text:
What is dry ice blasting? We get that question a lot. Dry ice blasting is also known as dry ice cleaning, which is why we also get the question, "Why would you clean dry ice?"
Most folk's experience with dry ice is limited to using it for food preservation over long trips or using it to make a fog like effect in Halloween decorations. Yet, dry ice has a number of commercial and industrial applications. Dry ice cleaning, or dry ice blasting, is one of the most common uses for dry ice in industrial and manufacturing settings.
So what is it?
Dry ice cleaning is an environmentally responsible cleaning and surface preparation technique.
It is similar to sand, bead and soda blasting in that it prepares and cleans surfaces using a media accelerated in a pressurized air stream. It differs in that dry ice cleaning uses solid carbon dioxide (CO2) pellets or MicroParticles, which are blasted at supersonic speeds and sublimate on impact, lifting dirt and contaminants off the underlying substrate.
Properties of dry ice blasting
- Environmentally responsible
- Compressed air source (either plant air or an air compressor)
- Electric power source
- Dry ice supply
Types of dry ice media used for dry ice blasting
The size and density of the dry ice particle greatly affects the resulting clean. Different sized particles are used for different cleaning applications.
There are two types of media used in the process.
1) Dry ice pellets
2) Dry ice MicroParticles
1) Dry ice pellets
- 3mm in size (roughly rice sized)
- Used for a more aggressive clean, getting rid of the most stubborn contaminants
- Sugar-sized particles
- Used to clean delicate and sensitive surfaces
- Less aggressive than pellets
- More media strikes the surface per second
- Increased coverage area
- More particle strikes per square inch
- Less air power is needed to accelerate dry ice (less noise)
Still have questions about Dry Ice Blasting? Download our Definitive Guide


RE: Javascript alternatives not necessary?
From: Fentress, Robert
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 11:16:42 -0400
Message-ID:
My responses surrounded by
--Robert Alexander Fentress
[quote - M Cooper]
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Cooper [_EMAIL_]
should be required if that content itself is accessible.
[quote - Fentress, Robert]
Yes. Well-phrased.
GV: How could content be accessible if not in text? How do you render it
into braille for example for someone who is blind but does not hear well?
You don't. If JavaScript-based functionality cannot be replicated with a text alternative, you simply require the user access the resource with a JavaScript-enabled browser. The content produced by the JavaScript-enabled browser must be accessible to those using assistive technologies. It might be wise to require the inclusion of a indicating that this resource requires Javascript, but there are instances where the functionality provided by the script simply cannot be replicated with a text alternative.
GV: Also, how do you change language level?
Sorry. I'm not sure what you mean? Could you be more specific? Thanks.
[quote - M Cooper]
[quote - Fentress, Robert]
Yes. That is also an issue.
Another is whether all non-text functionality can be represented adequately
by text alternatives.
GV: If it is truly impossible to create a text alternative then if the
person does the best job they can it is unlikely that someone will challenge
it. The requirement is not that it be 'adequate' so they would pass if they
do the best they can. For the vast majority this is not the problem.
The prescription that one must "provide equivalent information" implies to me that the text alternative be at least adequate.
GV: Could you cite some examples? It would be helpful here.
Yes. SCORM content requires JavaScript support in order to access the content as intended. It is essentially a web application that breaks without JavaScript and for which there is no alternative means of implementing the functionality that achieves the same purpose.
GV: Not sure I understand the widely supported bit with regard to text. Text
is defined as Unicode. Please elaborate on this. Thx.
I believe he was not talking about text in that context. He was talking about the orginal content, not the text alternative.
Flash content is accessible only in IE on a PC. Is this "widely supported" enough to say that content is accessible, or must it be accessible on other platforms? If so, how many and which ones? Should there be a priority level gradation in this regard? For instance, content that is accessible to users with a multitude of disabilities using assistive technologies on at least one platform might be deemed to meet Level A conformance requirements. Content that is accessible on Mac, PC, and Linux might be deemed to conform to Level AA. Something like that.
[quote - M Cooper]
be the situation that there are new technologies that are not yet
universally supported, or whose accessibility features aren't universally
have to wrestle with in techniques but shouldn't impact the guidelines.
[quote - Fentress, Robert]
I think another issue is whether a necessary component of accessibility is
that content must be cross-platform, and, if so, to what degree? Must it
work on Windows, Mac, and Linux? How about Windows 3.1, Mac OS 7, 8, 9,
DOS, Amiga? How about Pocket PC, Palm, and Blackberry?
Related to all this is defining at what point content should be treated as
an application and at what point should it be treated as web content.
Assumedly, an application program need not run on all platforms to be
considered accessible, but perhaps more is expected of web content.
Are there different standards, in terms of cross-platform and cross-user
agent compatibility for web content that is general purpose versus web
content for an audience that registers to access specific content and
functionality after being informed of the limited subset of user
agents/platforms that are supported. For instance, what if one registers
for a course that uses a particuar web application that only works on one or
two browsers or platforms, but for which there are assistive technologies
that make the content accessible to people with a wide variety of
disabilities. What about browser-based Intranet applications designed to
only function on specifc platforms, which the organization has standardized
on. Branches of the military have standardized on IE on a PC, for instance,
as a universal base for all of their browser-based applications.
GV: I think we talked about this in terms of PUBLIC STANDARDS or
SPECIFICATIONS. Technologies that are proprietary and do not have open
published standards were a problem. Don't think we have come to a wording
and you are right - we don't have it in this version yet. However the text
alternative is the fall back that makes it accessible.
Unfortunately, it does not in all instances, e.g. SCORM.
[quote - M Cooper]
require text alternatives. Mainly I'm just reiterating that here, it's
forum to raise it.
[quote - Fentress, Robert]
I only agree if (1) text alternatives can provide equivalent functionality
to what they are replacing, and perhaps (2) the non-text technology is not a
part of a web application and that web application does not allow assistive
technologies to access its content on a widely-supported platform (either
one which is supported by the particular organization the application was
designed for, or one which is ubiquitous in the larger community). Perhaps
an application such as that layed out in (2) could be granted some sort of
diminished accessibility status, but I don't think this should preclude the
resource from claiming some sort of accessibility compliance.
GV: Accessible applications is an interesting and challenging area. As we
move to more and more 'always connected' situations we may have more and
more applications that are half on client and half on server. What is "Web
content." Do we have two types and two sets of rules?
These are good questions.
[quote - M Cooper]
and we can discuss the merits more completely.
[quote - Fentress, Robert]
Sounds good to me.
GV: That is a major departure from our guidelines -- so if we are going to
do that it will take some discussion. I can see the thinking -- but I don't
know how you are going to handle the "if it is accessible' criteria.
How about if a non-text technology is accessible, and cannot be adequately represented with a text alternative, we not require text alternatives. "If it is accessible" in this regard means "if users with a multitude of disabilities using assistive technologies can interpret the content"
P.S. Gregg: Sorry for the double posting. I'll get it right one of these days.
Received on Monday, 26 July 2004 11:16:47 UTC


text:
Prevent image to repeat itself, tiling or get stuck on scroll.
Are your images behaving strangely? Tiling, getting stuck or repeating on scroll?
Prevent image to repeat itself, tiling & get stuck on scroll.
Are you having problems with normal images repeating themselves, tiling, getting stuck and making strange lines all over your website when scrolling up and down? This might be because you have another background image set to repeat!? Follow these steps to prevent image to repeat itself, tiling or get stuck on scroll.
Steps to prevent image from repeat itself, tiling & getting stuck:
- Start by checking if this image problem is occurrin in every browser: Chrome / Safari, Explorer or Firefox. Good to know.
- Validate you code to make sure there are no obvious errors, for example unclosed elements or wrongly nested elements. Validate your website here: _URL_
- Correct all errors (if any) above.
- If you are floating elements or images, use class.clearfix to clear any floats after the element containing floats has ended. Clearfix CSS class might look something like this:
content: " ";
Simply add class.clearfix to any elements containing floats.
- Try to set the background to no-repeat on the element causing problems or the parent of the element causing problems.
- If none of the above works? Are you using several layers of background images on top of eachother? Some fixed, some repeated and so on. Try to remove the backgrounds one by one to see if this fixes the problem, or leads you in the right direction…
(Firefox browser have been having similar problems with images and icons tiling or repeating when this article is written)

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


text:
Effect of Shock Mach Number on Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability in Spherical Geometry
Lombardini et al. have recently carried out Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (RMI) simulations in cylindrical geometry. RMI for a spherical axisymmetric flow was investigated by Dutta et al..We consider amore general initial interface perturbation, with a spherical egg-carton profile similar to the one used in planar RMI simulations [3, 4]. An interesting feature of this profile is that the perturbationwavelength is nearly constant over the spherical shell spanned by the material interface. The fluids considered in this study are air outside and SF6 inside. The shock is launched from the air (lighter) side of the interface. As the flow evolves, a series of reflected and transmitted shocks are generated,which via baroclinic deposition of vorticity and its subsequent transport serve to mix the two fluids in a turbulent mixing zone.
KeywordsTurbulent Kinetic Energy Incident Shock Shock Speed Shock Mach Number Atwood Number
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.


text:
Downing Lab, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Dr. Kenneth Downing's lab at the U.S. Department of Energy Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory made a major breakthrough for cancer research by solving the atomic level structure of tubulin, the protein responsible for cell division. The team of Eva Nogales, Sharon Wolf, and Kenneth Downing published the paper "Structure of the αβ tubulin dimer by electron crystallography" in Nature in January 1998.
Scientists had been seeking to understand tubulin since the 1950s. Better knowledge of how tubulin polymerizes into filaments that form microtubules and enable a cell to undergo mitosis would open the door to developing new anti-cancer drugs. Already, the natural substance known as Taxol had shown potential in treating a number of cancers by preventing a cell from dividing. It was vital to understand the tubulin structure and how it interacts with Taxol in order to create a more effective drug that targeted only cancer cells.
Downing's lab was the first to create a 3-dimensional atomic model, and it was achieved through electron crystallography and cryo-EM. The resulting 3D model was a computerized reconstruction of 93 electron diffraction patterns and 159 images culled from more than 4,000 recorded over the previous six years. They were able to work with crystals only one molecule in thickness by obtaining diffraction patterns with an electron beam. In 1998, they achieved 3.7A resolution. Then in 2001, they refined the model to 3.5A resolution and published "Refined structure of alpha-beta tubulin at 3.5A resolution." Instrumentation for this work includes the JEOL JEM-4000 and the JEM-3100F Transmission Electron Microscopes.


Effect of SCMs on Alkali-Silica Mitigation
Effect of SCMs on Alkali-Silica-Reaction Mitigation
Alkali silica reaction
Fig. Alkali silica reaction
1- Fly Ash
the three characteristics of fly ash that determine its efficiency in preventing ASR are fineness, mineralogy, and chemistry. In general, the finer the fly ash, the more efficient it is in reducing ASR expansion. An ultra fine fly ash, with particle size around 3 μm, can still be very effective despite a somewhat higher CaO content of approximately 11.8%. The mineralogy of each ash can react differently due to how the chemical components are bound. Studies have found that the CaO content has the greatest effect on a fly ash's efficiency in mitigating ASR. The higher the CaO content, the less effective the fly ash is at reducing ASR expansion. Increased quantities of SiO2 have also proven to lower expansion.
Studies have shown that appropriate replacement levels of fly ash can prevent expansion due to ASR. ASTM C 618 Class F fly ashes have lower CaO contents than ASTM C 618 Class C fly ashes and can mitigate ASR at lower replacement levels. Class F fly ash is also more effective than Class C fly ash in reducing the pore solution alkalinity. For a particular fly ash, as replacement levels increase, expansion due to ASR decreases.
2- Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag
Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS) is a hydraulic cement primarily made of silica, alumina, calcium oxide, and magnesia. When GGBFS is hydrated, its silica and calcium oxide react and produce calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H). Excess silica from the GGBFS and calcium hydroxide from the hydration of the portland cement react and form even more C-S-H. The cementitious characteristics of the GGBFS allows for high replacement values ranging from 25 to 70%.
ASTM C 989 separates GGBFS into three grades depending on their activity index: 80, 100, and 120. Studies have shown only grades 100 and 120 are successful in controlling ASR expansions. The equivalent alkali content of GGBFS is also limited by ASTM C 989 to a range of 0.6% to 0.9%. Alkalis within GGBFS are released into the pore water slower than those in the cement but faster than those in fly ash.
3- Silica Fume
Silica fume does not eliminate potential ASR expansion but delays the onset of the reaction. Silica fume promotes pozzolanic reaction with calcium hydroxide and alkaline hydroxides forming increased quantities of C-S-H, which leads to a higher density and less permeable concrete. Silica fume is prone to lumping when used in powder form. Silica fume granuals as small as 40 to 800 μm can act like reactive aggregates and actual cause ASR.
Therefore, it is suggested that mixtures containing silica fume have an extended mixing time to facilitate dispersion. Silica fume that does not meet ASTM C 1240's silica content requirement of at least 85% has been shown to be unsuccessful in mitigating or delaying ASR. The use of silica fume is only effective for mitigating ASR for moderately reactive aggregates.
4- Metakaolin
Metakaolin reacts with calcium hydroxide, also known as portlandite, which forms supplemental C-S-H in concrete. This supplemental C-S-H entraps alkalis and consequently decreases the pH of the concrete pore solution. The decreased pH may suppress ASR expansion.
Read Also
Concrete Spalling


text:
(LITTLE GARDEN OF THE SOUL).
A prayer book which both in its Latin and German forms was exceedingly popular in the early years of the sixteenth century. The first known edition was printed at Strasburg by William Schaffener of Rappeltsweiler, and is dated 13 March, 1498. After that date new editions with various supplements and modifications were constantly issued by other printers both in Strasburg and other German cities, and even at Lyons. Many of them, though small in size, were illustrated with beautifully designed woodcuts. Mr. C. Dodgson gives a list of eighteen editions between 1516 and 1521, all of which contained cuts by the well-known engravers Hans Springinklee and Erhard Schön. The earliest German edition appeared in 1501, but the Latin editions on the whole predominate. With regard to its contents, the "Hortulus" bears a general resemblance to the Horæ and Primers which were then the form of prayer book most familiar in France and England. As in these latter, the Little Office of our Lady always occupies the place of honour, but the "Hortulus" contains a greater variety of popular prayers, many of them recommended by curious and probably spurious Indulgences. The name "Hortulus Animæ" was derived not from the æsthetic but from the utilitarian aspects of a garden, as is shown by the three Latin distichs prefixed to most copies of the work. The first two lines run:—
Ortulus exiguus varias ut sæpe salubres
Herbas producit, quas medicina probat.
(A tiny garden will often produce a variety of salutary herbs of which medicine knows the value).
The contents of the volume are further described as "mentis pharmaca sacræ" (the simples of the devout mind). The popularity of the book is further shown by the extreme beauty of the miniatures in some existing manuscript examples. One of these at Vienna (Bibl. Pal. 2706) has recently been produced in exquisite facsimile by Dörnhöffer.
The title in particular was found attractive. Another German prayer book, "Das Wurtzgärt linder andächtigen Uebung" (the herb garden of devout practices) was edited by an Observantine Franciscan friar at Augsburg in 1513, but it is a quite different work. So a Lutheran adaptation of the "Hortulus" was produced in 1569 [perhaps 1550 Ed.] which was called the "Lustgarten der Seelen" (the pleasure garden of the soul)—though this perhaps corresponds better to the other famous Catholic prayer book the "Paradisus Animæ". It should be noted also that yet another well-known work of devotion, which was not a prayer book but a volume of moral instruction richly illustrated with stories, bore a similar title. This was "Der Selen Würtzgart," of which the first edition was printed at Ulm in 1483. The title, "Garden of the Soul", is of course very familiar to English readers from the popular prayer book which was compiled by Bishop Challoner about the year 1740, and which has since been reprinted and re-edited in countless editions.
CLAUSS in Kirchliches Handlexikon (Munich, 1907), s.v.; BEISSEL in Stimmen aus Maria-Laach (July-October, 1909); M220;THER, Bücher-Illustration (1894), I, 289; DODGSON, Catalogue of Early German and Flemish Woodcuts at the British Museum (London, 1903), especially vol. I, pp. 562-563); THURSTON in American Ecclesiastical Review (Feb., 1902), 167-187.
APA citation. (1910). Hortulus Animæ. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. _URL_
MLA citation. "Hortulus Animæ." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. .
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by WGKofron. With thanks to Fr. John Hilkert and St. Mary's Church, Akron, Ohio.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is feedback732 at newadvent.org. (To help fight spam, this address might change occasionally.) Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


text: Atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common progressive tachyarrhythmia, results in structural remodeling which impairs electrical activation of the atria, rendering them increasingly permissive to the arrhythmia. Previously, we reported on endoplasmic reticulum stress and NAD+ depletion in AF, suggesting a role for mitochondrial dysfunction in AF progression. Here, we examined mitochondrial function in experimental model systems for AF (tachypaced HL-1 atrial cardiomyocytes and Drosophila melanogaster) and validated findings in clinical AF. Tachypacing of HL-1 cardiomyocytes progressively induces mitochondrial dysfunction, evidenced by impairment of mitochondrial Ca2+-handling, upregulation of mitochondrial stress chaperones and a decrease in the mitochondrial membrane potential, respiration and ATP production. Atrial biopsies from AF patients display mitochondrial dysfunction, evidenced by aberrant ATP levels, upregulation of a mitochondrial stress chaperone and fragmentation of the mitochondrial network. The pathophysiological role of mitochondrial dysfunction is substantiated by the attenuation of AF remodeling by preventing an increased mitochondrial Ca2+-influx through partial blocking or downregulation of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter, and by SS31, a compound that improves bioenergetics in mitochondria. Together, these results show that conservation of the mitochondrial function protects against tachypacing-induced cardiomyocyte remodeling and identify this organelle as a potential novel therapeutic target.


text:
All IDCC majors must take speech, professional communication and web design courses, and communication theory to build their verbal skills before choosing electives in applied communication theory and supporting subject areas. This curriculum, structured to allow maximum flexibility to suit individual interests and goals while ensuring a solid base of knowledge in business and the liberal arts, has become a model for similar programs offered in schools through the country.
- 175 Forest St.
- President: : William Buchholz
- Telephone: _PHONE_


next up previous
Next: Pre-Planned Set Plays Up: Flexible Team Structure Previous: Dynamic Switching of Formations
Flexible Positions
In our multiagent approach, the player positions itself flexibly such that it anticipates that it will be useful to the team, either offensively or defensively.
Two ways in which agents can use the position flexibility is to react to the ball's position and to mark opponents. When reacting to the ball's position, the agent moves to a location within its range that minimizes its distance to the ball. When marking opponents, agents move next to a given opponent rather than staying at the default position home. The opponent to mark can be chosen by the player (e.g., the closest opponent), or by the unit captain which can ensure that all opponents are marked, following a preset algorithm as part of the locker-room agreement.
Homogeneous agents can play different positions. But such a capability raises the challenging issue of when the players should change positions. The locker-room agreement provides procedures to the team that allow for coordinated role changing. In our case, the locker-room agreement designates an order of precedence switching among positions within each unit. By switching positions within a formation, the overall joint performance of the team is improved. Position-switching saves player energy and allows them to respond more quickly to the ball.
Peter Stone
Sun Dec 7 06:54:15 EST 1997


text:
Canadian Forest Service Publications
Modelling of mountain pine beetle transport and dispersion using atmospheric models. 2004. Jackson, P.; Murphy, B. Pages 133-145 in T.L. Shore, J.E. Brooks, and J.E. Stone, editors. Mountain Pine Beetle Symposium: Challenges and Solutions, October 30-31, 2003, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Pacific Forestry Centre, Victoria, British Columbia, Information Report BC-X-399. 298 p.
Available from: Pacific Forestry Centre
Catalog ID: 25043
CFS Availability: PDF (download)
The mountain pine beetle population in the British Columbia central interior has reached epidemic proportions. Mountain pine beetles move actively through flight over a few kilometers within a stand, and passively through advection by the wind, within and above a forest canopy. Passive dispersal is likely responsible for between-stand and landscape-scale spread of the population. A strategy for the testing and use of atmospheric numerical models to predict the passive movement of mountain pine beetles is described. Preliminary synoptic climatology results indicate that typical weather patterns associated with weather conducive to mountain pine beetle flight are similar to average summertime conditions, except the surface high pressure ridge influencing the weather over BC is stronger than normal. An atmospheric simulation of a situation conducive to mountain pine beetle emergence and flight showed that the above canopy winds and temperatures had considerable spatial and temporal variability, indicating that treating the atmosphere simplistically as a "constant" in mountain pine beetle population models may not lead to satisfactory results.
- Date modified:


Here's a List of Some Toxic & Safe Ones!
We as humans eat many different kinds of foods and sometimes we like to give a little to our cat friends. Many always wonder if some of these foods are actually safe to give to our furry friends. That's why we compiled this list.
Although it's not even close to covering all of the foods out there it does least give cat owners an idea of what might be okay for their cats to consume and which foods they should definitely stay away from.
Here's an infographic with an overview of some human foods your cat can and cannot eat:
list of human foods cats can eat
Want to use this infographic on your blog? Just copy and paste the code below!
Disclaimer: Always remember that cats function differently than humans and aren't meant to consume some foods that humans can eat. If you're ever not sure about feeding your cat a particular food, don't do it
If your cat has consumed a food you're not sure was safe, make sure to call your veterinarian first. Lastly, always remember that some foods may be okay for some cats, but others may not do well consuming them. There always be debate over certain foods. Just remember, moderation is best!
Answer: In Moderation
Although some adult cats do suffer from lactose intolerance, your cat can eat yogurt. Yogurt is the safest dairy product to feed a cat. Cats often enjoy the flavor of yogurt, and there are some health benefits in yogurt for felines.
can cats eat yogurt?
Yogurt is considered healthy for cats because of the active bacteria cultures that live inside plain yogurt. The bacteria cultures found in yogurt can boost your cat's immune system and promote efficient digestion. Intestinal flora in bacteria cultures help a cat's stomach and ensure healthier bowel movements
If your cat is suffering from diarrhea, then a small dose of yogurt before their main meal is recommended. Yogurt is even beneficial for our feline friends when they've swallowed one too many hairballs.
The key to treating your cat to yogurt now and then is to monitor their reactions to it. If your cat shows adverse reactions to a bit of yogurt, then he or she may have a strong case of lactose intolerance. Thus, you won't want to give your furball any more yogurt. Start with a small serving of yogurt and test your kitty's tolerance.
Yogurt is the best dairy product for adult cats to eat. Just make sure you feed your cat plain yogurt. Sugars and additives in flavored variations are sure to upset your cat's stomach.
Answer: SURE!
can cats eat salmonYour cat can eat salmon, but it's not the best food for your feline. Salmon will not cause your cat to throw up or have an upset stomach. However, you should not feed your cat a diet strictly of salmon or any other fish product. No matter how much our furry friends love it.
Fish products are fine for your cat, but they don't have adequate nutrition for your furry friend. Your cat may come running every time he or she smells some salmon or tuna, but that doesn't mean you can switch their diet to all fish. Cat food has all the nutrients your cat needs, like taurine and more. Fish does not have the right amount of nutrients for your cat.
There is some difference in the type of fish you feed your cat. Canned fish and raw fish both have their negatives. Parasites, additives, and more can be in some types of fish and harm your cat.
Even though your cat loves the smell and taste of salmon – it's best to give them nibbles of salmon or tuna as a treat. And no matter how loud your feline meows, you cannot make salmon a central part of your cat's diet.
cats can eat cheese
Cats can eat cheese in moderation, but be careful if they're lactose intolerant!
Cats often love cheese, and the protein in it can be good for them. The problem is many cats develop a bit of lactose intolerance as they reach adulthood. This means cheese, or any other dairy product, could cause your feline friend stomach issues and diarrhea.
If you want to give your cat cheese, then start with a subtle portion. See how your cat reacts to the cheese over the next 12-24 hours. If your feline seems fine, then you should be able to feed your cat small portions of cheese on occasion.
Portions are essential when talking about cats and cheese. While a little slice may be fine, your cat will certainly get sick if it eats too much cheese (or any dairy product). Make cheese a special treat for your cat if he or she likes it.
(Cat's litter box full? See our clumping litter reviews)
As many cats do really like cheese, some owners have been able to use cheese to help their furry friends take medicine. Cat owners have been known to grind up medications their cats need to take and then place the powder on a small slice of cheese. This is the only way many cats will ingest the drug.
If your cat really likes cheese – just remember to start small and slow. Give your feline a little piece and make sure he or she can handle it. Cats can eat cheese, but only in moderation.
can cats eat bread? is it safe? here's the answer
Cats can eat baked bread in moderation, but be careful of raw dough!
Cats have no issue digesting bread. Eat baked bread will provide no real problem for your cat. Nor will eating bread provide any nutritional benefit to your cat. So it's pretty pointless to feed any bread to them. The particular nutritional needs that cats require makes bread a worthless for them.
You can give your cat some bread as a treat now and then, but it should never become a significant part of their diet. A small piece of bread will suffice. And make sure any bread you feed your cat is not covered in sauces or spreads like jelly or peanut butter.
Cats can eat bread, but make sure to do so in moderation. If your cat likes bread, then give them a small piece as a treat now and then.
*One important note – bread dough can be terrible for your cat. You should never allow your cat to eat bread dough. Furthermore, if your cat does somehow eat some bread dough, you should take them to the veterinary as fast as possible. Bread dough can rise in a cat's stomach and create many health issues. These issues will occur rapidly after the dough has been consumed.
Answer: SURE!
can cats eat broccoliYour cat can eat broccoli. Whether your furry friend would want a piece of broccoli is a different story. This vegetable is completely safe for your cat to consume, but don't be surprised if he or she has no interest in the leafy green.
While your cat may not want to eat broccoli, if he or she does like broccoli then you can feed it to them often. Broccoli offers some health benefits to your cat, including being packed with anti-oxidants and being an excellent source of roughage for you cat.
Cats may be attracted to broccoli when they have a stomach ache. In a similar manner to how grass and other leafy greens seem healing to them in times of stomach pain – broccoli does, too. Don't think that because your cat ate broccoli and then threw up it is not good for them. There's a high chance the cat's stomach was already in disarray if he or she wanted broccoli.
Feed your cat broccoli if you like. As with any human food, you should start with a small portion and work your way up.
can cats drink milk or cream
There are many variables to consider before serving milk or cream to your cat.
In most cases, an adult cat should not drink milk or cream. This seems counterintuitive as images of cats lapping up milk is seen all over. While kittens can drink milk when they're born, an adult cat is likely to have some lactose intolerance.
Milk is an incredible source of energy for young cats, but the enzyme that allows cats to digest milk disappears from their gut as they age. This creates lactose intolerance in most adult cats.
Even though milk may upset the stomach of an adult cat – many felines still love to lap up milk. The flavor of milk is preferable to most cats and the fat in the milk is good for them. This doesn't mean you should give your cat much milk, it's still best for them to drink water.
Avoid allowing your cat to consume milk as much as possible. A few sips now and then are okay for your furry friend, but anything more than that will usually lead to a stomach ache.
The less milk or cream your cat consumes – the better.
can cats eat apples
Cats can eat apples.
In moderation, apples are one of the healthier people foods for your furry friend. The key is to never, ever feed your cat the core of an apple. The seeds contain cyanide, which can be very harmful to your animal. An apple core can poison your feline.
Don't let this scare you from feeding your cat a little apple on occasion. Just keep the portions relatively mediocre and avoid the core. Apples are healthy for cats because they contain many vitamins and nutrients, like calcium, vitamin C, vitamin K, and pectin. The phytonutrients in the skin of an apple are also great for your cat.
Not only are apples good for your kitty – many cats love the taste of apples. Don't be afraid to give your cat a slice or two of an apple as a treat or as a topping on their cat food, especially if he or she takes a liking to the fruit.
There are a few cat foods that contain apples, but a few fresh slices to munch on is


According to MuckRock data, perceived ethnicity does not impact public records response times - with one exception
Analysis of over 45,000 requests found that, by and large, requesters with names predicted to be Hispanic had FOIAs filled more quickly
Over the years, a number of requesters, researchers, and members of the public have asked whether we think who the requester is impacts how requests are handled. Under the law, every requester should be treated the same, but we've seen a number of cases where different requesters get different answers (and prices, and response times) for largely identical requests.
So we decided to analyze our data to see if one factor - predicted ethnicity based on name - swayed how requests were handled.
First, some important caveats.
Predicting ethnicity and race by name is an infamously flawed and inexact exercise; a number of users we know personally, for example, were matched incorrectly. That means the data is not a good breakdown of who actually makes up our user base.
But since we're mostly interested in how the requester's ethnicity and race are perceived by the public records officer, rather than what they actually are, we don't need to have correct data, just data that matches the perceptions of the people processing the request.
Second, MuckRock's users are self selecting. While we represent a broad swath of requesters (with over 18,000 registered accounts), MuckRock tends to draw some communities - such as activists, reporters, and researchers - more than others. Having a more limited sample of records requesters might mean that a smaller subset of users who happen to write better requests, or file requests with speedier agencies, might skew the data. We go into some of those possible considerations later, and welcome other researchers who want to explore the data with other hypotheses in mind.
Those caveats aside, we found some broad reassuring consistency across how quickly requests were responded to, with one surprising exception. But first, a look at MuckRock's pool of requesters.
Who appears to be filing FOIA requests?
So, what are we looking at here? For starters, we pulled FOIA data from the MuckRock API and joined it with the user's account information. User's names, as provided, were analyzed using the ethnicolr Python package to predict users' race/ethnicity. These counts represent the predicted race/ethnicity, not a reported one.
As of July 12th, 2018, MuckRock had facilitated 46,068 FOIA requests by filers likely to be perceived as white based on their names. That number compares to 1,964 likely Hispanic filers, 1,302 filers from Asian or Pacific Islander descent, and just 257 filers likely to be perceived as black.
Predicted race Count of FOIA requests through MuckRock
Asian or Pacific Islander 1,302
black 257
Hispanic 1,964
white 46,068
See full table here.
Are there differences in response rates based on perceived race/ethnicity?
Sort of, but there is a lot of uncertainty around this.
Take the following graph for example. (Find more survival curves here.)
What can be seen here is that white is essentially the same as the overall estimate. That is expected given the sizes of each group.
Predicted race Count done Percent done
Asian or Pacific Islander 382 40.86
black 74 35.58
Hispanic 717 61.92
white 14,927 43.94
The "black" group here is relatively small at just 74 FOIA requests. That's reflected in the wide uncertainty and jagged form of the graph – twenty completed requests could account for the abrupt drop in the purple line around 1,300 days. Twenty requests getting marked as done in the "white" group wouldn't make a noticeable difference in the green curve.
However, the Hispanic and Asian or Pacific Islander groups have more similarly shaped curves and more comparable n-sizes. These two curves are distinct with reasonable confidence. In other words, it appears that perceived race/ethnicity may impact the time it takes for a response to reach the "done" status. More specifically, the analysis showed that having a likely Hispanic name is correlated with faster time to "done" state.
Pairwise logrank tests results:
PredictedRace_A PredictedRace_B significance_code p_value
api black 0.437883
api hispanic *** 0.000000
api white 0.194233
black hispanic *** 0.000005
black white 0.163292
hispanic white *** 0.000000
Something that we have not yet sorted out is the possibility of location as a confounding variable in the predicted race analysis. One hypothesis is that the Hispanic group has a higher percentage of FOIA requests filed with agencies that more strictly enforce response timelines, thus resulting in the group having generally faster responses. If so, predicted race could simply be functioning as a proxy variable for request location and jurisdiction. Further assessment is needed to rule that scenario out.
Are there differences in response rates based on jurisdiction level (federal, state, or local)?
Yes. The survival curves below show that FOIA requests at the state level are generally much quicker to get done.
To further clarify, the curves show that the median time for a state-level FOIA request to reach the "done" was 527 days. That's compared to 1,490 days for the federal level and 1,188 days for the local level.
Limitations and thoughts on further analysis
As noted previously, there are a number of caveats to understanding this data. Other factors that could be impacting outcomes include:
 - The analysis doesn't account for the contents of the FOIA request.
 - This analysis doesn't take into account variance in confidence of name predictions. For example, if a name is predicted to be 42% likely to be Hispanic and 43% likely to be Asian, it would be classified as Asian in the survival analysis. This could be taken into account, but would require a more complicated analysis.
 - There are a few people that appear to use fake names or names of a company/group rather than a human name. These are relatively rare.
 - It would be worth further study to see if controlling for the jurisdiction or agency receiving the request impacts the predictive analysis.
For this study, FOIA and user data was most recently pulled on July 12th, 2018. Agency and jurisdiction data was most recently pulled on August 22nd, 2018.
If you are interested in learning more about the research methodology used, or would like sample code to extend the research in other directions, we'd love to talk: Reach us at
Image via US National Archives Flickr


solar arrays
from French and Swiss grid (including the base load for the whole site)
Of the LHC total, LHC cryogenics uses 27.5 MW and the LHC experiments use 22 MW. It's hard to say how much of the rest goes toward LHC-related computing, lighting, coffee-brewing etc, and how much goes to the many other experiments and activities at CERN.
Orbit and Altitude
Altitude 408km — 422km
(on 2 June 2013. Has been as low as 331.5km)
175m — 50m below ground
about 450m—380m above sea level
Here is a nice graph of the ISS's altitude from launch to 2009.
Here's the source for the LHC depth figures, and an explanation of why it was built underground. I estimated the altitude above sea level going by altitudes in Google Earth at roughly the points where the LHC is deepest and shallowest. I need to find better figures for this.
Orbit Diameter 13 558—13 586km
(on 2 June 2013)
I used the mean Earth radius of 6371km to calculate the orbit diameter of the ISS,. I guess I should have calculated the diameter at the actual angle the ISS orbits at, but as a maths major I don't trust my arithmetic.
Orbital Speed 7 666.2m/s
(on 2 June 2012)
protons at 7TeV: 299 792 455m/s
(3m/s slower than the speed of light)
lead ions at 2.76 TeV per nucleon: 299 792 441m/s
(17m/s slower than the speed of light)
You can check the ISS orbital speed in real time.
Protons haven't circulated in the LHC at 7TeV yet, but they will.
I got the 2.76TeV figure from the LHC FAQ document (which is very comprehensive and interesting, by the way. I recommend it.) A nucleon is just a proton or neutron. But I couldn't find the actual speed, so I calculated it using this formula at 1:30a.m. I'm a maths major, so I can't guarantee its correctness.
Wolfram Alpha can calculate this by itself if you ask it 'relativistic speed of 2.76 TeV proton' but the answer is so near to the speed of light that it rounds it off to 1c.
Orbital Period ~92 minutes
88.928µs (11245 orbits per second)
either protons or lead ions at full energy
The ISS data used to be on the real-time tracking page listed previously, and the LHC figures were here. I'm going to need to find new sources for those.
Getting to Orbit
Zarya and Zvezda modules launched by Proton rockets
Pirs and Poisk launched by Soyuz-U rockets
Everything else launched by Space Shuttle with the help of its solid rocket boosters
Protons accelerated by Linac 2, then the Proton Synchrotron Booster, the Proton Synchrotron, Super Proton Synchrotron, and finally the LHC
It's all about protons and boosters. I'm all about tenuous connections and dubious puns.
Particle Detectors
Detectors AMS (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer)
Calibrated using proton beam
Real data from cosmic rays
CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid)
Calibrated using cosmic rays
Real data from proton beam
AMS was designed at CERN, and one of those proton beams came from the Super Proton Synchrotron, which also accelerates protons to inject them into the Large Hadron Collider (see also the bottom half of the too-much-infographic.) The AMS control room is also at CERN.For a while the AMS was just across the road from my office. I took a few pictures of it just before it left, with my phone since my camera was broken at the time. One is shown below. The astronauts who installed it gave a talk at CERN a year after the installation, which you can watch online.
In development
LHCb (Large Hadron Collider beauty)
Calibrated using cosmic rays
Real data from proton beam
MoEDAL (The Monopole & Exotics Detector at the LHC)
In development
ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC Apparatus)
Calibrated using cosmic rays
Real data from proton beam
LHCf (Large Hadron Collider forward)
Simulating cosmic rays
using proton beam
ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment)
Calibrated using cosmic rays
Real data from proton beam
Countries Involved 16 111
The International Space Station's Facebook page and also the International Cooperation page say 15 nations. NASA's Human Space Flight FAQ says 16. I went with the higher number, because people from other countries are probably involved anyway. I know that at CERN, it's usually the countries of the institutions that are counted, when there might be people from many other countries working for those institutions.
Here is a list of countries involved in CERN. As a maths major, I don't trust my counting abilities, so I got the 111 figure from the LHC UK site. As explained above, the real number is probably higher.
1976 (Mir-2)
1984 (Freedom)
1986 (Columbus)
1993 (ISS)
Here's an interesting document on the conception of the ISS, which was essentially the coming together of several separate space station projects.
The idea for the LHC (sometimes called the Juratron in early papers, after the Jura mountains) had been floating around since 1977 (see this talk by Lyn Evans for a nice history of the LHC) but 1984 was the date of the first conference about it. The idea was officially approved in 1994.
On-site Assembly 1998—2013 1998—2008
Of course, this depends what you count. The LHC date is from the start of civil engineering to the completion of the beam pipe around the entire circuit including the detectors. There was a huge repair effort after the cooling leak in 2008, and there's work going on right now to upgrade the detectors and get the LHC itself up to the original design energy of 7TeV.
Operational Since 2000
(first astronauts)
(first beam)
(first collisions)
Operational Until 2020 2022
(after which it will be upgraded)
Some sources say the ISS could run till 2025 or 2028, but for now it's officially funded until 2020.
There are so many plans for upgrades and successors to the LHC that I'm a little confused as to when the LHC itself actually shuts off, but I'm going by the diagram in this article.
Estimated Budget
$72.4billion in 2010 dollars
unofficial calculation, not counting shuttle missions
CHF6 billion
Having a real-life space station occupied continuously for nearly 13 years, and finding out what the universe is made of? Priceless!
For the LHC, the figure of 4.6 billion is given here, but I chose the CERN FAQ/LHC Guide as the reference since it is newer and probably more carefully checked by more people. This was the booklet given out to volunteers at the 2008 open day.
Shuttles driven by ISS personnel
(Kennedy Space Center to/from ISS, 1998—2011)
Soyuz driven by ISS personnel
(Baikonur Cosmodrome to/from ISS, 2000—present)
Powered flight
(Geneva Airport to/from any airport on Earth)
Shuttle driven by ISS personnel
(Geneva Airport to/from CERN Meyrin site)
Here is a picture of an ISS employee driving a CERN shuttle:Shuttle driven by ISS personnel
Around Unpowered flight
Shuttles driven by ISS personnel between various CERN sites
Unmanned cargo transport
H-II Transfer Vehicle
(Tanegashima Space Center to/from ISS)
(Baikonur Cosmodrome to/from ISS)
Automated Transfer Vehicle
(Guiana Space Center to/from ISS)
ROCLA magnet transport robots
Magnet alignment robots
I saw an explanation of the CERN robots at an event in Microcosm years ago, but haven't been able to find much information on them online.
Challenges Faced
 - Insulating foam from Columbia's external fuel tank
 - Sticky bolts
 - Micrometeoroids
The bird escaped unharmed but lost its bread.
Science 121
"International Space Station" papers on
more than 1000 "Large Hadron Collider" papers on
The paper count for ISS is from August 2012; when I checked again in June 2013, the count was 116, but I assume the other papers still exist. In any case, this is only a rough idea of how much science has been done with the help of the ISS. It shouldn't be taken as a serious estimate of the benefits thereof.
Only fictional space stations can destroy a planet with an energy beam.
Only fictional particle accelerators can destroy a planet with their energy beams.
I haven't even seen Star Wars and I still managed to get a reference in.
 - Firefighting
 - Cleaning landfills
 - Air purification
 - Golf clubs
and more.
 - Cancer therapy
 - Sterilisation
 - Radiation processing
 - Medical imaging
and more.
You can see more about NASA technology spinoffs


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Researchers on Quest to Create Next-Generation Technologies
Teams Studying Alternatives to Silicon in Integrated Circuits and Robust New Computer Networks
Jan. 22, 2013
Two teams of researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas have been chosen to help a $194 million national network create the technologies of the next generation.
One UT Dallas team will evaluate materials to replace silicon in integrated circuits, with the goal of creating faster electronics that use dramatically less power. The other team will help design a computer architecture that allows the many types of computers used in everyday life to seamlessly communicate with one another, making it possible to build systems to avoid traffic accidents or to lock down an area in the case of an emergency.
Dr. Kyeongjae "K.J." Cho (left) and Dr. Robert "Bob" Wallace are working on a project to find a replacement for silicon in integrated circuits.
The Semiconductor Technology Advanced Research Network, known as STARnet, is administered by the Semiconductor Research Corporation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. STARnet is made up of six centers with professors and graduate students from nearly 40 universities, including researchers in UT Dallas' Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.
"The top programs in the nation want to partner with us in two different areas of technology to help our country continue to lead in microelectronics," said Dr. Mark W. Spong, dean of the Jonsson School. "Our researchers are on par with top-tier research universities, and our participation shows that other academicians recognize this and seek us out."
Dr. Kyeongjae "K.J." Cho, Dr. Moon Kim, and Dr. Robert "Bob" Wallace, all professors of materials science and engineering at UT Dallas, are participating in STARnet's Center for Low Energy Systems Technology (LEAST) to solve the problem of finding a replacement for silicon in integrated circuits. Dr. Roozbeh Jafari, assistant professor of electrical engineering and Dr. Carl Sechen, professor of electrical engineering at UT Dallas, are involved in STARnet's TerraSwarm Research Center to create the architecture for seamlessly integrated computer systems.
LEAST: Reinventing Electronics
As the physical limits of integrated circuits – currently made of silicon transistors – are reached, LEAST researchers are looking to replace conventional 3-D silicon with nanoscale substances that increase the speed of computing done in electronics while also using less energy. Integrated circuits are used in nearly all modern electronics, such as computers, cellphones and tablets.
Dr. Moon Kim's expertise in nanoscale electron microscopy will help the UT Dallas LEAST team study the surfaces and interfaces of materials to replace silicon in transistors.
The UT Dallas LEAST team, which will receive about $3.4 million over five years, will explore a 2-D class of materials known as dichalcogenides, which are atomically thin but allow electrical current to be controlled as it moves through the material.
"The key for future transistor applications will be combining these 2-D materials with other types of materials such as insulators and metals used in integrated circuits to find the most powerful and efficient combination," Wallace said.
The UT Dallas team is conducting research on the interfaces of these materials.
"The ability to control the surfaces and interfaces in these types of material systems is the most important aspect of future device operations," Wallace said.
Besides conducting research in LEAST, Wallace, holder of the Erik Jonsson Distinguished Chair, is also a center coordinator. His previous discovery that hafnium silicates and oxides could be used in transistors to enable smaller nanoscale devices revolutionized the computer industry. Hafnium-based transistors are now used in processor chips in desktop and laptop computers, iPads and cellphones.
Cho is an expert in multiscale computer modeling related to new materials, and Kim is an expert in nanoscale electron microscopy – advanced techniques that allow atom-to-atom modeling and chemical mapping of materials. The team will use this expertise in the surface and interface studies.
The world-class facilities housed in the $85 million Natural Science and Engineering Research Laboratory (NSERL) are an important factor in what enabled the UT Dallas team to be part of LEAST, Wallace said.
"UT Dallas has the state-of-the art equipment needed to contribute to LEAST and determine which materials will be used for the next generation of electronics," he said.
TerraSwarm: Linking Cyber-Worlds to the Physical World
Dr. Roozbeh Jafari working with a student in his lab on health-related sensors in his Embedded Systems and Signal Processing Lab.
The other UT Dallas team is developing technology as part of STARnet's TerraSwarm Research Center.
Sensors and computers can be found in nearly all aspects of modern life, from pacemakers to air conditioners to sensors in vehicles that can tell when a driver is distracted. TerraSwarm researchers are working toward shared data collected from the millions of individual smart sensors and other types of computers used in energy, health, environmental and personal applications.
The potential of sensor-based systems in monitoring applications goes far beyond what has been accomplished so far, Jafari said. When realized in full, these technologies can seamlessly integrate the cyber world, centered today in the cloud, with the physical/biological world, effectively blurring the gap between the two. The emerging global cyber-physical network is called the TerraSwarm, meaning that it encompasses many billions of sensors and actuators deployed across the earth.
"The possibilities of this type of shared sensing platform will revolutionize society," said Jafari, lead investigator for the UT Dallas TerraSwarm team, which will receive more than $900,000 over five years. "A fully integrated cyber-physical world presents limitless opportunities."
Dr. Carl Sechen builds ultra-low power digital circuits.
The key to enabling this type of technology is creating self-powered sensors and computers, and creating a networked architecture for thousands of smart sensing devices - similar to the World Wide Web - that is accessible from multiple types of electronic devices available to users.
Jafari, director of the Embedded Systems and Signal Processing Lab and a member of the Texas Analog Center of Excellence (TxACE), has experience creating wearable computers and wireless systems that monitor different aspects of human, health, behavior and thought.
"One strength we have is that we not only build the theories, but also implement them," he said.
Sechen, the other member of the UT Dallas TerraSwarm team, is an expert in building ultra-low power digital circuits.
Jafari said TerraSwarm research includes funding to create this new architecture while also protecting individual privacy.
The LEAST Center is led by the University of Notre Dame, and the TerraSwarm Research Center is led by the University of California, Berkeley.
Media Contact: LaKisha Ladson, UT Dallas, _PHONE_, _EMAIL_
or the Office of Media Relations, UT Dallas, _PHONE_, _EMAIL_.


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The word manhood describes both the adult period in a male human's life, and the qualities that make him a man. Some people believe that a boy reaches manhood when he hits puberty, while others maintain that manhood is based on becoming independent and responsible. Peter Pan just opted out.
Teenage boys sometimes do dangerous things to "prove their manhood," like driving recklessly or getting in fights. It's not uncommon to equate manhood with "macho" characteristics and behavior, but the true proof of manhood lies in things like being a good father or becoming a responsible and caring adult. In the thirteenth century, manhood applied to both men and women, "state of being human," from the Old English man, "person."


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Reporting on the State of the North American Environment
The North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation obliges the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation to "periodically address the state of the environment in the territories of the Parties."
To meet this obligation, the Secretariat has developed this report—The North American Mosaic: An Overview of Key Environmental Issues—with the support of environmental reporting experts from the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States. This report describes current environmental conditions and trends across North America. The breadth and diversity of the subject are astounding: from tiny invasive zebra mussels to global greenhouse gases measured by the teragram; from the last remaining vaquita porpoises to vast expanses of boreal forests and marine ecosystems; from invisible molecules of toxic chemicals to the all-too-visible smog and haze that blanket our cities from time to time.
As a mosaic of existing information, this report prompts us to consider the following questions:
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation welcomes your feedback .
- What are the central environmental challenges confronting North America?
- What are the greatest priorities for cooperative action among our three countries to address these environmental challenges?
- How can we measure our progress and create effective feedback mechanisms?
- How can we enhance the relevance of trinational cooperation through the Commission for Environmental Cooperation?
The 14 environmental issue papers may be downloaded individually as PDF files:


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A new study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry shows the breathing based meditation, popularly known in the Yoga world as Sudarshan Kriya Yoga, helps alleviate severe depression in the people who did not fully respond to other antidepressant treatments.
1. Reducing stress
2. Improvement in Focus
3. Increase in ability to focus
4. Enhances brain functions this allows also to understand the complex issues.
Learn How To Do SKY Breathing
The research led by Anup Sharma, MD, PhD, a neuropsychiatry research fellow in the department of psychiatry at Penn found significant improvement in the symptoms of depression and anxiety in the medicated patients with major depressive order (MDD) who participated in the breathing technique compared to medicated patients who did not take participation.
After two months, the yoga group cut its mean Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) score by several points, while the control group showed no improvements. HDRS is the most widely used clinician-administered depression assessment that scores mood, interest in activities, energy, suicidal thoughts, and feelings of guilt, among other symptoms.
More than half of the 41 million Americans who take antidepressants do not fully respond. Add-on therapies are often prescribed to enhance the effects of the drugs in these patients, but they typically offer limited additional benefits and come with side effects that can curb use, prolonging the depressive episode. What's more, patients who don't fully respond to antidepressants are especially at risk of relapse.


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Play the Alto Kalimba Using Your Mouse Pointer!
Just rest the tip of your pointer arrow on the end of the notes.
Pausing it there will show what note is being played. Try playing a tune!
The tuning on the kalimbas that we make is similar to likembe tuning from Central African countries. Having to build up the scale by alternating left and right puts thirds next to each other, so that by playing two or more notes at once, even quite big chords are possible.
Train Your Brain!
Psychologists will attest to the importance of bilateral development in children - that is - the development of both sides of the brain. Our right brain controls our left side, and is responsible for our intuition, creativity, inventiveness and lateral thinking. Because we have to build up melodies on the kalimba using both hands, we are forced to exercise our right brain. There are not many activities in our modern lives which allow us to do this.


Unfashionable mistakes made in fashion PR: 4 steps to avoid them
As mentioned in my previous post, the fashion industry has a longstanding trend of making poor PR decisions. So, what's the secret to avoiding these mistakes? A number of tips are out there, but here are five you can count on to help you catch those unfashionable decisions before they hit a media firestorm.
1. Know what your company stands for
In order to produce quality and consistent messaging to further your brand and benefit your customers, you must know what your company stands for. This includes knowing your company's mission, ethical values, goals and relationship with customers.
Designing a social media strategy for your company overall, and for individual campaigns, can help you avoid PR disasters. (_URL_)
The more clearly defined you and your purpose are, the less likely you'll end up creating messages or ideas that offend. Pushing the boundaries is often essential to be innovative and talked about, but you should know your company's limits and how you want to be perceived first.
2. Be strategic
Creating a strategy for your messaging campaigns, especially those using social media, can make all the difference in avoiding PR disasters. When you have a clear direction of what you're trying to accomplish and how you will get there, you can more clearly identify the messages and content you will be using.
Have a discussion with employees about what you're trying to say to customers and set clear boundaries for what is appropriate and what is not. This should include social media monitoring so that, in case your messages aren't accepted the way you'd hoped, you can react quickly and minimize damage.
3. Prepare, prepare, prepare
"What makes sense to an individual may not have the same meaning to a wider audience and the likelihood for this mistake is generally amplified during a chaotic event," says Forbes contributor Aaron Aanenson.
A good way to dodge potential PR faux pas is to create messages well in advance in order to test them among sample audiences. Even having colleagues from other departments look over your strategies and ideas before you begin distributing them can help you predict how others will perceive it.
If you're creating content for a live event, try listing ideas for posts beforehand to prevent posting something you'll regret in the commotion of the event.
4. Think twice
Sometimes crossing the line can put your company or client on the map. Controversy and scandal get talked about.
However, before posting something online for the entire world to see, consider the possible effects. Will the post push boundaries and jumpstart positive conversation about your brand, or will it damage your reputation and put off potential customers?
Before posting something, ask the following questions:
 - Is this content going to motivate my audience to act?
 - Is this content so offensive that it could potentially decrease sales?
 - Is this content relative to my audience?
 - Does this content align with our company's mission and brand?
 - Are there current events that might impact the perception of this message?
While you never know exactly how your messages will be perceived, following these four steps can decrease the likelihood of posting something your company will regret. It's always fashionable to post ethical content.
Leave a Reply


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Hamish and Jess Webb run Myanbah, a 3,200 acre sheep and cattle operation outside Uralla NSW. Hamish is also CEO of Precision Pastures, a soil, pasture and carbon services company and Jess is a board member of Beef Australia and UNE Life (University of New England). The couple came back to farming several years ago after pursuing corporate careers, and their focus since their return has been on improving production – with their soil carbon project offering a fortunate environmental co-benefit.
"What we noticed was that the approaches we have been adopting to optimise livestock production, such as fixing soil constraints, using rotational grazing, and matching stocking rates more closely to carrying capacity, are resulting in improved soil health and positive outcomes for our natural capital," Jess says.
"While we were trying to improve the productivity of our soil, this has led us to a soil carbon project where we will have the ability to generate Australian Carbon Credit Units."
The family believe there is potential to increase their soil carbon levels by up to one per cent through soil improvement programs. They've already seen a 0.24 per cent increase in soil organic carbon down to 50cm in a three-year pasture trial, which gave them the confidence to go ahead with a full-scale program. Jess and Hamish predict the project could deliver several million dollars worth of carbon credits over 25 years.
"The trial saw increased carbon levels from 10cm down to 50cm, along with a lift of carrying capacity of 72 per cent," says Hamish. Increased carrying capacity means the pasture is able to carry more stock because of its improved condition.


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Adopt a Gorilla or Golden Lion Tamarin.
Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History.
Two species of lesser apes—four white-cheeked gibbons housed in three groups and a pair of siamangs—live at Gibbon Ridge.
Meet the Gibbons
Six western lowland gorillas—three males, and three females, including a baby born on January 10, 2009—live at the Zoo's Great Ape House.
Meet the Gorillas
The Zoo currently houses four ring-tailed lemurs and two red-fronted brown lemurs at Lemur Island. Two red-ruffed lemurs live in the Small Mammal House.
Meet the Lemurs
Four adult orangutans (three females and one male) and two juveniles (one female and one male) live at the Zoo in the Great Ape House.
Meet the Orangutans
A male and female pair of black howler monkeys occupies an outdoor enclosure behind the Small Mammal House.
Meet the Black Howlers
Fun Facts About Howlers
These primates live in the Small Mammal House.
Geoffroy's tufted-eared marmoset
golden lion tamarin
golden-headed lion tamarin


BUNDABERG's record floods will feature in a climate change documentary, 24 Hours of Reality: The Cost of Carbon.
Al Gore's documentary team focuses on Bundaberg
BUNDABERG'S record floods will feature in a climate change documentary, 24 Hours of Reality: The Cost of Carbon which screens online today and tomorrow.
>> Al Gore says global warming will increase severity of Australian bushfires
Members of Al Gore's climate advocacy group The Climate Reality Project, visited Bundaberg last month during the flood forums to film footage for the documentary.
Australia is one of six continents featured in the project and Bundaberg will feature in the Australian segment which looks at how human health threats are exacerbated by climate change.
To view the Australian section featuring the Bundaberg floods visit _URL_ at 6pm or midnight tonight or 6am and noon tomorrow.
Before 24 Hours of Reality screens, we asked The Climate Reality Project CEO Maggie L. Fox what you need to know about climate change.
Why was 24 Hours of Reality and The Climate Reality Project started and what does it hope to achieve?
For years we have known that climate change is real, it's happening now, and we're causing it. We also know that carbon pollution from fossil fuel emissions is the culprit. After all, the overwhelming majority of the world's leading climate scientists agree on this fact and have consistently spoken out to policymakers about exactly what's happening and why we need to act soon. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which reflects the consensus of 800 experts and 195 governments around the world, just released a report stating scientists are 95% certain we're causing climate change.
But the truth is, we don't even have to look at scientific reports to see the truth about climate change. We can just look out our windows or turn on the television to see the many ways that climate change has become a daily reality for all of us, from the Angry Summer you just experienced in Australia to the biblical rains and flooding we've just had in my hometown of Boulder, Colorado.
And despite the fact these dirty weather events are happening more and more frequently and at greater and greater cost to our lives and livelihoods, many world leaders haven't taken the steps necessary to confront the problem. And even when they have, as in Australia, citizens have to keep standing up to ensure political developments don't undermine the important progress that's been made.
Back in 2006, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore saw that despite the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change, the international community lacked the resolve to implement real solutions. In response, he started The Climate Reality Project to launch and power a social revolution for climate action.
We tell the story of climate change to people around the world and how it affects all of us directly now in our daily lives. Because when people understand what's really at stake and that this isn't just some problem for the future in far-off countries, they speak up and they start demanding real action from their leaders.
The effects of climate change are as much a part of our daily reality as the price of milk, and so we use contemporary culture to connect the dots between dirty weather events and the costs we're all already paying for carbon pollution.
Of course, it's one thing to know man-made climate change is a reality. The question that remains, though, is what can we do to solve it?
We knew that we could only address a problem that affects the entire world when the entire world comes together to work on a solution. And to solve a problem, first you have to talk about it. The idea for 24 Hours of Reality came from a desire to create a major event that would truly bring the world together and tell the many stories of what climate change means for communities from Alaska to Zimbabwe.
Our goal was to share these stories with the world and use the incredible media presence and visibility of an online broadcast format to get millions talking about this problem and working together on solutions.
This year's 24 Hours of Reality: The Cost of Carbon is the third-annual event in this series and was designed to be the world's largest conversation about the cost of carbon pollution.
This year's theme, The Cost of Carbon, explores the reality that we are all paying the price for carbon pollution today in the form of tax dollars diverted for disaster relief, lost land and produce from droughts, and the intangible costs of lives displaced by flooding and wildfires.
By exploring these costs we hope to galvanize all of our leaders to shake off climate denial and do what Australia has done in putting a price on carbon.
What are the most concerning things you have seen around the world since working on this project?
It's a two-part answer. In the field we're seeing how climate change transforms lives in places like Bundaberg, which was hit by horrific flooding. There's the immediate devastation of the event itself, but then the most concerning aspect is seeing how people are left trying to rebuild their lives and live with this new reality long after the news cameras have gone and the rest of the world moves on.
We see this over and over again with extreme weather events, and it's a reality we're facing now in Colorado after being hit with record rains and flooding just last month. The second deeply concerning part is that our world leaders are seeing these devastating weather events happen more and more frequently, and they're seeing the immense economic and social costs mount, but they still aren't willing to take the action necessary.
How will Bundaberg feature it this year's project and what do you think is the most significant thing about the Bundaberg floods from a climate change point of view?
This year, Sarah Backhouse will host an hour dedicated to the Australian continent, during that time we'll share mini-documentaries on how climate change has impacted Australia - from severe wildfires in New South Wales to this summer's record-setting heat and, of course, the deadly floods in Queensland and along the Gold Coast.
As part of our video coverage, we'll speak to local residents who experienced these dirty weather events firsthand.
Bundaberg is an essential part of this story. Although we can't say unequivocally that climate change alone caused the floods, what happened in Bundaberg is happening over and over all around the world where an extreme weather event strikes and shatters all kinds of records.
Unfortunately, these 1-in-100 and even 1-in-1000 events keep happening. What climate change does is to, in effect, load the dice for our natural systems so these kinds of events become more likely, frequent, and intense.
What is the most important thing you think the world needs to know about climate change?
The most important thing people should know is that we can still stop climate change before the worst impacts hit. Solutions are out there and stopping climate change starts with a price on carbon pollution. The situation is far from hopeless - Australia has certainly proven that where there is political will, we can put a price on carbon pollution. The rest of our world leaders need to act to put these solutions into place now, while we can still avoid the worst.
Why do you think some sections of the community won't accept climate change?
I think some people won't accept climate change because they don't know how it affects them directly and so they don't worry about it.
Once you understand what climate change means for you - particularly if you've experienced one of its severe impacts firsthand - it becomes pretty hard to deny. Just ask the firefighters out in the American West or people who were living on Staten Island when Superstorm Sandy came through. With others, it's a conscious choice.
After all, if 97% of doctors told these same people that their son or daughter needed to have an operation to live, they listen to the experts and get the operation.
But when 97% of climate scientists are telling them man-made climate change is a reality, they ignore the experts and seize on some myth to explain their beliefs. That's a choice. And the fossil fuel industry and climate deniers perpetuate this process by publicly repeating things they know aren't true and have been disproven countless times to confuse people and protect their bottom line.
What is the most important piece of information you hope to convey with 24 Hours of Reality and The Climate Reality Project?
Carbon pollution is costing us right now - in tax dollars for disaster relief, in rising food prices, in lost livelihoods and ways of life.
We need our leaders to step up, confront denial head on, and put a price on carbon pollution. We can still solve climate change before we cross the point of no return. And we have to - what's at stake here is everything.
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China - Unusual Resources for Family Research
Published in the Syllabus of the 26th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in New York, New York, August 2006
Family research for former residents of China relies on finding resources outside of China. As with all areas of Jewish genealogical research, valuable resources have become available in more recent years in addition to those that existed earlier.
Although Judaism was never a recognised religion in China, today there is a surprising interest in Jews and Judaism. This follows the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Israel in 1992 and close cultural and academic exchanges. Five tertiary centers of Jewish studies exist. Seminars on the centuries-old Jewish presence and connection in China, Judaism and Jewish thought are frequently held. The semi-permanent Jewish population is now only in the hundreds. Preservation of former Jewish buildings or landmarks is currently a priority by the various Chinese civic authorities.
The first reference to family research for former China residents should be the Avotaynu Guide to Jewish Genealogy. The chapter on China describes a methodology for research in the absence of locally available vital records. This has not changed since the Guide's publication in 2004, except that a number of very significant resources have come to light in various archives and elsewhere.
Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (CAHJP), Jerusalem
JGSNY generously provided the funds to microfilm the original CAHJP-held Shanghai HIAS Lists with vital data on 8528 family units. These can now be searched at the CAHJP and at YIVO.
CAHJP also holds archives of the pre-war Jewish Community of Vienna known as Archiv der Israelitischen Kultusgemeinde Wien or Archives of IKG Wien. A complete inventory of the massive 700,000 pages relevant to Holocaust research is available on the CAHJP website. For China research there are files with various lists of emigrating Austrians in the period 1940/1941 mostly on subsidised travel via Siberia.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), Washington DC
In 2001, the IKG reclaimed a very large collection of their Holocaust documents found in a vacant apartment in Vienna. The collection of about 350,000 pages includes deportation lists, name and card files, photographs, etc. Decades of neglect caused deterioration. An agreement between the USHMM and the IKG Wien allowed the USHMM to fund the microfilming of the whole collection in Vienna as well as the larger IKG collection at the CAHJP.
Austrian Deaths in Shanghai: The above collection also includes a card index file for about 300 Austrian refugees who died in Shanghai with vital and other data.
Small collections: The USHMM Archival Guide to the Collections contains many donated items related to former China residents. Some contain genealogical data as well as other personal correspondence and files related to their survival in Shanghai.
US National Archives
Shanghai Municipal Police (SMP) Records: As the Chinese Communists were taking over Shanghai in 1949, many boxes of SMP files were handed over to the Americans. They are held at Archive II in College Park, Maryland. The Finding Aid for the files known as CIA Record Group 263 is M1750 and it covers Records of the SMP as well as the Tsingtao (now Qingdao) Municipal Police for the period _PHONE_.
Most of the files deal with police investigation or authoritative matters but there are files with significant genealogical data, such as "List of German Refugees arrived in Shanghai since 1937", (with nearly 1,000 names); 500 Russian Ashkenazi family names participating in an old clothes collection; "Certificates of Character" with biographic information on Russian Jews for the years 1933 to 1940.
US Foreign Service (Shanghai) - Ql10ta Registration Book _PHONE_: This is a visa application register with mostly Central European refugees. A Mormon filmed copy of the register contains 550 frames with over 1000 names.
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York
YIVO in New York accumulated many materials on the Shanghai Jewish community directly from their representatives in Shanghai from 1946 to 1948. This collection is known as RG 243.
YIVO has extensive files on the activities of HIAS in the Far East. Collection RG 352 covering the period _PHONE_ comprises material relating to Jewish immigration to the Far East, when HIAS was based first in Harbin and later in Shanghai. There is substantial correspondence with lists of names from 1946 onwards relating to the immigration of refugees to various destinations around the world, such as Israel.
Cemeteries and Tombstones
Shanghai Cemeteries: before the creation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, there were four Jewish cemeteries filled with about 3700 graves. The oldest cemetery was founded in 1862 following the arrival of the Sephardi Jews and the last cemetery in 1941 after the influx of the European refugees.
In 1958 the tombstones of the four cemeteries were dismantled and then re-interred in one large cemetery in an outer suburb of Shanghai, but were desecrated during the PRC's 10-year cultural revolution from 1966 onwards. During the 1990s the first signs appeared that a small number of tombstones still existed, some whole, some partial. More recently, largely due to an Israeli, Dvir Bar-Gal, close to 90 have been found. Their names and other details are posted on the website - see _URL_
Harbin Cemetery: the Huangshan (Royal Hill) Jewish Cemetery is located on the eastern side of Harbin. In 1958 the tombstones were moved there from its original site. Today it holds 583 well preserved graves. The names of 515 of these with dates of death are searchable on-line on two websites, JewishGen's JOWBR database (with names in English) and the website for the Jews of China under the Harbin section (with names in Russian Cyrillic).
Tienstin (Tianjin) Cemetery: the Chin Lin Chwang Jewish cemetery no longer exists but there is a list of tombstones in the Tienstin Archives maintained by Igud Yotzei Sin in Israel.
Bremen Passenger Lists: Ships that sailed from Bremen, Germany, to destinations all over the world, including Shanghai for the years _PHONE_ are found on a website _URL_
There are a number of websites with a good perspective on the former Jewish communities of China. Noteworthy are :
_URL_ - this is hosted in Tel Aviv by Igud Yotzei Sin, which translated from Hebrew stands for The Association of Former Residents of China. It was founded in 1951 by mainly Russian Jews that immigrated to Israel. Search enquiries are welcome.
_URL_ - this has a stronger but not exclusive focus on the former European refugees that found a haven in Shanghai. Many articles on Shanghai life and activities are featured, as well as the latest memoir books.
Both websites have ready linked access to other China-related websites of interest.
In The Future...
The prospects for public viewing of the personal data of former residents of Harbin and also smaller Jewish communities in other parts of the former Manchuria are very good. According to the Igud Yotzei Sin's President, Ted Kaufman, birth, marriage and death records for Harbin Jews exist for the years 1903 to 1963 in the form of a card index.
The existence of personal data on those that came through Shanghai has not yet been confirmed but may be in the near future.
Goldstein, Jonathan.(Ed). The Jews of China. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000 Vols I, II
Meyer, Maisie J. From the Rivers of Babylon to the Whangpoo. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2003
Pan Guang, Prof (Ed). The Jews in China. Shanghai: China Intercontinental Press, 2005
Ristaino, Marcia R. Port of Last Resort. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 2001
Sack, Sallyann & Mokotoff, Gary (Eds). Avotaynu Guide to Jewish Genealogy. Bergenfield, NJ: Avotaynu Inc., 2004
Nash, Peter. "Shanghai HIAS Lists". Avotaynu 17 no.4 (Winter 2001): 19
Steck, Anatol. "The Archives of the Jewish Community of Vienna". Stammbaum no.24 (Winter 2004): 4
"Shanghai and Tsingtao Municipal Police Records in the U.S. National Archives". Avotaynu 16 no.l (Spring 2000); 33.
Goldstein, Jonathan. "Consular Records in Shanghai about Jewish Refugees". Avotaynu 10 no.2 (Summer 1994); 23
Bar-Gal, Dvir. "In Search of Shanghai's Tombstones". IgudYotzei Sin Bulletin #373 Sep-Oct 2002; 29
Sack, Sallyann: "Exotic Jewish Holdings of the Mormon Library System", Avotaynu 18 no.2 (Summer 2002); 23
Eisfelder, Horst P. Chinese Exile. Caulfield, Vie. Australia: Mak


text:
How does cabbage plants make seed?
Can you tell me how cabbage plants make seeds? Ken C.
Answer: Cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale and kohlrabi are all of the same species, Brassica oleracea, and have the same seeding and pollination habit. These plants produce a flower stalk that needs to be cross-pollinated (meaning a plant will not accept its own pollen) by insects.
The cabbage plant sends this flower/seed stalk directly out of the cabbage core. Home growers, unless they live in a very long growing zone, in the fall will need to select at least three firm ready-to-eat heads and remove the plants, roots and all, and store in a root cellar, refrigerator or cold basement. Keep the roots damp and cold during the winter.
In the early spring you would replant the plants, leaving two to three feet in between them. They will produce the seed stalk directly from the center of the plant. Since cabbage seeds ripen slowly and fall off immediately when they are ripe, you might want to either harvest the whole plant as the pods turn yellow or pick the dry pods when they turn brown.
When planted in the open garden – and if you are growing any other members of the Brassica family – you might be surprised what your seeds develop into since the plants can be cross-pollinated with broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, etc. But they might be interesting in flavor.
Good luck if you give this a try.


text:
Illegal German School
Monday, November 21, 2005
Segregation, racism, religious differences – issues such as these have not typically been common within North Dakota schools. But they have existed in different forms during the state's history.
One high-profile case erupted in the town of Expansion, a tiny port on the Missouri River that never got beyond a population of 75. The townsite was later covered by Lake Sakakawea after the building Garrison Dam.
This area in Mercer County had a large population of prosperous German families whose children entered public school unable to speak English. The parents felt this disadvantage was a large problem for their youngsters. These families were predominantly Evangelical Lutheran, and they desired more religious instruction for their children, as well.
Sometime in 1915, a number of German Lutheran farmers decided they needed to have their own school. They organized, adopted resolutions and petitioned Mercer County Superintendent of Schools Thomas to approve their plan.
They already had a church building, so they began to remodel it to include a school. They set a curriculum that offered all the same classes as the public school, but which also added some religion-based courses. They ordered textbooks with money from their own pockets and hired a graduate from Concordia College in Moorhead to be the instructor.
At some point in early 1916, Superintendent Thomas decided to oppose the school, because the children were being taught English through the use of the German language. He said English had to be taught from within the English language.
The farmers resisted, saying they were in charge of their children's well-being, not the government. They wanted their kids to have the best education they could, based on their own unique needs.
Superintendent Thomas responded by ordering the parochial school closed. Invoking the compulsory education law, he declared all the German children had to immediately enroll in the public school.
The challenge was too much for the Germans, and they refused. At least two were arrested.
In March 1916, the Bismarck Daily Tribune reported, "Jacob Haffner was arrested, charged with refusing to send his children to school. Superintendent Thomas claimed the parochial school was not provided for by law. Haffner was taken before a justice at Stanton and fined. This case has been appealed to the district court on the grounds that the parent, not the state, is keeper of his child."
Three days later, State Superintendent E. J. Taylor sided with the county superintendent. Sullivan and Sullivan, high-profile Mandan attorneys were representing Haffner, as well as Fred Pfenning, who was arrested on a similar charge.
A Stanton newspaper reported their cases were to go before the state Supreme Court, and on this date in 1916, Sullivan and Sullivan succeeded in getting Judge Nuessle to order State Superintendent Taylor to show just cause for why he didn't approve the school's curriculum.
Unfortunately, records of what ultimately happened no longer exist. If you know the end of the story, we'd like to hear from you!
Bismarck Daily Tribune. 9 and 19 Mar 1916. 21 Sep 1916.
Mercer County Republican. 23 Nov 1916.
Dakota Datebook written by Merry Helm


HP OpenVMS Systems Documentation
Content starts here
Previous Contents Index
4.8.1 Conditionalized Code
This section describes how to conditionalize OpenVMS code when migrating to I64. This code will be compiled for both Alpha and I64, or for VAX, Alpha, and I64. The symbol ALPHA, referred to in the following sections, is new. However, the symbol EVAX has not been eliminated. You do not need to replace EVAX with ALPHA but feel free to do so if convenient. The architecture symbols available for MACRO and BLISS are VAX, EVAX, ALPHA, and I64. MACRO Sources
For Macro-32 source files, the architecture symbols are in ARCH_DEFS.MAR, which is a prefix file specified on the command line. On Alpha, ALPHA and EVAX equal 1 while VAX and I64 are undefined. On I64, I64 equals 1 while VAX, EVAX, and ALPHA are undefined.
The following example show how to conditionalize Macro-32 source code so that it can run on both Alpha and I64 systems.
For Alpha-specific code:
For I64-specific code:
.IF DF I64
For BLISS source files, either BLISS-32 or BLISS-64, the macros VAX, EVAX, ALPHA and I64 are defined in ARCH_DEFS.REQ. On Alpha, EVAX and ALPHA equal 1 while VAX and I64 equal 0. On I64, I64 equals 1 while VAX, EVAX, and ALPHA equal 0. You must require ARCH_DEFS.REQ to use these symbols in BLISS conditionals.
The constructs %BLISS(xxx), %TARGET(xxx), and %HOST(xxx) are not recommended. Do not feel obligated to replace them, but feel free to do so if convenient.
Include the following statement in your source file:
Use the following statements in your source file to conditionalize code so that it can run on both Alpha and I64 systems.
For Alpha-specific code:
%if ALPHA %then
For I64-specific code:
%if I64 %then
%fi C Sources
For C source files, the symbols __alpha, __ALPHA, __ia64, and __ia64__ are provided by the compilers on the appropriate platforms. Note that symbols could be defined on the compile command line but that is not the recommended method, nor is using arch_defs.h. Using _TAG_ is considered the standard C programming practice.
For Alpha-specific code, use the following:
_TAG_ __alpha
For I64-specific code, use the following:
_TAG_ __ia64
_TAG_ Existing Conditionalized Code
Existing conditionalized code must be examined to determine whether changes are required. Here is an example of BLISS code to consider.
If the code is truly architecture specific and you are adding I64 code, then you would add the following case:
However, if the existing VAX/EVAX conditionals really reflect 32 bits and not 64 bits or an "old" versus "new" OpenVMS convention (for example, a promoted data structure or different routine to call), then the following method for conditionalizing code might be more appropriate. That is because Alpha and I64 code are the same and 64-bit code need to be distinguished from the VAX code.
4.8.2 System Services With Alpha Architecture Dependencies
Certain system services that work well in applications on OpenVMS Alpha do not port successfully to I64. The following sections describe system services and their replacement services. SYS$GOTO_UNWIND
For OpenVMS Alpha, the SYS$GOTO_UNWIND system service accepts a 32-bit invocation context handle by reference. You must change instances of this system service to SYS$GOTO_UNWIND_64, which accepts a 64-bit invocation context. Make sure to alter source code to allocate space for the 64-bit value. Also, different library routines return invocation context handles for OpenVMS I64. For more information, refer to the HP OpenVMS Calling Standard.
SYS$GOTO_UNWIND is most frequently used to support programming language features, so changes are mostly in compilers or run-time libraries. However, any direct use of SYS$GOTO_UNWIND requires change. SYS$LKWSET and SYS$LKWSET_64
The SYS$LKWSET and SYS$LKWSET_64 system services have been modified. For more information, see Section 4.8.9.
4.8.3 Code With Other Dependencies on the Alpha Architecture
This section describes coding practices on Alpha that produce different results on I64 and may require changes to your application. Initialized Overlaid Program Sections
Initialized overlaid program sections are handled differently on I64 systems. On OpenVMS Alpha systems, different portions of an overlaid program section may be initialized by multiple modules. This is not allowed on OpenVMS I64 systems. For more information about this change in behavior, see Section Condition Handlers Use of SS$_HPARITH
On OpenVMS Alpha, SS$_HPARITH is signaled for a number of arithmetic error conditions. On OpenVMS I64, SS$_HPARITH is never signaled for arithmetic error conditions; instead, the more specialized SS$_FLTINV and SS$_FLTDIV error codes are signaled on OpenVMS I64.
Update condition handlers to detect these more specialized error codes. In order to keep code common for both architectures, wherever the code refers to SS$_HPARITH, extend it for OpenVMS I64 to also consider SS$_FLTINV and SS$_FLTDIV. Mechanism Array Data Structure
The mechanism array data structure on OpenVMS I64 is very different from the one on OpenVMS Alpha. The return status code RETVAL has been extended to represent the return status register on both Alpha and I64 platforms. For more information, refer to the HP OpenVMS Calling Standard. Reliance on Alpha Object File Format
If your code relies on the layout of Alpha object files, you will need to modify it, because the object file format produced on OpenVMS I64 systems is different.
The object file format conforms to the 64-bit version of the executable and linkable format (ELF), as described in the System V Application Binary Interface draft of 24 April 2001. This document, published by Caldera, is available on their web site at:
The object file format also conforms to the I64 specific extensions described in the Intel® Itanium® Processor-specific Application Binary Interface (ABI), May 2001 edition (document number 245270-003). Extensions and restrictions, necessary to support object file and image file features that are specific to the OpenVMS operating system, will be published in a future release.
The portion of an image which is used by the debugger conforms to the DWARF Version 3 industry standard, which is available at the following location:
The debug symbol table representation on OpenVMS I64 is the industry-standard DWARF debug symbol table format described at this location. HP extensions to the DWARF Version 3 format will be published in a future release.
4.8.4 Code that Uses Floating-Point Data Types
OpenVMS Alpha supports VAX floating-point data types and IEEE floating point data types in hardware. OpenVMS I64 supports IEEE floating-point in hardware and VAX floating-point data types in software.
Most of the OpenVMS I64 compilers provide the /FLOAT=D_FLOAT and /FLOAT=G_FLOAT qualifiers to enable you to produce VAX floating-point data types. If you do not specify one of these qualifiers, IEEE floating-point data types will be used.
to specify a default floating-point data types using the I64 BASIC compiler, you use the /REAL_SIZE qualifer.The possible values that can be specified are SINGLE (Ffloat), DOUBLE (Dfloat), GFLOAT, SFLOAT, TFLOAT, and XFLOAT.
You can test an application's behavior with IEEE floating-point values on Alpha by compiling it with an IEEE qualifier on OpenVMS Alpha. If that produces acceptable results, you can build the application on an I64 system using the same qualifier.
When you compile an OpenVMS application that specifies an option to use VAX floating-point on I64, the compiler automatically generates code for converting floating-point formats. Whenever the application performs a sequence of arithmetic operations, this code does the following:
 1. Converts VAX floating-point formats to either IEEE single or IEEE double floating-point formats, as appropriate for the length.
 2. Performs arithmetic operations in IEEE floating-point arithmetic.
Where no arithmetic operations are performed (VAX float fetches followed by stores), conversions do not occur. The code handles such situations as moves.
 - Values of numbers represented
 - Rounding rules
 - Exception behavior
These differences might cause problems for certain applications.
For more information about the differences between floating-point data types on OpenVMS Alpha and OpenVMS I64 and how these differences might affect ported applications, see Chapter 5 and refer to the "OpenVMS Floating-Point Arithmetic on the Intel® Itanium® Architecture" white paper. See the Related Documents section in the Preface for the web location of this white paper.
Since the floating-point white paper was written, the default /IEEE_MODE has changed from FAST to DENORM_RESULTS. This means that, by default, floating-point operations might silently generate values that print as Infinity or Nan (the industry-standard behavior) instead of issuing a fatal run-time error as they would using VAX format float or /IEEE_MODE=FAST. Also, the smallest-magnitude nonzero value in this mode is much smaller because results are permitted to enter