life among Indian women. This stress impairs women's hormonal makeup and menstrual cycle, leading to infertility. National Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3) reports a decline in fertility status in India, indicating a rise in various infertility treatments involving hormonal interventions. No studies are available from India on the risk association link between maternal hormonal treatments and ASD. Hence, this study explores the association of maternal hormonal interventions with risk for ASD. Parents of 942 children (471 ASD and 471 controls) across 9 cities in India participated in the questionnaire-based study. The questionnaire was pilot tested and validated for its content and reliability as a psychometric instrument. Data collection was done at 70 centres through direct interaction with parents and with the help of trained staff. Statistical analysis of data was carried out using SAS 9.1.3. Out of the 471 ASD cases analysed, 58 mothers had undergone hormonal interventions (12.3%) while there were only 22 mothers among controls who underwent hormonal interventions (4.6%). According to logistic regression analysis maternal hormonal intervention (OR=2.24) was a significant risk factor for ASD.
pp 893-897 December 2013 Articles
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a disease induced by complex interactions between environmental factors and certain genetic factors. Genetic variants in the Adenosine Binding Cassette Transporter Proteins 1 (ABCA1) have been associated with abnormalities of serum lipid levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL-C). Decreased serum levels of HDL-C have often been observed in T2DM cases, and this condition has been considered to be involved in the mechanism of insulin


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The tomato sector in Ghana has failed to reach its potential, in terms of attaining yields comparable to other countries, in terms of the ability to sustain processing plants, and in terms of improving the livelihoods of those households involved in tomato production and the tomato commodity chain. Despite government interventions that include the establishment of a number of tomato processing factories, tomatoes of the right quality and quantity for commercial agroprocessing are not being grown. Many farmers still prefer to plant local varieties, typically with a high water content, many seeds, poor color, and low brix. Land husbandry practices are often suboptimal. Average yields remain low, typically under ten tons per hectare. Because of production seasonality, high perishability, poor market access, and competition from imports, some farmers are unable to sell their tomatoes, which are left to rot in their fields. Yet other farmers in Ghana have achieved higher tomato yields, production is profitable, and many farmers in Ghana continue to choose to grow tomatoes over other crops.
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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MSSD Salutes Black History Month
"What does being an advocate mean?" Fred Beam, chairperson of the DC Area Black Deaf Advocates and executive director of Invisible Hands, Inc., asked this question at the beginning of his February 22 presentation to students, teachers, and staff as part of the Model Secondary School for the Deaf's tribute to Black History Month.
Several audience members came up to offer their ideas. Beam nodded enthusiastically at the various replies and then invited everyone to take part in a fun exercise to bring the concept of advocacy to life. He divided the students into two legal teams for the trial of the Big Wolf vs. The Three Pigs, with the audience serving as the jury. Each legal team came up with arguments for their client's position, arguing their case before the jury. The audience laughed when the wolf's lawyer claimed the wolf didn't mean to blow the house down; he had a bad cold that he could not control.
Beam then explained how the National Black Deaf Advocates (NBDA) organization advocates to make sure deaf and hard of hearing African Americans are adequately represented in leadership and policy decision-making activities affecting their lives. The organization was founded in 1982 and is the oldest and largest consumer organization of deaf and hard of hearing black deaf people. It now has 30 chapters in the United States.
Beam introduced the audience to Miss Black Deaf America (2009-11), Brianna Johnson, and Mr. Black Deaf America, Aarron Loggins (2009-11), for a Q&A with the audience. Johnson and Loggins shared their personal life stories with the audience. They urged students to become advocates for themselves and to appreciate their language and their culture.
Click here for more information on NBDA.
Andrew Foster Lecture
On February 25, Fred Beam was joined by Pam Baldwin, former National Black Deaf Advocates history archivist and long-time DC Area Black Deaf Advocates member, and Jeff Bowden, a Washington, D.C.-based interpreter, for a presentation in MSSD's Theatre Malz honoring Andrew Foster.
Andrew Foster was a distinguished black deaf African American who founded many schools for the deaf in Africa. Beam shared that Foster was born in Ensley, Alabama, and that he became the first black deaf person to earn a bachelor's degree from Gallaudet University. Foster was also the first black deaf person to earn a master's degree from Eastern Michigan University.
In 1957, after earning another master's degree from Seattle Pacific Christian College, Foster went to Africa. There he encountered cultures so oppressive of deaf people that parents often hid their deaf children at home or abandoned them altogether. Some missionaries even told Foster that deaf children didn't exist in Africa. Foster became a great advocate for the deaf community all over Africa. When he found that deaf children had no place in school, he established schools for them-31 in all. Before Foster was done, he had established schools in places including Benin, Congo, Chad, the Ivory Coast, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Cameroon. Beam showed the audience a map marked with the locations of the schools. For much of his life, Foster spent six months of each year in Africa establishing schools and the other six months in the United States raising money to support those schools. In 1970, Gallaudet granted Foster an honorary doctorate of humane letters in recognition of his accomplishments. Foster met his untimely death in a plane crash in 1987 and the black deaf community lost an extraordinary leader.
Baldwin told the story of Gallaudet erecting a bust of Foster in the Andrew Foster auditorium on campus. Foster is the first Gallaudet alumnus to be so honored and the second deaf person on campus to have to received this recognition (Laurent Clerc was the first deaf man honored with a bust on campus). She showed the audience her film from "Deaf Mosaic" of Foster's work in Africa.
Bowden shared with the audience his experience visiting one of Foster's schools in Africa. He showed his documentary film on the lives of deaf people in Africa and the conditions of the schools today.
For more information about Foster and the schools he established, visit the Christian Mission for the Deaf website at _URL_.


In training sports, running in place is a very effective exercise. Of course, it is good for a person to run in place regularly, such as improving heart function, strengthening muscle elasticity, etc., but running in place is also exquisite, but many People don't know how to run in situ indoors. So, what is the correct posture for indoor running in situ? Let's take a look together below!
 Running on the spot indoors, correct posture
 1. Head posture
 Raise the head slightly, look straight ahead, relax the head and neck muscles.
 2. Arm posture
 Stretch your chest, tuck your abdomen, flex your elbows, lift your shoulders slightly, bend your arms to 90 degrees, and swing back and forth naturally. When you swing forward, your hands are slightly inward, and when you swing backward, your elbows are slightly outward. Don't show your elbows, and keep your hands behind.
 3. Leg posture
 When swinging the lower limbs forward, lift the thighs forward and upward as much as possible, and keep the feet above the ground at least 20 cm. This can make the abdominal muscles tense, the inner belly is lifted, and the breathing is even, slender, full and rhythmic.
 However, you should raise your legs moderately, and you can't blindly pursue stride length and frequency. Increasing the stride length will inevitably result in a long flight time, a large fluctuation in the center of gravity, and a heavy landing force. This will increase the vibration to the human body and cause unnecessary damage over time.
 4. Landing posture
 The calf is relaxed and drooping naturally, the toes are lightly landed, the heel is lifted, the heel does not touch the ground, the rebound force is used to make the movement rhythmically. Many people are accustomed to landing with their soles on the ground when running. In fact, this method of landing is not scientific. Because there is no cushion when landing, it will have a great impact on the body.
 The benefits of running in place
 1. Improve heart function
 Running in place can help improve heart function. In the process of running in place, the blood flow of the coronary arteries will be greatly increased, and myocardial nutrition can also be significantly improved, which helps prevent coronary heart disease, hypertension, arteriosclerosis, and improve heart function.
 2. Enhance muscle elasticity
 Running in place can help increase muscle elasticity. In the process of running in place, the muscles of the whole body will contract and stretch rhythmically, which can help increase muscle fibers, improve muscle elasticity, and enhance muscle strength.
 3. Improve lung function
 Running in place can help improve lung function. When running in situ, it also requires deep and rhythmic breathing, which can effectively exercise lung breathing, enhance lung oxygen uptake, increase lung capacity, and so on.
 4. Speed up the detoxification of the body
 Running in place can help accelerate the detoxification of the body. When running in place, the body will sweat a lot, and the toxins in the body will be excreted along with the sweat to achieve a good detoxification purpose. Running in place is also effective for detoxification and beauty.
 5. Strong bones
 Running in situ can strengthen bones. During running in situ, the blood circulation of the body will be accelerated, which is conducive to improving the nutrient supply of bone cells, increasing their growth ability, and contributing to the normal development of bones. In addition, running in place can also delay the degenerative changes of bones.
 6. Weight loss
 Running in place can help lose weight. In the process of running in place, the body's metabolism speeds up, detoxification can also accelerate the consumption of body heat, which is helpful to lose weight. However, you must pay attention to standardizing your movements so that your heart rate can be maintained at around 120 to speed up the body's fat burning, otherwise the weight loss effect of running in place will not be obvious.


In _URL_ it gives an example about cancellation problem in float-point numbers, see
enter image description here
I don't understand why it is written :
The best representation of this difference is e = -1; s=4.877000, which differs more than 20%.....
In this example, it uses IEEE 754 decimal32 format.
Could someone explain the idea about cancellation problem in float-point numbers as this example want to illustrate?
The point they are making is that if you compute the difference _PHONE_.659 = 0.4877 then you get an answer that seems to be quite different than the difference 123457.1 - 123456.7 = 0.4 that you get by subtracting the rounded numbers. The ~20% figure is because 0.4877 is more than 20% larger than 0.4.
This example shows that if you subtract two numbers that are very close to each other in the sense of small relative difference, then if you use floating point arithmetic you might have a bad time. This means that sometimes it is worthwhile to re-organize your calculations in ways that are mathematically equivalent but which differ in their floating point friendliness.
Your Answer


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by Prof. Ian H. Giddy, New York University
Corporate restructuring entails any fundamental change in a company's business or financial structure, designed to increase the company's value to shareholders or creditor. Corporate restructuring is often divided into two parts: financial restructuring and operational restructuring. Financial restructuring relates to improvements in the capital structure of the firm. An example of financial restructuring would be to add debt to lower the corporation's overall cost of capital. For otherwise viable firms under stress it may mean debt rescheduling or equity-for-debt swaps based on the strength of the firm. If the firm is in bankruptcy, this financial restructuring is laid out in the plan of reorganization. The second meaning, operational restructuring, is the process of increasing the economic viability of the underlying business model. Examples include mergers, the sale of divisions or abandonment of product lines, or cost-cutting measures such as closing down unprofitable facilities. In most turnarounds and bankruptcy situations, both financial and operational restructuring must occur simultaneously to save the business.
Corporate financial restructuring involves restructuring the assets and liabilities of corporations, including their debt-to-equity structures, in line with their cash-flow needs to promote efficiency, support growth, and maximize the value to shareholders, creditors and other stakeholders. These objectives make it sound like restructuring is done pro-actively, that it is initiated by management or the board of directors. While that is sometimes the case -- examples include share buybacks and leveraged recapitalizations -- more often the existing structure remains in place until a crisis emerges. Then the motives are defensive -- as in defenses against a hostile takeover -- or distress-induced, where creditors threaten to enforce their rights.
Financial restructuring may mean refinancing at every level of capital structure, including:
Assignment: Identify a company in the news that is undergoing
corporate restructuring. Is the restructuring financial or operational? What
methods are being used? Will they produce fundamental improvements? What
risks does the company run in using these techniques?


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We answer your FAQs about water resistance, dive bezels, depth gauges, and more in this feature from the special dive watch section in WatchTime's November-December 2015 issue.
How water resistant should a dive watch be?
Some manufacturers say that their watches with a water-resistance rating of 300 meters or more are suitable for recreational scuba diving. Others say the watch need have a rating of just 200 meters; still others say it can be 200 meters as long as it is specifically labeled as a dive watch. The International Standards Organization (ISO), on the other hand, stipulates that a dive watch must be water resistant to 100 meters.
All these depth ratings are significantly higher (or lower, if you will) than the depths to which a non-professional diver can dive. Recreational divers don't go deeper than 40 meters (130 feet). Beyond that, they enter the realm of technical diving, which requires extensive training, special mixed gases to breathe, long decompression stops and special equipment.
The reason for the discrepancy: when tested for water resistance in the factory, the watch is in an artificial environment that is much different from what the watch will face during an actual dive. For the test, the watch is perfectly stationary, the gaskets brand new, and the case newly assembled, so that nothing will compromise its water resistance. The testing machinery does not account for such phenomena as additional pressure from the impact of the wearer's jumping or diving into the water; or for temperature and pressure changes as the diver ascends and descends, which can cause the case to shrink or expand. Furthermore, a watch's water resistance will be lessened by aging of the watch's gaskets. Knocks and other rough treatment can cause the case's components to fit together less tightly than they did when the watch was brand new. All these imponderables cause the companies to provide a rather large cushion of safety so that customers will not hold them responsible if their watches leak.
What features make a watch impermeable enough for diving?
Several features are required to make a watch impermeable enough to wear diving. In nearly all dive watches, the case has a screw-in back and crown. O-rings are used to seal the crown, caseback and crystal. The case and crystal are thicker than in a non-dive watch. Watches designed for very deep diving often have additional pressure-defying features such as domed crystals, or a steel ring for reinforcing the case (as on the Rolex Deepsea).
What are the other features of a dive watch?
Most dive watches have a rotating bezel for measuring elapsed time. They also have luminous hands and markers that can be read underwater. ISO standard 6425 requires a dive watch to have a "time-preselecting device" (a rotating bezel satisfies this requirement) and a dial that can be read in the dark at a distance of 25 cm. The ISO also says the watch must have an indicator that shows at a glance if the watch is still running. A seconds hand satisfies this requirement. Most dive watches have a steel or titanium bracelet or rubber strap, although some straps are made of nylon or various composite materials. Some dive bracelets and straps are equipped with an extension device that enables the watch to fit over a dive-suit sleeve. Some dive watches have a helium valve and/or a depth sensor.
What is a helium valve?
A device for equalizing the pressure inside and outside the watch case when the watch is worn in a diving chamber. Inside the chamber, divers breathe a gas mixture that contains helium. The helium molecules are extremely small and are hence able to penetrate the watch case, building up inside it. In the process of decompression, the pressure inside the chamber decreases more rapidly than the pressure inside the case. This can cause the watch crystal to pop off. To prevent that, some watches have a valve on the side of the case that allows helium to escape from the case during decompression, making the pressure inside and outside the case the same.
Do many dive watches have helium valves?
Most dive watches do not have helium valves because they are of use only in saturation diving, when a diver spends time in a diving chamber.
Why do the rotating bezels on most dive watches turn in only one direction?
Most dive bezels turn in one direction only, counterclockwise, so that the bezel cannot be accidentally knocked off position in the clockwise direction and thus understate the elapsed time (usually the total dive time) being measured. Some watches solve this problem by using inner rotating bezels that cannot be rotated accidentally.
Many bezels have only the first 15 minutes marked individually. Why?
This is a dive-watch convention that goes back to the mid-1950s (it probably started with the Rolex Submariner). It is unclear what purpose the markers were originally meant to serve. An early Submariner advertisement shows a diver setting the bezel to measure total dive time, then using the minutes markers for a precise reading of his descent time. Why this information is useful is not explained (and standard diving procedures don't require it).
An oft-tendered explanation for the markers is that they are used to time decompression stops, but this explanation is problematic. The diver would have to reset the bezel at the beginning of each stop. The bezel could not therefore be used to measure total dive time, the main purpose of the bezel.
One possible explanation for the markers: 15 minutes is the approximate amount of time a diver can spend at 130 feet, the maximum depth for recreational diving, without making decompression stops. The markers might have been intended to alert him to that limit and help him read his remaining bottom time precisely. This theory is supported by some versions of the Omega Seamaster, which had gradations for the first 20 minutes (a diver can spend about 20 minutes at 110 feet, close to the depth limit). On the Seamaster 200, the 20-minute segment was painted fire-engine red, possibly to warn the diver of the hazard of staying deep for too long.
How do depth-gauge watches work?
In most, there is a sensor (typically a membrane or diaphragm) on the side of the case that is distorted by water pressure. The degree of distortion is then converted into feet or meters of depth and displayed by hands on the watch face. Oris, in its Aquis model, uses another type of depth gauge: it has a tubule around the perimeter of the crystal with a tiny opening to the outside. More or less water enters the tubule, depending on the depth, and the diver can read the depth in meters on the scale next to the tubule.
How many mechanical dive watches have depth gauges?
Just a handful. Aside from the aforementioned Oris Aquis Depth Gauge, other mechanical watches with depth gauges include the Blancpain X Fathoms, the IWC Aquatimer Deep Three, the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Compressor Diving Pro Geographic and the Panerai Luminor 1950 Pangaea Depth Gauge (which despite its mechanical movement has an electronic depth gauge).
Some watch depth gauges record the deepest point of a dive. Why?
There are three reasons. First, for safety's sake, the dive-time limits prescribed by dive tables assume the diver spends his entire dive time at the deepest point of the dive. To use the dive table, the diver must therefore know his deepest point. Second, it is a generally accepted rule of diving that the diver should do the deepest part of the dive first. This gives him the maximum amount of time to off-gas the relatively high amount of nitrogen he absorbed at the bottom of the dive (the lower you go, the more nitrogen dissolves in your blood). Third, many diving experts recommend that, even in no-decompression diving, which doesn't require decompression stops, the diver make a so-called "safety" stop of one minute halfway between the lowest point of the dive and the surface in order to off-gas nitrogen.
Which mechanical watch has the deepest water-resistance rating?
The CX Swiss Military 20,000 feet. The watch, made of titanium, is nearly 3 cm thick; the crystal alone is 1 cm thick.
In this age of dive computers, are dive watches necessary?
Not really. Divers sometimes take them as backups to their dive computers, should the computers run out of power during a dive, but now that wrist-worn dive computers are widely available and reasonably priced, some divers use these as backups to their console-style computers (or wear two wristwatch-style computers). If a diver does use a watch as a backup, he also needs other backup equipment that supplies information given by a dive computer: a depth gauge, pressure gauge and dive tables.
Then why do so many people buy dive watches?
For several reasons. Many people like the sense of security that a high water-resistance rating provides. If a watch is safe to wear on a deep dive, they reason, surely it is guaranteed to survive a swim or a snorkeling excursion. Others like a dive watch's other features, such as a rotating bezel or highly luminous hands and markers. For many dive-watch wearers, looks are the main draw: sporty, technical-looking watches are all the rage.

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


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By the numbers: Thanksgiving and the Presidents
updated 1:36 PM EST, Thu November 22, 2012
With daughters Sasha and Malia looking on, President Barack Obama pardons Cobbler, the National Thanksgiving Turkey, at The White House Wednesday.
- Presidents have played a role in the annual Thanksgiving celebration since 1789
- President Obama continued the tradition by pardoning a turkey at The White House this week
- One president opted for possum instead of turkey for his Thanksgiving meal
(CNN) -- Throughout American history, the annual celebration of family and gratitude known as Thanksgiving has been a central part of The White House and the U.S. presidency.
This week, President Barack Obama kept the tradition alive by pardoning Cobbler, the National Thanksgiving Turkey, in a Rose Garden ceremony. His feathered understudy, Gobbler, was also allowed to live, and both birds will live out the rest of their days on display at George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens in Virginia.
Here is a look, by the numbers, at Thanksgiving and the role American presidents have played in the holiday over the years:
1 - The first one was in 1789, when President George Washington issued a proclamation naming November 26 as a day of national thanksgiving.
1 - Number of weeks ahead the usual annual date of Thanksgiving was moved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in order to boost the Christmas shopping season.
What happens to pardoned turkeys?
Obama gives turkeys second chance
4th - The Thursday in November set aside by Congress in 1941 to be observed as Thanksgiving Day and a federal legal holiday.
65 - Years since the first turkey presentation at the White House.
2 - Turkeys pardoned by President Obama each year since he has been in office.
1 - Turkey pardoned by Obama in 2011 that, after a sudden and mysterious illness, was euthanized this week at the Mount Vernon Estate in Alexandria, Virginia, former home of George Washington and retirement resort for presidentially-pardoned avians.
26 lbs. - Weight of the Georgia possum served for Thanksgiving dinner in 1909 to President William Howard Taft and his family in the White House.
600 - Members of the 1st Armored Division and the 82nd Airborne Division serving in Iraq who were joined by President George W. Bush for their Thanksgiving dinner in 2003.
4 - Total number of visits Bush made to Iraq as president since the war began in 2003.
1 bite - Amount of turkey eaten by former President Bill Clinton on Thanksgiving Day in 2011, who told CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta he lives a [mostly] vegan lifestyle these days.
Part of complete coverage on
Share a photo of your family with your Thanksgiving spread. Tell us what you're thankful for.
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We're sharing our time-tested Thanksgiving hosting tips and recipes, as well as plenty from chefs, hospitality experts, celebrities, hosts and home cooks we love.
updated 11:53 AM EST, Wed November 21, 2012
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Real Simple asked three creative geniuses to come up with beautiful, unusual displays that anyone can successfully replicate.
updated 8:45 AM EST, Fri November 23, 2012
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updated 7:13 AM EST, Wed November 21, 2012
On a clear dry day, driving 55 mph, it takes long-haul trucker Camille Pask the length of three football fields to stop her fully loaded rig.
updated 9:28 AM EST, Thu November 22, 2012
Judy Warzenski didn't realize how bad her father, Donald's, memory had gotten until he turned to her sister Joyce and asked, "Where's the girl who was sitting next to you?"
updated 6:10 AM EST, Mon November 19, 2012
These clever strategies will help you handle Thanksgiving with less stress and more sanity.
updated 11:21 AM EST, Mon November 19, 2012
What topics do you avoid over dinner? How do you coordinate visiting all of your relatives? Real Simple breaks it down.
updated 2:19 PM EST, Thu November 15, 2012
Ideally, Casey St. Clair would be spending Thanksgiving relaxing and eating dinner with her boyfriend and his family, not working.
Gratitude is the watchword, and it's incredibly easy to lose sight of that while you're bogged down in the details of serving a dinner that packs a certain amount of expectation. So how about giving yourself a break?
Even the most adventurous eaters often give their inner food warrior the day off on Thanksgiving.
updated 7:39 AM EST, Thu December 1, 2011
Thanksgiving is over and you've finally had that last leftover turkey sandwich. Here are some clever ways to get more than just one dinner's worth out of those handy items.


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glTF (derivative short form of GL Transmission Format) is a file format and extension for 3D scenes and models using the JSON standard. It is an API-neutral runtime asset delivery format developed by the Khronos Group 3D Formats Working Group. It was initially intended to be an efficient, interoperable format with minimum file size and runtime processing by apps.
Being called 'JPEG of 3D', GLTF is indeed a star of 3D model formats. Standard for many 3D applications and game engines, it is especially prominent as a common publishing format for 3D content tools and as the format of choice for web apps.
3DXML is an open-standard proprietary 3D file format developed and supported by Dassault Systemes. 3DXML files are typically created as exports from Dassault Systemes' 3DEXPERIENCE application. The 3DXML file is a zip archive file consisting of a BOM file and one or more 3D representations stored in either XML or binary format. Compact file size allows users to transfer 3D XML quickly and embed it into websites, emails, and various MS Office documents. Therefore, the format is commonly used to integrate 3D data into technical documentation.
A CAD file is an output of a CAD software, containing key information about the designed object: its geometry and topology representation, 3D model hierarchy, metadata, and visual attributes depending on the format of the file.Read more
In this post, we analyze an isometric projection as one of the main modes of viewing 3D-models with 3D CAD software.Read more
New and more powerful visualization API in Web Toolkit, better support of semantic PMI, and a V1 of offloading of computations to subprocesses for greater stability.Read more


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"A New Map of Part of the United States of North America, Containing those of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia"
Finely Detailed John Cary Map of Northeast America Published 1811-12 With Many State Borders Still Unresolved
This wonderful historic map by John Cary was published in 1811-12 and its size within the borders is 18 x 20½ inches [HxW]. It has the original wash colors with minor offsetting from its days inside the Universal Atlas. It is nicely matted and framed to a size of about 25 x 28 inches.
Below shows New England portion of the map with the borders for all the states still unresolved
Below is the detail of the Western portion of the map, the current Ohio, labeled "Western Territory," with the Northern part still claimed by Connecticut as the "Connecticut Reserve" and a line marked "Indian Boundary Line by the Treaty Under Genl. Wayne 1795." It also notes the most common route from Canada to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers via the Sandusky and Sioto river (with a 4 mile portage).


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Compound Specific Isotope Analysis Revealing Nature's Evidence
Nature has provided an internal tracer in the form of the isotopic ratio. Processes such as biotic and abiotic degradation cause significant isotopic effects.
Compound Specific Isotope Analysis generates isotopic characterization of individual compounds which can be used to quantitatively assess degradation processes.
Microseeps is the first commercial laboratory in North America to offer Compound Specific Isotope Analysis.
How Can CSIA's Isotopic Data Help Achieve Site Closure?
The isotopic data provided by CSIA can be used to:
unambiguously determine that biodegradation of COCs is occurring
identify the mechanisms of degradation
determine the rate and extent of degradation in some COCs
And perhaps most importantly, when isotopic constraints are integrated into reactive transport models,
these become powerful predictive tools for assessing the extent and duration of contaminant plumes, thus decreasing monitoring and remediation costs.
Some potential CSIA applications include:
Apparent cis-DCE stall: Is the cis-DCE degrading, or dormant?
DNAPL: Is there progress?
Pump and treat shutoff: Is there degradation occurring?
Biodegradation of MTBE: Is it occurring?
ISCO: Altered hydrogeology or successful degradation?
Abiotic: How does one document this elusive mechanism?
ISCR iron wall - ZVI - nano-scale iron - other reducing mixtures: Where did it go?
LTM: How can CSIA be used to reduce costs?
Aerobic cis-DCE and VC: How do we prove progress without daughter or end products?
Co-metabolic degradation of chlorinated ethenes: What supports the concentration declines?
> Click here to view descriptions of each of these potential applications.
CSIA, the Evidence is Clear
CSIA is an evolving technique as the result of research over the last 30 years. New instrumentation has become commercially available which allows the analysis of carbon and hydrogen isotopic content of compounds of interest in a continuous flow mode at concentrations of interest in environmental remediation.
Read more about Microseeps' CSIA capabilities and the science supporting it:


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Leo Baeck was born in Lissa (now Leszno, Poland), in the then German province of Posen on May 23, 1873, the son of a Rabbi. After attending the conservative Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland), he moved to Berlin to study at the more liberal Lehranstalt für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin. By 1897 he had secured his first post as rabbi in Oppeln (now Opole, Poland).
In Oppeln, Baeck made his mark as an intellectual and a modern theologian in, with the publication of Das Wesen des Judentums ("The Essence of Judaism") in 1905. Written in response to Adolf von Harnack's Das Wesen des Christentums ("The Essence of Christianity"), the book is a passionate argument for the enduring relevance of Judaism. Rather than the cult based on outmoded rituals and laws that Harnack saw in Judaism, Baeck located the essence of Judaism in the intersection between rational ethics and a personal experience of the divine. The commandment to search the scriptures for ethical principles, he argued, made Judaism an evolving, perpetually modern tradition of critical thought.
A humanist, a scholar, and a modern theologian, a man deeply versed in both rabbinical study and Western culture, a Feldrabbiner during World War One, Baeck was irreversibly committed to the cause of Jewish life in Germany. In many ways he symbolized the delicate, fertile symbiosis of Jewish and German thought that characterized the years before Hitler's Reich. A stoic, Baeck remained at his post as the civilization he loved was shredded. He was a reluctant interlocutor with the Nazis from their rise through the Final Solution, a stance for which he was rewarded with dispatch to the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
–Roger Cohen, from Leo Baeck Institute at 50, 2005.
In 1912 Leo Baeck was called to Berlin, where he worked both as a rabbi at the large synagogue on Fasanenstraße as well as a lecturer at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums.
A patriot who was committed to the cause of Jewish life in Germany, Baeck emerged as an important symbolic and political leader of German Jewry. During the First World War, Baeck served as a chaplain (Feldrabbiner) in the German Army. In 1918 he returned to Berlin and worked at the Prussian Culture Ministry as an expert in Hebrew. In addition to his position as a rabbi and his lecturing at the Hochschule, Leo Baeck also became President of the Union of German Rabbis (Allgemeiner Deutscher Rabbinerverband) in 1922. He was elected President of the German B'nai B'rith Order in 1924. At this time Baeck also joined the Central-Verein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens, and the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
When the Nazis rose to power in 1933 Leo Baeck was elected president of the Reichsvertretung der deutschen Juden, an umbrella organization of German-Jewish groups founded to advance the interests of German Jewry in the face of Nazi persecution. The organization was forced to change its name to the Reichsverband der Juden in Deutschland in 1935 to reflect the Nazi view that there were no "German Jews" but only "Jews in Germany." As the head of this organization, Baeck worked to maintain the morale of German Jews and alleviate the discrimination and persecution of the Jews by the National Socialists. Under Baeck, the organization also helped Jews emigrate from Germany.
In spite of several offers of emigration, Leo Baeck refused to leave Germany or his community, even after Jewish businesses and synagogues (including his home congregation at Fasanenstrasse) were burned and looted in November 1938. He is reported to have said that he would only leave Germany when he was the last Jew remaining there. He remained the nominal president of the Reichsverband when it was placed under Nazi control and renamed the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland. When this organization was finally disbanded in 1943, Leo Baeck, along with his family members, was sent to the concentration camp at Theresienstadt (Terezin) at the age of seventy.
During his time in Theresienstadt, Leo Baeck continued to teach, holding secret lectures on philosophy and religion in the barracks of the camp. In spite of being forced to perform hard labor, he also managed to begin a manuscript that would later become Dieses Volk – Jüdische Existenz, ("This People Israel: The Meaning of Jewish Existence") an interpretation of Jewish history. The camp was liberated in May 1945 by the Red Army. None of Baeck's four sisters survived Theresienstadt.
After the liberation of the camp, Leo Baeck eventually made his way to England where his daughter Ruth resided. He received many citations and honors as a result of his efforts under the Nazis, and spent much of his next years travelling and lecturing, as well as writing and helping to found several organizations with the goals of assisting the remnants of European Jewry. He also reached out to the new Federal Republic of Germany and to Israel.
In 1955, a group of émigré German-Jewish intellectuals including Hannah Arendt, Martin Buber, Robert Weltsch, and Gershom Scholem met in Jerusalem to found an institute that would preserve the history of the German-Jewish culture. They named the Institute in Baeck's honor and appointed him its first President. Although Leo Baeck died just over a year later, on November 2, 1956, he left an indelible imprint on the mission and work of the Leo Baeck Institute.


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LockState ResortLock 1-Wire Reader
The LockState ResortLock 1-Wire iButton Reader is a special wire device meant to help ResortLock users program their locks. The wire, which is actually an iButton reader, facilitates the transfer of data programmed through the PC into the iButton which can then be used to transmit information to your installed ResortLocks on any door.
The 1-Wire cable plugs conveniently into the USB port, so it's compatible to all computers. Once plugged in, the computer will automatically set up the drivers for the device. These drivers, however, can also be downloaded from ResortLock's website. Use a computer that has the ResortLock application software installed and from there you can program a
number of things, such as:
- New Entry Codes
- Daylight Savings Mode
- Set Light to Blink
- Classroom or storehouse modes
Once the information has been issued to the iButton, the information can then be relayed by touching the button onto the front of the lock, making sure to press the reset button on the locks first. If done properly, a beeping sound will be heard and all the date, time, codes, and other settings would have been set.
Conversely, the 1-Wire reader is used to register the serial numbers of multiple locks to your computer, allowing you to program different locks with ease.


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White light with good color properties color rendering index=82–87 is generated in a simple organic light-emitting diode comprising an emissive layer, composed of an undoped tris 4-methyl-8-quinolinato aluminum Almq3 sublayer and region doped with an orange-red phosphorescent dopant, bis 2-phenyl-1-quinoline iridium acetylacetonate Ir pq 2acac. Electron-hole recombination in a thin spacing Almq3 layer results in blue-green fluorescence, while the formed triplet excitons diffuse to the doped region and are harvested by the dopant to emit orange-red phosphorescence. The combination of blue-green and orange lights results in warm white light. This approach takes advantage of efficient migration of triplet excitons while being less demanding in terms of fabrication and color matching.
Anzenbacher, Pavel Jr.; Montes, Victor A.; and Takizawa, Shin-ya, "High-purity white light from a simple single dopant host-guest white organic lightemitting diode architecture" (2008). Chemistry Faculty Publications. 49.
Applied Physics Letters


Articles Posted in Violent crimes
When a person is charged with a crime in Florida, the State is generally precluded from introducing collateral evidence of other crimes. In other words, the State cannot produce evidence of uncharged crimes that the defendant allegedly committed as evidence of the defendant's guilt. There are certain situations in which collateral crime evidence is admissible, however, as demonstrated in a recent Florida appellate court case, in which the defendant was charged with kidnapping. If you are a resident of Sarasota charged with kidnapping or another violent crime, it is in your best interest to speak with a knowledgeable Sarasota violent crime defense attorney to discuss the evidence that the State may be permitted to introduce against you at trial.
Evidence Produced at the Defendant's Trial
The defendant was charged with eight crimes, including sexual battery, unlawful imprisonment, rape, and kidnapping. The case proceeded to trial, during which the State introduced evidence of crimes with which the defendant was not charged but that the State alleged he committed. The defendant was convicted, after which he appealed, arguing the trial court erred in permitting the State to introduce collateral crime evidence.
Collateral Crime Evidence in Florida Criminal Matters
On appeal, the defendant argued that the State introduced evidence of the defendant's alleged collateral crimes to impugn his character and that allowing such evidence denied him of the right to a fair trial. Specifically, during the trial, the defendant's alleged victim, who was his former girlfriend, testified that the defendant tortured her for hours. The defendant argued that such testimony was improper because it introduced evidence of acts that were not part of the crimes with which the defendant was charged.
Continue Reading ›
If you are charged with a violent crime there are a variety of defenses you can set forth to try to avoid a conviction, including self-defense and mistake. A Florida appellate court recently held, however, that evidence of medical malpractice is not a valid defense to a second-degree murder charge, in a case in which the victim died from a gunshot wound. If you are charged with a violent crime in Sarasota it is critical to engage a knowledgeable Sarasota violent crime defense attorney to determine what defenses to set forth to give you a strong chance of a favorable result.
Facts Regarding the Alleged Crime and Medical Treatment
Allegedly, the defendant was walking down the street when the victim approached him in a car and rolled down the window. The defendant argued with the victim, and then allegedly punched and shot the victim. The victim drove to a nearby gas station where he collapsed. The victim was transported to a hospital where he ultimately died from his injuries. The defendant was charged with second-degree murder. At the trial, the defendant sought to cross-examine the medical examiner regarding possible intervening causes of the victim's death, including medical malpractice, but the court prohibited the line of questioning. The jury found the defendant guilty, after which the defendant appealed.
Florida Standard for Admitting Evidence in Criminal Trials
On appeal, the defendant argued the trial court erred in refusing to allow him to question the medical examiner regarding medical malpractice. The court rejected the defendant's argument, stating that under Florida law, a defendant cannot escape a penalty for an act that causes a victim's death by arguing the death could have been prevented by certain medical treatment. Rather, if the wound inflicted by the defendant is life-threatening, evidence of improper medical treatment or the harm caused by such treatment will not help the defendant avoid a conviction. In other words, when a defendant fatally wounds a victim, regardless of whether the medical care rendered to treat the wound is malpractice or merely constitutes sub-optimal medical care, the care will not constitute a superseding or intervening cause of the victim's death.
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For melted crayon pictures, younger children may need some help from a grown-up, but older kids can probably do this activity without assistance. Waxed paper, brown paper bags, a vegetable peeler, and some old crayons are all you'll need. Use the vegetable peeler to shave different colors of crayons and arrange the pared slices of crayon on a piece of waxed paper. Experiment! Use bits of colored string or yarn or various colors of tissue paper along with the crayon peelings to form a design. When the design is complete, cover it with another sheet of waxed paper. Place the brown paper bags over and under the waxed paper and press with a warm iron. What can be done with these works of art? They make fantastic sun catchers, or the children can create their own greeting cards. Here's an idea-- take an old coat hanger, bend it a little bit and glue the crayon masterpieces on it for a mobile. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.
©2004 Bluestreak Media. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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Berkeley Program in Law and Economics
Treating Yourself Instrumentally: Internalization, Rationality and Law
- Author(s): Cooter, Robert D.
- et al.
Economics, which has greatly advanced deterrence theory, has made no contribution to understanding how law changes peoples' values. I combine economics and psychology to offer the framework for such a theory. Rational self-development involves treating yourself as the means to achieve your ends. Pursing ends changes objective opportunities and subjective values. The theory of cognitive dissonance predicts how changing opportunities changes values. If the connection between opportunities and values is strong enough, one choice may dominant the alternatives. A dominant choice is preferred when evaluated by using any likely values. I call a choice that is better with respect to the likely values of a decision-maker a "Pareto self-improvement." By creating opportunities for Pareto self-improvement, law changes peoples' values. Law's ability to change behavior by changing values, however, occurs slowly, whereas law changes behavior quickly by other means such as deterrence.


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I'm looking for the Fourier transformation of the (constant) uniform B-Spline $$N_0(x) = \begin{cases}1 & 0 \leqslant x < 1 \\ 0 & otherwise \end{cases}$$
If $N_0(x)$ would also attain value $1$ when $x=1$ (i.e. the $<$ would be $\leqslant$), it would just be a shifted version of the rectangular function R(x), which has (if I'm not mistaken) the following Fourier transform ($T=1$ and shifted $1/2$ to the right):
$$\hat{R}(\omega) = e^{-\tfrac{i\omega}{2}}\, \frac{\sin(\omega/2)}{\omega/2}$$
However, I'm not sure if this is helpful in finding $\hat{N_0}(\omega)$, the Fourier transform of $N_0(x)$...
Once I know $\hat{N_0}(\omega)$, it is easy to find the Fourier transforms of higher order uniform B-Splines, since they are (or can be) defined using convolution. Of course, the Fourier transform of a convolution is just a multiplication of the two Fourier transformed functions, therefore:
$$\hat{N_k}(\omega) = \left( \hat{N_0}(\omega) \right)^{k+1}$$
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up vote 2 down vote accepted
Since the Fourier transform is defined through an integral, the condition $f=g$ almost everywhere implies $\hat{f} = \hat{g}$. So in this case the Fourier transform of $N_0$ is indeed the same as that of $R$, and your formula is correct, assuming you use the convention $\hat{f}(\omega) = \int_{-\infty}^\infty f(x) e^{-i\omega x} \, dx$ for the Fourier transform.
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Thanks. Somewhere I found stated that $\hat{N_0}(\omega)=\dfrac{1-e^{-i \omega}}{i \omega}$. I'm not quite sure whether this is the same as the function I found -- I'll take a more detailed look at a later time and update my post / add a comment. – Ailurus Oct 21 '12 at 20:11
Yes, that is the same, using the identity $\sin z = \frac{e^{iz} - e^{-iz}}{2i}$ with $z = \omega/2$. – Lukas Geyer Oct 21 '12 at 20:27
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Following one of my previous articles in which I described how you could configure a Database Availability Group to achieve high availability for the Mailbox Server Role, we will now take a look at the process of how to configure high availability for the Client Access Server.
CAS Array
To achieve high availability, you create a load-balanced array of Client Access Servers just like in Exchange Server 2010. Other than before, layer-4 load balancing now becomes a viable options, though that would only be in the smallest deployments where there's no budget for load balancers.
Layer-4 load balancing only takes into account the IP (and TCP port). Yes, you are no longer required to configure "affinity". The latter is the process where a connection – once it was built – had to be persisted through the same Client Access Servers. This is because CAS in Exchange Server 2013 doesn't do any data-rendering anymore: everything happens on the backend (Mailbox servers).
I hear you thinking: does this mean we could use DNS load balancing (a.k.a. round-robin). The answer is yes and no. Yes, because it will load-balance between multiple Client Access Servers; no because if a server would fail, you'd have to remove the server (manually) from DNS and wait for the record to time-out on all the clients. While this might be a cost-effective way to have load-balancing and a very, very basic form of high availability, it is not a real viable solution for most deployments…
Ever since the CAS Array was first introduced, it was subject to quite some misconceptions. A lot of them were addressed by Brian Day in a very interesting article he wrote. What I find is that people tend to mix up the RPC Client Access Array and the load-balanced array used for http-based traffic. Yes, the use of the term CAS Array can be a little confusing. No, they're not the same! Winking smile
Now, since Exchange Server 2013 dumped using RPC-over-TCP, I no longer see the purpose in creating the RPC Client Access Array object (New-ClientAccessArray). Instead, it suffices to configure multiple Client Access Servers with the same internal hostname for Outlook Anywhere.
To understand what happens, let's take a look at the following examples:
In the case where you're using two Client Access Servers in the same AD site, by default Exchange will "load balance" traffic between the two end points. This means that the 1st request will go to CAS1, the second to CAS2, the third to CAS1 etc… While this does provide some sort of load-balancing, it doesn't really provide high-availability. Once Outlook is connected to a CAS, it will keep trying to connect to that same server, even after the server is down. Eventually, it will try connecting to the other CAS, but in the meantime your Outlook client will be disconnected.
If we add a load balancer, we need to configure the Internal Hostname for OA to a shared value between the Client Access Servers. For example: outlook.exblog.be. This fqdn would then point to the VIP of the load balancer which, in turn, would take care of the rest. Because we're using a load balancer, it will automatically detect a server failure and redirect the incoming connection to the surviving node. Since there is no affinity required, this "fail over" happens transparently to the end user:
As explained before, this load balancer could be anything from simple DNS load balancing, to WNLB or a full-blown hardware load balancer that's got all the kinky stuff! However, in contrast to before (Exchange 2010), most of the advanced options are not necessary anymore…
Configuring Outlook Anywhere
To configure the internal hostname for Outlook Anywhere, run the following command for each Client Access Server involved:
[sourcecode language="powershell"]Get-OutlookAnywhere – Server | Set-OutlookAnywhere –InternalHostname [/sourcecode]
Configuring the Load Balancer
As I explained earlier, Layer-4 is now a viable option. Although this could mean that you'd just be using DNS load balancing, you would want to use some load balancing device (physical or virtual).
The benefit of using a load balancer over e.g. WNLB is that these devices usually give you more options towards health-checking of the servers/service that you're load balancing. This will allow you to better control over the load balancing process. For example: you could check for a particular HTTP-response code to determine whether a server is running or not. It definitely beats using simple ICMP Pings…!
The example below is based on the load balancer in my lab: a KEMP Virtual Load Master 1000. As you will see, it's setup in the most basic way:
I've configured no persistency and – because it's a lab – I'm only checking the availability of the OWA virtual directory on the Exchange servers. Alternatively, you could do more complex health checks. If you're looking for more information on how to configure a KEMP load balancer, I'd suggest you take a look at Jaap Wesselius' blogs here and here. Although these articles describe the configuration of a Load Master in combination with Exchange 2010, the process itself (except for the persistency-stuff etc) is largely the same for Exchange Server 2013. Definitely worth the read!


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These are the days when the birds come back by emily dickinson: summary and analysis the poem is, explicitly, about the end of summer and the commencement of the fall season. Video project for lit where we take one of emily dickinson's poems, some how act it out, and then analyze it the video isn't the greatest, more like it's ab. Books by emily dickinson hover over or click on any book image to get resources for that specific title if you were coming in the fall. If i read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no if you were coming in the fall the romance of emily dickinson's poetry analysis by novelist joyce. Emily dickenson novel analysis "if you were coming in in "if you were coming in the autumn " emily dickinson uses several metaphors the fall of the han.
Emily elizabeth dickinson (december 10, 1830 – may 15, 1886) was an american poet dickinson was born in amherst, massachusettsalthough part of a prominent family with strong ties to its community, dickinson lived much of her life in reclusive isolation. The poets of the nineteenth century wrote on a variety of topics one often-used topic is that of love the theme of love has been approached in many different ways. Emily dickinson if you were coming in fall help on emily dickinson poem if you were coming in the fall more questions if you were coming in fall. What are thoughts about emily dickinson's poem if you were coming in the fall what does emily dickinson's poem hope mean every book you wanted to read.
In emily dickinson's poem, if you were coming in the fall if you were coming in the fall for this assignment i have to write summary for each stanza. Can someone help me write a short literary analysis of if you were coming in the fall by emily dickinson - _PHONE_. If you were coming in the fall, by emily dickinson if you were coming in the fall id brush the summer by with half a smile and half a spum as housewives do a fly. Short and sweet essay 2 multimedia revision if you were coming in the fall-emily dickinson presentation by: michael natenzon born on december 10, 1830.
If you were coming in the fall, 60: and were you saved emily dickinson: sparkcollege college admissions: financial aid: college life :. If you were coming in the fall emily dickinson saved herself from the anarchy of her they are the notes i used for the summary above and i am. Emily dickinson questions you that can answer any question you might have on emily dickinson poem "if you were coming in the fall," what would the.
Literary analysis essay (short story, poem, novel, play, etc) in if you were coming in the fall, emily dickinson uses simile. Comments & analysis: if you were coming in the fall / i'd brush the summer by / with half a smile and half a spurn / as housewives do a fly / if i could see you in a year / i'd wind the months in balls / and put them each in separate drawers / for fear the numbers f. Don't judge a book by its cover if you were coming in the fall by emily dickinson if you were coming in the fall, i'd brush the summer by with half a smile.
Emily dickinson the life emily elizabeth poet and poetry analysis born in 1830, emily dickinson spent most of her (if you were coming in the fall. Poetry analysis: i heard a fly buzz when i then you can still go to hell but if that were so then she emily dickinson, i heard a fly buzz. Start studying if you were coming in the fall learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools search emily dickenson. In this lesson, we will examine the life of emily dickinson and the major themes of her poetry from there, we will focus on her poem 'hope is the.Download


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(2008) *** 1/2 Unrated
127 min. Kino International. Director: Joseph Cedar. Cast: Oshri Cohen, Itay Tiran, Eli Eltonyo, Ohad Knoller, Itay Turgeman.
One of this year's five Oscar-nominated foreign films, the Israeli entry Beaufort essays the last days of the 12th Century Beaufort Castle, a mountain stronghold in Southern Lebanon. Once held by the PLO, the base was held by the Israeli army from 1982 to 2000, when the film is set. With a strategic pullout imminent, the troops begin to see the light creeping into their labyrinthine bunker, just enough for existential despair over the pointlessness of their continued presence. As adapted from Ron Leshem's novel by director Joseph Cedar and Leshem himself, Beaufort is a serious-minded examination of the soldier's mindset and the pull of territory in the Israeli collective consciousness. Cedar manages a convincing verisimilitude while dramatically summarizing the history, legacy, and significance of Beaufort and war's ever-present threat to sanity and survival.
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Walla Walla, Wash.
The imposing basalt cliffs that form the Columbia River Gorge. Photo courtesy Cave B Estate Winery.
-- Washington state claims for itself, "the perfect climate for wine," but Whitman College instructor Dr. Kevin Pogue will travel to Italy later this week to highlight Columbia Valley terroir's contribution to growing conditions, too.
Pogue presents a paper about the influence of basalt on the terroir
of the Columbia Valley AVA at the VIII International Terroir Congress in Soave, Italy, on June 14-18. His paper focuses on the effects this distinctive igneous rock (predominant in the Columbia Basin) has on vines, specifically with respect to soil temperature, cluster temperature, vine chemistry and other attributes.
Basalt is relatively rare in vineyards of the world, Pogue notes in the paper; viticultural areas with basalt soils include the Canary Islands, the slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily, south-central France, northern Italy and Oregon's Willamette Valley. The palisades above Napa Valley on Mt. St. Helena are columnar basalt.
Typically, basalt occurs where volcanic activity was or is common. In the case of the Columbia Valley and the Pacific Northwest, basalt erupted more than 5 million years ago and today is covered by loess deposited during the glacial inundations known as the Missoula floods, between 13,000 and 15,000 years ago.
Pogue's paper concludes that the chemical and thermal properties of basalt in the soils of the Columbia Valley have a significant influence on the AVA's terroir
"Vineyards within the Columbia Valley AVA covered by fractured basalt bedrock or basalt-rich alluvium have higher average ground surface and subsurface temperatures than their grass-covered counterparts," the paper's conclusion notes. "The extra heat is derived from infrared radiation from the sun-warmed dark-colored basalt, not from conduction from heated air."
The paper also notes that vineyards planted on basalt bedrock should show an elevated iron content, due to the availability of iron here versus in the loess. "I hope to get our area in the spotlight a little bit while I'm over there," Pogue told Wines & Vines
This year's conference currently has 147 registrants from 21 countries, but Pogue said it hasn't typically attracted a lot of attention in the U.S. Just three U.S. researchers attended the previous congress in Switzerland. This year, Dr. Greg Jones from Southern Oregon University is on its scientific committee.
of SeVein Vineyards
in the Walla Walla AVA, which lies entirely within the Columbia Valley, says Pogue's research provides a better understanding of local growing conditions. "We do get a flavor change," says McKibben, who opened his vineyards to Pogue for research.
But he adds that the influence of basalt is just one of several factors at play in his properties, which include the SeVein properties south of Walla Walla towards the Oregon line, and Les Collines, which sits at a higher elevation in the foothills of the Blue Mountains east of the city.
"You really have to taste it quite a bit in different regions to tell whether you're getting the results of older vines giving a little better flavor or the basalt, or the vineyard manager changing his approach a little bit," he says. "There's no question in my mind that the basalt does help, but I can't say that all of a sudden I can get this flavor of lead pencil in there."
The fruit off the vineyards pleases winemakers, however, as it offers extra depth to the wines. This is true of Les Collines, which sits just three feet above the basalt rock, whereas the gentle terrain at SeVein sits about 12 feet above the basalt.
McKibben expects Pogue's presentation to generate some interest in Washington state, where many wineries are showing a growing appreciation for regional differences. The number of AVAs in the state is increasing (two were approved last year alone), and seminars at industry meetings regularly showcase differences from wines made with grapes from different vineyards.
"Anything that draws attention (to our wines) so that people will try them is going to help us," McKibben says.
The Columbia Valley AVA includes 6,670 acres of vines, primarily at elevations below 400 meters (1,300 feet).


Home > Aichi > Nagoya City Science Museum
Nagoya City Science Museum
Observation of a star-sprinkled sky in a planetarium with the largest dome in the world, an experience nurturing interest in astronomy
Nagoya City Science Museum is on the grounds of Shirakawa Park, Nagoya City. It is well known for the planetarium with a dome registered as the world's largest in the Guinness Book of Records. The museum has three buildings: Science and Technology Building, with an observatory on the 7th floor, Astronomy Building, with the planetarium, and Life Science Building, with exhibits on life, living, and earth. The museum holds a permanent exhibition, temporary exhibitions, and participatory practices and experiments that are all useful for the study of science and physics.
The planetarium uses UNIVERSARIUM Model IX, which reproduces the real starlit sky almost as is. The program includes spectacular images and sounds (guidance is given only in Japanese). There is a separate program called Family Hour for small children.
There are also participatory events, such as experience of manufacturing and lessons on weekends and national holidays. Visitors can make and play with toys based on astronomic and scientific knowledge under the instruction of experts (a fee for some programs is charged separately, and a reservation on the same day is necessary). Among exhibits and experiment programs, experiencing the extremely cold air of - 30 degree as well as the laboratory to observe phenomena such as large tornadoes and lightning discharges are popular among visitors. Why don't you stimulate your kids' interest in science through dynamic experiments?
Address: 2-17-1 Sakae, Naka-ku, Nagoya City, Aichi
Hours open to visitors: 9:30 to 17:00 (admission until 16:30)
Admission Fee: 800 yen (adults), 500 yen (university and high school students), free (junior high school students and younger)
Closed: Mondays (the following day when Monday is a national holiday), every third Friday (the following Friday when the third Friday is a national holiday), from December 29 to January 3
Directions: About a 5 minute-walk from Fushimi Station on the Subway Higashiyama line or Tsurumai line (about 3 minutes from Nagoya Station)
(Car) About 10 minutes from Fukiage-Nishi Exit on the Nagoya Expressway (a fee is charged for parking)
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text: Background: The majority of patients with pancreatic cancer present with advanced disease. Systemic chemotherapy has limited impact on overall survival (OS) so that eligible patients should be selected carefully. The aim of this study was to analyze prognostic factors for survival in Turkish advanced pancreatic cancer patients who survived more than one year from the diagnosis of recurrent and/or metastatic disease and receiving gemcitabine (Gem) alone or gemcitabine plus cisplatin (GemCis). Methods: This retrospective evaluation was performed for patients who survived more than one year from the diagnosis of recurrent and/or metastatic disease and who received gemcitabine between December 2005 and August 2011. Twenty-seven potential prognostic variables were chosen for univariate and multivariate analyses to identify prognostic factors associated with survival. Results: Among the 27 variables in univariate analysis, three were identified to have prognostic significance: sex (p = 0.04), peritoneal dissemination (p = 0.02) and serum creatinine level (p = 0.05). Multivariate analysis by Cox proportional hazard model showed only peritoneal dissemination to be an independent prognostic factor for survival. Conclusion: In conclusion, peritoneal metastasis was identified as an important prognostic factor in metastatic pancreatic cancer patients who survived more than one year from the diagnosis of recurrent and/or metastatic disease and receiving Gem or GemCis. The findings should facilitate pretreatment prediction of survival and can be used for selecting patients for treatment.


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Proposed OCI regs would allow government to tolerate conflict of interest
Proposed new governmentwide organizational conflict of interest regulations would allow contracting officers to make an assessment that a conflict is "acceptable" when the potential harm to government interests are outweighed by having a conflicted contractor perform the contract.
Acquisition officials representing both the military and civilian branches of government released the much-anticipated proposed regulations April 26. Among the main changes from the status quo in them is the addition of "acceptance" to the three current methods of addressing conflict of interest, which are avoidance, neutralization and mitigation.
Contracting officers could propose acceptance only when the potential danger is to government business interests as opposed to the integrity of the acquisition process. An example of the latter would be risk of a contractor obtaining an unfair advantage in competing for a future government contract, whereas an example of the former would be risk of a contractor offering up advice to the government "in a way that degrades the value" of the advice. Acceptance would "generally" have to combined with other methods, particularly mitigation, but a contracting officer could accept the mitigation plan even if it does not remove all the risk of a conflict, the proposed regulations say.
Allegedly biased advice emanating from system integrators and consultancies that may have had a financial interest in the outcome of the advice through placement deals with information technology manufacturers were the subject of a handful of False Claim Act lawsuits unsealed in 2007. Although several companies, including Computer Sciences Corp., Hewlett Packard and EMC, have settled with the Justice Department, none have admitted guilt and it's unclear from public documents how much the outcome of at least some of those cases depended on other lawsuit issues relating to pricing assertions companies made on their General Services Administration schedule contracts.
The proposed regulations would shift the location of conflict of interest regulations away from Part 9 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, where current OCI language resides amid provisions pertaining to contractor qualifications, to Part 3 and Part 4. Part 3, which is where matters of improper business practices such as kickbacks are codified in the rules that govern federal contracting, would contain the language about methods for dealing with OCI.
Part 4, which is where the FAR addresses administrative matters such as records retention, would contain new policy meant to preclude contractor use of disclosure of nonpublic information, what the proposed regulation says are threats to the integrity of the acquisition system itself. Although incorporating into a proposal nonpublic information gained through the execution of a government contract already a violation of the Procurement Integrity Act, the proposed regulations would allow contracting officers to disqualify a contractor from a procurement on the grounds that it knows too much and no other method of resolution is appropriate.
The government invites public commenters to compare the provisions to an April 2010 proposed set of Defense Department OCI regulations the department ultimately discarded in favor of less strict rules.
The current proposed rules and the old DoD proposed regulations differ significantly and the changes ultimately incorporated into the FAR could contain elements of both proposals.
- download the proposed rules, which is FAR Case 2011-001 (.pdf)


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Dynamic graphics in a GIS: exploring and analyzing multivariate spatial data using linked software
Interactive and dynamic graphical methods provide powerful tools to interface a data analyst with data. For multivariate data, interactive techniques such as linked brushing and identification allow an analyst to query the data, isolate or mask subsets, and examine dependencies between many variables. Dynamic techniques such as the grand tour give the analyst a sense of the overall shape (clusters or nonlinearities) of the data. This paper reports on research into interactive and dynamic graphical methods applied to spatial data made available through a link between two software packages: ArcView 2.1(a Geographic Information System), and XGobi (a dynamic graphics program for exploratory multivariate data analysis).


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It's been about 10,000 years since our ancestors began farming, but crop domestication has taken much longer than expected – a delay caused less by genetics and more by culture and history, according to a new study co-authored by University of Guelph researchers.
The new paper digs at the roots not just of crop domestication but of civilization itself, says plant agriculture professor Lewis Lukens. "How did humans get food? Without domestication – without food – it's hard for populations to settle down," he said. "Domestication was the key for all subsequent human civilization."
The study appears this the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Lukens and Guelph PhD student Ann Meyer worked on the study with biologists at Oklahoma State University and Washington State University.
Examining crop domestication tells us how our ancestors developed food, feed and fibre leading to today's crops and products. Examining crop genetics might also help breeders and farmers looking to further refine and grow more crops for an expanding human population.
"This work is largely historical, but there are increasing demands for food production, and understanding the genetic basis of past plant improvement should help future efforts," he said.
The Guelph team analyzed data from earlier studies of domesticated cereal crop species, and the American scientists also performed field tests.
To study the historical effects of interactions between genes and between genes and the environment, they looked at genes controlling several crop plant traits.
Domestication has yielded modern crops whose seeds resist shattering, such as corn whose kernels stay on the cob instead of falling off. Early agriculturalists also shortened flowering time for crops, necessary in shorter growing seasons as in Canada.
Domestication traits are known to have developed more slowly than expected over the past 10,000 years. The researchers wondered whether genetic factors hindered transmission of genes controlling such traits. Instead, they found that domestication traits are often faithfully passed from parent to progeny, and often more so than ancestral traits, said Lukens.
That suggests cultural and historical factors – anything from war and famine to lack of communication among separated populations – accounted for the creeping rate of domestication.
"We conclude that the slow adaptation of domesticated plants by humans was likely due to historical factors that limited technological progress," said Lukens.
This research project stemmed from a meeting of anthropologists, archeobotanists and geneticists at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in North Carolina.
Prof. Lewis Lukens
Department of Plant Agriculture
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Lewis Lukens | Eurek Alert!
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Permanent magnets are very important for technologies of the future like electromobility and renewable energy, and rare earth elements (REE) are necessary for their manufacture. The Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Freiburg, Germany, has now succeeded in identifying promising approaches and materials for new permanent magnets through use of an in-house simulation process based on high-throughput screening (HTS). The team was able to improve magnetic properties this way and at the same time replaced REE with elements that are less expensive and readily available. The results were published in the online technical journal "Scientific Reports".
The starting point for IWM researchers Wolfgang Körner, Georg Krugel, and Christian Elsässer was a neodymium-iron-nitrogen compound based on a type of...
In the Beyond EUV project, the Fraunhofer Institutes for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen and for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF in Jena are developing key technologies for the manufacture of a new generation of microchips using EUV radiation at a wavelength of 6.7 nm. The resulting structures are barely thicker than single atoms, and they make it possible to produce extremely integrated circuits for such items as wearables or mind-controlled prosthetic limbs.
In 1965 Gordon Moore formulated the law that came to be named after him, which states that the complexity of integrated circuits doubles every one to two...
Characterization of high-quality material reveals important details relevant to next generation nanoelectronic devices
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When current comes in discrete packages: Viennese scientists unravel the quantum properties of the carbon material graphene
In 2010 the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded for the discovery of the exceptional material graphene, which consists of a single layer of carbon atoms...
The trend-forward world of display technology relies on innovative materials and novel approaches to steadily advance the visual experience, for example through higher pixel densities, better contrast, larger formats or user-friendler design. Fraunhofer ISC's newly developed materials for optics and electronics now broaden the application potential of next generation displays. Learn about lower cost-effective wet-chemical printing procedures and the new materials at the Fraunhofer ISC booth # 1021 in North Hall D during the SID International Symposium on Information Display held from 22 to 27 May 2016 at San Francisco's Moscone Center.
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Analysis of Chinese Consumer Attitudes in the Premium Car Segment in Chinese First Tier
Questionnaire Design
The design of the questionnaire will focus on two parts.
The first part which will be the central part will include about 10 questions in which the respondents will provide their opinions and the decisions on the cars they chose and the reason they prefer one car to the other. There will be 3 multiple choice questions. The 10 questions are close-ended since they would take less time to answer and would also be easy to respond to. The approach would also help in the minimizing of errors and also make it easier to make comparison and tabulation analysis. Besides, the questionnaire will use the Linkert scaled question where the respondents were asked to rate the satisfaction towards a given car and the significance the place on easy factor in making any future purchases. The scale would range from 1 to 5 where 1 is very dissatisfied while 5 means very satisfied. The decision to use this scale is because it has been used by the researcher to analyze consumer attitudes for over three decades.
The second part of the questionnaire will focus on the demographic. At this stage, the respondent would be required to provide information about their income, gender, household, educational level, occupation, and employer category.
The behavior of car purchases
I am researching cars for my research thesis. The questionnaire comprises of about 18 questions and would not take more than 15 minutes of your time. I am from () University.
 1. Is there a car(s) in your family
Yes (I am the owner)/ belongs to a family member
Yes (It is a company vehicle)
 1. What do you use the car for most of the time
Personal use
Family use
 1. What was the purchase price for the car? Indicated if it was brand new or second hand.
 2. What Brand is your car
☐Volkswagen ☐ Volvo ☐ Audi ☐ Chrysler ☐ Cherry
☐Mazda ☒ Hyundai ☐ Toyota ☐Honda ☐ Lexus
☐ Ford ☐ Mazda☐ Nissan
☐ Others
 1. Indicate the time it took from initial idea to the time of purchasing of the car
☒Less than 2 weeks ☐ 2 -4 weeks ☐ 5 -12 weeks
☐ 12 – 36 weeks ☐ more than 36 weeks
 1. How important was the decision to purchase the car
☐ Very unimportant ☐ fairly unimportant ☐ neither
☐ fairly important ☐ Very important
 1. Did the family play any role in the purchase of the vehicle
☐ Agree ☐ Disagree
 1. What role did you play in the purchase of the car?
☐I make my personal decisions
☐I am part of making the decisions
☐I am one of the decisions makers, but I do not play a decisive role
☐The arrangements are made by other people
 1. How are you involved in the process of buying a car and choosing the model?
The decision to by a new car
The budgeting dictions
The intimal choice of the brands
Contacting car dealers
Collection of information on the models and brands
Visiting dealers
Bargaining on the price
The final decision to by the car
 1. Gender
Male Female
 1. Age
☐ 19 years and below ☐20-29 ☐30-39 ☐40-49 ☐above 50
 1. Could you provide your monthly household income ()
Bellow 10000 10000-19999 20000-29999 30000- 39999
40000-49999 above 50000
 1. Enumerate the number of people that are in your household (refer to yourself and the ones you live with)
☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 ☐5 ☐More than five
 1. Please provide information about your current levels of education
☐Junior high school
☐Senior high school/technical/professional
 1. What is your current occupation level?
☐Employed full time
☐Employed part-time
 1. What is the usage of the current
 Never Less than 1/ week 1-2 weeks 3-4/week Almost everyday
To work
Social activities
Picking up family members
Business reception
Drive between cities
 1. What your overall satisfaction with the current car
 Very Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neither Satisfied Very satisfied
 1. in regards to the following to the following to the following aspects, what is your satisfaction with the current car.
 Very Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neither Satisfied Very satisfied
Value for money
Fuel consumption
Comfort in riding
Interior and Equipment
Interior design
After sale maintenance
Environmental friendly
The following part will be broken down into two pieces. The first part will discuss the demographics and the second part will look at the buyer's decisions and the reason for the various buying choices.
Profile of the respondents
There were 120 male respondents and 80 female respondents that account for 60 percent for male respondents and 40 percent for the female respondents. About the age of the respondents, 70 percent of the respondents were below the age of 50 years. Majority of the people were between the ages of 21 to 30 years. The result from the monthly income showed that about 70 percent of the respondents have a household income of below 20,000.
Further, the survey showed that there were 150 employed individuals with almost 80 percent of them being in full-time employment.
Car ownership
The survey also showed that almost all respondents had cars. The number of respondents that had cars was 160. Of the individual that had cars, 58 percent 95 out of the 160 had their cars. Twenty-four percent of the remaining individuals had their vehicles registered in company names, while the remaining 12 percent of the response with cars had them rejiggered with other family members.
In terms of car usage, 39 percent of the respondents use the car for personal needs, 35 percent use them for family purposes, 21 percent use them for business purposes. Besides, 0ver 95 percent of the respondents opted to buy new cars as opposes t about 5 percent that by second-hand vehicles.
In regards to the time, it takes for one to decide to purchase a ca, it emerged that most of the respondents took about 3 to 36 weeks to make the decisions on buying a car.
Most of the people decide to buy a car as essential or somewhat important. Of the respondents, about 65 percent thought it is totally important, while about 30 percent would think it not so important.
The relationship between the time of purchase and purchase time
In the study one thing seem to come out is that there is a close relationship between the time taken to buy care and the importance of the decision. In the cases were the choices so important so much time is also taken. Besides, in the cases where the division is so important, there is the involvement of the family members and other individuals.
In the study, there is also so much involvement of the individual the purchase process. About 89 percent of the participants are involved in the purchase divisions. Next individuals were included in the initial model and braid followed by the visiting of the dealers at 88 percent and finally the final division at 87 percent.
The study sought to find out how satisfied individuals are with the current cars that they are using. The focus was on different characteristics of the vehicle as shown in the interview. The results show that the level of satisfaction is relatively high. About 60 percent of the respondents pointed out that there were reasonably satisfied with the current cars.
Besides, the study showed that the consumers were focused on the value of money in the cars that they were buying. Considering that most of the consumer are middle-class income earners, the cost for many was one of the essential aspects that made the deciding the car buy.
One thing that seems evident for the car consumer behavior in China is that most of the consumer was young people who are aged below the age of 50. The aspect that these people focused on when buying cars is the issue of value for money. Besides, these people buy cars for personal use. Therefore, the focus of an individual seeking to venture into this market is to provide cars that are good for personal use and are not expensive. This population is not focused so much on luxury but rather convenience.


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Speech reception with different bilateral directional processing schemes: Influence of binaural hearing, audiometric asymmetry, and acoustic scenario
Hearing aid (HA) users can differ markedly in their benefit from directional processing (or beamforming) algorithms. The current study therefore investigated candidacy for different bilateral directional processing schemes. Groups of elderly listeners with symmetric (N = 20) or asymmetric (N = 19) hearing thresholds for frequencies below 2 kHz, a large spread in the binaural intelligibility level difference (BILD), and no difference in age, overall degree of hearing loss, or performance on a measure of selective attention took part. Aided speech reception was measured using virtual acoustics together with a simulation of a linked pair of completely occluding behind-the-ear HAs. Five processing schemes and three acoustic scenarios were used. The processing schemes differed in the tradeoff between signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvement and binaural cue preservation. The acoustic scenarios consisted of a frontal target talker presented against two speech maskers from ±60° azimuth or spatially diffuse cafeteria noise. For both groups, a significant interaction between BILD, processing scheme, and acoustic scenario was found. This interaction implied that, in situations with lateral speech maskers, HA users with BILDs larger than about 2 dB profited more from preserved low-frequency binaural cues than from greater SNR improvement, whereas for smaller BILDs the opposite was true. Audiometric asymmetry reduced the influence of binaural hearing. In spatially diffuse noise, the maximal SNR improvement was generally beneficial. N0Sπ detection performance at 500 Hz predicted the benefit from low-frequency binaural cues. Together, these findings provide a basis for adapting bilateral directional processing to individual and situational influences. Further research is needed to investigate their generalizability to more realistic HA conditions (e.g., with low-frequency vent-transmitted sound).